Scribe (Among the Jews originally)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

among the Jews, originally a kind of military of ficer, whose business appears to have been the recruiting and organizing of troops, the levying of war-taxes, and the like. Later the Hebrew name sofer seems to have been especially bestowed on a copyist of the law books. After the exile, under Ezra, apparently the copyist became more and more an expounder of the law. In Christ's time the name had come to designate a learned man, a doctor of the law. Christ himself recognizes scribes as a legal authority (Matt. xxiii. 2); they were the preservers of traditions, and formed a kind of police in the Temple and synagogues, together with the high priest; and the people reverenced them, or were expected to reverence them, in an eminent degree. They were to be found all over the country of Palestine, and occupied the rank and profession of both lawyers and theologians. Their public field of action was probably threefold: they were either assessors of the Sanhedrim, or public teachers, or administrators and lawyers. Many of these teachers had special al class-rooms somewhere in the Temple of Jerusalem, where the pupils destined to the calling of a rabbi sat at their feet. The calling of a scribe being gratuitous, it was incumbent on every one of them to learn and to exercise some trade. As a rule they were PHARISEES (q. v.), and zealous to keep the law pure from any foreign influence. Among famous scribes are to be reckoned Hillel, Shammai, and Gamaliel.