he was compelled to desist by flames of fire which burst forth from the foundations. Repeated attempts have been made to account for these fiery irruptions. Bishop Warburton, in his discourse "Concerning the Earthquake and fiery Eruption," contends that the event was miraculous. Both the first and second temples were contemplated by the Jews with the highest reverence. Of their affectionate regard for the first temple, and for Jerusalem, within whose walls it was built, we have several instances in those psalms which were composed during the Babylonish captivity; and of their profound veneration for the second temple, we have repeated examples in the New Testament. They could not bear any disrespectful or dishonourable thing to be said of it. The least injurious slight of it, real or apprehended, instantly awakened the anger of a Jew, and was an affront never to be forgiven. Our Saviour, in the course of his public instructions, having said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again," John ii. 19, it was construed into a contemptuous disrespect, designedly thrown out against the temple; his words instantly descended into the hearts of the Jews, and kept rankling there for some years; for, upon his trial, this declaration, which it was impossible for a Jew ever to forget or to forgive, was immediately alleged against him, as big with the most atrocious guilt and impiety: they told the court they had heard him publicly assert, "I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days." Matt. xxvi. 61. rancour and virulence they had conceived against him for this speech, were not softened by all the affecting circumstances of that wretched death they saw him die even as he hung upon the cross, with triumph, scorn, and exultation, they upbraided him with it, contemptuously shaking their heads, and saying, "Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." Matt. xxvii. 40. It only remains to add, that it appears, from The several passages of Scripture, that the Jews had a body of soldiers who guarded the temple, to prevent any disturbances during the ministration of such an immense number of priests and Levites. To this guard Pilate referred, when he said to the chief priests and Pharisees, who waited upon him to desire that he would make the sepulchre secure, "Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can." Matt. xxvii. 65. Over these guards one person had the supreme command, who, in several places, is called the captain of the temple, or officer of the templeguard. "And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them.' Acts iv. 1; v. 24, 26; John xviii. 12. Josephus mentions such an officer. " Christ is TEMPT, TEMPTATION. These words are used with a variety of meaning in the Scriptures. The radical signification is to try, or to pass through. Sometimes God is tempted. Matt. iv. 7. This is either to presume upon God's goodness, or to distrust it. The word when applied to God, has always a bad sense; and seems to mean to seek from God displays of his power, in a way prescribed by ourselves. tempted. Matt. xvi. 1. In this case, the word means to put his claims as the Messiah to the test; in other places, to test Christ by hard questions. Man is tempted by God, when his faith and obedience are tried. Gen. xxii. 1; James i. 2, 3. ordinary afflictions of life are temptations, inasmuch as they ascertain what we are. The general signification is allurement to sin; and in this way man is tempted by the devil. He is the tempter. We are taught to pray, "Lead us not into temptation." We are not to presume that God leads us into temptation. It is a Hebrew form of expression, and means, "Suffer us not to be overcome by temptation;" that is, by any great or overwhelming trial, either of our virtue, by promptings or solicitations to sin, or of our patience, by extreme suffering. The Immediately after Christ's baptism, he was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. Some expositors, in explaining this temptation, have resorted to allegory. It was certainly a real transaction; otherwise everything in Scripture is allegory. God cannot be tempted of evil: the attack was made upon the human soul of Christ, upon Christ as the servant of God. First of all, the appeal is made to appetite, for Jesus had fasted forty days; then to the trust in Providence, by attempts to induce Christ to presume on preservation by Providence in an unwarranted exposure; then to the principle of ambition, offering him universal empire, on the condition of homage to the tempter. He was attacked first as a man, then as a godly man, then as a Jew. His triumph was complete. It has been asked, "Did Satan know the person he assaulted?" Even if he knew as much of Christ as to leave him no rational hope of success, this throws no discredit on the history, since the greatest minds, when wicked, often commit the greatest mistakes. If he knew the divinity of Christ, he might not understand the nature of the union between God and man; and might presume that as he had been successful with the first Adam, so if he could pollute the temple, the divinity might depart. The Saviour was tempted in all points, as we are, but without sin; wherefore he is able to succour them that are tempted. TENT. The patriarchs of the Israelitish nation dwelt in tents. Their descendants proceeded from tents to houses. What we should designate huts, are in Scripture called "booths." These were formed of the green branches of trees intertwined, and occasionally plastered with mud. They were generally erected in vineyards and orchards, to shelter the persons who watched over the fruit. Isai. i. 8; xxiv. 20. The Jews were required at the feast of Tabernacles to live for one week in huts made of green boughs. Lev. xxiii. 