This “gift” was a different manifestation of the Spirit from that on
Pentecost, although it resembled it in many particulars. Tongues were to
be “a sign to them that believe not.”
- TOOTH one of the particulars regarding which retaliatory punishment
was to be inflicted (Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21).
“Gnashing of teeth” =rage, despair (Matthew 8:12; Acts 7:54); “cleanness
of teeth” =famine (Amos 4:6); “children’s teeth set on edge” =children
suffering for the sins of their fathers (Ezekiel 18:2). - TOPAZ Hebrews pitdah (Ezekiel 28:13; Revelation 21:20), a golden
yellow or “green” stone brought from Cush or Ethiopia (Job 28:19). It was
the second stone in the first row in the breastplate of the high priest, and
had the name of Simeon inscribed on it (Exodus 28:17). It is probably the
chrysolite of the moderns. - TOPHEL lime, a place in the wilderness of Sinai (Deuteronomy 1:1), now
identified with Tafyleh or Tufileh, on the west side of the Edomitish
mountains. - TOPHET =Topheth, from Hebrews toph “a drum,” because the cries of
children here sacrificed by the priests of Moloch were drowned by the
noise of such an instrument; or from taph or toph, meaning “to burn,” and
hence a place of burning, the name of a particular part in the valley of
Hinnom. “Fire being the most destructive of all elements, is chosen by the
sacred writers to symbolize the agency by which God punishes or
destroys the wicked. We are not to assume from prophetical figures that
material fire is the precise agent to be used. It was not the agency
employed in the destruction of Sennacherib, mentioned in Isaiah
30:33...Tophet properly begins where the Vale of Hinnom bends round to
the east, having the cliffs of Zion on the north, and the Hill of Evil Counsel
on the south. It terminates at Beer ‘Ayub, where it joins the Valley of
Jehoshaphat. The cliffs on the southern side especially abound in ancient
tombs. Here the dead carcasses of beasts and every offal and abomination
were cast, and left to be either devoured by that worm that never died or
consumed by that fire that was never quenched.” Thus Tophet came to
represent the place of punishment. (See HINNOM.) - TORCHES On the night of his betrayal, when our Lord was in the garden
of Gethsemane, Judas, “having received a band of men and officers from
the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches