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could not be entrusted to just anyone, lest from inexperience or carelessness the transcription was not
an exact reproduction.

It became obvious that the only body of men who were qualified to do such a work were the
members of the Great Assembly THEMSELVES. It was necessary that the new scrolls be perfect and
that each scroll be sanctioned by these authoritative priests. This led the Great Assembly to assume the
task of copying the Scriptures. They assumed this occupation sometime not long after the deaths of
Ezra and Nehemiah.

From this time forward, the members of the Great Assembly became known as "Sopherim."
The word "Sopherim" in Hebrew signifies "counters." "They were called 'Sopherim' because they
COUNTED all the letters in the Torah [the Scriptures] and interpreted it" (Herford, Talmud and
Apocrypha, p. 44).

In order to have an accurate transcription of the Scriptures, the Sopherim, the members of the
Great Assembly, counted each letter on each section of a scroll. They made sure that when they copied
the letters onto a new scroll, that there would be EXACTLY the same number of letters on the new
section as had existed on the old. To do this, they had to COUNT each of the letters on the new scroll
several times to make certain that the exact number was transcribed.

This method of copying the Scriptures was followed by later Jews until the invention of the
printing press. In fact, about eight hundred years AFTER Christ, this method was so highly developed
among the Jews that they knew the middle letter of each book in the Bible, and, even the middle letter
of the whole Bible. There were many nonessential features developed from this method of counting the
letters of the Scriptures. For those who may be interested in some of these features, see Ginsburg's In-
troduction to the Hebrew Bible (this book is now out of print and would be found only in some of
the larger libraries).

Sopherim Taught the Law

Once the members of the Great Assembly became the copiers of the Law (the Sopherim), we
find the two names synonymously referring to the ONE group of priests. To speak of the Sopherim
was to speak of the Great Assembly, and vice versa (Herford, Talmud and Apocrypha, pp. 44, 45).
For convenience's sake, we will refer to these men by the name most used in history -- we will call them
the Sopherim. The term "Sopherim" denotes that the one major job of the Great Assembly was to copy
faithfully the Scriptures, and teach these Scriptures to the priests of lower rank who in turn would teach
the people. Their lives were centered in the study of the Scriptures and in teaching the Law of God.
This was, after all, the occupation that God had ordained for the priests. They were also to regulate the
religious life of the people. And, history shows that the members of the Great Assembly, the Sopherim
of Persian times, following the examples of Ezra and Nehemiah, carried out their commission with
fidelity.

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