The scribes were the ones the people looked to as authorities in scripture, yet there was something about the authority of Jesus that was different. What was it?<\/p>\n
And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Matthew 7:28-29<\/a><\/p>\n This is interesting wording:<\/p>\n For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.<\/p>\n Why would it say this when the scribes were considered the greatest authorities on the scriptures? The reason was that their only source of authority was their black and white memorization of the scriptures. They knew the words but did not know what they meant. They could never stand up and teach and just say the words of the Spirit pouring through their hearts. They could not teach without quoting some other authority.<\/p>\n Jesus, on the other hand, taught new things that were not quotes from any known book and this seemed to demonstrate a new kind of authority they had never seen before, an authority bestowed from within and accepted from within by others. They were so astounded by this authority that did not depend on degrees and books that it is written:<\/p>\n And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? Matthew 21:23<\/a><\/p>\n Jesus had an authority that he could demonstrate and no one remembered seeing such a thing in the spiritual realm before. Jesus was the one man in the kingdom who did not have the mark of the beast. Here Jesus spoke boldly against the negative use of authority:<\/p>\n