Scribes

VIEW:35 DATA:01-04-2020
SCRIBES.—Sometimes a phrase gives the key to a great history. Such is the case here. ‘The scribes of the Pharisees’ (Mar_2:16) points us to the inseparable connexion between the Pharisees and the Scribes. In other places in the Gospels they are also grouped together (Mat_12:38, Luk_6:7, Mar_7:5). If we would understand the Scribe or Lawyer, we must set him against the background of Pharisaism (See art. Pharisees).
For every community that carves out for itself a great career the supreme problem is law and its administration. Now, after the Exile, the task being to hold together the parts of a nation widely scattered and lacking the unifying power of a common and sacred fatherland, the Mosaic Torah, the Divine Law for Israel, became, in course of time, the moral and spiritual constitution of Israel, its code of duty, the fabric of its right. The Torah is the informing principle of the community. To grasp this principle and apply it to the changing conditions and questions of the nation’s life was the supreme need of the time. This need was analogous to the similar need of any great State. And it always necessitates, as at Rome, a great body of lawyers. A fundamental need gives rise to an authoritative function, and the function creates for itself the agents to exercise it. So, in course of time, appears in Judaism a new type, the Scribe. There is, however, a peculiarity in the case of the Scribe that sets him apart from the Roman lawyer or the modern judge. The Torah which he interpreted and applied was a good many things in one. It was the text-book of a society which was both Church and State; it was at once the constitution and the catechism of the Jews. So the mastery and administration of it developed in the Scribe a variety of functions which with us are parcelled out among preacher, scholar, lawyer, and magistrate. It is easy to see that history owed him a fortune. He came to occupy a great position in the Jewish community. By the 1st cent. he had forced his way into that aristocratic body, the Sanhedrin (Gamaliel in Act_5:1-42; Nicodemus in Joh_3:1-36; Joh_7:1-53). He sat in ‘Moses’ seat’ (Mat_23:1). He had the power of ‘binding and loosing,’ i.e. of publishing authoritative judgments upon the legality and illegality of actions.
We see here a situation which had the making of great men in it. To grasp and administer the Mosaic Law, to ‘sit in Moses’ seat’ and become the trustee of the supreme interests of a great people,—there can be no better school. Naturally, there were many noble Scribes, men whose character and learning were commensurate with their task. Such were Hillel and Shammai, elder contemporaries of our Lord. Such also was the Gamaliel at whose feet St. Paul sat (Act_22:3), and who spoke, with noble feeling, against the persecuting zeal of the Sadducees (Act_5:34 ff.). As a class, too, they had their noble side. Their work, both educational and judicial, was gratuitous. They were to receive no pay. Probably this rule grew out of the idea of an impartial judge (Exo_23:8, Deu_16:19). Of course, there must have been many exceptions. Yet the mere idea was ennobling, and must have served to enkindle devotion. But, on the other hand, their position encouraged vast pride and vanity. They stood on their prerogatives as ‘Teachers.’ They loved the title of ‘Rabbi.’ So our Lord, when He bids His disciples refuse such title (Mat_23:7 f.), has the Scribes in mind.
This leads us to the deeper defect of the Scribes as a class. All their training went to unfit them for understanding our Lord. As we have seen, the situation of the Jews in the centuries after the Exile called for a new type of man. The prophet passed off the stage. The Scribe or Lawyer took his place. In the 1st cent. of our era be had become antipathetic to Prophetism. So be had no sympathy with John the Baptist, and to the meaning of the creative force in spiritual things brought into history by the Saviour he was totally blind. Hence our Lord’s fearful denunciation of the Scribes (Mat_23:1-39). See also artt. Pharisees and Sadducees.
Henry S. Nash.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


Copheerim, from caaphar to "write," "order," and "count." (See LAWYER.) The function was military in Jdg_5:14 (See SCEPTRE), also in Jer_52:25; Isa_33:18. Two scribes in Assyrian monuments write down the various objects, the heads of the slain, prisoners, cattle, etc. The scribe or "royal secretary" under David and Solomon (2Sa_8:17; 2Sa_20:25; 1Ki_4:3) ranks with the high priest and the captain of the host (compare 2Ki_12:10). Hezekiah's scribe transcribed old records and oral traditions, in the case of Proverbs 25-29, under inspiration of God. Henceforth, the term designates not a king's officer but "students and interpreters of the law". Jer_8:8 in KJV means "the pen of transcribers is (i.e. multiplies copies) in vain." But Maurer, "the false pen of the scribes (persons skilled in expounding) has converted it (the law) into a lie," namely, by false interpretations.
