had to the north Mount Taurus, to the east the Euphrates and a small
portion of Arabia, and to the south Judea, or Palestine. The orientals
called it Aram. The name, which has been transmitted to us by the
Greeks, is a corruption or abridgment of Assyria, which was first
adopted by the Ionians, who frequented these coasts after the Assyrians
of Nineveh had reduced that country to be a province of their empire,
about B. C. 750. By the appellation of Syria is ordinarily meant the
kingdom of Syria, of which, since the reign of the Seleucidæ, Antioch
has been the capital. The government of Syria was for a long time
monarchical; but some of its towns, which formed several states, were
republics. With regard to religion, the Syrians were idolaters. The
central place of their worship was Hieropolis, in which was a
magnificent temple, and near the temple a lake that was reputed sacred.
In this temple was an oracle, the credit of which the priests used every
method to support. The priests were distributed into various classes,
and among them were those who were denominated Galli, and who
voluntarily renounced the power of transmitting the succession in their
own families. The Syrians had bloody sacrifices. Among the religious
ceremonies of the Syrians, one was that any one who undertook a journey
to Hieropolis began with shaving his head and eye-brows. He was not
allowed to bathe, except in cold water, to drink any liquor, nor to lie
on any but a hard bed, before the term of his pilgrimage was finished.
When the pilgrims arrived, they were maintained at the public expense,
and lodged with those who engaged to instruct them in the sacred rites
and ceremonies. All the pilgrims were marked on the neck and wrists. The
youth consecrated to the goddess the first-fruits of their beard and
hair, which was preserved in the temple, in a vessel of gold or silver,
on which was inscribed the name of the person who made the offering. The
sight of a dead person rendered it unfit for any one to enter into the
temple during the whole day. The dynasties of Syria may be distributed
into two classes; those that are made known to us in the sacred
writings, or in the works of Josephus, acknowledged by the orientals;
and the Seleucidan kings, successors of Alexander, with whom we are
acquainted by Greek authors. The monarchy of Syria continued two hundred
and fifty-seven years.
SYRO-PHENICIA, or PHENICIA PROPER, called Syro or Syrian Phenicia from
being included in the kingdom of Syria. It implies that part of the
coast of Canaan on the Mediterranean in which the cities of Tyre and
Sidon were situated; and this same country, called Syro-Phenicia in the
Acts, is in the Gospels called the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. The woman
also called a Syro-Phenician in Mark vii, 26, is in Matt. xv, 22, called
a Canaanitish woman, because that country was still inhabited by the
descendants of Canaan, of whom Sidon was the eldest son.
TABERNACLE, in Hebrew, אהל, in Greek, σκηνἠ, a word which properly
signifies _a tent_, but is particularly applied by the Hebrews to a kind
of building in the form of a tent, set up by the express command of God,
for the performance of religious worship, sacrifices, &c, during the
journeyings of the Israelites in the wilderness; and after their
settlement in the land of Canaan made use of for the same purpose, till
the temple was built in Jerusalem. The tabernacle was covered with
curtains and skins. It was divided into two parts, the one covered, and
properly called the tabernacle, and the other open, called the court.
The covered part was again divided into two parts, the one called holy,
and the other called the holy of holies. The curtains which covered it
were made of linen of several colours embroidered. There were ten
curtains, twenty-eight cubits long, and four in breadth. Five curtains
together made two coverings, which, being made fast together, enveloped
all the tabernacle. Over the rest there were two other coverings, the
one of goat’s hair, and the other of sheep skins. These vails or
coverings were laid on a square frame of planks, resting on bases. There
were forty-eight large planks, each a cubit and a half wide, and ten
cubits high; twenty of them on each side, and six at one end to the
westward; each plank was supported by two silver bases; they were let
into one another, and held by bars running the length of the planks. The
holy of holies was parted from the rest of the tabernacle by a curtain,
made fast to four pillars standing ten cubits from the end. The whole
length of the tabernacle was thirty-two cubits, that is, about fifty
feet; and the breadth twelve cubits, or nineteen feet. The end was
thirty cubits high; the upper curtain hung on the north and south sides
eight cubits, and on the east and west four cubits. The court was a
place a hundred cubits long, and fifty in breadth, inclosed by twenty
columns, each of them twenty cubits high, and ten in breadth, covered
with silver, and standing on copper bases, five cubits distant from each
other, between which there were curtains drawn, and fastened with hooks.
