Tyrannus–Urim And Thummim

(sovereign), the name of a man in whose school or place of audience Paul taught the gospel for two years, during his sojourn at Ephesus. See (Acts 19:9) (A.D. 52,53.) The presumption is that Tyrannus himself was a Greek, and a public teacher of philosophy or rhetoric.

(a rock), a celebrated commercial city of Phoenicia, on the coast of the Mediterranean. Its Hebrew name, Tzor, signifies a rock; which well agrees with the site of Sur, the modern town, on a rocky peninsula, formerly an island. There is no doubt that, previous to the siege of the city by Alexander the Great, Tyre was situated on an island; but, according to the tradition of the inhabitants, there was a city on the mainland before there was a city on the island; and the tradition receives some color from the name of Palaetyrus, or Old Tyre, which was borne in Greek times by a city on the continent, thirty stadia to the south. Notices in the Bible .—In the Bible Tyre is named for the first time in the of Joshua, ch. (Joshua 19:29) where it is adverted to as a fortified city (in the Authorized Version “the strong city”) in reference to the boundaries of the tribe of Asher, But the first passages in the Hebrew historical writings, or in ancient history generally, which actual glimpses of the actual condition of Tyre are in the book of Samuel, (2 Samuel 6:11) in connection with Hiram king of Tyre sending cedar wood and workmen to David, for building him a palace; and subsequently in the book of Kings, in connection with the building of Solomon’s temple. It is evident that under Solomon there was a close alliance between the Hebrews and the Tyrians. Hiram supplied Solomon with cedar wood, precious metals and workmen, and gave him sailors for the voyage to Ophir and India, while on the other hand Solomon gave Hiram supplies of corn and oil, ceded to him some cities, and permitted him to make use of some havens on the Red Sea. (1 Kings 9:11-14; 26-28; 10:22) These friendly relations survived for a time the disastrous secession of the ten tribes, and a century later Ahab married a daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, (1 Kings 16:31) who, according to Menander, was daughter of Ithobal king of Tyre. When mercantile cupidity induced the Tyrians and the neighboring Phoenicians to buy Hebrew captives from their enemies, and to sell them as slaves to the Greeks and Edomites, there commenced denunciations, and at first threats of retaliation. (Joel 3:4-8; Amos 1:9,10) When Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, had taken the city of Samaria, had conquered the kingdom of Israel, and carried its inhabitants into captivity, he laid siege to Tyre, which, however, successfully resisted his arms. It is in reference to this siege that the prophecy against Tyre in Isaiah, (Isaiah 23:1) ... was uttered. After the siege of Tyre by Shalmaneser (which must have taken place not long after 721 B.C.). Tyre remained a powerful state, with its own kings, (Jeremiah 25:22; 27:3; Ezekiel 28:2-12) remarkable for its wealth, with territory on the mainland, and protected by strong fortifications. (Ezekiel 26:4,6,8,10,12; 27:11; 28:5; Zechariah 9:3) Our knowledge of its condition thenceforward until the siege by Nebuchadnezzar depends entirely on various notices of it by the Hebrew prophets; but some of these notices are singularly full, and especially the twenty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel furnishes us, on some points, with details such as have scarcely come down to us respecting any one city of antiquity excepting Rome and Athens. Siege by Nebuchadnezzar .—In the midst of great prosperity and wealth, which was the natural result of extensive trade, (Ezekiel 28:4) Nebuchadnezzar, at the head of an army of the Chaldees, invaded Judea and captured Jerusalem. As Tyre was so near to Jerusalem, and as the conquerors were a fierce and formidable race, (Habakkuk 1:6) It would naturally he supposed that this event would have excited alarm and terror amongst the Tyrians. Instead of this, we may infer from Ezekiel’s statement, (Ezekiel 26:2) that their predominant feeling was one of exultation. At first sight this appears strange and almost inconceivable; but it is rendered intelligible by some previous events in Jewish history. Only 34 years before the destruction of Jerusalem commenced the celebrated reformation of Josiah, B.C. 622. This momentous religious revolution, (2 Kings 22:1; 2 Kings 23:1) ... fully explains the exultation and malevolence of the Tyrians. In that reformation Josiah had heaped insults on the gods who were the objects of Tyrian veneration and love. Indeed, he seemed to have endeavored to exterminate their religion. (2 Kings 23:20) These acts must have been regarded by the Tyrians as a series of sacrilegious and abominable outrages; and we can scarcely doubt that the death in battle of Josiah at Megiddo and the subsequent destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, were hailed by them with triumph and retribution in human affairs. This joy, as instances of divine retribution in human affairs. This joy, however, must soon have given way to other feelings, when Nebuchadnezzar invaded Phoenicia and laid siege to Tyre. That siege lasted thirteen years, and it is still a disputed point whether Tyre was actually taken by Nebuchadnezzar on this occasion. However this may be, it is probable that, on some terms or other, Tyre submitted to the Chaldees. The rule of Nebuchadnezzar over Tyre, though real, may have been light, and in the nature of an alliance. Attack by the Persians; Capture by Alexander .—During the Persian domination the Tyrians were subject in name to the Persian king and may have given him tribute. With the rest of Phoenicia they had submitted to the Persians without striking a blow. Toward the close of the following century, B.C. 332, Tyre was assailed for the third time by a great conqueror. At that time Tyre was situated on an island nearly half a mile from the mainland; it was completely surrounded by prodigious walls, the loftiest portion of which on the side fronting the mainland reached a height of not less than 150 feet; and notwithstanding the persevering efforts of Alexander, he could not have succeeded in his attempt if the harbor of Tyre to the north had not been blockaded by the Cyprians and that to the south by the Phoenicians, thus affording an opportunity to Alexander for uniting the Island to the mainland by an; enormous artificial mole. (The materials for this he obtained from the remains of old Tyre scraping the very dust from her rocks into the sea, as prophesied by Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 26:3,4,12,21) more than 250 years before.) The immediate results of the capture by Alexander were most disastrous to Tyre, as its brave defenders were put to death; and in accordance with the barbarous policy of ancient times, 30,000 of its inhabitants, including slaves, free females and free children, were sold as slaves. It gradually, how ever, recovered its prosperity through the immigration of fresh settlers, though its trade is said to have suffered by the vicinity and rivalry of Alexandria. Under the Macedonian successors of Alexander it shared the fortunes of the Seleucidae. Under the Romans, at first it enjoyed a kind of freedom. Subsequently, however, on the arrival of Augustus in the East, he is said to have deprived both Tyre and Sidon of their liberties for seditious conduct. Still the prosperity of Tyre in the time of Augustus was undeniably great. Strabo gives an account of it at that period, speaks of the great wealth which it derived from the dyes of the celebrated Tyrian purple which, as is well known were extracted from shell-fish found on the coast, belonging to a species of the genus Murex . Tyre in the time of Christ and since.—When visited by Christ, (Matthew 15:21; Mark 7:24) Tyre was perhaps more populous than Jerusalem, and if so, it was undoubtedly the largest city which the saviour is known to have visited. At the time of the crusades it was still a flourishing; city, when if surrendered to the Christians on the 27th of June 1144. It continued more than a century and a half in the hands of Christians, but was deserted by its inhabitants in A.D. 1291 upon the conquest of Acre (Ptolemais) by the sultan of Egypt and Damascus. This was the turning-point in the history of Tyre, which has never recovered from the blow. Its present condition is a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy (Ezekiel 28:5) It contains, according to Volney, 50 or 60 poor families, who live in part by fishing; and is, as Bruce describes it, “rock whereon fishers dry their nets.”

