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) The apostles took advantage of them, not as Christian meeting places, but for preaching Christ as the Messiah to the Jews gathered there. The apostle Paul would first preach in the synagogue in a city, then turn to the Gentiles.—Acts 13:14-16, 44, 46; 14:1; 18:4-6.

Paul utilized the synagogue in Ephesus as a place of instruction for a period of three months and then withdrew those who had become disciples to a school auditorium, where he gave talks daily for two years. His schooling efforts resulted in education in God’s Word for the whole Roman district of Asia.—Acts 19:8-10.

Places of advanced religious schooling developed. For example, Saul (Paul) had studied at the feet of Gamaliel. The Jews challenged the qualifications of anyone claiming to instruct in God’s law if he had not studied at their schools.—Acts 22:3; John 7:15.

The congregation meeting place was used as a school for religious instruction by Paul and Barnabas. (Acts 11:25, 26; 14:27) Groups of Christians met in homes or other convenient places for schooling, as in Rome. (Rom. 16:3-5) In Colossae the home of Philemon was a meeting place; also the home of Nympha. (Rom. 16:3-16; Philem. 1, 2; Col. 4:15) A large upper chamber was used in Troas for a meeting with Paul. (Acts 20:6-8) Instructions for orderly congregation meetings are found at 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, in which it is clear that primary emphasis was placed on learning and edification.

Congregation meeting places served as schools where the scrolls of the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the writings of the apostles and their associates could be considered. Few Christians could possess all the Hebrew scrolls or copies of all the Christian letters. The meetings provided an opportunity for thorough examination and discussion of these. (Col. 4:16) Ostraca, pieces of broken pottery, were used by poor Christians, who did not possess other writing material, to write down Bible texts for personal study and use. As they heard the Scriptures read or had access to the scrolls at the meeting, they could copy them in ink on the pottery fragments. Many of these ostraca have been found inscribed with Bible texts, especially from the Gospels. At the same time schooling at home for the entire family continued as a vital part of Christian education. (Eph. 6:4; 1 Cor. 14:35) No separate arrangement for children, as with the modern-day “Sunday school,” was anywhere authorized or practiced by the Jews or by the Christian apostles. The children were to meet with parents and not be segregated. The divine command was that they must sit, listen and learn in the same school as adults. It was to be a family affair.—Deut. 31:10-13; see EDUCATION; INSTRUCTION.

SCORPION

A small animal (an arachnid, not included by biologists as among insects) classified in the same group as spiders, ticks and mites. But, unlike other arachnids, the female scorpion gives birth to living offspring instead of depositing eggs. Immediately after birth the young scamper up onto mother’s back, clinging to her body by their pincers. They subsist on stored-up energy until after their first molt; then they drop off and begin life’s usual routine.

The scorpion is equipped with eight walking legs, a long, narrow, segmented tail terminating in a curved, poisonous stinger, and a pair of pincers resembling those of a lobster and studded with hypersensitive hairs. The tail is usually carried upward and curved forward over the creature’s back and waves in all directions. The scorpion uses its stinger in defense and also to procure its prey. The victim is seized by the nippers and then usually stung to death. A nocturnal animal, the scorpion spends the day hidden under stones, in cracks and crevices of buildings and even under mats and beds, coming out at night to feed on spiders and insects.

Of the several hundred varieties of scorpions, generally ranging in size from less than an inch (2.5 centimeters) to eight inches (c. 20 centimeters), about a dozen types have been encountered in Palestine and Syria. Although the scorpion’s sting is usually not fatal to humans, there are several varieties with venom proportionately more potent than that of many dangerous desert vipers. For example, the yellow scorpion, common in Bible lands, is regarded by some as the deadliest scorpion in the world. Hundreds of persons, many of them children, have died from being stung by it. The great pain caused by a scorpion’s sting is noted at Revelation 9:3, 5, 10, where symbolic locusts are described as having “the same authority as the scorpions of the earth” and as having the capability of tormenting men just as “a scorpion when it strikes a man.”

Scorpions were common in the wilderness of Judea and the Sinai Peninsula with its “fear-inspiring wilderness.” (Deut. 8:15) An ascent on the SE frontier of Judah, located SW of the southern end of the Dead Sea, was even called Akrabbim (meaning scorpions).—Num. 34:4; Josh. 15:3; Judg. 1:36.

At 1 Kings 12:11, 14 and 2 Chronicles 10:14, the Hebrew term ʽaq·rab·bimʹ, rendered “scourges,” literally means “scorpions.” The instrument of punishment alluded to may have been a scourge equipped with sharp points.

In illustrating that his heavenly Father would give holy spirit to those asking him, Jesus Christ pointed out that a human father would not hand his son a scorpion if he requested an egg. (Luke 11:12, 13) To the seventy disciples he sent out, Jesus gave authority over injurious things, represented by serpents and scorpions.—Luke 10:19; compare Ezekiel 2:6.

SCOURGE

See BEATING.

SCRIBE

[Heb., so·pherʹ, enumerator, muster-officer, secretary, scribe; Gr., gram·ma·teusʹ, a scribe, a man of letters].

The term implies one who has learning. The Hebrew word comes from a root meaning “to write” or “to count” and is variously translated scribe, secretary, copyist. The tribe of Zebulun had those who possessed the “equipment of a scribe” for numbering and enrolling troops. (Judg. 5:14; compare 2 Kings 25:19; 2 Chronicles 26:11.) There were scribes or secretaries in connection with the temple. (2 Ki. 22:3) King Jehoash’s secretary worked together with the high priest in counting money contributed and then gave it to those paying wages to the workers repairing the temple. (2 Ki. 12:10-12) Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation. (Jer. 36:32) Secretaries of King Ahasuerus of Persia worked under the direction of Haman in writing out the decree for the destruction of the Jews, and under Mordecai when the counter-decree was sent out.—Esther 3:12; 8:9.

The Egyptian scribe was usually a man of the lower class but intelligent. He was well schooled. He carried his equipment, consisting of a palette with hollow places to hold ink of different colors, a water jug and reed-brush case. He was acquainted with the legal and business forms in use, for the filling out of which, taking dictation, and so forth, he received a fee.

In Babylon the scribe held a professional position. His services were practically indispensable, as the law required business transactions to be in writing, duly signed by the contracting parties and witnessed. The secretary would sit near the city gate, where most of the business was carried on, with his stylus and lump of clay, ready to sell his services whenever required. The scribes recorded business transactions, wrote letters, prepared documents, cared for temple records, and performed other clerical duties.

The Hebrew scribes acted as public notaries, prepared bills of divorce and recorded other transactions. At least in later times they had no fixed fee, so one could bargain with them beforehand. Usually one party or the other to a transaction paid the fee, but sometimes both shared. Ezekiel, in his vision, saw a man with a recorder’s inkhorn doing a marking work.—Ezek. 9:3, 4.