A nomadic horse-riding tribe inhabiting the region around the Black-Caspian Seas.
Existent since the 2nd Mill BC, they became politically visible during the 8th-7th Cent BC, when they posed a nuisance to the Assyrias and the Babylonians. Though not mentioned by name in the OT, many scholars believe that they were the referent of "the waters arising in the north" that would sweep down into Palestine in Jer 47, and possibly also the source of the threat in the prophecies of Zephaniah. Some of them may have settled in Beth-Shean, the city west of the Jordan where Saul and Jonathan met their deaths, which would account for its name, Scythopolis ("city of the Scythians"), in NT times.
In the 1st Cent BC, they moved to the Crimea and established themselves there. The name 'Scythian' appears only once in the Bible when Paul spoke of them, "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all" (Col 3:11).
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