42. The feast was commemorative of the divine goodness, as exercised over the Jews when they were wandering in the desert, as well as expressive of gratitude for the supply of the rich fruits of the earth. Tents were used before the deluge, and are intimately associated with pastoral habits, to which a moveable abode was necessary. They were originally covered with skins; but subsequently were made of goats'-hair, spun and woven by the women. Exod. xxxv. 26. Linen tents were not ordinarily employed, but were reserved for travelling purposes. Considering the immutable character of eastern customs, we may presume the ancient tents to have resembled modern ones. They were, probably, oblong, and eight or ten feet high in the middle. The modern ones vary in size, and have, accordingly, a greater or less number of poles to support them, varying from three to nine. The modern sheikh, if a person of much consequence, has three or four tents, for himself, his wives, his servants, and strangers. It was more usual for one large tent to be divided into two or more apartments by means of curtains. See TABERNACLE. TENT-MAKER. In accordance with the eastern practice, by which all young people were taught a trade, Paul learnt the making of tent-cloth. The Cilicians made a particular kind of cloth of goats'-skins, which would bear exposure to the weather; and it is very probable that this was the occupation of the apostle. Acts xviii. 3. TENTH-DEAL. Lev. xxiii. 17. It is supposed to have been the same as the omer, or the tenth part of an ephah. TERAH. The father of Abraham, who, with his family, left Ur of the Chaldees, to go to the land which God would show him, but tarried at Haran, in Mesopotamia, and there died, at the age of two hundred and five years. Gen. xi. 24-32.___The reason of his remaining at Haran may be, that he was addicted to idolatrous practices. Josh. xxiv. 2, 14. TERAPHIM. Various opinions have been held on the subject of the teraphim. They seem to have been household gods or images. Gen. xxxi. 19, 30. By Michal's attempt to imitate the form of David on the couch by a teraphim put in his place, they must have borne some resem blance to the human figure. 1 Sam. | is also translated by the same word. xix. 13. As the word occurs in Hosea We must guard against the suppoiii. 4, it has occasioned much per- sition, that the Bible is to be regarded plexity to expositors. Bishop Horsley says, After much consideration of the passage, and of much that has been written upon it by expositors, I rest in the opinion strenuously maintained by the learned Pococke, in which he agrees with many that went before him, and has the concurrence of many that come after him, that statue, ephod, and teraphim, are mentioned as principal implements of idolatrous rites. And the sum of the fourth verse is this that, for many ages, the Jews would not be their own masters; would be deprived of the exercise of their own religion, in its most essential parts;not embracing the Christian, they would have no share in the true service; and yet would be restrained from idolatry, to which their forefathers had been so prone." as a testament in the ordinary sense of the word. The old covenant and the new covenant are the terms which St. Paul employs in opposing the Law to the Gospel; and assuredly the Law was not a testament. We have nothing in the words of Christ, or of his apostles, to suggest to us the idea of our salvation and its varied blessings being conveyed to us in any way answering to the idea of a testamentary bequest. Christianity is the new covenant with mankind, in which God engages to be merciful to our unrighteousness; to remember our sins and our iniquities no more; to put his law into our minds, and to write it in our hearts; and to be to us a God, and to regard us as his people. The conveyance of these blessings is by the blood of Christ; that is, by his propitiation, accepted by God on our account. That covenant is ratified to all who, complying with the terms, "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," come personally within its provisions and promises. The correct view of the Christian system is, "the new covenant in his blood;" and the appropriate designation of the New Testament would be, "the New Covenant of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." It would not be possible now to dispense with the term Testament as a designation of the TERTULLUS. The Roman advo-word of God: still we must bear cate employed by the Sanhedrim to in mind the correct application of sustain their accusation against Paul the term. See BIBLE and COVEbefore the Roman governor. Acts NANT. xxiv. 1-8. The Jews, in legal processes before Roman magistrates, were compelled to follow the forms of TERTIUS. Rom. xvi. 22. "I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord." He was the amanuensis of St. Paul. Lightfoot conjectures that he is the same as Silas. The attempt to establish a similarity of meaning between the name TERTIUS, the third, and Silas, (as if SHALISH, the Hebrew word for third,) is fanciful. Silas is a contraction of Silvanus, and means woodman. We have no further information than is furnished in the text above quoted. Roman law. TESTIMONY. The whole revelation of God, which declares what is to be believed, practised, and expected by us, is called God's testiTESTAMENT. This is a Latin mony, and his testimonies. Psal. xix. word, used as the translation of the 7; cxix. 88, 99. The two tables of Greek term dialýкη, covenant. It stone, on which were written the is probable that testamentum, in the ten commandments, and which were popular language of the period in part of the covenant between God which it was adopted, signified a and man, are designated by this covenant as well as a testament; for, phrase. Exod. xxv. 21, 22. See ARK. in the Italic version, the covenant The Gospel is termed "the testiwith Noah is rendered by testamen-mony of Christ." 1 Cor. i. 6. See tum; and the Greek, ovveýкn, the WITNESS. strict meaning of which is covenant, TETRARCH. A prince who go verns the fourth part of a kingdom, | "king." Herod's kingdom was, in the without having the title of king, or days of Tiberius Cæsar, divided into wearing the diadem. This was the three "tetrarchies," which were conoriginal meaning; but, subsequently, ferred on his three sons. Luke iii. 1. it was used indiscriminately with THADDEUS. See JUDE. with sculptures and hieroglyphics, representing the deeds of the kings who founded or enlarged these structures. Many of these afford illustrations of important facts in Egyptian history. An interesting scene is thought to record the exploits of Shishak, who made an expedition against Jerusalem, in the fifth year of Rehoboam, B.C. 971. 