As spiritual leaders they should have been even more sensitive to the exemplifying the mercy and love of God towards their kinsmen, at the least. Humility, not pride, was the mark of God's leaders. The commands of Leviticus 21 and 22 was given to assure a greater sensitivity to sin and corruption on the part of the priests, not to promote a sense of pride and arrogance, as though they were better people because God had required more of them.
The second error they made was that of Externalism. The things that contaminated the priests in chapter 21 and 22 and thus were to be avoided were not flaws of character or even conduct (sins) but were ceremonial defilement. It would be easy to falsely equate ceremonial purity (holiness) for ritual cleanness. the Scribes and the Pharisees thought that holiness was largely a matter of keeping away from defilement and, especially, sinners. Jesus taught that defilement comes not from without, but from within, from the heart. ( Mk 7:14-15, 20-23). Evil attitudes lead to evil actions.
We must search for meaning in O. T. that goes past the concrete, external, and literal to the heart of the matter. The Scribes and Pharisees failed to do this. This is precisely where they went wrong. They did not take the Law far enough, stopping at the level of concrete (don't touch) the obvious, and the observable. They stopped and the external without pressing in to the internal issues of the heart. God gave the law to deal with man on both of these levels, but primarily to lead to the internal. The Scribes and Pharisees stopped short of getting to the wickedness within themselves.
Their third error was that of Legalism. They had a mindset of works righteousness. One might conclude like the Scribes and Pharisees did that if one was able to avoid the defilements of Leviticus chapters 21 and 22 that he would then be holy.
As spiritual leaders they should have been even more sensitive to the exemplifying the mercy and love of God towards their kinsmen, at the least. Humility, not pride, was the mark of God's leaders. The commands of Leviticus 21 and 22 was given to assure a greater sensitivity to sin and corruption on the part of the priests, not to promote a sense of pride and arrogance, as though they were better people because God had required more of them.
The second error they made was that of Externalism. The things that contaminated the priests in chapter 21 and 22 and thus were to be avoided were not flaws of character or even conduct (sins) but were ceremonial defilement. It would be easy to falsely equate ceremonial purity (holiness) for ritual cleanness. the Scribes and the Pharisees thought that holiness was largely a matter of keeping away from defilement and, especially, sinners. Jesus taught that defilement comes not from without, but from within, from the heart. ( Mk 7:14-15, 20-23). Evil attitudes lead to evil actions.
We must search for meaning in O. T. that goes past the concrete, external, and literal to the heart of the matter. The Scribes and Pharisees failed to do this. This is precisely where they went wrong. They did not take the Law far enough, stopping at the level of concrete (don't touch) the obvious, and the observable. They stopped and the external without pressing in to the internal issues of the heart. God gave the law to deal with man on both of these levels, but primarily to lead to the internal. The Scribes and Pharisees stopped short of getting to the wickedness within themselves.
Their third error was that of Legalism. They had a mindset of works righteousness. One might conclude like the Scribes and Pharisees did that if one was able to avoid the defilements of Leviticus chapters 21 and 22 that he would then be holy.
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