At the east end was an entrance twenty cubits wide, covered with a
curtain hanging loose. In the tabernacle was the ark of the covenant,
the table of shew bread, the golden candlestick, and the altar of
incense; and in the court opposite to the entrance of the tabernacle, or
holy place, stood the altar of burnt-offerings, and the laver or bason
for the use of the priests.
The tabernacle was finished on the first day of the first month of the
second year after the departure out of Egypt, A. M. 2514. When it was
set up, a dark cloud covered it by day, and a fiery cloud by night.
Moses went into the tabernacle to consult the Lord. It was placed in the
midst of the camp, and the Hebrews were ranged in order about it,
according to their several tribes. When the cloud arose from off the
tabernacle, they decamped; the priests carried those things which were
most sacred, and the Levites all the several parts of the tabernacle.
Part of the tribes went before, and the rest followed after, and the
baggage of the tabernacle marched in the centre. The tabernacle was
brought into the land of Canaan by Joshua, and set up at Gilgal. Here it
rested till the land was conquered. Then it was removed to Shiloh, and
afterward to Nob. Its next station was Gibeah, and here it continued
till the ark was removed to the temple.
The word also means a frail dwelling, Job xi, 14; and is put for our
bodies, 2 Cor. v, 1.
TABERNACLES, FEAST OF, a solemn festival of the Hebrews, observed after
harvest, on the fifteenth day of the month Tisri, Lev. xxiii, 34–44. It
was one of the three great solemnities, wherein all the males of the
Israelites were obliged to present themselves before the Lord; and it
was instituted to commemorate the goodness of God, who protected them in
the wilderness, and made them dwell in tents or booths after they came
out of Egypt. (See _Feasts_.) This feast continued eight days, of which
the first and last days were the most solemn, Lev. xxiii, 34, &c. It was
not allowed to do any labour on this feast, and particular sacrifices
were offered, which, together with the other ceremonies used in
celebrating this festival, were as follows: The first day of the feast,
they cut down branches of the handsomest trees, with their fruit,
branches of palm trees, and such as were fullest of leaves, and boughs
of the willow trees that grew upon the sides of brooks, Neh. viii, 16.
These they brought together, and waved them toward the four quarters of
the world, singing certain songs. These branches were also called
hosanna, because when they carried them and waved them, they cried
Hosanna; not unlike what the Jews did at our Saviour’s entry into
Jerusalem, Matthew xxi, 8, 9. On the eighth day they performed this
ceremony oftener, and with greater solemnity, than upon the other days
of the feast. They called this day _hosanna rabba_, or “the great
hosanna.”
TABLES OF THE LAW. Those that were given to Moses upon Mount Sinai were
written by the finger of God, and contained the decalogue or ten
commandments of the law, as they are rehearsed in Exodus xx. Many
questions have been started about these tables; about their matter,
their form, their number, he that wrote them, and what they contained.
Some oriental authors make them amount to ten in number, others to
seven; but the Hebrews reckon but two. Some suppose them to have been of
wood, and others of precious stones. Moses observes, Exod. xxxii, 15,
that these tables were written on both sides. Many think they were
transparent, so that they might be read through; on one side toward the
right, and on the other side toward the left. Others will have it, that
the lawgiver only makes this observation, that the tables were written
on both sides, because generally in writing tables they only wrote on
one side. Others thus translate the Hebrew text: “They were written on
the two parts that were contiguous to each other;” because, being shut
upon one another, the two faces that were written upon touched one
another, so that no writing was seen on the outside. Some think that the
same ten commandments were written on each of the two tables, others
that the ten were divided, and only five on one table, and five on the
other. The words which intimate that the tables were written by the
finger of God, some understand simply and literally; others, of the
ministry of an angel; and others explain them merely to signify an order
of God to Moses to write them. The expression, however, in Scripture
always signifies immediate divine agency. See DECALOGUE.
TABOR, a mountain not far from Kadesh, in the tribe of Zebulun, and in
the confines of Issachar and Naphtali. It has its name from its
eminence, because it rises up in the midst of a wide champaign country,
called the Valley of Jezreel, or the great plain. Maundrell tells us
that the area at the top of this mountain is enclosed with trees, except
to the south, from whence there is the most agreeable prospect in the
world. Many have believed that our Lord’s transfiguration took place on
this mountain. This place is mentioned, 1 Sam. x, 3. It is minutely
described by both Pococke and Maundrell. The road from Nazareth lies for
two hours between low hills; it then opens into the plain of Esdraelon.
