Scythian

The Scythians were a nomadic people of Iranian stock who inhabited the vast steppes north of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea from approximately the 7th century B.C. onward. Known to the ancient world as fierce warriors and skilled horsemen, they terrorized the Near East during the 7th century B.C. and appear in Jeremiah's prophecies as a northern threat (Jer. 4–6). In the New Testament, Scythians appear once — Paul's declaration in Colossians 3:11 that in Christ "there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all." The pairing of "barbarian" and "Scythian" represents the lowest rungs of the Greco-Roman cultural hierarchy, making the inclusiveness of the gospel all the more sweeping.