Matthew 22:35

‘And one of them, a teacher of the law, asked him a question, testing him out.'

This time there would be no pretence that the question came from innocent seekers. Rather they wanted to bring out their big guns against Him, and they approached Him through ‘a teacher of the Law' (nomikos), with a question which was a much debated, and one on which there were many views.

The word for ‘teacher of the Law' is nomikos (thus ‘law expert'), only found here in Matthew, but more often in Luke where it generally has in mind the Scribes. Matthew may have used it because the regular tradition of the church incorporated it into this story (but then it would be in contrast with Mark). Or more likely it was because a ‘nomikos' was a higher grade of Scribe, a leading expert. If that is so the distinction would have been important here to Matthew's Jewish Christian readers. Perhaps a top lawyer of high experience was selected so that once Jesus gave His answer, possibly citing one of the ten commandments, he could engage in controversy with Him on the matter, exposing His viewpoint as wrong, and hopefully entangling Him and showing Him up.