Scribes: Anciently held various important offices in the public affairs of the
nation. The Hebrew word so rendered (sopher) is first used to
designate the holder of some military office
(Judges 5:14) A.V., "pen of
the writer;" R.V., "the marshal's staff;" marg., "the staff of the
scribe"). The scribes acted as secretaries of state, whose business
it was to prepare and issue decrees in the name of the king
(2 Samuel 8:17)
(2 Samuel 20:25; 1 Chronicles 18:16; 24:6; 1 Kings 4:3; 2 Kings 12:9-11; 18:18-37) etc. They
discharged various other important public duties as men of high
authority and influence in the affairs of state. There was also a
subordinate class of scribes, most of whom were Levites. They were
engaged in various ways as writers. Such, for example, was Baruch,
who "wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord"
(Jeremiah 36:4,32) In later times, after the Captivity, when the nation
lost its independence, the scribes turned their attention to the law,
gaining for themselves distinction by their intimate acquaintance with
its contents. On them devolved the duty of multiplying copies of the
law and of teaching it to others
(Ezra 7:6,10-12; Nehemiah 8:1,4,9,13) It
is evident that in New Testament times the scribes belonged to the
sect of the Pharisees, who supplemented the ancient written law by
their traditions
(Matthew 23:1)ff thereby obscuring it and rendering
it of none effect. The titles "scribes" and "lawyers" (q.v.) are in
the Gospels interchangeable
(Matthew 22:35; Mark 12:28; Luke 20:39) etc. They
were in the time of our Lord the public teachers of the people, and
frequently came into collision with him. They afterwards showed
themselves greatly hostile to the apostles
(Acts 4:5; 6:12) Some of
the scribes, however, were men of a different spirit, and showed
themselves friendly to the gospel and its preachers. Thus Gamaliel
advised the Sanhedrin, when the apostles were before them charged with
"teaching in this name," to "refrain from these men and let them
alone"
(Acts 5:34-39) comp.
(Acts 23:9)
