Gramma primarily means what is written. Hence it may describe either a single character or a document. From this general notion several forms develop themselves in the New Testament. The word occurs in its narrower sense of characters, at Luke xxiii. 38; 2 Cor. iii. 7; Galatians vi. 11. In Acts xxviii. 21, it means official communications. Paul, with a single exception (2 Cor. iii. 7), uses it of the letter of scripture as contrasted with its spirit (Rom. ii. 27, 29; vii. 6; 2 Cor. iii. 6). In Luke xvi. 6, 7, it denotes a debtor's bond (A.V., bill). In John vii. 15, Acts xxvi. 24) it is used in the plural as a general term for scriptural and Rabbinical learning. Compare Sept., Isa. xxix. 11,12) where a learned man is described as ejpitamenov grammata, acquainted with letters. Once it is used collectively of the sacred writings - the scriptures (2 Timothy iii. 15), though some give it a wider reference to Rabbinical exegesis, as well as to scripture itself. Among the Alexandrian Greeks the term is not confined to elementary instruction, but includes exposition, based, however, on critical study of the text. The tendency of such exegesis was often toward mystical and allegorical interpretation, degenerating into a petty ingenuity in fixing new and recondite meanings upon the old and familiar forms. This was illustrated by the Neo-Platonists' expositions of Homer, and by the Rabbinical exegesis. Men unacquainted with such studies, especially if they appeared as public teachers, would be regarded as ignorant by the Jews of the times of Christ and the Apostles. Hence the question respecting our Lord Himself: How knoweth this man letters (grammata John vii. 15)? Also the comment upon Peter and John (Acts iv. 13) that they were unlearned (agrammatoi). Thus, too, those who discovered in the Old Testament scriptures references to Christ, would be stigmatized by Pagans, as following the ingenious and fanciful method of the Jewish interpreters, which they held in contempt. Some such feeling may have provoked the words of Festus to Paul: Much learning (polla grammata) doth make thee mad (Acts xxvi. 24). It is well known with what minute care the literal transcription of the sacred writings was guarded. The Scribes (grammateiv) were charged with producing copies according to the letter (kata to gramma).