At about two or three furlongs within the plain, and six miles from
Nazareth, rises this singular mount, which is almost entirely insulated,
its figure representing a half sphere. “It is,” says Pococke, “one of
the finest hills I ever beheld, being a rich soil that produces
excellent herbage, and is most beautifully adorned with groves and
clumps of trees. The ascent is so easy, that we rode up the north side
by a winding road. Some authors mention it as near four miles high,
others as about two: the former may be true, as to the winding ascent up
the hill. The top of it, about half a mile long, and near a quarter of a
mile broad, is encompassed with a wall, which Josephus says was built in
forty days: there was also a wall along the middle of it, which divided
the south part, on which the city stood, from the north part, which is
lower, and is called the _meidan_, or place, being probably used for
exercises when there was a city here, which Josephus mentions by the
name of Ataburion. Within the outer wall on the north side are several
deep fosses, out of which, it is probable, the stones were dug to build
the walls; and these fosses seem to have answered the end of cisterns,
to preserve the rain water, and were also some defence to the city.
There are likewise a great number of cisterns under ground for
preserving the rain water. To the south, where the ascent was most easy,
there are fosses cut on the outside, to render the access to the walls
more difficult. Some of the gates, also, of the old city remain, as
_Bab-el-houah_, ‘the gate of the winds,’ to the west; and
_Bab-el-kubbe_, ‘the arched gate,’ a small one to the south. Antiochus,
king of Syria, took the fortress on the top of this hill. Vespasian,
also, got possession of it; and, after that, Josephus fortified it with
strong walls. But what has made it more famous than any thing else is
the common opinion, from the time of St. Jerom, that the transfiguration
of our Saviour was on this mountain.” Van Egmont and Heyman give the
following account: “This mountain, though somewhat rugged and difficult,
we ascended on horseback, making several circuits round it, which took
us up about three quarters of an hour. It is one of the highest in the
whole country, being thirty stadia, or about four English miles, a
circumstance that rendered it more famous. And it is the most beautiful
I ever saw, with regard to verdure, being every where decorated with
small oak trees, and the ground universally enamelled with a variety of
plants and flowers, except on the south side, where it is not so fully
covered with verdure. On this mountain are great numbers of red
partridges, and some wild boars; and we were so fortunate as to see the
Arabs hunting them. We left, but not without reluctancy, this delightful
place, and found at the bottom of it a mean village, called Deboura, or
Tabour, a name said to be derived from the celebrated Deborah mentioned
in Judges.”
Pococke notices this village, which stands on a rising ground at the
foot of Mount Tabor westward; and the learned traveller thinks, that it
may be the same as the Daberath, or Daberah mentioned in the book of
Joshua, as on the borders of Zabulon and Issachar. “Any one,” he adds,
“who examines the fourth chapter of Judges, may see that this is
probably the spot where Barak and Deborah met at Mount Tabor with their
forces, and went to pursue Sisera; and on this account, it might have
its name from that great prophetess, who then judged and governed
Israel; for Josephus relates, that Deborah and Barak gathered the army
together at this mountain.”
“From the top of Tabor,” says Maundrell, “you have a prospect which, if
nothing else, will reward the labour of ascending it. It is impossible
for man’s eyes to behold a higher gratification of this nature. On the
northwest you discern at a distance the Mediterranean, and all round you
have the spacious and beautiful plains of Esdraelon and Galilee. Turning
a little southward, you have in view the high mountains of Gilboa, fatal
to Saul and his sons. Due east you discover the sea of Tiberias, distant
about one day’s journey. A few points to the north appears that which
they call the mount of Beatitudes. Not far from this little hill is the
city Saphet: it stands upon a very eminent and conspicuous mountain, and
is seen far and near.” Beyond this is seen a much higher mountain,
capped with snow, a part of the chain of Antilibanus. To the south-west
is Carmel, and on the south the hills of Samaria.
TADMOR, a city built by Solomon, 1 Kings ix, 18, afterward called
Palmyra; situated in a wilderness of Syria, upon the borders of Arabia
Deserta, inclining toward the Euphrates. Josephus places it two days’
journey from the Euphrates, and six days’ journey from Babylon. He says
there is no water any where else in the wilderness, but in this place.
