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Tahash or Tachash, (Hebrew: תחש) is the source of 'orot tahashim (Hebrew: וערות תחשים), referred to in the Bible, used as the outer covering of the Tabernacle and to wrap sacred objects used within the Tabernacle for transport. Tahash is traditionally interpreted to be an animal, with 'orot tahashim being tahash skins or leather. Sages, scholars and linguists have debated the Biblical meaning of תחשים for centuries.

Literal translation

Tachash, extremely literally, is translated as:

תאה — tah —"circumscribed", "set apart/marked/distinct", "very/markedly/distinctively"—plus

חש — khoosh, hish — "swift/quick" / "dark/black/hide(away)"—literally: —ת - הש / ת - חש— :

תחש — tah-hash, takh-ash — "very swift" / "richly, distinctively black", "truly reserved", "deep dark retreating".

Tachash skins are "skins of astonishment (quick)" and "skins of reserved dark retreat (hiding)".

Etymology shows that in over 45 centuries a semantic change has occurred in the meaning of Hebrew tahas. Its pronunciation has changed, from Biblical to Israeli (Hebrew phonology). Its spelling has changed, from Phoenician to Masoretic תחש. The English form of the word has also changed, from tachash to tahash.

Animal

Traditionally, the word Tachash has been translated to be an animal, the species of which is a matter of some debate.

The New American Bible (USCCB) (1971) translates 'orot tachashim literally as "tahash skins" (Exodus 25:5):

"5 rams' skins dyed red, and tahash skins; acacia wood;"

Compare Biblical translations of תחשים ←(m'-s-h-t←) in Exodus 25:5 "tahash" (NAB) "badgers" (KJV)

Compare Biblical translations of תחש ←(s-h-t←) in Ezekiel 16:10 "fine leather" (NAB) "badger" (KJV)

Processes & color

Another hypothesis is that the Hebrew term וערות תחשים, lit. "skins of tachashim", refers to very fine dyed leather (of sheep or goats). Witnesses before the 1st century BCE understood skins of tahashim to be fine leather work dyed blue, indigo, purple, violet. Such documented interpretations and translations of Biblical Hebrew תחש, tahas, t-ch-sh, from classical antiquity together with increased knowledge of the ancient tongues have strongly influenced recent Bible translators.

In keeping with this scholarship several versions translate the term as "fine leather".

Navigating the Bible II (World ORT) (2006), translates 'orot tahasim as "blue-processed skins."

Recent scholarship (2000–2006) says that the term denotes neither a substance nor a color, but a technique of sewing blue faience beads onto leather, making "beaded skins" the meaning of 'oroth T'Hash'm.

—small blue-green beads.

Biblical Translations

• The Scrollscraper Tikkun (2006–2010) transliterates tahas (t'hasim) as tchash (ve'orot tchashim).
• The Judaica Press Complete Tanach (Chabad.org) (2006–2010) transliterates tahas (t'hasim) as tachash (tachashim).
• The Navigating the Bible II World ORT translation (2006–2008) translates tahas (t'hasim) as blue-processed (skins).
• The Living Torah by Aryeh Kaplan (bible.ort.org) (2006) translates tahas (t'hasim) as blue-processed (skins).
• The Anchor Bible: Exodus 19-40: Volume 2A (2006) translates tahas (t'hasim) as beaded (beaded skins).
• The English Standard Version (ESV) (2001-2009 revision of 1971 RSV) translates tachash as goat (goatskins).
• The American King James Version (AKJV) (1999 version of 1769 KJV) translates tachash as badger (badger's skins).
• The World English Bible (WEB) (1997-2000 version of 1901 ASV) translates tachash as sea cow (sea cow hides).
• The God's Word Translation (GW) (1995) translates tachash as fine leather.
• The New American Bible (NAB) (1991–2005) renders tachash as tahash.
• The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) (1989–2005) translates tachash as fine leather.
• The New King James Version (NKJV) (1989) translates tachash as badger (badger's skins).
• The Revised English Bible (REB) (1989) translates tachash as dugong (dugong-hides).
• The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) (1985) translates tachash as fine leather.
• The New Jewish Publication Society translation (JPS Tanakh) (1985) translates tachash as dolphin, or sea cow.
• The New International Version (NIV) (1978) translates tachash as sea cow (sea cow hides).
• The New American Standard Bible (NASB) (1971–1995) translates tachash as porpoise (porpoise skins).
• The New World Translation (NWT) (1961) translates tachash as seal (sealskins).
• The Revised Standard Version (RSV) (1952–2000) translates tachash as goat (goatskins).
• The Bible in Basic English (BBE) (1949–1965) translates tachash as leather.
• The Jewish Publication Society of America Version (JPS) (1917) translates tachash as badger (badgers' skins).
• The American Standard Version (ASV) (1901) translates tachash as seal (sealskins).
• Young's Literal Translation (1862–1898) translates tachash as badger (badgers' skins).
• The Authorized King James Version (AV, KJV) (1611–1769) translates tachash as badger (badgers' skins).
• The Douay-Rheims Bible (Douai, D-R, DV) (1610–1750) translates tachash as violet (violet skins).
• Abraham Maimon HaNagid (13th century) translates tachash as black leather (dark blue skins, skins rendered dark and waterproof).
• Rashi's commentary (12th century) translates tachash as taisse (badger) from Greek τρόχος (runner).
• The Arukh compiled by Nathan ben Jehiel (11th-12th century) translates tachash as blue-processed (blue-processed skins).
• Jonah ibn Janah (11th century) translates tachash as black leather (dark blue skins).
• Saadia Gaon (10th century) translates tachash as black leather (dark blue skins).
• The Latin Vulgate (L.V.) (405) translates tachash as ianthinas, violet (violet skins).
• The Mishnah (Mish.): Tanna Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (170-220) translates tachash as altinon (Greek, aledinon), purple (skins dyed purple).
• The Targum Jonathan (110-170) translates tachash as khn כהניא (glory), i.e. the color of heaven.
• The Targum Onkelos (Tar. Onq.) (110) translates tachash as ssgwn ססגונא (sas-gona, sas-gavna), i.e. joy (of all) colors, glowing (of) colors, radiant(-like worm-)colors, (most) blessed (of) colors, richest (of) colors, royal color (?)---(glory-colored skins?).
• The Antiquities of the Jews (93-4 CE) interprets the curtains of tachash skins as curtains made of skins the color of the sky.
• The Septuagint (LXX) (3rd to 1st century BCE) translates tachash as huakinthina, hyacinth (indigo-blue) (hyacinth skins).

Animals

In many traditions, Tahash refers to an animal. The various proposed animals include: badger, dugong, sea cow, seal, narwhal, porpoise, dolphin, addax, antelope, giraffe, okapi, the extinct Elasmotherium, and others.

Unclean (non-kosher) animals

The Hebrew words tahash and tahashim in the Bible (for example, Numbers 4) are translated by the King James Version (KJV) as "badger". The New American Standard Bible (NASB) translates the word as porpoise. Other translations include dugong, sea cow, seal, and dolphin. Although these animals are not kosher (not clean) it has been suggested that the Tabernacle may have been purposefully constructed using skin from a non-kosher (unclean) animal. These suggestions date from the time of the formation of the Talmud beginning around the 4th century CE and continue through the centuries to the present. —see Importance of textual and cultural and religious context.

Sea mammals

The scholarly opinion which prevailed for most of the 19th and 20th centuries (1820–1980), even if it was not the universal consensus, held that Hebrew t-h-sh / t-kh-sh / t-ch-sh, English tahash, "correctly" or "most probably" denoted dugong or sea cow or manatee or mediterranean monk seal or porpoise or dolphin. The older 19th century scientific names (taxonomy) for the Dugong took account of this view: E. Rupell designated them Halicore Tabernaculi in 1843. This opinion is now declining, as witness the more recent translations of the Hebrew Scriptures (Tanakh). (see 'Biblical Translations', and Encyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, 2007: "Tahash".')

The Arabic البدر / دلفبن dukhas or tukhas or tucash is linguistically near to Hebrew תחש takhash or tachash or tahash, and is applied by the Arabs to the dugong and the dolphin, which is also called delphin, and also to the porpoise. Prompted by the similarity to Arabic tukhash, conjectural opinion has favored identification of tahash with the sea cow, a species now extinct. Fossils indicate that Stellar's Sea Cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) was formerly abundant and widespread throughout the North Pacific, all along the North Pacific Coast, reaching west and south to Japan and east and south to California. There is no evidence that the now extinct sea cow ever ranged over the Red Sea area. The term sea cow more generally refers to dugongs and manatees, to any of the sirenian sea mammals including the larger seals that appear on the shores of East Africa and around the Sinai peninsula. The Arabic البدر tukhesh denotes the sea mammal Dugong hemprichi, (the same animal formerly designated Halicore Tabernaculi) which appears at intervals on the shores of the Sinai and is hunted by the Bedouin, who make tent curtains and shoes from its skin.

Another opinion suggests that tahash should be identified with the the narwhal. However the narwhal is generally only found in the arctic, and suggestions that it has previously been found in the Mediterranean are not supported by any available evidence.

Clean (kosher) animals

Among the kosher animals proposed as translations of tahash are the Addax, the antelope, the sheep, the goat, and the giraffe.

The giraffe has generally been excluded as the meaning of tahash, in part because of a question of whether or not it possessed all the marks of a kosher animal, and because its range was primarily Sub-Saharan Africa, from Chad in Central Africa to South Africa. The distance that would have to be traversed in migration away from its natural range and habitat can be seen in this image of the Sahara Desert, the Red Sea, and the desert of the Sinai peninsula. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that camelopardalis, the giraffe, was also present in the Levant at the time of Moses; and there is documented evidence that it has all the marks of a kosher animal.

Process

Several translations propose that "orot t'chash'm" refers to very fine dyed sheepskin or goat leather. This is in preference to assuming a cryptid such as the Elasmotherium. Translating "orot t'chash'm" as "blue-processed skins" is parallel with "rams' skins dyed red." The resultant color of the process according to the Greek and Latin translations was hyacinth. According to this interpretation, the text of Exodus 26:14 means "a covering of rams' skins dyed red, and above that a covering of hyacinth skins"—a covering of skins dyed red and an outer covering of skins dyed indigo or royal blue.

Royal Blue
#002366

Indigo
#4B0082

Wilhelm Gesenius (pub. Leipzig, 1905) cites J. H. Bondi (Aegyptiaca, i.ff) proposing the Egyptian root t-ch-s, making the expression " 'or tahash / 'or tachash" mean "soft-dressed skin" (fine leather work). The final stage of tanning called "crusting" includes dying with color. A vat full of indigo dye is a very dark color called "midnight blue" which is almost black. Tekhelet blue has been referred to as being "black as midnight", "blue as the midday sky", and as purple.

According to the Sages (Baba Metzia 61b) techelet blue is identical in color to kela ilan (indigofera tinctoria) indigo dye.

According to Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 3:6:4 (Ant. 3.132), the outer covering of skins over the tabernacle "seemed not at all to differ from the color of the sky".

Etymology

This article traces the changes in meaning of the word "tahash" by means of a timeline of history. Its purpose is to show what its meaning has been in the past and what its meaning is today, and not to determine its "true" meaning. The assertion that the "true" meaning of a word is to be sought in its etymology is a variant of the etymological fallacy. The several meanings that it has today are listed in the Summary at the end of this article.

