TAANACH. A city located at Tel Taanech c. 8 kilometers southeast of Megiddo. The city was conquered by Joshua (Josh 12:21) although another source says that the Israelites were not able to conquer the city (Judg 1:27). According to the Song of Deborah, Taanach was close to the scene of the battle between Barak and Sisera (Judg 5:19). The city was the possession of Manasseh, although it was located within the tribal territory of Issachar and Asher (Josh 17:11). In Solomon’s time it became part of his fifth district (1 Kgs 4:12). Taanach was excavated at the beginning of the 20th century, and again in the 1960s and 1980s. It was founded in the Early Bronze Age, which represented the heyday of the settlement. It was partially rebuilt during the Middle Bronze Age, and appears in Thutmose III’s war report from the battle of Megiddo (15th century). One Amarna Letter comes from Taanach, although several other cuneiform texts have been found here relevant to the history of the city. The Iron Age city was destroyed by Shishak and included in his list of conquered cities.
TABAL. (Meaning “no good,” a pejorative rendering of the proper name Tabel, “God is good”). He appears in connection with the Syro-Ephraimite War as the father of an otherwise unknown contender for the throne of Judah supported by Israel and Damascus (Isa 7:6).
TABEL. A Persian official residing at Samaria who in the time of Artaxerxes II opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Ezra 4:7).
TABOR. A mountain in the eastern part of the Jezreel Valley c. 600 meters high, on the border between the tribes of Naphtali, Zebulon, and Issachar, and the rallying point of the Israelite forces before the battle against Sisera (Judg 4). It may have served as a local shrine for the tribes of northern Israel.
TADMOR. The pre-Hellenistic name of the great oasis of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. The name of Tadmor also occurs in Assyrian inscriptions of the eighth century B.C.E.
TAHPANHES. An Egyptian city in the eastern part of the delta of the Nile, located at present Tell Defunna (recalling its Greek name of Daphne). After the murder of Gedaliah, a group of Judeans looked for a safe place in Tahpanhes (Jer 43:7), and also Jeremiah joined the refugees, although very much against his own will (Jer 43:8; 46:14). Excavations have unearthed an elaborate fortress from the time of Psamtik I (664-610 B.c.E.).
TAMAR. (Meaning “palm tree”). The name of four women in the Old Testament. The more important are 1. Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Jacob’s son Judah (Gen 38). When her husband died without an heir, Tamar seduced her father-in-law, who had denied her offspring with a second son of his. She became pregnant by Judah and was the mother of the twins Pharez and Zerah. The genealogy of the family of David reckons Pharez as an ancestor of the royal house of Judah. 2. The daughter of David who was raped by her half brother Amnon. Another brother, Absalom, killed Amnon in revenge for the wrong done to his sister (2 Sam 13).
TARSHISH. One of the sons of Javan (Gen 10:4). Because Javan represents the Greeks, the location of Tarshish has been sought in the Mediterranean where several candidates ranging from the eastern Mediterranean to Spain, including Carthage, have been proposed. Ships heading for Tarshish were also running out of Eziongeber. Therefore a Tarshish-ship may mean a ship able to travel on the open sea.
TARTAN. An Assyrian officer who joined Rab-shakeh on his mission to Jerusalem (2 Kgs 18:17). The name is a title meaning perhaps “commander in chief’ of the Assyrian army.
TECHOA. A small town of Judah on the fringe of the Desert of Judah, and the home of the prophet Amos. It is located at Khirbet Tekua a few kilometers southeast of Bethlehem.
TEL-ABIB. Place of settlement of exiled Judeans. The prophet Ezekiel belonged to this group (Ezek 3:15). It was located on the bank of the canal of Chebar, Akkadian Kabaru, running through the ancient city of Nippur in central Mesopotamia. Mesopotamian documents from the fifth century testify to the presence of people carrying West-Semitic names living in this region.
TEMA. The son of Ishmael (Gen 25:15), and an oasis and city in northern Arabia. It was an important center of trade and caravaneering. For a period of ten years, it was also the residence of King Nabonidus of Babylonia (see Assyria and Babylonia).
