secret virtue, which was fitted to preserve life. Probably the lesson
conveyed was that life was to be sought by man, not in himself or in his
own power, but from without, from Him who is emphatically the Life
(John 1:4; 14:6). Wisdom is compared to the tree of life (Proverbs 3:18).
The “tree of life” spoken of in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 2:7;
22:2, 14) is an emblem of the joys of the celestial paradise.
- TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL stood in the midst
of the garden of Eden, beside the tree of life (Genesis 2, 3). Adam and Eve
were forbidden to take of the fruit which grew upon it. But they disobeyed
the divine injunction, and so sin and death by sin entered our world and
became the heritage of Adam’s posterity. (See ADAM.) - TRESPASS OFFERING (Hebrews ‘asham, “debt”), the law concerning,
given in Leviticus 5:14-6:7; also in Numbers 5:5-8. The idea of sin as a
“debt” pervades this legislation. The asham, which was always a ram, was
offered in cases where sins were more private. (See OFFERING.) - TRIBE a collection of families descending from one ancestor. The “twelve
tribes” of the Hebrews were the twelve collections of families which
sprang from the sons of Jacob. In Matthew 24:30 the word has a wider
significance. The tribes of Israel are referred to as types of the spiritual
family of God (Revelation 7). (See ISRAEL, KINGDOM OF; JUDAH,
KINGDOM OF.) - TRIBULATION trouble or affiction of any kind (Deuteronomy 4:30;
Matthew 13:21; 2 Corinthians 7:4). In Romans 2:9 “tribulation and
anguish” are the penal sufferings that shall overtake the wicked. In
Matthew 24:21, 29, the word denotes the calamities that were to attend
the destruction of Jerusalem. - TRIBUTE a tax imposed by a king on his subjects (2 Samuel 20:24; 1
Kings 4:6; Romans 13:6). In Matthew 17:24-27 the word denotes the
temple rate (the “didrachma,” the “half-shekel,” as rendered by the R.V.)
which was required to be paid for the support of the temple by every Jew
above twenty years of age (Exodus 30:12; 2 Kings 12:4; 2 Chronicles 24:6,
9). It was not a civil but a religious tax.
In Matthew 22:17, Mark 12:14, Luke 20:22, the word may be interpreted
as denoting the capitation tax which the Romans imposed on the Jewish
people. It may, however, be legitimately regarded as denoting any tax