Culture: The lawyers are educated—“learned in all the arts and cunning of the people.” This definition parallels the New Testament’s “lawyers”—scribes who not only could read and write but were conversant in and argued the law. Perhaps Ammonihahite lawyers had skills, such as literacy, not shared by the larger population.
The Maya scribe may have held a position that parallels these lawyers in Ammonihah. The recent translation of many of the Maya glyphs has led to tremendous new understandings of Maya history, including information about named individuals. The Maya scribe belonged to an elite rank of society. In one case, a pot-painter (who painted hieroglyphs as well as pictures) can be identified as a child of the sitting ruler of Naranjo. If the Ammonihahite lawyers indeed occupied a parallel status, it would explain why they would assume the defense of the status quo in questioning these preachers.