By the time Jesus came to earth the word “scribes,” therefore, designated a class of men learned in the Law. They made the systematic study of the Law and its exposition their professional occupation. They were evidently among the teachers of the Law, the ones versed in the Law. (Lu 5:17; 11:45) They were generally associated with the religious sect of the Pharisees, for this body recognized the interpretations or “traditions” of the scribes that had developed in course of time into a bewildering maze of minute, technical regulations.

The scribes of the Jews along with the Pharisees were strongly condemned by Jesus because they had added to the Law and had provided loopholes by which to circumvent the Law, so that he said to them: “You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition.” He cited an instance of this: They would permit one who should have helped his father or mother to avoid doing so​—by claiming that the substance or possession he had with which he could help his parents was a gift dedicated to God.​—Mt 15:1-9; Mr 7:10-13; see CORBAN.

Jesus declared that the scribes, like the Pharisees, had added many things, making the Law burdensome for the people to follow, loading the people down. Furthermore, as a class, they had no genuine love for the people nor did they desire to help them, being unwilling to use a finger to lighten the people’s burdens.