Rabbi
Rabbi is a Hebrew honorific carried untranslated into the Greek Gospels and addressed in the New Testament chiefly to two figures: John the Baptist and Jesus. The Fourth Gospel itself supplies the working gloss — when Andrew and his companion follow Jesus and ask where he stays, the evangelist pauses to translate the address for his readers: "Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher), where do you stay?" (John 1:38). The umbrella here gathers the Gospel scenes in which the title is actually spoken.
The Title and Its Sense
Andrew's question to Jesus carries the evangelist's own translation into the verse: Rabbi means Teacher (John 1:38). The narrator does not leave the Hebrew word standing alone; he places the rendering directly beside it for his Greek readers, so that every later use in the Gospel already carries that gloss in the reader's ear.
Addressed to John the Baptist
The title is not reserved to Jesus. John the Baptist's own disciples use it of him when they bring him news that the people are crossing over to Jesus: "Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, look, the same baptizes, and all men come to him" (John 3:26). The Baptist is here addressed as Rabbi by his own circle, in the very moment they tell him his hearers are leaving for the one he had identified.
Addressed to Jesus by Inquirers
Three first encounters in the Fourth Gospel use the title to open a question or a confession. Nathaniel, brought by Philip, answers Jesus' word about the fig tree with a Rabbi-confession: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are King of Israel" (John 1:49). Nicodemus comes by night and opens with the same address, joined to a teacher-confession grounded in the signs: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, except God be with him" (John 3:2). The Capernaum crowd, having found Jesus on the other side of the sea after the loaves, also begins with Rabbi: "Rabbi, when did you come here?" (John 6:25). John 3:2 in particular fastens the title to a teacher-confession: Christ is addressed as "Rabbi" and in the same breath confessed as "a teacher come from God," with signs as the evidential basis.
Addressed to Jesus by His Disciples
The disciples themselves use the title in ordinary exchanges. They press food on him after the Samaritan woman has gone — "Rabbi, eat" (John 4:31). They use it to open the question about the man born blind — "Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind?" (John 9:2). They use it to push back when he proposes returning to Judea — "Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you; and do you go there again?" (John 11:8). On the mountain at the transfiguration Peter answers with the same address: "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah" (Mark 9:5). On the road back through Bethphage Peter again reaches for the title to point at the withered fig: "Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed is withered away" (Mark 11:21).
The Intensive Form Rabboni
Mark preserves the intensive form once. Blind Bartimaeus, called by Jesus and asked what he wants, answers with Rabboni rather than the shorter Rabbi: "Rabboni, that I may receive my sight" (Mark 10:51). The intensifying form sits in the mouth of a beggar at the moment of his appeal for sight.
The Title at the Arrest
The last Gospel use in scope here is Judas'. At the arrest he steps forward with the same word the disciples have been using for years and fastens it to the kiss: "And when he came, immediately he came to him, and says, Rabbi; and kissed him" (Mark 14:45). The address that opened Andrew's question and Nathaniel's confession is here the betrayer's chosen sign.