2 Samuel 8:17 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Seraiah was the scribe— Supposed to be the king's secretary of state, or prime counsellor in the law. Bishop Patrick says, that as the Hebrew word סופר sopher, which we translate scribe, imports something of learning, as the word scribe does in the New Testament, he takes Seraiah to have been the king's prime counsellor in the law; and others think there were two of this character, an ecclesiastical and a civil. See 1 Chronicles 27:32. It has been supposed by some, that Zadok was the high-priest, and Ahimelech his סגן segan, or vicar; while others think, that neither of these was the high-priest, but the vicars of Abiathar, and the heads of the sacerdotal families.