The oldest extra-biblical mention of the synagogue, is in the Mishnic treatise _Pirke Aboth_, where it is said, “Moses received the laws from Mount Sinai, and delivered it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, the elders to the prophets, and the prophets delivered it to the men of the great synagogue. These last spake these words: ‘Be slow in judgment; appoint many disciples; make a hedge for the law.’ ”(37) In the Talmudic _Baba Bathra_, their biblical doings are described: “Moses wrote his book, the section about Balaam and job. Joshua wrote his book and eight verses of the law. Samuel wrote his book and judges and Ruth. David wrote the book of Psalms _by_ (?)(38) ten elders, by Adam the first man, by Melchizedek, by Abraham, by Moses, by Heman, by Jeduthun, by Asaph, and the three sons of Korah. Jeremiah wrote his book, the books of Kings and Lamentations. Hezekiah and his friends wrote Isaiah, Proverbs, Canticles, and Coheleth; the men of the great synagogue, Ezekiel, the twelve prophets, Daniel and Esther. Ezra wrote his own book and the genealogies of Chronicles down to himself.”(39) This passage has its obscurities. What is meant by the verb _write_!(40) Does it mean _composition_ and then something else; the former in the first part of the passage, and _editing_ in the second? Rashi explains it of _composition_ throughout, which introduces absurdity. The most obvious interpretation is that which understands the verb of _writing_ in one place, and _editing_ in the second. But it is improbable that the author should have used the same word in different senses, in one and the same passage. Bloch(41) understands it of _copying_ or _writing out_, a sense that suits the procedure of the men of the great synagogue in regard to Ezekiel, the twelve prophets, &c., but is inapplicable to Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Jeremiah, &c. It is probable enough that the synagogue scribes put into their present form and made the first authorized copies of the works specified. The Boraitha, however, is not clear, and may only express the opinion of a private individual in a confused way. Simon the Just is said to have belonged to the remnants of the synagogue. As Ezra is called “a ready scribe,” and his labors in connection with the law were important, he may have organized a body of literary men who should work in harmony, attending, among other things, to the collection and preservation of the national literature; or they may have been an association of patriotic men who voluntarily rallied round the heads of the new state, to support them in their fundamental reforms. The company of scribes mentioned in 1 Maccabees does not probably relate to it.(42) A succession of priests and scribes, excited at first by the reforming zeal of one whom later Jews looked upon as a second Moses, labored in one department of literary work till the corporation ceased to exist soon after, if not in the time of Simon, _i.e._, from about 445 B.C.