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Home » Bible Encyclopedias » Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature » Letter S

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SHEEP.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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The following Hebrew words occur as the names of sheep: צֹאן, tson (varieties צְאוֹן tseon, צֹנֵא , tsone, or צֹנֶה, tsoneh), a collective noun to denote "a flock of sheep or goats," to which is opposed the noun of unity, שֶׂה, seh, "a sheep" or "a goat," joined to a masculine where "rams" or "he- goats" are signified, and with a feminine when "ewes" or "she-goats" are meant, though, even in this case sometimes to a masculine (as in Genesis 31:10): אִיַל, dyil, "a ram;" רָחֵל, rachel, "a ewe;" כֶּבֶשׂ, keseb, or כֶּשֶׂב, keseb (fem. כַּשְׂבָּה, or כַּבְשָׂה ), "a lamb," or rather "a sheep of a year old or above," opposed to טָלֶה, taleh, "a sucking or very young lamb;" כִּר, kar, is another term applied to a lamb as it skips (כָּרִר ) in the pastures. The Chald. אַמִּר, immar (Ezra 6:9; Ezra 6:17; Ezra 7:17), is a later word, apparently indicating lambs intended for sacrifice, while עִתּוּד, attud, rendered "ram" in Genesis 31 signifies a he-goat. (See EWE); (See LAMB); (See RAM).

The term קְשַׂיטָה , kesitah (literally something weighed out, A.V. "piece of money," Genesis 33:19; Job 42:11; "piece of silver," Joshua 24:32), has been supposed by many to denote a coin stamped with the figure of a lamb; but Gesenius suggests (Thesaur. p. 1241) that specimens of that sort are probably only those of Cyprus, which bore that mark. (See KESITAH).

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This well known domestic animal has, from the earliest period, contributed to the wants of mankind. Sheep were an important part of the possessions of the ancient Hebrews and of Eastern nations generally. The first mention of sheep occurs in Genesis 4:2. The following are the principal Biblical allusions to these animals. They were used in the sacrificial offerings, both the adult animal (Exodus 20:24; 1 Kings 8:63; 2 Chronicles 29:33) and the lamb, כֵּבֵשׁ, i.e. "a male from one to three years old;" but young lambs of the first year were more generally used in the offerings (see Exodus 29:38; Leviticus 9:3; Leviticus 12:6; Numbers 28:9, etc.). No lamb under eight days old was allowed to be killed (Leviticus 22:27). A very young lamb was called טִלֶה . taleh (see 1 Samuel 7:9; Isaiah 65:25). Sheep and lambs formed an important article of food (1 Samuel 25:18; 1 Kings 1:19; 1 Kings 4:23; Psalm 64:11; etc.), and ewe's milk is associated with that of the cow (Isaiah 7:21; Isaiah 7:23). The wool was used as clothing (Leviticus 13:47; Deuteronomy 22:11; Proverbs 31:13; Job 31:20, etc.). (See WOOL).

Trumpets may have been made of the horns of rams (Joshua 6:4), though the rendering of the A.V. in this passage is generally thought to be incorrect. "Rams' skins dyed red" were used as a covering for the tabernacle (Exodus 25:5). Sheep and lambs were sometimes paid as tribute (2 Kings 3:4). It is very striking to notice the immense numbers of sheep that were reared in Palestine in Biblical times: see, for instance, 1 Chronicles 5:21; 2 Chronicles 15:11; 2 Chronicles 30:24; 2 Kings 3:4; Job 42:12. Especial mention is made of the sheep of Bozrah (Micah 2:12; Isaiah 34:6), in the land of Edom, a district well suited for pasturing sheep. "Bashan and Gilead" are also mentioned as pastures (Micah 7:14). "Large parts of Carmel, Bashaul, and Gilead," says Thomson (Land and Book, 1, 304), "are at their proper seasons alive with countless flocks" (see also p. 331). "The flocks of Kedar" and "the rams of Nebaioth," two sons of Ishmael (Genesis 25:13) that settled in Arabia, are referred to in Isaiah 60:7. Sheep shearing is alluded to in Genesis 31:19; Genesis 38:13; Deuteronomy 15:19; 1 Samuel 25:4; Isaiah 53:7; etc. Sheep dogs were employed in Biblical times, as is evident from Job 30:1, "the dogs of my flock." From the manner in which they are spoken of by the patriarch it is clear, as Thomson (ibid. 1, 301) well observes, that the Oriental shepherd dogs were very different animals from the sheep dogs of our own land. The existing breed are described as being "a mean, sinister, ill-conditioned generation, which are kept at a distance, kicked about, and half starved, with nothing noble or attractive about them." They were, however, without doubt, useful to the shepherds, more especially at night, in keeping off the wild beasts that prowled about the hills and valleys (comp. Theocrit. Id. 5, 106). Shepherds in Palestine and the East generally go before their flocks, which they induce to follow by calling to them (comp. John 10:4; Psalms 77:20; Psalms 80:1), though they also drove them (Genesis 33:13). (See SHEPHERD).

