Real Opportunists in Ancient Israel

The scribes of ancient Israel proved to be real opportunists using their research and copyist skills to build great power alongside the Pharisees and Saducees of ancient Israel.


Before King Nubuchadrezzar's destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C. the focus of their work was transcribing portions of the  Old Testament as well as business and government documents.


However after a remnant was set free by  the Cyrus who   defeated the Babylonians to establish a Medo-Persian empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the borders of India the Scribes assumed an ever more powerful role not just as copyists of the Law and rest of the Old Testament or Hebrew Scripturess, but also as interpreters and enforcers of that  and other laws.


By the time of Jesus the Scribes had become a part of that elite group made up of the Chief Priest, priests, Sadducees, Pharisees and members of artistocratic families.


In small towns throughout Israel as well as in Jewish centres outside of Palestine  these men secured positions as minor government officials and judges as well as the interpreters and enforcers of  the Mosaic Law traditions.


Although they came from all walks of life:  Some were priests, but others were originally fishermen, carpenters, and labourers, they studied hard from the age of 14 to 40 in order to be certified or ordained as Scribes.


They were highly revered by most of the common people because of their supposed knowledge of the Law Covenant and what it required of the people.  This knowlege  they jealously kept to themselves on the grounds the common people did not have the intelligence to understand why God required certain things from them under the Law Covenant. This was much like the clergy class in Europe during the Dark and Medieval Ages in Europe.


However, Most of the people never thought of questioning them and relatively few of the Biblical Jews ever realized that most of the traditions that they were forced to follow were nothing more than the creations of the Scribe brotherhood.


In Jerusalem itself the Scribes  had even more power and prestige working closely with the Chief Priest and other Sanhedrin members. Many  of them, in fact, became members of that supreme body which governed so much of the daily life of the Jewish people right up to and beyond the time of Jesus Christ and the Apostles.


Through their distorted interpretation of the Law Covenant and blind allegiance to those traditions they set themselves up as enemies of Jesus Christ.