Preaching vs Teaching - In search of definitions and Undertsanding

[Steven Yeadon]

I have noticed something that really gets me as I studied 1 Corinthians 8-9 and pondered some of the Greek of the New Testament today.

It seems the word "preach" in English is actually a few Greek words (euangelizo, katangello, kerysso) almost always used for the proclamation of the Gospel, in what seems an evangelistic or missionary sense.

The word "teach" in English refers to one main word "didasko" and a few rarer words with the main thrust of it being the communication of information for the result of understanding. The two rarer words for "teach" are defined as "proclamation" or is defined by the word "doctrine," which itself seems to refer to what is in fact taught

Up until now I had thought, and read, that preaching was equivalent to public speaking about the bible. That teaching was something that referred to formal instruction of the bible. The definitions of the word didasko and the usage of the word "preach" when you look at the occurrences in the bible, shocks me. It makes me think I got it wrong all along. What really pressed this home was 1 Corinthians 9:14.

1 Corinthians 9:14:
14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

Here Paul is clearly referring to his missionary work with Barnabas, given the context of 1 Corinthians 9. It was also surprising to see that those who preach the Word evangelically, elders and evangelists, have a right to pay for their labor.

Now, given "teacher" and "evangelist" are two biblical roles in church leadership, and that they are separate roles. Could it be that the role of a teacher is to "teach" in formal and informal settings for understanding and an evangelist is to "preach the Word" for more evangelistic or missionary purposes? All elders are to do the work of an evangelist after all (2 Timothy 4:5) and they are geared for teaching the flock as well.

Also, as for women being able or not able to teach, in the Mounce dictionary I have read that 1 Timothy 2:12 uses the word didaskein, which refers to public teaching in the assembly. It would appear that is what is barred when women cannot teach men.

What do you guys and gals at the BB think? Because I bet this has already been argued by those with far greater experience than I with biblical languages. I am especially interested in TCassidy's views.

 

[Steven Yeadon]

I realize I received no replies. Did I make a critical mistake with this post?

 

[PastoralMusings]

To herald the gospel one must be able to adequately explain it, thus trust be an element of teaching in all preaching.
2 Timothy 4:1-3 says that the work of the one preaching is to do so with doctrine, aka teaching. I find it difficult, if not impossible, to truly separate preaching from teaching.
I do know that we can see Titus 2 women teaching younger women, and there is not really preaching involved; but I also think that we are there comparing apples and oranges.

 

[Steven Yeadon]

Thank you for your reply, I will delve deeper in the Greek and will post my research in this thread. Either "preach" and "teach" in Greek are distinct in some way, or they are coupled due to their similarity it seems.

 

[Yeshua1]

I have noticed something that really gets me as I studied 1 Corinthians 8-9 and pondered some of the Greek of the New Testament today.

It seems the word "preach" in English is actually a few Greek words (euangelizo, katangello, kerysso) almost always used for the proclamation of the Gospel, in what seems an evangelistic or missionary sense.

The word "teach" in English refers to one main word "didasko" and a few rarer words with the main thrust of it being the communication of information for the result of understanding. The two rarer words for "teach" are defined as "proclamation" or is defined by the word "doctrine," which itself seems to refer to what is in fact taught

Up until now I had thought, and read, that preaching was equivalent to public speaking about the bible. That teaching was something that referred to formal instruction of the bible. The definitions of the word didasko and the usage of the word "preach" when you look at the occurrences in the bible, shocks me. It makes me think I got it wrong all along. What really pressed this home was 1 Corinthians 9:14.

1 Corinthians 9:14:
14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

Here Paul is clearly referring to his missionary work with Barnabas, given the context of 1 Corinthians 9. It was also surprising to see that those who preach the Word evangelically, elders and evangelists, have a right to pay for their labor.

Now, given "teacher" and "evangelist" are two biblical roles in church leadership, and that they are separate roles. Could it be that the role of a teacher is to "teach" in formal and informal settings for understanding and an evangelist is to "preach the Word" for more evangelistic or missionary purposes? All elders are to do the work of an evangelist after all (2 Timothy 4:5) and they are geared for teaching the flock as well.

Also, as for women being able or not able to teach, in the Mounce dictionary I have read that 1 Timothy 2:12 uses the word didaskein, which refers to public teaching in the assembly. It would appear that is what is barred when women cannot teach men.

What do you guys and gals at the BB think? Because I bet this has already been argued by those with far greater experience than I with biblical languages. I am especially interested in TCassidy's views.

Pastors usually in the pulpit ould be declaring the word of God, expounding upon it to the assembly, and they are preaching from the text in the sense of proclaing the main points of their chosen passage. When they would be teaching, would be breaking the text down fuller, getting into much more of the given theology of the text.
One is like shooting off the shotgun, while other like using the rifle.

 

[Martin Marprelate]

I'm sorry not to have replied to this earlier. I didn't notice it.

It seems the word "preach" in English is actually a few Greek words (euangelizo, katangello, kerysso) almost always used for the proclamation of the Gospel, in what seems an evangelistic or missionary sense

This is correct, and if we look at Paul's usage of kerusso in 2 Timothy 4:2, he adds, "Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching." So preaching includes teaching, but adds something more.

To me, preaching always has Christ and the Gospel as its theme, and should include exhortation and application along with reasoning and argumentation.. Lloyd-Jones described preaching as 'reason on fire.' Teaching may include some or all of these things, but is basically the impartation of knowledge. You might teach certain doctrines without uplifting Christ or exhorting your hearers to believe, but if you preach you will certainly want to include these things.