Ezra's glory, even above his priesthood, was that "he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given," and "had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments" (Ezr_7:6; Ezr_7:10; Ezr_7:12), "a scribe of the law of the God of heaven." The spoken language was becoming Aramaic, so that at this time an interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the basis of their national and religious restoration, was a primary necessity to the exiles just returned from Babylon (Neh_8:8-13). Scribe maybe meant in Ecc_12:11-12, "master of assemblies" under "one shepherd," but the inspired writers are probably meant, "masters of collections," i.e. associates in the collected canon, given (Eph_4:11) from the Spirit of Jesus Christ the one Shepherd (Eze_37:24; 1Pe_5:2-4). The "many books" of mere human composition are never to be put on a par with the sacred collection whereby to "be admonished."
"The families of scribes" had their own special residence (1Ch_2:55). Ezra with the scribes probably compiled under the Holy Spirit, from authoritative histories, Chronicles (1Ch_29:29; 2Ch_9:29; 2Ch_13:22, "the commentary of the prophet Iddo": Midrash). Except Zadok, no scribe but Ezra is named (Neh_13:13). The scribes by whom the Old Testament was written in its present characters and form, and its canon settled, are collectively in later times called "the men of the great synagogue, the true successors of the prophets" (Pirke Aboth ("The Sayings of the [Jewish] Fathers"), i. 1). Their aim was to write nothing themselves but to let the sacred word alone speak; if they had to interpret they would do it only orally. The mikra', or "careful reading of the text" (Neh_8:8) and laying down rules for its scrupulous transcription, was their study (compare copherim, in the Jerus. Gemara). Simon the Just (300-290 B.C.), last of the great synagogue, said, "our fathers taught us to be cautious in judging, to train many scholars, and to set a fence about the law."
But oral precepts, affecting eases of every day life not especially noticed in the law, in time by tradition became a system of casuistry superseding the word of God and substituting ceremonial observances for moral duties (Mat_15:1-6; Mat_23:16-23). The scribes first reported the decisions of previous rabbis, the halachoth, the "current precepts". A "new code" (the Mishna, "repetition or second body of jurisprudence") grew out of them. Rabbinical sayings, Jewish fables (Tit_1:14), and finally the Gemara ("completeness") filled up the scheme; and the Mishna and Gemara together formed the Talmud ("instruction"), the standard of orthodoxy for the modern Jew. The Old Testament too was "searched" (midrashim) for "recondite meanings", the very search in their view entitling them to eternal life. Jesus warns them to "search" them very differently, namely, to find Him in them, if they would have life (Joh_5:39). The process was called hagada ("opinion"). The Kabala ("received doctrine") carried mysticism further. The gematria (the Greek term for "the exactest science, geometry, being applied to the wildest mode of interpreting") crowned this perverse folly by finding new meanings through letters supposed to be substituted for others, the last of the alphabet for the first, the second last for the second, etc.
The Sadducees maintained, against tradition, the sufficiency of the letter of the law. Five pairs of teachers represent the succession of scribes, each pair consisting of the president of the Sanhedrin and the father of the house of judgment presiding in the supreme court. The two first were Joses ben Joezer and Joses ben Jochanan (140-130 B.C.). Their separating themselves from defilement originated the name Pharisees. The Sadducees taunt was "these Pharisees would purify the sun itself." Hillel (112 B.C.) is the best representative of the scribes; Menahem (probably the Essene Manaen: Josephus Ant. 15:10, section 5) was at first his colleague, But with many followers renounced his calling as scribe and joined Herod and appeared in public arrayed gorgeously. To this Mat_11:8; Luk_7:24-25, may allude. The Herodians perhaps may be connected with these. Shammai headed a school of greater scrupulosity than Hillel's (Mar_7:1-4), making it unlawful to relieve the poor, visit the sick, or teach children on the Sabbath, or to do anything before the Sabbath which would be in operation during the Sabbath. (See PHARISEES.)
Hillel's precepts breathe a loftier spirit: "trust not thyself to the day of thy death"; "judge not thy neighbour until thou art in his place"; "leave nothing dark, saying I will explain it when I have time, for how knowest thou whether the time will come?" (Jas_4:13-15); "he who gums a good name gains it for himself, but he who gains a knowledge of the law gains everlasting life" (compare Joh_5:39; Rom_2:13; Rom_2:17-24). A proselyte begged of Shammai instruction in the law, even if it were so long as he could stand on his foot. Shammai drove him away; but Hillel said kindly, "do nothing to thy neighbour that thou wouldest not he should do to thee; do this, and thou hast fulfilled the law and the prophets" (Mat_22:39-40). With all his straitness of theory Shammai was rich and self indulgent, Hillel poor to the day of his death. Christ's teaching forms a striking contrast. The scribes leant on "them of old time" (Mat_5:21-27; Mat_5:33); "He taught as one having authority and not as the scribes" (Mat_7:29).
