Scribe

SCRIBE, Scriba; in Hebrew, Sopher¹; in Greek, Grammateus. The Word Scribe is very common in Scripture, and has several Significations. I. A Clerk, Writer, or Secretary. This was a very considerable Employment in the Court of the Kings of Judah, in which the Scripture often mentions the Secretaries, as 2 Samuel viii. 17. 2 Samuel xx. 25. 1 Chron. xxiv. 6. 1 Kings iv. 3.the first Officers of the Crown. Seraiah was Scribe or Secretary to King David. Shevah and Shemaiah exercised the same Office under the same Prince. In Solomon’s time we find Elihoreph and Ahiah 2 Kings xix. 2. 2 Kings xxxii. 8, 9, 10.Secretaries to the King: Shebna under Hezekiah; and Shaphan under Josiah. As there were but few in those Times that could write well, the Employment of a Scribe or Writer was very considerable.

II. A Scribe, is put for a Commissary or Muster-master of an Army, who makes the Review of the Troops, keeps the List or Roll, and calls them over. It is said, for Example, that in the War of Barak against Sisera, Out of Machir came down Governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the Pen of the Writer. Under the Reign of Uzziah King of Judah there is found Jeil the Scribe, who 2 Chron. xxvi. 11.had under his Hand the King’s Armies. Jeremiah speaks of a Scribe that was Prince or Chief of the Soldiers, and who made the newlisted Soldiers perform their Exercise: Scribam principem militum, qui probabat tirones. The Hebrew has it, The Scribe, Jer. lii. 25. 2 Kings xxv. 19.Prince of the Army, who made the People of the Country go to War. In the Books of Maccabees, Judas gives Orders to the Scribes, to stand upon the Banks of the Brook that the Army was to pass over, and bids 1 Macc. v. 42.them let no one remain beyond the Water, but cause them all to pass over to the War.

III. Scribe, is put for an able and skilful Man, a Doctor of the Law, a Man of Learning, that understands Affairs. Jonathan, David’s Uncle by the Father’s side, was a 1 Chron. xxvii. 32.Counsellor, a Wise-man, and a Scribe. Baruch the Disciple and Secretary of Jeremiah, is also call’d a Scribe; so is Gemariah the Son of Shaphan; and Jonathan, who lived under Jer. xxxvi. 10, 12, 20, 26. Ecclus. x. 5.the Reign of Josiah. Jesus the Son of Sirach says, In the Hand of God is the Prosperity of Man, and upon the Person of the Scribe shall he lay his Honour. ‘Tis known what Commendation the Scripture gives to Ezra, who is celebrated as a skilful Scribe in the Law of Ezra vii. 6.his God; He was a ready Scribe in the Law of Moses. The Scribes of the People, which are frequently mention’d in the Gospel, were publick Writers, and profess’d Doctors of the Law, which they read and explain’d to the People.

Vid. Casaubon. Exercit. in Baron. exercit. 1. n. 8. Judg. v. 14.Some place the Original of Scribes under Moses; but their Name does not appear ‘till under the Judges. Others think that David first instituted them, when he established the several Classes of the Priests and Levites. Epiphanius places their Original at the Time 1 Chron. xxiv, xxvi. Acts xxiii. 9.when the Sect of the Sadducees began. Mention is made in the Acts, of Scribes that were of the Party of the Pharisees; which has made some believe, that all the Scribes were of the Sect of the Pharisees. But they did not espouse any particular Sect, but there were some of all Sects.

Scribes, and Doctors of the Law, in Scripture-phrase, mean the same thing. And he that in St. Matthew xxii. 35. is call’d a Doctor of the Law, in St. Mark xii. 28. is named a Scribe, or one of the Scribes. And as the whole Knowledge of the Jews, at that time, chiefly consisted in Pharisaical Traditions, and in the Use that was made of ‘em to explain the Scriptures; the greatest Number of the Doctors of the Law, or of the Scribes, were Pharisees; and we almost always find them join’d together in Scripture. Each of ‘em valu’d themselves upon their Knowledge of the Law, upon their studying and teaching it: They had the Key of Mat. xxii. 52. Mat. xxiii. 2.Knowledge, and sat in Moses’s Chair. Epiphanius, and the Author of the Recognitions, imputed to St. Clement, reckon the Scribes among the Sects of the Jews; but it is certain, they made no Sect by themselves; they were only distinguish’d by their Study of the Law.

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