Nomodidaskalos (G3547) combines nomos (law) and didaskalos (teacher) to describe an expert teacher of the Jewish Torah. Used in Luke 5:17 of those who came from every village to hear Jesus, in Acts 5:34 of Gamaliel, and in 1 Timothy 1:7 of those who wrongly aspired to this title.
The nomodidaskaloi who came from every village of Galilee and Judea to hear Jesus (Lk 5:17) represent the existing religious establishment confronting a new authority. That 'the power of the Lord was with him to heal' (Lk 5:17) on that occasion is no accident — the healing of the paralytic immediately provokes the question of who can forgive sins. The Torah-teachers assumed the answer was: only God. They were right. The irony is that the One who fulfilled the law they taught stood before them. Gamaliel's later wisdom (Acts 5:34-39) shows that even a nomodidaskalos could hedge toward providence. Paul's warning in 1 Tim 1:7 — those who 'desire to be teachers of the law, without understanding' — cuts against both first-century Pharisaism and contemporary legalism.