2. As to the organization of these colleges, the presi- dent of each school sat in front ; next to hira in rank was the superior judge (Ileb. 'pi n^a 2X; Aramaic S3"i"'T K321), who discharged the judicial functions, and was presumptive successor to the Gaonate. Then came the ten who constituted the more limited synod, seven of whom were at the head of the assembled students (rilPS "''kUXI), and three associates (Q'i~l2n) ; these sat with their faces towards the president. Then came the college of one hundred members, subdivided into two un- even bodies — the one consisting of seventy members and representing the Great Sanhedrim (q. v.\ the other con- sisting of thirty members and representing the Smaller Sanhedrim. Of these hundred, the seventy only were ordained; they bore the title of teachers (~^2lbx, nia- gistri), or the ordained sages (n'i2l?2Dn '^'Gzn), and were capable of advancing to the highest office, while the other thirty were simply candidates ('^'O'T^p "^32), and do not seem to have been legally entitled to a seat or voice. The seventy sat in seven rows, each consist- ing of ten, and being under one of the seven heads of the college. Tliey transmitted their membership to their sons.
3. The Workand Authority of these Colleges. — In later times these colleges assembled together for two months in the year — viz. in Adar (=March) and Elul ( = Sep- tember). In these sittings the members explained dif- ficult points in the Talmud, discussed and answered all the legal and ritual questions which were sent in dur- ing the vacation from the different Jewish communities abroad, and enacted new laws for the guidance and reg- ulation of the dispersed congregations, in accordance with the requirements of the ever-shifting circum- stances of the nation and the sundry localities. Each member of the college took part in the discussions; the president summed up the various opinions, decided the question, and ordered the secretary to write down the decision. All the decisions which were passed through the session were read over again by the president before the assembly was dissolved, were signed in the name of the college, sealed with the college seal, and forward- ed by special messengers to the respective communities, who, in return, sent gifts to the college, which consti- tuted the extraordinary revenue of these schools for training the doctors of the law. Their ordinary income was derived from regular taxes which the college fixed for those commimities which were under their jurisdic- tion. Thus the jurisdiction of Sora extended over the south of Irak, with the two important cities Wasit and Bassra, to Ophir ( = Iudia), and its annual income, even
when it began to decline, amounted to 1500 ducats; while that of Pumbaditha extended over the north of Irak up to Khorassan. The president, with the superior judge and the seven heads of the college, appointed judges for each district, and gave them regular diplo- mas. As these judges, or dayanim (D'^S'^I), had not only to decide civil questions, but also to settle religious mat- ters; they were also the rahbius of the respective com- munities, and selected for themselves, in each place, two learned members of the congregation, who were styled elders (n"^3pt), and with them constituted the judicial and rabbinate college. This local college had to issue all the legal instruments — such as marriage contracts, letters of divorce, bills of exchange, business contracts, receipts, etc. Though each of the two imperial colleges had the power of governing itself and of managing its own affairs and dependencies, yet the College of Sora was, at first, over that of Pumbaditha, as may be seen from the following facts: (1.) In the absence of the prince of the exiles, the gaon of Sora was regent, and called in the taxes from all the Jewish communities. ('2.) The College of Sora got two shares of the taxes, while Pumbaditha onlj' got one share. (3.) The presi- dent of Sora took precedence of the president of Pumba- ditha, even though the former happened to be a young mail and the latter an old man. In later times, how- ever, the College of Pumbaditha rose to the dignity of Sora, and eventually eclipsed it. These seats of learn- ing, in which were trained the doctors of the law — the successors of the ancient scribes — and which represent- ed the unbroken chain of tradition and ordination, were extinguished in the middle of the 11th century.
VI. Literature. — Krochmal, More Nehoche Ha-Seman (Lemberg, 1851), p. IGl, etc. ; Frankel, Monatsschriftfur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums (Dessau, 1852), i, 203 sq., 403 sq. ; Steinschneider, Jewish Litera- ture (Lond. 1857), p. 9, etc.; Catalogus Libr. Ilebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleinna, \).26lb, etc.; Griitz, in Frankel's Monatsschrift (Leips. 1857), vii, 336 sq., 381 sq. ; Ge- schichte der Juden, vols, iv and v ; Frankel, Ilodegetica in Mischnam (Lips. 1859) ; and the Latin monographs of Syrbius (Vitemb. 1670), Georgius (ibid. 1734), and Hect ( Francof. 1737 ) ; also Pick, The Scribes in the Time of Christ (in the Lutheran Quarterly, 1878, p. 249 sq.).
Scrip, an old Saxon name for satchel {Bible Educa- tor, iv, 209), is used in the A. V. as a rendering of the Heb. 'i^^pb'2, yalhut (from wJTP, to collect; Sept. cvWo- yi'l), in 1 Sam. xvii, 40, where it appears as a synonym for D'^I^iri i?3 (rb kqCiov to Troif.ieinKoi'), the bag in which the shepherds of Palestine carried their food or other necessaries. In Symmachus and the Yi\\g.pera, and in the marginal reading of A. \. " scrip," appear in 2 Kings iv, 42 for the "ji^p^, tsikhm, which in the text of the A. V. is translated hush (comp. Gesen. s. v.). The 7r/(|0o of the New Test, appears in our Lord's command to his disciples as distinguished from the i^wi'?; (Matt. X, 10; Mark vi, 8) and the [iaXXai'Tior (Luke x, 4; xxii, 35, 36), and its nature and use are sufficiently de- fined by the lexicographers. The English word has a meaning precisely equivalent to that of the Greek. Connected, as it probably is, with scrape, scraji, the scrip was used for articles of food. It belonged especially to shepherds {As You Like It, act iii, sc. 2). It was made of leather (Milton, Com?/,*, 626). The later sense of scrip as a written certificate is, it need hardly be said, of different origin or meaning; the word, on its first use in English, was written script (Chaucer). Tiic scrip of the ancient peasants was of leather, used especially to carry their food on a journey (// Sttjici) toji' lipTwi', Suid. ; £i-pf.ia Ti aprofopor, Ammon. ), and slung over their shoulders. In the Talmudic writers the word P^TDin is used as denoting the same thing, and is named as part of the equipment both of shepherds in their com-