Tychicus – Tzade

Tychicus

A native of the province Asia, like Trophimus, and a companion of St. Paul on the journey to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4). He was the bearer of the circular letter to Asia which we call ‘Ephesians’ (Eph 6), and of Colossians (Colossians 4:7 f.). In later years either he or Artemas was to have been sent to Crete, apparently to take Titus’ place (Titus 3:12)) but he was sent to Ephesus, probably instead of to Crete (2 Timothy 4:12).

A. J. Maclean.

Tyrannus

This man is mentioned only in Acts 19:9. St. Paul in Ephesus preached before the Jews and proselytes in the synagogue for three months. Finding them determinedly hostile, he resorted to the ‘school of Tyrannus,’ where he reasoned every day. The expression is somewhat enigmatical to us, as we have no other reference to this institution by which to illustrate It. The Greek word may be translated either ‘school’ or ‘lecture room,’ and Tyrannus may have been either a schoolmaster or what we call a professor. There is the further difSculty that Tyrannus may have been dead at the time, and that the building may have been merely known as ‘Tyrannus’s school,’ in memory of a once famous teacher who taught there. All the probabilities are in favour of this having been the name of a noted public building in Ephesus. Permission to use this building was given to Paul; perhaps it was hired by him or his friends. All this may be inferred from what is the generally accepted text of the passage in the present day. The Western and. other texts have touched up this simpler text, and changed the situation considerably. They have inserted the word ‘a certain’ before ‘Tyrannus,’ and this at once converts the public building into a private one. The person Tyrannus would then be unknown to the readers, and would be one not unfavourable to St. Paul, who lent him his own building with or without fee. The most notable MS of the Western text adds the words: ‘from the fifth hour till the tenth.’ This addition is all of a piece with the idea that Tyrannus was a schoolmaster or professor, whose work, according to the ancient custom, would be over early in the day, thus leaving the building free for the rest of the day. Juvenal describes to us how the boys read their lessons to the master even before dawn. Augustine, himself a professor, tells us that his lecturing work was over early in the day. The experience of moderns in southern countries confirms this: the early morning is the time for brain work in the South, as the young Julius Charles Hare and his brother found when resident as boys in Italy. The hall was free’to Paul at the hottest period of the day, when it must have been hard for people to listen, and yet harder for him to preach. All this is conveyed by the reading of the chief representative of the Western text, but the present writer has no doubt that here, as elsewhere, the reviser has been endeavouring to remove obscurity from the narrative. Almost all the Western variants can be explained by a greater or less effort to smooth difficulties of various sorts. The shorter reading discussed in the earlier paragraph is the genuine one.

A. SOUTEB.

Tyre

Tyre (TsSr — ‘rock,’ Joshua 19:29) was situated on the coast of Palestine about half-way between Carmel and Beyrout. The narrow strip of land between the sea and the backgroundof mountains was almost inaccessible owing to massive rocky promontories (the most famous being ‘the Ladder of Tyre’), which barred the approach of invaders. The date of the foundation of Tyre is unknown. That given by Herodotus is B.C. 2740, by Josephus about B.C. 1217. Isaiah (23’) calls her ‘the joyous city whose antiquity is of ancient days ‘; Strabo,’ the most ancient of all Phoenicia.’ Her original inhabitants probably came from the Semitic homeland near the Persian Gulf. But Tyre was not ‘the most ancient.’ Isaiah (232") calls her ‘daughter of Sidon’ (cf. On lO’‘); Homer mentions’ Sidonian wares,’ but ignores Tyre. Justin says Sidon suffered so severely at the hands of Asealon that her trade passed to her daughter Tyre. The Tell el-Amarna letters (c. B.C. 1430) reveal Abi-milki, king of Tyre, sending appeals to his lord Amenhotep iv. for assistance against the swarms of Khabiri, who were ravaging the land, while the citizens were dying of want on the islets off the coast. At the conquest of Canaan, Joshua assigned the Tyrian territory to Asher, though it was perhaps never occupied (Joshua 19:29, but of. 2 Samuel 24:7).

