In 2 Mac 12^ a Thracian soldier is mentioned as saving the life of Gorgias, governor of Idumaea-f under Antiochus Epiphanes, in a battle against .Judas Maceaba?us, about B.C. 103. The Thracian tribesnien, barbarous, hardy, and inured to war, were much used as mercenaries by the Greek kings of Syria, Pergamum, Bithynia, etc. This is several times mentioned by Polybius (V. Ixv. 10, Ixxix. 6) ; and inscriptions along with other evidence entirely corroborate him. Thracian mercenaries were settled as colonists in many of the garrison cities founded by those kings, e.g. in Apollonia of Pisidia (where they are often mentioned on coins, etc., in the full title of the city) and in other places : the Thracian mercenaries" were sometimes called Traleis or ' warriors ' ; see Ramsay, Histor. Geogr. of Asia Minor, p. 112, Cities and Bish. oj Phri/gia,i. p. 34; Friinkel, Inschr. Pergnm. i.. No. 13, p. 16. W. M. Ramsay.
THRASiEUS (A Qpaoatos, A^*"" Qapala^, V' Qapaia^). — The father of Apollonius, 2 Mac S' ; but see Apollonius, No. 1, and cf. R\'m.
THREE CHILDREN, SONG OF THE (or, more accurately, as in Codex B : ' The Prayer of Azarias' and ' the 'Hymn of the Three '), is one of the addi- tions to the book of Daniel, extant only in the Greek Bible and in versions taken from the Greek. It contains 67 verses, and is inserted between v.^ and v.'-" of Dn 3 in the canonical text. In Codex A our ' addition ' forms also two of fourteen canticles appended to the Book of Psalms. The ninth and tenth of these canticles are called respectively irpo- aevxn 'A^aplov (Prayer of Azarias) and Cfwos Tii» TraTipwv iifiuv (Hymn of our Fathers).
i. Contents. — The apocryphon contains three sections: (1) the Prayer of Azarias; (2) descrip- tive narrative ; (3) thanksgiving of the Three foi their deliverance from the hery furnace.
• It is maintained by some scholars that Thrace, in that early wide extension, is alluded to in Gn 102. In that verse the sonb of Japheth are said to be Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras ; but see Tikas.
t Tdumcea is suspicious : it has been thought to be an erroi for Jamnia.
THREE CHILDREN, SONG OF
THREE CHILDREN, SONG OF 755
0) The Pmiirr o/Azarias, T\-.l-a (Or. «-»).— In Dn 3=3 it haa been narrated* that the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst o( the burning' fiery furnace. After a^ Theodotion (whose text is followed in Vulj^. and the Enghsh Apocr.) proceeds : ' And they walked [* in their rhains,* Syr \VJ in the midst of the fire, praising God.' The connexion ia, in LXX, effected thus: 'Thus then prayed Uananiofl and Azarias and Mishael and aaug praises to tlie Lord, when the king commanded them to be cast into the furnace.* Both then say that ' Azaria.s stood and prayed in the sidst of the fire'; LXX adding 't^i^et her with liis companions,' which "Theod. omits, as he does also the statement of LXX that •the furnace had been heated exceedingly by the Chaldaians.' The Prayer opens with praise to Go<l for His righteous nets to the nation, acknowledging His justice even in the disasters which He iias brought upon Jeru.'ialem. National ruin was completely justified, because of national sins. He complains, however, tliat the nation by wliich God had chastised His people was a very lawless one, and that their king was the most wicked king on earth, treating Israel scornfully and t.vrannically. lie then pleads the covenants with the fathers and the promises of the vast expansion of the nation as the ground of God's intervention to the ver>' small remnant. They had been brought very low : the State was dis-solved : State functionaries had ceased to be : State religion was no longer possible : but with the sacrilice of a contrite heart, rather tlian of myriads of rams, they would seek the LoRn and implore Him to remove tiieir stiame'and transfer it to their foes; that all mav know that J" is God alone.
(2) In %'v.2i-27 of EV (Or. *i-5i) we have a continuation of the narrative of Dn 3^, describing how the king's ser\'ant« kept on heating the furnace with n;ii)htha and pitch till it was seven times as hot as usual, and the flame reached 49 cubitJf above the furnace. Then an angel came down, called in Syr. 'the angel of dew,' antl by means of a dewy whistling wind made the centre of the furnace cool, forming an inner zone which the flames could not touch. After this 'the three' unitedly began to praise God.
(3) The llniiino/Thanlcsgiring, w.2S-63(Gr. »"«>). ThisHj-mn, like Ps VMJ, contains, as the second line of each verse, a refrain. As the Psalm repeats throughout the words, 'For his n-rt'*- ei:diireth for ever'; so our Hymn, in every verse, ascribes praise to God. For the first six verses the a.scription is verbally varied, though Identical in meaning. After that, the second line of each verse is Cun'trs jmcj Wtptj-ifovrt teC-Tov tU Tr.< «iw»«f. 'Praise and 6uj>erexalt him for ever.' In the first place the Psalmist (for such he really is) exults in the face that J " is worthy to be praised in the heavenly temple, sitting on the throne of His glor>' : from the loftiest lieights looking down on tl;e deepest depths. Then he apostrophizes all the works of Ood ana calls on them to praise the Lord ; angels, the heavens, the celestial waters, sun, moon, and stars. From things uelQl^iat he passes to what u'e call meteorological phenomena, but which, to the Jewish mind, were changes presided over by an angel, — if not indeed themselves actual entities, — rain and dew, winds, frost and snow, light and darkness, lightnings and clouds. Then the terrestrial creation is addressed, moun- tains, vegetation, showers, fountains, monsters, fowls, and beasts. After that, men of various ranks and conditions in life ; Israel, priests, slaves, the righteous, the humble, and lost of all, as Ps 103 terminates witli the words ' Bless the 1-oiiu, O mj/ tout,' we have in v.^ ' O Haiianias, Azarias, and Mishael, bless ye the Lord.' The last two verses are from Ps 13tJ, antl were probably appended by some later hand.