|
Tabernacle - Means "dwelling place". It was a special tent where the Israelites worshiped God. It is sometimes called the Tent of Meeting. It was the place where God would meet his people.
Tabernacles (Festival, sanctuary, Succoth) - The seventh yearly feast (Lev. 23) when all males were required to come to Jerusalem. The people celebrated Israel's wandering in the desert by living in temporary shelters. Included a water ceremony as part of prayer of rain.
Table of showbread - Table that stood in the holy place of the tabernacle and temple, outside the Holy of Holies. Priests placed the bread of the Presence (Ex. 25:30), or showbread, on it. The bread symbolized the Israelites' commitment to give the Lord the results of their work. It also testified that everything they received was a gift from God.
Talmid - The Hebrew word for disciple is talmid. This word stresses the relationship between rabbi (teacher or master) and disciple (student). A talmid of Jesus' day would give up his entire life in order to be with his teacher. The disciple didn't only seek to know what the teacher knew, as is usually the case today. It was not enough just to know what the rabbi said, but the foremost goal of any talmid was to become like the rabbi and do what the rabbi did.
Tekton - A craftsman who often worked with stone. Jesus was trained as a tekton while growing up in nearby Nazareth.
Tel - Large mound or hill composed of layers of debris from several different periods of settlement.
Temenous - Sacred building.
Temple - A building where people worship divine beings. God told Israel to build him a temple and worship him there. God showed his people that he was with them by having his presence in the temple. In the New Testament, we learn that the new temple is not a building. God's people are now the temple of God. God's Spirit lives within them.
Temple Mount - The ridge on which Jerusalem's Temple was built and/or the platform on which the Temple and its courts stood. King Herod's platform was supported by massive walls, the tallest standing 160 feet, and measured more than 1,500 feet long, north to south, and more than 900 feet wide, east to west. It accommodated 200,000 pilgrims.
Tepidarium - Warm room in Roman baths.
Tetrarch - A Roman political office; meant one-fourth of a kingdom. When Herod died, his three sons and others received parts of his kingdom; two sons become tetrarchs, one an ethnarch.
T�fillin - Small boxes and the accompanying leather straps worn by observant Jews during prayer. The boxes are placed on the forehead and near the heart and bound in place by the leather straps. (See Deut. 6.)
Thomas - Most Christians remember Thomas as the doubting disciple who didn't believe the other disciples when they told him they'd seen the risen Jesus (John 20:19�25), and who said that he'd only believe if he touched Jesus' sacred hands and side (John 20:25). But Thomas was also the disciple who demonstrated great faith and dedication to Jesus during his walk to Jerusalem. When Jesus told his disciples that they were returning to Judea, they protested, recalling that the Jews had tried to stone him there. But Thomas courageously agreed with Jesus, saying, "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). And the disciples remained with Jesus and headed toward Jerusalem.
Tiberias - Capital built by Herod Antipas on the Sea of Galilee's western shore; named for Tiberias Caesar. Believed to be built over a cemetery and considered unclean by religious Jews. After AD 70, it became a center of Jewish religious thought.
Tithe - Means "a tenth". In the Old Testament, God's people would give a tenth of their crops or animals to God. This was a sign that God owned the land and had blessed his people. Also, the tithe would be used to support the priests and Levites, and to help the poor.
Topheth - Place where the Israelites sacrificed their children. Based on a Hebrew word meaning "furnace" or "fireplace", the word was altered by Hebrew scribes to mean "shameful thing". It came to apply as well to the cemetery where the victims' remains were buried and to the location in the Hinnom valley where the sacrifice occurred.
Torah - Hebrew word meaning "teaching" or "instruction". It refers to the first five books of Moses.
Triclinium - A reception or banquet hall or dining room. The tables were placed in a U-shape and surrounded by couches, where diners reclined as they ate.
Tufa - Volcanic ash that becomes a soft stone.
Tumuli - Burial mound.
Tyropean Valley - This valley lay between David's City and the Western Hill where the Upper City was located. Hezekiah expanded the city into this valley. The Western Wall of Herod's Gentile Court was located here, as was the Pool of Siloam where Jesus sent a blind man to wash.
Tzitzit - Tassels. In Numbers 15:38-39, God commands the Israelites to wear tassels on their garments as a reminder to them to obey all the commandments. In practice, each tassels came to have five knots (representing Torah), four spaces between the knots (representing the name YHWH-YaHWeH). The numerical value of the word "tzitzit" (600), plus the five knots added to the eight strands of thread in each knot added up to the number 613 -a number of commandments God gave in the Torah.
|
