dess;" which agrees exactly with the appellation in 1 Kings xi. 5, 33: "Ashtoreth, goddess of the Sidonians." They have also Phoenician inscriptions on them; and the date is supposed to be 155-183, from the era of the Seleucidæ.

SILOAM, SILOE, or SILOA, a fountain under the walls of Jerusalem, on the east, between the city and the brook Kidron, and the same, no doubt, as Enrogel, or the fuller's fountain, Josh. xv. 7, xviii. 16; 2 Sam. xvii. 17; 1 Kings i. 9. Isaiah (viii. 6) | intimates, that the waters of Siloam flowed gently and without noise: "Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah, that go softly." Reland says (Antiq. Heb. pt. iv. cap. 6), that there was a custom of drawing water out of the fountain of Siloam, and pouring it out before the Lord, in the temple, at the time of evening sacrifice; and to this there appears to be an allusion in John vii. 37.

Sinai: there is every reason to believe that djebel
Mousa is not."

SMYRNA, a city of Asia Minor, situated in Ionia, on the Archipelago, and having a fine harbour. Our Lord, by the mouth of John, addresses the angel or bishop of Smyrna (Rev. ii. 8—10), who is thought to have been Polycarp the martyr, who was put to death A. D. 166. It is still a place of consideration, having a great foreign trade, and a population of about 140,000.

SODOM, the chief city of the Pentapolis; and for some time the dwelling-place of Lot, Gen. xiii. 12, 13. Its crimes, however, were so enormous, that God destroyed it by fire from heaven, with three neighbouring cities, Gomorrha, Zeboim, and Admah, which were as wicked as itself, Gen. xix.; A. M. 2107. The plain in which they stood was pleasant and fruitful, like an earthly paradise ; but it was first burned, and afterwards overflowed SIN, or ZIN, a city and wilderness south of the by the waters of the Jordan, which formed the Holy Land, in Arabia Petræa, near Egypt and the present Dead Sea, or lake of Sodom. The proRed Sea, Exod. xvi. 1, xvii. 1. There was an- phets allude to the destruction of Sodom and Goother desert of the same name, also south of Pa-morrha, and intimate that these places shall be lestine, but toward the Dead Sea, Deut. xxxii. desert, and dried up, and uninhabited (Jer. xlix. 51; Numb. xiii. 21, xxvii. 14, xxxiv. 3; Josh. 18, 1. 38); that they shall be covered with briars and brambles, a land of salt and sulphur, where can be neither planting nor sowing, Deut. xxix. 22; Wisd. ii. 9; Amos iv. 11.

XV. 3.

SYRIA. See page 440, ante.

SYRO-PHOENICIA is Phoenicia properly so called, which having been united to the kingdom of Syria, it added its old name Phoenicia to that of Syria. Matthew calls her a Canaanitish woman (Matt. xv. 22, 24), whom Mark calls a SyroPhoenician (Mark vii. 26), because that country was really peopled by Canaanites; Sidon being the eldest son of Canaan, Gen. x. 15.

SINAI, a mountain of Arabia Petræa, in the peninsula formed by the two northern arms of the Red Sea, and where the law was given to Israel, Exod. xix., &c. There is, however, considerable difficulty in determining the particular spot rendered memorable by this miraculous occurrence. According to Burckhardt, Sinai is a prodigious pile of mountains, comprehending many separate peaks, and extending thirty or forty miles in diameter; and one of the group, called djebel Mousa, the Mount of Moses, is pointed out by tradition. A higher elevation, separated from it TADMOR, subsequently called Palmyra by the by a deep cleft, and called Mount St. Catherine, Greeks, was a city founded by Solomon in the is considered to be the mountain called Horeb, desert of Syria, on the borders of Arabia Deserta, in Deut. v.; Exod. xx., &c. Burckhardt, how- near the Euphrates. Its situation was remote ever, who particularly examined the localities of from human habitations, in the midst of a dreary this region, is dissatisfied with the alleged proofs wilderness; and it is probable that the Hebrew in support of the claims of djebel Mousa, and is king built it to facilitate his commerce with the persuaded that Mount Serbal, a peak in a lower East, as it afforded a supply of water, a thing of range of mountains, to the north-west of that the utmost importance in an Arabian desert. It already described, is the true Mount Sinai; and is one day's journey from the Euphrates, two that either the Mount of Moses, or Mount St. from Upper Syria, and six from Babylon. The Catherine, is the real Horeb. Mr. Conder* has original name was preserved till the time of carefully examined and compared the accounts of Alexander, who extended his conquests to this Burckhardt, and other writers, with the Scripture city, which then exchanged Tadmor for the title references to Sinai and Horeb; but without arof Palmyra. It submitted to the Romans about riving at any satisfactory result. "After all," he the year 130, and continued in alliance with them remarks, “Mount St. Catherine may be the real during a period of 150 years. When the Saracens