This form is employed in the Authorized Version of the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea (Joel has “Tyre”), Amos and Zechariah, as follows: (Jeremiah 25:22; 27:3; 47:4; Ezekiel 26:2,3,4,7,15; 27:2,3,8,32; 28:2,12; 29:18; Hosea 9:13; Amos 1:9,10; Zechariah 9:2,3)

(I am strong). According to the received text of (Proverbs 30:1) Ithiel and Ucal must be regarded as proper names; and if so, they must be the names of disciples or sons of Agur the son of Jakeh, an unknown sage among the Hebrews. But there is great obscurity about the passage. Ewald considers both Ithiel and Ucal as symbolical names, employed by the poet to designate two classes of thinkers to whom he addresses himself.

(will of God), one of the family of Bani, who during the captivity had married a foreign wife. (Ezra 10:34) (B.C. 458.)

In the margin of (1 Chronicles 4:16) the words “even Kenaz” in the text are rendered “Uknaz,” as the proper name.

(pure water) is mentioned by Daniel, (Daniel 8:2,16) as a river near to Susa, where he saw his vision of the ram and the he-goat. It has been generally identified with the Eulaeus of the Greek and Roman geographers, a large stream in the immediate neighborhood of that city. The Eulseus has been by many identified with the Choaspes, which is undoubtedly the modern Kerkhah, an affluent of the Tigris, flowing into it a little below Kurnah . Recent surveys show that the Choarspes once divided into two streams about 20 miles above Susa. The eastern was the Ulai. This bifurcation explains (Daniel 8:16)

(porch).

(yoke), an Asherite, head of a family in his tribe. (1 Chronicles 7:30) (B.C. about 1014.)

