Chapter 3. The Scribe.
A SCRIBE or lawyer was one learned in the law of Moses, and whose business it was to teach it to others. We hear of scribes in the old Testament, especially in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. In these two books, perhaps you remember, we get an account of the coming back of God’s people from Babylon, where they had been for seventy years as a punishment for their sins. We read that Ezra was a “ready scribe in the law of Moses,” (Ezra 7:66This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. (Ezra 7:6)) also that he had “prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments” Ezra 7:1010For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. (Ezra 7:10). How he did this we read in Neh. 8, where “they spake to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses.” This he did, and read it to the “men, and women, and all’ who had understanding,” and it is nice to see how he read it. We are told it was distinctly, and that he gave the sense, and caused the people to understand it. Is that the way we read the Bible?
But a scribe had not only to read the law of God, but also to make copies of it; these copies were written on parchment, which as you know is finely prepared skin, and also on papyrus, a sort of paper made from reeds. This paper is mentioned in 2 John verse 12, and we hear of parchments in 2 Tim. 4:1313The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. (2 Timothy 4:13). The pens they used were reed quills, and the ink was, generally black, though sometimes we hear of writing in gold or red. As not many of the people could write they depended on the scribes to write their letters for them, and I have been told that even now you may see scribes in the streets of Jerusalem, writing letters for those who cannot do it for themselves. The person tells the scribe he wants a letter written, saying such and such things, and the scribe has to do the rest.
In the time of our Lord we hear much about scribes. They were the learned people of the time, and alas! were as opposed to the Lord Jesus as the Pharisees and Sadducees. We hear of one in Luke 10, trying to tempt Him with hard questions, but it only drew from the Lord’s lips that beautiful story we all know so well of the poor man who fell among thieves, and was saved by the certain Samaritan. Is it not a picture of how Jesus Himself has come to save every poor sinner, who can do nothing to help himself?
Our Lord’s teaching must have been a great contrast to that of the scribes, for eve read in Matt. 7: “The people were astonished at His doctrine, for He taught them as One having authority and not as the scribes.” But still we read of “doctors of the law,” (the highest title a scribe could gain) listening to His teaching, having come out of every town of Galilee and Judaea, and while thus listening, a man, sick of the palsy, was let down before Jesus, from the roof. We all know the story and how Jesus not only healed his body but forgave his sins, and you remember the scribes reasoned and said Jesus spoke blasphemies, but before long we hear that they were amazed, and filled with fear, saying “We have seen strange things today.”
It is nice to think that some of the scribes were afterwards found following the doctrines of Jesus, for we read in Titus of “Zenas the lawyer”, (Titus 3 13) who was evidently a servant of God, and also of Apollos, “A man mighty in the scriptures” who became a most devoted preacher of Jesus Christ. Let us try to follow the example of the scribes in searching the scriptures; but unlike them, let us seek to find in them Jesus the Saviour.
ML 07/14/1912