Scribe (Heb., sofer). Copier of Jewish documents, also a recognized transmitter and scholar of Jewish law. In the rabbinic period and subsequently, scribes were professional inscribers of Torah Scrolls, tefillin, mezuzot, and gittim (bills of divorce). Masseketh or Hilkoth Soferim is one of the Minor Tractates in the Talmud dealing with scribal matters. The decrees transmitted by scribes are known as dibre soferim (‘words of the scribes’), tikkune soferim (‘corrections of the scribes’), and dikduke soferim (‘minutiae of the scribes’).

scribe / skrīb/ • n. 1. hist. a person who copies out documents, esp. one employed to do this before printing was invented. ∎ inf., often humorous a writer, esp. a journalist. 2. (also Scribe) Judaism an ancient Jewish record-keeper or, later, a professional theologian and jurist. 3. another term for scriber. • v. [tr.] 1. chiefly poetic/lit. write: he scribed a note that he passed to Dan. 2. mark with a scriber. DERIVATIVES: scrib·al / -bəl/ adj.

scribe (skrīb), Jewish scholar and teacher (called in Hebrew, Soferim) of law as based upon the Old Testament and accumulated traditions. The work of the scribes laid the basis for the Oral Law, as distinct from the Written Law of the Torah. The period of their activity is in doubt. They may have been active from the time of Ezra (c.444 BC) to that of Simeon the Just. In Talmudic literature, the term may be applied to any interpreter of the Law from Moses to the period just before the compilation of the Mishna.

scribe doctor of the Jewish law XIV; secretary, clerk; copyist, transcriber XVI. — L. scrība official or public writer, f. scrībere trace characters, write, f. IE. base *skreibh- scratch, incise, repr. also in Gr. skarīphâsthai scratch.
So vb. (in carpentry) mark or score (wood, etc.), shape the edge of. XVII; of obscure development; varying with scrive; perh. orig. for describe, †descrive.

Scribe in biblical contexts, an ancient Jewish record keeper; a member of a class of professional interpreters of the Jewish Law after the return from the Captivity; in the Gospels, often coupled with the Pharisees as upholders of ceremonial tradition.

scribe Court secretary in ancient times; in Judaism, member of a class of scholars expert in Jewish law. From the late 6th century, the Scribes functioned as teachers and interpreters of the Torah.

scribe •ascribe, bribe, gybe, imbibe, jibe, proscribe, scribe, subscribe, transcribe, tribe, vibe •diatribe • circumscribe