John Henry Arthur Hart

“ To be a Scribe requires a man's whole life; a ploughman (for example) has not leisure enough to acquire such wisdom-and here it is well to notice that experience taught the Jews the 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 teach him to unlock its secrets. He must wander through the lands of the nations and explore things good and evil among men. ”

“ SCRIBES. The word “ scribe ” (from Lat. scribere, to write) means generally a writer; but it has a more special application as the English term for the Jewish class called in Hebrew Sopherim (Gr. γραμματῖς) . Both the Hebrew and the Greek word are used to denote something equivalent to secretary of state or town-clerk in general; and through the influence of the law, revealed through Moses, upon the Jewish nation conceived as a theocracy, both words denote in particular one learned in Scripture. ”

“ It appears that the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican ended originally with a question, “ Which went 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 Court of the Gentiles whom he served-without even promising to abandon their service-prayed for mercy to the God whom he feared? ”