(union), one of the cities of the allotment of Asher. (Joshua 10:30) only. Probably ’Alma, in the highlands of the coast, about five miles east-northeast of Ras en-Nakhura .

These were things strangled, or dead of themselves or through beasts or birds of prey; whatever beast did not both part the hoof and chew the cud; and certain other smaller animals rated as “creeping things;” certain classes of birds mentioned in Levi 11 and Deuteronomy 14 twenty or twenty-one in all; whatever in the waters had not both fins and scales whatever winged insect had not besides four legs the two hindlegs for leaping; Besides things offered in sacrifice to idols; and ail blood or whatever contained it (save perhaps the blood of fish, as would appear from that only of beast and bird being forbidden,) (Leviticus 7:26) and therefore flesh cut from the live animal; as also all fat, at any rate that disposed in masses among the intestines, and probably wherever discernible end separable among the flesh. (Leviticus 3:14-17; 7:23) The eating of blood was prohibited even to “the stranger that sojourneth among you.” (Leviticus 17:10; 12:14) As regards blood, the prohibition indeed dates from the declaration to Noah against “flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof” in (Genesis 9:4) which was perhaps by Moses as still binding upon all Noah’s descendants. It is noteworthy that the practical effect of the rule laid down is to exclude all the carnivora among quadrupeds, and, so far as we can interpret the nomenclature the raptores among birds. They were probably excluded as being not averse to human carcasses, and in most eastern countries acting as the servitors of the battle-field and the gibbet. Among fish those which were allowed contain unquestionably the most wholesome varieties, save that they exclude the oyster. Practically the law left among the allowed Meats an ample variety. As Orientals have minds sensitive to teaching by types, there can be little doubt that such cere menial distinctions not only tended to keep Jew and Gentile apart (and so prevented the Jews from becoming contaminated with the idolatry of the Gentiles), but were a perpetual reminder to the former that he and the latter were not on one level before God. Hence, when that ceremony was changed we find that this was the very symbol selected to instruct St. Peter in the truth that God was not a “respecter of persons.” It remains to mention the sanitary aspect of the case. Swine are said to peculiarly liable to disease in their own bodies. This probably means that they are more easily led than other creatures to the foul feeding which produces it. As regards the animals allowed for food, comparing them with those forbidden, there can be no doubt on which side the balance of wholesomeness lies.

The distinctive idea attached to ceremonial uncleanness among the Hebrews was that it cut a person off for the time from social privileges, and left his citizenship among God’s people for the while in abeyance. There is an intense reality in the fact of the divine law taking hold of a man by the ordinary infirmities of flesh, and setting its stamp, as it were, in the lowest clay of which he is moulded. The sacredness attached to the human body is parallel to that which invested the ark of the covenant itself. It is as though Jehovah thereby would teach men that the “very hairs of their head were all numbered” before him and that “in his book were all their members written.” Thus was inculcated so to speak a bodily holiness. Nor were the Israelites to be only “separated from other people,” but they were to be “holy to God,” (Leviticus 20:24,26) “a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” The importance to physical well-being of the injunctions which required frequent ablution, under whatever special pretexts, can be but feebly appreciated in our cooler and damper climate. Uncleanness, as referred to men, may be arranged in three degrees:

(Acts 27:17) [Ship]

the rendering of the Authorized Version of the Hebrew reem, a word which occurs seven times in the Old Testament as the name of some large wild animal. The reem of the Hebrew Bible, however, has nothing at all to do with the one-horned animal of the Greek and Roman writers, as is evident from (33:17) where in the blessing of Joseph it is said; “his glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of a unicorn ;” not, as the text of the Authorized Version renders it, “the horns of unicorns .” The two horns of the ram are “the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh.” This text puts a one-horned animal entirely out of the question. Considering that the reem is spoken of as a two-horned animal of great strength and ferocity, that it was evidently well known and often seen by the Jews, that it is mentioned as an animal fit for sacrificial purposes, and that it is frequently associated with bulls and oxen we think there can be no doubt that, some species of wild ox is intended. The allusion in (Psalms 92:10) “But thou shalt lift up, as a reeym, my horn,” seems to point to the mode in which the Bovidae use their horns, lowering the head and then tossing it up. But it is impossible to determine what particular species of wild ox is signified probably some gigantic urus is intended. (It is probable that it was the gigantic Bos primigeniua, or aurochs, now extinct, but of which Caesar says, “These uri are scarcely less than elephants in size, but in their nature, color and form are bulls. Great is their strength and great their speed; they spare neither man nor beast when once; they have caught sight of them”—Bell. Gall. vi. 20.-ED.)

(depressed).

