As early as the 11th century BCE, scribes in Ancient Israel were distinguished professionals who would exercise functions which today could be associated with lawyers, journalists, government ministers, judges, or financiers.

Who was the first scribe?

The find challenges the widely-held belief that the first people to write were the Sumerians of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) sometime before 3000 BC. The exact date of Sumerian writing remains in doubt but the new Egyptian discoveries have been confidently dated to between 3300 BC and 3200 BC using carbon isotopes.

Why was scribes created?

They believed that committing speech to writing made the words real and true, a belief shared by all Egyptians, literate or not. Those unable to read themselves employed scribes to draw up contracts, letters, inventories and wills. Scribes were required to make agreements and intentions permanent and binding.