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Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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LAWYER (νομικός) or ‘teacher (doctor) of the law’ (νομοδιδάσκαλος) is found occasionally, almost exclusively in Lk., for the more usual ‘scribe’ (γραμματεύς). The identity of these terms is shown by the following passages. 1. Luke 5:17, Pharisees and doctors of the law are sitting by; but (Luke 5:21) the scribes and Pharisees begin to reason (so || Mt., Mk.). 2. Luke 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 (Luke 11:53) ‘the scribes and Pharisees began to urge him vehemently.’ The Textus Receptus reading (Luke 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 א BCL Vulgate etc.; and is obviously an assimilation to Luke 11:27. 3. Matthew 22:35, a lawyer questions Jesus as to the greatest commandment; in Mark 12:28 it is ‘one of the scribes’; cf. also Luke 10:25 ‘a certain lawyer.’ 4. The martyr Eleazar is called in 2 Maccabees 6:18 ‘one of the principal scribes,’ in 4 Maccabees 5:4 he is a lawyer. Thus these titles are equivalent. γραμματεύς (‘scribe’) is a literal translation of the Heb. סוֹפַד (a literary man or a student of Scripture), while νομικός (‘lawyer,’ ‘jurist,’ a regular term for Roman lawyers, Vulgate legis peritus), and, still better, νομοδιδάσκαλος, 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 γραμματεύς 23 times, νομικός once only (Matthew 22:35, where Syr-Sin omits). Mk. has γραμματεύς only, 21 times. Lk. has γραμματεύς 14 times, besides (of Jewish scribes) twice in Acts; νομιχός 6 times (Luke 7:30; Luke 10:25; Luke 11:45-46; Luke 11:52; Luke 14:3), νομοδιδάσκαλος once (Luke 5:17, and in Acts 5:34 of Gamaliel). Josephus also, while once using ἰερογραμματεύς (BJ vi. v. 3), commonly uses phrases with more definite meaning for Gentile readers: σοφιστής (BJ 1. xxxiii. 2, ii. xvii. 8) or ἐξηγητὴς τῶν τατριων νόμων (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 (John 10:34; John 15:25, 1 Corinthians 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 (Mark 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.