They taught only their disciples; "He had compassion on the multitudes" (Mat_9:36). They taught only in their schools; He through "all the cities and villages" (Mat_4:23; Mat_9:35). As Hillel lived to the age of 120 he may have been among the doctors whom Jesus questioned (Luk_2:46). His grandson and successor, Gamaliel, was over his school during Christ's ministry and the early part of the Acts. Simeon, Gamaliel's son, was so but for a short time; possibly the Simeon of Luk_2:25, of the lineage of David, therefore disposed to look for Messiah in the Child of that house. The scanty notice of him in rabbinic literature makes the identification likely; the Pirke Aboth ("The Sayings of the [Jewish] Fathers") does not name him. This school was better disposed to Christ than Shammai's; to it probably belonged Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and others too timid to confess Jesus (Joh_12:42; Joh_19:38; Luk_23:50-51). The council which condemned Him was probably a packed meeting, hastily and irregularly convened.
Translated Isa_53:8, "He was taken away by oppression and by a judicial sentence," i.e. by an oppressive sentence; Act_8:33, "in His humiliation His judgment was taken away," i.e., a fair trial was denied Him. Candidate scribes were "chosen" only after examination (compare Mat_20:16; Mat_22:14; Joh_15:16). The master sat on a high chair, the eider disciples on a lower bench, the youngest lowest, "at his feet" (Luk_10:39; Act_22:3; Deu_33:3; 2Ki_4:38); often in a chamber of the temple (Luk_2:46), the pupil submitting cases and asking questions, e.g. Luk_10:25; Mat_22:36. The interpreter or crier proclaimed, loud enough for all to hear, what the rabbi whispered cf6 "in the ear" (Mat_10:27). Parables were largely used. The saying of a scribe illustrates the pleasant relations between master and scholars, "I have learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues, most from my disciples."
At 30 the presiding rabbi admitted the probationer to the chair of the scribe by laying on of hands, giving him tablets whereon to write sayings of the wise, and cf6 "the key of knowledge" (Luk_11:52) wherewith to open or shut the treasures of wisdom. He was then a chaber, or "of the fraternity", no longer of "the ignorant and unlearned" (Act_4:13), but, separated from the common herd, "people of the earth," "cursed" as not knowing the law (Joh_7:15; Joh_7:49). Fees were paid them for arbitrations (Luk_12:14), writing bills of divorce, covenants of espousals, etc. Rich widows they induced to minister to them, depriving their dependent relatives of a share (Mat_23:14; contrast Luk_8:2-3). Poverty however, and a trade, were counted no discredit to a scribe, as Paul wrought at tent making.
Their titles, rab, rabbi, rabban, formed an ascending series in dignity. Salutations, the designation father, chief seats in synagogues and feasts, the long robes with broad blue zizith or "fringes", the hems or borders, the "phylacteries" (tephillim), contrasted with Jesus' simple "inner vesture" (chitoon) and "outer garment" (himation), were all affected by them (Mat_23:5-6; Luk_14:7). Notwithstanding the self seeking and hypocrisy of most scribes, some were not far from the kingdom of God (Mar_12:32-34; Mar_12:38; Mar_12:40; contrast Mar_12:42-44); some were "sent" by the Wisdom of God, the Lord Jesus (Mat_23:34; Luk_11:49). Christ's minister must be a cf6 "scribe instructed which is unto the kingdom of heaven" (Mat_13:52); such were "Zenas the lawyer" and "Apollos mighty in the Scriptures" (Tit_3:13).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Scribes. (Hebrew, sopherim).
I. Name. ?
(1) Three meanings are connected with the verb, saphar, the root of sopherim ? (a) to write, (b) to set in order, (c) to count. The explanation of the word has been referred to each of these. The sopherim were so called because they wrote out the law, or because they classified and arranged its precepts, or because they counted with scrupulous minuteness, every elapse and letter it contained.
(2) The name of Kirjath-sepher, Jos_15:15; Jdg_1:12, may possibly connect itself with some early use of the title, and appears to point to military functions of some kind. Jdg_5:14. The men are mentioned as filling the office of scribe under David and Solomon. 2Sa_8:17; 2Sa_20:25; 1Ki_4:3. We may think of them as the king's secretaries, writing his letters, drawing up his decrees, managing his finances. Compare 2Ki_12:10. In Hezekiah's time, they transcribed old records, and became a class of students and interpreters of the law, boasting of their wisdom. Jer_8:8. After the captivity, the office became more prominent, as the exiles would be anxiou, s above all things, to preserve the sacred books, the laws, the hymns, the prophecies of the past.
