A professional or religious scribe and/or secretary. Scribes and secretaries were people who were trained to write and copy documents.
Professional Scribes and Secretaries
Scribes were secretaries in Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Greco-Roman Empire. Court scribes would sometimes rise to powerful positions socially and politically.
There were schools for training scribes. Mastering the art of writing on clay probably took as much time then as it takes students now to learn to read and write. Those who wanted to be scribes could either learn at a regular school or work as an apprentice under a private teacher. The latter was much more popular. Many scribes were willing to teach. Most of the scribes had at least one student. These students were treated like family while they learned. The students learned from tutoring and by example. This experience would prepare young scribes to write legal and business documents, as well as take dictation for private letters.
For more advanced study, the scribes would have to go to school. The schools were attached to temples, and the schools were the only places that could teach the sciences, mathematics, and literature. The most advanced scribes had to master all of these subjects. At school, a scribe could study to become a priest or a “scientist.”
Archaeologists (scholars who study ancient human history) have found schoolrooms with benches on which the students sat. They have even found the “textbooks” that were used to teach scribes. Some of these ancient Near Eastern texts are nothing but basic exercises and copies of original texts. These copies are usually not as beautiful or as easy to read as the originals, which were written by master scribes.
Many types of texts were available in the temple when the teacher wanted to give the students an assignment. Elementary work included writing a series of cuneiform signs (an ancient writing script), much like our learning the alphabet—except that there were 600 signs! Another simple assignment was copying dictionaries containing lists of stones, cities, animals, and gods.
Advanced students copied literary texts like epics, hymns, or prayers. Through study and practice, a gifted student could become qualified to work in almost any field.
Scribes in the Old Testament
In Israel, scribes performed many tasks. They often sat at the gate of the city or another public space, writing receipts, contracts, and letters. Religious scribes copied the Scriptures.
Several scribes are mentioned in the Old Testament:
Scribes in the New Testament
The apostle Paul used secretaries and scribes to write his letters. Typically, a scribe would write the speaker’s words. Then, the author would review and edit it. The scribe would take the edits and create a final draft, which the author would sign.
Two New Testament letters give the name of a scribe:
Some of Paul’s letters say that he wrote the ending himself:
This shows that these letters were written by someone else (Paul's scribe) before he signed them. John wrote his letters himself (1 John 1:4; 2:1, 7–8, 12–14; 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:9, 13).