Matthew 22:35
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
American King James Version (AKJV)
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
American Standard Version (ASV)
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, trying him:
Basic English Translation (BBE)
And one of them, a teacher of the law, put a question to him, testing him, and saying,
Webster's Revision
Then one of them who was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
World English Bible
One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him.
English Revised Version (ERV)
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him,
Definitions for Matthew 22:35
Clarke's Matthew 22:35 Bible Commentary
A lawyer - Νομικος, a teacher of the law. What is called lawyer, in the common translation, conveys a wrong idea to most readers: my old MS. renders the word in the same way I have done. These teachers of the law were the same as the scribes, or what Dr. Wotton calls letter-men, whom he supposes to be the same as the Karaites, a sect of the Jews who rejected all the traditions of the elders, and admitted nothing but the written word. See Wotton's Mishna, vol. i. p. 78. These are allowed to have kept more closely to the spiritual meaning of the law and prophets than the Pharisees did; and hence the question proposed by the lawyer, (Mark, Mark 12:28, calls him one of the scribes), or Karaite, was of a more spiritual or refined nature than any of the preceding.
Barnes's Matthew 22:35 Bible Commentary
A lawyer - This does nor mean one that "practiced" law, as among us, but one learned or skilled in the law of Moses.
Mark calls him "one of the scribes." This means the same thing. The scribes were men of learning - particularly men skilled in the law of Moses. This lawyer had heard Jesus reasoning with the Sadducees, and perceived that he had put them to silence. He was evidently supposed by the Pharisees to be better qualified to hold a debate with him than the Sadducees were, and they had therefore put him forward for that purpose. This man was probably of a candid turn of mind; perhaps willing to know the truth, and not entering very fully into their malicious intentions, but acting as their agent, Mark 12:34.
Tempting him - Trying him. Proposing a question to test his knowledge of the law.
Wesley's Matthew 22:35 Bible Commentary
22:35 A scribe asking him a question, trying him - Not, as it seems, with any ill design: but barely to make a farther trial of that wisdom, which he had shown in silencing the Sadducees.