Etymology is the study of the history of words and how their form and meaning have changed over time (see especially Semantic change.) For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in those languages, and texts about the languages, to gather knowledge about how words were used at earlier stages, and where and when and how they entered the languages in question. The methods of comparative linguistics are also applied to reconstruct information about languages that are too old for any direct information to be available. Making use of "dialectological" data, the form or meaning of the word might show variation between dialects which may yield clues of its earlier history (e.g. tachash and tukhash). (see dialectology, comparative method, historical linguistics, comparative linguistics and pseudoscientific language comparison; also false etymology.)

Akkadian

t-h-s appears cognate with Akkadian dusu / tuhsia "goat/sheep leather ."

t-h-s-m appears connected to an Assyrian word meaning "sheepskin" and an Egyptian word meaning "to stretch or treat leather."

Egyptian

Modern scholarship sees Hebrew tahash as derived best from the old Egyptian word tj-h-s, "to treat leather." Wilhelm Gesenius (1848–50) shows J. H. Bondi (Aegyptiaca, iff) proposing the Egyptian root t-ch-s, making the Hebrew term 'or tahash— — mean "soft-dressed skin".

Ancient witnesses attest the translation of 'orot tahashim as "blue-processed skins" (Rabbi Yehudah, Yerushalmi, Shabbath 2:3; Arukh s.v. Teynun; Koheleth Rabbah 1:9; Josephus 3:6:1 (3.102), 3:6:4 (3.132); Septuagint (LXX); Aquila huakinthinos). Avraham ben HaRambam (Rambam) renders orot tahashim as "black leather", as do Saadia Gaon and Jonah ibn Janah—leather specially worked so as to become dark and waterproof. Josephus says in the third book of his work Antiquities of the Jews, chapter 3:

There were also curtains made of skins above these, which afforded covering and protection to those that were woven, both in hot weather and when it rained; and great was the surprise of those who viewed these curtains at a distance, for they seemed not at all to differ from the color of the sky; but those that were made of hair and of skins, reached down in the same manner as did the veil at the gates, and kept off the heat of the sun, and what injury the rains might do, and after this manner was the tabernacle reared.

These ancient sources translate 'orot tahashim (derived from Egyptian tj-h-s) as blue-processed skins, dark and waterproof, which were used to make curtains of skins as covering and protection over the Mishkan. Modern Bible translators have also rendered 'orot tahashim as colored skins or leather.

The Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition Catholic Bible translates the outer skins of the tabernacle as "violet skins".

The World ORT Navigating the Bible II (2006–2008) and The Living Torah by Aryeh Kaplan (bible.ort.org) translate the outer skins of the Mishkan as "blue-processed skins".

see above —Bible Translations

Semitic

Some scholars, such as S. M. Perlmann, have suggested that the tahash is a kosher animal with fur, such as the okapi, a kind of African "antelope", taking תחש tachash from חש "hish" (fleet, swift):

חש –a primitive root; to hurry; figuratively to be eager with excitement or enjoyment; (make) haste (hasten), ready; also readiness; to be necessary, to need; necessity; to restrain, refrain, remove (oneself), to (willingly) be removed; by implication, to refuse, spare, preserve, to observe (from a distance, carefully); assuage, darken, forebear, hinder, hold back, keep (back); punish, reserve, spare, withhold; to be dark (as withholding light); to darken, be black, be (or make) dark, cause darkness, be dim, hide; the dark, darkness, misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness, night, obscurity; obscure, mean (hidden, unnoticed).

Hebrew 20th to 4th centuries BCE

The Hebrew alphabet is an abjad, or consonant-only script of 22 letters. The ancient Paleo-Hebrew alphabet is similar to those used for Canaanite and Phoenician. Because of the lack of vowel letters, unambiguous reading of the most ancient texts is difficult, often inconclusive, often speculative, resulting in variant readings and interpretations of meaning (and copious footnotes.) This is important for understanding the ancient written forms of ( 'orot tehasim) tehasim: — — — — — ת ח ש ם — MSHT / THSM — t-ch-sh-m — before the establishment of the Masoretic Text. The more ancient Hebrew spelling of primitive Semitic root-words does not include consonant letters as matres lectionis before c. 1000 BCE (see origins and development).

See in the following order or sequence: Sumer, Proto-Semitic, Semitic languages, History of writing, Proto-Sinaitic alphabet, History of the alphabet, Phoenician alphabet, Northwest Semitic languages, Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, Archaic Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Samaritan Hebrew language, Samaritan script, Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew language.

Sound of letters Heth and He: Tachash and Tahash

The eighth letter of the Phoenician alphabet, Heth, originally represented a voiceless fricative, either a voiceless pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ or a voiceless velar fricative /x/ (the two Proto-Semitic phonemes having merged in Canaanite.) The sound of Archaic Biblical Hebrew Heth was phonetically very much closer to He than it is today (even the Hebrew letter forms, ancient and modern, are similar in appearance: ה ח.)

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Eta (H) and Latin H. While H is a vowel in the Greek alphabet, the Latin equivalent H represents a consonant sound, closer to Archaic Biblical Hebrew letter He ה . The sound of Archaic Biblical Heth ח was also much closer to He ה than it is today. (For the ancient Biblical articulation of ח and ה see Hebrew phonology and voiceless pharyngeal fricative.) In Modern Israeli Hebrew, the historical phonemes of the letters Heth and Kaph have merged, both becoming voiceless uvular fricatives, making Heth more distant from He than anciently. The sound value of Kaph כ without the dagesh is the same as that of Heth ח. The Archaic Biblical sound values of Kaph, He, Heth are the same sound. There is a basic orthographic resemblance in the Archaic Biblical (Paleo-Hebrew) letters: - - .

The etymology (historical development) of the Hebrew letter Heth presents a huge phonetic consonantal shift between the ancient and modern forms of its articulation or sound. The term THSM, tachashim תחשם (today pronounced "takh-ashim" or "tak-hashim" – תחשים), in ancient times pre-dating 500 BCE was pronounced "tah-ashim" or "tah-hashim". Hence, the rendering today of the word TAHASH (THS, tahas), in current English language dictionaries and encyclopedias, is put forth as a closer approximation of the ancient (actual) pronunciation.

In Modern Israeli Hebrew, the letter Heth / Khet / Chet may still be pronounced as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative among Mizrahim (especially among the older generation and popular Mizrahi singers), in accordance with oriental Jewish traditions, and with the still more ancient Biblical Hebrew form. Ancient Hebrew is also the liturgical tongue of the Samaritans. The Samaritans have continued to use the Old Hebrew alphabet to this day. The Semitic primitive root T'H, most anciently pronounced ta-, ta-ah-, ta-ha-, is now today usually pronounced ta-akh-, tehk-, tekh-heh-.

Pronunciation of the ancient primitive Semitic root: T-H = "ta'-ah, tah'-heh".

Tehom, Tekhelet, Tahashim, Tukhesh

These four words share a Semitic primitive root indicating a linguistic relationship to the color of the sea and sky.

"T-H-M, T-HoM"— —(from "H-M, HuwM"— — make an uproar, agitate greatly: destroy, move, make noise)—tehom means abyss, a (deep) surging mass of water, the deep/deep place(s in the earth), depth, the depths, the main sea, subterreanean water-deep. From a Semitic primitive root T-H-, t-h-: "tah-, teh-, tah-hah-, teh-hoh-."

"T-H-l-t(h), T-kH-l-tH, T-Helet, T-kHeleth"——(phonetic rendering) — means blue, indigo, violet color (coloring or colors) like the deep color of the sea and the sky: also, any blue dye (see Semantic change.) This more broad and ancient general meaning is attested in later ancient sources: The Septuagint, Antiquities of the Jews 3.102, The Latin Vulgate, The Jerusalem Talmud Tractate Sabbath 2:3, The Mishnah Qohelet Rabba 1:9, and The Onkelos Targum ססגונא ssgvn. From a Semitic primitive root T-H-, t-ch-: "tah-, teh-, tach-, tehk-."

The Hebrew Torah from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra (c. 459 BCE) says that the outer covering of the Mishkan is to be 'oroth T-Hashim, 'orot T-cHashim – -R-T-T-H-S-M –

– M-S-H-T-T-R- – – – רתתחשם –

וערות תחשים

——from 'or (eye-opening) 'orot (bared skins) + tahash + -im:

——from ta (circumscribe, reserve, designate) + hash (full, dark, deep) + im (multiple, most, intensely—doubtless, verily, truly):

——skins of tahasim: skins of "exalted-reserved-deep (mark or coloring)". (see below, "Suffix -im as the superlative form".) From a Semitic primary root T-H-, t-ch-: "tah-, teh-, tach-, tekh-."

The Arabs of the Sinai apply the description t-kh-sh, t-h-s, (Arabic)——— tucash, tukhesh, tukhas to the dugong/manatee and other glaucous-colored sea mammals the Jews are commanded in the Torah to regard as unclean. From a Semitic primitive root T-H-, t-ch-: "tuh-, teh-, tukh-, tekh-."

T-Hom, T-Helet, T-Hash, T-Hesh all share the same Semitic root.

m-h-t — t-l-qh-t , — s-ch-t — s-kh-t

The primary root meanings of these four Semitic words (detailed above) indicate a relationship to a perceived color range of blue-gray-black the ancients associated with mystery and dignity: —"marked (great) deep" tehom, —"marked (from, of) the blue (depth)" tekheleth, tehelet —"marked (rich) dark/black" tahash, —"marked (of) dread/mystery (from the deep)" tukhesh: —all four words connoting "marked of heaven" (the removed, the distant, the set apart).

Suffix -im as the superlative form

The Hebrew suffix -im added to a singular term normally renders it as a plural form of the word, but it may also indicate the superlative degree, as being of great dignity. For example, the singular word eloahh means "god" or "God", the plural form elohim normally means "gods", but when used of the one LORD it indicates the one God above all gods (Genesis 1:1.) With "tahash" as the singular form, and "tahashim" (T-H-S-M // M-S-H-T ת ח ש ם) as the singular superlative form, and the modifier of " 'orot (skins)", the expression "tahashim" is read as a singular superlative term for color/finish raised to the superlative degree: (skins of) "exceeding/ exquisite/ glorious tahas": "T-Hashim": "Over the tent itself you shall make a covering of rams' skins dyed red, and above that a covering of (superlative) tahash skins--skins of (superlative) tahash (Tehelet dyed? beautifully beaded?) 'oroth T-Hashim."

Historical verification of the use of "-im" as the plural intensive singular (superlative) suffix of "tahash" is found in the fact that the Hebrew term tehasim was actually understood, up to and including the 5th century CE, as a color. (See below —Greek 3rd century to 1st century BCE, —Josephus 1st century CE, —Aramaic 2nd century CE, —Judah haNasi 3rd century, —Jerome 4th century.) —skins of hyacinth blue / indigo / violet.

Sacred word play: Paranomasia

Sacred word play is frequently found in the Bible, and is phonetically evident relating THSM תחשם and HSM השם by connotation: Tahashim and Hashem. Audio renderings of these words demonstrates their phonetic similarity. Hebrew spelling of these words without matres lectionis shows their orthographic similarity. Hebrew lexicons show the primitive roots which linguistically connect them. Word play in oral cultures, primitive and ancient and modern, is a method of reinforcing meaning. Compare the phonetic spelling (audio icon) of each of the following words most relevant here (also spelled with and without matres lectionis for graphic comparison):

• addax (specify English to Hebrew) דושון / דשן / דש
• 'adash אדש / דש (see Strong's number 156 and audio Strong's number 156)
• tachash תחש
• treads (tramples) דוש / דש
• grass דשא / דש
• antelope דישון / דשן Deuteronomy 14:5
• pygarg (KJV) דישון / דשן Deuteronomy 14:5

  

• tehom תהום / תהם
• tekhelet תכלת
• tahash תחש
• tahashim תחשים / תהשם
• cHashem חשם same as
• Hashem השם
• Shem שם
• heaven שמים / שמם
• tabernacle משכן
• dishon דישון / דשן

A protective covering of skins of tahashim was commanded as the outer covering of the Mishkan —all that was sacred to the worship of the LORD was covered with a protective covering of skins of tahashim.

