RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Toussain Tract
two years at the University of Berlin (1866-68), was professor of Greek in Furman University, Greenville, S. C, in 1868-69. From 1869 to 1879 he was professor of Hebrew in Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which was located first at Greenville and after 1877 at Louisville, Ky., and since 1880 has been professor of Hebrew and oriental languages at Harvard University. Besides his work as editor of the Hellenistic department of the Jewish Encyclopedia, he has written History of the Religion of Israel (Boston, 1882) ; Quotations in the New Testament (New York, 1884); Judaism and Christianity (Boston, 1890) ; and Commentary on. Proverbs (New York, 1899), and likewise prepared the Hebrew text and English translation of Ezekiel for the Polychrome Bible (New York, 1899).
TRACHONITIS, trac"o-nai'tis (TRACHON): A
district of Palestine belonging to the Tetrarch Philip, son of Herod the Great (Luke iii. 1). The name, which is Greek and signifies " rough country," is sometimes used in the Targums and other Jewish writings to render the Argob of Deut. iii. 4, 13-14; I Kings iv. 13. Josephus, who repeatedly mentions Trachonitis, beside Auranitis (the Hauran) and Batanea (Bashan), describes it (Ant., XV., x. 1) as a rocky inaccessible region, abounding in artificial reservoirs and caves and infested with robbers. It evidently lay to the east and northeast of Bashan, and an inscription found at al-Mismiyah, the site of the ancient Phaena, between twenty-five and twentyeight miles south of Damascus, describes the place as " the chief village of Trachon." This point is situated on the northern edge of the Lejjah. The Onomasticon of Eusebius locates Trachonitis beyond Bostra in the desert south of Damascus, and Ptolemy (V., xv. 26) places the Arabs of Trachonitis east of Batanea. In 1858 J. G. Wetzstein studied the two Trachons, or rugged tracts, to the southeast and south of Damascus mentioned by Strabo (II., ii. 755-756) . Of these only the latter has any connection with Bible history. It is now called al- Lejjah, or " place of refuge," and is a lava plateau, extending for twenty-eight miles northwest from the range of the Hauran. The upper surface, whose outer edge averages thirty-three feet above the surrounding region, is a sharply undulating plain of lava-stones, covered with heaps of basalt blocks. The jagged surface is rent by abrupt ravines. The intense humidity has made vegetation possible, while the winter rains are preserved in subterranean reservoirs easily concealed. The entire region corresponds closely to the description of Josephus, the name Trachon itself being possibly an equivalent of the Arabic wa'r, " stony, inaccessible district," which is applied to the Safah in the east and the Lejjah in the west.
After the death of Lysanias, king of Ituraea (36 B.C.), Zenodorus leased the southern parts of his domain from Cleopatra, and seems to have remained tributary ruler after her death in 30. They were located between Trachonitis and Galilee, and included Ulatha and Panias (Ant., XV., x. 3). To increase his revenues Zenodorus had the inhabitants of Trachonitis make forays, especially against the people of Damascus. Augustus accordingly
commanded that Trachonitis, Batanea, and Auranitis be assigned to the interests of Herod the Great (23 B.C.), to whom he also gave the domain of Zenodorus at his death (20 B.C.). Attempts to make the nomads of the country an agricultural people meeting with scant success, Herod settled 3,000 Idumseans there (10-9 B.C.). A few years later he likewise placed a colony of 600 Babylonian Jews in Trachonitis, and built for their leader Zamaris the fortress of Barthyra (probably the modern Bait Ari in the Jaulan). On the death of Herod (4 B.C.), Augustus made his son Philip ruler of Trachonitis, Batanea, Auranitis, and a part of the territory of Zenodorus (hence tetrarch of Trachonitis). At Philip's death (34 a.d.), his territory was incorporated with Syria, but in 37 was given by Caligula to King Agrippa, a grandson of Herod, who ruled it until his death in 44 a.d. (see Herod and His Family). The district then came under the control of Roman procurators until, in 53 a.d., Claudius gave it to Agrippa II., who seems to have held it until his death (100 a.d.). Under Roman rule Trachonitis and the surrounding territory seems to have reached a high degree of prosperity, which was apparently destroyed by the Persian invasions about 615.
(H. Guthe.)
Bibliography : G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of Palestine, pp. 629 sqq., London and New York, 1896; J. L. Porter, Five Years in Damascus, 2 vols., London, 1855; idem, Giant Cities of Bashan, pp. 12 sqq., New York, 1871; J. G. Wetzstein, Reisebericht iiber Hauran und die Trachonen, Berlin, 1860; M. de Vogue, Syrie Centrale, 2 vols., Paris, 1866-77; P. Le Bas and W. H. Waddington, Inscriptions grecques et latines, vol. iii., nos. 2524, 2396, Paris, 1870; S. Merrill, East of the Jordan, pp. 10 sqq., new ed., New York, 1883; H. Hildesheimer, Beitrage zur Geographic Palastinas, pp. 55-57, Berlin, 1886; A. Stubels, " Journey to Tulul and Hauran, 1882," ed. H. Guthe, in ZDPV, xii (1889), 225-302; Maj.-Gen. A. Heber-Percy, A Visit to Bashan and Argob, London, 1895; G. Rindfleisch, in ZDPV, xxi (1898), 1-46; Schiirer, Geschichte, i. 425 sqq., Eng. transl., I., ii. 11 sqq.; DB, iv. 801; EB, iv. 5142-46.
TRACT : [In general literary use, a small work in which some subject of small range, or some aspect of a subject, is discussed (Lat. tractare, " to treat a subject "). It is distinguished from a treatise by being shorter, and by its persuasive as distinguished from its pedagogical aim. In its religious sense its Latin equivalent was much used in the Middle Ages, and continued to be used after the Reformation. In its modern use the word designates a brief exhortation to a religious life (see Tract Societies)]. Liturgically it is an extension of the Gradual (q.v.) by a number of verses, especially from the Psalms, used from Septuagesima to Easter on Sundays and festivals, and also after Ash Wednesday on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, except in masses for the dead. The tract, like its name, seems to date back to the early Church. It essentially implies humility, and its designation is explained (as by the Pseudo- Alcuin, De ddvinis officiis, ix., in MPL, ci. 1186) as due to the fact " that it is sung slowly or sadly (tractim), and signifies the groaning of holy mother Church." (A. Hatjck.)
TRACT AND COLPORTAGE SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND. See Tbact Societies, III., 3
Tract Societies