II. Development of doctrine. ? Of the scribes of this period, with the exception of Ezra and Zadok, Neh_13:13, we have no record. A later age honored them collectively as the men of the Great Synagogue. Never, perhaps, was so important a work done so silently. They devoted themselves to the careful study of the text, and laid down rules for transcribing it with the most scrupulous precision. As time passed on, the "words of the scribes" were honored above the law. It was a greater crime to offend against them than against the law.
The first step was taken toward annulling the commandments of God for the sake of their own traditions. Mar_7:13. The casuistry became, at once, subtle and prurient, evading the plainest duties, tampering with conscience. Mat_15:1-6; Mat_23:16-23. We can, therefore, understand why they were constantly denounced by our Lord, along with the Pharisees. While the scribes repeated the traditions of the elders, he "spake as one having authority," "not as the scribes." Mat_7:29. While they confined their teachings to the class of scholars, he "had compassion on the multitudes." Mat_9:36. While they were to be found only in the council or in their schools, he journeyed through the cities and villages. Mat_4:23; Mat_9:35; etc. While they spoke of the kingdom of God vaguely, as a thing far off, he proclaimed that it had already come nigh to men. Mat_4:17. In our Lord's time there were two chief parties:
The disciples of Shammai, conspicuous for their fierceness, appealing to popular passions, using the sword to decide their controversies. Out of this party, grew the Zealots.
The disciples of Hillel, born B.C. 112, and who may have been one of the doctors before whom the boy Jesus came in the Temple, for he lived to be 120 years old. Hillel was a "liberal conservative, of genial character and broad range of thought, with some approximations to a higher teaching." In most of the points at issue between the two parties, Jesus must have appeared in direct antagonism to the school of Shammai, in sympathy with that of Hillel. So far, on the other hand, as the temper of the Hillel school was one of mere adaptation to the feeling of the people, cleaving to tradition, wanting in the intuition of a higher life, the teaching of Christ must have been felt as unsparingly condemning it.
III. Education and life. ? The special training for a scribe's office began, probably, about the age of thirteen. The boy who was destined by his parents to the calling of a scribe went to Jerusalem, and applied for admission in the school of some famous rabbi. After a sufficient period of training, probably at the age of thirty, the probationer was solemnly admitted to his office.
After his admission, there was a choice of a variety of functions, the chances of failure and success. He might give himself to any one of the branches of study, or combine two or more of them. He might rise to high places, become a doctor of the law, an arbitrator in family litigations, Luk_12:14, the head of a school, a member of the Sanhedrin. He might have to content himself with the humbler work of a transcriber, copying the law and the prophets for the use of synagogues, or a notary, writing out contracts of sale, covenants of espousals, bills of repudiation. The position of the more fortunate was, of course, attractive enough.
In our Lord's time, the passion for distinction was insatiable. The ascending scale of rab, rabbi, rabban, presented so many steps on the ladder of ambition. Other forms of worldliness were not far off. The salutations in the market-place, Mat_23:7, the reverential kiss offered by the scholars to their master, or by rabbis to each other; the greeting of Abba, father, Mat_23:9, the long robes with the broad blue fringe, Mat_23:5 ? all these go to make up the picture of a scribe's life.
Drawing to themselves, as they did, nearly all the energy and thought of Judaism, the close hereditary caste of the priesthood was powerless to compete with them. Unless the Priest became a scribe also, he remained in obscurity. The order, as such, became contemptible and base. For the scribes, there were the best places at feasts, the chief seats in synagogues. Mat_23:6; Luk_14:7.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


The scribes are mentioned very early in the sacred history, and many authors suppose that they were of two descriptions, the one ecclesiastical, the other civil. It is said, “Out of Zebulon come they that handle the pen of the writer,” Jdg_5:14; and the rabbins state, that the scribes were chiefly of the tribe of Simeon; but it is thought that only those of the tribe of Levi were allowed to transcribe the Holy Scriptures.
These scribes are very frequently called wise men, and counsellors; and those of them who were remarkable for writing well were held in great esteem. In the reign of David, Seraiah, 2Sa_8:17, in the reign of Hezekiah, Shebna, 2Ki_18:18, and in the reign of Josiah, Shaphan, 2Ki_22:3, are called scribes, and are ranked with the chief officers of the kingdom; and Elishama the scribe, Jer_36:12, in the reign of Jehoiakim, is mentioned among the princes. We read also of the “principal scribe of the host,” or army, Jer_52:25; and it is probable that there were scribes in other departments of the state. Previous to the Babylonian captivity, the word scribe seems to have been applied to any person who was concerned in writing, in the same manner as the word secretary is with us. The civil scribes are not mentioned in the New Testament.
