Some Church trailitions have given also to Tabor the honor of being Melchizedek's hill, from which he came forth to greet Abraham, so that here is another king's dale, rivalling that at Gerizim, if tradition is to be fol- lowed. The whole legend will be found at full length in Athanasius (0pp. ii, 7 [Colon. 1()80]). That father tells us that Salem, the motlier of Melchizedek, ordered him to go to Tabor. He went, and remained seven years in the wood naked, till his back became like a snail's shell.
The mountain has been visited and described by mul- titudes of travellers, especially (in addition to those named above) Russegger (Peis. iii, 258), Hasselquist (Voyage, p. 179), Volney (Voyayc, ii, 272), Schubert (Morf/eid. iii, 175), Burckhardt (Syria, p. 332), Stephens (r?are/s, ii, 317), Nugent [lord] (Lands, eic.,u, iW)\
TABORITES
157 TABULA EUCIIAPJSTLE
see also Reland, Pahesf. p. 334; Hackett, lUiisir. of Scrijyi. p. 304; Thomson, Land and Bmik, ii, 13G; Por- ter, Handb. p. 401; Biideker, Palest, p. 304; Ridgaway, T/ie Lord's Land, p. 371.
2. The Plain (or rather Oak) ov Tabok ( "1^^? "llSn ; Sept. t) Cpiii; Bajiiop ; Vulg. Queiriis Thabor) is mentioned only in 1 Sam. x, 3 as one of the points in the homeward journey of Saul after his anointing by Samuel. It. was the next stage in the journey after " Rachel's sepulchre at Zelzah." But, unfortunately, like so many of the other spots named in this interest- ing passage, the position of the Oak of Tabor has not yet been fixed. See Saut.. Ewald seems to consider it certain {(yririss) that Tabor and Deborah are merel}' different modes of ]ironouncing the same name, and he accordingly identifies the oak of Tabor with the tree under which Deborah, Rachel's nurse, was buried (Gen. XXXV, 8). and that again with the pahn un- der which Deborah the prophetess delivered her oracles (Gesc/i. i, 390; ii, 489; iii. 29), and this again with the Oak of the old Prophet near Beth- el (^ibid. iii, 444). But this, though most ingen- ious, can only be received as a conjecture, and the position on which it would land us — "between Ramah and Bethel" (.Judg. iv, 5) — is too far from Rachel's sepulchre to fall in with the conditions of the narrative of Saul's journey, so long as ■we hold that to be the traditional sepulchre near Bethlehem. We can only determine that it lay somewhere between Bethlehem and Bethel, but why it received the epithet "Tabor" it is impossible to discover. Yet we see from the names Chisloth-Tabor and Aznoth-Tabor that the mountain gave adjunct ti- tles to places at a considerable distance. See Zelzaii.
3. The City of Tabor (Sept. Qaliiop v. r. Boyxf '« ; Vulg. Thabor) is mentioned in the lists of 1 Chron. vi as a citv of the Merarite Levites, in the tribe of Zebu- lun (ver. 77). The catalogue of Levitical cities in Josh. xxi does not contain any name answering to this (comp. ver. 34, 35). But the list of the towns of Zebulnn (ch. xix) contains the name of Chisi.oth-Tabok (ver. 12). It is therefore possible either that this last name is ab- breviated into Tabor by the chronicler, or (which is less likely) that by the time these later lists were compiled the Merarites had established themselves on the sacred mountain, antl that the place in question is Mount Tabor.
Taborites, a section of the Hussites, the other be- ing known as the Calixtines. The Taborites were so called from the fortified city of Tabor, erected on a mountain, in the circle of Bechin, in Bohemia, which had been consecrated by the field-preaching of Huss. Tlie gentle and pious mind of that martyr never could have anticipated, far less approved, the terrible revenge which his Bohemian adherents took upon the em- peror, the empire, and the clergy, in one of the most dreadful and bloody wars ever known. The Hussites commenced their vengeance after the death of king Wenceslaus, Aug. 16, 1419, by the destruction of the convents and churches, on which occasions many of the jiriests and monks were murtfered. John Ziska, a Bo- hemian knight, formed a numerous, well-mounted, and disciplined army, which built Tabor, as above descrilied, and rendered it an impregnable depot and place of de- fence. He was called Ziska of the Cup, because one great point for which the Hussites contended was the use of the cup by the laity in the sacrament. At his death, in 1424, tlie immense mass of people whom he had collected fell to pieces; but under Procopius, who succeeded Ziska as general, the Hussites again rallied, and gained decisive victories over the imperial armies in 1427 and 1431. After this, as all parties were de- sirous of coming to terms of peace, the Council of Basle interposed, and a compromise was made; but hostilities again broke out in 1434, when the Taborites ^jained a complete victory. Owing, however, to the treacherv of Sigismund, wliom thev had aided in ascending the
throne, they were much weakened; and from this time they abstained from warfare, and maintained tlieir dis- putes with the Catholics only in the deliberations of the diet and in tlieological controversial writings, by means of wliich their creed acquired a purity and com- pleteness that made it similar in many respects to the Protestant confessions of the IGth centurv. Encroach- ments were gradually made on their religious freedom, and they continued to siifter until they gradually merged into tlie Bohemian Bhkthren (q. v.). See Bezezyna, in Ludwig, Peliq. JI^S. vi, 142, 18G ; vEneas Sylvius, Hist. Bohem. epist. 130.