Scribe

Few people in ancient Israel could read and write, so scribes wrote for them: contracts and deeds, letters, receipts and lists. A scribe might sit at the city gate and write for those who could not. Kings had a royal scribe, a high official who kept records, gave advice and oversaw money — Seraiah under David, Shebna under Hezekiah, Shaphan under Josiah. The craft was learned as an apprentice to a teacher, early on within scribal families (1 Chronicles 2:55). They wrote with a reed pen and carbon ink on papyrus or leather and trimmed scrolls with a knife (Jeremiah 36:23).

Baruch wrote down Jeremiah’s words at his dictation, “in ink on the scroll” (Jeremiah 36:18). Paul also dictated letters: Tertius wrote down Romans (Romans 16:22), and Paul added greetings in his own hand. After the exile the word came to mean a scholar of the Law of Moses — Ezra was “a scribe skilled in the Law” (Ezra 7:6). By New Testament times scribes copied, taught and interpreted the Law; most were linked with the Pharisees, and some sat in the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council. People greeted them as “rabbi”, and they wore long robes (Mark 12:38).