Saviour

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

moshia' , Greek soter . Salvation from all kinds of danger and evil, bodily, spiritual, temporal, and eternal ( Matthew 1:21;  Ephesians 5:23;  Philippians 3:20-21), including also the idea restorer and preserver, giver of positive life and blessedness, as well as saviour from evil ( Isaiah 26:1;  2 Samuel 8:6;  Isaiah 60:18;  Isaiah 61:10;  Psalms 118:25), deliverer, as the judges were saviours (margin  Judges 3:9;  Judges 3:15;  Nehemiah 9:27; Jeroboam II,  2 Kings 13:5;  Obadiah 1:21). (See Salvation ; HOSANNA; REDEEMER.) Isaiah, Joshua or Jeshua, Jesus, Hoshea, Hosea, are various forms of the is associated with the idea, and the term Redeemer (goel ) implies how God can be just and at the same time a saviour of mall ( Isaiah 43:3;  Isaiah 43:11;  Isaiah 45:15;  Isaiah 45:21-24;  Isaiah 45:25;  Isaiah 41:14;  Isaiah 49:26;  Isaiah 9:16-17;  Zechariah 9:9;  Hosea 1:7).

Man cannot save himself temporally or spiritually; Jehovah alone can save ( Job 40:14;  Psalms 33:16;  Psalms 44:3;  Psalms 44:7;  Hosea 13:4;  Hosea 13:10). The temporal saviour is the predominant idea in the Old Testament; the spiritual and eternal saviour of the whole man in the New Testament Israel' s saviour, national and spiritual, finally ( Isaiah 62:11;  Romans 11:25-26). Salvation is secured in title to believers already by Christ's purchase with His blood; its final consummation shall be at His coming again; in this sense salvation has yet "to be revealed" ( 1 Peter 1:5;  Hebrews 9:28;  Romans 5:10). Salvation negatively delivers us from three things: (1) the penalty, (2) the power, (3) the presence of sin. Positively it includes the inheritance of glory, bliss, and life eternal in and with God our Saviour.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The peculiar name and character of our Lord Jesus Christ, including most evidently both natures, God and man, and thereby forming one Christ. Had he not been God, how should he have been able to save, for who less than God can save? And had he not been man, there would not have been a suitability in the Lord Jesus Christ for such an office, justice so requiring that the same nature which sinned, and broke the divine law, should atone and make ample restoration. So that in the character of the Saviour we behold Christ, and Christ alone, the suited Saviour for his people. Hence we find him assuming to himself this distinction of character—"I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviour." ( Isaiah 43:11. So again,  Isaiah 44:21-22) "There is no God else beside me, a just God, and a Saviour; there is none beside me, Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else."

In this view of the Lord Jesus Christ as a Saviour, it is blessed to behold not only the ability, in perfection of character and completeness of work, in the person of the Lord Jesus, but also the authority by which he came and accomplished the glorious office of a Saviour. God the Father declared that he sent him as a Saviour and a great one, and he should deliver his people, and his name should be called Jesus: (see  Isaiah 19:20;  Matthew 1:21) Hence the believer in Christ finds a just warrant for faith to rest upon, not only in the completeness of what Christ hath wrought, but also in the appointment and approbation of God the Father: so that here the preciousness of the Saviour, and the preciousness of the salvation, come home endeared to the heart.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

This title is in the O.T. applied to Jehovah. The term in itself implies that some oppression exists or some danger impends from which salvation is needed. God says, "All flesh shall know that I Jehovah am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."  Isaiah 49:26;  Isaiah 60:16 . In the N.T. man is plainly declared to be lost , and the title 'Saviour' is applied both to God and to Christ. "The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world,"  1 John 4:14; and the very name of Jesus conveys the thought of a Saviour. His becoming this involved His meeting vicariously the question of sin and sins, which He did on the cross. The expression occurs in Paul's later epistles of 'God our Saviour,' or 'our Saviour-God,' indicating the attitude which God occupies towards all men. How gladly all His saints say, "To the only wise God our Saviour be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." God is also declared to be "the Saviour of all men" in a providential sense, and men probably little know how much they are indebted to His preserving care.  1 Timothy 4:10 . See SALVATION.

