that he constantly returned thanks to God on their account, and mentioned them in his prayers; he acknowledges the readiness and sincerity with which they embraced the gospel, and the great reputation which they had acquired by turning from idols to serve the living God, 1 Thess. i.; he reminds them of the bold and disinterested manner in which he had preached among them; comforts them under the persecutions which they, like other Christians, had experienced from their unbelieving countrymen, and informs them of two ineffectual attempts which he had made to visit them again, 1 Thess. ii.; and that, being thus disappointed, he had sent Timothy to confirm their faith, and inquire into their conduct; he tells them that Timothy's account of them had given him the greatest consolation and joy in the midst of his affliction and distress, and that he continually prayed to God for an opportunity of seeing them again, and for their perfect establishment in the gospel, 1 Thess. iii.; he exhorts to purity, justice, love, and quietness, and dissuades them against excessive grief for their deceased friends, 1 Thess. iv.; hence he takes occasion to recommend preparation for the last judgment, the time of which is always uncertain; and adds a variety of practical precepts. He concludes with his usual benediction. This epistle is written in terms of high commendation, earnestness, and affection.

It is generally believed that the messenger who carried the former epistle into Macedonia, upon his return to Corinth, informed St. Paul that the Thessalonians had inferred, from some expressions in it, that the coming of Christ and the final judgment were near at hand, and would happen in the time of many who were then alive, 1 Thess. iv. 15, 17; v. 6. The principal design of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians was to correct that error, and prevent the mischief which it would naturally occasion. It was written from Corinth, probably, at the end of A.D. 52. St. Paul begins with the same salutation as in the former epistle, and then expresses his devout acknowledgments to God for the increasing faith and mutual love of the Thessalonians in the midst of persecutions; he represents to them the rewards which will be bestowed upon the faithful, and the punishment which will be inflicted upon the disobedient, at the coming of Christ, 2 Thess. i.; he earnestly entreats them not to suppose, as upon authority from him, or upon any other ground, that the last day is at hand; he assures them, that before that awful period a great apostasy will take place, and reminds them of some information which he had given them upon that subject when he was at Thessalonica; he exhorts them to steadfastness in their faith, and prays to God to comfort their hearts, and establish them in every good word and work, 2 Thess. ii.; he desires their prayers for the success of his ministry, and expresses his confidence

in their sincerity; he cautions them against associating with idle and disorderly persons, and recommends diligence and quietness. He adds a salutation in his own hand, and concludes with his usual benediction.

THESSALONICA, a celebrated city in Macedonia, and capital of that kingdom, standing upon the Thesmaic Sea. Stephen of Byzantium says that it was improved and beautified by Philip, king of Macedon, and called Thessalonica in memory of the victory that he obtained over the Thessalians. Its old name was Thesma. The Jews had a synagogue here, and their number was considerable, Acts xvii.

THIEF. Among the Hebrews theft was not punished with death: "Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry. But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house," Prov. vi. 30, 31. The law allowed the killing of a night-robber, because it was supposed his intention was to murder as well as to rob, Exod. xxii. 2. It condemned a common thief to make double restitution, Exod. xxii. 4. If he stole an ox he was to restore it fivefold; if a sheep, only fourfold, Exod. xxii. 1; 2 Sam. xii. 6. But if the animal that was stolen was found alive in his house, he only rendered the double of it. If he did not make restitution, they seized what was in his house, put it up to sale, and even sold the person himself if he had not wherewithal to make satisfaction, Exod. xxii. 3.

THOMAS, the apostle, otherwise called Didymus, which in Greek signifies a twis, Matt. x. 3; Luke vi. 15. We know no par. ticulars of his life till A. D. 33, John xi. 16; xiv. 5, 6; xx. 24-29; xxi. 1-13. Ancient tradition says, that in the distribution which the apostles made of the several parts of the world, wherein they were to preach the gos pel, the country of the Parthians fell to the share of St. Thomas. It is added, that be preached to the Medes, Persians, Carmanians, Hircanians, Bactrians, &c. Several of the fathers inform us that he also preached in the East Indies, &c.

