Knowing how to read and write in ancient times was a great privilege. the e. he was a person who specialized in jobs related to document writing. Those who dedicated themselves to this trade were employed as special officials to record the chronicles, write the letters and communications of the kings and important figures. an e. well trained he should be able to prepare a document for the sale of a property (Jer 32:10-14); a divorce letter (Deu 24:1-3); a petition to the king, or any piece of correspondence. In Egypt the e. he was a high-ranking personality. The kings of Judah and Israel had their e. Thus, in David’s time “Seraiah was e.† (2Sa 8:17). In Hezekiah’s time it was †¢Shebna (2Ki 18:18). the e. of Josiah was called †¢Shaphan (2Ki 22:3). The trade was inherited from father to son. In 1Ch 2:55 it speaks of †œthe families of the e. who dwelt in Jabez† . Ezra is described as †œe. diligent in the law of Moses† and “e. versed in the commandments of Jehovah and in his statutes to Israel † (Ezra 7:6, Ezra 7:11).
After the exile and after the prophets ceased, there were people (in the beginning mainly priests) who dedicated themselves to the study of the Torah, becoming experts in it, which gave them great power and preponderance in the Jewish community. In the time of the Lord Jesus they were also called “doctors of the law” (Luke 5:17), with the official title of rabbi or rabbi. His function was to teach the Scriptures and the traditions. That is why the Lord Jesus said: “On the chair of Moses sit the e. and the Pharisees. So whatever they tell you to keep, keep it and do it† (Mat 23:2-3). Along with the Pharisees, the e. they always tried to take Christ at some word. he had denounced them as “hypocrites” (Matt 23:13-14, Mat 23:15, Mat 23:23, Mat 23:25, Mat 23:27, Mat 23:29). And he said that he would be † œhanded over to the chief priests and to the e., and they will put him to death † (Mat 20:18).
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
type, FUNC
vet, In the OT this word is applied to the official who was in charge of the correspondence of a king, the army, etc., which today receives the name of secretary (2 S. 8:17; 2 Chr. 14:11; Esther 3:12, Isa 36:3, etc.). It also applied to those who copied and explained the Scriptures. Thus, Ezra was “a diligent scribe of the law,” “a scribe versed in the commandments of Jehovah,” although he was also a priest (Ezra 7:6, 11; Neh. 8:1-13). In the NT this term is used only in the sense in which it is applied to Ezra, and the scribes are classed between the chief priests and the elders. They are said to sit on the chair of Moses and what they teach is to be observed; however, their works are not to be imitated (Mt. 7:29; 23:2, 13-33). Many woes are proclaimed against them. Thus, those men, who should have been an example to others, were publicly denounced because with their actions they denied what they taught with their words. They did not constitute a separate sect at the time of the NT. A scribe could be a Pharisee or a Sadducee. cop. Hch. 23:9.
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
(-> rabbis, Judaism). At the beginning of Israel are the prophets and priests, and with them the wise men who have been establishing the experience of the Israelite novelty of life. Well then, when they fixed their experience and their ideal in books and the books tended to become canonical, the scribes or lawyers arose, a kind of enlightened caste that became the central authority of the federation of synagogues*.
(1) Judaism, people of scribes. Where the Word of God is codified as Law (in the Bible and Tradition), the scribes or interpreters of that law become an authority and thus appear as “rabbis” (= great), since they transmit and comment, endorse and express the Law of God for the people. Thus arose in Israel an intellectual class of scholars, who know the Book and traditions, forming schools of sacred interpretation and directing the lives of the rest of the Israelites. According to tradition, the first was Ezra, whom the king of Persia himself presented as “priest and scribe expert in the law of the God of heaven” (Ezr 7,12; cf. Eclo 24,23-41; 39, 1-11). Strictly speaking, the scribes, whose sentences and interpretations begin to be gathered in the Mishnah and the Talmud, are related to the sages* and have become a basic institution since II AD But the sages were the authority of the culture, centered on experience meeting with God, while the scribes become legal authority, fixed in a sacred text, as the word of God. Sages and scribes (= rabbis) go together, but Judaism has highlighted the latter, who have become its highest authority, after the fall of the temple (70 AD). In this way the rabbinate has arisen. But not all Jews attached the same importance to the scribes, representatives of the religion of the book and legal norms. Some, like Jesus and his first followers, rose against the authority of the scribes, thus seeking a more immediate contact with God, a religion that goes beyond the level of casuistry, of the dispute over the various meanings of a tradition or of a text. For this reason, the material of the synoptic gospels preserves a very numerous list of disputes between Jesus and the scribes, whom he ends up accusing of some kind of hypocrisy (cf. especially Mt 23).
