In one of the Gospels, J.Christ lashes out against the lawyers:
“woe unto you o lawyers, for you have kept the path of wisdom to yourselves, and have prevented others from entering in”
My apologies for the paraphrasing-I didn’t have time to check the Bible.
Anyway, is Christ really talking about "lawyers"in the present day sense? Or is he really condemning the doctors of the law (i.e. pharisees?)
Or, was 1st -Centurt Judea infested with ambulance-chasers just like present-day America? Have any of those old-time legal adds survived?
I can just picture it:
“Have you fallen on the temple steps? Been gored by your neighbor’s ox? Or have you been hit by a chariot?-Call the law offices of Asherbanipal, for a FREE consultation-No Fee unless you recover!”;j
The Pharisees were schooled in the Law, meaning the Law Covenant of Moses (hence the capitalization), and Rabbinical tradition.
J.C. was condemning them for missing the more important principles behind the Law, namely, mercy and love. (See Matthew 9:13 and 22:34-40.)
Today’s law is seperated from religion, for the most part. J.C.'s Jewish Law was religion.
Online Bible (various translations) For easy access to cited Scripture.
Some well versed Dopers, like Polycarp, Monty, Libertarian, or Zev should be along soon to help flesh this out a bit. (If they do vanity searches, they’ll be here real soon.)
I think you’re refering to Matthew 23:13. The NIV translation of that verse is “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Jesus is refering to people who taught Jewish religious law, not lawyers in a modern sense.
If it is Matthew 23:13, the original Greek text says: “grammateis kai Pharisaioi hupokritai”, where:
grammateus = scribe, expert in the Jewish law
hupokrites = hypocrite, one who pretends to be other than what he is
A literal translation of the Bible is not always best, but I would say in this case, that’s what the NIV is.
I think it’s likely that WHOEVER Jesus was berating (be they lawyers/experts on the law/Pharisees/what-have-you) he was not berating them as a SET, but was addressing a specific group of same, perhaps one that was abusing its power.
In other words, I DON’T think that Jesus was saying “All lawyers (or whoever) are bad people.”
Hey, Jesus’ friends included tax collectors, Samaritans, and ex-hookers! Everybody, he believed, is worth something. And who we become is up to us.
I gotta meet me some ex-hookers.
I think He was talking about lawyers in the sense of 'people who use religious law to oppress or belittle to typical person."
But I say this as a lawyer myself. I’d hate to think all those Sunday mornings were wasted.