THORN. Á general name for several kinds of prickly plants. 1. In the curse denounced against the earth, Gen. ii. 18, its produce is threatened to be "thorns and thistles," 7777 pp, in the Septuagint, àkávbas kal тpibóλovs. St. Paul uses the same words, Heb. vi. 8, where the last is rendered "briers;" they are also found Hosea Y. 8. The word kutz is put for "thorns," in other places, as Exodus xxii. 6; Judges viii. 7; Ezek. ii, 6; xxviii. 24; but we are uncertain whether it means a specific kind of thorn, er may be a generic name for all plants of a thorny kind. In the present instance it seems to be general for all those obnoxious plants, shrubs, &c., by which the labours of the husbandman are impeded, and which are only fit for burning. If the word de notes a particular plant, it may be the "rest

harrow," a pernicious prickly weed, which grows promiscuously with the large thistles in the uncultivated grounds, and covers entire fields and plains, in Egypt and Palestine. From the resemblance of the Hebrew dardar, to the Arabic word dardargi, Scheuchzer supposes the cnicus to be intended. 2., from its etymology, must be a kind of thorn, with incurvated spines, like fish-hooks, similar to those of the North American "witch hazel." Celsius says that the same word, and of the same original in Arabic, is the "black thorn," or "sloetree," the prunus spinosa of Linnæus.

3.

. It is impossible to determine what plants are intended by this word. Meninski says that serbin, in the Persic language, is C the name of a tree bearing thorns. In Eccles. vii. 6, and Nahum i. 10, they are mentioned as fuel which quickly burns up; and in Hosea ii. 6, as obstructions or hedges; it may be the lycium Afrum. 4. 1150, mentioned Joshua xxiii. 13; Ezek. ii. 6, xxviii. 24. From the vexatious character ascribed to this thorn in the places just referred to, compared with Numbers xxxiii. 55; Judges ii. 3; it is probably the kantuffa, as described by Bruce. 5. By, Numbers xxxiii. 55, may be intended goads, or sharp pointed sticks, like those with which cattle were driven. 6. The now, Isai. v. 6, x. 17, must mean some noxious plant that overruns waste grounds. 7. The word y, Num. xxxiii. 55; Joshua xxiii. 13; Isai. v. 5. It seems, from its application, to describe a bad kind of thorn. Hiller supposes it to be the vepris. Perhaps it is the rhamnus paliurus, a deciduous plant or tree, a native of Palestine, Spain, and Italy. It will grow nearly to the height of fourteen feet, and is armed with sharp thorns, two of which are at the insertion of each branch, one of them straight and upright, the other bent backward. 8. p, translated "briers," Judges viii. 16. "There is no doubt but this word means a sharp, jagged kind of plant: the difficulty is to fix on one, where so many offer themselves. The Septuagint preserves the original word. We should hardly think Gideon went far to seek these plants. The thorns are expressly said to be from the wilderness, or common hard by; probably the barkanim were from the same place. In our country this would lead us to the blackberry bushes on our commons; but it might not be so around Succoth. There is a plant mentioned by Hasselquist, whose name and properties somewhat resemble those which are required in the barkanim of this passage: "Nabka paliurus Athenæi, is the nabka of the Arabs. There is every appearance that this is the tree which furnished the crown of thorns which was put on the head of our Lord. It is common in the east. A plant more proper for this purpose could not be selected; for it is armed with thorns, its branches are pliant, and its

