(3.) “Who is also called Paul” (q.v.), the circumcision name of the apostle,
given to him, perhaps, in memory of King Saul (Acts 7:58; 8:1; 9:1).
- SAVIOUR one who saves from any form or degree of evil. In its highest
sense the word indicates the relation sustained by our Lord to his
redeemed ones, he is their Saviour. The great message of the gospel is
about salvation and the Saviour. It is the “gospel of salvation.” Faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ secures to the sinner a personal interest in the work of
redemption. Salvation is redemption made effectual to the individual by
the power of the Holy Spirit. - SCAPEGOAT Leviticus 16:8-26; R.V., “the goat for Azazel” (q.v.), the
name given to the goat which was taken away into the wilderness on the
day of Atonement (16:20-22). The priest made atonement over the
scapegoat, laying Israel’s guilt upon it, and then sent it away, the goat
bearing “upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited.”
At a later period an evasion or modification of the law of Moses was
introduced by the Jews. “The goat was conducted to a mountain named
Tzuk, situated at a distance of ten Sabbath days’ journey, or about six and
a half English miles, from Jerusalem. At this place the Judean desert was
supposed to commence; and the man in whose charge the goat was sent
out, while setting him free, was instructed to push the unhappy beast
down the slope of the mountain side, which was so steep as to insure the
death of the goat, whose bones were broken by the fall. The reason of this
barbarous custom was that on one occasion the scapegoat returned to
Jerusalem after being set free, which was considered such an evil omen that
its recurrence was prevented for the future by the death of the goat”
(Twenty-one Years’ Work in the Holy Land). This mountain is now called
el-Muntar.
- SCARLET This dye was obtained by the Egyptians from the shell-fish
Carthamus tinctorius; and by the Hebrews from the Coccus ilicis, an insect
which infests oak trees, called kermes by the Arabians.
This colour was early known (Genesis 38:28). It was one of the colours of
the ephod (Exodus 28:6), the girdle (8), and the breastplate (15) of the high
priest. It is also mentioned in various other connections (Joshua 2:18; 2
Samuel 1:24; Lamentations 4:5; Nahum 2:3). A scarlet robe was in
mockery placed on our Lord (Matthew 27:28; Luke 23:11). “Sins as