in the fish of its extensive lake maintain a thin and impoverished population. The actual state of the church there is not known; nor of the Syrian churches in general; but the Syrian Christians, lately discovered and visited in India, on the coast of Malabar, have excited great interest among the British.

The Rev. Dr. Kerr, and the Rev. Dr. Buchanan, have given the most favourable reports of the morals of these people, whose numbers may amount to two hundred thousand; and the British government has since sanctioned various benevolent exertions in their favour. They still use the Syriac language in their public worship; but, probably, the mass of the people have but little acquaintance with it, as the Malabar tongue is vernacular among them. They have preserved copies of the sacred books, in the ancient Syriac, of which several specimens, some of high antiquity, were brought over by Dr. Buchanan, and were verified by western copies. Mr. Yeates goes so far as to say, they have "the pure unadulterated Scriptures in the language of the ancient church of Antioch, derived from the very times of the apostles."-Collation of an Indian Copy of the Pentateuch, &c. Cambridge, 1812.

These Syrians deny the supremacy of the Pope; they condemn image-worship, nor do they admit crucifixes: but they respect the cross, without adoring it: they allow priests to marry : they hold with two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper: they baptize infants, and administer the rite by affusion, mingling warm water with cold: they give the elements in the Lord's Supper, in both kinds, both to clergy and people: they celebrate the ancient Agapæ, or love-feasts of the Christians, in the most simple form: they bury their dead with the feet laid eastward, in expectation of the resurrection, and of the second coming of Christ, which shall be from the East: they neither admit purgatory, nor prayers for the dead: they hold the doctrine of the Divine Trinity: they do not worship the Virgin Mary; but the Portuguese formerly obliged many of them to conform to the rites of the Romish church, and these retain the Latin observances, though by a special dispensation from the Pope, they do not perform their worship in the Latin language. It is to be hoped, that their connexion with the British will prove of essential advantage to these Syrians. Their country and their churches, Dr. Buchanan says, reminded him greatly

of England.-Christian Researches in Asia; Dr. Kerr's Report to the Governor of Madras, &c.

The Syro-Chaldaic churches are neither numerous nor prosperous; yet the whole number of Christians, of their various sects, is great. We are so little acquainted with them (correctly) that Simon's Account of the Eastern Christians, though it dates a hundred and fifty years ago, has had no superior suc cessor.]

SYRIAC VERSION.

[It might have been hoped, that such books of holy writ as were composed originally in the Syriac language, should have been preserved among the Syrians in their primitive form; but this does not appear to be the fact. Of the Old Testament there is a very ancient Syriac version made from the Hebrew, still used by the Syriac churches, and perhaps little less ancient than the first century. There is also a Syriac version made from the LXX. not so ancient as the other by five or six hundred years. The most ancient is the most accurate, and is thought by the learned to be the most correct of all versions.

The old Syriac version of the New Testament is supposed to have been made before all the books in our present canon had obtained the general sanction of the churches to their authenticity. It omits the Second Epistle of Peter, of which many doubted; also, the Second and Third Epistles of John, which being very short, and written to private persons, were slow in obtaining circulation, and in being thought useful to public bodies, i. e. churches. It omits also the Epistle of Jude: nor is the Apocalypse inserted in all copies. These omissions, while they prove the early date of the version, have been adduced as unfavourable to the authority of the works omitted. But the Syrians have versions of these works, also, by a later hand. The order of the books is different from that of the Greek copies; but their contents are correct. This language is likely to be more studied among the learned now and hereafter than it has been heretofore, and the collation of copies will, of course, be more attended to. As this is a branch of the Chaldee, which is a sister dialect to the Hebrew, its peculiar terms, phraseology, &c. will repay the labour of the scholar in his endeavours to become acquainted with it.]

T.

TABERAH, (lat. 29°. 12'.-long. 34°,) an encampment of Israel in the Desert, (Numb. xi. 3; Deut. ix. 22,) called burning, because a fire from the tabernacle of the Lord burned a great part of the camp.

TABOR, or THABOR, (lat. 32o. 43′.-long. 35°. 34',) a mountain of Galilee, called by the Greeks Ithaburius, or Athaburius. Eusebius says, it was on the frontiers of Zebulun, in the middle of Galilee, ten miles from Diocæsarea, east; it was also on the confines of Issachar and Naphtali. Joshua, (xix. 22,) connects it with the borders of Issachar. Josephus says, (De Bello, lib. iv. cap. 2, seu 5, in Gr.) that the height of Tabor is thirty stadia, and that there is a plain on the top of it, of twentysix stadia in circumference, surrounded with walls, and inacessible on the north side. Polybius says, (lib. v. cap. 70,) there was a city on the top of it; and Josephus intimates the same, when he says, that he caused the top of Mount Ithaburius to be enclosed with walls in forty days, the inhabitants of which had none but rain water. He adds, that Tabor is situated between the great plain and Scythopolis, which cannot be understood of the great plain of Jezreel, in the midst of which Tabor stood, but of that of Esdraelon, which stretches out south, east, and north of this mountain.-See Reland Palæstin. lib. i. cap. 55.

