Scribes [Hebrew “Sofar”, plural “Soferim”] had been in existence from the time the alphabets were invented. That is from Egypt onwards.
In most countries their main job was to maintain records relating to various ‘Kings and Leaders’ – Ezra 6:1 & 2; Esther 6:1 etc. Similar Scribes existed in Israel too that recorded events relating to the reigns of various kings – 1st Kings 11:41; 14:19 & 29 and 1st Chronicles 29:29 etc.
But the ones mentioned in the New Testament were of a different category. Since Moses wrote down the Torah or Pentateuch [First 5 Books of the Bible] there have been those who copied or transcribed them.
As ‘what they were copying or writing continuously got inculcated in their minds, they could quote many ‘Portions’ of Scripture from memory and also as they were familiar with the ‘Context’, could explain them too.
Therefore they were held in high regard. It also should be pointed out that initially the Scriptures were NOT divided into Chapters and Verses
The Scribes had to follow certain regulations when it came to ‘Making Copies of The Scriptures’ and a few of them are given below:-
- Only the ‘skins’ of “Clean Animals (Sheep, goats)” could be used;
- Ink had to be made according to a special recipe and had to be black in colour;
- Had to speak out each word aloud, as they wrote them;
- Every time they had to write the ‘Tetragram’ {The 4 Hebrew Letters used to write the NAME of GOD – “YHWH”} they had to bathe or wash their entire bodies and wipe the pen or quill clean;
- The number of letters in each page was counted, once finished copying and they had to be the SAME as the one from which they were
Once finished, they would shout “Tam V Nishlam”, meaning “Done and Finished”, which was what Christ also ‘shouted’ on the Cross, as John who was standing beneath that Cross records in his Gospel –19:30.
Those Scrolls had to be stored in a place that was considered ‘Holy’ and those that got damaged later on could NOT be destroyed, but had to be buried or stored in a special place called ‘Genizah’ in the Synagogue or in the respective cemetery, until a ‘proper burial’ could be conducted.