The Scythians were a people who stirred both fear and fascination in the ancient world. They were nomads of the vast Eurasian steppes—warriors on horseback, skilled in archery, and known for their fierce independence. To the Greeks and Romans, they epitomized the word “barbarian.” Their lifestyle, religion, and warfare stood in stark contrast to the refined urban culture of the Mediterranean. Yet in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul deliberately included the Scythians in his sweeping statement about the unity of all believers in Christ. In Colossians 3:11 he wrote, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
To the ancient reader, that phrase was striking. Paul was not only proclaiming the equality of Jews and Gentiles in the Church—he was reaching to the very extremes of human division. The Scythians were viewed as the most savage of peoples, yet Paul declares that in Christ, they stood on equal ground with the most cultured citizen of Rome. This was no mere rhetorical flourish; it reflected the heart of the Gospel and the scope of Christ’s redemptive plan. Understanding who the Scythians were, where they came from, and how they were perceived in Paul’s day gives us a deeper appreciation for why their inclusion in Scripture is so significant.
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Historical and Cultural Background
The Scythians emerged in the ninth century before Christ from the broad grasslands of Central Asia. They were part of the Indo-Iranian branch of peoples and lived in a region that would have seemed almost boundless to those in the Mediterranean world. Their migrations carried them westward into what is now southern Russia, Ukraine, and parts of Eastern Europe. By the seventh century BC, they were a formidable power—raiding, trading, and at times allying with surrounding nations.
They warred against the Assyrian Empire, skirmished with the Medes and Persians, and came into contact with the Greeks along the shores of the Black Sea. Herodotus, the Greek historian, recorded vivid descriptions of their customs, their warfare, and even their gruesome practice of using the scalps of enemies as trophies. By the time of the New Testament, the name “Scythian” had become a byword for the most uncultured and fearsome of outsiders.
Their society was clan-based rather than urban. They had no stone cities or permanent walls; instead, they lived in felt tents, moving with the seasons to find pasture for their herds. They were expert horsemen—children learned to ride almost as soon as they could walk. Their skill with the bow from horseback made them a dangerous foe, capable of striking quickly and disappearing across the steppes before an enemy could respond.
The Greeks and Romans valued order, cities, and law. The Scythians represented the opposite—mobility, unpredictability, and freedom from the constraints of settled life. For the average inhabitant of Corinth or Rome, they were as distant in culture as they were in geography. Yet these very differences are what made Paul’s statement so remarkable: in Christ, those gaps disappeared.
The Scythians and the Biblical World
Direct biblical references to the Scythians are rare; in fact, Colossians 3:11 is the only explicit mention. But that one reference carries significant weight. In the same breath as he mentions Jews and Greeks, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians and free men, Paul adds “Scythian.” This is deliberate. To the Greek mind, barbarians were anyone who did not speak Greek fluently. But even among barbarians, there was a hierarchy, and at the very bottom were the Scythians—violent, crude, and utterly foreign.
By placing them in the same sentence with all other human categories, Paul was underscoring the radical nature of the Gospel. Christ’s death and resurrection had abolished every wall that human society erects—ethnic, cultural, social, and linguistic. The blood of Christ was sufficient for the most refined Athenian philosopher and the most rugged Scythian warrior alike.
It is worth noting that the Gospel’s reach toward peoples like the Scythians was not theoretical. The early Church spread rapidly along trade routes and coastal cities, but those connections inevitably brought the message to travelers, traders, and mercenaries from beyond the borders of the Empire. Some Scythians had settled near Greek colonies along the Black Sea and would have come into contact with Jewish merchants and eventually Christian preachers. Though we have no preserved record of large-scale Scythian conversions, Paul’s mention of them reflects a living awareness that the Gospel was already reaching beyond familiar territory.
