the Egyptian Osiris and the Phrygian Attis. The cross was Tammuz’ symbol.

Alexander Hislop, in his book The Two Babylons, pages 21 to 23, identifies Tammuz with Nimrod, “a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah” (Gen. 10:9), saying: “In Scripture he is referred to (Ezek. viii. 14) under the name of Tammuz, but he is commonly known among classical writers under the name of Bacchus, that is, ‘The Lamented one.’ To the ordinary reader the name of Bacchus suggests nothing more than revelry and drunkenness, but it is now well known, that amid all the abominations that attended his orgies, their grand design was professedly ‘the purification of souls,’ and that from the guilt and defilement of sin. This lamented one, exhibited and adored as a little child in his mother’s arms, seems, in point of fact, to have been the husband of Semiramis, whose name, Ninus, by which he is commonly known in classical history, literally signified ‘The Son.’ . . . Now, this Ninus, or ‘Son,’ borne in the arms of the Babylonian Madonna, is so described as very clearly to identify him with Nimrod. ‘Ninus, king of the Assyrians,’ says Trogus Pompeius, epitomised by Justin, ‘first of all changed the contented moderation of the ancient manners, incited by a new passion, the desire of conquest. He was the first who carried on war against his neighbours, and he conquered all nations from Assyria to Lybia, as they were yet unacquainted with the arts of war.’ This account points directly to Nimrod, and can apply to no other.”—See ADONIS.

TAMMUZ, II

(Tamʹmuz).

The postexilic name given to the fourth Jewish lunar month of the sacred calendar, but the tenth of the secular calendar. Thus, in the Targum of Jonathan the expression “the tenth month” at Genesis 8:5 is rendered “the month Tammuz.” Tammuz was the name of a Babylonian deity. (Ezek. 8:14) The Bible record does not apply this name to the fourth month but merely refers to the month by its numerical order. (Ezek. 1:1) The name does appear, however, in the Jewish Talmud and other postexilic works. The use of the pagan name “Tammuz” as applying to the fourth month as well as the use of the other postexilic names may have been only a matter of convenience among the Jews. It should be remembered that they were then a subjugated people, obliged to deal with and report to the foreign powers dominating them, and in view of this it is no strange thing if they utilized the names of the months employed by these foreign powers. The Gregorian calendar used today has months named after the gods Janus, Mars and Jupiter, as well as for Julius and Augustus Caesar, yet it continues to be used by Christians who are subject to the “superior authorities.”—Rom. 13:1.

This month, Tammuz, corresponded to part of June and part of July and, therefore, came in the growing heat of summer. By now the grapevines were beginning to yield their first ripe fruit and in some of the lowland areas the olive trees were approaching harvesttime.—Num. 13:20.

It was on the ninth day of this fourth month (Tammuz) that Nebuchadnezzar breached the walls of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. after an eighteen-month siege. (2 Ki. 25:3, 4; Jer. 39:2; 52:6, 7) During the seventy years of exile that followed, the Jews customarily fasted on the ninth day of the fourth month in memory of this blow against Jerusalem. (Zech. 8:19) However, following the second destruction of Jerusalem, in the year 70 C.E., the fast was observed on the seventeenth day of the fourth month, the day the walls of the temple were breached by Roman General Titus. There were no festivals appointed by Jehovah for this month.

TANHUMETH

(Tan·huʹmeth) [consolation].

The Netophathite father of Seraiah, a military leader of the Jews left in Jerusalem after the deportation to Babylon.—2 Ki. 25:23; Jer. 40:8.

TANNER

A person skilled in the tanning profession, the craft of converting animal hides into leather that can then be used to make articles of various kinds. (2 Ki. 1:8; Matt. 3:4) Doubtless the tanning operation was performed in the past as it has been recently in the Middle East, in a one- or two-room tannery housing tools and vats for preparing the hides. The basic process of preparing leather involved (1) loosening the hair, usually with a lime solution, (2) removing the hair, bits of flesh and fat adhering to the hide, and (3) tanning the hide with a liquor made from such things as sumac or oak bark, or from certain kinds of plants.

Peter spent “quite a few days . . . in Joppa with a certain Simon, a tanner,” whose house was by the sea.—Acts 9:43; 10:32.

TAPHATH

(Taʹphath).

A daughter of King Solomon and wife of one of his twelve deputies.—1 Ki. 4:7, 11.

TAPPUAH

(Tapʹpu·ah) [apple].

1. One of Hebron’s four sons and a descendant of Caleb. (1 Chron. 2:42, 43) Some suggest that his name is to be connected with Beth-tappuah, a town near Hebron.—See BETH-TAPPUAH.

