Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and directed all who did the work in every kind of service. Of the Levites, there were scribes, officials, and gatekeepers.
Moreover all the chiefs of the priests and the people trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the LORD’s house which he had made holy in Jerusalem.
this Ezra went up from Babylon. He was a skilled scribe in the Torah of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given; and the king granted him all his request, according to the LORD his God’s hand on him.
He said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.”
But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, “Hoshia'na to the son of David!” they were indignant,
When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?”
While he was still speaking, behold, Judah, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him that very hour, but they feared the people—for they knew he had spoken this parable against them.
Judah then, having taken a detachment of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
A great clamour arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ part stood up, and contended, saying, “We find no evil in this man. But if a spirit or angel has spoken to him, let’s not fight against God!”