Matthew 2:4

Scribes

(Greek, "grammateis", means "writer"). Hebrew, "spherim", means "to write," "set in order," "count." The scribes were so called because it was their office to make copies of the Scriptures; to classify and teach the precepts of oral law

( See Scofield) - (Matthew 3:7)

and to keep careful count of every letter in the Old Testament writings. Such an office was necessary in a religion of law and precept, and was an Old Testament function (2 Samuel 8:17); (2 Samuel 20:25); (1 Kings 4:3); (Jeremiah 8:8); (Jeremiah 36:10); (Jeremiah 36:12); (Jeremiah 36:26). To this legitimate work the scribes added a record of rabbinical decisions on questions of ritual (Halachoth); the new code resulting from those decisions (Mishna); the Hebrew sacred legends (Gemara, forming with the Mishna the Talmud); commentaries on the Old Testament (Midrashim); reasonings upon these (Hagada); and finally, mystical interpretations which found in Scripture meanings other than the grammatical, lexical, and obvious ones (the Kabbala); not unlike the allegorical method of Origen, or the modern Protestant "spiritualizing" interpretation. In our Lord's time, to receive this mass of writing superposed upon the Scriptures was to be orthodox; to return to the Scriptures themselves was heterodoxy -- our Lord's most serious offence.