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Priests and Levites in Authority

It is plain that the people during this one hundred year period under the Persians had adequate
instruction in the Laws of God -- not only on the Sabbaths and Holy Days, but even on two market
days during the week. The priests were kept busy in the occupation of teaching the people the Law.
For their helpers the priests had the regular Levites who gave them proper assistance in teaching the
people. These Levites really did much of the actual teaching, and the priests were the supervisors. It
was impossible for the limited number of priests to do all the necessary duties. For that reason, a good
deal of the help in teaching, judging, being dietitians and, in a limited way, being policemen, fell to the
Levites.

In effect, the Levites represented the professional class among the people. They were under the
authority of the priests, however, who were the responsible organization for the over-all well-being of
the nation (ibid., p. 59). The real leader of the whole nation was the High Priest, who was actually the
head of state being the leader of the Great Assembly.

The Great Assembly was the one organization that was the governing authority. This religious
assembly, as previously pointed out, was composed of the chief priests of the land with the High Priest
as official president and over-all ruler. All members of this authoritative assembly in the Persian period
were priests AND PRIESTS ALONE (Lauterbach, Rabbinic Essays, p. 28).

"For the priests were the actual leaders of the community, since they alone were recognized by
the Law (Deut. 17) as its official teachers and competent interpreters" (ibid., p. 28). These priests were
not elected by the people to hold a high office in the Great Assembly. They assumed this position by
heredity, as ordained by God (Deut. 17). Actually, no one but the priests, according to the Law of
God, could teach or direct the people in their religious life. This is the reason why the Great Assembly
was composed exclusively of the priests, with the High Priest being the recognized leader.

With the canonization of the Scripture and the establishment of synagogues throughout the land,
a problem confronted the Great Assembly. In order to teach the Law of God, it was necessary that the
priests and Levites have copies of the Scriptures. Up to the time of the canonization, books were not
made with ALL twenty-two scrolls of the Old Testament combined together.

Many Scrolls of Scripture Made

Now that the Scripture had been authoritatively assembled, it became necessary to distribute
the complete word of God. The synagogues needed the Holy Scriptures as did many individual
priests. So, it fell the lot of the Great Assembly to remedy this situation. They had the responsibility of
seeing that many scrolls of Scripture were made and distributed to those who were in authority to teach
the Word of God. And, too, they had to be extremely careful and make sure that only individuals who
were thoroughly qualified would undertake such a sacred task of copying the Scriptures. Such a job

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