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•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