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SchoolAid to Bible Understanding
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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.
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ScorpionAid to Bible Understanding
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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.
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ScourgeAid to Bible Understanding
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SCOURGE
See BEATING.
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ScribeAid to Bible Understanding
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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.
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