For the next 430 years the city’s history is a blank. It was Hiram, David’s contemporary, who raised Tyre to fame. Old Tyre (Palsetyrus), on the mainland, he strongly fortified, its walls being 15 miles in circumference. Hiram now built New Tyre by uniting the scattered islands, half a mile out to sea, till they enclosed an area 2i miles in circumference. At the N. end, two stone piers, about 100 ft. apart, extended E. and W. for 700 ft. These with the shore line embraced an area (the ‘Zidon Harbour’) of 70,000 sq. yds. At the S. end a similar harbour (the ‘Egyptian’), 80,000 sq. yds. in area, was enclosed by a vast pier 200 yds. long, and a breakwater 35 ft. wide and nearly 2 miles in length. The two harbours were united by a canal across the island. The city rose up in tiers of houses, gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and was embellished by a new and splendid temple of Melkarth, a royal palace, and a great piazza (the ‘Eurychorus ‘) for national assemblies. The city’s wealth was furnished largely from the trade in purple dye, the secret of the extraction of which from two species of murex the Tyrians possessed. The gradual failure of the supply of these shellfish on their own shores led the citizens to become great explorers. Every island and coastline were searched for these precious molluscs. Trade naturally followed. They trafScked up the Nile as far as Memphis; worked copper mines in Cyprus and Crete (cf. Phenice, Acts 27:12) erected stations on the Bosporus, the Euxine, and the Crimea; established colonies on the N. African shores, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Marseilles, etc., and exploited the gold, silver, lead, and other mines of Spain from their emporium Tartessus (prob. the Tarshish of Genesis 10:4, Psalms 72. Isaiah 66:19). Even the Atlantic was braved, and they worked the tin deposits of Cornwall, and had depBts in the Scilly Isles and the Isle of Wight. Hiram co-operated with David in the erection of the latter’s palace in Jerusalem, sending cedars from Lebanon (1 Chronicles 14:1). Under Solomon, Tyrian artizans built the Temple on Phcenician models (2 Chronicles 2). Hiram and Solomon had joint maritime adventures, Jewish ships with Tyrian seamen trading to Ophir every three years (1 Kings 9 10:22).’ Hiram’s Tomb,’ a massive limestone sarcophagus, is still shown on the shore 6 miles S. of Tyre.

The years following Hiram’s death were very troubled, changes of dynasty occurring through repeated assassinations. At length Eth-baal, by the murder of his brother, seized the throne, and married his daughter .Tezebel to Ahab (1 Kings 16:31). Some time after the death of Eth-baal a domestic rebellion led to the emigration of the Tyrian princess Elissa, who is said to have fied from Tyre with her murdered husband’s riches and to have founded Carthage, thereby winning fame for herself as the Dido of Virgil’s /Eneid. About b.c. 880 Assyria began to interfere with Western politics. Tyre purchased her liberty from Assur-nazir-pal by a heavy indemnity. In B.C. 726 Shalmaneser iv. came against the city, but, having no ships, could not reach the island fortress till he had bribed Sidon to furnish 60 vessels. These the Tyrians, with only 12 ships, easily routed. Shalmaneser retired, leaving a garrison in Old Tyre, which kept up a fruitless bloclcade for five years. At the next attack, under Sennacherib, Eluleeus, the king, fled in despair to Cyprus, the Assyrians appointing a tributary king, Tubaal, in his stead (b.c. 706) . Under Esarhaddon,Tyre rebelled. The Assyrians held the shore, and captured Sidon, but Tyre again escaped. In b.c. 664 it submitted to Ashurbanipal on honourable terms. On the decline of Nineveh, Tyre again proclaimed her independence (B.C. 630), and after Nineveh fell (b.c. 606) she reached the zenith of her glory. Ezekiel (27-28) gives a marvellously vivid picture of the island city at this period, yet prophesies her fall on account of her colossal sins.

