Moses was merely rehearsing God’s commandment in the way of a reminder. The Ten Words also appear elsewhere in still other variations, for they were often quoted or cited along with other instructions by Bible writers of both the Hebrew and Christian Greek Scriptures.—Ex. 31:14; 34:14, 17, 21; Lev. 19:3, 11, 12; Deut. 4:15-19; 6:14, 15; Matt. 5:27; 15:4; Luke 18:20; Rom. 13:9; Eph. 6:2, 3.

The Ten Words were God-given, hence comprise a perfect law code. When a man, “versed in the Law” asked Jesus Christ, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”, Jesus quoted a command that, in effect, epitomized the first four (or possibly five) of the Ten Commandments, saying: “You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.” The rest of the Decalogue Jesus then summed up in the few words of another command: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”—Matt. 22:35-40; Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18.

CHRISTIANS NOT UNDER DECALOGUE

Jesus was born under the Law, and kept it perfectly, finally giving up his life as a ransom for mankind. (Gal. 4:4; 1 John 2:2) Furthermore, by his death on the torture stake, he freed those under the Law (including the basic Ten Words or Commandments) “by becoming a curse instead” of them. His death provided for the ‘blotting out of the handwritten document,’ it being nailed to the torture stake.—Gal. 3:13; Col. 2:13, 14.

Nevertheless, a study of the Law with its Ten Words is essential for Christians, for it reveals God’s viewpoint of matters, and it had “a shadow of the good things to come,” of the reality that belongs to the Christ. (Heb. 10:1; Col. 2:17; Gal. 6:2) Christians are “not without law toward God but under law toward Christ.” (1 Cor. 9:21) But they are not condemned as sinners by that law, for the undeserved kindness of God through Christ provides forgiveness for their errors due to fleshly weakness.—Rom. 3:23, 24.

TERAH

(Teʹrah) [ibex].

1. Abraham’s father, the eighth generation from Shem. (Luke 3:34; Gen. 11:10-24; 1 Chron. 1:24-26) Terah, through his sons Abraham, Nahor and Haran, became a forefather of numerous tribes. (Gen. 11:27; 22:20-24; 25:1-4, 13-15; 1 Chron. 1:28-42; 2:1, 2) Terah began having children at seventy. While Abraham is listed first, this appears to be because he is the most famous of Terah’s sons rather than the firstborn. When Terah died at 205, Abraham was only seventy-five, so Terah must have been 130 when Abraham was born. (Gen. 11:26, 32; 12:4) Sarah was Abraham’s half sister, likely a daughter of Terah by a different wife. (Gen. 20:12) Terah’s firstborn was most likely Haran, whose daughter was old enough to marry Terah’s other son Nahor.—Gen. 11:29.

Terah lived in Ur of the Chaldeans and there his family grew up. (Gen. 11:28) According to Joshua 24:2, Terah at one time worshiped gods other than Jehovah, perhaps the moon-god Sin, the favored deity of Ur. Nonetheless, when Jehovah called Abraham to leave Ur, Terah as family head went along to Haran where they all lived until after his death about 1943 B.C.E.—Gen. 11:31, 32; Acts 7:2-4.

2. One of the campsites during Israel’s wilderness wandering; its location is unknown.—Num. 33:27, 28.

TERAPHIM

Family gods or idols. (Gen. 31:30, 34) Although in the plural, the designation “teraphim” can also apply to a single idol. At least some of these idols may have been the size and shape of a man. (1 Sam. 19:13, 16) Others must have been much smaller, able to fit inside a woman’s saddle basket. (Gen. 31:34) The teraphim were, on occasion, consulted for omens.—Ezek. 21:21; Zech. 10:2.

The findings of archaeologists in Mesopotamia and adjacent areas indicate that the possession of the teraphim images had a bearing as to who would receive the family inheritance. According to one tablet found at Nuzi, the possession of the household gods entitled a son-in-law to appear in court and claim the estate of his deceased father-in-law. Perhaps Rachel, with this in mind, reasoned that she was justified in taking the teraphim because of her father’s deceptive dealings with her husband Jacob. (Compare Genesis 31:14-16.) The importance of the teraphim with respect to inheritance rights would also explain why Laban was so anxious to recover them, even to the point of pursuing Jacob in company with others for a distance of seven days’ journey. (Gen. 31:19-30) Of course, what Rachel had done was completely unknown to Jacob (Gen. 31:32), and there is no indication that he ever attempted to use the teraphim to gain the inheritance from Laban’s sons. Jacob had nothing to do with idols. At the latest, the teraphim would have been disposed of when Jacob hid all the foreign gods turned over to him by his household under the big tree that was close by Shechem.—Gen. 35:1-4.