leaf of a deep green like that of ivy. Perhaps the enemies of Christ chose this plant, in order to add insult to injury by employing a wreath approaching in appearance that which was used to crown emperors and generals." In the New Testament, the Greek word translated "thorn," is &кavea; Matt. vii. 16, xiii. 7, xxvii. 29, John xix. 2. The note of Bishop Pearce on Matt. xxvii. 29, is this: "The word akavo@v may as well be the plural genitive case of the word άκανθος, as of ἄκανθα; if of the latter, it is rightly translated of thorns,' but the former would signify what we call bear'sfoot,' and the French branche ursine. This is not of the thorny kind of plants, but is soft and smooth. Virgil calls it mollis acanthus. So does Pliny: and Pliny the elder says that it is lævis, " smooth;" and that it is one of those plants that are cultivated in gardens. I have somewhere read, but cannot at present recollect where, that this soft and smooth herb was very common in New Testament concerning this crown which and about Jerusalem. I find nothing in the to incline one to think that it was of thorns, Pilate's soldiers put on the head of Jesus, and intended, as is usually supposed, to put him to pain. The reed put into his hand, and the scarlet robe on his back, were meant only as marks of mockery and contempt. One may also reasonably judge by the soldiers being said to plat this crown, that it was not composed of such twigs and leaves as were of a thorny nature. I do not find that it is mentioned by any of the primitive Christian writers as an instance of the cruelty used towards our Saviour before he was led to crucifixion, till the time of Tertullian, who lived after Jesus's death at the distance of above one hundred and sixty years. He indeed seems to have understood akaveŵv in the sense of thorns, and says, • Quale oro te, Jesus Christus sertum pro utroque sexu subiit? Ex spinis, opinor, et tribulis.' The total silence of Polycarp, Barnabas, Clemens Romanus, and all the other Christian writers whose works are now extant, and who wrote before Tertullian, in particular, will give some weight to incline one to think that this crown was not platted with thorns. But as this is a point on which we have not sufficient evidence, I leave it almost in the same state of uncertainty in which I found it." See GARDEN.

THRESHING-FLOORS, among the ancient Jews, were only, as they are to this day in the east, round level plats of ground in the open air, where the corn was trodden out by oxen, the libyce area of Horace. Thus, Gideon's floor, Judges vi. 37, appears to have been in the open air; as was likewise that of Araunah the Jebusite; else it would not have been a proper place for erecting an altar and offering sacrifice. In Hosea xiii. 3, we read of the chaff which is driven by the whirlwind from the floor. This circumstance of the threshing-floor's being

exposed to the agitation of the wind seems to be the principal reason of its Hebrew name; which may be further illustrated by the direction which Hesiod gives his husbandman to thresh his corn in a place well exposed to the wind. From the above account it appears that a threshing-floor (rendered in our textual translation "a void place") might well be near the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and that it might afford no improper place in which the kings of Israel and Judah could hear the prophets, 1 Kings xxii. 10; 2 Chron. xviii. 9; Psalm i. 4.

THRONE is used for that magnificent seat on which sovereign princes usually sit to receive the homage of their subjects, or to give audience to ambassadors; where they appear with pomp and ceremony, and from whence they dispense justice; in a word, the throne, the sceptre, the crown, are the ordinary symbols of royalty and regal authority. The scripture commonly represents the Lord as sitting upon a throne; sometimes it is said that the heaven is his throne, and the earth his footstool, Isaiah lxvi. 1. The Son of God is also represented as sitting upon a throne, at the right hand of his Father, Psalm cx. 1; Heb. i. 8; Rev. iii. 21. And Jesus Christ assures his apostles that they should sit upon twelve thrones, to judge the twelve tribes of Israel, Luke xxii. 30. Though a throne and royal dignity seem to be correlatives, or terms that stand in reciprocal relation to each other, yet the privilege of sitting on a throne has been sometimes granted to those that were not kings, particularly to some governors of important provinces. We read of the throne of the governor of this side the river; the throne, in other words, of the governor for the king of Persia of the provinces belonging to that empire on the west of the Euphrates. So D'Herbelot tells us that a Persian monarch of aftertimes gave the governor of one of his provinces permission to seat himself in a gilded chair, when he administered justice; which distinction was granted him on account of the importance of that post, to which the guarding a pass of great consequence was committed. This province, he tells us, is now called Shirvan, but was formerly named Serir-aldhahab, which signifies, in Arabic, "the throne of gold." To which he adds, that this privilege was granted to the governor of this province, as being the place through which the northern nations used to make their way into Persia; on which account, also, a mighty rampart or wall was raised

there.

