TAHPENES

to a much later period. After the murder of Gedaliah (B.C. 586), Johanan took the remnant of the Jews from Jerusalem, including Jeremiah, to Tahpanhes.

F. Ll. Griffith.

TAHPENES (1 K 11").— The name of Pharaoh's wife, whose sister was given to Hadad the Edomite. It has the appearance of an Egyptian name, but has not yet been explained. The name of her son Genubath is not Egyptian. The Pharaoh should be of the weak 21st Dynasty. F. Ll. Griffith.

TAHBEA. — A grandson of Mephibosheth (1 Ch 9"); in 836 (prob. by a copyist's error) Taiea.

TAHTIM HODSHI.THE LAND OF.— A place east of Jordan, which Joab and his officers visited when making the census for David (2 S 24»). It is mentioned between Gilead and Dan-jaan. The MT, however, is certainly corrupt. In all probability we should read ha-Hitlim-Kddeshah ■= ' to the land of tlie Hittites, towards Kadesh Isc. Kadesh on the Orontes].'

TALE. — 'Tale' in AV generally means 'number or sum,' as Ex 5" 'Yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.' And the verb 'to tell' sometimes means 'to number,' as Gn 15' 'Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them,' where the same Heb. verb is translated 'tell' and 'number.'

TALEBEARING. — See Slandfr.

TALENT. — See Money, Weights and Measures.

TALITHA CUmi. — The command addressed by our Lord to the daughter of Jairus (Mk 6"), and interpreted by the Evangelist, 'Maiden, I say unto thee, arise.' The relating of the actual (Aramaic) words used by Jesus is characteristic of St. Mark's graphic narrative; cf. 7"- " l*" 15'*.

TATiWAI. — 1. A clan resident in Hebron at the time of the Hebrew conquest and driven thence by Caleb (Nu 13K, Jos 15", Jg li»). 2. Son of Ammihur (or Ammihud), king of Geshur, and a contemporary of David, to whom he gave his daughter Maacah in marriage (2 S 3= 13", 1 Ch 3').

TALMON. — The name of a family of Temple gate-keepers (1 Ch 9", Ezr 2« Neh 7« 11" 12"); called in 1 Es 5" Tolman. See, also, Telem.

TALMTTD ('learning'). — 1. Origin and character, —

The Jews have always drawn a distinction between the 'Oral Law,' which was handed down for centuries by word of mouth, and the 'Written Law,' i.e. the Penta-teuch or Five Books of Moses. Both, according to Rabbinical teaching, trace their origin to Moses himself. It has been a fundamental principle of all times that by the side of the ' Written Law,' regarded as a summary of the principles and general laws of the Hebrew people, there was this ' Oral Law ' to complete and explain the 'Written Law.' It was an article of faith that in the Pentateuch there was no precept and no regulation, ceremonial, doctrinal, or legal, of which God had not given to Moses all explanations necessary for their application, together with the order to transmit them by word of mouth. The classical passage on this subject runs: 'Moses received the (oral) law from Sinai, and delivered it to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the men of the Great Synagogue' (.Pirqe Aboth, 1. 1). This has long been known to be nothing more than a myth; the ' Oral Law,' although it no doubt contains elements which are of great antiquity — e.g. details of folklore — really dates from the time that the 'Written Law' was read and expounded in the synagogues. Thus we are told that Ezra introduced the custom of having the Torah (' Law ') read in the synagogues at the morning service on Mondays and Thursdays (i.e. the days corresponding to these); for on these days the country people flocked to the towns from the neighbouring districts, as they were the market days. The people had thus an opportunity,

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which would otherwise have been lacking to them, of hearing the Law read and explained. These explana-tions of the Law, together with the results of the dis-cussions of them on the part of the sopherlm ('scribes'), formed the actual 'Oral Law.' The first explanatory term applied by the Jews to the ' Oral Law ' was midrash ('investigation'), and the Bible itself witnesses to the way in which such investigations were made and ex-pounded to the people: 'Also Jeshua and Bani . . . and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law; and the people stood in their place. And they read in the book, in the law of God, with an interpretation; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading' (Neh 8'' '). But it is clear that the 'investigations' must have led to different explanations; so that in order to fix authoritatively what in later days were considered the correct explanations, and thus to ensure continuity of teaching, it became necessary to reduce these to writing; there arose thus (soon after the time of Shammai and Hillel) the 'Former Mishna' (Mishna Bishonah), Mishna meaning 'Second' Law. This earliest Mishna, which, it is probable, owed its origin to pupils of Shammai and Hillel, was therefore compiled for the purpose of affording teachers both a norm for their decisions and a kind of book of reference for the explanation of difficult passages. But the immense amount of floating material could not be incorporated into one work, and when great teachers arose they some-times found it necessary to compile their own Mishna; they excluded much which the official Mishna contained, and added other matter which they considered im-portant. This was done by Rabbi Aqiba, Rabbi Meir, and others. But it was not long before the confusion created by this state of affairs again necessitated some authoritative, officially recognized action. It was then that Jehudah ha-Nasi undertook his great redaction of the Mishna, which has survived substantially to the present day. Jehudah ha-Nasi was born about a.d. 135 and died about a.d. 220; he was the first of Hillel's successors to whose name was added the title ha-Nasi ('the Prince'); this is the way in which he is usually referred to in Rabbinical writings; he is also spoken of as 'Rabbi,' i.e. master par excellence, and occasionally as ha-Qadosh, 'the Holy,' on account of his singularly pure and moral life. Owing to his authority and dignity, the Mishna of Jehudah ha-Nasi soon superseded all other collections, and became the only one used in the schools; the object that Jehudah had had in view, that, namely, ofirestoring uniform teaching, was thus achieved. The Mishna as we now have it is not, however, quite as it was when it left Jehudah's hands; it has undergone modifications of various kinds : additions, emendations, and the like having been made even in jehudah's life-time, with his acquiescence, by some of his pupils. The language of the Mishna approximates to that of some of the latest books of the OT, and is known by the name of 'Neo-Hebraic'; this was the language spoken in Palestine during the second century a.d.; it has a con-siderable intermixture of foreign elements, especially Greek words Hebraized.

The Mishna is divided into six Sedarim (Aram, for ' Orders '), and each Seder contains a number of treatises; each treatise is divided into chapters, and these again into paragraphs. The names of the six 'Orders,' which to some extent indicate their contents, are : ZeraHm ('Seeds'), containing eleven treatises; Mo'ed ('Fes-tival'), containing twelve treatises; Nashim ('Women'), containing seven treatises; Nezikin ('Injuries'), con-taining ten treatises [this 'Order' is called also Yeshu'oth ('Deeds of help')]; Qodashim (' Holy things '), containing eleven treatises; and ToMroth ('Purifica-tions'), containing twelve treatises.

Now the Mishna forms the basis of the Talmud; for just as the Mishna is a compilation of expositions, com-ments, etc., of the Written Law, and embodies in itself the Oral Law, so the Talmud is an expansion, by means