TEMAN. The name of a region, probably the northern part of Edom (see also Amos 1:12). In other references Teman is synonymous with Edom. The name means “south.”
TEMPLE, TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM. In ancient societies, temples functioned as the center of religion. However, they were much more than that. Often they had—because there was no division between the sacral and secular world—decisive political as well as economic importance. The Old Testament is well aware of this significance of the temple. Thus, before the monarchy, the army of Israel assembled at temples, for example, at Mizpah or Bethel (Judg 20:1.18). King David’s first act as king of Jerusalem was to bring back the old religious shrine, the Ark of the Covenant, to his newly acquired capital and install it in the sanctuary which he put up there at Arauna’s threshing ground (2 Sam 6). He did not manage to erect a proper temple—that was a task left to his son Solomon, who according to the biblical tradition built an elaborate temple located next to his royal palace. Following this pattern of emphasizing the importance of temple construction, Jeroboam established as one of his first deeds as king over Israel royal sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan, officially to prevent his subjects from going to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and thus turn away from his rule (1 Kgs 12). When Josiah, the king of Judah, regained control over parts of the territory belonging to the former Kingdom of Israel, he demolished the temple at Bethel, and in this way showed that the country had a new master and a new center of its religion (2 Kgs 23:15-18).
A by-product of this political interest in the temple was the repeated concern of kings for rebuilding and repairing the temple. In the Deuteronomistic History, a king of Judah is measured according to his benevolent acts in favor of the temple. Thus, among the kings praised by the deuteronomistic (see Deuteronomism) composer of the Books of Kings, David ordered the temple built, and Solomon carried out his order. Asa cared for the temple and reformed its cult (1 Kgs 15:9-15), Joash repaired the temple, Hezekiah reformed the cult (2 Kgs 18:4-5)—according to Chronicles he also celebrated Passover in the temple (2 Chron 31)—and Josiah both repaired the temple and reformed its cult (2 Kgs 22-23).
The economic importance of the temple is evident. Thus the kings of Judah repeatedly had to strip the temple of its treasures to pay off foreign invaders, for example, when Pharaoh Shishak attacked Jerusalem after Solomon’s death (1 Kgs 14:25-26) and again when Hazael prepared for an attack on Jerusalem (2 Kgs 12:18-19) while Jehoash of Israel, after having defeated Amaziah of Judah at Beth-Shemesh, moved on to Jerusalem and looted the temple treasuries (2 Kgs 14:8-14). In 587 B.C.E., Nebuchadnezzar went even further by not only plundering the temple of Jerusalem, but also burning it down to the ground—he had already plundered it ten years before when for the first time he conquered Jerusalem (2 Kgs 24:13). After the Babylonian Exile, in a society without a king, the temple of Jerusalem gained even more importance and the high priest became one of the most, if not the most, influential person of the country. Some scholars have described the post-exilic society as a “temple burger society,” or a “theocracy,” where the high priest of Yahweh at Jerusalem was the real master of Judea.
THEBEZ. The city where Abimelech met his death at the hand of a woman (Judg 9:50). It is identified with modern Tubas c. 20 kilometers northeast of Shechem.
TIBNI. The son of Ginath who was chosen king by half of Israel in opposition to Omri. Tibni lost and was killed (1 Kgs 17:21-22). It has sometimes been conjectured that Tibni represented old Israelite families who opposed Omri’s rule, Omri being a soldier of foreign (probably Arab) origins.
TIDAL. The king of Goyim, one of the four great kings who were defeated by Abraham in the Valley of Siddim (Gen 14). Often identified with the Hittite royal name of Tudhaliya.
