▪ Jeffery1938: »The passages are all late, and the reference is to Jewish teachers, as was recognized by the Commentators. Most of the Muslim authorities take it as an Arabic word, a derivative from
rabb (cf.
TA, i, 260; Rāġib,
Mufradāt, 183; and Zam. on iii, 73). Some, however, knew that it was a foreign word, though they were doubtful whether its origin was Hbr or Syr.
1
/ As it refers to Jewish teachers we naturally look for a Jewish origin, and Geiger, 51, would derive it from the Rabbinic
rabbān, a later form of
rabbī used as a title of honour for distinguished teachers,
2
, so that there grew up the saying
gdwl m-rby rbn ‘greater than Rabbi is Rabbān’. The difficulty in accepting [Ar]
rabbānī as a direct derivative from [Hbr]
rabbān, however, is the final
yāʔ, which as Horovitz,
KU, 63, admits, seems to point to a Christian origin. In Jno xx: 16, Mk x: 51, we find the form [grk]
rʰabbouneí (
ʰo légetai Didáskale), or
rʰabbōneí, which seems to be formed from the Targumic
ribbôn,
3
and it was this form that came to be commonly used in the Christian communities of the East, viz. Syr
rabbōnī, Eth [Gz]
rabbuni, Arm
ṙabbowni.
4
. The Syr
rabbōnī was very widely used, and as Pautz,
Offenbarung, 78, n. 4, notes,
rbnā was commonly used for a ‘doctor of learning’, and the dim.
rabbōnī was not uncommonly used as a title of reverence for priests and monks, so that we may conclude that the Qurʔānic word, as to its form, is probably of Syr origin.
5
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