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SapphiraAid to Bible Understanding
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in Jerusalem were doing to meet the emergency that developed after Pentecost of 33 C.E.
The sin of Ananias and Sapphira was, not that they did not give the entire amount of the price of the possession sold, but that they lyingly claimed to do so, evidently to receive plaudits of men rather than to honor God and to do good toward his congregation. Their deception was exposed by Peter, under the inspiration of holy spirit. He said: “Ananias, why has Satan emboldened you to play false to the holy spirit and to hold back secretly some of the price of the field? As long as it remained with you did it not remain yours, and after it was sold did it not continue in your control? Why was it that you purposed such a deed as this in your heart? You have played false, not to men, but to God.” On hearing Peter’s words, Ananias fell down and expired.
After about three hours Sapphira came in and repeated the lie. Peter then asked her: “Why was it agreed upon between you two to make a test of the spirit of Jehovah?” Sapphira likewise fell down and expired. This incident served as discipline for the congregation, causing them to have great fear, and doubtless great respect and appreciation of the fact that Jehovah indeed dwelt in the congregation by spirit.—Acts 4:34, 35; 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 3:16, 17; Eph. 2:22; compare 1 Timothy 1:20.
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SapphireAid to Bible Understanding
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SAPPHIRE
A transparent or translucent precious stone; a variety of corundum that is just below the diamond in hardness. Although sapphires occur in many colors, the deep-blue shades are most highly esteemed. The sapphires referred to in the Bible were apparently blue. A sapphire was one of the stones in the high priest’s “breastpiece of judgment.”—Ex. 28:15-18; 39:11.
INFERIOR TO WISDOM
Job, who lived about the seventeenth century B.C.E., described the efforts of men in digging deep into the earth to mine gold and precious jewels, and mentions the sapphire among the rare stones so located. But, says Job, valuable as sapphire is and difficult to obtain, wisdom is far superior and cannot be paid for with such stones.—Job 28:4-6, 12, 16.
FIGURATIVE USE
The lustrous beauty, the pleasurable, captivating, and enthralling effect caused by viewing precious gems was used figuratively in connection with visions of God’s glory. After the Law covenant was instituted Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy of the older men of Israel received a vision of Jehovah, and beneath his feet “there was what seemed like a work of sapphire flagstones and like the very heavens for purity.” (Ex. 24:8-11) In visions of the glory of Jehovah, Ezekiel twice beheld “the likeness of a throne” that was “like sapphire stone.”—Ezek. 1:1, 26-28; 10:1-4.
When Jehovah, as Zion’s husbandly Owner, spoke of her restoration and beautification he said: “I will lay your foundation with sapphires.” (Isa. 54:5, 11) Similarly, the apostle John’s vision of the heavenly New Jerusalem revealed that sapphire was part of its foundations.—Rev. 21:2, 19.
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SarahAid to Bible Understanding
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SARAH
(Sarʹah) [princess], Sarai (Sarʹai) [contentious].
Half sister and wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. (Gen. 11:29; 20:12; Isa. 51:2) Her original name was Sarai. (Gen. 17:15) She was ten years younger than Abraham (Gen. 17:17) and married him while they were living in the Chaldean city of Ur. (Gen. 11:28, 29) She continued barren until her reproductive powers were miraculously revived after she had already stopped menstruating.—Gen. 18:11; Rom. 4:19; Heb. 11:11.
Sarah may have been in her sixties when she left Ur with Abraham and took up residence in Haran. At the age of sixty-five she accompanied her husband from Haran to the land of Canaan. (Gen. 12:4, 5)
There they spent time at Shechem, in the mountainous region E of Bethel and various other places, before famine forced them to go to Egypt.—Gen. 12:6-10.
Though advanced in years, Sarah was very beautiful in appearance. Therefore, Abraham had earlier requested that, whenever necessary in the course of their travels, Sarah identify him as her brother, lest others kill him and then take her. (Gen. 20:13) In Egypt this resulted in Sarah’s being taken into the household of Pharaoh on the recommendation of his princes. But divine intervention prevented Pharaoh from violating her. Thereafter he returned Sarah to Abraham, requesting that they leave the land. He also provided safe conduct for Abraham and his possessions.—Gen. 12:11-20.
It is noteworthy that an ancient papyrus tells of a Pharaoh who commissioned armed men to seize an attractive woman and kill her husband. Thus Abraham’s fear that he might be killed on account of Sarah was not unfounded. Rather than endangering his life in an unsuccessful attempt to save the honor of his wife in an alien land, Abraham followed what appeared to him to be the safest course. It should be remembered that Abraham was the owner of his wife. Sarah was happy to serve Jehovah and Abraham in this way. Never do the Scriptures censure Abraham for having done this.
