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Scribe. Jewish scholar and teacher (called in Hebrew, Soferim) of law as based
upon the Old Testament and accumulated traditions. The work of the scribes
laid the basis for the Oral Law, as distinct from the Written Law of the Torah.
The period of their activity is in doubt. They may have been active from the time
of Ezra (c.444 B.C.) to that of Simeon the Just. In Talmudic literature, the
term may be applied to any interpreter of the Law from Moses to the period just
before the compilation of the Mishna.
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