LAWYERS KEY TO KNOWLEDGE

"Seeing, therefore, that these things are so, and that thousands of men make mistakes, it is dangerous for us when we read to declare lightly that we understand things for which the 'key of knowledge' is necessary, which the Savior says is with 'the lawyers' (cf. Lk 11:52). And as for those who are unwilling to admit that these men held the truth before the coming of Christ, let them explain to us how it is that our Lord Jesus Christ says that the 'key of knowledge' was with them, that is, with men who as these objectors say, had no books containing the secrets of knowledge and all the perfect mysteries. For the passage runs as follows : 'Woe unto you lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge. Ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in Ye hindered (Lk 11:52)." P. 362-363, ON FIRST PRINCIPLES by Origen (2013)