In the early unsettled days of the New Babylonian Empire the Tyrians entered into a league with Pharaoh-necho of Egypt. They were invited to make a canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, and even to circumnavigate Africa. The latter feat they accomplished in three years, the voyagers sailing down the E. coast, and reaching the Pillars of Hercules after a feat of unheard-of daring. Nebuchadnezzar ii. attacked Tyre, and besieged it for 13 years. Old Tyre was destroyed (Ezekiel 26:7–12), but the Babylonian army in vain wearied Itself in trying to subdue the island (29:18). It is probable that the city finally capitulated on favourable terms. The long siege, however, had ruined her commerce, and for 60 years Tyre was a poverty-stricken town. An attempt at a republic did not improve her fortunes. She was involved in the struggle between Nebuchadnezzar II. and Pharaoh-hophra (Jeremiah 44:30). was for a time under Egypt, but finally fell to Babylon, and remained a dependency until the overthrow of the Babylonian Empire. Her humbled state did not change her people’s temper. Their pride (Ezekiel 28:2). their contempt for the rights of man (Amos 1:9). their slave-trading propensities (Joel 3:4 are denounced by the Hebrew prophets. In b.o. 638 Cyrus ii., the founder of the Persian Empire, ordered Tyrian workmen to assist with Lebanon cedars in the re-building of the Jewish Temple (Ezekiel 3:7). Cambyses ii. engaged the Tyrians to supply a fieet for his invasion of Egypt. On his proposing to send them to subdue Carthage they refused, on the score of their blood relationship with the daughter colony of Tyre. Under Artaxerxes Longimanus (b.c. 430) we read of Tyrian fish-merchants at the gates of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 13:16). In the Persian-Greek wars Tyrian fleets fought on the Persian side, till, after the Peace of Antalkidas (b.c. 387), Tyre transferred her allegiance to Persia’s enemies. Artaxerxes iii. (Ochus) took fearful vengeance. Sidon disappeared in flame and torrents of blood. Tyre in horror opened her gates, and was spared. In b.c. 332 Alexander the Great appeared in front of the city. The Tyrians declined to allow him to sacrifice personally to Melkarth in their fortress. The memorable siege began. Alexander built a mole 200 ft. wide out towards the island. It was repeatedly destroyed. The defence was desperate and successful, till Alexander invested the city with a fleet of 224 ships. Tyre was stormed, 8000 of her inhabitants massacred, 2000 crucified on the shore, and 30,000 sold into slavery. Tyre ceased to be an island, and henceforth was permanently joined to the mainland. Only a blunt headland to-day suggests the existence of the former island fortress. The mole is now i mile broad.

Tyre was again re-peopled. She figured in the wars of the Ptolemys and Seleucidae. In b.c. 314 Antigonus besieged her for 15 months. After 70 years’ subjection to Egypt she was under Antioch till b.o. 65, when tho Romans made her a free city. Some of her citizens came to hear the preaching of Jesus (Mark 3:8). Christ visited the neighbourhood (Mark 7:24–31). and got a favourable reception (Luke 10:13). Tyre figured in connexion with St. Paul in Apostolic times (Acts 12:20 21:3–7). Was the Church in Tyre not a fulfilment of Psalms 87:4 A Christian church was built on the site of the Melkarth temple. Origen found refuge in Tyre, and died there. Jerome (4th cent.) speaks of it as the ‘most noble and beautiful city of Phoenicia.’ Captured by the Saracens (a.d. 638), it was recovered (a.d. 1124), and William of Tyre celebrates its fame under the Crusaders. Here was buried Frederick Barbarossa. Saladin was repelled in 1187, but the spot was abandoned in 1291, and the Moslems took possession of it. Tyre has since sunk to a miserable stagnant village, where the waves mournfully crash amid the ruins of her former magnificence.

G. A. Frank Knight.

Tzade

The eighteenth letter of theBeb. alphabet, and as such employed in the 119th Psalm to designate the 18th part, each verse of which begins with this letter.

u

tJOAL.— See Ithibi., 2.

XTEL, — One of the sons of Bani who had married a foreign wife (Ezra 10:34) ; called in 1 Esdras 9:34 Juel.