Not as the scribes

Mar 1:21 And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.
Mar 1:22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.


Jesus taught them as ONE that had authority and NOT as the scribes.


Just HOW did the scribes teach? It's important that we learn more about the scribes of Jesus' time before we can truly understand this verse.


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Scribes

The word “scribe” is the English translation of the Greek word “Grammateis”, which means “student of the scriptures.” 

Scribes were men whose primary occupation was writing out copies of the Jewish Scriptures and teaching the people what the law said.

Because they copied the Old Testament books, they were familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures and were respected in society for their literacy and knowledge.

The scribes provided teaching that was the religious and moral backbone for the Jewish people during the time of Jesus. Because of their role, there were often addressed as, “Teacher.”

They were trusted as professional interpreters and as ones who could judge individual cases as they related to Jewish law.

Scribes were, therefore, also trusted as lawyers within Jewish society.

As the scribes were the most learned individuals on the fine details of following Jewish law, their duties also consisted of deciding on specific questions of the law in individual cases.

Scribes had no authority in themselves, but rather they continually deferred to the authority of other scribes and traditions to support their positions.

The scribes were some of Jesus’ most adamant opponents. In their minds, the Messiah who the Old Testament Scriptures spoke about did not seem to match up with who Jesus was.

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SCRIBE- Thayer's Greek Definitions

G1122
γραμματεύς
grammateus
Thayer Definition:

1) a clerk, scribe, especially a public servant, secretary, recorder, whose office and influence differed in different states

2) in the Bible, a man learned in the Mosaic law and in the sacred writings, an interpreter, teacher.

Scribes examined the more difficult and subtle questions of the law; added to the Mosaic law decisions of various kinds thought to elucidate its meaning and scope, and did this to the detriment of religion.

Since the advice of men skilled in the law was needed in the examination in the causes and the solution of the difficult questions, they were enrolled in the Sanhedrin; and are mentioned in connection with the priests and elders of the people. See a Bible Dictionary for more information on the scribes.

3) a religious teacher: so instructed that from his learning and ability to teach advantage may redound to the kingdom of heaven

They devoted themselves to the careful study of the text, and laid down rules for transcribing it with the most scrupulous precision. As time passed on the "words of the scribes" were honored above the law. It was a greater crime to offend against them than against the law. The first step was taken toward annulling the commandments of God for the sake of their own traditions. ( Mark 7:13 )

Mar 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye

The casuistry became at once subtle and prurient, evading the plainest duties, tampering with conscience. ( Matthew 15:1-6 ; 23:16-23 )

Mat 15:1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
Mat 15:2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
Mat 15:3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
Mat 15:4 For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
Mat 15:5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
Mat 15:6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Mat 23:16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
Mat 23:17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
Mat 23:18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
Mat 23:19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
Mat 23:20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
Mat 23:21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
Mat 23:22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
Mat 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

We can therefore understand why they were constantly denounced by our Lord along with the Pharisees. While the scribes repeated the traditions of the elders, he "spake as one having authority," "not as the scribes." ( Matthew 7:29 )

While they confined their teachings to the class of scholars, he "had compassion on the multitudes." ( Matthew 9:36 )

While they were to be found only in the council or in their schools, he journeyed through the cities and villages. ( Matthew 4:23 ; 9:35 ) etc.

While they spoke of the kingdom of God vaguely, as a thing far off, he proclaimed that it had already come nigh to men. ( Matthew 4:17 )

In our Lords time there were two chief parties:

1. the disciples of Shammai, conspicuous for their fierceness, appealing to popular passions, using the sword to decide their controversies. Out of this party grew the Zealots.

2. The disciples of Hillel, born B.C. 112, and who may have been one of the doctors before whom the boy Jesus came in the temple, for he lived to be 120 years old. Hillel was a "liberal conservative, of genial character and broad range of thought, with some approximations to a higher teaching."

In most of the points at issue between the two parties, Jesus must have appeared in direct antagonism to the school of Shammai, in sympathy with that of Hillel.

So far, on the other hand, as the temper of the Hillel school was one of mere adaptation to the feeling of the people, cleaving to tradition, wanting in the intuition of a higher life, the teaching of Christ must have been felt as unsparingly condemning it.

III. Education and life. --The special training for a scribes office began, probably, about the age of thirteen. The boy who was destined by his parents to the calling of a scribe went to Jerusalem and applied for admission in the school of some famous rabbi.

After a sufficient period of training, probably at the age of thirty the probationer was solemnly admitted to his office. After his admission there was a choice of a variety of functions, the chances of failure and success. He might give himself to any one of the branches of study, or combine two or more of them. He might rise to high places, become a doctor of the law, an arbitrator in family litigations, ( Luke 12:14 ) the head of a school, a member of the Sanhedrin.

