THEFT.— See artt. Crimes and Punish.mknts in vol. i. p. 522'', and Man-STEALING in vol. iii. p. 239.
THELERSAS (B eeXfpcrds, A Qe\<rii), 1 Es &*= Tel-harsha, Ezr 2»', a Bab. town.
THEODOTION.— See Septuagint, p. 453', and VER.SIONS (Greek other than LXX), p. 866'.
THEODOTUS (eeiSoTot).— 1. One of the mes- sengers said to have been sent by Nicanor to Judas Maccabieus, 2 .Mae 14". 2. The author of a plot to assassinate king Ptolemy Philupator, which was frustrated by Dositheus, a renegade Jew, 3 Mac P.
THEOPHILUS (ee6(^iXos).— The name of the per- son to whom the Third Gospel and tlie Acts of the Apostles were addressed (Lk P, Ac 1'). It has been supjiosed by some (and the supiiosition is an early one*) that the name is, after all, only a general name applicable to any Christian, as meaning ' beloved by God ' or ' the friend of God.' Others (e.g. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller aiui • It is certainly as old as Epiphanius {Uoer. 51, p. 429).
THERAS
I. THESSALOXIANS
743
the Roman Citizen, p. 3SS) hold that the use of tliis name puts forward the Acts, as a complete work at least to the time of Domitian, and sup- ports the idea that the book is a composite one, consisting of the original notes of St. Luke ('called tlie ' Travel - Document '), added to and increased by a later editor. The name is certainly that of an individual ; and this statement is con- firmed by the title KpartaTos prefixed to the name in Lk l^ as it is preli,\ed to the names Felix and Festus in the Acts (iS-* 24» 2G^). The title implies that the person to whom it was ascribed belonged to the equestrian order — he must certainly have been a Gentile. Attempts have been made to fi.x the place of his residence at Autioch, Alexandria, in Achaia, or at lioniu, but there are not .sullicient data to go upon to establish any of these theories. Other theorists have gone so far as to deny th.at he was a Christian, or to say that, at any rate, he knew very little about Cliristianity.* A step still further has been taken in an attempt to identify him with a higli priest of his name (Joseph. Ant. XVIII. iv. 3) who held office for about live j'ears, and was perhaps the high priest to whom Saul, afterwards Paul, went to ask for ' letters to Damascus unto the sj-nagogues,' that he might take any Christians who were there prisoners to Jeru.salem. Whether Theophilus was a learned and cultivated man or not we do not know, but the dedication to him of the Third Gospel is in -style the most elegant piece of writing in the NT. Tradition has not been busy with him as it has with most of the early Christians.
H. A. Rkdpath. THERAS, 1 Es 8« (A e^pa, 15 om.) * (BA Btpd).— The name of the place and river where Ezra's caravan halted, called Ahava in Ezr 8-'- ", and now usually identified with the modem Hit on the Euphrates. The oriijin of the form of the name in I Es. is uncertain. Jos. {Ant. XI. v. 2, tis rd ripay Tou Kv<t>pdTov) possibly read iripav for Q4pav.
THERMELETH {Qcpp.ae0), 1 Eso*".— The equiva- lent of Telmelah, a Bab. town in Ezr 2™, where Cod. B gives the same Gr. form of the name.
THESSALONIANS, FIRST EPISTLE TO THE.—
i. Date.
ii. CinMimstances. iii. Analysis. iv. Value.
V. Authenticity, vL Inte;^rity.
Literature.
i. Date. — The date of this Epistle in relation to St. Paul's life is fixed within the limits of a few months. It was written during the eighteen montlis which be spent at Corinth at the end of his .Second Missionary Journey (Ac 18"). For it was written after he h,ad left Thessalonica, and while the memories of his first visit there were still fresh (clis. 1. 2 pa.i<ii>n, esp. 2' yiyoixi') ; after he had gone on to Athens and had left it (3') ; after he had been rejoined by Silvanus and Timothy (1', Ac 18") ; while .Silvanus and Timothy, of whom Silvanus is not mentioned in any subsequent journey, are still bis com- panions (1'); and, l.i.stlv, while he is in some centr.al place wliere he hears news readily from Macedonia and Acliai.-i, and even from wider sources (1" iv ravrl Tlnrip, i.e. perhaps the Asiatic and Syrian Churches [so Zahn, Einleitiinci, p. 147] ; but may it be that Aquila and Pri-scilla had told him that they had heard even at Rome of the conversion of the Thessalonians ? and might Jason
• This theory ia based mainly on the ground that Theophilus from his title 'most excellent' was an otticial, and that it is not hkely that any of the early Christians would hold high office under the HoniaD authorities.
have been the channel of communication? Ac 17' 18-, Uo IG-'). It was, then, at Corinth — but not very early or very late in that stay ; not verj early, as time must be allowed for the mission and return of Timothy (3"), for the occurrence of some deaths at Thessalonica (4"), for the active brotlierliness of the Thessalonians to manifest itself to other Christians in Macedonia (4'"*), and the news of their faith to have sjiread widely even beyond Macedonia and Achaia (I"-*). Nor again very late, if 2 Tliess. is genuine, for room must be left for the circumstances which led to the writing of that Epistle. The exact date will depend on the system of chronology adopted. It must lie between 49 and 53 (see Chronology of NT).