Letter and spirit of the law by God. Not all Pharisees, nor all Jews of that time, were legalistic. Though modern language has used the word Pharisee in the pejorative to describe someone who is legalistic and rigid, it is not an accurate description of all Pharisees. The argument over the "Spirit of the Law" vs. the "Letter of the Law" was part of early Jewish dialogue as well The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) is one of the New Testament texts to address this theme. The passage concerns a dialogue between Jesus and an "expert in the law" or "lawyer". As described in
The Good Samaritan Window, Chartres Cathedral (the "dextera domini") extruding from foliage(?) apparently blessing the work and the window of the shoemakers. Panels 5-12 present the parable of the Good Samaritan; they are preceded by Christ telling the parable to two Pharisees who had asked "Who is my neighbor?" One of the Pharisees wears the "Judenhut" or "pilleus cornutus", a cone-shaped pointed hat worn by Jews in medieval Europe and some of the Islamic world. Jesus is seated with his right hand raised and his left hand holding a book, perhaps the book of the Gospels (Panel 4). The parable panels then follow: A traveler, described