* Mod. Trav. Arabia, p. 177-195.

triumphed in the East, they acquired possession of this city, and restored its ancient name of Tadmor. Of the time of its ruin there is no

with Tugrooos. In the interval between the composition of the Books of Kings and Chronicles, this name seems to have been employed to denote any distant country; hence the ships that went to Ophir (1 Kings xxii. 49), are said expressly by the writer of Chronicles to have gone to Tarshish, 2 Chron. ix., xxi. 20, xxxvi. 37. The phrase, Tarshish ships, is also employed by Isaiah, xxiii. 1, 4, lx. 9, &c., to denote large merchant ships bound on long voyages, even though they were sent to other countries instead of Tarshish. The English phrase, an Indiaman, is very similar. The phrase is also used of the ships that went to Ophir, 1 Kings xxii. 49, x. 22.

authentic record; but it is thought, with some nus Byzantinus occurs Tagoniov synonymous probability, that its destruction occurred during the period in which it was occupied by the Saracens. Of its present appearance, Messrs. Wood and Dawkins, who visited it in 1751, thus speak: "It is scarcely possible to imagine any thing more striking than this view. So great a number of Corinthian pillars, mixed with so little wall or solid building, afforded a most romantic variety of prospect." Captain Mangles, who travelled more recently, observes, "On opening upon the ruins of Palmyra, as seen from the valley of the Tombs, we were much struck with the picturesque effect of the whole, presenting the most imposing sight of the kind we had ever seen." But on a minuter inspection, the ruins of this once mighty city do not appear so interesting as at a distance. Volney observes, "In the space covered by these ruins, we sometimes find a palace of which nothing remains but the court and walls; sometimes a temple, whose peristile is half thrown down; and now a portico, a gallery, a triumphal arch. If from this striking scene we cast our eyes upon the ground, another almost as varied presents itself. 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 the dust." It is situated under a ridge of barren hills to the west, and its other sides are open to the desert. The city was originally about ten miles in circumference; but such have been the destructions effected by time, that the boundaries are with difficulty traced and determined. In the Modern Traveller there is a very excellent description of the present aspect of this ruined city, by Mr. Josiah Conder.*

TARSHISH, a city and country to which the Hebrews and Phoenicians traded. It was situated in the west, as is evident from Gen. x. 4, where it is joined with Elishah, Kittim, and Dodanim (See also Ps. lxxii. 10); and according to Ezek. xxxviii. 13, it was an important place of trade; according to Jer. x. 9, it exported silver; and according to Ezek. xxvii. 12, 25, silver, iron, tin, and lead, to the Tyrian markets. In Isai. xxiii. 1, 6, 10, it is represented as an important Phoenician colony, and is named among other distant states, in chap. lxvi. 19. That these notices agree with Tartessus in Spain, has been shown by Bochart, Michaëlis, and Bredow; the Greek name Tartessus, being derived from a harder Aramean pronunciation Another orthography was known to the Greeks; for in Polybius and Stepha

תרחיש of the word

* Calmet's Dictionary, sub voce.

TARSUS, the capital of Cilicia, of which city Paul was a native, Acts ix. 11, xxi. 39. Some think it obtained the privileges of a Roman colony by its firm adherence to Julius Cæsar, who made the inhabitants citizens of Rome: whence the apostle was free of Rome, by being born in Tarsus. Others believe that Tarsus, though a free city, was not a Roman colony in the time of Paul; and that the privilege of being a citizen of Rome belonged to the apostle, not as a native of Tarsus, but by some personal right derived from his father or ancestors.

THESSALONICA, a city and sea-port of the second division of Macedonia, in which a large number of Jews resided. They had a synagogue here, in which Paul (A. D. 52) preached to them on three successive sabbaths. Some of the Jews having surrounded the house in which they believed he was lodging, for the purpose of ill-treating him, the brethren secretly led Paul and Silas out of the city towards Berea, and they escaped from their enemies (Acts xvii.), leaving behind them Timothy and Silas, that they might confirm those in the faith who had been converted under Paul's ministry. Being subsequently informed by them of the state of the church in Thessalonica, he addressed to them the two Epistles so directed in our present canon. Thessalonica, now called Salonica, is at present a wretched town, but having a population of about 60,000 persons.