It appears that the office of the ecclesiastical scribes, if this distinction be allowed, was originally confined to writing copies of the law, as their name imports; but the knowledge, thus necessarily acquired, soon led them to become instructers of the people in the written law, which, it is believed, they publicly read. Baruch was an amanuensis or scribe to Jeremiah; and Ezra is called “a ready scribe in the law of Moses, having prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments,” Ezr_7:6; Ezr_7:10; but there is no mention of the scribes being formed into a distinct body of men till after the cessation of prophecy. When, however, there were no inspired teachers in Israel, no divine oracle in the temple, the scribes presumed to interpret, expound, and comment, upon the law and the prophets in the schools and in the synagogues. Hence arose those numberless glosses, and interpretations, and opinions, which so much perplexed and perverted the text instead of explaining it; and hence arose that unauthorized maxim, which was the principal source of all the Jewish sects, that the oral or traditionary law was of Divine origin, as well as the written law of Moses. Ezra had examined the various traditions concerning the ancient and approved usages of the Jewish church, which had been in practice before the captivity, and were remembered by the chief and most aged of the elders of the people; and he had given to some of these traditionary customs and opinions the sanction of his authority. The scribes, therefore, who lived after the time of Simon the Just, in order to give weight to their various interpretations of the law, at first pretended that they also were founded upon tradition, and added them to the opinions which Ezra had established as authentic; and in process of time it came to be asserted, that when Moses was forty days on Mount Sinai, he received from God two laws, the one in writing, the other oral; that this oral law was communicated by Moses to Aaron and Joshua, and that it passed unimpaired and uncorrupted from generation to generation, by the tradition of the elders, or great national council, established in the time of Moses; and that this oral law was to be considered as supplemental and explanatory of the written law, which was represented as being in many places obscure, scanty, and defective. In some cases they were led to expound the law by the traditions, in direct opposition to its true intent and meaning; and it may be supposed that the intercourse of the Jews with the Greeks, after the death of Alexander, contributed much to increase those vain subtleties with which they had perplexed and burdened the doctrines of religion. During our Saviour's ministry, the scribes were those who made the law of Moses their particular study, and who were employed in instructing the people. Their reputed skill in the Scriptures induced Herod, Mat_2:4, to consult them concerning the time at which the Messiah was to be born. And our Saviour speaks of them as sitting in Moses's seat, Mat_23:2, which implies that they taught the law; and he foretold that he should be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, Mat_16:21, and that they should put him to death, which shows that they were men of great power and authority among the Jews. Scribes, doctors of law, and lawyers, were only different names for the same class of persons. Those who, in Luke 5, are called Pharisees and doctors of the law, are soon afterward called Pharisees and scribes; and he who, in Mat_22:35, is called a lawyer, is, in Mar_12:28, called one of the scribes. They had scholars under their care, whom they taught the knowledge of the law, and who, in their schools, sat on low stools just beneath their seats; which explains St. Paul's expression that he was “brought up at the feet of Gamaliel,”
Act_22:3. We find that our Saviour's manner of teaching was contrasted with that of those vain disputers; for it is said, when he had ended his sermon upon the mount, “the people were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes,” Mat_7:29. By the time of our Saviour, the scribes had, indeed, in a manner, laid aside the written law, having no farther regard to that than as it agreed with their traditionary expositions of it; and thus, by their additions, corruptions, and misinterpretations, they had made “the word of God of none effect through their traditions,” Mat_15:6. It may be observed, that this in a great measure accounts for the extreme blindness of the Jews with respect to their Messiah, whom they had been taught by these commentators upon the prophecies to expect as a temporal prince. Thus, when our Saviour asserts his divine nature, and appeals to “Moses and the prophets who spake of him, the people sought to slay him,” John 5; and he expresses no surprise at their intention. But when he converses with Nicodemus, John 3, who appears to have been convinced by his miracles that he was “a teacher sent from God,” when he came to Jesus by night,” anxious to obtain farther information concerning his nature and his doctrine, our Lord, after intimating the necessity of laying aside all prejudices against the spiritual nature of his kingdom, asks, “Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?” that is, knowest not that Moses and the prophets describe the Messiah as the Son of God? and he then proceeds to explain in very clear language the dignity of his person and office, and the purpose for which he came into the world, referring to the predictions of the ancient Scriptures. And Stephen, Acts vii, just before his death, addresses the multitude by an appeal to the law and the prophets, and reprobates in the most severe terms the teachers who misled the people. Our Lord, when speaking of “them of old time,” classed the “prophets, and wise men, and scribes,” together, Mat_23:34; but of the later scribes he uniformly speaks with censure, and indignation, and usually joins them with the Pharisees, to which sect they in general belonged. St. Paul asks, 1Co_1:20, “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?” with evident contempt for such as, “professing themselves wise above what was written, became fools.”