"When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, as the camp sets out, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to carry these, but they must not touch the holy things, lest they die.... Let not the tribe of the families of the Kohathites be destroyed from among the Levites; but deal thus with them, that they may live and not die when they come near to the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint them each to his task and to his burden, but they shall not go in to look upon the holy things even for a moment, lest they die." (Numbers 4:15 and 18-20)

Orthographic paranomasia

There is also sacred word play in the ancient written form of the word THSM / MSHT תחשם. The Hebrew letter Taw ת as a prefix indicates "singular," "designated," "set apart," "reserved." In Judaism the letter Taw ת also means "Truth."

Scrolls among the Dead Sea scrolls have been identified as proto-Samaritan Pentateuch text-type. The Samaritan Pentateuch is written in the Samaritan alphabet, which differs from the Masoretic Hebrew alphabet, and was the form in general use before the Babylonian captivity. The Abisha Scroll itself, according to the colophon of the scroll, is the text of the Torah written in the thirteenth year of the entrance of the tribes to Canaan, which is to say that it dates back to the time of Abishua, the great-grandson of Aaron, who penned it thirteen years after the entry into the land of Israel under the leadership of Joshua the son of Nun. The spelling of many words in Ancient Hebrew differs significantly from the much later spelling of the Masoretic text. Ancient Hebrew is the liturgical tongue of Samaritan worship, and the Samaritans have continued to use the Old Hebrew alphabet to this day (Hebrew language). When THSM / MSHT תחשם is mentally seen by the reader of the carefully hand-lettered Samaritan Torah text of the ancient Sefer Torah as Taw ת joined to the word HSM / MSH — ת + חשם—when TacHaShiM is seen as TAH joined to the word "HA-SHEM" (ha + Shem, lit. "the Name" Leviticus 24:16—Hashem is also the name of one of the mighty men of the army 1 Chronicles 11:34)—the alert reader might spontaneously see "the singular Name" suggested: THSM / MSHT תהשם, "Ta-Hashem," "The True Name"—the reader might see the written form of the word "tah-hashim" spontaneously suggesting "ta-haShem."

The slight difference in the representation of the letters ח Heth and ה He is no great obstacle to this spontaneous perception of what may be the sacred author's intended form of sacred word play.—the spontaneous

perception of THSM / MSHT תחשם – –

suggesting T.HSM / MSH.T תהשם – –,

particularly as it appears in the text of the ancient Sefer Torah, which is written without the mater lectionis and the diacritical marks of vowel notation according to the much later Masoretic system of Niqqud. A careless reader or a reader of clever wit having no vowel signs before him can subtly vary the pronunciation of the letters and sounds of the words of the text, producing alternate readings that might be humorous and surprising, or even uplifting and edifying.

A comparison of the Paleo-Hebrew, Aramaic, and Hebrew Square Letter forms:

Adverting to the ancient method of sacred word play, a reader can see in the written text of the Sepher Torah in the commandment to make a protective covering of "tahashim" the additional meaning of the taking of the protective covering of "The True Name / The Singular Name" ("TaHashem" תהשם). This word play only reinforces the sacred meaning.

The Aegis of Heaven: T'Hashim and Hashem

שמים shamayim noonday sky
#6F00FF

"(He) stretches out the heavens like a curtain" (tent-curtain) Psalm 104:2.

'oRoth T'Hashim, skins of tahashim, are made into a visible symbol or sign of the aegis of Heaven, the covering shield of Hashem: "blue-processed skins". Among some ancient peoples, the aegis was traditionally a 'goat skin' shield and a symbol or sign of authority and awesome power (to trample the foe) and of sponsorship under the protection of heaven. Modern Biblical scholars have also translated "tahas skins" as "goat skins."

Regarding the color of the covering shield of the skins: the almost universal consensus of the ancients is that the color of heaven (and the seat of God) is a royal blue, indigo, like lapis lazuli. The most common suggestion since antiquity is that tahas, tahash, is a bluish, blackish, reddish color (the sources are rather vague) corresponding to Greek hyacinthos. The color of the power of heaven is the color of the dark storm cloud where the power is hidden (dark indigo), or the color of lightning (violet, gold), and the color of fire (red.)

The aegis of the Name of Heaven can be seen in the Bible:

"After Moses had gone up, a cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled upon Mount Sinai. The cloud covered it for six days, and on the seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the Lord was seen as a consuming fire on the mountaintop. But Moses passed into the midst of the cloud as he went up on the mountain; and there he stayed for forty days and forty nights." Exodus 24:15-18 NAB

"Over the tent itself you shall make a covering of rams' skins dyed red, and above that, a covering of tahash skins." Exodus 26:14 NAB

The rams' skins dyed red and the tahash skins over them are visible as an image of the fire and the cloud "on the mountain",(Exodus 25:9, 25:40; 26:30) so that tahas denotes the color of the cloud, and the "skins of tahashim" denotes skins of (dark) "cloud-color" covering over the place where God is hidden (Makom, HaMakom), "which has been shown you on the mountain". This is a connotative symbol to the people of the theophany on Mount Sinai, and of the protective covering with which God clothes himself, to spare a "beloved sinful people" the deadly peril of gazing on God "as he is."

"Moses erected the tabernacle; he laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars; and he spread the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent over it, as the LORD commanded Moses." Exodus 40:18-19 (RSV)

"He spread a cloud for a covering,

and fire to give light by night."

Psalm 105:39 (RSV)

"(He has) stretched out the heavens like a tent." Ps. 104:2 (RSV)

Greek 3rd century to 1st century BCE

According to the Talmud and the Letter of Aristeas seventy-two interpreters are chosen to translate the Torah (the Pentateuch) from Hebrew into Greek. This is the Septuagint (LXX). The Septuagint translators render 'orot T'cHashim as hyacinth skins. The Seventy understood tahash as the color hyacinth: the same as indigo, or sapphire, or navy, or a deep, clear sky blue (after sunset, evening). (see Tagelmust.)

This period also sees the beginnings of midrash and aggadah.

Josephus 1st century CE

The Jewish Historian Josephus in his work The Antiquities of the Jews, Book 3:6:1 (Ant.3.102-103) says:

Hereupon the Israelites rejoiced at what they had seen and heard of their conductor, and were not wanting in diligence according to their ability; for they brought silver, and gold, and brass (bronze, copper,) and of the best sorts of wood, and such as would not at all decay by putrefaction; camels' hair also, and sheepskins, some of them dyed of a blue color, and some of a scarlet; some brought the flower for the purple color, and others for white, with the wool dyed by the flowers aforementioned; and fine linen and precious stones, which those that use costly ornaments set in ouches of gold; they brought also a great quantity of spices; for of these materials did Moses build the tabernacle...

A few paragraphs further on Antiquities 3:6:4 (Ant.3.132-133) says:

There were also other curtains made of skins above these, which afforded covering and protection to those that were woven, both in hot weather and when it rained; and great was the surprise of those who viewed these curtains at a distance, for they seemed not at all to differ from the color of the sky; but those that were made of hair and of skins, reached down in the same manner as did the veil at the gates, and kept off the heat of the sun, and what injury the rains might do, and after this manner was the tabernacle reared.

The skins of tahashim that formed the outer covering of the Tabernacle are here interpreted as skins dyed of a blue color, "for they seemed not at all to differ from the color of the sky."

Aramaic 2nd century CE

Onkelos (c. 35-120 CE), a famous convert to Judaism, is credited with undertaking the translation of the Tanakh into Aramaic c. 110 CE. This is the authoritative Targum Onkelos, frequently referred to as the Targum. Hebrew קרן keren / qeren means "horn", it also means "shine, radiant." The Targum renders tahash as ססגונא– ssgwn, sasgawna, sas-gona, ssgvn, sas-gavna : understood by the tanaim as a reference to color. ("The joy of all colors, most exalted of colors, the glory of colors!")

"...that is why we translate it sasgawna, that it rejoices in many colors..." (Sabbath 28a)

Targum Jonathan understands tahash as כהניא– khn, the color of "glory" (the color of the sky, the sapphire-stone, the seat of glory):

: "...I put shoes of glory on your feet..." (Ezekiel 16:10) (richest blue, indigo, violet)

Compare Aramaic Targums on Numbers 4:6ff at CAL TARGUM TEXTS.

Aquila of Sinope, a 2nd century CE native of Pontus in Anatolia, and a disciple of Rabbi Akiba, produces an exceedingly literal translation of the Tanakh into Greek around 130. There is some (inconclusive) evidence that he retains the Greek ὑακἱνθινος (deep "blue") as the literal translation of the Hebrew תחשים.

• Midnight blue

Classic naturalists: "tahash" not an animal name

About the same time, according to tradition, or perhaps later, the Physiologus, written in Greek, in Alexandria, by an anonymous compiler and author is now finished. The author does not use the Hebrew word "tahash".

It is a compendium or epitome of animals, plants and stones known to the ancient world, some of them mythological and fantastic, but generally believed to be real, with interpretive meanings associated with them (analogy): it summarizes ancient knowledge and wisdom about animals in the writings of classical authors such as Aristotle's Historia Animalium and various works by Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, Solinus, Aelian and other naturalists.

This didactic text will soon become deeply influential with sages, scholars and teachers of youth. The Panther, sometimes described as a composite creature with a horned head, long neck and a horse's body, sometimes also having divided hooves (monocerus), is the only creature described by the Physiologus as multi-colored: "He is entirely variegated (in color) and is beautiful like Joseph's coat." (Genesis 37:3)

There is no entry in Physiologus using the term Tahash or Tachash. The unicorn most closely resembles the classic description of the Talmudic and Rabbinical tahash of the 6th-12th centuries.

Judah haNasi 3rd century

The Tanna Judah haNasi (170-220 CE) compiles the Mishnah c. 200 CE. He renders his opinion that tahash skins are skins dyed altinon (Greek, άλήδινον "aledinon"), seemingly purple. This could indicate skins tekhelet dyed. Such skins would be most "striking," "vivid," "radiant," "קרן". This parallels and supports the literal Greek version of Aquila which renders the Hebrew tahashim תחשים as the Greek hyacinth blue ὑακίνθος (indigo).

About 235 CE Origen of Alexandria incorporates the literal Greek version of Aquila of Sinope in his monumental work Hexapla.

Both Aquila of Sinope and Judah haNasi translate וערותתחשים as skins of color (purple, violet, indigo, blue). Huakinthos (hyacinth blue) is retained in the Hexapla as the literal Greek translation of tahas (tachash).

Jerome 4th century

The Vulgate is an early 5th century Latin version of the Bible. It was mainly the result of the work of Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in AD 382 to make a revision of the Old Latin translations (Vetus Latina). The Vulgate is usually credited to have been the first translation of the Old Testament into Latin directly from the Hebrew Tanakh, rather than the Greek Septuagint.

