LiTERATDRE. — W. Nowack, Lehrbtick der hebraischen Arckfininnvs, Freiburg i. B., 1894 ; I. Benzingrer, H ebriiisehe Archduluijie, do,, lsi)4 ; R. L. Ottley, Asputsi^f the OT(BL), London, 1897, pp. 220 ft., 261 ff. ; A. R. S. Kennedy, artt. 'Tabernacle ' in HDB and EBi-n.
James Strahan. TABITHA.— See Dorcas.
TABLE (r/)ci7refa).— This word is used in the NT in various senses. On a technical meaning which it has in the Gospels see art. ' Bank ' in DCG.
1. In the primitive Church the apostles deemed it unfitting that they sliould turn aside from their proper task of preaching the Word of God and give themselves to that of serving tables [SiaKoveiir Tpa?r^fais, Ac 6"). They accordingly secured the appointment of the Seven, which left them free to give their undivided time and strength to the ministry of the Word {ttj diaKovLf rod \6yov, 6^). Two kinds of 'service,' or ' deaconship,' are thus specified, both of them evangelical and honour- able, but each so arduous and absorbing that a division of labour became imperative. The ' serv- ing of tables ' probably included not merely the literal provision of repasts for the poor, but the task of determining the fitness of apjilicants for relief and the allocation of a central fund.
2. It is in one of St. Paul's letters that we first find the Eucharist called ' the table of the Lord ' (TpaH^Tjs Kvplov, 1 Co 10^'). It would be interesting to know whether he coined the phrase or found it
already in use in the primitive Church (cf. Lk 22™), but the point has to be left undetermined. Con- trasting ' the Lord's table ' with ' the tables of demons,' as he scornfully calls the riotous feasts of pagan idolatry, he urges the moral impo.ssibility of passing from the pure atmosphere of Christian fellowship into the tainted air of heathen licence and debauchery.
3. Among the furniture of the Holy Place the writer of Hebrews names 'the table' (ij rpiire'^a, 9-), meaning the table of sbewbread, for the C(m- struction and ornamentation of which directions are given in E.\ 25^"*". See Shewbread.
Another word tr. 'table' is 7rX(£|, which is used in the LXX for ni'?. St. Paul contrasts the tables of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written by the ' finger of God ' with the tables that are not of stone but are ' hearts of flesh,' whereon the Holy Spirit writes the laws of the New Covenant (2 Co 3*). James Strahan.
TALENT. — As a translation of the adjectival ToKavTtala (fem. sing.), 'weighing a talent,' this word is found only in Rev lb-'. The reference is to weight, and not to money. Even with the recovery of a supposed actual specimen (see art. ' Weights and Measures ' in HUB iv. 906) we are still dependent on an average estimate of the weight of a talent. This may be given as a little over 90 lb. avoirdupois ( = 125 lihrie, Roman). This means that each hailstone was about as much as a man of average strength can lift. It is usual to compare Josephus, BJ V. vi. 3, where stones cast by engines of war are spoken of in similar terms. W. Cruickshank.
TANNER.— See Simon (the Tanner).
TARSUS (TapffAs).— This city is famous as the capital of Cilieia and the birthplace of St. Paul (Ac 22^ ; cf. 9" 2P9). It was built on both banks of the Cydnus, in a rich and extensive plain, about 10 miles N. of the coast and 30 miles S. of the vast mountain- wall of Taurus. The river descends swift and cold from the snow-clad heights — \j/vxpl>'> re /ca! Taxi rb pcv/j.a iariv (Strabo, XIV. v. 12) — and Alex- ander the Great almost lost his life from the eli'ects of an imprudent bathe in its icy water (Plut. Alex. 19). Flowing, 200 ft. wide, through the heart of the city, it entered, some miles down, a lake called the Rhegma — now a fever-breeding marsh, 30 miles in circumference — which served as an excellent har- bour for the shipping of the Mediterranean. But the Cydnus was navigable as far as the city itself, and all the world knows of Cleojmtra's pageant on those waters (Plutarch, Antony, 25 f. ; Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, act II. sc. ii. line 192 ti'.).
The great trade-route from the Euphrates by the Amanus Pass joined the one from Antioch by the Syrian Gates about 50 miles E. of Tarsus, and the single road, after traversing the city, turned sharply northward towards the Cilician Gates — a natural pass, 70 miles long, greatly improved by engineering perhapsabout 1000 B.C. — which gaveaccess in peace and war to the vast central plateau of Asia Minor. Highways of sea and land thus combined to make Tarsus one of the most important meeting-places of East and West.
The 1st cent. Tarsus, whose most famous son was a Jew, a Hellenist, and a Roman citizen, resembled a composite photograph, in which the Greek type had been superimposed upon the Oriental, and the Roman upon both.
Tarsus is mentioned in the 'Black Obelisk' in- scription as one of the cities captured by the As- syrian Shalmaneser about 860 B.C. (Records of the Past, ed. A. H. Sayce, new ser. , 6 vols., London, 1888-92, iv. 47). Under the Persian Empire it was governed sometimes by satraps, sometimes by sub-