Iceland, however (apparenth' incited thereto by his doubts of the truth of Herodotus's account), discarded this explanation, and suggested that Scythopolis was a corruption of Succothopolis — the chief town of the dis- trict of Succoth. In this he is supported by Gesenius (Xoli's to linrckhitrdl, p. 1058) and by Grimm {Exeg. Ilandhnch on 1 Mace, v, 52). Since, however, the ob- jection of IJeland to the historical truth of Herodotus is
SEA
491
SEx\
now removed, the necessity for this suggestion (certain- ly most ingenious) seems not to exist. The distance of Succoth from Beisiiii, if we identify tlie former with isiikiif, is ten miles; while if the arguments of ]\Ir. Beke are valid, it would be nearly double as I'ar. It is surely gratuitous to suppose tliat so large, independent, and important a town as Betli-shean was in the earlier his- tory, and as the remains show it to liave been in the (ireek period, should have taken its name from a com- paratively insignificant place at a long distance from it. Dr. Robinson {Bib. Res. iii, 330) remarks with justice that had the Greeks derived the name from Succoth, they would have employed that name in its translated form as ^Kijfai, and the compound would have been Scenopolis. Keland's derivation is also dismissed with- out hesitation by Ewald, on the ground that the two names Succoth and Skythes have nolliing in common {Gesch. iii, 694, note). Dr. Kobinson suggests that, af- ter all, City of the Scytliidn-n may be right, the word Scytkia being used, as in the New Test., as equivalent to a barbarian or savage. In this sense he thinks it may have been applied to the wild Arabs, who then, as now, inhabited tlie Ghor, and at times may have had possession of Beth-shean.
The CanaanUes were never expelled from Beth-shean, and the heathen appear to have always maintained a footing there. It is named in the Mishna as the seat of idolatry (Aborla Zara, i, 4), and as containing a double popidation of Jews and heathens. At the begin- ning of the Koman war (A.D. Go), the heathen rose against the Jews and massacred a large number, accord- ing to Josephus {War, ii, 18, 3) no less than 13,000, in a wood or grove close to the town. Scythopolis was the largest city of the Decapolis, and tlic only one of the ten which lay west of Jordan. By Eusebius and Jerome {Onomast. s. v. " Bethsan") it is characterized as TTiiXic iiriSr\ixoQ and iirhs nohilit. It was surrounded by a district of its own of the most abundant fertility. It became the seat of a Christian bishop, and its name is found in the lists of signatures as late as the Council of Constantinople. A.D. r)3(). The latest mention of it un- der the title of Scythopolis is probably that of William of Tyre (xxii, 16, 26). He mentions it as if it was then actually so called, carefully explaining that it was for- merly Bethshan. — Smith. See Beth-shean.
Sea (Heb. D"^, yam ; Chald. SfS^, yammd ; ^ciXacr- <7a), as opposed to land or earth (iJ"|iX, erefs, Gen. i, 10), in which all the waters of the earth are included, originat- ed by the separation of its waters from those of the air, or the clouds (ver. 6 sq.). The sea is represented as deep (Psa. Ixviii, 23; Micah vii. 19; Amos ix, 3; Job xxxviii, 16), wide (xi, 9), and mighty (Psa. civ, 25; Job vii, 12; Lament, ii, 13) ; surrounding the earth at its utmost bounds (Deut. xxx, 13; Psa. cxxxix, 9; comp. the ancient Greek view of oceaimtt, loKiavoQ, Fubiger, Ihindh. d. all. Geoyr. i, 4) ; the earth, indeed, resting on the ocean (Psa. xxiv, 2). The surface (comp. /3M3'(ie, the deep, 2 Cor. xi, 25) is roused by winds (Dan. vii, 2 ; comp. Jonah i, 11, 13) into waves (n"'^ii, Psa. Ixv, 8; cvii,25; Isa. Ixviii, 18; (ci'/zam, Jude 13; kKvSmv, James i, 6), so that it roars and rages (Jer. vi, 23 ; 1, 42 ; Isa. v, 30; Ivii, 20; Psa. xcvi, 11; 1 Chron. xvi, 32), and is only subject to God (Job xxxviii, 11; Psa. Ixxxix, 10). The countless inhabitants of the sea (James iii, 7 , Rev. viii, 8 sq.) are given to men for food ((ien. ix, 2 sq.), but the people of God may only eat those which are legally clean (Lev. xi, 9 sq.). On the coasts of the sea (Heb. smnah', iT2il3) lie great lands; and the suTid of the sea (sin ; Gr. dfifioq) is proverbial for multitude ((ien. xxii, 17; Josh, xi, 4; 2 Sam. xvii, 11 ; Job xxix, 18; Hos. i, 10; 1 Mace, xi, 1; Rev. xx, 8, etc.; Homer, Iliad, ix, 385; Callim. Dian. p. 252; Ovid, Trist. iv, 1, 55; Ars Am. i, 254. Comp. Pindar, Olymp. ii, 178; Calpurn. ii, 72. See also Gesen. Thesaur. p. 598 sq.).
It maj' be remarked that almost all the figures of
speech taken from the sea in Scripture refer either to its jiower or its danger, and among tlie woes threatened in punislmient of disobedience, one may be remarked as sig- nificant of the dread of the sea entertained'by a non-seafar- ing people, the being brought back into Egypt "in ships" (Deut. xxviii, 68). The national feeling on this subject may be contrasted with that of the Greeks in reference to the sea. No mention of the tide is found in Scripture.