The Vulgate translation of tahash is ianthinas, violet. (see Exodus 25:5 Biblia Sacra Vulgata)

Bible versions and translations of תחש representative of this point in history:

• Scrollscraper Tikkun (tchashim)
• The Judaica Press Complete Tanach (tchashim)
• Navigating the Bible II (blue-processed skins)
• The Living Torah by Aryeh Kaplan (blue-processed skins)
• The Anchor Bible (beaded skins)
• The New American Bible (tahash skins)
• The Douay-Rheims Bible (violet skins)
• The Latin Vulgate (pelles ianthinas—violet skins)
• The Hexapla of Origen with Aquila (hyacinth skins)
• The Targum Jonathan (glory-colored skins)
• The Septuagint (hyacinth skins)
• The Samaritan Pentateuch

Physiologus 5th century

About the year 400 the Physiologus is first translated into Latin. There is no mention of the Hebrew word Tahash or Tachash in any of the initial Latin translations and editions of the Physiologus. The descriptions of the unicorn and the monoceros closely resemble the Talmudic and Rabbinical 6th-12th centuries descriptions of the legendary tahash.

The author introduces his stories from natural history with the phrase, "the physiologus says," meaning, "the naturalist says," that is, "the natural philosophers, the experts and authorities for natural history say." From this phrase comes the name that is given to the work, which the anonymous author himself/herself did not title: Physiologus (lit. "The Naturalist").

The influence of the Physiologus over ideas of the "meaning" of animals is profoundly pervasive and far-reaching among scholars and teachers of all peoples (see common knowledge, consensus theory of truth and appeal to authority.) So influential is the perceived authority of this book that it is later again translated into Latin, in several recensions, and into Ethiopic and Syriac, then into many European and Middle-Eastern languages. Manuscripts are often, but not always, given illustrations, often lavish. (Many illuminated manuscript copies such as the later 9th century Bern Physiologus survive.) It retains its influence over ideas of the moral and symbolic meaning of animals in Europe for over a thousand years.

There is no entry for Tahash in any edition or translation of the Physiologus. Editions include entries for the monoceros and the unicorn.

Talmud 6th century

Aggadah and allegory

During the period of the development of the Palestinian Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud (200-500 CE), various sages set forth their opinions; and one of the several important elements present in Talmudic discussion is Aggadah.

Aggadah is a compendium of rabbinic homilies in the Talmud and Midrash that incorporates folklore, parable, historical anecdotes, moral exhortations and practical advice in various spheres, from business to medicine. Some midrashic discussions are highly metaphorical, and many Jewish authors stress that they are not intended to be taken literally; they sometimes serve as a key to particularly esoteric discussions (see Allegorical interpretation and Medieval etymology). This was done to make this material less accessible to the casual reader and to prevent its abuse by detractors.

Many of the debates are hypothetically reconstructed by the Talmud's redactors, often imputing a view to an earlier authority as to how he may have answered a question: "This is what Rabbi אאאאא could have argued....". Nevertheless, some of these debates were actually conducted by the Amoraim.

Horned animal skins

A comparison of the discussions of the Sages on the possible meanings of tachash, in the Talmud and in Rabbinical writings, with those primary texts of the Torah,

Shemot-Exodus-35 verse 23,

Shemot-Exodus-25 verses 3-5,

Shemot-Exodus-12 verses 35-36,

demonstrates, on the simplest and most literal level, that valuable finished tahash skins were actually donated by the people from the spoils of Egypt already in their possession. Students and scholars are frequently warned that anyone who does not take account of the context of the debates and the intent of the Sages and the normal modes of expression of their time, will not fully understand the meaning of their words, and can gravely misrepresent them. "Every animal possesses unique attributes and characteristics from which we are to learn different lessons."

Because the word תחשם is associated in the text with the word for skins, "skins of tachashim" are understood by many to be animal skins; the exact kind of animal is unknown, its identity admittedly only conjecture. Both clean, kasher, and unclean, treif, animals are proposed and discussed. —see below, Importance of textual and cultural and religious context.

Based on indications put forth by R. Meir (c. 132 CE, the traditional time of the original completion of the Physiologus), many suggested identifications for the tahash are proposed, such as the fleet-footed antelope (taking תחש tahash from חש hish, "fleet"), or the giraffe, which has many of the signs given by R. Meir: multicolored skin, a horn-like protrusion on its forehead, and some of the signs of a clean animal.

"Said R. Elai in the name of R. Simeon b. Lakish, ...R. Judah said, The ox which Adam the first sacrificed had one horn.... But makrin implies two?—Said R. Nahman b Isaac: Mi-keren is written." Shabbath 28b

The student of languages is here immediately alerted to the fact that a description of an animal with an interesting or remarkable kind of horn can be translated—using extreme formal equivalence—into another language or dialect as a literally translated and faithful description of an animal with a "single horn", an animal with "one horn".

Over a period of two to five centuries the meaning of a word even in its own language can change so much that its current meaning is radically different from its original or ancient meaning (semantic change). In this context it is useful to compare translations of Exodus 34:29-35 for variant meanings and interpretations of keren, especially

DV "horned" and

NAB "radiant", and the

Hebrew/English-parallel MT and JPS 1917 (Mechon Mamre) version's "sent forth beams".

"Horned" tekhelet blue

The Hebrew קרן qeren literally means "horn", but it also means "radiant / vivid / penetrating". Skins of radiant color in the text—skins of marked appearance—could immediately connote skins of a horned (animal) for reader and audience. Skins bleached and dyed (שש "shesh") a rich, deep indigo blue would provide a radiantly beautiful, and vivid (horned), covering for the משכן Mishkan. R. Judah haNasi (see above) suggests that skins of THSM (Hebrew תחשם) are skins dyed altinon (Greek άγήδινον aledinon), seemingly purple, i.e. skins dyed a royal tekhelet.

Some restrict the identification of the color Tekhelet (blue) to a dye obtained only from that mollusk from which royal purple dye is made (see Tyrian purple; see especially Etymological fallacy.) This is the royal purple dye that among the pagan nations is reserved for emperors and rulers and senators and kings. In the Torah it is written:

"If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Exodus 19:5-6a (RSV)

Therefore the use of that particular royal purple dye which is so esteemed among the nations as a mark of royal dignity appears to some to be implied here. Others argue that Tekhelet is a more general term, meaning any blue or purple dye, and they allow the use of the indigo-purple dye obtained from the plant source indigofera tinctoria. (see Karaite Judaism.) The mollusk that is the source of tekhelet--usually designated hillazon/chilazon, although the identity of the actual mollusk that was the ancient source of tekhelet dye is disputed and uncertain even today—the mollusk that is the source of tekhelet does not have "fins and scales," and it is a carnivore : these are two factors that according to the prescriptions in the Torah identify it as unclean:

"Anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is an abomination to you. They shall remain an abomination to you; of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall have in abomination. Everything in the waters that has not fins and scales is an abomination to you." Leviticus 11:10-13 RSV.

However, the processed dye itself is not regarded as unclean, only the creature from which it is obtained: because these creatures are not taken as food one cannot say that their flesh is eaten, and because the dye is preferably removed while the creatures are still alive (Shabbat 75a) one cannot say that their carcasses are touched.

Hence, the Talmud identifies the royal purple dye obtained from the chilazon as clean, the only licit dye for ritual use, but designates the common dye obtained from the indigo plant as unacceptible, counterfeit, illicit, unclean. (In fact, according to Tosefta, any blue or purple dye obtained from any source other than the water mollusk chilazon is unacceptible, counterfeit, illicit unclean.)

#132343

The indigo-purple blue dye obtained from the indigofera tinctoria plant for the common people is identical in color to the indigo-purple blue dye obtained from the mollusk for the aristocracy, and it is far less expensive to produce. But only the blue-purple tekhelet dye obtained from the water mollusk chilazon / hillazon is directly and exclusively associated with rulers and with royalty.

A vat full of indigo dye is a very dark color called dark midnight blue, very nearly black. Most human beings with otherwise good eyesight cannot distinguish the various tones of indigo from blue or violet. Tekhelet is translated variously as blue or violet in the Bible. See Exodus 25:4. The ancients (Aristotle among them) acknowledged six colors, three of them we call "primary" (RYB), three of them "secondary" (OGV). The six colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, with their various shades and tones. Since according to the Sages (Baba Metzia 61b) the color of the indigo dye of the kela ilan indigofera tinctoria plant is identical in color to the indigo dye of the hillazon, the color indigo is the blue of Judaism, but the exact tone of the true tekhelet blue is lost to history.

The lost color tekhelet is referred to by various sources (Shabbat 26a) as being "black as midnight", "blue as the midday sky", and even purple. On tallitot (prayer shawls) the lost tekhelet is symbolized by black, blue or purple. The deepest, richest indigo appears black: according to ancient tradition, a sign of the greatest possible dignity and respect. Professional dyers since ancient times have always been able to produce a true color of all colors from a skillful blending of the six colors (subtractive color mixing), resulting in a rich black blue-black dye which closely resembles the deepest, richest, darkest, near-black indigo-blue: "the color of colors" ("a dye of six colors"). Within the depths of indigo are hid the colors of the world.

See history of natural indigo. See Dark Tyrian Purple (Dark Imperial Purple).

Etymologiae 7th century

Following the Physiologus, Saint Isidore of Seville compiles and edits his extensive encyclopaedic work Etymologiae ("Etymologies") (AD 635), which will form a bridge between the condensed epitome of classical learning at the close of Late Antiquity and the inheritance of the 7th century received by the early Middle Ages. Book XII: de animalibus ("on the animals") is devoted to Beasts and birds. The Hebrew term tahash is not included, but the one-horned, desert-dwelling, fiercely untameable rhinoceros is included.

The number of creatures catalogued in the Physiologus is expanded: more than 120 categories of creatures are mentioned and discussed. The descriptions of some of these are strongly evocative of the descriptions of the tahash in the Talmud. The Tiger is distinguished by varied markings. The Panther is ornamented with tiny round spots, as if covered and marked with little round eyes, varying black and white against a tawny background. The Pard has a mottled coat, and is extremely swift. The Rhinoceros, monoceron, that is, the unicorn, has a single four-foot horn in the middle of its forehead, so sharp and strong that it tosses in the air or impales whatever it attacks. It often fights with the elephant and throws it to the ground after wounding it in the belly. It has such strength that it can be captured by no hunter's ability; but if a virgin girl is set before it, as it approaches, she may open her lap and it will come to her hand and lay its head there with all ferocity put aside, and thus lulled and disarmed it may be captured. All animals known to the ancient world and to the peoples of North Africa, the Middle East and Europe at this time are included in this encyclopedic work. See The Medieval Bestiary: Animals in the Middle Ages.

There is no entry for "Tahash" in the Etymologiae. But the description of the rhinoceros, monoceron, unicorn is similar.

The Masoretes 7th to 10th centuries

Groups of mostly Karaite scribes and scholars called Masoretes compile a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides in the form of diacritical notes on the external form of the Scriptural text in an attempt to standardize or fix the pronunciation, paragraph and verse divisions and cantillation of the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible, for the entire Diaspora, the worldwide Jewish community. The Masoretes devised the vowel notation (diacritic) system "Niqqud" for Hebrew that is still widely used. The textual context of the words was considered, but primarily the traditional interpretation of the meanings of the Hebrew words was determinative and decisive for what they considered to be an acceptable understanding of the meaning of Sacred Scripture. Divergent readings of the text, variations in pronunciation of the letters and words of the text by individual readers of the Sefer Torah in the synagogue, and therefore alternative interpretations of the text not fully accepted by Rabbinical tradition, as represented by the Mishnah and the Gemara, were minimized or excluded. One notable example is that the ancient Septuagint Greek translation, parthenos (virgin), of the corresponding Hebrew word in the text of Isaiah 7:14 is rendered ambiguous or misleading or invalid by the Masoretic Text reading 'almah (young woman) instead of b'th(uw)lah (virgin maid). See Samaritan Torah for a discussion of divergent readings and texts.

