Scribe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is about Scribe, the profession. For other uses, see Scribe (disambiguation).

A scribe (or scrivener) is an ancient professional whose job involved learned reading and writing, especially within the Renaissance Age. This work usually involved secretarial and administrative duties such as taking of dictation and the keeping of business, judicial and historical records for kings, nobility, temples and cities. Later the profession developed into public servants, journalists, accountants and lawyers. However, present-day journalists and authors tend to be the closest to the ancient profession.

In the Bible, Jesus considers the hypocritical actions of the scribes to be particularly bad, along with the Pharisees. See Woes of the Pharisees

[edit] Egyptian scribes

The Egyptian scribe was an important function, one that developed a tradition of schooling to meet society's needs. The scribal profession also had its companion people who were the painters and artisans who decorated tombs, buildings, furniture, statuary, and other relics with pictures and hieroglyphic text. In Ancient Egypt, the profession was restricted to males.

Being a scribe was very difficult. The scribes had to be efficient at writing the hieroglyphs quickly, and be well-educated in mathematics. They used a type of paper called papyrus, made from the reed of the same name.

[edit] See also

• Main : Worshipful Company of Scriveners, List of professions, Peer-to-peer, Elder , Sofer, Journalism
• Scrivener
• People : Michael William Balfe, Muhammad, John Barbour, Ibn Warraq, Baruch, Sidney Rigdon, John Milton, Beowulf, Margery Kempe
• Other : Anglo-Norman language, Irish poetry, Uncial, Mail, Melville's short story, "Bartleby the Scrivener"
• Egyptian : The Seated Scribe

[edit] External links

This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.