Luke 11:45-54

2 d. To the Scribes: Luke 11:45-54. A remark made by a scribe gives a new turn to the conversation. The Pharisees were only a religious party; but the scribes, the experts in the law, formed a profession strictly so called. They were the learned, the wise, who discovered nice prescriptions in the law, such as that alluded to in Luke 11:42, and gave them over for the observance of their pious disciples. The scribes played the part of clerical guides. The majority of them seem to have belonged to the pharisaic party; for we meet with no others in the N. T. But their official dignity gave them a higher place in the theocracy than that of a mere party. Hence the exclamation of him who here interrupts Jesus: “Thus saying, Thou reproachest us, us scribes also,” which evidently constitutes in his eyes a much graver offence than that of reproaching the Pharisees. In His answer Jesus upbraids them on three grounds, as He had done the Pharisees: 1 st. Religious intellectualism (Luke 11:46); 2 d. Persecuting fanaticism (Luke 11:47-51); 3 d. The pernicious influence which they exercised on the religious state of the people (Luke 11:52).

Vers. 53 and 54 describe the end of the feast.