Didaskalia

Teaching — the doctrinal instruction of the Church; the office of teacher in the early Christian community.

Didaskalia (from didaskalos, teacher) is the formal teaching office and content of the Church's doctrinal instruction. In the New Testament, the teacher (didaskalos) is listed as a distinct office alongside apostles, prophets, and evangelists (Ephesians 4:11). The great teachers of the early Church — the Fathers — exercised this office, and their teaching (didache) is preserved in the tradition. The catechetical schools of Alexandria, Antioch, and Caesarea were the institutional expressions of didaskalia.