cellio | parsha bit: Ki Tavo

This week's parsha instructs us to bring the first fruits of the harvest to the temple. A man once brought to Rabbi Anan a bale of fish, and then asked him to judge a lawsuit. Rabbi Anan disqualified himself because of the gift, and the man said "I won't ask you to try the case now, but please accept the gift so that I am not prevented from offering first fruits". From this the gemara concludes that if one brings a gift to a scholar, it is as if he had offered first fruits. (Ketuvot 105b)

(Of course, the gemara was redacted by scholars... :-) I wonder if this is the talmud's last word on this subject. I assume there's an implicit "so long as we can't offer the fruits at the temple anyway" in there, and that if the temple stood no one would say that gifts to scholars suffice.)