SCRIBE (lIeb, Si r; Gr. Grammatetm, iVornoclidaskaloO, amone. the Jews, originally a kind of military officer, whose business appears to have been tile recruiting and organ of troops, the levying of water-taxes, and the like. At a later period, especially at the time of Christ, it had come to designate a learned man, a doctor of the law. Christ himself recognizes theist as a legal authority (Manta xxiii. 2); they were the preservers of traditions, and formed a kind of police in the temple and synagogues, together with the high-priests; and the people reverenced them. or were expected to reverence them, in an eminent degree. They were to be found all over the country of Palestine, and occupied the rank and profession of both lawyers and theologians. Their public field of action was thus threefold: they were either assessors of the sanfiedrim, or public teachers, or administrators and lawyers. Many of these teachers had special
class-rooms somewhere iu the temple of Jerusalem. where the pupils destined to the calling of a Rabbi sat at their feet. The calling of a scribe being gratuitous, it was incumbent upon every one of them to learn and exercise some trade. Those scribes who were not eminent enough to rise to the higher branches of their profession, to enter the sanhedrim, to be practical lawyers, or to lhold schools of their own, occupied them selves in copying the book of the law or the prophets, in writing phylacteries, con tracts, letters of divorce, and the like. Their social position was naturally in accord ance with their talents and their importance. The apostles, not learned enough. for the most part, to be scribes, :irepromised to become "scribes" of the kingdom of God, etc.
See PHARISEES, IIALACIIA, MIDRASH, TALMUD.