This

Tabor stands entirely alone, in the midst of a great plain, in which it rises up like a sugar-loaf. "Est autem Thabor mons in Galilæa, situs in campestribus, rotundus atque sublimis et ex omni parte finitus æqualiter," says Jerom, on Hosea v. is confirmed by travellers, who add, that it makes a very beautiful prospect, being covered with verdure and green trees; and that on its top is a large plain, where was formerly a city, and subsequently, also, a great monastery. This mountain at present is entirely forsaken. The city of Tabor is mentioned, 1 Chron. vi. 77. Sanutus (Secret. fidel. cruc. p. 252,) speaks of a river flowing from a spring at the foot of Tabor, east, which ran into the Jordan, at the end of the lake of Gennesareth. Tabor was opposite to Mount Hermon, which was on the other side of the valley of Jezreel, south. Hermon was desert and barren, but Tabor was inhabited, and covered with trees and verdure. These two mountains are placed in opposition, (Psalm

lxxxix. 12,)—"The north and the south thou hast created them; Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name."

["Tabor," says D'Arvieux, " is a single mountain, separate from all others: there are several near it on the north, but they are all smaller than Tabor. Its shape. is round, almost conical, like a low sugar-loaf. It appears to be a full mile in height, and half a league in diameter. It is entirely covered with green oaks, and other trees, shrubs, and odoriferous plants. Roads and paths are made on the south side of the mountain, which lead to the top of it by windings, and are sufficiently easy to admit of riding up to it. I chose this mode of ascent, leaving to those more devout the liberty of walking up the mountain, which they did, while our Arabs took charge of their horses and mules.

"To a person standing at the foot of the mountain, it appears to terminate in a point; but when arrived at the top we are astonished to find a plain which has full 3,000 paces in circumference, full of noble trees. In this plain is a great enclosure of ruined walls, with remains of towers, and a ditch, partly filled up, which show that there has been a considerable castle, in the middle of which was a square place of arms, with cisterns, baths, cellars, &c.; the vaults of which have resisted the injury of time.

"There is a small height on the eastern side, which is the place where, according to tradition, our Lord was transfigured. St. Helena built a handsome church in this place, in memory of that event. That building having been ruined, it is replaced by another, which is apparently posterior, and may be of the time of the Crusades. It has three little chapels, beside each other: they appear to be in a grotto or cave, but the whole is encumbered with ruins. We found the door-way filled up, but caused it to be cleared by our Arabs, and we entered a small passage, which led into a little vestibule, composed of four arcades, crossing each other, the first of which was the entry. That in front of the entry was the place where our Lord was, and is called his tabernacle; those on each side of him are called the tabernacles of Moses and Elias. Each of them has an altar, at which the religious who were in our company said mass the following day, while our servants, armed, kept guard at the entry, to prevent surprise from the Arabs, or people of the country, who take care of the flocks of goats which feed on this plain, or who

come here in chase after the wild boars which feed on the acorns that fall from the trees. We afterwards walked about this delicious plain; the air was fresh and serene, and perfumed with the fragrance of the aromatic plants growing all around: I should have been sorry had I not performed this journey."

[Dr. E. D. Clarke, says, "The top of Tabor was described as a plain of great extent, finely cultivated, and inhabited by numerous Arab tribes. It appears of a conical form, entirely detached from any neighbouring mountain, and stands on one side of the great plain of Esdraelon."-Travels, vol. ii. Mr. Buckingham ascended it very lately, and gives a print of its antiquities; which appear to be not of the earliest times.]

Deborah and Barak assembled their army on Tabor, from which they marched to give battle to Sisera, A. M. 2719; ante A. D. 1285, Judg. iv. 6, &c.

Hosea, chap. v. 1. reproaches the prince of Israel, and the priests of the golden calves,—" ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor." These snares and nets were probably idols, or superstitious altars, set up at Mizpah beyond Jordan, and on Tabor in Galilee [a comparison to such snares.]

When Josephus the historian was governor of Galilee, he strongly fortified the top of Tabor, thinking to make it impregnable. But Vespasian sent Placidus, one of his officers, who by stratagem drew down the Jews from the mountain into the open country, where he cut them to pieces.-De Bello. cap. iv. 6. A. D. 67.

It had been the current opinion for several ages, that our Saviour was transfigured on Mount Tabor, (Matt. xvii. 1; Luke ix. 28, &c.) Eusebius expressly says so, Psalm lxxxix. 12. also Jerom, in the epitaph of St. Paula, and in his seventeenth letter to Marcella. John Damascenus, (Homil. de Transfig.) affirms the same; and for a long time it was accepted as indisputable. Yet Maldonatus, Lightfoot, Reland and others, have doubted it. The old Itinerary of Bourdeaux reports, that our Saviour was transfigured on the mount of Olives. The ancient fathers, who have spoken of the transfiguration, have not named Tabor, as the place where it occurred. The evangelists do not name it, and the journey of our Saviour they allude to, as taken for this purpose, does not seem favourable to the opinion that places it on Mount Tabor.