SCRIBE (Heb. sôphêr, pl. sôphêrim; Gr. γραμματεύς). — I. In the sense of “scribe, copyist, secretary,” there were scribes in Israel from the time of David and throughout the royal period (2 Sam 8:17; etc.); there was also a military official of this name (2 Kgs 25:19; Jer 52:25). But the “scribes” par excellence in the Bible are the members of one of the leading classes of Judaism, which, alongside and in partial substitution of the priesthood and prophecy, formed during the exile and thereafter increasingly gained representation and authority under new circumstances. Closely related to them were the “decisors,” literally “understanders” (mêbhîmîm): the scribes were the copyists who attended to the transcription of the Law and thus became its learned custodians; the mêbhîmîm were the jurists who decided in cases of doubt. Both offices could be held by a priest or a prophet, as in the case of Ezra (Ezra 7:11) and, earlier, Ezekiel.
To the scribes is owed the activity that, during the exile, led to the collection and organization of Israel’s religious-literary heritage, from which the canonized Bible emerged as a whole; this procured them a prominent place in the esteem of the people, and “scribe” became an authoritative title like that of priest and prophet, and even more so later, when prophecy disappeared and the priesthood declined into a government functionary.
The case of Ezra, “a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given” (Ezra 7:6), officially recognized as such by the Persian authorities (ibid., 7:12, 21, etc.), best exemplifies the new function from which arose the new authority in Israel: Ezra comes to Jerusalem at the invitation of Nehemiah, bringing the “Law,” a copy of the sacred book that he and the other scribes had prepared, and it is solemnly promulgated as the foundation of the reborn nation (Ezra 7:1–26; Neh 8:1–8).
A sign of the ever-growing credit and authority enjoyed by the scribes appears in the increasing number of them who entered the Sanhedrin, eventually becoming the predominant element already in the time of the Hasmoneans. They thus acquired political importance, yet without ever failing in their proper function as scholars of the Law—in which capacity they appear in the New Testament, where they are called “scribes” (γραμματεῖς), “experts in the Law” (γραμματοῦ), and “teachers of the Law” (γραμμαδάσκαλοι). By now they were not merely to give opinions or make decisions on how to observe the Law, but also to know and authoritatively proclaim—“from the seat of Moses” (Matt 23:2)—the opinions and decisions previously given, “the traditions of the elders” (ibid., 15:2; Mark 7:3), which they prized highly and whose observance they imposed on consciences.
The New Testament paints a vivid picture of their activities in the porticoes of the Temple (Luke 2:46), in the synagogues (cf. Acts 18:4), and in schools (ibid., 22:3). Their mention recurs especially in connection with controversies with Jesus or the reproaches he directs at them: with their vast array of petty prescriptions, unbearable burdens, they obscured what is essential in the Law itself (Matt 15:1; Luke 11:46)—justice and charity (Matt 23:23; Luke 11:42). Forgetful of the primordial and essential duties of religion, they lived in the delusion of an outward justice that they made appear as true justice; hence they were hypocrites and iniquitous, vain, avaricious, rapacious and impure, deceivers who strained out the gnat and swallowed the camel (Matt 23:13–39).
Their hostility toward Jesus, at first as “a stumbling block” because of his familiarity with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 5:30; 15:2), then as blind envy of his miracles and jealousy of his popularity (Matt 22:15), grew into ever more determined hatred: the scribes accused him, incited the crowd against him, and prepared the individual moments of his Passion. Yet among them there were not only the wicked, as Jesus acknowledges when instructing the one who asked to follow him (Matt 8:19–20) and when telling another that he was not far from the kingdom of God (Mark 12:28–34). — Giovanni Rinaldi
II. Among the Romans, the same name designated professional writers, free men divided into various categories according to their duties. They were mostly secretaries of magistrates and officials of Rome and the provinces, some attached to the administration of the state treasury (aerarium) and the drafting of copies of documents, others charged with keeping civil registers. The same name was given also to the private secretaries of the emperors, called amanuenses (a manu) to distinguish them from the official secretaries known as ab epistulis, and, in the Middle Ages, to the notaries of certain territories (Amalfi, Gaeta, etc.). In common usage the term also generically denotes the copyist of manuscripts, who in classical times was instead called a librarius and differed from the scribe in being of servile status and performing purely private duties (an Egyptian scribe is reproduced in pl. VII of this volume).