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Scribe
[Bible]A scribe was originally a professional who wrote documents and kept records. After the Babylonian exile, the term came to refer to experts who copied and taught the Law. In the New Testament, scribes appear as a group that frequently disputes with Jesus.
Shaphan
[People]Shaphan was a scribe in the reign of King Josiah of Judah. He read before the king the Book of the Law found during the repair of the Temple and thus played a part in the events that set Josiah's religious reform in motion.
Rehum and Shimshai
[People]Rehum and Shimshai were officials who served in the region of Samaria during the Persian period. According to Ezra 4, they sent a letter to King Artaxerxes accusing the Jews of rebuilding Jerusalem and thereby brought the work to a halt.
Mark 12:28-34
[Bible Verses]In this passage a scribe asks which commandment is the greatest, and Jesus answers by joining the command to love God from Deuteronomy with the command to love one's neighbor from Leviticus. The passage is widely cited as a summary of the whole Law, and denominations differ in how they emphasize the relationship between law and love.
1 Corinthians 16:22
[Bible Verses]1 Corinthians 16:22 is a verse that Paul wrote in his own hand in the closing greetings of 1 Corinthians. It pronounces an "anathema" (curse) on anyone who does not love the Lord and contains the Aramaic expression "Maranatha." The verse is often cited as evidence of the early church's hope in the Second Coming and of its worship language.
Ezra 7:10
[Bible Verses]This verse records that Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of the LORD, to do it, and to teach it in Israel. Because it presents the sequence of study, practice, and teaching, it is frequently cited in discussions of the proper disposition of ministers of the Word and of teachers.
Gedaliah
[People]Gedaliah was the man Babylon appointed to govern the people left in the land of Judah after the destruction of Jerusalem. He ruled from Mizpah until he was assassinated by Ishmael.
Ezra (Scribe)
[People]Ezra was a priest and scribe of Judah in the Persian period who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem and taught the law of Moses. He appears in Ezra 7–10, Nehemiah 8, and elsewhere.
Pharisees
[Bible]The Pharisees were a group within Judaism in the New Testament era. They strictly observed the Law of Moses and "the tradition of the elders," and in the Gospels they appear chiefly as opponents who dispute with Jesus.
Luke 22
[Bible]Luke 22 records Judas's plot to betray Jesus, the Last Supper and the institution of the Lord's Supper, Jesus' prayer on the Mount of Olives, his arrest, Peter's denial, and the interrogation before the council.
Shebna
[People]Shebna was a high-ranking official under King Hezekiah of Judah who served as scribe in the delegation that negotiated with the Assyrian commander Rabshakeh. Isaiah rebuked him for hewing out a tomb for himself on high and prophesied that his office would pass to Eliakim.
Tertius
[People]Tertius was the amanuensis who wrote down the apostle Paul's Epistle to the Romans. He was a first-century Christian who added his own greeting in Romans 16:22.
Baruch
[People]Baruch was the scribe of the prophet Jeremiah in the final years of the southern kingdom of Judah. He wrote on a scroll the prophecies Jeremiah dictated and read them aloud to the people in the temple.
Matthew 23:4
[Bible Verses]A verse in which Jesus criticizes the scribes and Pharisees for laying heavy burdens on others while refusing to lift a finger themselves. It is frequently cited as a warning against legalism and against inconsistency between the words and deeds of religious leaders.
Rehum
[People]Rehum was a Persian provincial official mentioned in Ezra 4. With Shimshai the scribe, he sent a letter to King Artaxerxes that brought the rebuilding work in Jerusalem to a halt.
Gemariah
[People]Gemariah was a high official of Judah in the reign of King Jehoiakim and the son of Shaphan the scribe. Baruch read the prophecies of Jeremiah aloud in his chamber, and when the king burned the scroll, Gemariah pleaded with him not to burn it (Jeremiah 36).
Book of Baruch
[Bible]The Book of Baruch is a work attributed to Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches include it in the canon (in Catholic terminology, as a deuterocanonical book), while Protestants classify it among the Apocrypha and do not include it in the Bible.
Neriah
[People]Neriah is a figure in the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah. He was the son of Maaseiah and the father of Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe, and of Seraiah, an official of King Zedekiah.
Mark 3:28–30
[Bible Verses]Mark 3:28–30 is the passage in which Jesus warns the scribes who had said he was possessed by a demon that "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost" will never be forgiven. Interpreters frequently debate what this "unforgivable sin" is and whether a believer can commit it, and the passage is a common source of spiritual anxiety.
Tradition of the Elders
[Bible]The "tradition of the elders" is a New Testament expression for the regulations, handed down from generation to generation outside the Law of Moses, that the Pharisees and scribes observed. It appears in the dispute over handwashing in Matthew 15 and Mark 7.