Topic
Savor
21 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Genesis 8:21ISBE
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
- Genesis 27:4ISBE
And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.
- Genesis 27:7ISBE
Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my death.
- Genesis 27:9ISBE
Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth:
- Genesis 27:14ISBE
And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved.
- Genesis 27:17ISBE
And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
- Genesis 27:31ISBE
And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me.
- Exodus 5:21ISBE
And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.
- Numbers 15:3ISBE
And will make an offering by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice in performing a vow, or in a freewill offering, or in your solemn feasts, to make a sweet savour unto the LORD, of the herd, or of the flock:
- Song of Songs 1:3ISBE
Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.
- Isaiah 30:24ISBE
The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
- Joel 2:20ISBE
But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because…
Show 9 more
- Matthew 5:13 ISBE
- Matthew 16:23 ISBE
- Mark 8:33 ISBE
- Luke 14:34 ISBE
- 2 Corinthians 2:14 ISBE
- 2 Corinthians 2:15 ISBE
- 2 Corinthians 2:16 ISBE
- Ephesians 5:2 ISBE
- Philippians 4:18 ISBE
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 22 references
sa'-ver (reach; osme;
(1) The primary meaning of the word is "taste," "flavor" (from Latin sapor, "taste"). So in Mt 5:13; Lu 14:34, "if the salt have lost its savor" (moranthe, "become tasteless," "insipid," so as to lose its characteristic preserving virtue).
(2) But generally it has the meaning of "smell," "odor":
(a) once of evil odor: "Its stench shall come up, and its ill savor shall come up" (Joe 2:20);
(b) elsewhere in the sense of pleasant smell. In the Old Testament, with the exception of Ex 5:21 and the King James Version So 1:3 (the Revised Version (British and American) "fragrance"), it is always accompanied by the adjective "sweet." It stands for the smell of sacrifices and oblations, in agreement with the ancient anthropomorphic idea that God smells and is pleased with the fragrance of sacrifices (e.g. "Yahweh smelled the sweet savor," Ge 8:21; "to make a sweet savor unto Yahweh," Nu 15:3; and frequently).
In the New Testament, "savor" in the sense of smell is used metaphorically:
(a) once the metaphor is borrowed from the incense which attends the victor's triumphal procession; God is said to make manifest through His apostles "the savor of his knowledge in every place" as He "leadeth" them "in triumph in Christ" (2Co 2:14; see TRIUMPH.
(b) Elsewhere the metaphor is borrowed from the fragrant smell of the sacrifices. The apostles "are a sweet savor of Christ unto God" (2Co 2:15), i.e. they are, as it were, a sweet odor for God to smell, an odor which is pleasing to God, even though its effect upon men varies (to some it is a "savor from death unto death," i.e. such as is emitted by death and itself causes death; to others it is "a savor from life unto life," 2Co 2:16). By the same sacrificial metaphor, Christ's offering of Himself to God is said to be "for a sweet smelling savor" (Eph 5:2 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "for an odor of a sweet smell"; the same phrase is used in Php 4:18 of acts of kindness to Paul, which were "a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God").
(3) Once it is used in the figurative sense of reputation: "Ye have made our savor to be abhorred (literally, "our smell to stink") in the eyes of Pharaoh" (Ex 5:21). Compare the English phrase, "to be in bad odor."
The verb "to savor" means:
(1) intransitively, to taste or smell of, to partake of the quality of something, as in the Preface of the King James Version, "to savour more of curiosity than wisdome," or
(2) transitively, to perceive by the taste or smell, to discern: "thou savourest not the things that be of God" (the King James Version Mt 16:23; Mr 8:33, the Revised Version (British and American) "mindest"; phroneis; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) sapis). The adjective "savory" occurs only in Ge 27:4,7,9,14,17,31 ("savory food") and the Revised Version (British and American) Isa 30:24 (margin "salted").
D. Miall Edwards
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.