The only other passage, if any, containing an allusion to Thrace to be found in the Bible is Gen. x, 2, where — on the h}'pothesis that the sons of Japhet, who are enumerated, may be regarded as the eponymous repre- sentatives of different branches of the Japetian family of nations — Th-as has bj' some been supposed to mean Thrace; but the only ground for this identification is a fancied similarity between the two names. A stronger likeness, however, might be urged between the name Tiras and that of the Tyrsi, or Tyrseni, the ancestors of the Italian Etruscans, whom, on the strength of a local tradition, Herodotus places in Lydia in the ante-histor- ical times. Strabo brings forward several facts to show that in the early ages Thracians existed on the Asiatic as well as the European shore ; but this circumstance furnishes very little help towards the identification re- ferred to. See TiuAS.
Thrase'as, or rather Thkas.e'us (QpadaioQ, Vulg. T/nasreas), the father of ApoUonius (q. v.), Syrian gov- ernor of Coele-Syria and Phoinicia (2 Mace, iii, 5).
Three (Tiiiktv, etc.) (^ShalSsk, Uib'^, TZJib'CJ, etc.) frequently occurs as a cardinal number; thus, D'^TIJ did, three years (Lev. six, 23); as an ordinal, ITPrTada, in the third year (2 Kings xviii, 1); in combination with other numbers, as nnb> did, thirteen; and it is also used in the plural as an ordinal for thirty, C^Uibd (I Kings xvi, 23). For other forms and uses of the words, see the Hebrew lexicons.
The nouns 'i'bd. d'^Vd, and dibd, literally, accord- ing to one derivation, a third man, are used in the sense of a commander or general, sometimes as connected with war-chariots or cavalry. Thus (Exod. xiv, 7), " Phara- oh took all the chariots of Egypt anil captains ("dbi:,", third men) over all this armament" ("23 h"),not, as in
our translation, "over every one of them;" Sept, rpi- fiTarai; tm Trdt'Tioy, tristatie over all; Vulg. duces to- tiiis exercilus. So it is said (xv, 4) that '• the choice of all Pharaoh's captains" (I'dbd), or third men, were drowned; Sept. ai'ft/3arac rpifrraroc; Yulix.principes. The Septuagint word seems chosen upon the assumed analogy of its etymology to the Hebrew, quasi rpiro- (TTaT7j^, " one who stands third." According to Origen, trislates has. this meaning, because there were three persons in each chariot, of whom the first fought, the second protected him with a shield, and the third guid- ed the horses. Wilkinson, however, says, " There were seldom three persons in an Egyptian war-chariot, ex- cejit in triumphal processions. In the field each one hail his own car with a charioteer" (^Ancient Ef/yptians, i, 335). Jerome, on Ezekid xiiii, says, " Tristatw, among the Greeks, is the name of the second rank after the royal dignity." But it is possible that the ideal meaning of the verb "Ch^ii may be to rule or direct, as appears from its share in such words as B^db'i\ " ex- cellent things," or rather •' rules and directions" (Prov. xxii, 20), and Sd'Q, "a proverb," from id?3, "to rule," hence an authoritative precept. According to this sense, our translation renders the word d^'bd "lord:" "a lord on whose hand the king leaned" (2 Kings vii, 2; comp. v, 17, 19). If the latter derivation of the He- brew word be admitted, it will cease to convey any al- lusion to the number three; of which allusion Gesenius speaks doubtingh' of any instance, but which he decid- edly pronounces to be unsuitable to the first passage, where the word evidently stands in connection with war -chariots (see Gesenius, s. v. d'lbd). See Cap- tain.
Three days and three nighls. " For as Jonas was three daj-s and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." The apparent difficulty in these words arises from the fact that our Lord continued in the grave only one day complete, together with a part of the day on which he was buried and of that on which he rose again. The Hebrews had no word ex- pressly answering to the Greek word vvx^i]fif:pov, or natural day of twenty-four hours, an idea which they expressed by the phrases a niyht and a day or a day and a night. Thus (Dan. viii, 14), " Unto two thousand and three hundred eveni/if; morniuys (i.e. days, as it is in our translation), then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Thus, also, what is called " forty days and forty nights" in Gen. vii, 12, is simph' " forty days" in ver. 17 ; where- fore, as it is common in general computations to ascribe a whole day to what takes up only a part of it, wlieu this was done in the Jewish language it was necessary to mention both day and tiiykt ; hence a part of three days was called by them three days and three nights. We have another example in 1 Sam. xxx, 12, where the Egyptian whom David's men found in the field is said to have eaie7i no bread, nor drunk any watei; three days and three niyhts. Nevertheless, in giving an ac- count of himself, the Egyptian told them that his mas- ter had left him "because three days ago I fell sick;" in the Hebrew it is I fell sick this third day, that is, this is the third day since I fell sick. Indeed, among the Hebrews, things were said to be done after three days which were done on the third day (comp. 2 Chron. X. 5 with ver. 12; Dent, xiv, 28 with xxvi, 2). Agree- ably to these forms of speech, the prophecy of our Lord's resurrection from the dead is sometimes represented as taking place after three days, sometimes on the third day (see Whitby, Macknight, Wakefield, Clarke, ad loc).