1 Kings xiv. 25. Our space will not allow us to furnish an abridgment of the interesting and graphic description furnished by Dr. Olin, vol. i., p. 165, et seq. We must refer the reader to the volumes, and to Wilkinson's "Thebes." THEBES. There were two cities, the temples at Thebes are covered of this name celebrated in ancient history. One the capital of Boeotia, situated on the banks of the river Ismenus. This is not mentioned in Scripture. The other is in the Thebaid of Egypt, called also Hecatompylos, on account of its hundred gates, and Diospolis, as being sacred to Jupiter. In the time of its splendour it is said to have extended over twenty-three miles, and, upon an emergency, to have been able to send twenty thousand fighting men into the field, and two hundred chariots. It is called, in Scripture, Pathros, No, and No-Amon; that is, the abode of Jupiter. Thebes lay on both sides of the Nile, and was probably the most ancient city in Egypt, and the residence of the earlier Egyptian kings. It was adorned by temples and palaces, of the grandeur of which we can form only a faint conception. The most ancient remains now existing are in the immense temple, or cluster of temples, of Karnak, said to be the most remarkable ruin in the world, being the work of a number of monarchs, who, in succession, were anxious to augment the splendour and dimensions of this edifice. The walls of all THEBEZ. A city near to Shechem, in the territory of Ephraim, where Abimelech met his death. Judges ix. 50; 2 Sam. xi. 21. THEOPHILUS, lover of God. The person to whom St. Luke addressed both the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Luke i. 3; Acts i. 1. Some have supposed, from the signification of the name, that it was simply an appellative, or common name, and was thus addressed to every lover of God. The epithet "most excellent," however, denotes official dignity, and was only bestowed on governors of provinces. Felix and Festus have this title addressed to them. The inference is, that Theophilus was the governor of some province. Grotius imagines he might be a magistrate of Achaia; and Theophylact assumes that he was of the senatorian order, and perhaps a nobleman. THESSALONIANS, EPISTLES TO THE. The former of these Epistles was written about the close of the year 53, or the commencement of 54. It is supposed to be the first written by the apostle Paul. The immediate occasion of the Epistle was the favourable report which Timothy had brought of the faith of the Thessalonians. The apostle, therefore, writes to convince them of the truth of the Gospel; to confirm them in their faith, lest they should be turned aside by the persecutions of the unbelieving Jews; and to excite them to a holy conduct, becoming their high and holy calling. The Epistle is argumentative in form. The first argument, in proof of the divine original of the Gospel, is founded upon the miracles by which it was confirmed. Chap. i. 5-10. The second is taken from the character, behaviour, and views of the first preachers. Chap. ii. 1-13. Under this head are introduced the answers to various objections, taken from the unbelief of the Jews, and their persecution of Christ and his disciples, chap. ii. 14-20; from the fact that the preachers of the Gospel did not deliver themselves from persecution by the use of miraculous powers, chap. iii. 1-4; and from the case of Paul in quitting Thessalonica, chap. iii. 5-13. The third argument is the holy nature of the precepts of the Gospel. Chap. iv. 1-12. The fourth is from the resurrection of Christ, the author of the Gospel, by which God declared him to be his Son, the Governor and Judge of the world, chap. iv. 13-18; v. 1-11. fallen, especially respecting the coming of Christ. It was assumed that the event was at hand. The apostle shows that, before its arrival, there will come a great apostasy, the rise and complete development of the mystery of iniquity, presided over by the wicked one, who is assisted by an infernal machinery of " power, and signs, and lying wonders, and all deceivableness of unrighteousness." The papacy is clearly marked out in this Epistle: "the man of sin," and "son of perdition." His power is indicated and described: "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." He usurps divine authority in the church: "he as God sitteth in the temple of God." It was, to human apprehension, highly improbable that principles such as are predicted here should ever have prevailed in the church of Christ: a prophecy which corresponds in every particular so exactly with the event, is a certain proof that the author wrote under divine influence. See Newton "On the Prophecies," Diss. 22. THESSALONICA. A celebrated city of Macedonia, now called Salonichi. Its ancient name was Thermæ: it was situated on the Thermaic gulf, now called the gulf of Salonichi. The name was given to it by Cassander, in honour of his wife Thessalonice; and it seems to have been built on the site of the ancient Thermæ. A great number of Jews were living there in the time of the apostle Paul, and also many Christian converts. Paul, Timotheus, and Silas planted a church here, A.D. 53. Acts xvii.; 1 Thess. i. 1; ii. 1, 2. Aristarchus and Secundus were among the converts. Acts xx. 4; xxvii. 2. It is now a place of considerable importance. The population is estimated at seventy thousand. The The ancient walls are standing, and are about six miles in circuit. conclusion contains many practical admonitions. Chap. v. 12-28. The fourth chapter contains a remarkable account of the final resurrection of believers. The second Epistle was written soon after the first, and was evidently designed to correct some mistakes into which the church had THIEF. Various regulations regarding theft are found among the laws of the Hebrews. The crime was not punished with death. Prov. vi. 30, 31. A night-robber might be killed. Exod. xxii. 2. A common thief was required to make restitution |