While the military function of the Judges was taken over by the kings of Israel, the functional, legal role of a
judge continued as judicial judges (2 Chron 19:5); also known as governors (2 Chron 18:25), who were
placed in cities to implement the king‘s laws. The city elders retained their role on a local level throughout the
biblical period and it remained so in Y‘shua‘s time.
Were the Pharisees "Legalistic"?
When imprecise terminology is used to denote important concepts, it cannot help but bring confusion. The
popular use of the term "legalism" to describe whatever it was that Y‘shua found objectionable about his
adversaries is a case in point. The term is imprecise; and one suspects that, when readers try to define
exactly what it was that Y‘shua objected to in the Pharisees' approach to the Law, more often than not they
take their cues from preconceived notions of what "legalism" means (the term having already been implicitly
admitted as an adequate summary of the issue), rather than from the fine points of Y‘shua‘s specific
objections. Most lay readers of the Gospels interpret Y‘shua‘s discussions with and about Pharisees in strict
dependence upon the notion of legalism, even to the point of glossing over Y‘shua‘s otherwise very clear
language. Terminology is supposed to clarify things, but the imprecision of the term "legalism‖, combined
with the presupposition that this term captures the essence of Y‘shua‘s objection, only makes things unclear.
Many times someone reads a Gospel passage relating Y‘shua‘s arguments with the Pharisees, only to follow
it with an exposition that totally ignores Y‟shua‟s specific objections to the Pharisees, and replaces
them with objections not found in the text. The singer's words are sage advice for readers of the
Gospels: "Don't try to paint your masterpiece under artificial light!" More about the Pharisees later in the
section, ―James the Brother of Y‘shua‖, under Matt 13:53-54 ―And when he was come into his own country‖.
Now what is a rabbi?
The traditional rabbinate harks back to ancient practice, but is in fact a changing institution that was first
formalised in the fourteenth century.
A rabbi is a teacher of Judaism qualified to render decisions in Jewish law, the Torah. The term is derived
from rav, meaning "great man" or "teacher‖. The Jews call Moses - Moshe Rabbenu ("Moses our teacher").
The suffix "i‖, meaning "my‖, is somewhat strange. Why "my teacher‖? It has been suggested that the letters
rbb (which form the Hebrew word without vowel-pointing) should be vocalised, as they are among Sephardi
Jews, as "Ribbi‖, "great one‖; and that the "i" is not, in fact, a (possessive pronoun) suffix at all.
It has also been conjectured that the term Ribbi originally denoted a fully ordained teacher, one who received
the ordination reaching back to Joshua on whom Moses laid his hands. When full ordination came to an end
(in the fourth century B.C.), the title "Rabbi" was given to every teacher of the Torah and was a purely
honourific one.
There were other religious functionaries in addition to the town rabbi, and these were also usually given the
title Ha-Rav. The town rabbi, with a few exceptions, only preached sermons on rare occasions—normally on
the Sabbath before Pesach and the Sabbath before Yom Kippur. Preaching was the prerogative of the
maggid. The maggid was usually a wandering preacher who visited various towns (as in the case of Y‘shua)
where the congregation would give him remuneration for his services. But the larger towns had, in addition to
the town rabbi, a permanent town maggid who received a regular stipend from the community chest.
With all this as a background, we can clearly see that Herod called the very elite leaders of the Jerusalem
(over seventy) together and demanded information from them. He probably did not get much out of the ―Wise
Men‖.
2:5-6 The voice of the prophet
―(5) And they (the chief priests and scribes of the people) said unto him (Herod), In Bethlehem of Judaea: for
thus it is written by the prophet, (6) And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among
the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel”.
It was common Jewish opinion that the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem and of the seed of David. The
prophet spoken about in verse 5 is Micah (5:2) ―But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in
Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting‖.