LAWYER 88
notes, further, that similar insignia of authority are still carried by the Bedawin sheikhs and art men of villages, and considers that the idea of a sitting figure, with the staff held between the feet, as seen in some ancient sculptures, does not har- monize so well with the context which suggests movement. In any case the meaning of the couplet, ‘The sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler’s staff from before him,’ appears to be that Judah is to retain the hegemony among the tribes of Israel (or probably the royalty [note »3z ab- solutely]), a x2 2 3y, on the meaning of which last words see art. SHILOH, and cf., above all, Driver in Camb. Journ. of Philology, xiv. (1885), and in Expositor, July 1885, p. 10ff See also Dillm. and Spurrell, ad loc.
The only NT occurrence of ‘lawgiver’ is, as we have said, in Ja 4”, where νομοθέτης is coupled with κριτής, the two terms being used of God as at once the Supreme Lawgiver and Judge. This is the only instance in which νομοθέτης is used in the NT, although the verb νομοθετέω occurs in He 7!! 8° and the noun νομοθεσία in Ro 9%, in all these three passages the reference being directly or implicitly to the giving of the law to Israel.
n the work of Moses as the lawgiver of Israel see LAW (IN OT), above, p. 66, and MosEs. J. A. SELBIE.
LAWYER (voucxés).—In the NT the name usually given to the scribes is γραμματεύς (man of letters) ; but νομικός (‘lawyer’) and νομοδιδάσκαλος (‘doctor of the law’) are also occasionally used. Of the two latter terms, the second is found only in Lk 51’, Ac 5%, and 1 Ti 1’ (where it is used of would-be teachers of the law in the Christian Church) ; while the first occurs most frequently in Lk (7% 1075 11*- 48-52 143), once in Mt (22°5), and nowhere else in the NT except in Tit 3%. A com- parison of Lk 5” With v.*! and Mk 2° Mt 98 shows that the three terms were used synonymously, and did not denote three distinct classes. The scribes were originally simply men of letters, students of Scripture, and the name at first given to them contains in itself no reference to the law ; in course of time, however, they devoted them- selves mainly, though by no means exclusively, to the study of the law; they became jurists rather than theologians, and received names which of themselves called attention to that fact. Some would doubtless devote themselves more to one branch of activity than to another; but a ‘lawyer’ might also be a ‘doctor’; and the case of Gamaliel shows that a ‘doctor’ might also be a member of the Sanhedrin (Ac 5%).
Long before the time of our Saviour, the law, written and oral, had become the absolute norm of Jewish life. Every detail of life, civil as well as religious, was regulated in the minutest manner by the law. It was impossible for the ordinary Jew to be fully acquainted with the innumerable statutes referring, ¢.g., to Levitical purity or the keeping of the Sabbath, and to apply them to the fresh cases that emerged daily; and yet his standing before God depended upon his scrupulous observance of these statutes. It was Shaclately necessary, therefore, that a special class of men should devote themselves expressly to the study of the law. These were the ‘scribes,’ ‘lawyers,’ or ‘doctors of the law.’
(a) Their first and main function was to study and expound the law, including the innumerable ‘traditions of the fathers’; they had so to explain it as to show its application to the circumstances
of the present time; for every new case that occurred they had to find out some pertinent statute or precedent; and, in the absence of such
a statute or precedent, they had to deduce some rule from their knowledge of what was legal
4 LAY
They were thus men whose special calling it was to know what was legal.
(ὁ) Their special knowledge of the law naturally qualified them for holding the office of judge; and in all probability the members of the various Sanhedrins throughout the country were chosen, as far as possible, from among their number. From such passages as Mt 167 9018 21) 9741, Mk 851 1177 144-59 151, Lk 9# 901 29% Ac 45, in which they are named among the supreme Jewish authorities, it is evident that some of them were members of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Though they had no official standing in the synagogues, their knowledge of the Scriptures generally and of the law in particular would lead to their being the prepa speakers in religious assemblies (Mk 1”).
(c) The teaching of the law was also one of their essential functions. In the time of our Saviour there were special academies (beth hammidrash) in various parts of the Jewish world; in Jerusalem certain halls and rooms of the outer court of the temple were set apart for this purpose (cf. Lk 2¥). The pupils sat in a semicircle round their teacher, who also sat on a slightly raised bench. The teaching was mostly oral and catechetical; it consisted mainly of a constant repetition of the various ‘traditions of the fathers’ dealing with all manner of real and imaginary cases ; the pupils were encouraged to put questions to their teachers ; they also attended the discussions that leadiny Rabbis held among themselves, and were probably also allowed to be present at meetings of the Sanhedrin.