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“Scribe was a name which, among the Jews, was applied to two sorts of officers. 1. To a civil: and so it signifies a notary, or, in a large sense, any one employed to draw up deeds and writings. 2. This name signifies a church officer, one skillful and conversant in the law to interpret and explain it.”—South. vol. iv. ser. 1.

The word scribe is derived from the Latin, scribere, which has the same meaning as “schrabben” (Dutch), to scrape or draw a style, or pen, over the surface of paper or parchment.

The name, however, was given to such as excelled in the use of the pen, and who were likewise distinguished in other branches of knowledge. It came in time to mean simply a learned man; and, as the chief part of learning among the Jews was concerned with the sacred books of Scripture, the word signified especially one “who was skilled in the law of God”—one whose business it was, not merely to provide correct copies of its volume, but also to explain its meaning. Thus, Ezra is called “a ready scribe of the law of Moses.”—Ezra vii. 6.

Before the introduction of types, books were written generally upon skins, linen, cotton-cloth, or papyrus: parchment in later times was most esteemed. The business of the scribes was to make duplicate copies of these books, which, when completed, the leaves were pinned together so as to make a single long sheet. This was then rolled round a stick: hence books of every description or size were called “rolls;” our word volume means just the same thing in its original signification.

“Volumed in rolling masses.”

In the time of our Saviour the scribes formed quite a considerable class in society. Many of them belonged to the sanhedrim, or chief council, and are therefore frequently mentioned in the New Testament with the elders and chief priests.—See Luke v. 17, x. 25; Matthew xxiii. 2; Matthew ii. 4, also xiii. 52; and Mark xii. 35.