Charles Buck Theological Dictionary

A person who delivers from danger and misery. Thus Jesus Christ is called the Saviour, as he delivers us from the greatest evils, and brings us into the possession of the greatest good.

See Jesus CHRIST, LIBERTY, PROPITIATION, REDEMPTION. Order of St. Saviour, a religious order of the Romish church, founded by St. Bridget, about the year 1345; and so called from its being pretended that our Saviour himself declared its constitution and rules to the foundress.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Saviour. See Jesus Christ.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

SAVIOUR . See Salvation.

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

See Salvation; Christ, Christology.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sāv´yẽr  : (1) While that "God is the deliverer of his people" is the concept on which, virtually, the whole Old Testament is based (see Salvation ), yet the Hebrews seem never to have felt the need of a title for God that would sum up this aspect of His relation to man. Nearest to our word "Saviour" is a participial form ( מושׁיע , mōshı̄a‛ ) from the verb ישע , yāshā‛ (Qal not used; "save" in Hiphil), but even this participle is not frequently applied to God (some 13 times of which 7 are in   Isaiah 43 through 63). (2) In the New Testament, however, the case is different, and Σωτήρ , Sōtḗr , is used in as technical a way as is our "Saviour." But the distribution of the 24 occurrences of the word is significant, for two-thirds of them are found in the later books of the New Testament - 10 in the Pastorals, 5 in 2 Peter, and one each in John, 1 John, and Jude - while the other instances are   Luke 1:47;  Luke 2:11;  Acts 5:31;  Acts 13:23;  Ephesians 5:23;  Philippians 3:20 . And there are no occurrences in Matthew, Mark, or the earlier Pauline Epistles. The data are clear enough. As might be expected, the fact that the Old Testament used no technical word for Saviour meant that neither did the earliest Christianity use any such word. Doubtless for our Lord "Messiah" was felt to convey the meaning. But in Greek-speaking Christianity, "Christ," the translation of Messiah, soon became treated as a proper name, and a new word was needed. (3) Sōtēr expressed the exact meaning and had already been set apart in the language of the day as a religious term, having become one of the most popular divine titles in use. Indeed, it was felt to be a most inappropriate word to apply to a human being. Cicero, for instance, arraigns Verres for using it: " Sōtēr ...How much does this imply? So much that it cannot be expressed in one word in Latin" ( Verr . ii. 2, 63, 154). So the adoption of Sōtēr by Christianity was most natural, the word seemed ready-made. (4) That the New Testament writers derived the word from its contemporary use is shown, besides, by its occurrence in combination with such terms as "manifestation" ( epipháneia ,  2 Timothy 1:10;  Titus 2:13 ), "love toward man" ( philanthrōpı́a ,  Titus 3:4 ), "captain" ( archēgós ,  Acts 5:31; compare  Hebrews 2:10 ), etc. These terms are found in the Greek sources many times in exactly the same combinations with Sōtēr . (5) In the New Testament Sōtēr is uniformly reserved for Christ, except in  Luke 1:47;  Judges 1:25 , and the Pastorals. In 1 Tim ( Judges 1:1;  Judges 1:2 :3; 4:10) it is applied only to the Father, in 2 Tim (  Judges 1:10 , only) it is applied to Christ, while in Titus there seems to be a deliberate alternation: of the Father in  Titus 1:3;  Titus 2:10;  Titus 3:4; of Christ in  Titus 1:4;  Titus 2:13;  Titus 3:6 .

P. Wendland, " Σωτήρ , Sōtēr " Zeitschrift fur neutestamentliche Wissenschaft , V, 335-353,1904; J. Weiss, "Heiland," in Rgg , II, 1910; H. Lietzmann, Der Weltheiland , 1909. Much detailed information is available in various parts of Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East , 1910.