markable ceremony in which these two nations (of Persia and Abyssinia) agreed is that of adoration, inviolably observed in Abys sinia to this day, as often as you enter the sovereign's presence. This is not only kneeling, but absolute prostration; you first fall upon your knees, then upon the palms of your hands, then incline your head and body till your forehead touches the ground; and, in case you have an answer to expect, you lie in that posture till the king, or somebody from him, desires you to rise." And Stewart observes, "We marched towards the emperor with our music playing, till we came within about eighty yards of him, when the old monarch, alighting from his horse, prostrated himself on the earth to pray, and continued some minutes with his face so close to the earth, that, when we came up to him, the dust remained upon his

nose."

The circumstance of " casting their crowns before the throne" may be illustrated by several cases which occur in history. That of Herod, in the presence of Augustus, has been already mentioned. (See Herod.) Tridates, in this manner, did homage to Nero, laying the ensigns of his royalty at the statue of Caesar, to receive them again from his hand. Tigranes, king of Armenia, did the same to Pompey. In the inauguration of the Byzantine Cæsars, when the emperor comes to receive the sacrament, he puts off his crown. "This short expedition," says Malcolm, "was brought to a close by the personal submission of Abool Fyze Khan, who, attended by all his court, proceeded to the tents of Nadir Shah, and laid his crown, and other ensigns of royalty, at the feet of the conqueror, who assigned him an honour. able place in his assembly, and in a few days afterwards restored him to his throne."

THYATIRA, a city of Lydia, in Asi Minor, and the seat of one of the seven churches in Asia. It was situated nearly midway between Pergamos and Sardis, and is still a tolerable town, considering that it is in the hands of the Turks, and enjoy some trade, chiefly in cottons. It is called by that people Ak-hisar, or White Castle.

TIBERIAS, a city situated in a small plain, surrounded by mountains, on the western coast of the sea of Galilee, which, from this city, was also called the Sea of Tiberias. Tiberias was erected by Hered Antipas, and so called in honour of Tiberius Cæsar. He is supposed to have chosen, for the erection of his new city, a spot where before stood a more obscure place called Chenereth or Cinnereth, which also gave its name to the adjoining lake or sea.

TIMBRELS. See MUSIC.

TIMOTHEUS, commonly called Timothy, a disciple of St. Paul. He was a native of Lystra in Lycaonia. His father was a gentile but his mother, whose name was Eunice, was a Jewess, Acts xvi. 1, and educated her son with great care in her own religion,

2 Tim. i. 5; iii. 15. To this young disciple St. Paul addressed two epistles; in the first of which he calls him his "own son in the faith," 1 Tim. i. 2; from which expression it is inferred that St. Paul was the person who converted him to the belief of the gospel; and as, upon St. Paul's second arrival at Lystra, Timothy is mentioned as being then a disciple, and as having distinguished himself among the Christians of that neighbourhood, his conversion, as well as that of Eunice his mother, and Lois his grandmother, must have taken place when St. Paul first preached at Lystra, A. D. 46. Upon St. Paul's leaving Lystra, in the course of his second apostolical journey, he was induced to take Timothy with him, on account of his excellent character, and the zeal which, young as he was, he had already shown in the cause of Christianity; but before they set out, St. Paul caused him to be circumcised, not as a thing necessary to his salvation, but to avoid giving offence to the Jews, as he was a Jew by the mother's side, and it was an established rule among the Jews that partus sequitur ventrem. Timothy was regularly appointed to the ministerial office by the laying on of hands, not only by St. Paul himself, but also by the presbytery, 1 Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6. From this time Timothy acted as a minister of the gospel; he generally attended St. Paul, but was sometimes employed by him in other places; he was very diligent and useful, and is always mentioned with great esteem and affection by St. Paul, who joins his name with his own in the inscription of six of his epistles. He is sometimes called bishop of Ephesus, and it has been said that he suffered martyrdom in that city, some years after the death of St. Paul.

