The teachers of the law, otherwise known as scribes, were legal experts. Originally, they were the official copiers of the Old Testament writings, but over time they came to supplant the priests and Levites as interpreters of Scripture (2 Chronicles 34:13; Ezra 7:12). They tended to align with the Pharisees by emphasizing the oral tradition of Torah interpretation. 1
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.