In Israel the idolatrous use of teraphim existed in the days of the judges as well as the kings. (Judg. 17:5; 18:14, 17, 20; Hos. 3:4) It is not likely, though, that the teraphim served for purposes of inheritance in Israel, in view of God’s express command against the making of images. (Ex. 20:4) Also, the prophet Samuel spoke of teraphim in parallel with uncanny power, comparing the use of both to pushing ahead presumptuously (1 Sam. 15:23), and the teraphim were among the appendages of idolatry cleared out of Judah and Jerusalem by faithful King Josiah. (2 Ki. 23:24) Hence, the fact that Michal, the wife of David, had a teraphim image among her possessions suggests that her heart was not complete with Jehovah and that David either did not know about her having the teraphim image or else he tolerated it because she was the daughter of King Saul.—1 Sam. 19:12, 13.

TERESH

(Teʹresh) [possibly, desire].

One of two doorkeepers in the Persian palace who conspired against King Ahasuerus. Upon learning of the plot, Mordecai informed Queen Esther who, in turn, revealed it to the king. Teresh and his accomplice were hanged on a stake, and the incident was entered in the royal records.—Esther 2:21-23; 6:1, 2.

TERTIUS

(Terʹtius) [third].

The writer or transcriber of Paul’s letter to the Romans, and the only one of Paul’s “secretaries” identified by name. Tertius inserts his own personal greetings to the Romans.—Rom. 16:22.

TERTULLUS

(Terʹtul·lus) [from Tertius, third].

A public speaker who presented the Jews’ case against Paul before Governor Felix in Caesarea. Of what Luke recorded, much of Tertullus’ statement personally praises Felix, with only a very brief accusation against Paul, attempting to implicate him with the frequent seditions against Rome. (Acts 24:1-8) Nothing definite is known as to Tertullus’ nationality, whether Jewish or Roman.

TESTICLES

God’s law to Israel barred from the priesthood a man having his testicles broken, as one of several disqualifying physical defects. (Lev. 21:17-21, 23) This high standard for the priesthood was in harmony with the holiness of the office of the priests as representatives of Jehovah’s holiness before Israel. It likewise accords with the fact that Israel’s priesthood symbolized the heavenly priesthood of Christ and his congregation of underpriests, among whom there is found no blemish. (Heb. 7:26; Eph. 5:27; Rev. 14:1, 5; 20:6) Furthermore, God wanted priests who could have children to succeed them. The Law provided, however, that such a defective person could eat of the holy things provided for the sustenance of the priesthood.—Lev. 21:21, 22.

For similar reasons an animal having its testicles squeezed, crushed, cut off or pulled off could not be offered up as a sacrifice. (Lev. 22:24; compare Malachi 1:6-8; 1 Peter 1:19.) On this account the Israelites did not castrate their animals, for the Law required all domestic animals slaughtered for food to be brought to the sanctuary to be killed and eaten as a communion offering. The same law applied in the Promised Land for those who did not live far off from Jerusalem.—Lev. 17:3-5; Deut. 12:20-25.

The Law further read: “No man castrated by crushing the testicles or having his male member cut off may come into the congregation of Jehovah.” (Deut 23:1) Such ‘castration’ did not relate to congenital defects nor an accidental condition. (Compare Leviticus 21:17-21; Deuteronomy 25:11, 12.) Evidently, therefore, it had to do with deliberate emasculation for immoral purposes, such as homosexuality. Such a one was to be kept out of the congregation, not being allowed to associate with it, thereby protecting its purity.

The respect that Jehovah has for man’s right to have children by his wife, and for the reproductive powers he has placed in man and woman, was emphasized by the Law. Brother-in-law marriage provided for the continuance of a man’s family line, name and inheritance. (Deut. 25:5-10) Immediately following the statement of this arrangement, the Law went on to say that if two men were struggling together and the wife of one of them grabbed the other man by his private parts in order to assist her husband (an act that could destroy the reproductive powers of the man), her hand was to be amputated. (Deut. 25:11, 12) So the law of like for like did not here apply. (Deut. 19:21) God did not require the destruction of her reproductive organs or those of her husband. In this way the marriage could still be fruitful, her husband’s family line being carried on through it.

In the case of the Christian congregation, persons who have been castrated are not barred from entry, for the Law has been set aside on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice. (Col. 2:13, 14) Nevertheless, the laws above quoted illustrate God’s regard for the reproductive organs. They give evidence of his displeasure toward anyone who would willfully and deliberately have an operation performed solely for the purpose of sterilization. A Christian thus deliberately mutilating himself would hardly be presenting his entire body, which belongs to God, as a living sacrifice.—Rom. 12:1; compare 1 Peter 1:18, 19.