The principal design of St. Paul's First Epistle to Timothy was to give him instructions concerning the management of the church of Ephesus; and it was probably intended that it should be read publicly to the Ephesians, that they might know upon what authority Timothy acted. After saluting him in an affectionate manner, and reminding him of the reason for which he was left at Ephesus, the apostle takes occasion, from the frivolous disputes which some Judaizing teachers had introduced among the Ephe. sians, to assert the practical nature of the gospel, and to show its superiority over the law; he returns thanks to God for his own appointment to the apostleship, and recommends to Timothy fidelity in the discharge of his sacred office; he exhorts that prayers should be made for all men, and especially for magistrates; he gives directions for the conduct of women, and forbids their teaching in public; he describes the qualifications necessary for bishops and deacons, and speaks of the mysterious nature of the gospel dispensation; he foretels that there will be apostates from the truth, and false teachers in the latter times, and recommends to

Timothy purity of manners and improvement of his spiritual gifts; he gives him particular directions for his behaviour towards persons in different situations in life, and instructs him in several points of Christian discipline; he cautions him against false teachers, gives him several precepts, and solemnly charges him to be faithful to his trust.

That the Second Epistle to Timothy was written while St. Paul was under confinement at Rome, appears from the two following passages: "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner," 2 Timothy i. 8. "The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus ; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain; but when he was at Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me," 2 Tim. i. 16, 17. The epistle itself will furnish us with several arguments to prove that it could not have been written during St. Paul's first imprisonment. 1. It is universally agreed that St. Paul wrote his epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and to Philemon, while he was confined the first time at Rome. In no one of these epistles does he express any apprehension for his life; and in the two last mentioned we have seen that, on the contrary, he expresses a confident hope of being soon liberated; but in this epistle he holds a very different language: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righte ous Judge, shall give me at that day," 2 Tim. iv. 6, &c. The danger in which St. Paul now was, is evident from the conduct of his friends, when he made his defence: "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me," 2 Tim. iv. 16. This expectation of death, and this imminent danger, cannot be reconciled either with the general tenor of his epistles written during his first confinement at Rome, with the nature of the charge laid against him when he was carried thither from Jerusalem, or with St. Luke's account of his confinement there; for we must remember that in A. D. 63 Nero had not begun to persecute the Christians; that none of the Roman magistrates and officers who heard the accusations against St. Paul at Jerusalem thought that he had committed any offence against the Roman government; that at Rome St. Paul was completely out of the power of the Jews; and, so little was he there considered as having been guilty of any capital crime, that he was suffered to dwell" two whole years," that is, the whole time of his confinement, "in his own hired house, and to receive all that came in unto him, preaching the word of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him," Acts xxviii. 30, 31. 2. From the inscriptions of the

epistles to the Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon, it is certain that Timothy was with St. Paul in his first imprisonment at Rome; but this epistle implies that Timothy was absent. 3. St. Paul tells the Colossians that Mark salutes them, and therefore he was at Rome with St. Paul in his first imprisonment; but he was not at Rome when this epistle was written, for Timothy is directed to bring him with him, 2 Tim. iv. 11. 4. Demas, also, was with St. Paul when he wrote to the Colossians: "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you," Col. iv. 14. In this epistle he says, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed into Thessalonica," 2 Tim. iv. 10 It may be said that this epistle might have been written before the others, and that in the intermediate time Timothy and Mark might have come to Rome, more especially as St. Paul desires Timothy to come shortly, and bring Mark with him. But this hypothesis is not consistent with what is said of Demas, who was with St. Paul when he wrote to the Colossians, and had left him when he wrote this second epistle to Timothy; consequently, the epistle to Timothy must be posterior to that addressed to the

