• 38 And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, 39 And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: 40 Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.

• Compare: Matthew 23:1-36; Luke 11:37

Jesus Warns of Temple Corruption

In the other two synoptic gospels, Jesus is recorded as delivering a long litany of corruptions and misdeeds committed by the Temple scribes.

Here, however, we only hear about a few of the awful things they do. This reinforces Jesus? opposition to Temple authorities while also placing him firmly in the tradition of earlier Jewish prophets.

Although there was an earlier scene where Jesus and a single scribe talk in a friendly manner, everywhere else in Mark?s account Jesus is at odds with all the Temple authorities. Usually Jesus? hostility appears to be based upon assumptions of apocalyptic determinism: the Temple authorities will reject him because they must, and they must reject him because his rejection is a necessary component of Jesus? passion, execution, resurrection, and eventual role in the apocalypse.

In this scene, though, none of that comes into play. Rather than chastise the Temple authorities for their rejection of the Son of man or for their attempts to trick him, he chastises them for their corruption and their failure to adhere to what God wants. In this, Jesus is depicted in a manner very similar to the ancient Jewish prophets.

The complaints reflect those made by Isaiah (10:1-2), Malachi (3:5), and Zechariah (7:10).

First he condemns those scribes who make a great show of themselves in order to appear important in public. Then he condemns those who, rather than take care of the poor and powerless, actually exploit them for their own gain. All of this echoes Jesus? earlier comments to his own disciples when he instructed them to learn to serve others and stop jockeying for position in order to see who would be the most important among them.

The parallels to earlier Jewish prophets would have been clear to Jewish audiences; early Gentile converts to Christianity would have missed the connection entirely. Unfortunately for later Jews, many Christians in history used this passage as justification for their own anti-Semitic feelings. Although Jesus only condemns certain scribes of the Temple, this has been expanded by many to apply to all scribes and, at times, even all Jews generally.