Topic
Tirshatha
8 passages cited, from 4 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Ezra 2:63Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave A title of Persian governors
And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim.
- Nehemiah 7:65Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave A title of Persian governors
And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim.
- Nehemiah 8:9Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave A title of Persian governors
¶ And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of…
- Nehemiah 7:70Easton · ISBE · Nave A title of Persian governors
¶ And some of the chief of the fathers gave unto the work. The Tirshatha gave to the treasure a thousand drams of gold, fifty basons, five hundred and thirty priests’ garments.
- Nehemiah 10:1Easton · Smith · ISBE
Now those that sealed were, Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah, and Zidkijah,
- Ezra 1:8ISBE
Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.
- Ezra 5:14ISBE
And the vessels also of gold and silver of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem, and brought them into the temple of Babylon, those did Cyrus the king take out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered…
- Nehemiah 12:26ISBE
These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor, and of Ezra the priest, the scribe.
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 6 references
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 5 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 11 references
ter-sha'-tha, tur'-sha-tha (tirshatha'; Hathersatha): A title which occurs 5 times in Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezr 2:63; Ne 7:65, the American Standard Revised Version and the English Revised Version margin "governor"). In Ne 8:9; 10:1, Nehemiah is called the tirshatha'. In Ezr 2:63; Ne 7:65,70, it is the title of Sheshbazzar, or Zerubbabel. As in Ne 12:26, Nehemiah is called a pechah, or governor, a title which in Ezr 5:14 is given to Sheshbazzar also, it has been supposed that pechah and tirshatha' were equivalent terms, the former being of Assyrio-Babylonian and the latter of Persian origin. According to Lagarde, it comes from the Bactrian antarekshatra, that is, "he who takes the place of the king." According to Meyer and Scheftelowitz it is a modified form of a hypothetical Old Persian word tarsata. According to Gesenius and Ewald, it is to be compared with the Persian torsh, "severe," "austere," i.e. "stern lord." It seems more probable that it is derived from the Babylonian root rashu, "to take possession of," from which we get the noun rashu, "creditor." In this case it may well have had the sense of a tax-collector. One of the principal duties of the Persian satrap, or governor, was to assess and collect the taxes (see Rawlinson's Persia, chapter viii). This would readily account for the fact that in Ne 7:70 the tirshatha' gave to the treasure to be used in the building of the temple a thousand drachms of gold, etc., and that in Ezr 1:8 Cyrus numbered the vessels of the house of the Lord unto Sheshbazzar. This derivation would connect it with the Aramaic rashya, "creditor," and the New Hebrew rashuth, "highest power," "magistrate."
R. Dick Wilson
In the topical indexes
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.