Colossians. The case of Demas seems to have been, that he continued faithful to St. Paul during his first imprisonment, which was attended with little or no danger; but deserted him in the second, when Nero was persecuting the Christians, and St. Paul evidently considered himself in great danger. 5. St. Paul tells Timothy, "Erastus abode at Corinth, but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick," 2 Tim. iv. 20. These were plainly two circumstances which had happened in some journey, which St. Paul had taken not long before he wrote this epistle, and since he and Timothy had seen each other; but the last time St. Paul was at Corinth and Miletus, prior to his first imprisonment at Rome, Timothy was with him at both places; and Trophimus could not have been then left at Miletum, for we find him at Jerusalem immediately after St. Paul's arrival in that city; "for they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus, an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple," Acts xxi. 29. These two facts must therefore refer to some journey subsequent to the first imprisonment; and, consequently, this epistle was written during St. Paul's second imprisonment at Rome, and probably in A. D. 65, not long before his death. It is by no means certain where Timothy was when this epistle was written to him. It seems most probable that he was somewhere in Asia Minor, since St. Paul desires him to bring the cloak with him which he had left at Troas, 2 Tim. iv. 13; and also at the end of the first chapter, he speaks of several persons whose residence was in Asia. Many have thought that he was at Ephesus; but others have rejected that opinion, because Troas does not lie in

the way from Ephesus to Rome, whither he was directed to go as quickly as he could. St. Paul, after his usual salutation, assures Timothy of his most affectionate remembrance; he speaks of his own apostleship and of his sufferings; exhorts Timothy to be steadfast in the true faith, to be constant and diligent in the discharge of his ministerial office, to avoid foolish and unlearned questions, and to practise and inculcate the great duties of the gospel; he describes the apostasy and general wickedness of the last days, and highly commends the holy scriptures; he again solemnly exhorts Timothy to diligence; speaks of his own danger, and of his hope of future reward; and concludes with several private directions, and with salutations.

TIN, 72, Num. xxxi. 22; Isaiah i. 25; Ezek. xxii. 18, 20; xxvii. 12; a well known coarse metal, harder than lead. Mr. Parkhurst observes, that Moses, in Num. xxxi 22, enumerates all the six species of metals. The Lord, by the prophet Isaiah, having compared the Jewish people to silver, declares, "I will turn my hand upon thee, and purge away thy dross, and remove all 7972, thy particles of tin:" where Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion have κασσίτερον σου, and the Vulgate stannum tuum, "thy tin;" but the LXX. avóuous, wicked ones. This denuncia tion, by a comparison of the preceding and following context, appears to signify that God would, by a process of judgment, purify those among the Jews who were capable of purification, as well as destroy the reprobate and incorrigible, Jer. vi. 29, 30; ix. 7; Mal iii. 3; Ezek. xii. 18, 20. In Ezek. xxvii. 12, Tarshish is mentioned as furnishing and Bochart proves from the testimonies of Diodorus, Pliny, and Stephanus, that Tar tessus in Spain, which he supposes the ancient Tarshish, anciently furnished tin. As Cornwall in very ancient times was resorted to for this metal, and probably first by the Phenicians, some have thought that peninsula to be the Tarshish of the Scriptures: a subject which, however, from the vague use of the word, is involved in much uncertainty. See TARSHISH.

TITHES. We have nothing more ancient concerning tithes, than what we find in Gen. xiv. 20, that Abraham gave tithes to Melchisedec, King of Salem, at his return from his expedition against Chedorlaomer, and the four kings in confederacy with him. Abraham gave him tithe of all the booty be had taken from the enemy. Jacob imitated this piety of his grandfather, when he vowed to the Lord the tithe of all the substance be might acquire in Mesopotamia, Gen. XXVI 22. Under the law, Moses ordained, “All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's; it is holy unto the Lord. And if man will at all redeem aught of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the