Ten years after having originally entered Canaan, seventy-five-year-old Sarah requested that Abraham have relations with her Egyptian maidservant Hagar in order to have children from her. (Gen. 16:1-3) The resultant difficulties made it apparent that this was not Jehovah’s way for fulfilling the promise previously made to Abraham concerning the “seed.” (Gen. 15:1-16) Becoming aware of her pregnancy, Hagar began despising her mistress. When Sarah voiced complaint, Abraham granted his wife full authority to deal with Hagar as her maidservant. Humiliated by Sarah, Hagar ran away from her mistress but returned in obedience to divine direction, after which she gave birth to Ishmael.—Gen. 16:4-16.
About thirteen years after Ishmael’s birth, on the occasion of Abraham’s being divinely commanded to circumcise all the males of his household, Abraham was also instructed to call his wife, no longer by the name “Sarai,” but “Sarah,” meaning “princess.” Regarding Sarah, God said: “I will bless her and also give you a son from her; and I will bless her and she shall become nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” (Gen. 17:9-27) Not long thereafter, at Mamre, one of three angelic visitors reaffirmed that Sarah would give birth to a son. Overhearing this in her tent, “Sarah began to laugh inside herself, saying: ‘After I am worn out, shall I really have pleasure, my lord being old besides?’” Reproved for laughing, Sarah fearfully denied having done so. (Gen. 18:1-15; Rom. 9:9) Since Sarah is cited at Hebrews 11:11 as an example of faith, evidently her laughter was not an expression of complete unbelief, but merely reflected some doubt. The thought of having a son in her old age apparently struck her as somewhat humorous. Sarah’s acknowledgment (inside herself) of Abraham as her lord was indicative of her obedience and subjection to her husbandly head, and her example is recommended to Christian wives.—1 Pet. 3:5, 6.
Possibly she was pregnant when she and her husband began residing at Gerar. As previously, Abraham referred to his wife as his sister. The king of Gerar, Abimelech, then took Sarah. Again Jehovah’s intervention saved her from being violated. Upon returning Sarah to Abraham, Abimelech gave livestock and male and female servants to Abraham, perhaps in compensation for having temporarily deprived him of his wife. Additionally he gave Abraham a thousand pieces of silver. These silver pieces were to serve as evidence that Sarah was cleared of all reproach against her as a moral woman.—Gen. chap. 20.
At the age of ninety, Sarah had the joy of giving birth to Isaac. She then exclaimed: “God has prepared laughter for me: everybody hearing of it will laugh at me.” Such laughter would evidently be prompted by delight and amazement over the birth of the child. Sarah nursed her son for about five years. When Isaac was finally weaned, Abraham spread a big feast. On that occasion Sarah observed Hagar’s son Ishmael, now about nineteen years old, “poking fun” or playing with Isaac in a mocking way. Apparently fearing for the future of her son Isaac, Sarah requested that Abraham dismiss Hagar and her son. Abraham did so, subsequent to his receiving divine approval of this action.—Gen. 21:1-14.
About thirty-two years later Sarah died, at the age of 127 years, and Abraham buried her “in the cave of the field of Machpelah.”—Gen. 23:1, 19, 20.
FIGURES IN A SYMBOLIC DRAMA
In writing to the Galatians, the apostle Paul showed that Abraham’s wife Sarah represented the “Jerusalem above,” the mother of spirit-anointed Christians, the spiritual “seed” of Abraham. Like Sarah, the “Jerusalem above,” God’s symbolic woman, has never been in slavery and, therefore, her children are also free. For an individual to become a free child of the “Jerusalem above,” having “her freedom,” he must be emancipated from the bondage of sin by the Son of God. (Gal. 4:22–5:1 and ftn. on 5:1, NW, 1950 ed.) As Christ Jesus told the natural descendants of Abraham: “Most truly I say to you, Every doer of sin is a slave of sin. Moreover, the slave does not remain in the household forever; the son remains forever. Therefore if the Son sets you free, you will be actually free.”—John 8:34-36; see FREE WOMAN; HAGAR.
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SaraphAid to Bible Understanding
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SARAPH
(Saʹraph) [burning, serpent].
A descendant of Shelah of the tribe of Judah, one who took a Moabite wife (or wives) for himself. (JB, NW) Perhaps, according to alternate readings, Saraph ruled in (or for) Moab.—1 Chron. 4:21, 22, AS, AT, AV, Mo, Ro, RS.
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SarcophagusAid to Bible Understanding
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SARCOPHAGUS
(sar·cophʹa·gus).
This word is derived from the Greek words sarx (flesh) and pha·geinʹ (to eat), thus literally meaning “flesh-eating.” The term comes from the stone coffins of the ancient Greeks, made of a particular limestone believed to consume the flesh of the corpse. Pliny the Roman historian stated that the body would be consumed in forty days.
