The Scythians are mentioned in the Bible.

submitted by LarrySwinger2 from self.history

The relevant verse is a rather well-known one, namely Col. 3:11.

I examined the ancient history section of my local library today, and I didn't find a single book that treats the Scythians in any depth. I only found a one page section about them in one of the books. Establishment historians typically treat only a select few peoples, such as the Sumerians, ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks, and Romans, while brushing others out of the picture entirely. This is an arbitrary choice in focus, and the fact that almost all historians have been doing it for over a hundred years is very suspect. I am, of course, merely reiterating points that Asha Logos has made, and I recommend his videos as an introduction to some of the understudied peoples.

Anyway, the book that did mention them also noted the above Biblical reference. This came as a surprise to me; I've read Colossians before, but I always read over this mention of the Scythians. It's interesting how Paul contrasts them with barbarians; those refer to non-Greek speaking people, so it appears that the Greeks had come to identify themselves with Scythians. In fact, perhaps he isn't even talking about the Royal Scythians here, but simply about the Greeks. But separately from this, it is a fact that the Scythians were still relevant at this time.

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[–]H3v8 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Establishment historians typically treat only a select few peoples, such as the Sumerians, ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks, and Romans, while brushing others out of the picture entirely. This is an arbitrary choice in focus, and the fact that almost all historians have been doing it for over a hundred years is very suspect.

Perhaps they didn't leave as much behind comparatively to others.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

What's the importance of the Scythians?

[–]bootylicious 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Greeks had colonies around the Black Sea, which - especially along the east side - was essentially the territory of Scythian. To the west of theblack sea Greek colonies interracted with Scythians and "barbarians", which were Dacians, Thracians, Illyrians, Gauls, Celts, and other groups. Paul knew of these people because he was from Asia Minor (Turkey, Anatolia) and was well aware of the Black Sea trade. People were also trafficked across these colonies. All Greek colonies engaged of course with the Greek mainland, part of which was Asia Minor, even after Roman hegemony in that area. Paul's discussion of the Scythians and the 'barbarians' as two distinct groups is very interesting because it shows their interactions with Greek colonies and with trade c. 900 BCE - 200 BCE, though Paul wrote about them 263 years later, during the period of the Roman administration of the previous Greek colonies. Paul's 'mission' was work with others to convert these groups to Christianity. The ancient heritage of each group was rather different, and thus a challenge for Christain 'apostles' (270+, I think, though that was the intended number and may not have been the actual number). Very different strategies were necessary for the conversion of each group, a process that lasted hundreds of years, with major developments after the 'migrations' period (c. 5th C). To answer your question, I think it was more difficult to convert Scythians and former Scythians to Christianity, but not absolutely sure.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It's true the Scythians seem to be a neglected topic, I confess to not knowing much about them. The wikipedia entry is dense and confusing, and left me with more questions than anything. What are all these references to Akkadian? The end of Akkadian society dates to 2150 BC, and the first reference to Scythians that I can find isn't until well over 1000 years later. Their language section also mentions nothing about Akkadian or an offshoot dialect being spoken by Scythians. Am I missing something here? What is the connection between these civilizations?

[–]cottoneyejoe 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

You might really enjoy Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast

See https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-56-kings-of-kings/

[–]LarrySwinger2[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'll give it a listen.