ATS Bible Dictionary ScythiansWandering tribes in the immense regions north and northeast of the Black and Caspian Seas. They are said by Herodotus to have made an incursion into Southwestern Asia and Egypt, some seven hundred years before Christ; and it was perhaps a fragment of this host, located at Bethshean, which gave that city its classical name Scythopolis. In Colossians 3:11, "Scythian" appears to signify the rudest of barbarians. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia SCYTHIANSsith'-i-anz (hoi Skuthai): The word does not occur in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, but Septuagint of Judges 1:27 inserts (Skuthon polis (Scythopolis), in explanation, as being the same as Beth-shean. The same occurs in Apocrypha (Judith 3:10; 1 Maccabees 12:29), and the Scythians as a people in 2 Maccabees 4:47, and the adjective in 3 Maccabees 7:5. The people are also mentioned in the New Testament (Colossians 3:11), where, as in Maccabees, the fact that they were barbarians is implied. This is clearly set forth in classical writers, and the description of them given by Herodotus in book iv of his history represents a race of savages, inhabiting a region of rather indefinite boundaries, north of the Black and Caspian seas and the Caucasus Mountains. They were nomads who neither plowed nor sowed (iv.19), moving about in wagons and carrying their dwellings with them (ibid. 46); they had the most filthy habits and never washed in water (ibid. 75); they drank the blood of the first enemy killed in battle, and made napkins of the scalps and drinking bowls of the skulls of the slain (ibid. 64-65). Their deities were many of them identified with those of the Greeks, but the most characteristic rite was the worship of the naked sword (ibid. 62), and they sacrificed every hundredth man taken in war to this deity. War was their chief business, and they were a terrible scourge to the nations of Western Asia. They broke through the barrier of the Caucasus in 632 B.C. and swept down like a swarm of locusts upon Media and Assyria, turning the fruitful fields into a desert; pushing across Mesopotamia, they ravaged Syria and were about to invade Egypt when Psammitichus I, who was besieging Ashdod, bought them off by rich gifts, but they remained in Western Asia for 28 years, according to Herodotus. It is supposed that a company of them settled in Beth-shean, and from this circumstance it received the name Scythopolis. Various branches of the race appeared at different times, among the most noted of which were the PARTHIANS (which see). Greek 3098. Magog -- Magog, a foreign nation ... Magog Definition: (Hebrew), Magog, sometimes as name of a people, sometimes as name of a country in the Old Testament, probably the Scythians; hence: used in ... //strongsnumbers.com/greek2/3098.htm - 6k Library Oracles on the Scythians. (With Some Others: iv. 5-vi. 29. ) Of his Care for the Scythians and his Zeal against the Marcionists Conquest of the Scythians Defeated through the Sign of Our Saviour ... List of the Places in which the Nicene Doctrines were Represented ... To this Our Answer Is, that if the Scythians... Peter, Having Returned from Rome, Regains the Churches of Egypt ... Appendix I. In the Next Place, Speaking of those who Employ the Arts of Magic ... The Last Days of the Old Eastern World Book 11 Footnotes Thesaurus Scythians... Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia SCYTHIANS. sith'-i-anz (hoi Skuthai): The word does not occur in the Hebrew of the Old Testament ... /s/scythians.htm - 8k Zephaniah (11 Occurrences) Beth-shean (5 Occurrences) Bethshean (5 Occurrences) Scythian (1 Occurrence) Nahum (3 Occurrences) Jeremiah (141 Occurrences) Kittim (8 Occurrences) Gomer (7 Occurrences) Rosh (5 Occurrences) Resources What is the biblical account of Shem, Ham, and Japheth? | GotQuestions.orgWho were the Assyrians in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org Who was Japheth in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org Bible Concordance • Bible Dictionary • Bible Encyclopedia • Topical Bible • Bible Thesuarus |