Materials other than limestone were used, and the term “sarcophagus” applies generally to any coffin made of stone, granite, porphyry or terra-cotta. They were sometimes the size of a casket and at other times in the form of a tomb. Usually highly decorated, they were at one and the same time a coffin and a monument.
Sarcophagi are not mentioned directly as such in the Bible, although some lexicographers suggest the possibility that King Og’s “bier” or bed of iron may have been a sarcophagus of black basalt. The Arabs still call basalt by the name of iron.—Deut. 3:11.
Sarcophagi are to be found among the ancient Greeks, Romans, Etruscans, Phoenicians and Egyptians. The Egyptians used limestone, basalt, marble or granite and the royalty always had coffins made from the more expensive marble. Some seventeen delicately sculptured sarcophagi were found at the site of Sidon in Lebanon in 1887 and are believed to have been from about the fourth century B.C.E., perhaps containing bones of the kings of Sidon.
When Joseph was prepared for burial, according to the custom of the Egyptians he was embalmed and put in a coffin. (Gen. 50:26) The Septuagint Version uses the Greek word so·rosʹ in this text, the word originally denoting a receptacle for containing the bones of the dead; then a coffin; then, the funeral couch or bier on which the Jews bore their dead to burial. This is the Greek term used at Luke 7:14, where it is said that Jesus touched the bier of the widow of Nain’s son.
However, stone sarcophagi such as described previously were not used among the early Jews.
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SardisAid to Bible Understanding
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SARDIS
(Sarʹdis).
The ancient capital of Lydia (in western Asia Minor) and a center of the worship of an Asiatic goddess, linked either with Artemis or with Cybele. Situated on the E bank of the Pactolus River (a tributary of the Hermus), Sardis lay about thirty miles (48 kilometers) S of Thyatira and about forty-eight miles (77 kilometers) E of Smyrna. The acropolis of the city occupied an almost inaccessible rocky crag. Although a mountain range limited communication with areas in the S, Sardis commanded the E-W trade route. Its commercial activity and trade, the great fertility of surrounding land and the manufacture of woolen cloth and carpets contributed much toward making Sardis wealthy and important. At one time Sardis may have had a population of about 50,000 persons.
In the sixth century B.C.E., Cyrus the Great defeated the last Lydian king, Croesus, and for over two hundred years thereafter Sardis served as the capital for the western part of the Persian Empire. In 334 B.C.E. the city surrendered without resistance to Alexander the Great. Later it came under the rule of Pergamum and then Rome. A great earthquake nearly leveled Sardis in 17 C.E., but the city was rebuilt with generous aid from Rome.
The Jewish historian Josephus indicates that in the first century B.C.E. there was a large Jewish community in Sardis. (Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, chap. X, par. 24) By the latter part of the first century C.E. the Christian congregation that had been established at Sardis needed to “wake up” spiritually. However, there were also persons associated with this congregation who had not ‘defiled their outer garments.’—Rev. 3:1-6.
Prominent ruins at the ancient site of Sardis include those of the temple of Artemis (or Cybele) and a Roman theater and stadium.
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SardiusAid to Bible Understanding
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SARDIUS
(sarʹdi·us).
A translucent, reddish-brown variety of the mineral chalcedony used as a gemstone. According to Pliny the Elder, it was named after the city of Sardis in Lydia, where it was first introduced to that part of the world. However, it has been suggested that the name originated with the Persian word sered, meaning “yellowish-red,” and accompanied the stone from its source in Persia. Sardius has also been called “sard,” “sardine” and “sardoine.” Its beauty, its toughness, the ease with which it can be engraved and the fact that it can be highly polished made it a most popular stone among artisans. The Hebrews possibly obtained their sardius stones from the Arabian Peninsula. The Assyrians made cylinder seals from sardius and the Egyptians carved the stone into the image of a scarab beetle, which they worshiped as the symbol of immortality. Others used sardius for gemstones and especially for intaglios and cameos.
The sardius is referred to at Revelation 4:3, where the One seated upon his heavenly throne of splendor “is, in appearance, like . . . a precious red-colored stone [or “a sardius,” NW, 1950 ed., ftn.].” “The holy city, New Jerusalem,” is described as having a wall with foundations that “were adorned with every sort of precious stone,” the sixth being sardius.—Rev. 21:2, 19, 20.
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SardonyxAid to Bible Understanding
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SARDONYX
(sarʹdo·nyx).
An ornamental stone that is a variety of agate, a kind of chalcedony. It is an onyx composed of two or more layers of milk-white chalcedony and transparent red sard. However, the contrasting layer is sometimes golden or brown. The red layer showing through the white one appeared much like the color of a fingernail to the Greeks, which was probably why they applied to it the Greek word oʹnyx (meaning “fingernail”), from which the English term “onyx” is derived. Sardonyx is found in various places, including Palestine and Arabia.
Sardonyx was valued in ancient times for engraved
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