τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν πρεσβυτέρων. The elders, or presbyters, were the Jewish teachers, or scribes, such as Hillel and Shammai. The traditions were the rules or observances of the unwritten law, which they enjoined on their disciples. Many of these were frivolous; some actually subversive of God’s law; yet such was the estimation in which these ‘traditions’ were held that, according to one Rabbinical saying, ‘the words of the scribes are lovely, above the words of the law; for the words of the law are weighty and light but the words of the scribes are all weighty.’

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Old Testament