Several factors led most Jews to abandon use of the (previously) authoritative Greek LXX. Perhaps most significant for the LXX, as distinct from other Greek versions, was that the LXX began to lose Jewish sanction after differences between it and contemporary 2nd to 5th century CE. Hebrew scriptures were discovered. Even Greek-speaking Jews—such as those remaining in Palestine—tended less to the LXX, preferring other Jewish versions in Greek, such as that of Aquila, which seemed to be more concordant with contemporary 2nd century CE Hebrew texts. Origen of Alexandria incorporated the Greek version of Aquila in the Hexapla. Aquila renders תחשים as huakinthos—hyacinth blue.

Detailed variations between different Hebrew texts in use clearly existed, as witnessed by differences between the present-day Masoretic text and versions mentioned in the Gemara, and often even Halachic midrashim based on spelling versions which do not exist in the current Masoretic text. These variations are limited to whether particular words should be written plene or defectively, whether a mater lectionis consonant to represent a particular vowel sound should or should not be included in a particular word at a particular point.

The finished Masoretic Text is represented by the finished standard Ben Asher text and the finished alternate Ben Naphtali text. Both texts are called Masoretic Text(s). It is because of their work that the words shaym, shem, shuwm, for example, with their distinct meanings, can be distinguished from each other: שם, שם, שם.

After the establishment of the Masoretic Text, the interpretation of tehasim —→תחשים→תחשם— as a color is not favored by Hebrew grammarians. Such a rendering is considered ungrammatical. Moreover, ת ח ש ם is a non-existent word. The meaning of T'Hash'm —תחשים— is not to be connoted or confused or connected in any way with the meaning of Hash'm —השם. (see above, "Sacred word play: Paranomasia" and "Orthographic paranomasia".)

The most ancient form of "skins of tahashim" — * .....M S H T T R .....-r-tt-h-s-m —

is now — ו ע ר ו ת ת ח ש י ם.....M y Sh cH T T w R w (t) ..... 'orottachashim — in the synagogue's Sepher Torah.

See Exodus 25:5ff Shemot Hebrew-no vowels; Masoretic spelling (Mechon Mamre).

See Exodus 25:5ff Shemot Hebrew with vowels (Mechon Mamre).

See Exodus 25:5ff Terumah Hebrew with English ( ORT Navigating the Bible II (bible.ort.org) )

See Exodus 25:5 Terumah Hebrew with and without vowels (Scrollscraper Tikkun)

Bible versions and translations of תחש representative of this point in history:

• The English Standard Version (goatskins)
• The God's Word translation (fine leather)
• The New Revised Standard Version (fine leather)
• The New Jerusalem Bible (fine leather)
• The Revised Standard Version (goatskins)
• The Bible in Basic English (leather)
• The Targum Onkelos (rejoices in its colors)

Saadia Gaon 10th century

Saadia Gaon (born c. 892, d. 942) is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Arabic. He suggests that tahash skins, meaning "black leather (dark blue skins)", are skins taken from the zemer (listed among the kosher animals in Deuteronomy 14:5) which he definitively translates into Arabic as zirafa, "giraffe", the ancient camelopard.

According to Saadia Gaon, tahash skins are black-finished hides taken from the zemer, which he translates as giraffe.

Ibn Janah 11th century

Jonah ibn Janah, Abu al-Walid Merwan ibn Janah, c. 990-c.1050, was a Hebrew grammarian and lexicographer of the Middle Ages, who found his true calling in the investigation of the Hebrew language and in rabbinical literature and scriptural exegesis. Considered the greatest Hebrew philologist of the Middle Ages, Ibn Janah's chief work is the "Kitabal-Tankih" (Book of Minute Research) devoted to the study of the Bible and its language, and was the first complete exposition of Hebrew vocabulary and grammar.

As did Saadia Gaon before him, Ibn Janah also translates tahash skins as "black leather (dark blue skins)"

Arukh 11th-12th centuries

Nathan ben Jehiel, 1035-1106, most noted for his compilation the Arukh, featuring extensive etymologies, interprets tahash skins as "blue-processed skins": Aruk s.v. Teynun.

Rashi's Commentary 12th century

Rashi (Feb. 22, 1040 - July 13, 1105) is a medieval French rabbi highly esteemed for his scholarship and the clarity of his teaching. His most famous contributions are his voluminous Commentaries on the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and the Talmud. He translates difficult Hebrew or Aramaic words into the spoken French language of his day, giving today's modern scholars a window into the vocabulary and pronunciation of Old French.

In his commentary on Exodus 25:5 "skins of tachashim" (see also Talmud: Shabbat 28a,b), Rashi says that tachash denotes a species of animal that existed only for a (short) time, strikingly beautiful, with many hues; and that is why Onkelos (Targum) renders it (in Aramaic) ssgwn, "sasgawna", because it rejoices ("ss") and boasts of its hues ("gwn").

Tachash was a kind of wild beast. It existed only at that time. It was multi-colored and therefore it is translated in the Targum as sasgona: delights and prides itself in its colors. Rashi. (Terumah) Shemot-Exodus-25.

In accordance with the tradition of the sages, "tachash" denotes a kosher, multi-colored, one-horned desert animal (a kind of multi-colored unicorn) which came into existence to be used to build the Mishkan and ceased to exist afterward (or was hidden).

Rabbi Yehudah said: It was a huge kosher animal in the desert, and it had one horn in its forehead, and its hide had six colors from which they made the curtains of the Mishkan.

Rabbi Nehemiah said: It was a miraculous beast that was hidden away after it was used in the Tabernacle. Why was it necessary to create such a beast? It is written that the skins of the Tachash that were used for the curtains were also 30 cubits long. What animal hides are 30 cubits long? Rather it was a momentary miracle that was hidden away soon after it happened.

Each tachash skin could be made into a single finished curtain 30 cubits in length and 4 cubits in width. (With a standard ancient cubit estimated at 17.5 inches, that makes a single finished curtain measure 58 feet, 4 inches long, by 5 feet, 9 and 15/16 inches wide.)

Rashi's commentary on Yechezkel/Ezekiel 16:10 states first the reading that tachash is of the "taisse" family (from Greek τρόχος, "runner") (OFr lit. "darkly reserved, hidden retreater" family), saying (English translation): "and I shod you with badger": and then gives an alternative reading of the same text, saying: " And I put shoes of glory on your feet." For further discussion of this reading of תחשים as a color ("glory") כהניא see the article "Blue in Judaism".

It is unlikely, given what is known today about the Old French language, that Rashi intended the meaning that we understand today as "badger". The tiny badger cannot be the huge kosher animal in the desert with one horn and a hide of six colors. According to the Talmud: Shabbath 28b:

"The tahash of Moses' day was a separate species, and the Sages could not decide whether it belonged to the genus of wild beasts or to the genus of domestic animals; and it had one horn in its forehead, and it came to Moses' hand just for the occasion, and he made the Tabernacle, and then it was hidden" (somewhere else, secretly, swiftly, in its lair, den, its retreat).

The simple fact that Rashi states the tradition that the tahash (Exodus 25:5) existed for only a short time, and only at the time of Moses, shows that he cannot be referring to the badger or to badgers' skins, but to an animal that is "dark, hidden, swift —in the wild": —taisse, from τρόχος "runner".

Avraham ben HaRambam 13th century

Avraham son of Rambam, Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, 1186-1237, the son of Maimonides (Rambam), appointed court physician in Egypt at the age of eighteen, became Ha-Nagid (the leader) of the Jewish community in Egypt after the death of his father in 1204, when he was 69: he was already recognized as the greatest scholar in his community. Like his father, his works include a commentary on the Torah—only his commentaries on Genesis and Exodus are still extant—as well as commentaries on parts of his father Maimonides' Mishneh Torah and commentaries on various tractates of the Talmud. He wrote a work on Halakha (Jewish Law), combining philosophy and ethics (written also in Arabic), as well as several medical works; his "Discourse on the Sayings of the Rabbis" which discusses aggadah is frequently quoted.

Abraham Maimon Ha-Nagid (Avraham ben HaRambam) like Saadia and Ibn Janah before him, interprets tahash skins as "black leather (dark blue skins)", leather worked in such a manner as to come out dark and waterproof.

Medieval Bestiaries: 12th to 16th centuries

Bestiaries are popular compendiums of beasts in illustrated volumes that describe various real and mythological animals and birds, and even rocks, each entry in them usually accompanied by a moral lesson (see Medieval etymology.) They are particularly popular in England and France around the 12th century and are mainly compilations of earlier texts. The word tahash is not included. The monoceros and the unicorn are included.

The earliest bestiary in the form in which it was later popularized during this period was an anonymous 2nd century CE Greek volume called the Physiologus, which was itself a summary of ancient knowledge and wisdom about animals in the writings of classical authors such as Aristotle's Historia Animalium and various works by Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, Solinus, Aelian and other naturalists. Following the Physiologus Saint Isidore of Seville (Book XII of the Etymologiae, AD 635) and Saint Ambrose expanded the religious message with reference to passages from the Bible and the Septuagint. They and other authors freely expanded or modified the pre-existing models they drew upon, constantly refining the moral content without interest in or access to much more detail regarding the factual content (parable). Nevertheless, the often fanciful accounts of these beasts and birds are widely read and generally believed to be true. Outstanding examples are the Aberdeen Bestiary and the Ashmole Bestiary. There is no entry for "Tahash" in any of the Bestiaries of the Middle Ages, but there are entries for the unicorn and the monoceros. (The Medieval Bestiary: Animals in the Middle Ages)

The opinions of the Talmud and of Rashi's Commentary are taken as authoritative support for the generally held Medieval belief among the Jews that "tahash" (because of semantic change) now denotes a wondrous animal, a large, kosher, multi-colored unicorn of the desert, which was brought into existence solely to supply the skin for the outer covering of the Tabernacle, and which ceased to exist afterward when the Tabernacle was completed. Some justification for this view is also found in the Bible:

"For thy almighty hand which made the world of matter without form, was not unable to send upon them a multitude of bears, or fierce lions, or unknown beasts of a new kind, full of rage: either breathing out a fiery vapour, or sending forth a stinking smoke, or shooting horrible sparks out of their eyes: whereof not only the hurt might be able to destroy them, but also the very sight might kill them through fear." (Wisdom 11:18-19a Douay)

Douay-Rheims Bible 16th and 17th centuries

In the second half of the 16th century (years 1550-1600 CE) Catholic scholars (The English College) exiled from England begin work on a new English translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate of Jerome which had been translated from the Hebrew Tanakh/Bible. Comparing the Hebrew Tanakh tahas and the Greek Septuagint huakinthina with various Jewish and Christian commentaries and the standard Latin Vulgate ianthinas together with what is known to them at the time of the ancient languages, they render tahas as the color violet in all the passages of the Biblical text where it appears; for example:

"Thou shalt make also another cover to the roof, of rams' skins dyed red; and over that again another cover of violet coloured skins." Exodus 26:14 (DV)

"And I clothed thee with embroidery, and shod thee with violet coloured shoes: and I girded thee about with fine linen, and clothed thee with fine garments." Ezechiel 16:10 (DV)

"How beautiful are thy steps in shoes, O prince's daughter!"

