Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

SCRIBES

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 483 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

SCRIBES . The word " See also:

scribe " (from See also:Lat. scribere, to write) means generally a writer; but it has a more See also:special application as the See also:English See also:term for the Jewish class called in See also:Hebrew Sopherim (Gr. ypaµµameis). Both the Hebrew and the See also:Greek word are used to denote something See also:equivalent to secretary of See also:state or See also:town-clerk in See also:general; and through the See also:influence of the See also:law, revealed through See also:Moses, upon the Jewish nation conceived as a See also:theocracy, both words denote in particular one learned in Scripture. See also:Jeremiah (for example) knew of Scribes who made the law of the See also:Lord falsehood (viii. 8), just as he knew of false prophets and profane priests (See also:xxiii.). The See also:function of See also:writing belongs rather to the scribe or secretary in general than to the specifically Jewish scribe, whose See also:primary business was to read and interpret the existing See also:revelation of See also:God's will, just as the town-clerk at See also:Athens read public documents to the See also:assembly (Thuc. vii. to). So See also:Ezra, the most famous of the See also:early Scribes, is referred to as " the scribe of the commandments of the Lord and of his statutes to See also:Israel " (Ezra vii. II), and again as " a ready scribe in the law of Moses which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given." As a Scribe he read the Law to the See also:congregation of the See also:children of Israel and the See also:Levites recited a See also:paraphrase to enable them to understand it (See also:Nehemiah viii.). But even Jewish scribes were not only readers (as the old Greek version of x Esdras calls Ezra) but writers. Jeremiah (viii. 8) had a See also:feud with the Scribes of his See also:day, who wrote what they thought necessary as a compendium or supplement of the Law; but See also:ben Sira, a Scribe himself, See also:left such a See also:book (See also:Ecclesiasticus), which is reckoned Apocryphal, indeed, but is on its merits worthy to be " read for example of See also:life and instruction of See also:manners " (See also:Thirty-Nine Articles of See also:Religion, vi.; following See also:Jerome). The book contains the Scribes' ideal (xxxviii.

24-xxxix. i1) as well as a typical performance. To be a Scribe requires a See also:

man's whole life; a ploughman (for example) has not leisure enough to acquire such See also:wisdom—and here it is well to See also:notice that experience taught the See also:Jews the See also:necessity of teaching all their children some handicraft, even if they were to be Scribes. But a Scribe must devote himself to the study of the law, the wisdom of the fathers and the prophets, i.e. the written law, and he must receive the oral tradition which will See also:teach him to unlock its secrets. He must wander through the lands of the nations and explore things See also:good and evil among men. So trained he will stand beside the rulers of his See also:people because the law covers all the departrnents of their life. And he may be inspired to speak or write the wisdom he has gained. Ben Sira's See also:grandson (natural or spiritual) in the See also:prologue to the Greek version of this collection of such wisdom speaks of him as having been led forward to write it as an aid to the progressive fulfilment of God's law. Such were the Scribes of the Jews, an See also:order of learned theologians who practised applied See also:theology, a See also:succession of religious teachers and thinkers controlled in their speculations by their oral tradition to some extent and always by the principles of the law and the other scriptures so far as they accepted them and regarded them as consistent with the teaching of Moses. Their general aim was progress in knowledge of God's will, but apart from fundamental principles there were no tests or formularies to which their teaching must conform. Necessarily they differed from one another even in the same See also:generation according to their different temperaments and their different experiences, especially of See also:foreign lands. And different generations had to adapt them-selves to different needs. In the See also:time of See also:Antiochus Epiphanes (for example) they had to See also:face the problem, Was the law of the See also:Sabbath to be broken, or was the whole nation to perish and leave none to keep the See also:rest of the law and that See also:part in happier days?

