A lawyer. — The precise distinction between the “lawyer” and the other scribes rested, probably, on technicalities that have left little or no trace behind them. The word suggests the thought of a section of the scribes who confined their attention to the Law, while the others included in their studies the writings of the Prophets also. In Luke 7:30; Luke 11:45, they appear as distinct from the Pharisees. The question asked by the “lawyer” here and in Luke 10:25 falls in with this view. So it would seem, in Titus 3:13, that Zenas the “lawyer” was sent for to settle the strivings about the Law that prevailed in Crete.
Tempting him. — There does not appear to have been in this instance any hostile purpose in the mind of the questioner; nor does the word necessarily imply it. (Comp. John 6:6; 2 Corinthians 13:5, where it is used in the sense of “trying,” “examining.”) It would seem, indeed, as if our Lord’s refutation of the Sadducees had drawn out a certain measure of sympathy and reverence from those whose minds were not hardened in hypocrisy. They came now to test His teaching on other points. What answer would He give to the much-debated question of the schools, as to which was the great commandment of the Law? Would He fix on circumcision, or the Sabbath, or tithes, or sacrifice, as that which held the place of pre-eminence? The fact that they thus, as it were, examined Him as if they were His judges, showed an utterly imperfect recognition of His claims as a Prophet and as the Christ; but the “lawyer” who appeared as their representative was, at least, honest in his purpose, and “not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34).