In the text, through such men [is] this promulgation announced to the people — [men] whom Joshua also commanded, and the people themselves — and by our Interpreter they are called “Princes of the people”; by the 70, γραμματεῖς τοῦ λαοῦ [grammateis tou laou, “scribes of the people”]. But [it is] to be known [that] in the Hebrew they are called שֹׁטְרִים [shoterim] — which, although Pagninus in the Thesaurus admonishes is written with a śin here, yet I always find [it] without that [i.e. with shin]. But who and of what sort those were, there is various discussion, which the variation of the Greek and Latin interpreters also kindles. For the Septuagint sometimes render them γραμματεῖς [grammateis, “scribes”], as here, and below ch. 3 & ch. 23:2, ch. 24:1, Exod. 5:5, 6, 10, Deut. 20:5 & 9, and nearly [so] [1] Chron. 26:29 — but again clearly there ch. 27:1. Sometimes γραμματοεισαγωγεῖς [grammatoeisagōgeis, “scribe-introducers”], Deut. 1:5 & ch. 16:18, ch. 29:10. And the same word — since in the Hebrew nothing corresponds to it — is placed in certain Greek books: Exod. 18, according to the Greek notations there, and [in] St. Augustine on Exod. q. 69 (who nonetheless reads diversely γραμμάτων εἰσαγωγεῖς [grammatōn eisagōgeis]). Sometimes κριταὶ [kritai, “judges”], 2 Chron. 19:11; sometimes truly ἀνασκάζοντας [anaskazontas], Prov. 6:6, where by Aquila and Theodotion they are called ἐκβιασταὶ [ekbiastai, “compellers”], [and] by that same [author] sometimes ἐκδικηταὶ [ekdikētai, “avengers/exactors”], as Masius notes. But our Interpreter calls them: “those who preside over works” [Exod. 5:14], “prefects” [there v. 6, 10; [1] Chron. 27:1], “princes of the people” [here], “heralds” [below ch. 3], “leaders” [Deut. 20:5 & 9], “Masters” [Josh. 23:2, ch. 24:1, Deut. 16:18], “who teach individuals” [Deut. 1:15, [1] Chron. 26:29], “Preceptors” [Prov. 6:6], “teachers” [Deut. 29:10, 2 Chron. 26:11]. These, therefore, St. Augustine (q. cited, & bk. 18 City [of God] ch. 39) judged to be “schoolmasters,” or as it were letter-teachers, alphabet-teachers. For from the name of those letters, he says, hence is understood [that] already before the law the Hebrews had letters — “which,” he says, “when they began to be, I know not whether it can be traced.” Pagninus in the Thesaurus once and again calls [them] “Praetors,” and adds (on the Jewish Polity ch. 5) [that] Bonaventura Cornelius [held] they were [those] “whom the Gauls call Prévôts.” Sigonius (bk. 7 On the Hebrew Republic ch. 7) [held them] to have been “greater than the Judges themselves,” and “prefects, who introduce the causes to them [the judges]” —
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just as today, in the city of the Venetians, [there are] “Advocates of the community”; of old, among the Athenians, they were the hieromnēmones [ἱερομνήμονες], about whom [writes] the same Sigonius, bk. 4 On the Athenian Republic, last ch. Lipomanus (Exod. 5) calls [them] “notaries and actuaries.” Masius, in this place, [calls them] “administrators of the magistrates, monitors, statores, heralds, and apparitors.” Oleaster (Exod. 18 & Deut. 1) [calls them] “lesser Judges.” For, as R. Abraham says: “the Judge judged, but these executed what was judged, and compelled the parties”; whence to them “scourges and thongs” [flagra & lora], as to the Roman lictors, R. Solomon [Rashi] gives. “But how rightly,” says Masius, “he himself shall see.” I certainly indeed scarcely think this can be made out from the sacred letters. Yet [that they had] the highest power over them [the people] of compelling — and therefore [that] arms and scourges were theirs — do not the interpreters (by whom we heard them called ἀνασκάζοντας, ἐκδικηταὶ, καὶ ἐκβιασταὶ [anaskazontas, ekdikētai, kai ekbiastai]) sufficiently signify to us? And this is a most widespread opinion among the Hebrews, which bk. 14 [of the] Halakhah ch. 1 the very Rambam [Maimonides] pursues, saying (fol. 227b) [that] among the Israelites there was a double council, which was called Sanhedrin — namely a great and a small; and in that [great one] there were 71 [shown “27”] Judges, in this [small one] 24. Besides the judges, [he says that] there were also in the Council these our shoterim, who stood before their face, and were בעלי מקל ורצועה [ba’alei maqqel ve-retzu’ah], that is, “men of the staff and the thong of the Lord”: so that they seemed to have been, not [like] our satellites [guards], whom in German we call Stadtknecht, “ministers of the city,” but men of great authority and power — and indeed, as it were, rhabdouchoi [ῥαβδοῦχοι, “rod-bearers”] — although at Acts 16:35 by our interpreter [they are] rendered “lictors,” by others “apparitors,” and likewise v. 38: just as, namely, at the Colony of Agrippina [Cologne] they are [those] who are called “Masters of the violences.” Yet [they were] inferior to the judges themselves, by whom they had to stand, and whose sentences only they committed to execution. But because — as, in that same question, St. Augustine said — “it is not easily understood of what sort they were,” I will say briefly what seems [right].
