Judaism thumb|Workshop for making tefillin, with rods for scrolls on racks against the wall; sofers precisely write four biblical passages on parchment for placing in each box (Jerusalem, 1964) Scribes of ancient Israel were a literate minority in an oral based-culture. Some of them belonged to the priestly class, other scribes were the record-keepers and letter-writers in the royal palaces and administrative centers, affiliated with the ancient equivalent of professional guilds. There were no scribal schools in Israel during the early part of the Iron Age (1200–800 B.C.E.). Between the 13th and 8th centuries B.C.E., the Hebrew alphabetic system had not been developed. Only after the appearance of the Kingdom of Israel, Finkelstein points to the reign of Omri, did the scribal schools begin to develop, reaching their culmination in the time of Jeroboam II, under Mesopotamian influence.Schniedewind, William M.(2014) UNDERSTANDING SCRIBAL EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL:A VIEW FROM KUNTILLET ʿAJRUD.In: MAARAV 21.1–2 pp.272 ff. The eventual standardization of the Hebrew writing system between the eighth and sixth centuries B.C.E. would presumably have given rise to codified rules and principles of language that scribes would then have learned. The education of scribes in ancient Israel was supported by the state, although some scribal arts could have been taught within a small number of families.Werrett, Ian. How Did Scribes and the Scribal Tradition Shape the Hebrew Bible? Some scribes also copied documents, but this was not necessarily part of their job. thumb|upright|Jewish scribes at the Tomb of Ezekiel in Iraq, 1914 The Jewish scribes used the following rules and procedures while creating copies of the Torah and eventually other books in the Hebrew Bible.
Judaism thumb|Workshop for making tefillin, with rods for scrolls on racks against the wall; sofe,rs precisely write four biblical passages on parchment for placing in each box (Jerusalem, 1964) Scribes of ancient Israel were a literate minority in an oral based-culture. Some of them belonged to the priestly class, other s,cribes were the record-keepers and letter-writers in the royal palaces and administrative centers, affiliated with the ancient equivalent of professional guilds. There were no scribal schools in Israel during the early part of the Iron Age (1200–800 B.C.E.). Between the 13th and 8th centuries B.C.E., the Hebrew alphabetic system had not been developed. Only after the appearance of the Kingdom of Israel, Finkelstein points to the reign of Omri, did the scribal schools begin to develop, reaching their culmination in the time of Jeroboam II, under Mesopotamian influence.Schniedewind, William M.(2014) UNDERSTANDING SCRIBAL EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL:A VIEW FROM KUNTILLET ʿAJRUD.In: MAARAV 21.1–2 pp.272 ff. The eventual standardization of the Hebrew writing system between the eighth and sixth centuries B.C.E. would presumably have given rise to codified rules and principles of language that scribes would then have learned. The education of scribes in ancient Israel was supported by the state, although some scribal arts could have been taught within a small number of families.Werrett Ian. How Did Scribes and the Scribal Tradition Shape the Hebrew Bible? Some scribes also copied documents, but this was not necessarily part of their job. thumb|upright|Jewish scribes at the Tomb of Ezekiel in Iraq 1914 The Jewish scribes used the following rules and procedures while creating copies of the Torah and eventually other books in the Hebrew Bible.