Schoolmaster

Schoolmaster is the Authorized Version's rendering of the Greek paidagogos in Galatians 3:24–25 — a term Paul uses to describe the role of the Mosaic law in the history of redemption. The paidagogos in the Greco-Roman world was not a teacher but a slave or trusted servant who was responsible for the supervision, discipline, and safe conduct of a minor child, accompanying him to school, overseeing his behavior, and enforcing rules of conduct. Paul's argument is that the law functioned as this supervising guardian over Israel in its spiritual minority, keeping the people under discipline and revealing sin's seriousness — not to save, but to lead them to Christ, in whom justification by faith became available. The arrival of faith in Christ brought the period under the paidagogos to an end: believers in Christ are no longer under this supervisory guardian but are full adult sons of God through faith (Gal. 3:25–26; 4:1–7). Modern translations render paidagogos as "guardian," "tutor," or "disciplinarian."