RABBANAH

Lehite title

1.

Occurs with the gloss “powerful or great king,” ca. 90 BC (Alma 18:13)

This honorific title, which the Book of Mormon itself glosses with “powerful or great king,” obviously is derived from the common Semitic root rbb, “large, great, many.” The Book of John 20:16 preserves an Aramaic honorific title from the same root, Rabboni, “my master,” applied by Mary Madgalene to Jesus just after His resurrection. Book of Mormon Rabbanah could be an Aramaic form for “our master” (JAT). More widely known is the honorific Hebrew title from the same root, rabbi (as recognized by Ludlow, A Companion to the Book of Mormon, p. 207).

The title may most immediately be compared to rabba-n(âʾ) in Talmudic literature as a special title of supreme distinction accorded heads of academies yešîbôt, and of the Sanhedrin after Hillel, e.g., Yohanan ben Zakkai, Gamaliel I & II, Simeon ben Gamaliel III, et al. The title was also used of Jewish exilarchs (of the royal line) and their scholarly relatives, e.g., Rabbana Nehemiah Rab ʼAshi, head of the Sura Yeshivah, was termed simply Rabbana (335–427/8 AD). The title, as the Book of Mormon correctly suggests, comes directly from the Hebrew and Aramaic words for “great” and is even used in slightly different form for Yahweh in the Talmud (Aboth 1:6) and of Jesus in the NT (Matthew 23:7–8; John 20:16; cf. Psalms 35:9; Isaiah 63:1; 53:12; Job 32:9; Genesis 25:23; Daniel 1:3; 3:33; 2:48; 7:3, 17; Proverbs 26:10; etc.) (RFS).

The title cannot be derived from the Aramaic ʾabbaʾ, “father” (as in Reynolds, Story of the Book of Mormon, p. 294).

Bibliography

• Daniel H. Ludlow A Companion to your Study of the Book of Mormon. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1969.