SECRETARY

Usually an appointed official skilled at writing and keeping records. The Hebrew word so·pherʹ can be rendered in a number of ways, such as “secretary,” “scribe” and “copyist.”

At least at times in Israel there was a trusted court official of high rank called the “secretary of the king,” or the “secretary.” (2 Chron. 24:11; 2 Ki. 19:2) He was not simply a scribe such as would be employed in merely making documents, or a copyist of the Law. (Judg. 5:14; Neh. 13:13; compare 2 Samuel 8:15-18; 20:23-26; see COPYIST; SCRIBE.) On occasion the secretary of the king handled financial matters (2 Ki. 12:10, 11) and spoke as a representative of the king, in a capacity similar to that of a ‘foreign secretary.’ (Isa. 36:2-4, 22; 37:2, 3) Under Solomon’s rule two of the “princes” are named as secretaries.—1 Ki. 4:2, 3; compare 2 Chronicles 16:11; 34:13.

In addition to the “secretary of the king,” the Bible mentions the secretary “of the house of Jehovah” (2 Ki. 22:3), “of the chief of the army” (2 Ki. 25:19; Jer. 52:25) and “of the Levites.” (1 Chron. 24:6) Baruch was a scribal secretary for Jeremiah.—Jer. 36:32.