The Greek that is usually translated as “scribe” in English “were more than mere writers of the law. They were the trained interpreters of the law and expounders of tradition.”
Here are a number of its (back-) translations:
- Yaka: “clerk in God’s house”
- Amganad Ifugao: “man who wrote and taught in the synagogue”
- Navajo (Dinė): “teaching-writer” (“an attempt to emphasize their dual function”)
- Shipibo-Conibo: “book-wise person”
- San Blas Kuna: “one who knew the Jews’ ways”
- Loma: “educated one”
- San Mateo del Mar Huave: “one knowing holy paper”
- Central Mazahua: “writer of holy words”
- Indonesian: “expert in the Torah”
- Pamona: “man skilled in the ordinances” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Sinhala: “bearer-of-the-law”
- Marathi: “one-learned-in-the-Scriptures”
- Shona (1966): “expert of the law”
- Balinese: “expert of the books of Torah”
- Ekari: “one knowing paper/book”
- Tboli: “one who taught the law God before caused Moses to write” (or “one who taught the law of Moses”) (source for this and 5 above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
- Noongar: Mammarapa-Warrinyang or “law man” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
- Mairasi: “one who writes and explains Great Above One’s (=God’s) prohibitions” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- Chichewa: “teacher of Laws” (source: Ernst Wendland)
- North Alaskan Inupiatun: “teachers of law”
- Huehuetla Tepehua: “writer”
- Yatzachi Zapotec: “person who teaches the law which Moses wrote”
- Alekano: “man who knows wisdom” (source for this and four above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
- Saint Lucian Creole French: titcha lwa sé Jwif-la (“teacher of the law of the Jews”) (source: David Frank in Lexical Challenges in the St. Lucian Creole Bible Translation Project, 1998)
- Chichimeca-Jonaz: “one who teaches the holy writings”
- Atatláhuca Mixtec: “teacher of the words of the law”
- Coatlán Mixe: “teacher of the religious law”
- Lalana Chinantec: “one who is a teacher of the law which God gave to Moses back then”
- Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “one who know well the law” (Source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- Huixtán Tzotzil: “one who mistakenly thought he was teaching God’s commandments”(Huixtán Tzotzil frequently uses the verb -cuy to express “to mistakenly think something” from the point of view of the speaker; source: Marion M. Cowan in Notes on Translation 20/1966, pp. 6ff.)
- Sumau: “law-knowing men” (source: this blog post by Todd Owen)
- German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022): “theologian” and the 1998 translation by Walter Jens: “interpreter of scriptures” (Schriftausleger)
- English translation by Scot McKnight (The Second Testament, publ. 2023): Covenant Code scholar
In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines the signs for “expert” and “law.” (Source: Anna Smith)
“Scribe” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL , used with permission)