Canticle of Canticles 7:1b (DV) (Song of Songs / Song of Solomon)

The New Testament was published by The English College at Rheims, France, AD 1582, the Old Testament by The English College at Douay, France, beginning AD 1609 (the first volume: Genesis to Job) and completed AD 1610 (the second volume: Book of Psalms to 2 Machabees, plus the apocrypha of the Clementine Vulgate: Prayer of Manasses, 3 Esdras and 4 Esdras, and Prayer of Solomon).

Authorized King James Version 17th century

See ignorance, pseudoscientific language comparison, Medieval etymology, false etymology and History of the scientific method.

In 1604 the English translation known today as the Authorized Version (AV) or the King James Version (KJV) is first commissioned. The translators see a similarity between the Latin taxus (Meles taxus, a badger,) the German dachs (badger,) and the Hebrew tahas—also, Rashi on Ezekiel 16:10 gives the reading that the shoes or sandals are taisse—and accordingly they translate the Masoretic Text of the word תחשים as "badger": "badgers' skins".

According to Jewish Hebrew scholars this translation of TaHaShM has no basis in fact. And the Vetus Latina and Vulgate Latin translations of the Hebrew text never render tahas as taxus (or as any form of Meles taxus, either singular or plural.) Meles taxus is the 17th century Latin taxonomic designation for "badger", but the Latin word for "badger" does not appear in any of the Latin versions of the Bible anywhere in the text as the Latin translation of Hebrew tahas.

The Authorized Version is completed in 1611 by the Church of England, and then later revised, twice, in two authorized editions issued by Cambridge University, the first in 1629 and the second in 1638. The word "badger" is retained as the KJV translation of tahash.

Bible versions and translations of תחש representative of this period in history:

• The New King James Version (badger's skins)
• The American King James Version (badger's skins)
• The Jewish Publication Society of America Version (JPS) 1917 (badger's skins)
• Young's Literal Translation (badgers' skins)
• The Authorized King James Version (badgers' skins)

18th century

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible 1708-1710, first published in 1706, offers a critique of the King James Version's translation "badgers' skins" in the commentary on Exodus 26:7-14:

"...badgers' skins, so we translate it, but it should rather seem to have been some strong sort of leather (but very fine), for we read of the best sort of shoes being made of it, Eze. 16:10."

The Latin taxus (a badger) is soon given official scientific sanction. The first edition of the Systema Naturae (Carolus Linnaeus) is published in 1735. Its fundamental philosophy, its form and structure, reflects the influence of the Etymologiae. This is the beginning of the modern system of taxonomy using Latin as the standardized form of scientific nomenclature. Using an academic vocabulary already current at this time, the European badger is officially classified as Meles taxus.

The Douay-Rheims Bible of 1610 is now extensively revised by Bishop Richard Challoner: the New Testament, in three editions 1749, 1750, and 1752 (this last edition of the New Testament having important changes from the 1749 edition in both text and notes, the variations numbering over two thousand); and an edition of the Old Testament (minus the Vulgate apocrypha), in 1750. The 1750 edition of the complete Douay-Rheims Bible is in fact a new version, taking as its base the KJV rigorously checked and extensively adjusted for improved readability and consistency with the Clementine edition of the Vulgate: —"violet coloured skins" is retained as the translation of Latin "pelles ianthinas" (hyacinth skins) from Hebrew 'orot tahasim. Most 20th century printings and on-line versions of the D.V. follow Challoner's 1750 text. The Challoner revision is still often the Bible of choice of English-speaking Traditionalist Catholics.

The tenth edition of Systema Naturae, 1758, is today regarded as the beginning of modern zoological nomenclature. The thirteenth and final definitive edition of the Systema Naturae is published in 1767. The classification of the European badger by the Latin Meles taxus, similar in sound to German dachs (a badger), and similar in sound to תחש t-h-s, is taken as scientific support validating the King James Bible translation of וערות תחשים as "badgers' skins".

The Authorized King James Version is twice again corrected and updated with revisions at Cambridge, first in 1762, and finally in 1769 (some 24,000 places in the text) in the now standardized form of the text of the King James Version most familiar to modern readers today: —"badgers' skins" is retained as the translation of 'orot tahasim. (see King James Only movement, and Protestant divisions, and Argument from authority.)

The Arabic tukhesh (dugong) is first classified by Muller in 1776 as Trichechus dugon, a member of the manatee genus previously defined by Linnaeus.

The tachash, as described in the 12th-15th centuries, an enormous, multi-colored, one-horned, animal of the desert, not found since the completion of the tabernacle by Moses, is now regarded as a legendary creature of Jewish folklore, along with Metatron, the merkabah, the chayot, the ophan, the hashmal, the seraph, the malakh, the cherub, the Agrat Bat Mahlat, the ashmedai, the Watcher, the lilith, the dybbuk, the Magura-Schendel, the rachab, the basilisk, the dragon, the behemoth, the leviathan, the Bar Juchne called Ziz, the unicorn (re'em), the keresh and the tigris of Dvei Ilai, the Nephilim, the golem, and Og. This traditional understanding of the identity of the tachash becomes an enduring part of Jewish cultural identity.

Trichechus dugon (dugong) is classified Trechechus dugung by Erxleben 1777.

While the Arabs at this time apply the descriptive tukhas – البدر / دلفبن – to dugongs and sea cows, to dolphins and porpoises, from which they harvest skins for leather for their tents and curtains and sandals, the Jews apply the word tukhas – תחש – to derrieres, i.e. buttocks. (see Language change—see Yiddish language—see linguistic term "false friend.") To "leather" or "tan" someone's tukhas is to administer a prudent corrective physical punishment for disobedient naughtiness.

Trechechus dugung (dugong) is classified Dugong indicus by Lecepede 1799.

19th century

Dugong indicus (dugong) is classified Dugong dugong by Illiger 1811.

The comparative method of the academic field of philology within the discipline of historical linguistics, developed over many years, now culminates in the 19th century.

Dugong dugong (dugong) is classified Halicore lottum and Halicore hemprichii by Ehrenberg 1832.

Scientists, linquists and Bible translators have the following facts at this time:

• The Masoretic Text of Ezekiel 16:10 lists "...sandals of tahash..." ( תחש )
• The Bedouin make leather sandals from the skins of very large sea-mammals they call tucash ( ذروف البدر / دلفبن ).
• Linguists using the comparative method of historical linguistics see tucash and tahash as cognates.
• The Masoretic Text of Exodus 26:14 states that the outer covering of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, is to be made of "skins of tachashim."
• The Sages of the Talmud say that tachash denotes a very large animal.
• Sirenia (dugongs and manatees) have recently (about 1840) been biologically classed as belonging to the order Ungulata (which includes cattle/bison, goats, sheep, giraffe, elk, deer, antelope and gazelle.)

Accordingly, E. Rupell (Rupell and Leuckart, 1828, 1831) classifies the large sea-mammals the Bedouin call tucash (dugong) as "Halicore tabernaculi" (1843).

Easton's Bible Dictionary (1823–1894) "Badger" says,

"Our translators seem to have been misled by the similarity in sound of the Hebrew tahas and the Latin taxus, 'a badger'. The revisers have correctly substituted 'seal skins.' The Arabs of the Sinaitic peninsula apply the name tucash to the seals and dugongs which are common in the Red Sea, and the skins of which are largely used as leather and for sandals."

Dugongs are larger than seals. The adult female dugong is larger than the male: they have been known to attain a length of 4 meters and a weight of over 1,000 kilograms (over 13 feet in length and a weight of over 2,200 lbs.)

The Arabic البدر / دلفبن t'kh's, t'h's is transliterated alternately and interchangeably "tucash," "tukhesh," "tukhas." Many scholars, from the mid-19th century through the mid-20th century, continue to see a linguistic closeness between the words tachash and tukhas in both sound and meaning, and accordingly render their expert opinion that the outer covering of the Tabernacle of the LORD was made of well-tanned tukhas hides.

Halicore tabernaculi (dugong) is classified Halicore australis by Owen in 1847.

Wilhelm Gesenius (pub. Boston, 1850) under the word "tachash" states that the Arabs of Sinai wear sandals of dugong skin. This is taken to explain the meaning of the phrase in the Book of Ezekiel (16:10), "I gave you sandals of tahash skin." Later (pub. Leipzig, 1905) he cites J. H. Bondi (Aegyptiaca, i.ff) who adduces the Egyptian root t-ch-s and makes the expression 'or tahash mean "soft-dressed skin."

Halicore australis (dugong) is classified Halicore cetacea by Heuglin in 1877.

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (1890) under "BADGERS' " gives fourteen biblical references of the word, associated with only one lexical number reference (popularly called Strong's number) directing the reader to the Hebrew Lexicon in that work, entry 8476, which gives the Hebrew characters (Tav-CHeyth-SHiyn), the older English word tachash, its phonetic pronunciation takh'-ash, and tells the reader that the word is probably of foreign derivation, and that it denotes "a (clean) animal with fur, probably a species of antelope:—badger." (The badger is not a species of antelope.) According to the Torah the badger is unclean:

"And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you: whoso toucheth their carcase shall be unclean until the even." Leviticus 11:27 (KJV)

Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans publishes his 1892 study The Great Sea Serpent. This marks the very beginning of a scholarly discipline that will later be called "cryptozoology", the study of hidden animals.

Halicore cetacea (dugong) is recombined and classified Halicore dugung by Trouessart in 1898.

20th century

1906 sees the publication of the influential (Protestant) Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, based on the Hebrew-German lexicon of William Gesenius as translated by Edward Robinson: A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an appendix containing the Biblical Aramaic, written by Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver and Charles Augustus Briggs, based on the lexicon of William Gesenius as translated by Edward Robinson. At the bottom of the linked page site locate Index number and click it to see the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon page 1065 for entry תחש tahas

"a kind of leather or skin, and perhaps the animal yielding it (probably the dugong, cf. the Arabic t_kh_sh for dolphin; Assyrian tahjsu), for which Dl conj. the meaning sheep(skin); Bondi cp. Egyptian ths, leather...—leather used for (woman's) sandals Ez. 16:10; elsewhere for cover of tabernacle...."

S. M. Perlmann(Zoologist, set 4, XII, 256, 1908) suggests that the okapi, "a species of antelope," is the animal indicated by tachash. But the okapi is most closely related to the giraffe. (The okapi and the giraffe belong to the family giraffidae, the antelope belongs to the family bovidae: the okapi is not a species of antelope.)

The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907–1914, (in use to this day) under "Tabernacle" states simply and directly:

"...Two outer coverings (no dimensions are given), one of dyed rams' skin and one of dugongs' skin, protected the whole structure."

The only English Catholic Bible in common use (1915) is the Douay-Rheims Version (DV), which says in Exodus 26:14:

"Thou shalt make also another cover to the roof, of rams' skins dyed red; and over that again another cover of violet coloured skins."

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE), 1915, (in use to this day) under the entry "BADGER" states:

"baj'er: tachash: ...Septuagint dermata huakinthina. The Septuagint rendering would mean purple or blue skins, which however is not favored by Talmudic writers or by modern grammarians, who incline to believe that tachash is the name of an animal. The rendering 'badger,' is favored by the Talmudic writers and by the possible etymological connection of the word with the Latin taxus and the German dachs."

The ISBE does not specify the reasons why "Talmudic writers" and "modern grammarians" (1915, not identified) do not favor the Septuagint rendering "purple or blue skins," it does not specify the reasons why Talmudic writers and modern grammarians incline to believe that tachash is the name of an animal, and it does not specify the reasons why Talmudic writers (not identified) favor the rendering "badger" over any other rendering, since the badger is unclean according to Leviticus 11:27-28.