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


In the days before mechanical printing, copies of documents, letters, government records and sacred writings were handwritten by skilled secretaries known as scribes (1Ki_4:3; 2Ki_18:18; 2Ki_22:8; Jer_8:8; Jer_38:18; Jer_38:26-27). The religious importance of scribes developed during the period that followed the Jews’ return from captivity in 538 BC and the subsequent reconstruction of the Jewish nation. During the captivity there had been a renewal of interest in the law of Moses, and this increased after the return to Jerusalem. The result was a greater demand for copies of the law, and consequently greater prominence for the scribes (Neh_8:1-4; Neh_8:8; Neh_9:3).
Because scribes had developed special skills in copying the details of the law exactly, people regarded them as experts on matters of the law (Ezr_7:6; Ezr_7:10). Although the priests were supposed to be the teachers in Israel (Deu_33:10; Mal_2:7), people now went to the scribes, rather than the priests, when they had problems of the law that they wanted explained. During the centuries immediately before the Christian era, the scribes grew in power and prestige, and were the chiefly cause of the striking changes that came over the Jewish religion. They were also known as teachers of the law, lawyers and rabbis (Mat_22:35; Mat_23:2-7).
Power of the scribes
The increased interest in the law produced not only the scribes as a class of teachers, but also the synagogues as places of worship (see SYNAGOGUE). The scribes developed the structure for synagogue meetings, and controlled the synagogue teaching Mat_23:2; Mat_23:6; Luk_6:6-7; Luk_20:46). They also developed and promoted the midrash as a form of teaching. (A midrash was an explanation of the ‘deeper meaning’ of a portion of Scripture, or in some cases a practical sermon based on a portion of Scripture.)
There was, however, a great difference between Ezra’s explanations of the law and the expositions of the scribes of Jesus’ time. Over the intervening centuries, the scribes had produced a system of their own, which consisted of countless laws to surround the central law of Moses. These new laws may have grown out of legal cases that the scribes had judged or traditions that had been handed down. The scribes then forced the Jewish people to obey these laws, till the whole lawkeeping system became a heavy burden (Mat_15:1-9; Mat_23:2-4; see TRADITION).
As leaders in the synagogue and teachers of the people, the scribes enjoyed a respected status in the Jewish community (Mat_23:6-7). Some were members of the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish Council (Mat_26:57; see SANHEDRIN). In addition to controlling the synagogues, the scribes taught in the temple and established schools for the training of their disciples (Luk_2:46; Act_22:3). They then sent these disciples to spread their teaching, till it became the chief force in the religious life of Israel (Mat_23:15).
Most of the scribes belonged to the party of the Pharisees (one of two major groups within Judaism; see PHARISEES; SADDUCEES), and are often linked with them in the biblical narratives (Mat_5:20; Mat_12:38; Mat_15:1; Mat_23:2; Act_5:34; Act_22:3). They opposed Jesus throughout his ministry, helped to crucify him, and later persecuted his followers (Mat_16:21; Mat_21:15; Mat_26:57; Act_4:5-7; Act_6:12).
Later influences
With the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Jewish temple rituals ceased; but the influence of the scribes lived on. By AD 200, the scribes (now better known as rabbis) had put into writing the oral traditions that earlier scribes had built up around the law. This document was called the Mishnah.
After the completion of the Mishnah, the rabbis added to it their own commentary. This commentary was put into writing between AD 400 and 500, and was known as the Gemara. The Mishnah and the Gemara together made up the Talmud, which has remained the authoritative law for orthodox Jews ever since.
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.


skrı̄bz: The existence of law leads necessarily to a profession whose business is the study and knowledge of the law; at any rate, if the law is extensive and complicated. At the time of Ezra and probably for some time after, this was chiefly the business of the priests. Ezra was both priest and scholar (ספר, ṣōphēr). It was chiefly in the interest of the priestly cult that the most important part of the Pentateuch was written. The priests were therefore also in the first instance the scholars and the guardians of the Law; but in the course of time this was changed. The more highly esteemed the Law became in the eyes of the people, the more its study and interpretation became a lifework by itself, and thus there developed a class of scholars who, though not priests, devoted themselves assiduously to the Law. These became known as the scribes, that is, the professional students of the Law. During the Hellenistic period, the priests, especially those of the upper class, became tainted with the Hellenism of the age and frequently turned their attention to paganistic culture, thus neglecting the Law of their fathers more or less and arousing the scribes to opposition. Thus, the scribes and not the priests were now the zealous defenders of the Law, and hence, were the true teachers of the people. At the time of Christ, this distinction was complete. The scribes formed a solid profession which held undisputed sway over the thought of the people. In the New Testament they are usually called (γραμματεῖς, grammateı́s), i.e. ?students of the Scriptures,? ?scholars,? corresponding to the Hebrew (ספרים, ṣōpherı̄m) = homines literati, those who make a profession of literary studies, which, in this case, of course, meant chiefly the Law. Besides this general designation, we also find the specific word (νομικοί, nomikoı́), i.e. ?students of the Law,? ?lawyers? (Mat_22:35; Luk_7:30; Luk_10:25; Luk_11:45, Luk_11:52; Luk_14:3); and in so far as they not only know the Law but also teach it they are called (νομοδάσκαλοι, nomodidáskaloi), ?doctors of the Law? (Luk_5:17; Act_5:34).