2. A town in the Shephelah region assigned to the tribe of Judah. (Josh. 15:20, 33, 34) It is thus distinct from Beth-tappuah in the Hebron area. Beit Nettif, about twelve miles (19 kilometers) W of Bethlehem, is tentatively identified as the site.

3. A town on the boundary between Ephraim and Manasseh. (Josh. 16:8) The surrounding area, the “land of Tappuah,” was allotted to Manasseh, but the city to Ephraim. (Josh. 17:8) En-Tappuah (Josh. 17:7) evidently refers to a nearby spring (Heb., ʽAʹyin, or En, meaning “spring,” when used as a prefix) and may have been a more complete name used for the city of Tappuah.

The “king of Tappuah” is mentioned among the rulers vanquished by Joshua in the conquest of Canaan (Josh. 12:17), and there is some difference of opinion as to whether “Tappuah” here refers to the city in the Shephelah or to the Ephraimite city. The more prominent mention made of the latter place, as well as the reference to the “land of Tappuah” (perhaps having some connection with the domain of the king of Tappuah), may indicate the Ephraimite Tappuah as the more likely of the two.

Most authorities identify the Ephraimite Tappuah with Tell Sheikh Abu Zarad, some eight miles (13 kilometers) S of Shechem and just below the town of Yasuf.

TAR

See BITUMEN.

TARALAH

(Tarʹa·lah) [perhaps, reeling].

A Benjamite city, the location of which is today unknown. It is listed, however, with other cities situated in the mountainous region N of Jerusalem.—Josh. 18:25-28.

TAREA

(Ta·reʹa).

A descendant of Saul through Jonathan; also called Tahrea (Tahrʹe·a).—1 Chron. 8:33-35; 9:39-41.

TARSHISH

(Tarʹshish) [perhaps chrysolite, or some gold-colored stone].

1. One of Javan’s four sons born after the Flood. (Gen. 10:4; 1 Chron. 1:7) He is included among the seventy family heads from whom the nations were “spread about in the earth.” (Gen. 10:32) As in the case of Javan’s other sons, the name Tarshish came to apply to a people and region. There are some indications of the direction in which the descendants of Tarshish migrated during the centuries following the Flood.

The prophet Jonah (c. 844 B.C.E.), commissioned by Jehovah to go to Nineveh in Assyria, tried to escape his assignment by going to the Mediterranean seaport of Joppa (modern Tel Aviv—Jaffa) and buying passage on “a ship going to Tarshish.” (Jonah 1:1-3; 4:2) Thus, Tarshish must obviously have been in or on the Mediterranean in the opposite direction from Nineveh, and evidently was better reached by sea than by land. The “heart of the open sea” is mentioned in connection with “the ships of Tarshish,” at Ezekiel 27:25, 26. (Compare Psalm 48:7; Jonah 2:3.) In view of these points, Josephus’ identification of Tarshish with the city of Tarsus in Cilicia (Asia Minor) does not seem to be well founded. At Tarsus, Jonah would have been closer to Nineveh than he was back in Palestine.

An inscription of Assyrian Emperor Esar-haddon (of the seventh century B.C.E.) boasts of his victories over Tyre and Egypt, and claims that all the kings of the islands from Cyprus “as far as Tarsisi” paid him tribute. Since Cyprus is in the eastern Mediterranean, this reference would also indicate a location in the western Mediterranean.

POSSIBLY IDENTIFIED WITH SPAIN

Most scholars associate Tarshish with Spain, based on ancient references to a place or region in Spain called Tartessus by Greek and Roman writers. While Greek geographer Strabo (of the first century B.C.E.) placed Tartessus in the region around the Guadalquivir River in Andalusia, the name appears to have applied generally to the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula.

Many reference works give great emphasis to Phoenician colonization of the Spanish coastlands and refer to Tartessus as “a Phoenician colony,” but there appears to be no solid basis for such theory. Thus, the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1959 ed., Vol. 21, p. 114) states: “Neither the Phoenicians nor the Carthaginians left any very permanent mark upon the land, while the Greeks influenced it profoundly. Ships from Tyre and Sidon may have traded beyond the straits and in Cadiz at least as early as the 9th century B.C.; yet modern archaeology, which has located and excavated Greek, Iberian and Roman towns, has not laid bare a single Phoenician settlement or found more important Phoenician remains than the odds and ends of trinkets and jewels and similar articles of barter. The inference is clear that, except perhaps at Cadiz, the Phoenicians built no towns, but had mere trading posts and points of call.” History also shows that when the Phoenicians and Greeks began trading with Spain the land was already populated and the native inhabitants brought forth the silver, iron, tin and lead that the traders sought.