The Soncino Babylonian Talmud, 1938, 1948, 1952, 1962, Shabbath 28b says:

"R. Meir used to maintain, The tahash of Moses' day was a separate species, and the Sages could not decide whether it belonged to the genus of wild beasts or to the genus of domestic animals; and it bad one horn in its forehead, and it came to Moses' hand just for the occasion, and he made the Tabernacle, and then it was hidden. Now, since he says that it had one horn in its forehead, it follows that it was clean."

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible, an English translation published in the mid-20th century, poses the first serious challenge to the popularity of the King James Version, aiming to be a readable and literally accurate modern English translation. The translation panel appointed by the International Council of Religious Education (ICRE) uses the traditional Hebrew Masoretic Text for the Old Testament used by the King James translators, rendering 'oroth T'Hashim as goatskins.

Halicore Dugung (dugong) is recombined and classified Dugong dugon by Scheffer and Rice in 1963.

Researchers in the discipline of Cryptozoology include in their investigations the (probably) extinct Elasmotherium. The descriptions and illustrations of this cryptid resemble the descriptions of the legendary tahash.

Bible versions and translations of תחש representative of this period in history.

• The World English Bible (sea cow hides)
• The Revised English Bible (dugong-hides)
• The New Jewish Publication Society translation: JPS Tanakh (dolphin, or sea cow)
• The New International Version (sea cow hides)
• The New American Standard Version (porpoise skin)
• The New World Translation (sealskins)
• The American Standard Version (sealskins)

Mid-20th century to beginning 21st century — tachash to tahash

The Anchor Bible Series, a scholarly and commercial co-venture begun in 1956, initiates "a new era of cooperation among scholars in biblical research," which continues over several decades, producing a body of work consisting of a Commentary Series, Bible Dictionary, and Reference Library. According to their research the precise meaning of tehasim is uncertain: during the 20th century Hebrew תחש tahas is often treated as the same as the Arabic term دلفبن tuhas (cf. duhas) for "dolphin," "but this interpretation is not certain." Tehasim has been connected to an Assyrian word meaning "sheepskin" and an Egyptian word meaning "to stretch or treat leather": tahas seems to be cognate with Akkadian dusu - tuhsia - "goat/sheep leather " out of which the tabernacle cover (Exodus 26:14; Numbers 4:6) and luxury boots and sandals were made (Ezekiel 16:10.) (This cognate with Akkadian dusu/duhsu, Hurrian tusiwe, Sumerian DUH.SI.A, may indicate that the Hebrew singular should be vocalized tohas, not tahas.) According to this scholarship, "tanned and (blue-)dyed skins" seems to be a more probable meaning for 'orot tehasim than "dugong hides." The editors and translators of the Jewish World ORT translation, Navigating the Bible II, render 'orot tahasim as "blue-processed skins":

Exodus 25:5: "...reddened rams' skins, blue-processed skins, acacia wood,..."

Stephanie Dalley (2000, Journal of Semitic Studies 45:1-19, Faience and Beadwork, Hebrew tahas, Akkadian duhsu) marshalls philological and archaeological evidence as proof that dusu/duhsu/tahas is neither a substance (leather, dye) nor a color, but a technique of sewing blue faience beads onto leather to attain various chromatic effects. William H. C. Propp (2006) cites this research, translating tahas/tahasim as "beaded" ("beaded skins"), in his translation of Exodus in The Anchor Bible: Exodus 19-40.

The form of the English word for Hebrew tahas is also changed. The Anchor Bible Dictionary's entry and treatment is for TAHASH, not "tachash" (it has no entry for TACHASH.)

The editors of the Encyclopaedia Judaica article TAHASH state that "because the Arabic tukhesh means the sea-mammal Dugong hemprichii, some endeavor to identify it with the tahash." In conclusion, they say, "...the identity of the tahash remains obscure. The AV and JPS translation of 'badger' has no basis in fact."

Importance of textual and cultural and religious context

Given the prohibitions in the Torah (Pentateuch) forbidding the Israelites to touch anything they are to regard as unclean, abhorrent, abominations (Leviticus 11 and 20), a great number of commentaries and scholarly articles over the centuries, beginning with the Talmud, have been written discussing the question of why scholars and translators and interpreters familiar with the Biblical text, and familiar with the importance of textual and cultural and religious context, should propose the skin of an unclean, non-kosher "abhorrent" (KJV) animal "abomination" (RSV) as the outer covering of the Tabernacle, rather than the skin of a clean, kosher animal, such as the sheep, goat or antelope instead.

" the main text: 'R. Eleazar propounded: can the skin of an unclean animal be defiled with the defilement of tents?' What is his problem?—Said R. Adda b. Ahabah: His question relates to the tahash which was in the days of Moses,—was it unclean or clean? R. Joseph observed, What question is this to him? We learnt it! For the sacred work none but the skin of a clean animal was declared fit.

"R. Abba objected: R. Judah said: There are two coverings, one of dyed rams' skins, and one of tahash skins. R. Nehemiah said: There was one covering and it was like a squirrel. But the squirrel is unclean!—This is its meaning: like a squirrel, which has many colors, yet not the squirrel, for that is unclean, whilst here a clean . Said R. Joseph: That being so, that is why we translate it sasgawna that it rejoices in many colors. ...

"What is our conclusion with respect to the tahash which existed in Moses' days?—Said R. Elai in the name of R. Simeon b. Lakish, R. Meir used to maintain, The tahash of Moses' day was a separate species, and the Sages could not decide whether it belonged to the genus of wild beasts or to the genus of domestic animals; and it bad one horn in its forehead, and it came to Moses' hand just for the occasion, and he made the Tabernacle, and then it was hidden. Now, since he says that it had one horn in its forehead, it follows that it was clean. For R. Judah said, The ox which Adam the first sacrificed had one horn in its forehead, for it is said, and it shall please the Lord better than an ox, or a bullock that hath a horn and hoofs. But makrin implies two?—Said R. Nahman b. Isaac: Mi-keren is written. Then let us solve thence that it was a genus of domestic animal?—Since there is the keresh, which is a species of beast, and it has only one horn, one can say that it is a kind of wild beast."

Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Shabbath, Chapter II, Folio 28a and b

Summary: the current meanings of "tahash"

Legendary animal of Jewish tradition

Students of the Talmud, and of Jewish culture in general, today are fully persuaded by tradition that tekheleth is a blue dye produced by snails and not the color blue, and that Aramaic sasgawon, the Masoretic tahas, is a legendary multi-colored one-horned animal of the desert specially created by Heaven for the adornment of the Mishkan and not a specially prepared and finished leather. This is the modern traditional meaning of tahash. —image of Thomson's Gazelle evocative of "multi-colored" horned tachash.

—See "The Thirteen Middos - Shiur 1", by Rabbi Meir Triebitz.

Badger according to the King James Version

Christians holding the Authorized King James Version of the Bible in highest esteem as the infallible Word of God, today are fully persuaded by tradition that the outer covering of the Tabernacle of the Lord was made of badgers' skins, according to Exodus 25–26, Exodus 35–36, Exodus 39, Numbers 4, and Ezekiel 16:10. This is the modern literal King James meaning of tahash. —image of European badger Meles meles (formerly Meles taxus 16th-17th c.).

Allegorical sign of the community of God: Qahal

According to the spiritual allegorical meaning read into the sacred scriptures by those who are fully persuaded that there is a deeper, richer meaning in the word than appears on the surface, the tahash is the sign of the קהל qahal, the congregation, multitude, assembly of the people whom God has called out from among the nations of the earth to Himself, to submit to Him alone, and bear witness to His Name—among Jews the Eternal Israel—among Christians a type of the Incarnation of the Word of God, and of the Church he formed as the temple of the Holy Spirit of God among us. The thought of the tachash lifting its horn to the sky is evocative of the sight of the Torah being lifted up in the sight of the people. Debates about the "literal" meaning that the word tahash might have had in the past are far less important than the "spiritual meaning" it has for us today. This is the modern allegorical meaning of tahash. —image of Yemeni Jew at morning prayer.

Scholarly interpretations and Bible translations

See Biblical Translations, above:

19th and 20th century Biblical commentaries, dictionaries, encyclopedias, reference works, and study guides and materials for Bible students, propose the meanings "dugong hides, sealskins, sheepskins, fine leathers," or more generally, "a kind of leather, skin, or animal hide," as the meaning of "Heb. tahas, tachash"—sometimes adding that the original meaning is "obscure or uncertain".

—image of dugong.

The meaning favored by students or readers is influenced by their personal perceptions of the reputation of the researchers or scholars of these works expressing opinions viewed by them as most authoritative and/or trustworthy, depending on their perceptions of the religious or secular (non-religious) standing of the authors and researchers, and/or the various reputations of the published works themselves. The current 19th-21st century several meanings of Tahash skins are: "hyacinth" (blue) skins, "indigo" skins, "richly dyed" skins, "joy colors(joyous color)" skins, "purple" skins, "violet" skins, "taisse (lair, den, retreat, hider)" skins, "badger" skins, "seal" skins, "sea cow" hides, "leather", "sheep" skins or "goat" skins, "porpoise" hides, "dugong/manatee" hides, "fine-leather", "soft leather", "antelope" (addax) skins, "tachash" skins, "blue-processed" skins, "(Egyptian faience) beaded" skins.

—image of small blue-green beads

Each of these translations represents a previously modern Biblical meaning of tahash current at the time of its publication, each having proponents and defenders and critics, informed and uninformed, which researchers must understand when presenting the results of their most current studies of the ancient sources.

—See Scripture Text.com multilingual (BibleBrowser) and Online Parallel Bible (bible.cc), in particular Barnes' Notes on the Bible: "Badgers' skins: Rather, leather, probably of a sky-blue color".

Skilled indigo work: translations of the ancient witnesses

Today, because of an increase in knowledge of the languages, the opinions of the ancient witnesses prior to 100 CE / AD 100 have influenced recent translators to render the Hebrew word תחש tahas, t'ch'sh, as English tahash. Other translators and editors choose to render it as the ancient translators variously suggested: fine leather, and blue-processed skins: i.e. soft-dressed indigo-dyed antelope hide, skins of skilled indigo work (beaded), or sheepskins dyed blue. This is the modern linguistic meaning derived from the results of careful archaeological and linguistic studies of the ancient sources. —image of violet pigment tones.

Historical linguistics and Grammatical-Historical Exegesis

Historians and students of history who look to historical documentation of ancient texts for understanding of the past, to discern the "original intent" of the Biblical authors' words by using the most current insights and data available from anthropological, linguistical and etymological studies, today are persuaded that the tahash of the Tanakh was most likely "a species of antelope" of the Levant (citing as support for their opinion material from sources such as those cited and presented in the "Etymology" section of this article, including the centuries-old traditional opinion of the Sages of the Talmud and Rashi's commentary that תחש / תחשים denotes an animal and not the color of the skins covering the Mishkan — see above: Sacred word play: Paranomasia and Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 28a,b: the documented conclusion of the Sages that it was a clean animal.) —image of a species of domestic antelope (addax) native to the Levant.

This is the modern Grammatical-Historical exegesis of the "original Biblical meaning" of tahash.

—See "Soncino Babylonian Talmud", also "Catholic Biblical Exegesis", and "Grammatical-Historical Exegesis of the Bible" by Bruce Terry, and "What Is Exegesis?"

