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
Parable of the Pearl Parable of the Pearl The Parable of the Pearl (also called the Pearl of Great Price) is one of the parables of Jesus. It appears in and illustrates the great value of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the penultimate parable in Matthew 13, just before the Parable of the Dragnet. It immediately follows the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, which has a similar theme. It does not appear in the other synoptic gospels but a version of this parable does appear in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas, Saying 76. The parable has been depicted by artists such as Domenico