SCRIBES (skribz). (Heb. saw - far?), a learned body of men, otherwise denominated lawyers, whose influence with the Jewish nation was very great at the time when our Savior ap peared.
There is every probability that this learned class must have taken its rise contemporaneously with the commencement of the Mosaic polity. They certainly existed in the days of Ezra, who was "a ready scribe in the law of Moses" (Ezra vim :6; viii :2, 4, 6).
(1) Duties. They had the care of the law ; it was their duty to make transcripts of it • they also expounded its difficulties, and taught its doc trines, and so performed several functions which arc 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. It scarcely needs to be added that their power was very great.
(2) Position and Character. 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 thcir power and learning in order to entrap and destroy the Savior of mankind.
(3) Attitude Toward Christ. The passages are so numerous as not to need citation. It may be of more service to draw the reader's attention to the great array of influence thus brought to bear against 'the carpenter's son.' That influ
ence 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 mis represent his morals; also the acutest intellects of the nation, who eagerly sought to entangle him in the web of their sophistries, or to con found him by their artful questions. Yet even all these malign influences failed. Jesus was tri umphant in argument ; he failed only when force interposed its revengeful arm.
(4) Jewish Schoolmasters. It is clear that the scribes were the Jewish schoolmasters as well as lawyers. In this character they appear in the Talmud. (See SctiooL.) In the outer courts of the Temple were many chambers, in which they sat on elevated platforms to give their les sons to their pupils, who sat on a lower eleva tion, and so at their feet. Of these dignified in structors Gamaliel was one (Acts v :34) ; and before these learned doctors was Jesus found when only twelve years old, hearing and asking questions after the manner in which instruction was communicated in these class-rooms (Luke ii : 46; Acts xxii:3; Lightfoot, flora. Ifebraicer, pp. 741-3; Pirke A both,v.23). J. R. B.