1. Before the law was given, and the Republic of the Israelites constituted by Moses, the shoterim already were, Exod. 5. 2. Their functions were various, and therefore [they were] affected [designated] by such various names by the Interpreters — because these [functions] they arrogated to themselves. For because they were armed and compelled, therefore from that very force [they were called] ἐκβιασταὶ and ἀνασκάζοντες [ekbiastai and anaskazontes]. Because they were present at judgments, and gave effect to what was judged, and so in a certain manner judged, therefore they are κριταὶ [kritai]; and perhaps by that Chaldee name which ours renders “Presidents” (Isa. 1 [ch. 7] v. 25) is signified [the thing] which otherwise “Judges” signifies — but already that name of “Judges” preceded [them]. — Because they were present to the Judges, therefore “constituted for the Judges” they are said (Deut. 1) — not as proposed to [set over] them, as Sigonius thought, but as helpers or administrators. Because they were greater [in authority] than the people, and had something of power over it, therefore “princes of the people” and “prefects” they are called. Because they announced to the people the edicts of the Judges and Princes, therefore also they were “heralds.” But why [they are called] γραμματεῖς and γραμματοεισαγωγεῖς [grammateis and grammatoeisagōgeis], [it] is difficult to say, because this name — says there St. Augustine — “in no usage do we have, either of offices or of masteries [teaching-posts].” But γράμματα [grammata, “letters”] can be taken in fourfold [manner]. 1. So that they be the very elements [rudiments] of reading, and as from the Greeks themselves—
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—[the very elements of reading, and] as from the Greeks themselves the Rabbis too everywhere name [it], “alphabet”; or certainly it is the knowledge of letters, that is, Grammar. And thus, as [was] said above, “Grammato-isagogoi” [γραμματοεισαγωγοὺς] St. Augustine understood — because “they introduce into letters” (as he says in that question), or because “they lead in [induce] the letters themselves,” or “they introduce [them] in a certain manner into the hearts of the learners,” or rather “into those very [persons] whom they teach,” as in the cited bk. of the City [of God] the same holy Father speaks. But in a matter so noted and usual, why would the Septuagint use a word so new and unusual? Why would they despise so many other [words] which were in readiness — as “of the Grammarians,” “of the Grammatists,” “Grammatodidascali” [γραμματοδιδασκάλους], and the like? And did we rightly call orators “Rhetors, introducers” [ῥήτορας εἰσαγωγεῖς], [and] philosophers σοφίας εἰσαγωγεῖς [sophias eisagōgeis, “introducers of wisdom”]? 2. So that they be “letters” [epistles], and then their function would be [that] which is of the “Introducers”: to introduce, namely, letters sent from elsewhere; or certainly [the function] which today is of the secretaries, or of those who are [engaged] in the written petitions of suppliants. Or truly [that] they should do [it] which — in the letters of Princes and Magistrates — the tabellarii [letter-carriers], veredarii [couriers], [and] feciales [heralds] [do], just as St. Paul, who carried the letters of the rulers to the Damascene synagogue. An honorable function, but one which in the Republic — and in those times — was little necessary. For there was almost nothing, or certainly very little, of business with foreign nations; and did the letters of the Jews (if they were traveling abroad) everywhere require a proper Magistrate? And what letters, or whence, did they receive? or whither did they send [them] — since they were in Egypt, [and] since into Canaan they first set foot? And yet these [officers], as [is] clear, already then were. There accedes [the fact] that badly by the Latin [interpreter] they are so often rendered “Masters, doctors, preceptors” — unless perhaps because, on the arrival of letters of this kind, the Judges taught, or [taught] about their letters, [to] the people. 