For October 3, 2026
There Is A Name I Love To Speak by Greg Holmes, D.MIN – Director of Missions serving 17 churches
SOME MILD DEBATE EXISTS regarding just how “Rabboni!” should be interpreted in John’s resurrection account. Mary Magdalene is at the tomb early on Sunday morning, and sees Jesus. “Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’” (John 20:15b-16) Apparently this theological concern goes all the way back to the earliest of the biblical texts, for here in the canon of scripture we find the parenthetical insertion of this explanation: (“which means Teacher.”) (John 20:16b) The exact meaning is no doubt occluded by time and influenced by idiom, yet a plain and certainly satisfactory meaning is clear.