At the present day there are to be seen vast ruins of this city. There
was nothing more magnificent in the whole east. There are still found a
great number of inscriptions, the most of which are Greek, and the other
in the Palmyrenian character. Nothing relating to the Jews is seen in
the Greek inscriptions; and the Palmyrenian inscriptions are entirely
unknown, as well as the language and the character of that country. The
city of Tadmor preserved this name to the time of the conquest by
Alexander the Great: then it had the name of Palmyra given to it, which
it preserved for several ages. About the middle of the third century, it
became famous, because Odenatus and Zenobia, his queen, made it the seat
of their empire. When the Saracens became masters of the east, they
restored its ancient name of Tadmor to it again, which it has always
preserved since. It is surrounded by sandy deserts on all sides. It is
not known when, nor by whom, it was reduced to the ruinous condition in
which it is now found. It may be said to consist at present of a forest
of Corinthian pillars, erect and fallen. So numerous are these,
consisting of many thousands, that the spectator is at a loss to connect
or arrange them in any order or symmetry, or to conceive what purpose or
design they could have answered. “In the space covered by these ruins,”
says Volney, “we sometimes find a palace of which nothing remains but
the court and walls; sometimes a temple, whose peristyle is half thrown
down; and now a portico, a gallery, or triumphal arch. Here stand groups
of columns, whose symmetry is destroyed by the fall of many of them;
there we see them ranged in rows of such length, that, similar to rows
of trees, they deceive the sight, and assume the appearance of continued
walls. If from this striking scene we cast our eyes upon the ground,
another almost as varied presents itself On all sides we behold nothing
but subverted shafts, some whole, others shattered to pieces or
dislocated in their joints; and on which side soever we look, the earth
is strewed with vast stones half buried, with broken entablatures,
mutilated friezes, disfigured reliefs, effaced sculptures, violated
tombs, and altars defiled by dust.”
It is probable, says Mansford, that, although Tadmor is said to have
been built by Solomon, or, in other words, to have been erected by him
into a city, it was a watering station between Syria and Mesopotamia
before; with perhaps accommodations suited to the mode of travelling in
those times, as we read of palm-trees being found there, which are not
trees that come by chance in these desert regions. The mere circumstance
of wholesome water being afforded by any spot in such a country was
sufficient to give it importance, and to draw toward it the stream of
communication, for whatever purpose. This was probably the condition of
Tadmor long before it received its name and its honours from Solomon.
But, after all, what motive could there be to induce a peaceable king,
like Solomon, to undertake a work so distant, difficult, and dangerous?
There is but one which at all accords with his character, or the history
of the times,--commercial enterprise. Solomon was at great pains to
secure himself in the possession of the ports of Elath and Ezion-Geber
on the Red Sea, and to establish a navy for his Indian commerce, or
trade to Ophir,--in all ages the great source of wealth. The riches of
India, thus brought into Judea, were from thence disseminated over those
countries of the north and west at that time inhabited or known; while
the same country, Judea, became, for a season, like Tyre, the point of
return and exchange of the money and the commodities of those countries,
the centre of communication between the east and the west.
TALENT, a measure of weight among the ancients, equivalent to sixty
maneh, or one hundred and thirteen pounds ten ounces one pennyweight and
ten grains. The value of a talent of silver was three hundred and
forty-two pounds three shillings and nine-pence, and a talent of gold
was equal to five thousand four hundred and seventy-five pounds
sterling. In the writings of the evangelists, the term is employed to
denote the various gifts or opportunities for usefulness which the Lord
of heaven confers upon his servants, and for which he will call them to
give in their account at the last day, Matt. xxv, 15; Luke xix, 12.
TALITHA-CUMI, the words that Jesus Christ made use of when he raised up
the daughter of Jairus, chief of the synagogue of Capernaum. They are
not pure Hebrew, but Syriac, and signify, “My daughter, arise,” Mark v,
41.
TALMUD. See JEWS.