3. So that they be “letters” or judicial tablets, by which accusations, defenses, petitions, testimonies, bonds [syngraphae], and the like which are wont to be brought into judgment might be contained. Thus, in the place indicated, Sigonius. For among the Athenians there were magistrates whom they called εἰσαγωγεῖς τῶν γραφῶν [eisagōgeis tōn graphōn, “introducers of the writs”], as [those things] which they call γραφὰς [graphas] the 70 rendered γράμματα [grammata]; and under the end of bk. 1 On the Civil War, Caesar uses the same locution, saying: “Whatever controversies they had among themselves as soldiers, of their own accord they introduced [them] to Caesar.” And therefore, by that reasoning, he who desired to bring a suit against someone led [his] adversary to some one of these Princes, and in a certain manner snatched [him] into court; who — if he had taken up the suit or the case — brought the matter to judgment. But the Judges, the cause being known, either absolved the defendant or condemned [him], and delivered the condemned to the exactor [executioner], as [it is] Luke 12:58. And that manner [of it] could indeed be, but it was not necessary — [namely] that they [the shoterim] were therefore set over the Judges — just as neither the Afranian nor the Caesarian soldiers, who introduced their causes to Caesar, were greater [in rank] than Caesar; but it is enough [that] they assisted these [judges] with work, hand, and force, and ministered [to them]. As in the cited chapter of St. Luke, “the Prince,” to whom those about to litigate go — be it the Roman (who was then Praeses [governor] in Judaea), or rather he who was prince and head of the Synedrium; but “the exactor” truly, as [it is] in the Greek, πράκτωρ [praktōr] — to whom the Judges owed [gave over] the defendant — let it be some one of these shoterim, or their very order, which compelled the condemned to be dealt with [punished] after the manner of the Judges’ sentence, as before [was] shown. 4. γράμματα [grammata] [being] the sacred letters themselves, and the divine laws. And of these judicial
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matters those [shoterim] were the more skilled, thinks Cornelius — so that, in case of a slip, the laws of God, and the things known, and the customs and histories of the people, if to the Judges perchance they had less occurred [come to mind], they might suggest, and introduce [them] into the tribunals. And this manner very much makes probable [the fact of] the appellation “of the scribes” [τῶν γραμματέων], and the so-frequent repetition [of the names] “of Masters, Doctors, and Preceptors.” But before the Mosaic law, what sacred letters were among the Israelites in Egypt? What institutes? What annals? That there were nonetheless some writings of that kind, the book of Enoch shows — about which [is spoken] in the epistle of St. Jude — and the “book of the wars of the Lord,” Num. 21:14. But if then some could be γραμματεῖς [grammateis], how much more afterwards, when the law was carried [given], and so many ceremonies, rites, and customs [were] instituted, so many books written and handed from hand to hand? Wherefore, not from ambition (as Masius suspects), but from the reason of their office, those professed the science of sacred matters. And either this fourth, or the third exposition [is] to be held. But this [one] I would prefer — especially since even these the old book of the Hebrews Siphre says to have been “Levites.” And this agrees well enough, not only with those [things] which 2 Chron. 34:13 are written, but also [with those] which even Josephus, teaching bk. 4 ch. 8, [says: that] in any [town] magistracy seven men ought to bear [office], and to each of these it behooved [there] to be two administering Levites; and again bk. 2 against Apion, [that] there were priests ἐπόπτας πάντων, δικαστὰς ἀμφισβητουμένων, κολαστὰς κατακεκριμένων [epoptas pantōn, dikastas amphisbētoumenōn, kolastas katakekrimenōn], that is, “overseers of all [things], judges of things disputed, punishers of the condemned.” Nor does it repugn [contradict] [that] they were set over the statores and the executions — since in war they contended with arms, as from the books of the Maccabees is plain — and [that] very many of them, [being] most grave [men], from the calf-worshippers [at the golden calf], striking some thousands of them with the sword, took punishment [i.e. executed them], Exod. 32:28; and [that] the standard-bearer, as it were, of a most just vindication of this kind offered himself in that cause — Phinehas — when the Jew burning with lust, and the Midianite harlot, he transfixed with a dagger [pugio], Num. 25:8.