Brewer's: Scribe

(1 syl.), in the New Testament, means a doctor of the law. Thus, in Matthew xxii. 35, we read, “Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him, Which is the great commandment of the law?” Mark (xii. 28) says, “One of the scribes came and asked Him, Which is the first commandment of all?”

In the Old Testament the word is used more widely. Thus Seraiah is called the scribe (secretary) of David (2 Sam. viii. 17); in the Book of Chronicles “Jael the scribe” was an officer in the king's army, who reviewed the troops and called over the muster-roll. Jonathan, Baruch, Gemariah, etc., who were princes, were called scribes. Ezra, however, called “a ready scribe in the law of Moses,” accords with the New Testament usage of the word.

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