had been incurred by Saul and his house in connection with the Gibeonites was avenged when seven of his descendants were slain.—2 Sam. 21:1-9.

2. A Benjamite of the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor who persecuted Christ’s followers but later became an apostle of Jesus Christ. (Acts 9:1, 4, 17; 11:25; 21:39; Phil. 3:5) In all of his letters he referred to himself by his Latin name Paul.—See PAUL.

SAVIOR

One who preserves or delivers from danger or destruction. Jehovah is identified as the principal Savior, the only source of deliverance. (Isa. 43:11; 45:21) He was the Savior and Deliverer of Israel, time and again. (Ps. 106:8, 10, 21; Isa. 43:3; 45:15; Jer. 14:8) He saved not only the nation but also individuals who served him. (2 Sam. 22:1-3) Often his salvation was through men raised up by him as saviors. (Neh. 9:27) During the period of the Judges, these special saviors were divinely selected and empowered to deliver Israel from foreign oppression. (Judg. 2:16; 3:9, 15) While the judge lived, he served to keep Israel in the right way, and this brought them relief from their enemies. (Judg. 2:18) When Jesus was on earth, Jehovah was his Savior, supporting and strengthening him to maintain integrity through his strenuous trials.—Heb. 5:7; Ps. 28:8.

Along with his role as Savior, Jehovah is also the “Repurchaser.” (Isa. 49:26; 60:16) In the past he redeemed his people Israel from captivity. In delivering Christians from sin’s bondage, he does the repurchasing through his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 4:14), Jehovah’s provision for salvation, who is therefore exalted as “Chief Agent and Savior.” (Acts 5:31) Accordingly, Jesus Christ can rightly be called “our Savior,” even though he performs the salvation as the agent of Jehovah. (Titus 1:4; 2 Pet. 1:11) The name Jesus, given to God’s Son by angelic direction, means “Salvation [or Help] of Jehovah,” for, said the angel, “he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21; Luke 1:31) This name points out that Jehovah is the Source of salvation, accomplished through Jesus. For this reason we find the Father and the Son spoken of together in connection with salvation.—Titus 2:11-13; 3:4-6.

Salvation is provided by Jehovah through Jesus Christ for “all sorts of men” (1 Tim. 2:4; 4:10) from sin and death (Rom. 8:2), from Babylon the Great (Rev. 18:2, 4), from this world under Satan’s control (John 17:16; Col. 1:13), and from destruction and everlasting death. (Rev. 7:14-17; 21:3, 4) A “great crowd” is shown at Revelation 7:9, 10 attributing salvation to God and to the Lamb.

The ransom sacrifice is the basis for salvation, and as King and everlasting High Priest Christ Jesus has the authority and power “to save completely those who are approaching God through him.” (Heb. 7:23-25; Rev. 19:16) He is “a savior of this body,” the congregation of his anointed followers, and also of all who exercise faith in him.—Eph. 5:23; 1 John 4:14: John 3:16, 17.

SAW

A cutting tool with a notched or toothed blade and one or two handles, or sometimes consisting of a blade fixed to a frame. Early saws did not cut in both directions; some were designed to cut when pulled toward the user; others, when pushed away. Egyptian saws were generally made of bronze and usually had teeth that slanted in the direction of the handle. Such a saw would cut when drawn toward the person using it. The blade was either inserted in the handle or fastened to it by means of thongs. Two-handled saws having iron blades were in use among the Assyrians. Hebrew and other carpenters employed the saw to cut wood, and masons used saws capable of cutting stone.—Isa. 10:15; 1 Ki. 7:9.

David put captive Ammonites to work at such tasks as sawing stones. (2 Sam. 12:29-31) Their tools included “axes,” or, literally, “stone saws,” according to the Masoretic text at 1 Chronicles 20:3. In some cases it appears that copper-bladed saws with stone teeth were used to cut stone. But apparently an abrasive such as emery powder was sometimes put under the cutting edge of a saw having a copper or a bronze blade so as to facilitate the cutting of stone.

Persecution of faithful pre-Christian witnesses of Jehovah was so severe at times that some were killed by being “sawn asunder.” (Heb. 11:37, 38) According to tradition, wicked King Manasseh had Isaiah put to death in such an extremely painful manner, though the Scriptures do not say so.

SCALES

A number of Hebrew and Greek words are appropriately rendered by the English word “scales,” which has various meanings.

ANIMAL SCALES

Flattened, rigid plates forming part of the outer body covering of many fishes and reptiles. The Law ruled as ceremonially clean for food “everything that has fins and scales in the waters.” Water animals lacking such could not be eaten; they were “a loathsome thing.” (Lev. 11:9, 10, 12; Deut. 14:9, 10) Thus scales (Heb., qas·qeʹseth) were one of the easily recognizable signs as to whether a certain fish could be eaten. Though there are four types of fish scales, most common are ctenoid scales (with a comblike edge) and cycloid scales (with a rounded border). These are arranged in overlapping rows, forming a thin, light and flexible covering.