There appears to be good reason for believing, then, that descendants of Javan (Ionians) through his son Tarshish eventually spread into and became prominent in the Iberian Peninsula. Such suggested location of Tarshish at least harmonizes satisfactorily with the other Biblical references.

TRADE RELATIONS WITH SOLOMON

Phoenician trading with Tarshish is clearly borne out by the record of King Solomon’s time (some thirteen centuries after the Flood), when maritime commerce also began to be engaged in by the nation of Israel. Solomon had a fleet of ships in the Red Sea area, manned in part by experienced seamen provided by Phoenician King Hiram of Tyre, and trafficking especially with the gold-rich land of Ophir. (1 Ki. 9:26-28) Reference is thereafter made to “a fleet of ships of Tarshish” that Solomon had on the sea “along with Hiram’s fleet of ships,” and these ships are stated to have made voyages once every three years for the importation of gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks. (1 Ki. 10:22) It is generally believed that the term “ships of Tarshish” in course of time came to stand for a type of ship, as one lexicon puts it: “large, sea-going vessels, fit to ply to Tarshish.” (A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, by Brown, Driver and Briggs, p. 1077) In a similar way, the name “Indiamen” originally derived from the name applied to large British ships engaged in trade with India and in time came to apply to ships of that type no matter what their origin or destination. Thus 1 Kings 22:48 shows that King Jehoshaphat (c. 936-911 B.C.E.) “made Tarshish ships to go to Ophir for gold.”

The Chronicles account, however, states that Solomon’s ships used for the triannual voyages “were going to Tarshish” (2 Chron. 9:21); also that Jehoshaphat’s ships were designed “to go to Tarshish” and, when wrecked, “did not retain strength to go to Tarshish.” (2 Chron. 20:36, 37) This would indicate that Ophir was not the only port of call of the Israelite “ships of Tarshish,” but that they also navigated Mediterranean waters. This, of course, poses a problem, since the site of launching of at least some of these vessels is shown to have been at Ezion-geber in the Gulf of Aqabah. (1 Ki. 9:26) For the ships to reach the Mediterranean Sea they would either have to traverse a canal from the Red Sea to the Nile River and then into the Mediterranean or else circumnavigate the continent of Africa. (See CANALS.) While it is by no means possible to determine now the details of navigational routes (including canals) available or employed in Solomon’s and in Jehoshaphat’s time, there is likewise no need to view the record of their maritime projects as unfeasible.

JAPHETIC, NOT SEMITIC OR HAMITIC

A number of scholars endeavor to show that the word “Tarshish” is of Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) origin and that, in Phoenician, it meant “smelter or metal refinery.” On the basis of this popular theory they hold that the “ships of Tarshish” were simply ones going to locations where metal refineries were located and that the name “Tarshish” might refer to any such smelting location. The Genesis record (10:2, 4), however, presents “Tarshish” as Japhetic and hence not linked to the Akkadian-speaking peoples (Shemites), nor to the Phoenicians (of Hamitic origin), and the name “Tarshish” is elsewhere used in the Biblical record as indicating a particular (and, at that time, obviously well-known) place or region. It would seem more likely that subsequent prominence in metal refining by the descendants of Tarshish, or the mineral wealth of the region occupied by them, in time caused the name “Tarshish” to become synonymous with “metal-refining,” if such was actually the case.

IN PROPHECY

Tarshish appears to have been a major market for the merchant city of Tyre, perhaps her source of greatest riches during part of her history. From ancient times Spain has had mines working the rich deposits of silver, iron, tin and other metals found there. (Compare Jeremiah 10:9; Ezekiel 27:3, 12.) Thus Isaiah’s prophetic pronouncement of Tyre’s overthrow depicts the ships of Tarshish as ‘howling’ upon reaching Kittim (Cyprus, perhaps their last point of call on the eastern run) and receiving the news that the wealthy port of Tyre has been despoiled.—Isa. 23:1, 10, 14.

Other prophecies foretell God’s sending some of his people to Tarshish there to proclaim his glory (Isa. 66:19), and of “ships of Tarshish” bringing Zion’s sons from far away. (Isa. 60:9) The “kings of Tarshish and of the islands” are to pay tribute to Jehovah’s king. (Ps. 72:10) Adversely, at Ezekiel 38:13 “the merchants of Tarshish” are represented along with other trading peoples as expressing selfish interest in Gog of Magog’s proposed plunder of Jehovah’s regathered ones. As included among other things symbolizing self-exaltation, haughtiness and loftiness, the ships of Tarshish are to be brought low and only Jehovah is to be exalted in the “day belonging to Jehovah of armies.”—Isa. 2:11-16.

2. A descendant of Benjamin and son of Bilhan.—1 Chron. 7:6, 10.