The extraordinary honors bestowed on these scholars on the part of the people are expressed in their honorary titles. Most common was the appellative ?rabbi? = ?my lord? (Mat_23:7 and otherwise). This word of polite address gradually became a title. The word ?rabboni? (Mar_10:51; Joh_20:16) is an extensive form, and was employed by the disciples to give expression to their veneration of Christ. In the Greek New Testament ?rabbi? is translated as (κύριε, kúrie) (Mat_8:2, Mat_8:6, Mat_8:8, Mat_8:21, Mat_8:25 and otherwise), or (διδάσκαλε, didáskale) (Mat_8:19 and otherwise), in Luke by (ἐπιστάτα, epistáta) (Luk_5:5; Luk_8:24, Luk_8:45; Luk_9:33, Luk_9:19; Luk_17:13). Besides these, we find (πατήρ, patḗr), ?father,? and (καθηγήτης, kathēgḗtēs), ?teacher? (Mat_23:9 f).
From their students the rabbis demanded honors even surpassing those bestowed on parents. ?Let the honor of thy friend border on the honor of thy teacher, and the honor of thy teacher on the fear of God? ('Ābhōth 4 12). ?The honor of thy teacher must surpass the honor bestowed on thy father; for son and father are both in duty bound to honor the teacher? (Kerı̄thōth 6 9). Everywhere the rabbis demanded the position of first rank (Mat_23:6 f; Mar_12:38 f; Luk_11:43; Luk_20:46). Their dress equaled that of the nobility. They wore (στολαί, stolaı́), ?tunics,? and these were the mark of the upper class.
Since the scribes were lawyers (see LAWYER), much of their time was occupied in teaching and in judicial functions, and both these activities must be pursued gratuitously. Rabbi Zadok said: ?Make the knowledge of the Law neither a crown in which to glory nor a spade with which to dig.? Hillel used to say: ?He who employs the crown (of the Law) for external purposes shall dwindle.? That the judge should not receive presents or bribes was written in the Law (Exo_23:8; Deu_16:19); hence, the Mishna said: ?If anyone accept pay for rendering judgment, his judgment is null and void.? The rabbis were therefore obliged to make their living by other means. Some undoubtedly had inherited wealth; others pursued a handicraft besides their study of the Law. Rabbi Gamaliel II emphatically advised the pursuit of a business in addition to the pursuit of the Law. It is well known that the apostle Paul kept up his handicraft even after he had become a preacher of the gospel (Act_18:3; Act_20:34; 1Co_4:12; 1Co_9:6; 2Co_11:7; 1Th_2:9; 2Th_3:8), and the same is reported of many rabbis. But in every instance the pursuit of the Law is represented as the worthier, and warning is given not to overestimate the value of the ordinary avocation. It was a saying of Hillel: ?He that devotes himself to trade will not become wise.? The principle of gratuity was probably carried out in practice only in connection with the judicial activity of the scribes; hardly in connection with their work as teachers. Even the Gospels, in spite of the admonition that the disciples should give without pay because they had received without pay (Mat_10:8), nevertheless also state that the workman is worthy of his hire (Mat_10:10; Luk_10:7); and Paul (1Co_9:14) states it as his just due that he receive his livelihood from those to whom he preaches the gospel, even though he makes use of this right only in exceptional cases (1 Cor 9:3-18; 2Co_11:8, 2Co_11:9; Gal_6:6; Phi_4:10, Phi_4:18). Since this appears to have been the thought of the times, we are undoubtedly justified in assuming that the Jewish teachers of the Law also demanded pay for their services. Indeed, the admonitions above referred to, not to make instruction in the Law the object of self-interest, lead to the conclusion that gratuity was not the rule; and in Christ's philippics against the scribes and Pharisees He makes special mention of their greed (Mar_12:40; Luk_16:14; Luk_20:47). Hence, even though they ostensibly gave instruction in the Law gratuitously, they must have practiced methods by which they indirectly secured their fees.
Naturally the place of chief influence for the scribes up to the year 70 AD was Judea. But not only there were they to be found. Wherever the zeal for the law of the fathers was a perceptible force, they were indispensable; hence, we find them also in Galilee (Luk_5:17) and in the Diaspora. In the Jewish epitaphs in Rome, dating from the latter days of the empire, grammateis are frequently mentioned; and the Babylonian scribes of the 5th and 6th centuries were the authors of the most monumental work of rabbinical Judaism - the Talmud.