(2) Jesus, scribe educated in the kingdom of heaven. In accordance with the synoptic tradition, Jesus opposed the traditions of the scribes, sometimes related to the priests and sometimes to the Pharisees, considering that they had run the risk of turning religion into the subject of scholarly discussions, something owned by specialists. Although it is possible that many of the texts condemning the scribes are later, it is evident that deep down they reflect the attitude and experience of Jesus, who was not a scribe, a man of the book, but a prophet, a man of personal authority and direct encounter with God. In this way, like other religious founders, Jesus has “liberated” the experience of God, detaching it from the ritual of school interpretations, to make it possible for everyone to meet God himself as Father in a direct way (cf. Mt 11, 25-27) and immediately with the neighbor as needy (cf. Lk 11, 25-37). Despite this, his criticism against the scribes (which culminates in the great diatribes of Mt 23 par), cannot be taken in an absolute way. Certainly, he cannot admit to his discipleship a scribe who seeks security (cf. Mt 8,18), but he can tell a scribe that he is not far from the Kingdom (cf. Mk 12,34). Continuing in this line, the Gospel of Matthew adds that “every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a master of the house who brings out of his treasure new things and old things” (Mt 13,52). Moreover, the same Easter Jesus of that gospel adds that he will send “prophets, wise men and scribes” (Mt 23:34), thus indicating in some way the first ministries of a church where, along with the prophets and wise men (more linked to personal experience) are the scribes, capable of understanding the Scriptures in a Christian sense. This means that scribes educated in the Kingdom have arisen in the Church of Matthew. They are not specialists, from a closed book, in the line of national Judaism, nor theoretical researchers, but people who, having a personal experience of Jesus, know how to place it in the light of the old things, that is, of the Israelite tradition.
(3) Peter, scribe of a Church without scribes. The good scribe of the Church of Matthew (cf. Mt 13,52), equivalent to Ezra, who was a scribe of the law of God from heaven (Ezr 7,12), has been Peter (as Mt 16,16-18 supposes). ): man capable of opening and closing, of interpreting the Scriptures. But there is a difference. In line with Ezra, the scribes continue to discuss specific interpretations of the law, within the law itself, in an endless hermeneutic process. On the contrary, the good Christian scribe, like Peter, interprets the law to free Christians from the yoke of the law. Certainly, it has been possible to say that the Gospel of Matthew is the work of a school of scribes, men and/or women who have been able to read and update the Israelite Bible from the new experience of Jesus, anticipating the authority of future theologians within the Church. ; but they have not wanted to create and have not created a caste of lawyers: they have not understood the Church from a book, but from Jesus and at the service of those in need. That is why, in the culminating place of the Gospel of Matthew, it is said “call no one teacher, leader, or father…” because only God is Father, only Christ is true leader and you are all brothers (cf. Mt 23:8 -12). Matthew and Peter have been scribes who have freed the Church of Jesus from the possible slavery of the scribes, to place it on the firm rock of freedom and love for those in need (Mt 25:31-46). But later, reinterpreting the gospel of Mt in a rabbinic line, many scribes have also emerged in the Christian Church like those that Mt 23 had criticized.
Cf. DC ALIISON, The New Aloses: A Matthean Typology, Fortress, Minneapolis 1993; W. ROTHFUCHS, Die Erfüüungszitate des Matthausevangeliums, BWANT, Stuttgart 1969; K. STENDHAL, The School of St. Matthew, ASNU 20, Gleerup, Lund 1968; JL SECOND, The Mateo case. The beginnings of a Judeo-Christian ethic, Sal Terrae, Santander 1994.
PIKAZA, Javier, Dictionary of the Bible. History and Word, Divine Word, Navarra 2007
Source: Dictionary of Bible History and Word
A class of professional scholars knowledgeable in the law. In the NT they are generally called grammateis“knowledgeable of the Scriptures” (Mt. 2:4; Mk. 1:22, etc.), while the corresponding Hebrew word is sōp̄әrîm.
Other NT designations are nomikoi“legal experts” (Lk. 7:30; 14:3, etc.) and nomodidaskaloi “teachers of the law” (Luke 5:17; Acts 5:34).
Since the law is largely concerned with worship, the earliest scribes were also priests (eg, Ezra). However, in the intertestamental time, the growing importance of the law and the synagogue produced a separate class of lay biblical scholars. Its function was not only the elaboration of the law, that is, to make explicit what was implicit, but also the teaching of its requirements for the people and the transmission of legal decisions. In later times, the scribes had the added responsibility of careful preservation of the sacred text.
Faced with the threat of Hellenism, the scribes became the zealous defenders of the law and gained popularity and influence among the people. The esteem in which they were held is reflected in the word rabbi“my lord”, with which they were called.
Mt. 23 records our Lord’s powerful denunciation of their hypocrisy, pride, and spiritual hardness.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Moore, Judaism, I, p. 37–47; E.Schuerer, Geschitchte des Juedischen Volkes4th…