The same Hebrew word is used in Ezekiel 29:4, where the Egyptian Pharaoh is symbolically described as what seems to be a crocodile. The entire body of a crocodile is covered with strong plates of horn set in its leathery skin. Job 41:15-17 apparently also refers to the scales (AS, NW, MR) of the crocodile, in this case using the Hebrew word that is often translated “shield.”—See CROCODILE.

SCALES FOR WEIGHING

A device for weighing objects. The ancients were acquainted with the simple beam scale or balance. It consisted of a horizontal bar or beam pivoted at the center on a peg or cord, and from each end of the beam hung a pan or hook. The object to be weighed was put in one pan (or hung on one hook, as with a small bag of money) and the known weights were put on the other side. (Jer. 32:10; Isa. 46:6; Gen. 23:15, 16; Ezek. 5:1; see MONEY.) During a famine, even food might be measured carefully on a balance. The rider of the black horse described at Revelation 6:5 held a pair of scales “for measuring bread by weight, to personify bad times, when provisions became cruelly expensive.”—The Expositor’s Greek Testament, Vol. V, p. 390.

Jehovah commanded honesty and accuracy in using scales (Lev. 19:35, 36), for a cheating pair of scales was detestable to him. (Prov. 11:1; 16:11; Ezek. 45:10) Scales could be made inaccurate by having the arms of unequal length, or rendered less sensitive by having the arms relatively short or by making the beam thicker and heavier. At times Israelites used scales fraudulently (Hos. 12:7; Amos 8:5), and they multiplied the deception by using inaccurate weights, one set for buying and another for selling.—Prov. 20:23.

Weighing scales were spoken of figuratively, as when Job mentioned ‘weighing his adversity on scales.’ (Job 6:2) The littleness of earthling men was emphasized by saying that they are lighter than an exhalation on the scales (Ps. 62:9), and the nations were compared to an insignificant film of dust on the scales from the standpoint of Jehovah, who could, as it were, weigh all the hills in the scales. (Isa. 40:12, 15) Scales were sometimes used to represent accurate measurement in judgment.—Job 31:6; Dan. 5:27.

SCALES OF ARMOR

A coat of mail might have attached to it scales (Heb., qas·qeʹseth) consisting of small metal plates that overlapped and provided a relatively flexible armor plate.—1 Sam. 17:5; see ARMS, ARMOR (Coat of Mail).

SCALES ON PAUL’S EYES

When Paul was cured of the blindness resulting from Jesus’ appearing to him, “what looked like scales” fell from his eyes. (Acts 9:18) Certain translations (Dy, Da, AV) render this verse in a way that suggests that nothing actually fell from Paul’s eyes, but that the verse is simply using figurative language for his regaining sight. However, numerous modern translations indicate that something really fell from Paul’s eyes.—AT, NW, RS, Sd, We.

SCARECROW

An object such as a pole or pile of stones arranged in a field in such a way as to frighten away birds or other animals. Jeremiah likened the idols of the nations to “a scarecrow [Heb., toʹmer] of a cucumber field.” (Jer. 10:5) The word toʹmer is elsewhere rendered “palm tree.” (Judg. 4:5) The root verb ta·marʹ, from which toʹmer is drawn, is thought to correspond to an Arabic word meaning “to be erect”; toʹmer can therefore mean “palm tree.” But, as to the rendering of toʹmer at Jeremiah 10:5, modern translators seem generally to agree with the suggestion of Koehler and Baumgartner, in Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros, that it be rendered “scarecrow” in this text. Truly the idols of the nations amounted to no more than a scarecrow, a falsity.—AT, Mo, NE, 1970 ed., NW, RS.

SCARLET

See DYES, DYEING.

SCENTED WOOD

[Gr., thyʹi·nos].

Among the luxury items that traders brought to symbolic “Babylon the Great” were included articles “in scented wood.” (Rev. 17:5; 18:11, 12) Such wood likely came from N Africa. It was prized by the ancient Romans for the making of costly furniture. One table made for Cicero is said to have cost the equivalent of $45,000. The Roman historian Pliny speaks of a veritable mania developing among the Romans for tables of this wood. The most costly wood was that from the lower part of the trunk, due to the variety in the grain and the broadness of the sections obtainable. The wood was fragrant, hard, and took a high polish; and because of wavy or spiral lines in the grain some of the tables came to be called “tiger tables” or “panther tables.” Among the Greeks the balsamic wood was used in temple worship, and its name is derived from the Greek term for making burnt offerings.

