SYNOPTICS, SYNOPTISTS

with the past involved in the destruction ot the Temple in A.D. 70, and the cessation of sacrificial worship, was healed. The highest religious life of Judaism had already transferred its channels from the grosser and more material forms of the Temple to the spiritual worship ot the synagogue.

Nor must a reference be wanting to the fact that the synagogue, and not the Temple, supplied the mould and model for the worship of the Christian Church.

6. The Great Synagogue.— In late Jewish tradition Ezra is alleged to have been the founder and first president of a college of learned scribes, which is supposed to have existed in Jerusalem until the early part of the Gr. period (c. B.C. 300). To 'the men of the Great Synagogue,' or rather "of the Great Assembly,' were ascribed the composition of some of the later OT books, the close ot the Canon, and a general care for the development of religion under the Law. Recent writers, however, have in the main accepted the results of Kuenen's careful investigation in his Gesamm. Abhandlungen (Germ. tr. 125-160), and now regard the Great Synagogue as unhistorical, the tradition of its existence having arisen from a distorted view of the nature and purpose of the great popular assembly, of which we read in Neh 8-10. A. R. S. Kennedy.

SYNOPTICS, SYNOPTISTS.— See Gospels, 2.

SYNTYCHE. — A Christian, perhaps a deaconess, at Philippi (Ph 4^) ; see art. Euodia. A. J. Maclean.

SYNZYGUS (lit. 'yoke-fellow').— This is taken by some as a proper name in' Ph 4' (' Synzygus truly so called ') , but it is nowhere else found as such. It is more probably a way of describing the chief minister of the church at Philippi. Lightfoot (.Com., in loc.) suggests Epaphroditus; Ramsay (St. Paul, p. 358), Luke; others, Barnabas or Silas or Timothy. An old tradition of the 2nd cent. (Lightfoot, i6.) makes the •yoke-fellow' to be

TABERNACLE

the Apostle's wife; Renan supposes that Lydia is meant, and that she had become his wife; but see 1 Co 7'.

A. J. Maclean. SYRACITSG, ontheeast coast of Sicily.was the principal city in the Island. It was originally a Greek colony of ancient date, which was powerful enough to defeat the famous Athenian Sicilian expedition (b.c. 415-412). Its kings were often men of distinction, even in literature, of which they were noted patrons. The city had a varied career, being sometimes a kingdom, sometimes a democracy. In B.C. 241 the Romans took the western half of Sicily from the Carthaginians, but remained in alliance with the kings of Syracuse. The last king of Syracuse coquetted with the Carthaginians; the city was besieged and captured by Marcellus in 212, and the whole island was henceforth under a praetor, who had two quaestors, one situated at Lilybseum in the W., the other at Syracuse. The city continued prosperous down till about the end ot the 2nd cent. b.c. After that date it declined in importance, though it remained the capital of the eastern half of the island. In NT times a large number of the inhabitants were Roman citizens.

St. Paul's ship lay at anchor in the harbour for three days, when he was on his way from Malta to Rome (Ac28'2). He did not preach there. Christian memorials at Syracuse are not specially early. A. Soctek.

SYRIA, SYRIANS. — See Aram, Aram^eans.

SYRIAC VERSIONS.— See Text (OT, 15 (6), and NT, 11 £E.).

SYROPHCENICIAN.— This is the designation of a 'Greek' (or Gentile) woman whose demoniac daughter Jesus healed when near Tyre (Mk 7"). She was perhaps Greek-speaking (Swete), but was descended from the old Phoenicians of Syria (|| Mt IS^ has 'Canaanitish').

A. J. Maclean.

SYRTIS.— See Quicksands.

T

TAANACH (Jos 12", 1 K 4", 1 Ch 72').— One of the royal Canaanite cities, mentioned in OT always along with Megiddo. Though in the territory of Issachar, it belonged to Manasseh; the native Canaanites were, how-ever, not driven out (Jos 17"-'^ Jg 1^'). It was allotted to the Levites of the children of Kohath (Jos 21^). It was one of the four fortress cities on the 'border of Manasseh ' (1 Ch 7^»). The fight of Deborah and Barak with the Canaanites is described (Jg 5") as "in Taanaoh by the waters ot Megiddo." The site is to-day Tell Ta'annak.four miles S.E. from Tell el-Mutesellim(lAegiddo). The hill has been excavated by Prof. Sellin of Vienna. Many remains of Canaanite and Jewish civilization have been found, and also a considerable number of clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions similar to those discovered at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt. See Sellin in Mem. Vienna Acad., I. (1904), lii. (1905).

E. W. G. Masterman.

TAANATH-SHILOH.— A town on the N.E. boundary of Ephraim (Jos 16«). It is possibly the mod. Ta'na, about 7 miles from Nablus (Neapolis), and 2 miles N. ot YanUn (Janoah).

TABAOTH (1 Es S"' («»> ; and TABBAOTH (Ezr 2*= = Neh 7*'). — A family ot Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel.

TABBATH.— An unknown locality mentioned in Jg 7».

TABEEL.— 1. The father of the rival to Ahaz put forward hf Rezin (wh. see) and Pekah (Is 7«). 2. A Persian ofBcial (Ezr 4'); called in 1 Es 2"i Tabellius.

884

TABELLIUS.— See Tabeel, 2.

TABER. — Only in Nah 2' ' her handmaids mourn as with the voice of doves, tabering (Amer. RV 'beating') upon their breasts.' Beating the breast was a familiar Oriental custom in mourning (ct. Is 32"). The word here used means lit. 'drumming' (cf. Ps 682», its only other occurrence). The English word 'taber' means a small drum, usually accompanying a pipe, both instru-ments being played by the same performer. Other forms are 'tabor,' 'labour,' and 'tambour'; and dim. forms are 'tabret' and 'tambourine.'

TABERAH. — An unidentified 'station' of the Israelites (Nu 118, Dt 9^2).

TABERNACLE.— 1. By 'the tabernacle' without further qualification, as by the more expressive designa-tion 'tabernacle of the congregation' (RV more cor-rectly 'tent of meeting,' see below), is usually under-stood the elaborate portable sanctuary which Moses erected at Sinai, in accordance with Divine instructions, as the place of worship for the Hebrew tribes during and after the wilderness wanderings. But modem criticism has revealed the tact that this artistic and costly structure is confined to the Priestly sources of the Pentateuch, and is to be carefully distinguished from a much simpler tent bearing the same name and likewise associated with Moses. The relative histo-ricity of the two 'tents of meeting' will be more fully examined at the close of this article (§ 9).

2. The sections of the Priests' Code (P) devoted to