Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Teachers of the law
Trained experts in the law of Moses, also called scribes, some local and some from Jerusalem, who taught by citing earlier teachers.
The lawyers from the capital came down to hear what the country preacher was saying. Few people could write well. Scribes drew up documents, and the top ones were experts in God's law. They taught by quoting the rulings of experts before them.
In a world where many could not write, scribes drew up contracts for business and marriage. Many were therefore legal experts and quite possibly Pharisees, though a scribe could hold various views (Wright's glossary). Many villages had scribes who wrote legal documents, and the scribes at the top were probably teachers of the law. Jerusalem was home to most Pharisees and many teachers. They often cited the opinions of earlier teachers. The ESV Study Bible suggests the scribes of Mark 1:22 may have been local, pious, literate men who taught in synagogues. The higher-ranking scribes of 3:22 came down from Jerusalem. Judging from later rabbis, teachers of the law were skilled in argument. The scribes Herod consulted were experts in the law, and most of them were also teachers. Parts of Palestinian Judaism had standards for accredited teachers, but Keener notes that nothing in law stopped anyone from claiming to teach the Bible.
An analogy: legal scholars who settle a question by citing precedent. A ruling carries weight because of the earlier rulings stacked behind it.
Scribes were the experts in Scripture, so the chief priests and scribes can name Bethlehem from Micah, as in Matthew 2:4-6. A teacher who spoke on his own authority without citing earlier teachers, as in Mark 1:22, stood out at once. In Acts 23:9 scribes of the Pharisees' party take Paul's side.
Not secular lawyers. The law they studied was the law of Moses, God's law, so a legal expert was also a religious teacher.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-2-1-12\/","n":"Matthew 2:1-12, Magi at Herod's court","s":"Magi from the east arrive in Jerusalem asking for the newborn king of the Jews. Herod consults his scholars, sends the visitors to Bethlehem, and they go home another way.","r":"Matthew 2:1-12"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-7-13-29\/","n":"Matthew 7:13-29, Two ways, false prophets, two builders","s":"Jesus ends his sermon with the narrow gate, a warning about false prophets known by their fruit, and two houses built on rock and on sand. The crowd is struck by his authority.","r":"Matthew 7:13-29"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-23-1-12\/","n":"Matthew 23:1-12, Moses' seat, wide phylacteries, the best seats","s":"Jesus tells the crowds to do what the scribes and Pharisees teach but not what they do, and mocks their wide phylacteries, long tassels, best seats and love of the title rabbi.","r":"Matthew 23:1-12"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-1-21-45\/","n":"Mark 1:21-45, A Sabbath in Capernaum and a leper","s":"Jesus teaches in the synagogue, drives out a spirit, heals Simon's mother-in-law and, after sunset, the whole town. Then he touches and cleanses a leper.","r":"Mark 1:21-45"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-3-13-35\/","n":"Mark 3:13-35, The Twelve, his family and Beelzebul","s":"Jesus appoints twelve. His family thinks he is out of his mind, and teachers from Jerusalem say he drives out demons by Beelzebul.","r":"Mark 3:13-35"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-7-1-23\/","n":"Mark 7:1-23, Washed hands and the tradition of the elders","s":"Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem object that Jesus' disciples eat with unwashed hands. Jesus answers that what defiles comes from inside.","r":"Mark 7:1-23"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-9-2-13\/","n":"Mark 9:2-13, The transfiguration","s":"On a high mountain Jesus is changed before three disciples, Elijah and Moses appear, and a voice says to listen to him. Coming down, they ask about Elijah.","r":"Mark 9:2-13"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-2-41-52\/","n":"Luke 2:41-52, A twelve-year-old among the teachers","s":"On the family's yearly Passover pilgrimage the twelve-year-old Jesus stays behind in Jerusalem, and after three days his parents find him in the temple courts among the teachers.","r":"Luke 2:41-52"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-10-25-37\/","n":"Luke 10:25-37, The Samaritan on the Jericho road","s":"A lawyer asks what he must do to inherit eternal life and then who his neighbor is. Jesus tells of a man left half dead on the road to Jericho, passed by a priest and a Levite and rescued by a Samaritan.","r":"Luke 10:25-37"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-11-37-54\/","n":"Luke 11:37-54, Woes at a Pharisee's table","s":"At a Pharisee's meal Jesus does not wash before eating, and when his host is surprised he pronounces woes on Pharisees and lawyers: clean cups and greedy hearts, tithed herbs, the best seats, unmarked graves and the tombs of the prophets.","r":"Luke 11:37-54"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-20-45-21-4\/","n":"Luke 20:45-21:4, Long robes and a widow's two coins","s":"Jesus warns against teachers of the law who love long robes and the best seats and devour widows' houses. Then he watches a poor widow put two small coins into the temple treasury.","r":"Luke 20:45-21:4"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-7-1-25\/","n":"Romans 7:1-25, Bound while the husband lives","s":"A wife is bound to her husband only while he lives, and believers have died to the law to belong to Christ. Then Paul describes a divided self that knows the good and cannot do it.","r":"Romans 7:1-25"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1timothy-1-1-11\/","n":"1 Timothy 1:1-11, Myths, endless genealogies and would-be teachers of the law","s":"Paul greets Timothy, whom he left in Ephesus, and tells him to stop certain people teaching strange doctrines and spending themselves on myths and endless genealogies; they want to be teachers of the law without understanding it, while the law is meant for the lawless.","r":"1 Timothy 1:1-11"}
- N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, Glossary, entry scribes
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 1:22, 7:1 and 9:14
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Mark 1:22
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 2:4
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Timothy 1:7
