Bible Dictionary
OFFSCOURING
Offscouring means refuse, filth, or something treated with contempt. Jeremiah uses it of humbled Jerusalem, while Paul applies it to the apostles’ suffering and disgrace for Christ.
Definition
Offscouring means refuse, filth, scrapings, or something treated with contempt. It is a strong expression for people reduced to disgrace, humiliation, and social rejection.
Biblical Usage
Jeremiah uses the word for Jerusalem, once fair and holy, after it was despoiled and derided by enemies. Paul applies it to the apostles, who were treated as the filth or offscouring of the world for Christ’s sake.
Historical Background
The image conveys the humiliation of a people whose city lay in ruins and whose survivors were subjected to contempt and slavery. In the apostolic setting it expresses the disgrace endured before an unbelieving world and false apostles.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>of'-skour-ing: This strong and expressive word occurs only once in the Old Testament and once in the New Testament. The weeping prophet uses it as he looks upon his erstwhile fair and holy city, despoiled, defiled, derided by the profane, the enemies of God and of His people (La 3:45, cechi). The favored people, whose city lies in heaps and is patrolled by the heathen, are hailed and held up as the scrapings, the offscouring, the offal of the earth. They are humbled to earth, crushed into the dust, carried away to be the slaves of licentious idolaters. The haughty, cruel, cutting boastfulness of the victors covered Israel with contumely.</p><p>In 1Co 4:13 the greatest of the apostles reminds the prosperous and self-satisfied Corinthinns that they, the apostles, were "made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things." In such contempt were they held by the unbelieving world and by false apostles. The strange, strong word (peripsema) should remind us what it cost in former times to be a true servant of Christ.</p><p>G.H. Gerberding</p>