TIGLATH-PILESER III. King of Assyria 744-727 B.C.E. and the real creator of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, who changed the direction of Assyrian expansionist policies from occasional campaigns into a calculated campaign of conquest and reorganization of foreign countries, including the establishment of Assyrian provinces and large-scale deportations. He began to put pressure on Syria and Palestine after having subdued Urartu (Ararat) in Asia Minor in 743 B.C.E. Already in 738 B.C.E. he received tribute from Mena-hem of Israel. Between 734 and 733 B.C.E. he was confronted by a coalition of Syrian and Palestinian powers including Damascus and Israel. After an abortive attempt in 733 B.C.E. he conquered Damascus in 732 B.C.E., and forcibly reduced the Kingdom of Israel into a city-state of Samaria (see Syro-Ephraimite War). He ended his career by settling issues in Babylonia, which was ruled by an Assyrian vice king.
TIGRIS. One of the two great rivers that runs through Mesopotamia (see also Euphrates). It runs to the east of the Euphrates, from southeastern Turkey to the Persian Gulf. Although in many respects a more imposing and dangerous river than the Euphrates, the Tigris in the mind of the people of Syria never obtained the position as the great border to the east that was hold by the Euphrates. Along its upper course, the great cities of Assyria were located, including Ashur and Nineveh. Tigris is included among the four rivers of the world that take their offspring in Paradise (Gen 2:10-14).
TIMNA‘. Often associated in popular literature with King Solomon’s mines, although nothing indicates that any king of Israel was active mining at Timna‘ in the 10th century, the date usually associated with David and Solomon. Timna‘ is located c. 30 kilometers north of modern Elath on the Gulf of Aqaba. The Timna‘ area provides plenty of opportunities for copper mining, and such activity is in evidence from the Chalcolithic period to the Roman period, although a gap is conspicuous in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age.
TIMNATH-SERAH (VARIANT: TIMNATH-HERES). A place in Ephraim where Joshua was buried (Josh 24:30; Judg 2:9). It has been proposed that Timnath-Serah is located at Khirbet Tibnah c. 24 kilometers southwest of Shechem.
TIRHARKAH (TAHARQA). The fourth Pharaoh of the Nubian 25th dynasty, king of Egypt 690-664 B.C.E. According to 2 Kings, Tirharkah, the king of Cush (that is, Nubia), involved Egypt in the events of the year 701 B.C.E., when Sennacherib led his victorious army to the gates of Jerusalem (2 Kgs 19:9). Sennacherib mentions the episode in his annals and recounts how his army destroyed the Egyptian force at the battle of Eltekeh in Palestine. Since Tirharkah only assumed kingship more than a decade after the battle of Eltekeh, it has been assumed that the Old Testament historiographer made a mistake. Otherwise, Tirharkah may have acted as the general of his predecessor Shebitqo. At the end of his reign, Tirharqa was forced out of Egypt by Assyrian armies.
TIRZAH. A city of Manasseh, and the third capital of Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 12:25). It was the capital of the Kingdom of Israel until the time of Omri, who moved the capital to Samaria. Tirzah is located at Tell el-Far‘ah some 12 kilometers northeast of Nablus. It was excavated in the 1950s and traces of settlements were unearthed reaching back into the Chalcolitic period. In the Early Bronze Age a fortified city existed here. It was rebuilt in the Middle Bronze Age but was destroyed in the 16th century B.C.E. and not rebuilt as a city before the Iron Age. The city may have experienced a setback after it lost its status as capital, although the evidence is inconclusive. It was destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E. and never rebuilt.
TOBIAH THE AMMONITE (see Ammon, Ammonites). Together with Sanballat the Horonite, and Geshem the Arab, a fierce opponent of Nehemiah’s restoration projects in Jerusalem. From the Book of Nehemiah it becomes clear how Tobiah, although a foreigner, through family connections had created a network that included large sections of the leading Judeans. The family of the Tobiads of the third century B.C.E. that resided in Transjordan may be the descendants of this Tobiah.
TOLA. A judge in Israel who was in office for 23 years. His tribal affiliation was Issachar (Judg 10:1-2). He belongs to the list of five judges (Judg 10:1-5; 12:8-15) who together judged Israel for 70 years but left no records about their exploits.
