As expositors and guardians of the Law the scribes occupied themselves mainly with precepts regarding sacriliics, the festival celebrations, the observance of the Sabbath, the payments to be made to the priests and the temple, and more especially with those relating to levitical purity in the matter of foods, purifications, etc. They laid the greatest stress on these ascetic elements because they thereby kept Israel separate from the Gentiles. ' Tlieir idefd was not righteousness, but holiness ' (Wellhausen, op. cit. 150). The marks of a religions Jew were fasting (cf. Lk 18"), almsgiving (Mt6'*-), and prayer, as the fulfilment of statutory duties (cf. Mt 6="-; Aboth ii. 17: 'be careful in reading the Shema ,' i.e. Dt 6^""). Really ethical duties ■were assigned a subordinate place (Mt 15*"-, Mk 7'*, Mt SS'^"-). A distinction was dra^vn between greater and lesser commandments ; but they were enjoined ' to be attentive to a light precept as to a grave' (Aboth ii. 1). Great stress was laid on the idea of reward (Aboth iv. 13 ff. : ' whosoever fulfils the Torah in poverty will at length fulfil it in wealth'; ' if thou lahourest in the Torah, He hath mucli leward to give unto thee ' ; 'he who performs one precept has gotten to liimself one advocate ; and he who commits one transgression has gotten to himself one accuser.' Cf. v. llil'., where seven kinds of punishment are shown to come on account of seven main transgressions, such as dearth from failure to tithe).
Piety was thus reduced to an external and mei hanical formalism. Nothing was of value, if not strictly regulated by an external law ; no room was left for moral originality or spon- taneity ; uniformity and formal exactness were all-important. Life under the Law was felt to be a heavy burden ; the scribes themselves had to devise metliods whereby to evade some of tlieir own precepts (Lk 11", Alt 23'™). Instead of prov- ing a help to men in their moral and religious life, tlie Law had become a means whereby access to God was cut off (Lk 11").*
(2) The teaching of t)ie Law. — With a view to ' raising up many discijiles' (Aboth i. 1), the more famous rabbins gathered round them studious young men, to whom they expounded the Law (cf. Josephus, Ant. XV'II. vi. 2, BJ I. xxxiii. 2). Seeing th.it the oral law was the main theme of their instruction, their teaching consisted in a constant repetition of its numerous precepts, so that their pupils might have them imprinted on their memory. They also put concrete cases, real or ii laginary, before their pupils, in order to train them in the application of legal principles. Their pupils were also allowed to jjut questions to them, and to attend the disputations which they held among themselves over difficult questions. The pupils had only two duties : (a) to retain every- thing faithfully in their memory, and (b) never to teach otherwise, even in expression, than they had been taught by their master (cf. Aboth v. 18, of
• For the Icpal traditions re^rarding the obsen-ance of the PaMiaih, etc., see Schiirer, op. ciL U. 464 ff. ; EderBheim, op. cit. i. 774 Q , and cf. art. Sabbath.
the four characters in scholars, 'quick to hear, and slow to forget, is wise ' ; iii. 12, ' wuen a scholar of the wise sits and studies, and has for- gotten a word of his Mishna, they account it unto him as if he were guilty of death ' ; ii. 10, ' Eliezer ben Hyrcanus is a plastered cistern, which loseth not a drop'). Both teachers and pupils adhered rigidly to tradition. On any subject whatever, the fact that the rabbis had said so and so wai decisive (cf. Mk 9").
Both for the disputations of the scribes among themselves and for the instruction of their pupili there were special academies (beth hammidrash), distinct from the synagogues. In Jerusalem their lectures were delivered also in the temple (cf. Lk 2'», Mt 21^ 26" Mk 14«, Lk 20' 21", Jn 18^), i.e. in the outer court. The scholars sat on the ground, the teachers on a raised bench (cf. Lk 2", Ac 22*, Mt26", Aboth i. 4, v. 21).
(3) As judgen. — Although in NT times a pro- fessional knowledge of the Law was not requisite on the part of a judge, the scribes would naturally be called upon to fill that office. In the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem the ' chief priests' had the first place; but scribes also had a seat in it (cf. Mk 14*"- ** 15', Lk 22"" 23'", Ac 4'), and exercised the greatest in- fluence (Ant. XVIII. i. 4). See art. SANHEDRIN.
Their whole professional activity both as teachers and judges was understood to be gratis. ' R. Zadok said, Make them [i.e. words of Torah] not a crown, to glory in them ; nor an axe, to live by them. And tlius was Hillel wont to say, And he who serves himself with the tiara [the crown of the Law] perishes. Lo, whosoever makes profit from words of Torah removes his life from this world ' (Aboth iv. 9 ; cf. Taylor, op. cit. 68). They had therefore to earn the means of living in other ways. Those of them who were not jjossessed of private means carried on a trade in addition to the study of the Law (cf. Ac 18'). But they had to make the study of the Law supreme (Sir 38-''-39" ; Aboth ii. ti, Hillel said, ' He that has much traffic will not become wise'; iv. 14, ' K. Meir said. Have little business, and l)e busied in Torah ').