TIBERIAS, a city of Galilee, on the western shore of the lake of Gennesareth, the original name of which is thought by some to have been Cinnereth, or Hammath, or Emath. Reland has shown, however, that this is very doubtful, and is only founded on the sea of Cinnereth being afterwards called the sea of Tiberias. Besides, as he observes, the portion of Naphtali did not begin towards the south, but at Capernaum (Matt. iv. 13), which is more to the north than Tiberias; and yet Cinnereth and Hammath belong to the portion of Naphtali, Josh. xix. 35. Josephus

TIBERIAS, sea of. See p. 416, ante.

states, that Tiberias was built in honour of Tiberias by Herod Antipas, and that it was 30 furlongs from Hippos, 60 from Gadara, 120 from Scythopolis, and 30 from Tarichea.t Herod endowed it with great advantages; which, with its convenient situation, soon made it the metropolis of Galilee. When he was obliged to leave Rome, he retired hither with his uncle Herod; and the emperor Claudius afterwards bestowing it upon him, it had the name of Claudia Tiberias. Josephus took possession of it at the time of the wars with the Jews, and gave the bastinado to the officer who came to propose terms of peace to it from the Romans. Vespasian intended to put all the inhabitants to the edge of the sword; but Agrippa prevailed on him to be satisfied with beating down part of its walls. Tiberias is the only place on the sea of Galilee retaining any marks of its ancient importance. It is understood to cover the ground formerly occupied by a town of a much remoter age, and of which some traces can still be distinguished. Tabaria, as it is now denominated, has the form of an irregular crescent, and is inclosed towards the land by a wall, flanked with circular towers. It lies nearly north and south, along the edge of the lake, and has its eastern front so close to the water on the brink of which it stands, that some of the houses are washed by the sea. The whole does not appear more than a mile in circuit, and cannot, from the manner in which they are placed, contain above 500 separate dwellings. Here there are a mosque and two Jewish synagogues, also a Christian place of worship, called the House of Peter, which is thought by some to be the oldest building used for that purpose in any part of Palestine. The structure is of very ordinary description; but it derives no small interest from the popular belief that it is the very house which Peter inhabited at the time of his being called from his boat to follow the Messiah. The population of the town does not now exceed 2000. Of these about one-half are Jews; the rest are Mohammedans, with the exception of a few of the Christian creed. The warm baths, which have given celebrity to that neighbourhood, are still found at the distance of between two and three miles southward from the town. "Tibe-man of Macedonia, who requested gospel assistance. rias," says Carne, "is a scene where nature still seems to wear as sublime and lovely an aspect as in the day when it drew the visitations of our Lord. No curse rests on its shores, as on those of the Dead Sea, but a hallowed calm, and a majestic beauty, that are irresistibly delightful."

TOв, a country beyond Jordan, in the most northern part of the portion of Manasseh. Thither Jephthah fled, and was fetched from thence, Judg. xi. 3, 5. It is thought to be the same as Ish-tob, 2 Sam. x. 6, 8. Rabbi Joshua ben Levi says that Tob was afterwards called Susitha; in Greek, Hippene (cavalry-town). In the city Hippo were mingled both Jews and Gentiles.

TOPHET, a place near Jerusalem, in the valley of the children of Hinnom, where, as is said, a constant fire was kept, for burning the offal, and other filth, brought from the city. Isaiah (xxx. 33) seems to allude to the custom of burning dead carcases in this place, when he says, "For Tophet is ordained of old; yea for the king [or Moloch] it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large. The pile thereof is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." Some think that the name of Tophet was given to the valley of Hinnom, because of the sacrifices offered there to the god Moloch, by beat of drum, to drown the cries of the consuming children; a drum in Hebrew, being called toph. Jeremiah (vii. 31) upbraids the Israelites with having built temples to Moloch: "The high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire." We learn from the same prophet that Tophet was a polluted and unclean place, where they used to throw the carcases to which they refused burial, chap. vii. 32, xix. 11–13. Josiah defiled the place of Tophet, where the temple of Moloch stood, so that none might go thither again, to sacrifice their children to that cruel deity, 2 Kings xxiii. 10, 11.

* Antiq., lib. xviii., cap. 3; De Bel., lib. ii., cap. 8. † De Vitâ suâ, pp. 1025, 1010.

TROAS, a city of Phrygia, or of Mysia, on the Hellespont, between Troy and Assos. Sometimes the name of Troas (or the Troad) signifies the whole country of the Trojans, the province where the ancient city of Troy had stood; but in the New Testament it signifies, a city of this name, sometimes called Antigonia, and Alexandria. Sometimes both names are united, AlexandriaTroas. Paul was several times at Troas, A. D. 52 (Acts xvi. 8, &c.), and once had a vision here of a

He left here, in the custody of Carpus, some clothes and books, which he desired Timothy to bring with him to Rome, 2 Tim. iv. 13.