GENITAL ORGAN

The Hebrew word for “flesh” (ba·sarʹ) is used in the Scriptures at Leviticus chapter 15:2, 3 with reference to the man’s genital organ, the penis, as separate from the testicles.—See CLEAN, CLEANNESS.

The male genital organ was an object of sex worship by pagans in ancient times, as it is today in some countries. Reference may be made at Ezekiel 8:17 (NW, 1960 ed., ftn.) to such worship as infecting the apostate Israelites in Ezekiel’s day.

THADDAEUS

(Thad·daeʹus) [breast].

An apostle of Jesus Christ. (Matt. 10:2, 3; Mark 3:18) He appears to be called elsewhere “Judas the son of James.”—Luke 6:16; John 14:22; Acts 1:13; see JUDAS No. 3.

THEATER

Dramatic performances, tragedies, comedies, dances, musical presentations and spectacles were staged in the structure to which the Greeks gave the name theʹa·tron. The theater was often the scene of immoral presentations, shunned by faithful Christians. (Eph. 5:3-5) But it also served as a place of public assembly for other purposes.

It was to the theater in Ephesus that Paul’s traveling companions were brought when Demetrius the silversmith stirred up a riot against these Christian missionaries. Though the apostle was willing to go before the people assembled in the theater, the disciples and some friendly commissioners of festivals and games dissuaded him.—Acts 19:23-31.

Theaters were constructed in Greece from about the fifth century B.C.E. onward, and in time they were built in various principal cities. Most Greek theaters were constructed in semicircular fashion on a hillside of concave formation. The seats might be made of wood or stone. Aisles separated them into sections and they were lined up in tiers on the hill’s gradual incline. At the center was the or·kheʹstra (a dancing or chorus area), behind which there was a raised stage backed by a ske·neʹ, or background.

Ruins of theaters have been found in such places as Ephesus, Athens and Corinth. The large theater excavated at Ephesus had sixty-six rows of seats, and could hold an audience of about 25,000 persons. The acoustics were, and still are, so good that even a low voice from the stage can be heard in the topmost row with ease.

The Romans frequently constructed theaters as individual buildings dependent upon no natural sloping ground formation. Sometimes their theaters had a roof over the stage and a portion of the seating area. Another type, the Roman amphitheater, was a roofless circular or oval structure that enclosed a large center space or arena, from which the seats radiated in tiers. The partially standing Colosseum in Rome, finished in 80 C.E., is a noted Roman amphitheater. Herod the Great constructed theaters in various cities, including Damascus and Caesarea. Josephus said that Herod “built a theatre at Jerusalem, as also a very great amphitheatre in the plain.”—Antiquities of the Jews, Book XV, chap. VIII, par. 1.

The Greek word theʹa·tron can denote either the place where a show is presented or the “theatrical spectacle” itself. Paul wrote: “For it seems to me that God has put us the apostles last on exhibition as men appointed to death, because we have become a theatrical spectacle [theʹa·tron] to the world, both to angels and to men.” (1 Cor. 4:9) Paul thus alluded to the customary closing event of Roman gladiatorial contests in the amphitheater arena when certain participants were brought out unclad and defenseless, being subjected to butchery and certain death.

The Greeks and Romans customarily led criminals condemned to death through the theater, where they were subjected to ridicule by the assembled throngs. Paul wrote to the Hebrew Christians, apparently referring to this practice. Though there is no record to the effect that these Christians had been subjected to that treatment, they had endured sufferings that were comparable. The apostle urged them: “Keep on remembering the former days in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great contest under sufferings, sometimes while you were being exposed as in a theater both to reproaches and tribulations, and sometimes while you became sharers with those who were having such an experience.”—Heb. 10:32, 33.

THEBEZ

(Theʹbez) [possibly, brightness or splendor].

A city having a strong tower. When Abimelech had taken Thebez and was attempting to assault the tower where the populace had sought refuge, a woman pitched an upper millstone upon him from atop the wall. His skull shattered by the blow, Abimelech had his attendant put him to death so that no one could say, “It was a woman that killed him.”—Judg. 9:50-54; 2 Sam. 11:21.

Thebez is usually connected with modern Tubas, about ten miles (c. 16 kilometers) NE of Shechem.

THEOPHILUS

(The·ophʹi·lus) [friend of God].

The person to whom Luke addressed both his Gospel and the Acts of Apostles. (Luke 1:3, 4; Acts 1:1) His being called “most excellent” may indicate a high position of some kind, or may simply be an expression of high esteem. Theophilus apparently was a Christian, having been orally taught about Jesus Christ and his ministry. Luke’s written statement served to assure him of the certainty of what he had learned previously by word of mouth.