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LAWYER ( íïìéêüò ) or ‘teacher (doctor) of the law’ ( íïìïäéäÜóêáëïò ) is found occasionally, almost exclusively in Lk., for the more usual ‘scribe’ ( ãñáììáôåýò ). The identity of these terms is shown by the following passages. 1. Luk_5:17, Pharisees and doctors of the law are sitting by; but (Luk_5:21) the scribes and Pharisees begin to reason (so || Mt., Mk.). 2. Luk_11:37 ff. is a denunciation first of Pharisees, then of lawyers; this is parallel to Matthew 23 against scribes and Pharisees; and at its close (Luk_11:53) ‘the scribes and Pharisees began to urge him vehemently.’ The Textus Receptus reading (Luk_11:44) ‘scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,’ which, when compared with the next verse, might imply a difference between ‘scribes’ and ‘lawyers,’ is omitted by critical editors on the authority of à BCL Vulgate etc.; and is obviously an assimilation to Luk_11:27. 3. Mat_22:35, a lawyer questions Jesus as to the greatest commandment; in Mar_12:28 it is ‘one of the scribes’; cf. also Luk_10:25 ‘a certain lawyer.’ 4. The martyr Eleazar is called in 2Ma_6:18 ‘one of the principal scribes,’ in 4Ma_5:4 he is a lawyer. Thus these titles are equivalent. ãñáììáôåýò (‘scribe’) is a literal translation of the Heb. ñåֹôַã (a literary man or a student of Scripture), while íïìéêüò (‘lawyer,’ ‘jurist,’ a regular term for Roman lawyers, Vulgate legis peritus), and, still better, íïìïäéäÜóêáëïò , are more distinct descriptions of this class, explaining to Gentile readers their character and office. Hence their comparative frequency in Luke. ‘Rabbi,’ the title by which they were addressed, is perhaps for us their best designation.
Mt. has ãñáììáôåýò 23 times, íïìéêüò once only (Mat_22:35, where Syr-Sin omits). Mk. has ãñáììáôåýò only, 21 times. Lk. has ãñáììáôåýò 14 times, besides (of Jewish scribes) twice in Acts; íïìé÷üò 6 times (Luk_7:30; Luk_10:25; Luk_11:45-46; Luk_11:52; Luk_14:3), íïìïäéäÜóêáëïò once (Luk_5:17, and in Act_5:34 of Gamaliel). Josephus also, while once using ἰåñïãñáììáôåýò (BJ vi. v. 3), commonly uses phrases with more definite meaning for Gentile readers: óïöéóôÞò (BJ 1. xxxiii. 2, ii. xvii. 8) or ἐîçãçôὴò ôῶí ôáôñéùí íüìùí (Ant. xvii. vi. 2).
These titles show that the great sphere of their activity was the Law, whether contained in Scripture or handed down traditionally. They studied, of course, the other books of Scripture besides the Pentateuch, but these were regarded as merely supplementary to the Law of Moses, and as themselves presenting a revealed rule of life and conduct; so that the term ‘Law’ is applied sometimes in the NT to the whole of the OT (Joh_10:34; Joh_15:25, 1Co_14:21). So also in the Mishna (see Buhl, Canon, § 3).
Their work, in all its departments, is sketched in the saying ascribed to the ‘Men of the Great Synagogue,’ their traditional predecessors: ‘Be careful in judgment, raise up many disciples, and set a hedge about the Law’ (Prike Aboth, i. i.). They acted as judges; they gave instruction in the Law, and trained disciples; and they interpreted and developed the Law. Though anyone might be a judge, the office was naturally most commonly held by those learned in the Law; and we find the leaders of the Scribes an integral part of the Sanhedrin (Mar_15:1 etc.). Their leaders gathered disciples round them, and taught them the traditional law, instructing them by discussing real or imagined legal cases; and they developed the Law, applying it to all actual and possible cases, and laying down rules to secure against its being broken. See Scribes.
Literature.—Schürer, HJP [Note: JP History of the Jewish People.] ii. i. p. 312 ff., and literature there mentioned; Edersheim, Life and Times, etc., i. 93; artt. ‘Lawyer’ and ‘Scribe’ (by Eaton) in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible , and literature there.
Harold Smith.