TRANSJORDAN. In scholarly literature dealing with the history of ancient Israel, Transjordan is a convenient term used about the territories east of the Jordan River. In this way it coincides with the territory of the modern Kingdom of Jordan, but it was never an independent political unity in ancient times.
TRIBAL LEAGUE. The Old Testament describes Israel before the introduction of the Hebrew monarchy as organized in a system of twelve tribes (see Twelve tribe system). Based on this information, biblical scholars proposed the idea of a sacral Israelite tribal league organized along the lines of the Greek Amphictyony, a religious as well as political defensive alliance that should protect the Israelite tribes against their enemies in the early days of Israelite presence in Canaan. Although the theory of the Israelite tribal league found almost universal acceptance when it was proposed, later historical studies have led to its total dismissal in modern biblical scholarship.
TRIBAL WARS. In the Period of the Judges, war among the Israelite tribes was not unheard of. Thus Jephthah from Gilead led the people of Gilead against the Ephraimites (Judg 12:1-6). The misbehavior of the inhabitants of Gibeah led to a war between Benjamin and the other Israelite tribes (Judg 19-21). During this war the tribe of Benjamin was almost wiped out. The narratives in the Old Testament about tribal wars are strongly colored by the ideology of the twelve tribe system of Israel.
TRIBE, TRIBAL SOCIETY. Tribe is a sociological term that is often used to characterize the organization of traditional people living in societies without a strong centralized government. Tribe is a most elusive term that covers a plethora of variations of social organization, including so-called “acephalous” societies, that is, societies without official leaders sometimes connected with an egalitarian ideology (“we are all brothers and the sons of one and the same father”) as well as organizations ruled by chieftains and hierarchically structured. The Old Testament presents early Israel as organized in twelve tribes: Reuben, Simeon, Gad, Ephraim, Manasseh (variation: Joseph substitutes Ephraim and Manasseh), Benjamin, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali, although the Old Testament knows of many more tribal names, like Machir and Caleb. The individual organization of each of these tribes is unknown.
TWELVE TRIBE SYSTEM. The Old Testament distributes the Israelites among twelve tribes, the descendants of Jacob’s twelve sons. Basically the system appears in two different shapes. The first system includes the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulon, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, and Benjamin (e.g., in Gen 49). In the second system Levi, the tribe of priests, has been substituted by Ephraim and Manasseh. Although some scholars have speculated about the historical changes that may have brought about the change of system, it is more likely that the difference is mainly a literary one, centering on the narrative in the Book of Exodus about the Levites being installed as priests in Israel and making them different from the other tribes of Israel (Exod 32:29). The Blessing of Jacob (Gen 49) and the Blessing of Moses (Deut 33) include sayings about the individual tribes that have been taken as very old characterizations of the twelve tribes of Israel. However, the Song of Deborah leaves the impression that the twelve tribe system is schematic and of limited historical value, as the Israelite tribes included more tribes than the official twelve.
TYRE. An important Phoenician city. Originally an island, it changed into a peninsula when Alexander the Great built a dam from the coast that reached Tyre. Tyre has a history that reaches back into the Early Bronze Age. In the Middle Bronze Age it was a city of importance mentioned in the Egyptian Execration Texts. It was still an important city during the Late Bronze Age but rose to prominence among the Phoenician cities in the beginning of the first millennium B.C.E., when it subdued Sidon to the north. Beginning in the 10th century B.C.E., Tyre became the mother city of an extended network of Phoenician colonies all over the Mediterranean, including as its most important colony Carthage, in modern Tunisia. In the Old Testament, Tyre was the ally of Solomon but also a competitor for the control of the coastal region north of the Carmel ridge. The relations between Tyre and Israel were strengthened in the time of the dynasty of Omri when Jezebel, the daughter of the Tyrian king Ethbaal or Ittobaal, married Ahab of Israel. In later biblical traditions Tyre became the epitome of arrogance and its fall was predicted although not accomplished before the days of Alexander the Great.