Slide 2:
38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go about in long robes, and to have salutations in the market places
39 and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts,
40 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
Slide 3:
The job description of “scribe,” can be found in Old Testament passages as secretaries of state who prepared and issues decrees for the king (2 Sam. 8:17; 20:25; 1 Chr. 18:16; 24:6; 1 Kings 4:3; 2 Kings 12:9–11; 18:18–37, etc.).
These people would be viewed as the executive secretaries but there was also a subordinate class which we would now just call by the title secretaries.
Most of the subordinate scribes class came from the Levites.
An example would be Baruch who “wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord” (Jer. 36:4, 32).
After the Captivity the scribes turned their attention to and became experts in the law (Ezra 7:6, 10–12; Neh. 8:1, 4, 9, 13).
The titles “scribes” and “lawyers” are interchangeable in the Gospels (Matt. 22:35; Mark 12:28; Luke 20:39, etc.).
Slide 4:
The Scribes were teachers of religious law (Mk. 1:22) and most were religious hypocrites who had no love for God.
True followers of Christ are not distinguished by showy spirituality.
Mt. 6:5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Reading the Bible, praying in public, or following church rituals can be phony if the motive for doing them is to be noticed or honored by others.