He might have to content himself with the humbler work of a transcriber, copying the law and the prophets for the use of synagogues, or a notary, writing out contracts of sale, covenants of espousals, bills of repudiation.

The position of the more fortunate was of course attractive enough. In our Lords time the passion for distinction was insatiable. The ascending scale of rab, rabbi, rabban, presented so many steps on the ladder of ambition. Other forms of worldliness were not far off. The salutations in the market-place, ( Matthew 23:7 ) the reverential kiss offered by the scholars to their master or by rabbis to each other the greeting of Abba, father ( Matthew 23:9 ) the long robes with the broad blue fringe, ( Matthew 23:5 ) --all these go to make up the picture of a scribes life.

Drawing to themselves, as they did, nearly all the energy and thought of Judaism, the close hereditary caste of the priesthood was powerless to compete with them.

Unless the Priest became a scribe also, he remained in obscurity.

The order, as such, became contemptible and base. For the scribes there were the best places at feasts, the chief seats in synagogues. ( Matthew 23:6 ; Luke 14:7 )

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These articles from the web (dictionaries, etc.) are very insightful. Let's read the verses from the top again.

Mar 1:21 And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.
Mar 1:22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.


There was a VAST difference between the way Jesus taught and the way the teachers of the day - the scribes - taught people.


I imagine it to be like the preachers, priests, ministers, etc, today that talk DOWN to people, they talk with an air of superiority, they aren't really teaching so much as revealing the fact that they are knowledgeable in ways the listeners aren't, and can never be. They want adoration as being learned men rather than the knowledge they've brought any sort of enlightenment to people. Bottom line- they didn't care if people learned anything at all, they just wanted to be honored.

Worse than that when they desired to be honored, when they desired to be thought of as superior to other people they were in their hearts wanting to be worshipped and we KNOW that only GOD deserves our worship. When anyone desires to be honored that's selfishness, isn't it? Self adoration, self esteem- yes, I said self esteem and just because the popular belief is that we are supposed to have great self esteem doesn't make it right. We are supposed to be SELFLESS, not selfish. We are supposed to think greater of others than our selves. We are supposed to understand that our worth is ONLY found in the worth of our SAVIOR and not where else. When we desire to find self worth (and make no mistake the devil wants us to spend all our lives seeking self worth) it isn't something that Jesus wants for us. Jesus did NOT seek self adoration and did not tout self esteem, self worth but the opposite. We were to hold others in a much higher position that ourselves, the servant is greater. We are so incredibly warped in our thinking that the humble person is thought to be a lesser person one needing to be given lots of lessons in self esteem. When we see someone supposedly letting others *walk* all over them we pity them, we do NOT look at them and desire to be more selfless as they are. We are too incredibly wound up to believe that it is good to be a lowly servant. We don't want to be servants, we want to be served. Being served means being important, being a servant means being beneath another person in status, in class, in station, in life, in many ways. Jesus came and dispelled this belief completely!


Mat 19:30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.


Mar 9:35 And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.


The scribes did not want to be servants at all. The scribes wanted to feel superiority and only God deserves any sort of superiority not a single man. We lose something vital when we desire to be honored by others in any way whatsoever for anything we do, and yet we've been TRAINED to believe that it's only right and natural. We're the first to comfort someone who is lamenting how awful others treat them by not appreciating them and all they do. We're the first to say 'you're right, you do deserve more respect, more admiration'. We are all trained so deeply to believe this is the right way of it that my even saying it makes me sound like I'm advocating abuse when I'm not at all because being a servant, NOT demanding (even internally to self) respect, is NOT abuse- mentally, emotionally, or physically but rather it is a state of selflessness that understands that OTHERS come first, that God comes first and self is not important. Ah, if only the conditioning we've had wasn't so deep, so engrained, so driven into us that it seems from the moment we're born we are set on a course to self-absorption, self-centeredness, selfishness.


This verse spoke of how Jesus taught differently than the scribes- Jesus wanted NO glory brought to Him but all glory given to God. Jesus was SELFLESS in all His teachings. Jesus taught as one desiring to being enlightenment. Jesus wanted people to understand, to LEARN. God's word was meant for one and all, not for a select few and this is what Jesus was opening up to the people who heard Him- this was way He was not teaching as a scribe but with authority. Jesus' authority gave Him the power to really teach people so that they could believe all that He was bringing to life from the scriptures they'd heard since they were young.


May we learn from the greatest teacher of all - our Savior. May we learn selflessness, as we learn love of God and love of our fellow man.


By the grace of our Savior! By His love! By His mercy always!


Amen.