(Jeremiah 10:9; Daniel 10:5) [Ophir]

was the land of Haran’s nativity, (Genesis 11:28) the place from which Terah and Abraham started “to go into the land of Canaan.” (Genesis 11:31) It is called in Genesis “Ur of the Chaldaeans,” while in the Acts St. Stephen places it, by implication, in Mesopotamia. (Acts 7:2,4) These are all the indications which Scripture furnishes as to its locality. It has been identified by the most ancient traditions with the city of Orfah in the highlands of Mesopotamia, which unite the table-land of Armenia to the valley of the Euphrates. In later ages it was called Edessa, and was celebrated as the capital of Abgarus or Acbarus who was said to have received the letter and portrait of our Saviour. “Two, physical features must have secured Orfah, from the earliest times, as a nucleus for the civilization of those regions. One is a high-crested crag, the natural fortifications of the crested citadel....The other is an abundant spring, issuing in a pool of transparent clearness, and embosomed in a mass of luxuriant verdure, which, amidst the dull brown desert all around, makes and must always have made, this spot an oasis, a paradise, in the Chaldaean wilderness. Round this sacred pool,’the beautiful spring Callirrhoe,’ as it was called by the Greek writers, gather the modern traditions of the patriarch.”—Stanley, Jewish Church, part i.p.7. A second tradition, which appears in the Talmud, finds Ur in Warka, 120 miles southeast from Babylon and four east of the Euphrates. It was the Orchoe of the Greeks, and probably the Ereck of Holy Scripture. This place bears the name of Huruk in the native inscriptions, and was in the countries known to the Jews as the land of the Chaldaeans. But in opposition to the most ancient traditions, many modern writers have fixed the site of Ur at a very different position, viz. in the extreme south of Chaldaea, at Mugheir, not very far above— and probably in the time of Abraham actually upon—the head of the Persian Gulf. Among the ruins which are now seen at the spot are the remains of one of the great temples, of a model similar to that of Babel, dedicated to the moon, to whom the city was sacred. (Porter and Rawlinson favor this last place.)

(of the city; polite), the Greek form of the Latin Urbanus, as it is given in the Revised Version. He was a Christian disciple who is in the long list of those whom St. Paul salutes in writing to Rome. (Romans 16:9) (A.D. 55.)

the form given in the Revised Version for Urbane.

(fiery).

(light of Jehovah).

(the fire of God), an angel named only in 2 Esdr. 4:1,36; 5:20; 10:28.

(light of Jehovah).

(light and perfection). When the Jewish exiles were met on their return from Babylon by a question which they had no data for answering, they agreed to postpone the settlement of the difficulty till there should rise up “a priest with Urim and Thummim.” (Ezra 2:63; Nehemiah 7:65) The inquiry what those Urim and Thummim themselves were seems likely to wait as long for a final and satisfying answer. On every side we meet with confessions of ignorance. Urim means “light,” and Thummim “perfection.” Scriptural statements.—The mysterious words meet us for the first time, as if they needed no explanation, in the description of the high Priest’s apparel. Over the ephod there is to be a “breastplate of judgment” of gold, scarlet, purple and fine linen, folded square and doubled, a “span” in length and width. In it are to be set four rows of precious stones, each stone with the name of a tribe of Israel engraved on it, that Aaron “may bear them on his heart.” Then comes a further order. In side the breastplate, as the tables of the covenant were placed inside the ark, (Exodus 25:16; 28:30) are to be placed “the Urim and the Thummim,” the light and the perfection; and they too are to be on Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the Lord. (Exodus 28:15-30) Not a word describes them. They are mentioned as things-already familiar both to Moses and the people, connected naturally with the functions of the high priest as mediating between Jehovah and his people. The command is fulfilled. (Leviticus 8:8) They pass from Aaron to Eleazar with the sacred ephod and other pontificalia . (Numbers 20:28) When Joshua is solemnly appointed to succeed the great hero-law-giver he is bidden to stand before Eleazar, the priest, “who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim,” and this counsel is to determine the movements of the host of Israel. (Numbers 27:21) In the blessings of Moses they appear as the crowning glory of the tribe of Levi: “thy Thummim and thy Urim are with thy Holy One.” (33:8,9) In what way the Urim and Thummim were consulted is quite uncertain. Josephus and the rabbins supposed that the stones gave out the oracular answer by preternatural illumination; but it seems to be far simpler and more in agreement with the different accounts of inquiries made by Urim and Thummim, (1 Samuel 14:3,18,19; 23:2,4,9,11,12; 28:6; Judges 20:28; 2 Samuel 5:23) etc., to suppose that the answer was given simply by the word of the Lord to the high priest comp. (John 11:51) when, clothed with the ephod and the breastplate, he had inquired of the Lord. Such a view agrees with the true notion of the breastplate.