In Context: The Disciple and His Rabbi: Discipleship in the Original Jewish Context, Part 1

Read the series.

Understanding the relationship of rabbi to disciple – and what discipleship entailed – will help us to better understand Jesus’ teachings because they help us better understand the teacher (Jesus) and His most frequent audience (the disciples).

Surprisingly, there was nothing mysterious about men leaving their businesses and families for days, weeks, or months to journey with a rabbi who roamed the countryside, teaching. Yeshua was one of hundreds of first-century rabbis who roamed the countryside, each with his band of disciples. The Jewish society nurtured and celebrated discipleship.¹

A sage who lived a century before Jesus is reported to say, “Let your home be a meeting house for the sages, and cover yourself with the dust of their feet, and drink in their words thirstily.”²

According to David Bivin, Jewish men were encouraged to invest a part of their lives following a sage. They would usually travel with him intermittently. The ancient rabbis held secular vocations and did not draw a salary, unlike their modern counterparts. A married man could not leave home to follow a rabbi for more than thirty days without his wife’s permission. Amazingly, a disciple was expected to honor his rabbi above his own parents.³

Lois Tverberg writes:

Regarding fees – it was forbidden to charge a fee to teach the Torah, so it was common for rabbis to practice a trade part of the time and teach part of the time. Disciples did the same. Some rabbis were from priestly families, so they would have a stipend from the Temple, but many were manual laborers. There are many reports of teaching sessions held in the evening or on the Sabbath or festival days, so often men worked and studied at the same time. Some could work seasonally and take time off between planting and harvesting, etc. This makes sense with how the Gospel accounts describe the disciples fishing occasionally, even after they had become disciples of Jesus.⁴

The Pharisees⁵ identifying with the School of Hillel were known for their missionary zeal, perhaps priming someone like Paul.⁶ Paul, you remember, was trained by the leading figure of Hillel’s School, Gamaliel,⁷ who was also Hillel’s grandson.

Disciples often studied under several sages. Brad Young comments:

Because a disciple should have broad knowledge, he would usually study with one rabbi for a number of years and then go study under another sage. The master teacher was a mentor whose purpose was to raise up disciples who would not only memorize his teachings but also live out the teachings in practical ways…The disciple walks with God by living out in practice the teaching of his rabbi.⁸

Disciples would bond with fellow disciples, and make friends (haverim). A haver is, “A student who partners with another in study to discuss a religious text and aid each other in learning.⁹ The Greek equivalent of this term was seemingly used to describe Jesus’ followers in the early church (see 3 John 1:15).

Jesus said, “Remember the word that I said to you…” (John 15:20a). This, in a nutshell, was the obsession of every true disciple.

Mother Text for Yeshua’s Midrashim About Discipleship

The Rabbis viewed the dynamic between Elijah to Elisha as a model for the rabbi-disciple relationship, as Spangler and Tverberg note.¹⁰

Probable Midrash about Discipleship from 1 Kings 19:19-21

I propose these texts are correlated: 1 Kings 19:19-21, Luke 9:57-62, Matthew 19:21, and Luke 5:27, quoted from the New King James Version:

1 Kings 19:19-21

So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.”

And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”

So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.

Luke 9:57-62

Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”

And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Matthew 19:21

Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Luke 5:27

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

We can reasonably assume that Elijah and Elisha had a previous history. Elisha had probably been a member of the “school of the prophets.” Elijah demands Elisha drop whatever he is doing. When Elisha requests permission to kiss his parents goodbye, Elijah’s responds, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”

Perhaps the best interpretations for this perplexing response is that either Elijah forbade Elisha from kissing his parents goodbye, or that he grudgingly allowed it.¹¹ When the text says, “So he went back…” we are told that he went back to liquidate his livestock.

Elisha’s request could have implied more – perhaps a lengthy celebration. Ponder this in light of Jesus’ answer to a potential disciple who wanted to bury his dead father before he followed Jesus. The Lord replied, “Let the dead bury their dead.” In this instance, the one-year period between initial burying and sealing the bones in an ossuary is perhaps in mind.¹²

Elisha slaughtered his oxen, donating the meat to the people (“the poor”). He did not necessarily sell all his possessions, but disposed of whatever had to be maintained by him and thus impede him from immediately following Rabbi Elijah.

In the Matthew 19:21 call to discipleship, Yeshua commanded a prospective disciple to sell all that he had (all that required attention?), thus freeing him to begin pursuing Jesus immediately. We must not confuse Yeshua’s demand as a permanent way of life, but as a temporary relinquishment while a disciple was seeking a deeper relationship with God through following a rabbi for a period. The call to serve Jesus is a life-long call, but the call for intense spiritual training and indoctrination was a temporary call.¹³

Selling “all” might be best understood as liquidating that which would hinder the potential disciple from leaving home and learning from the Master. The focus is not on the benefit to the poor, IMO. Interestingly, Peter followed up this episode with an inquiry of sorts.

Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you” (Matthew 19:27a)

Nonetheless, after the Resurrection, we discover Peter, Andrew, James and John in possession of their boat and back to their business (John 21:1-14). This reinforces the idea that “sell all that you have” means, “sell all you have on hand and follow me.” Discipleship can be a costly pursuit, but it is a realistic one.