The tree producing this scented wood is understood to be the sandarac tree, a coniferous tree native to N Africa and of the cypress family, growing to a height of fifteen to twenty-five feet (4.6 to 7.6 meters). Its wood has a rich reddish-brown hue and is finely marked.

SCEPTER

A baton or rod carried by a ruler as an emblem of royal authority. At times “scepter” is used in a figurative sense to represent kings (Ezek. 19:10, 11, 14) or authority (Zech. 10:11), especially royal authority.

In ancient Persia, unless the monarch held out the golden scepter, anyone who appeared uninvited before the king was put to death.—Esther 4:11; 5:2; 8:4.

Jacob’s prophetic words that the ‘scepter would not turn aside from Judah’ indicated that the kingship would come to be and remain the possession of the tribe of Judah. (Gen. 49:10; see COMMANDER’S STAFF.) Centuries later the Babylonians, acting as Jehovah’s executional “sword,” destroyed the kingdom of Judah and took its king captive. This is alluded to by Jehovah’s words through Ezekiel: “A sword, a sword! It has been sharpened, and it is also polished. . . . Is it rejecting the scepter of my own son, as it does every tree? . . . For an extermination has been made, and what of it if it is rejecting also the scepter?” (Ezek. 21:9, 10, 13) Thus the “sword” treated the Judean “scepter” of the Davidic dynasty like every tree (to be chopped down) or like other kings or kingdoms that it brought to ruin.

The second psalm, a prophecy that Peter applied to Jesus Christ (Acts 4:25-27), showed that Jehovah’s anointed one would use an iron scepter to break the nations to pieces. (Ps. 2:2, 6, 9; compare Revelation 12:5; 19:15.) As Jesus Christ always uses his royal authority in the right way, his scepter is one of uprightness.—Ps. 45:6, 7; Heb. 1:8, 9.

Psalm 125:3 states that the “scepter of wickedness will not keep resting upon the lot of the righteous ones.” These words give assurance that the righteous will not always be oppressed by those who exercise authority in a wicked way.

SCEVA

(Sceʹva).

A Jewish “chief priest.” His seven sons were among “certain ones of the roving Jews who practiced the casting out of demons.” In one instance, in the city of Ephesus, they tried to exorcise a demon by saying, “I solemnly charge you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” The wicked spirit responded by saying: “I know Jesus and I am acquainted with Paul; but who are you?” The man obsessed by the spirit then leaped upon Sceva’s seven sons and drove them out of the house naked and wounded. This resulted in magnifying the name of the Lord and caused many to give heed to the good news that Paul was preaching.—Acts 19:13-20.

No Jewish priest named Sceva is elsewhere mentioned, unless Sceva was a Latin name for a priest otherwise known by a Hebrew name.

SCHOOL

[from Gr., skho·leʹ, basically, “leisure”; then, that for which leisure was employed, a disputation, lecture, study, learning; by metonymy, school].

The Creator placed the responsibility upon parents to teach their offspring the true meaning of life, their physical lives as well as their spiritual lives. They were to train them up in the way they were to go, and this training would be a guide to their children, not only in their youth, but also in their old age. (Prov. 22:6) Parents were obligated to begin the training during the child’s infancy. (2 Tim. 3:14, 15) To fulfill this obligation they were to provide schooling for their children in the home. It appears that there were no community schools for children in ancient Israel. The home was the school. The parent was to teach by example as well as by precept, and schooling was to be a regular and continuous arrangement.—Gen. 18:19; Deut. 6:6-9, 20-25; Prov. 6:20.

King Jehoshaphat of Judah instituted schooling in God’s law by sending princes, priests and Levites to teach in all the cities of Judah, with the good result that Jehovah blessed his rule with peace and prosperity.—2 Chron. 17:7-12.

From the exiles taken to Babylon with King Jehoiachin in 617 B.C.E. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon selected some Israelite youths, including some of the royal offspring and sons of the nobles. Among them were Daniel and his three companions. These Jews were taught the Chaldean language and given special instruction for service in the king’s palace. They proved to be very apt students.—Dan. 1:2-7, 18-20.

It seems that, before the exile, there were meeting places for instruction in God’s law, aside from the temple. (Ps. 74:8) After the return from exile in Babylon both Ezra and Nehemiah vigorously promoted education in God’s law as the really vital factor in restoration. All the people were gathered to hear the Law read and explained by the Levites. (Ezra 7:10; Neh. chap. 8) Synagogues (from Gr., sy·na·go·geʹ, a bringing together) were places of instruction, not of sacrifice, which was restricted to the temple. (Acts 15:21) It is not known when synagogues were instituted, but many, because of the Jewish dispersion, existed throughout Palestine and the Greek-speaking world before and during Jesus’ earthly ministry, a goodly number being in Jerusalem. Jesus made use of these places for teaching. (Luke 4:16-21; Matt. 13:54)