First Century Scribes

The scribes were not a sect at the time of Christ (1st century CE). They were a professional class or occupational group—experts in the Jewish Law (Torah), teachers, copyists of scriptures, legal interpreters, and drafters of documents—rather than a distinct religious sect with its own unified beliefs or party structure.

Scribes did not form their own sect like these. Instead:

They could belong to different groups. Many scribes aligned with the Pharisees (hence the frequent pairing “scribes and Pharisees” in the Gospels), but some were associated with Sadducees or operated independently.

Jesus – Messiah, Scribes, Pharisees | Britannica