Since the separation of the Pharisaic and the Sadducean tendencies in Judaism, the scribes generally belonged to the Pharisaic class; for this latter is none other than the party which recognized the interpretations or ?traditions? which the scribes in the course of time had developed out of the body of the written Law and enforced upon the people as the binding rule of life. Since, however, ?scribes? are merely ?students of the Law,? there must also have been scribes of the Sadducee type; for it is not to be imagined that this party, which recognized only the written Law as binding, should not have had some opposing students in the other class. Indeed, various passages of the New Testament which speak of the ?scribes of the Pharisees? (Mar_2:16; Luk_5:30; Act_23:9) indicate that there were also ?scribes of the Sadducees.?
Under the reign and leadership of the scribes, it became the ambition of every Israelite to know more or less of the Law. The aim of education in family, school and synagogue was to make the entire people a people of the Law. Even the common laborer should know what was written in the Law; and not only know it, but also do it. His entire life should be governed according to the norm of the Law, and, on the whole, this purpose was realized in a high degree. Josephus avers: ?Even though we be robbed of our riches and our cities and our other goods, the Law remains our possession forever. And no Jew can be so far removed from the and of his fathers nor will he fear a hostile commander to such a degree that he would not fear his Law more than his commander.? So loyal were the majority of the Jews toward their Law that they would gladly endure the tortures of the rack and even death for it. This frame of mind was due almost wholly to the systematic and persistent instruction of the scribes.
The motive underlying this enthusiasm for the Law was the belief in divine retribution in the strictest judicial sense. The prophetic idea of a covenant which God had made with His select people was interpreted purely in the judicial sense. The covenant was a contract through which both parties were mutually bound. The people are bound to observe the divine Law literally and conscientiously; and, in return for this, God is in duty bound to render the promised reward in proportion to the services rendered. This applies to the people as a whole as well as to the individual. Services and reward must always stand in mutual relation to each other. He who renders great services may expect from the justice of God that he will receive great returns as his portion, while, on the other hand, every transgression also must be followed by its corresponding punishment.
The results corresponded to the motives. Just as the motives in the main were superficial, so the results were an exceedingly shallow view of religious and moral life. Religion was reduced to legal formalism. All religious and moral life was dragged down to the level of law, and this must necessarily lead to the following results: (1) The individual is governed by a norm, the application of which could have only evil results when applied in this realm. Law has the purpose of regulating the relations of men to each other according to certain standards. Its object is not the individual, but only the body of society. In the law, the individual must find the proper rule for his conduct toward society as an organism. This is a matter of obligation and of government on the part of society. But religion is not a matter of government; where it is found, it is a matter of freedom, of choice, and of conduct. (2) By reducing the practice of religion to the form of law, all acts are placed on a paragraph with each other. The motives are no longer taken into consideration, but only the deed itself. (3) From this it follows that the highest ethical attainment was the formal satisfaction of the Law, which naturally led to finical literalism. (4) Finally, moral life must, under such circumstances, lose its unity and be split up into manifold precepts and duties. Law always affords opportunity for casuistry, and it was the development of this in the guidance of the Jewish religious life through the ?precepts of the elders? which called forth Christ's repeated denunciation of the work of the scribes.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Scribes, a learned body of men, otherwise denominated lawyers, whose influence with the Jewish nation was very great at the time when our Savior appeared.
There is every probability that they must have taken their rise contemporaneously with the commencement of the Mosaic polity. They were both a learned and a sacred caste. They had the care of the law; it was their duty to make transcripts of it; they also expounded its difficulties, and taught its doctrines, and so performed several functions which are now distributed among different professions, being keepers of the records, consulting lawyers, authorized expounders of holy writ, and, finally, schoolmasters?thus blending together in one character the several elements of intellectual, moral, social, and religious influence.
In the New Testament the scribes are found as a body of high state functionaries, who, in conjunction with the Pharisees and the high-priests, constituted the Sanhedrim, and united all the resources of their power and learning in order to entrap and destroy the Savior of mankind. The array of influence thus brought against 'the carpenter's son' was very great. That influence comprised, besides the supreme power of the state, the first legal functionaries, who watched Jesus closely in order to detect him in some breach of the law; the recognized expositors of duty, who lost no opportunity to take exception to his utterances, to blame his conduct, and misrepresent his morals; also the acutest intellects of the nation, who eagerly sought to entangle him in the web of their sophistries, or to confound him by their artful questions. Yet even all these malign influences failed. Jesus was triumphant in argument; he failed only when force interposed its revengeful arm.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.





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