It was usual among the ancient Jews to give names to sheep and goats, as we do to our dairy cattle (see John 10:3). This practice prevailed among the ancient Greeks (see Theocrit. Id. 5, 103): Οὐκ ἀπὸ τᾶς δρυὸς ο῏υτος ὁ Κώμαρος, § τε Κυναίδα; The following quotation from Hartley (Researches in Greece and the Levant, p. 321) is so strikingly illustrative of the allusions in John 10:1-16 that we cannot do better than quote it: "Having had my attention directed last night to the words in John 10:3, I asked my man if it was usual in Greece to give names to the sheep. He informed me that it was, and that the sheep obeyed the shepherd when he called them by their names. This morning I had an opportunity of verifying the truth of this remark. Passing by a flock of sheep, I asked the shepherd the same question which I had put to the servant, and he gave me the same answer. I then bade him call one of his sheep; he did so, and it instantly left its pasturage and its companions and ran up to the hands of the shepherd with signs of pleasure and with a prompt obedience which I had never before observed in any other animal. It is also true in this country that a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him. The shepherd told me that many of his sheep were still wild, that they had not yet learned their names, but that by teaching them they would all learn them." See also Thomson (1, 301): "The shepherd calls sharply from time to time to remind the sheep of his presence. They know his voice and follow on; but if a stranger call, they stop short, lift up their heads in alarm, and if it is repeated they turn and flee, because they know not the voice of a stranger." Henderson, in Iceland, notices a shepherdess with a flock of fifty sheep, every one of which she professed to know by name (Iceland, 1, 189).

Domestic sheep, although commonly regarded as the progeny of one particular wild species, are probably an instance, among many similar, where the wisdom of Providence has provided subsistence for man in different regions by bestowing the domesticating and submissive instincts upon the different species of animals which the human family might find in their wanderings; for it is certain that even the American argali can be rendered tractable, and that the Corsican musmon will breed with the common sheep. The normal animal, from which all or the greater part of the Western domestic races are assumed to be descended, is still found wild in the high mountain regions of Persia, and is readily distinguished from two other wild species bordering on the same region. What breeds the earliest shepherd tribes reared in and about Palestine can now be only inferred from negative characters; yet they are sufficient to show that they were the same, or nearly so, as the common horned. variety of Egypt and continental Europe: in general white, and occasionally black, although there was on the Upper Nile a speckled race; and so early as the time of Aristotle the Arabians possessed a rufous breed, another with a very long tail, and, above all, a broad-tailed sheep, which at present is commonly denominated the Syrian. These three varieties are said to be of African origin, the red hairy in particular having all the characteristics to mark its descent from the wild Ovis tragelaphus or barbatus, or kebsh of the Arabian and Egyptian mountains. Flocks of the ancient breed, derived from the Bedawin, are now extant in Syria, with little or no change in external characters, chiefly the broad-tailed and the common horned white, often with black and white about the face and feet, the tail somewhat thicker and longer than the European.

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Bibliography Information
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'SHEEP.'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​tce/​s/sheep.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
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