E . writers), a non-priestly class among the Jews devoted to the study and exposition of the Law, and who rose to a position of importance and influence in the Jewish community, were known in the days of Christ also by the name of Lawyers, and were addressed as Rabbis; their disciples were taught to regard them, and did regard them with a reverence superior to that paid to father or mother, the spiritual parent being reckoned as much above the natural, as the spirit and its interests are above the flesh and its interests.