Texerants. A local name given to the Albi- GEN.SKS (i). v.) in those districts of Southern France where the members of that wide-spread sect were most- ly found among the weavers — " ab usu texendi" (Ek- bert, A dv. Cathar. in Bibl. ]\fax. Lugd. xxiii, GOl). See Blunt, Diet, of Sects, s. v.
Text. The application of the word text to the Word of God is derived from the Latin. From the sim- ilarity between spinning and weaving, and the art of composition, both in prose and verse, the Latin authors applied to the latter several expressions proper to the former. Horace says, " Tenui deducta pcemata flo ;" and Cicero uses the terms texere orationem and conlexere carmen. Among later Roman writers, textus occurs often in the sense of a |)iece or composition; and, by excel- lence, came to denote the Word of God, just as the word
TEXT OF SCRIPTURE
297
THACHER
Scripfura did. The meaning of the words text and gloss may be ascertained from the method of writing the Scriptures before the art of printing was invented. The following may be taken as a specimen: (Malt, vii, 23.) Et tunc contitebor illis quia
11 nulla apprubavi, seJ reprubavi.
Non novit hi
tenebras. iioi
aspicit, quas si UUMQUam UOVi VOI
Aspiceret, telie-
cedite a me oranes qui opera
non ho
qui operamini, non dicit, qui
dis- opcrati eatis, ne tollat pceiii- tentiaiii, sed qui injudicio licet non ha-
data beatis facultii- tem peccandi tamen habetis affectum.
mail niiqintatem.
The sentences at the sides are the ffloss ; the middle, which is in larger type, is the text ; and between the lines of that is put the interlinear gloss, in which place a translation, or version, in some ancient manuscripts in the Cottonian and other libraries, is sometimes inserted. The text here means the Word of God, as opposed to the gloss ; and because the text was usually written in a large and strong hand, hence such writing was called text-hand. By gloss was generally meant a commen- tary or exposition taken out of the Latin fathers; but afterwards it came to signify any exposition or larger commentary. Hence our English phrase, /o 7?;/< a gloss on anything, that is, a favorable construction; gloss, a shining outside ; and to gloze, to flatter. — Farrar, Eccles. Diet. s. V.
TEXT OF Scripture. This term is used to signify & portion of the text; i.e. a short sentence out of Script- ure, used either as the groundwork of a discourse from the pulpit, or brought forward to support an argument or in proof of a position. The custom of taking a text for a sermon is probably coeval with that of preaching set discourses; and the use of texts as authority in doc- trinal points is of the very essence of true theology, and was ever the custom even of those who, professing the name of Christians, denied the truth of Christ. One must therefore be on his guard against receiving ev- erything for which a text is quoted, not accepting it as proof until its true sense is known ; " otherwise, so many sentences, so many authorized falsehoods." In the application of a text we should always consider its meaning in the passage with which it is connected, else we may be putting forward as truth what is in fact but an authorized falsehood ; we should also guard against the practice of taking a text from Scripture in a sense which, however sound and true, is not that of the pas- sage itself, as, for instance, "Hear the Church," em- ployed as if it were a precept, in the imperative mood. The non-observance of the latter caution has a tendency to lead others to the neglect of the former.
Textus is a technical term for the book of the Gos- pels as used at the Christian sacritice. Co])ies of the Gospels, richly illuminated, and bound in gold and sil- ver, are often exposed on the high-altars of Continental churches. Sometimes they are kept in shrines, and onlv brought out for use in the mass at the highest and most important festivals. References to such exist in large numbers in early writers, and many remarkable exam- ples are preserved in the sanctuaries on the Continent, two of which, at Aix-la-Chapelle and Mayence, are known to antiquaries. Numerous rich examples are reckoned up among the treasures of old St. Paid's in London, Lin- coln Minster, and Salisbury Cathedral. That in the wood-cut at head of next column is from an early Flem- ish specimen. See Lee, Gloss, of Liturg. Terms, s. v.
Textus Receptus (i. e. the received text), a phrase generally employed by critics to denote the currently accepted text of the Greek Testament, This is usually considered to be that of the Elzevirs, especially the edition of 1633, the preface of which contains the ex- pression " Editionem omnibus acceptam denuo doctorum oculis subjecimus," referring to the edition of which that was a reprint. The most commonly f>rinted text, however, is that of Stevens, usually Mills's edition.
Illumiuatiou of au Ancient Tcxtun, or Book of the Gospels.
Sometimes tlie phrase textus receptus is in like manner extended to the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible, especially Van der Hooght's edition, which has been re- printed by Hahn. See Criticism, Biblical.
Tezcatlipoca (Shining Mirror), the chief of the thirteen greater gods of the ancient Mexicans. On the monuments and in the paintings he is often represented as encircled bj' the disk of the sun. Lord Kingsbor- ough (.4 ntiquities of ^fexico) states that " all the attri- butes and powers which were assigned to Jehovah by the Hebrews were also bestowed upon Tezcatlipoca by the Mexicans." Mr. Hardwick, however, inclines to tlie belief that this deity was merely the deified impersona- tion of the generative powers of nature, and as such his highest type was the sun. A festival in his honor was held annually in May, when a young and beautiful per- son was sacrificed, and the heart of the victim, still warm and palpitating, was held up towards the sun, then thrown down before the image of the god, while the people bowed in adoration. — Gardner, Faiths of the World, s. v.