TYRE, a celebrated city of Phoenicia, allotted to the tribe of Asher (Josh. xix. 29), though it does not appear that they ever drove out the Canaanites. There were, properly speaking, two Tyres-Insular Tyre, and Tyre on the continent, or Palæ Tyrus; and it is supposed by some learned writers, that the island was not inhabited till after

the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. But this suppo- | B. C. 573, more than 1700 years, according to sition is not merely at variance with Josephus, but Josephus, after its foundation. Its destruction is scarcely reconcileable with the language of the then must have been entire; all the inhabitants prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, who both seem to were put to the sword, or led into captivity, the speak of Tyre as an isle. See Isai. xxiii. 2, 6; walls were razed to the ground, and it was made Ezek. xxvi. 17, xxvii. 3, xxviii. 2. Nor is it a "terror" and a desolation. It is remarkable, probable that the advantageous position of the that one reason assigned by Ezekiel, for the deisland would be neglected by a maritime people.struction of this proud city, is its exultation at the The coast would, indeed, first be occupied, and the fortified city mentioned in the book of Joshua was in all probability on the continent; but as the commercial importance and wealth of the port increased, the island would naturally be inhabited, and it must have been considered as the place of the greatest security. Volney supposes that the Tyrians retired to their isle when compelled to abandon the ancient city of Nebuchadnezzar, and that till that time the dearth of water had prevented it from being much built upon. The chief edifices were, at all events, on the main land, and to these the denunciations of total ruin strictly apply. Palæ Tyrus never rose from its overthrow by the Chaldean conqueror, and the Macedonian completed its destruction; at the same time, the wealth and commerce of Insular Tyre were for the time destroyed, though it afterwards recovered from the effects of this invasion. Ancient Tyre, then, probably consisted of the fortified city, which commanded a considerable territory on the coast, and of the port which was "strong in the sea." On that side it had little to fear from invaders, as the Tyrians were lords of the sea; and accordingly it does not appear that the Chaldean conqueror ventured upon a maritime assault. Josephus, indeed, states, that Salmaneser, king of Assyria, made war against the Tyrians, with a fleet of sixty ships, manned by 800 rowers. The Tyrians had but twelve ships; yet they obtained the victory, dispersing the Assyrian fleet, and taking 500 prisoners. Salmaneser then returned to Nineveh, leaving his land forces before Tyre, where they remained for five years, but were unable to take the city. This expedition is supposed to have taken place in the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah, about A. M. 3287, or 717 B. C. It must have been about this period, or a few years earlier, that Isaiah delivered his oracle against Tyre, in which he specifically declared, that it should be destroyed, not by the power which then threatened, but by the Chaldeans, a people "formerly of no account," Isai. xxiii. 13. The more detailed predictions of the prophet Ezekiel were delivered an hundred and twenty years after, B. C. 588. Almost immediately before the Chaldean invasion, the army of Nebuchadnezzar is said to have lain before Tyre thirteen years, and it was not taken till the fifteenth year after the captivity,

pro

destruction of Jerusalem: "I shall be replenished now she is laid waste,” Ezek. xvi. 2. This clearly indicates that its overthrow was posterior to that event; and if we take the seventy years during which it was predicted by Isaiah (xxiii. 15) that Tyre should be forgotten, to denote a definite term (which seems the most natural sense), we may conclude that it was not rebuilt till the same number of years after the return of the Jews from Babylon. Old Tyre, the continental city, remained, however, in ruins up to the period of the Macedonian invasion. Insular Tyre had then risen to be a city of very considerable wealth and political importance; and by sea her fleets were triumphant. It was the rubbish (Ezek. xxv. 12, 19), of old Tyre, thirty furlongs off, that supplied materials for the gigantic mole constructed by Alexander, of 200 feet in breadth, extending all the way from the continent to the island, a distance of three quarters of a mile. The sea that formerly separated them, was shallow near the shore, but, towards the island, it is said to have been three fathoms in depth. The causeway has bably been enlarged by the sand thrown up by the sea, which now covers the surface of the isthmus. Tyre was taken by the Macedonian conqueror, after a siege of eight months, B. C. 332, two hundred and forty-one years after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, and consequently about one hundred and seventy after it had been rebuilt. Though now subjugated, it was not, however, totally destroyed, since only thirty years afterwards it was an object of contention to Alexander's successors. The fleet of Antigonus invested and blockaded it for thirteen months, at the expiration of which it was compelled to surrender, and received a garrison of his troops for its defence. About three years after, it was invested by Ptolemy, in person, and owing to a mutiny in the garrison, fell into his hands. Its history is now identified with that of Syria. In the apostolic age, it seems to have regained some measure of its ancient character as a trading town, and Paul, in touching here on one occasion, in his way back from Macedonia, found a number of Christian believers, with whom he spent a week; so that the gospel must have been early preached to the Tyrians, Acts xxi. 3, 4. Josephus, in speaking of the city of Zabulon as of admirable beauty, says