A See also:

company of them decided with a unanimity rare in the See also:history of the order that the Sabbath must be broken (I Macc. ii. 40-42). Later these Hasidaeans deserted the Maccabean rebels, when some See also:relief had been effected on the coming of a See also:priest of the See also:seed of See also:Aaron (I Macc. vii. 12-16). Their See also:massacre, like the massacres which led to the suspension of the' Sabbath law, was another fact to be assimilated for the guidance of posterity, and, as Scribes always did, they found and cited the prophecy which was thus fulfilled (Ps. lxxix. 2, 3; I Macc. vii. 17). Later they are represented as falling generally into two classes, the See also:Pharisees and the See also:Sadducees, for it is obvious that the Sadducees needed doctors of the law to See also:answer the Scribes of the Pharisees as See also:long as they could, and as long as they dared to hold out against the Pharisaic tradition, backed as it was by the popularity of the Pharisees. But it must not be supposed that the Pharisees all held identical views or insisted upon all points in the tradition which accumulated and tended to crystallize as of equal importance. The Sadducean position was probably more definite and more commonly held by•individual Sadducees because it was mainly based on negations. The rivals may be compared roughly to theists and atheists of the See also:present day so far as their relative solidarity is concerned. As an example of the broad and conspicuous divergences among the Pharisees it is enough to point to the Zealots; they had isolated precursors before the final See also:coalition of Pharisees, who thought that the timehad come for the See also:sword of See also:Gideon as well as the sword of the Lord, with others who seemed to See also:Josephus to love the bloodshed for its own See also:sake.

And the See also:

Talmud speaks of the Pairs of Scribes—e.g. See also:Hillel and See also:Shammai—as contending with one another. In the See also:Gospel according to St See also:John, which is wholly, and the Gospel of St See also:Luke, which is partially in See also:touch with the life of the time of our Lord, the different receptions which different Scribes accorded to the new teachers is clearly recognized. St See also:Paul was of course a Scribe, and helped St Luke, it may fairly be supposed, to resist See also:Christian See also:prejudice against the whole order —the See also:mere name of Scribe—without any discrimination in favour of such men as Nathaniel, Nicodemus and See also:Gamaliel. The Gospel associated with the name of St See also:Matthew has at any See also:rate something of the intolerance with which a tax-gatherer might well regard those of the Pharisees (i.e. the Zealots, to use the term handed down) who condemned them as breakers of God's law. But in respect of its wholesale denunciations of " Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," it must be said that there were many Scribes and Pharisees who were not hypocrites, and were there-fore entitled to say, " Let the galled See also:jade wince, 'our withers are unwrung." It appears that the See also:parable of the Pharisee and the Publican ended originally with a question, " Which went See also:home justified "—the Pharisee who thanked God because he had been saved from the grosser sins, or the Publican who recognized that his calling was in itself sinful, and without venturing to pass beyond the See also:Court of the Gentiles whom he served—without even promising to abandon their service—prayed for See also:mercy to the God whom he feared? The See also:official See also:text of St Luke has answered the question in one way: Christian practice is, on the whole, in favour of the Pharisee. Other views of the See also:ancient Scribes are too notorious to need statement here. Broadly speaking they have no connexion with the real See also:evidence, because they rest upon the denunciations of the First Gospel. If it is necessary to begin See also:historical investigation at the wrong end, it is advisable to take into See also:account the whole evidence available. The Scribes of the 1st See also:century A.D. preserved Judaism in spite of the destruction of the See also:Temple, and this fact is enough to refute the view too commonly taken of them by Christians in spite of St Luke and St John. The See also:common view is as reasonable and just as an account of the Prophets based on Jeremiah's denunciations would be—or an estimate of the See also:Church of See also:England which consisted of See also:summary accounts of its criminous clerks.

See Schiirer's History of the Jewish People, with full authorities. (J. H. A.

End of Article: SCRIBES

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
SCRIBE, AUGUSTIN EUGENE (1791-1860, French dramatis... 		[next]
SCRIM

Site © 2006 - Net Industries