Religion and Worldview of the Scythians
To understand how shocking their inclusion was, we must consider the religious life of the Scythians. Their faith was not a unified system but a blend of animism, ancestor veneration, and polytheism. They worshiped deities associated with the sky, fire, and war. Chief among these were Papaios, the sky god, and Tabiti, the goddess of fire. They also revered a war god identified by the Greeks with Ares, to whom they offered both animal and, in some accounts, human sacrifices.
Religious practice was often intertwined with warfare. Shamans or spiritual leaders used rituals, incantations, and sometimes hallucinogens to seek guidance before battle. The dead were honored with elaborate burials—mound-like tombs called kurgans—often filled with weapons, horses, and even servants sacrificed to accompany the deceased into the afterlife.
To the Jewish mind, steeped in the worship of the one true God, such practices represented idolatry and spiritual darkness. To the Greek and Roman observer, they were simply further evidence of the Scythians’ “uncivilized” state. And yet, Paul’s theology insists that such a people could be redeemed—not by abandoning their ethnicity or culture entirely, but by submitting every aspect of their identity to the lordship of Christ.
Theological Significance in Paul’s Teaching
From a dispensational perspective, the mention of the Scythians in Colossians 3:11 fits squarely within the unfolding of God’s redemptive plan. In the present Church Age, God is calling out a people for His name from every tribe and nation—not only from Israel, but from all the Gentiles. The Church is a distinct body, neither Israel nor a continuation of Israel, but a new man in Christ, where old distinctions have no bearing on one’s standing before God.
Paul’s list in Colossians mirrors this reality. In Christ there is no Jew or Greek—that is, no distinction between God’s covenant people Israel and the nations. There is no circumcised or uncircumcised—no boundary of covenant sign. There is no barbarian or Scythian—no cultural or linguistic superiority. There is no slave or free—no class privilege. All these human markers vanish in the light of the believer’s new identity in Christ.
For the Colossian believers, hearing “Scythian” in this list would have been startling. It forced them to acknowledge that the most despised outsider could become their brother in the Lord. In doing so, Paul was echoing the Lord’s own command that the Gospel be preached “to all nations” (Matthew 28:19), a commission that looked far beyond the familiar cities of the Roman world to the farthest reaches of the earth.
Spiritual Lessons and Modern Application
The inclusion of the Scythians in Scripture confronts us with the breadth of God’s grace. In our own day, we may not think in terms of Greeks and barbarians, but we still draw lines—social, economic, racial, or political. We still identify certain groups as “outsiders,” whether because of lifestyle, language, or beliefs. Paul’s inspired words challenge us to see those people as Christ sees them: potential brothers and sisters, equally in need of the Gospel and equally able to be transformed by it.
It also reminds us that the Church is not built on cultural sameness but on shared faith in the Savior. The unity we have is not because we agree on every custom or come from similar backgrounds, but because we are all joined to Christ, who is “all, and in all.” In a world still fractured by suspicion and division, this truth is both countercultural and deeply needed.
Finally, the Scythians’ story illustrates the missionary impulse at the heart of the Church Age. God’s purpose in this era is not to reform the world’s political structures or elevate one culture above another, but to call out a redeemed people from every corner of the globe. When the Church is caught up to meet the Lord, God will resume His dealings with Israel and the prophetic timeline will move forward. But in the meantime, our calling is clear: to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, just as Paul’s ministry reached out toward the far-off Scythians.
Conclusion
Once feared as the scourge of the steppes, the Scythians stand in the New Testament as a symbol of God’s limitless grace. Their mention in Colossians 3:11 is a reminder that Christ’s salvation extends to all—whether sophisticated city-dweller or wandering nomad, whether cultured philosopher or rugged warrior. In Christ, the divisions that define human society lose their power, replaced by a unity rooted in the finished work of the cross.
Paul’s words still speak with force today: “Christ is all, and is in all.” That truth transforms how we see others, how we view the mission of the Church, and how we understand our place in God’s great plan of redemption. The Scythians may be long gone from the pages of history, but the grace that could reach them still reaches to the uttermost parts of the earth.
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