TARE, Matt. xiii, 25–27, 29, 30, 36, 38, 40. It is not easy to determine
what plant or weed is here intended, as the word _zizania_ is neither
mentioned in any other part of Scripture, nor in any ancient Greek
writer. Some Greek and Latin fathers have made use of it, as have also
Suidas and Phavorinus: but it is probable that they have all derived it
from this text. As this Gospel was first written in Syriac, it is
probably a word belonging to that language. Buxtorf gives several
interpretations, but at last concludes with submitting it to the
decision of others. In a treatise in the Mishna, called “Kilayim,” which
treats expressly of different kinds of seeds, a bastard or degenerate
wheat is mentioned by the name of זונים, which the very sound, in
pronouncing, proves to be the same as the _zizanion_; and which may lead
to the true derivation of the word, that is, from the Chaldee זן, “a
kind,” or “species” of grain, namely, whence the corrupt Hebrew or
Syriac זניא, which in the ancient Syriac version answers to the Greek
ζιζονια, Matt. xiii, 25, &c. In Psalm cxliv, 13, the words מזן אל־זן,
are translated, “all manner of store;” but they properly signify “from
species to species.” Might not the Chaldee word זונין, and the Greek
word ζιζάνιον, come from the psalmist’s זנ־זן, which might have
signified a “mixture” of grain of any kind, and be here used to point
out the mixing bastard or degenerate wheat among the good seed-wheat?
Mintert says, that “it is a kind of plant, not unlike corn or wheat,
having at first the same sort of stalk, and the same viridity, but
bringing forth no fruit, at least none good:” and he adds, from John
Melchior, “ζιζάνιον does not signify every weed in general which grows
among corn, but a particular seed, known in Canaan, which was not unlike
wheat, but, being put into the ground, degenerated, and assumed another
nature and form.” Parkhurst, and Dr. Campbell, render it “the darnel,”
“_lolium temulentum_.” The same plant is called “_zizana_” by the
Spaniards; as it appears to be _zuvan_, by the Turks and Arabs. “It is
well known to the people at Aleppo,” says M. Forskal; “it grows among
corn. If the seeds remain mixed with the meal, they occasion dizziness
to those who eat of the bread. The reapers do not separate the plant;
but after the threshing, they reject the seeds by means of a van or
sieve.” Other travellers mention, that in some parts of Syria, the plant
is drawn up by the hand in the time of harvest, along with the wheat,
and is then gathered out, and bound up in separate bundles. In the
parable of the tares, our Lord states the very same circumstances. They
grew among the grain; they were not separated by the tillers, but
suffered to grow up together till the harvest; they were then gathered
from among the wheat with the hand, and bound up in bundles.
TARGUM. See JEWS.
TARSHISH, a country of this name, whither Solomon sent his fleets, 1
Kings x, 22; 2 Chron. ix, 11. There is a multitude of different opinions
concerning this country. Josephus, and the Chaldee and Arabic
paraphrasts, explain it of Tarsus, a city of Cilicia; the Septuagint,
St. Jerom, and Theodoret, understand it of Carthage. The Arabian
geographer will have it to be Tunis in Africa. Bochart makes it to be
Tartessus, an island in the Straits of Gades. By Tarshish, M. Le Clerc
understands Thassus, an island and city in the Ægean sea. Grotius thinks
that the whole ocean was called Tarshish, because of the famous city of
Tartessus, now mentioned. Sanctius believes the sea in general to be
called Tarshish, and that the ships of Tarshish were those that are
employed in voyages at sea, in opposition to the small vessels that are
used only in most navigable rivers. The LXX. translate Tarshish
sometimes by “the sea;” and the Scripture gives the names of ships of
Tarshish to those that were fitted out at Ezion-Geber, on the Red Sea,
and which sailed upon the ocean, as well as to those that were fitted
out at Joppa, and in the ports of the Mediterranean. Therefore, when we
see ships fitted out upon the Red Sea, or at Ezion-Geber, in order to go
to Tarshish, we must conclude one of these two things, either that there
were two countries called Tarshish, one upon the ocean, and another upon
the Mediterranean, or that ships of Tarshish in general signifies
nothing else but ships able to bear a long voyage; large merchant ships,
in opposition to the small craft intended for a home trade in navigable
rivers.
TARSUS, the capital of Cilicia, and the native city of St. Paul, Acts
ix, 11; xxi, 39. Some think it obtained the privileges of a Roman colony
because of its firm adherence to Julius Cæsar; and this procured the
inhabitants the favour of being acknowledged citizens of Rome, which St.
Paul enjoyed by being born in it. Others maintain that Tarsus was only a
free city, but not a Roman colony, in the time of St. Paul, and that his
privilege as a Roman citizen was founded upon some other right, perhaps
gained by his ancestors.