旧约词汇 - T

Tabernacle

The portable sanctuary built by the Israelites in the Sinai, described in the book of Exodus. See Chapter 3.

Tabernacles, Festival/Feast of

See Sukkot.

Talmud

(Hebrew for "study, learning") Rabbinic Judaism produced two Talmuds: the one known as "Babylonian" is the most famous in the western world, and was completed around the fifth centuty C.E.; the other, known as the "Palestinian" or "Jerusalem" Talmud, was edited perhaps in the early fourth century C.E.; both have as their common core the Mishnah collection of the Tannaim, to which were added commentary and discussion (Gemara) by the Amoraim (teachers) of the respective locales; gemara thus has also become a colloquial, generic term for the Talmud and its study. See Conclusion.

Tamar

The daughter-in-law of Judah (Genesis 38); the daughter of David (2 Samuel 13).

Tanak

(sometimes spelled Tanakh) A relatively modern name for the Hebrew Bible; the acronym is composed of the first letters of the three parts of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah (Law), the Nevi'im (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (Writings). See Introduction.

Tanna

(Hebrew for "repeater, reciter"; adj. tannaitic, pl. tannaim) A Jewish sage from the period of Hillel (around the turn of the era) to the compilation of the Mishnah (200 C.E.), distinguished from later Amoraim; Tannaim were primarily scholars and teachers; the Mishnah, Tosefta, and halakic Midrashim were among their literary achievements.

Targum

(Hebrew for "translation, interpretation") Generally used to designate Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible; the Septuagint is, in a sense, Greek Targums. See Conclusion.

Tefillin

(Aramaic term usually translated as phylacteries) Box-like accessories that accompany prayer, worn by Jewish adult males at the weekday morning services; the boxes have leather thongs attached and contain scriptural excerpts; one box (with four sections) is placed on the head, the other (with one section) is placed (customarily) on the left arm, near the heart; the biblical passages emphasize the unity of God and the duty to love God and be mindful of him with "all one's heart and mind" (for example, Exodus 13:1-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-21). See also Shema.

Tell

(sometimes spelled tel) A mound that contains the ruined remains of a human settlement; each layer or level, called a stratum, represents a particular historical period.

Temple

A place of worship; in the ancient world, temples were the centers of outward religious life, places at which public religious observances were normally conducted by the priestly professionals; in Israel there were many temples in various locations, but the temple in Jerusalem built by Solomon eventually became the central and only authorized place to worship Yahweh; first built by king Solomon around 950 B.C.E., it was destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C.E., and rebuilt about 70 years later; it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E.; the site of the ancient Jewish Temple is now occupied, in part, by the golden domed Mosque of Omar; in recent times, "temple" has come to be used synonymously with synagogue in some Jewish usage. See Chapter 9.

Ten Commandments

Also called the decalogue, the "ten words" God delivered through Moses that became the heart of the Mosaic covenant; it is found in two versions, Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5: 1-21

Tent of meeting

A simple form of the tabernacle used as the place Moses met God during the period of the wilderness sojourn.

Tetragrammaton

(Greek for "four lettered [name]") See YHWH. See Introduction.

Tetrateuch

The first four books of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis through Numbers; the use of this term implies that these belong together historically as a literary unit.

Textual criticism

The study of the earliest texts and early translations of the Hebrew Bible to establish the form of the text that most closely approximates the original text, called the autograph; no autograph of any book of the Hebrew Bible has ever been discovered.

Thanksgiving

To give thanks to God for his favors; in the study of the Psalms this is a major literary type of psalm which thanks God for individual or corporate deliverance. See Chapter 14.

Theocracy

(adj. theocratic; Greek for "rule of God") A constitution in which God is regarded as ruler or soverelgn.

Theodicy

(Greek for "justice of God") A term that denotes the issue of God's justice in relation to the problem of human suffering, used often in discussions of the book of Job relating to the attempt to justify God in the face of evil. See Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Part 3.

Theophany

(Greek for "appearance of God") A manifestation or appearance of the divine; for example, when God appears in the burning bush to Moses. See Chapter 2, Chapter 3.

Theophoric

An element in a proper name which derives from a name for God; for example, Daniel contains the theophoric component El.

The satan

(Heb. ha-satan) The figure in the book of Job who challenged the integrity of Job to God. This is a title rather than a name. See Satan. See Chapter 14.

Third Isaiah

The third main section of the book of Isaiah (chapters 56-66), which dates to the sixth century period of the restoration of Jerusalem. See Chapter 10 Introduction, Chapter 10 Third Isaiah.

Throne-chariot

The vehicle carrying Yahweh that the prophet Ezekiel saw while in Babylonia during the exile; see Ezekiel 1. See Chapter 12.

Tiamat

The female salt-water ocean goddess who fought Marduk; out of her body were created heaven and earth; the Babylonian name "Tiamat" is related to the Hebrew word for "deep waters," tehom.

Tiglath-Pileser III

(745-727) Monarch of the Neo-Assyrian empire at the time of Isaiah and the Syro-Ephraimite war. See Chapter 9, Chapter 10.

Toledot

(sometimes spelled toledoth; Hebrew for "generations") The ten "generations" used in Genesis as a way of structuring the history told in the book. See Chapter 2.

Torah

(Hebrew for "teaching, instruction, direction") In general, Torah refers to study of the whole gamut of Jewish tradition or to some aspect thereof; in its special sense, "the Torah" refers to the "five books of Moses", the first main division of the Hebrew Bible; it is the t of Tanak. See Pentateuch and Tanak. See Introduction, Part 1.

Tower of Babel

The tower of Genesis 11 built by humans and interpreted by God as an act of defiance. See Chapter 1.

Tradition criticism

(sometimes called tradition critique, tradition history, or the traditio-historical method) The analysis of the Hebrew Bible to uncover possible oral strands underlying the final form of the text; or, the study of the origins and development of a particular biblical theme-for example, the covenant relationship between Yahweh and Israel.

Tradition

Teachings and practices that have been handed down as standard and authoritative.

Transjordan

The territory east of the Jordan River and west of the Arabian desert; the Israelite tribes Reuben, Gad and East Manasseh settled there.

Treaty

An agreement between two parties; the suzerain-vassal treaties of the ancient Middle East were the model for the covenant relationship God established with the Hebrews at Mount Sinai.

Tree of knowledge

The tree of knowledge, or more fully, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, stood in the middle of the garden of Eden. Adam and Even were forbidden to eat from it at the risk of death.

Twelve Prophets

The twelve prophets whose namesake books constitute the Book of the Twelve; the collection of books of these prophets is included in the Latter Prophets.

Twelve tribes

An ideal form of social and political organization that was believed to characterize early Israel before the monarchy; each tribe was traced back to an ancestor who was one of the sons of Jacob; in fact, the various lists of the tribes in the Hebrew Bible vary-some tribes vanished or were absorbed by others, and other tribes divided into distinct sub-units.

Twelve, Book of the

Sometimes called the minor prophets, a collection of twelve short prophet books in the Latter Prophets.

Type-scene

A typical conventionally structured story.

Typology

A form of (usually biblical) interpretation wherein a person, event, or institution is viewed as foreshadowing a later one; for example, for Christian interpreters, Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22) is seen as a "type" of the sacrificial death of Christ.