See also

• translation
• talmud
• Ark of the Covenant
• Wolf Leslau (works of)

Notes

1. Hebrew /t-χ-ʃ/ TaHaS, tahas, תחש Tahash, Tachash: spelled (Hebrew letters) ת "Tav"-ח "Heth"-ש "Shiyn" (approximate articulation "tawv"-"khayth"-"sheen") תחש "T-H-S" or "T-CH-SH": pronounced takhash, takh'-ash, (or "tak'-Hash") with hard "ch" as in "CHanukkah / Hanukkah," German ch = Greek X (nearly "kh") as in "XP" ("chi-rho", i.e. "khee-hro"), or the Scottish word "loch," not the soft "ch" as in "church." The editors of the Soncino Babylonian Talmud (1961), the New American Bible (NAB) (1971), and the Encyclopaedia Judaica 2nd ed. (2007) have rendered the eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet ח ("KHayth—CHeyth—Heth") as "h": hence, Tahash. According to the more ancient articulation, tahash is properly /t-ħ-s/ or /t-h-s/ (see Hebrew phonology). The changes in meaning and in pronunciation, ancient and modern, will be discussed in the article.
2. The word " תחש " ( ancient Phoenician spelling: ) literally means set apart/marked(-ly)/distinct(-ly) – תה / תאה – pronounced "taw, taw-ah" — plus — Lo!, behold! – ה / הא – pronounced "hay" – and – swift/quick, dark/black/hide(away) – חש / חוש – pronounced "koosh". — For monosyllabic root תא ) ת ) as a prefix to a biliteral root חש or הש see Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar: Stems and Roots; Biliteral, Triliteral, and Quadriliteral: "...a combination of two roots (is) a simple method of forming expressions to correspond to more complex ideas."
3. See below: Semitic primary root hesh and Orthographic paranomasia on the letters and the sounds. Use the links provided there.
4. The link "Navigating the Bible II" takes the reader to Misplaced Pages Article "Tabernacle: Priestly account"—move cursor to link at "Chapter 25 " and click for menus and text of this Biblical translation of the Torah, move cursor to upper right corner of page of the site and click "contents" for contents and for information about the translation and the World ORT organization.
5. DV, BBE, RSV, NJB, NRSV, GW, NavBib-II—see section "Biblical Translations" (this article.)
6. "And rams' skins dyed red, and violet skins, and setim wood:" Exodus 25:5 (DV) (A.D. 1610). See Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible: Exodus 25:5: where he says that the Septuagint calls 'orot tahashim hyacinth skins or blue skins, according to which they appear to be the rams' skins dyed blue, citing Josephus.
7. S. M. Perlmann: Shanghai businessman and scholar, 1912. Kaifeng Jews. Cited in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) article "Badger", by Alfred Ely-Day.
8. "As the Hebrew writing on monuments and coins mentioned in d consists only of consonants, so also the writers of the Old Testament books used merely the consonant-signs (§1k), and even now the written scrolls of the Law used in the synagogues must not, according to ancient custom, contain anything more." Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar §2: Sketch of the History of the Hebrew Language: 4. —A steady and patient survey of Hebrew words and roots, one by one, in the available standard reference works, reveals an abundance of one-letter and two-letter Semitic and Hebrew roots, when the much later matres lectionis vowel consonants are disregarded, or not included in their spelling. These matres lectionis are Alef א, He ה, Waw ו, Yod י. Consult Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar: 2: Sketch of the History of the Hebrew Language, and the Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew Lexicon and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary of The Old Testament. Look for the terms "prim. root" (primitive root) and "prim. word" (primitive word) or "prim. part." (primitive particle) associated with entries of Hebrew and Semitic words of two letters, three letters, even four letters, which include matres lectionis as vowels, and not as consonants. Without the matres lectionis these primitive roots appear as one-letter words (roots) and two-letter words (roots). —Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar: §30. Stems and Roots: Biliteral, Triliteral, and Quadriliteral "The language has sometimes adopted artificial methods to preserve at least an appearance of triliteralism in monosyllabic stems. Conversely such nouns as אב father, אם mother, אח brother, which were formerly all regarded as original monosyllabic forms (nomina primitiva), may, in some cases at least, have arisen from mutilation of a triliteral stem. On the other hand, a large number of triliteral stems really point to a biliteral base, which may be properly called a root..."
9. This section on the ancient pronunciation of Heth ח and He ה is relevant to the discussions "Sacred word play: Paranomasia" (phonetic spelling) and "Orthographic paranomasia" ("tah-hashim" ת ח ש ם and "ta-ha-Shem" ת ה ש ם), in this article.
10. See orthography. See also Phoenician alphabet: Letter names——scroll down to the chart of letters and sounds—compare appearance and sound of the 5th and 8th letters. See also Hebrew phonology and "Biblical Hebrew Poetry and Word Play: Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience: Wordplay in the Hebrew Bible"–by David Steinberg.
11. ת ח ש ם — the yodh / yud does not appear in the more ancient form of the word וערות תחשים ) תחשים ) before the 10th century BCE, according to all the extant writings from that time. see William H. C. Propp and Stephanie Dalley. Originally the letter Yud / Yodh was put only at the end of words. Even later, the yud could be overlooked by scribes because of its size and position as a mater lectionis. Where words can be written with or without matres lectionis, spellings that include these letters are called male (Hebrew) or plene (Latin) meaning "full", while spellings without them are called haser or defective. The more consistent inclusion of yodh in the spelling of תחשים actually begins with the Talmudic period (200-500 CE) and is finally fixed by the work of the Masoretes between the 7th and 11th centuries CE. see Yodh and Mater lectionis. The ancient form of tehasim t-ch-s-m ........ .... .... תחשם ....without the appears to modern readers today to be an utterly ungrammatical and non-existent word. But this is a kind of etymological fallacy or fallacy of presentism based almost entirely on the standardized form of the Medieval Masoretic Text. "The conclusion is, that if there ever was a period of Hebrew writing when the application of fixed laws to all cases was intended, either these laws were not consistently carried out in the further transmission of the text, or errors and confusion afterwards crept into it." Gesenius This is important for understanding the ancient connotative connection between ת ח ש ם and ה ש ם discussed under "Sacred word play: Paranomasia" and "Orthographic paranomasia", a connotation which for the modern reader today does not normally occur.
12. In Modern Israeli Hebrew the letter Kaph without the dagesh (chaph) has a sound value the same as that of Heth. An etymological fallacy based on Modern Israeli and Masoretic Hebrew spelling would render the phonetic spelling of Ancient Biblical tekhelet as , pronouncing it as with the dagesh instead of without. see also Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar §6: Pronunciation and Division of Consonants.
13. Taking the meaning (e.g. Strong's, the BDB) of תחש as "a kind of leather, skin, or animal hide" and the meaning (e.g. Strong's, the BDB) of וער as "skin (as naked), hide, leather, skin", we have: — וער 'or, which means "skin (as naked), hide, leather, skin", — plus תחש tahas, which means "a kind of leather, skin, or animal hide" — i.e., וערתחש 'or tahas, which according to the sources literally means, "naked skin (of a) kind of skin", or simply "skin skin" or "leather leather". This renders Exodus 26:14 as "Over the tent itself you shall make a covering of rams' skins dyed red, and above that, a covering of 'orot tahashim, a covering of skins of skins, a covering of leathers of leathers". Adverting to the core meaning underlying תחש—the semitic root חש / הש—removes this difficulty.
14. Forty-one Masoretic Hebrew words having the suffix ים as indicating the superlative degree, and used as a singular form, are listed in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Fully Updated and Unabridged, A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Hebrew Bible with their Renderings in the King James Version (World Bible Publishers, Inc., 1980, 1986). Here within this footnote the Strong's number links to the on-line Eliyah.com Strong's Concordance Hebrew Lexicon, followed by the Hebrew spelling— and the phonetic spelling links to the on-line SearchGodsWord.org Hebrew Lexicon with audio: 1. 430 אלהים el-o-heem' , 2. 669 אפרים ef-rah'-yim, 3. 706 ארבעתים ar-ba-tah'-yim, 4. 1143 בנים bay-nah'-yim, 5. 1331 בתולים beth-oo-leem' , 6. 1453 גדרתים ghed-ay-ro-thah'-yim, 7. 1664 גתים ghit-tah'-yim, 8. 1691 דבלים dib-lah'-yim, 9. 2445 חכים khak-keem' , 10. 3079 יהויקם yeh-ho-yaw-keem' , 11. 3113 יויקים yo-yaw-keem' , 12. 3220 ים yawm (large), 13. 3241 ינים yah-neem' , 14. 3356 יקים yaw-keem' , 15. 3389 ירושלים yer-oo-shaw-law'-im, 16. 4233 מחוים mahk-av-eem' , 17. 4325 מים mah'-yim, 18. 4850 מרתים mer-aw-thah'-yim, 19. 5273 נעים naw-eem' , 20. 5453 סברים sib-rah'-yim, 21. 5723 עדיתים ad-ee-thah'-yim, 22. 5879 עינים ay-nah'-yim, 23. 6440 פנים paw-neem' , 24. 6782 צמים tsam-meem' , 25. 6787 צמרים tsem-aw-rah'-yim, 26. 6911 קבצים kib-tsah'-yim, 27. 6921 קדים kaw-deem' , 28. 7009 קים keem, 29. 7010 קים keh-yawm' , 30. 7011 קים kah-yawm' , 31. 7156 קריתים keer-yaw-thah'-yim, 32. 7436 רמתים צופים raw-maw-thah'-yim tso-feem, 33. 7659 שבעתים shib-aw-thah'-yim, 34. 7741 שוה קריתים shaw-vay' kir-yaw-thah'-yim, 35. 7842 שחרים shakh-ar-ah'-yim, 36. 7923 שכלים shik-koo-leem' , 37. 8064 שמים shaw-mah'-yim, 38. 8143 שנהבים shen-hab-beem' , 39. 8549 תמים taw-meem' , 40. 8550 תמים toom-meem' , 41. 8577 תנים tan-neem' .
15. "In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth." see Strong's Exhaustive Concordance: "GOD": 430:elohiym: gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative: angels, exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), (very) great, judges, mighty.
16. ת ח ש ם — the yodt does not appear in the more ancient form of the word וערות תחשים ) תחשים ) and its cognates before the 10th century BCE, according to all the extant writings from that time. see William H. C. Propp and Stephanie Dalley. The more consistent inclusion of yodh in the spelling of תחשים actually began with the Talmudic period and was finally fixed by the work of the Masoretes. see Yodh and Mater lectionis. The ancient form תחשם appears to modern readers today to be an utterly ungrammatical and non-existent word. But this is a kind of etymological fallacy or fallacy of presentism. "The conclusion is, that if there ever was a period of Hebrew writing when the application of fixed laws to all cases was intended, either these laws were not consistently carried out in the further transmission of the text, or errors and confusion afterwards crept into it." Gesenius
17. The yud does not appear in the more ancient form of the word תחשם / תחשים / / According to Strong's Concordance, number 2044 השם is "perhaps from the same as" number 2828 חשם. Number 2363 חש / חוש is "a primitive root". (Shown here with and without matres lectionis ו and א.) And number 8372 ת / תא from the base of 8376 תה / תאה (a primitive root) is a prefix usable with (intensifying) Semitic primitive roots (Gesenius). —ת חש השם חשם It appears that ת as a prefix to the Hebrew root הש / חש formed a word תהש / תחש which became an established word , and this word can be intensified by the plural intensive singular suffix ם / ים ("-im"), Strong's number 518 . The "truly swift" תחש becomes "Of a truth! truly swift" תחשם (the most swift one)— the "truly dark/deep" תחש becomes "Of a truth! truly dark/deep" תחשם (richest deepest dark)
18. see individual letters Taw ת marked——Het ח separate——Shin ש fire/Shaddai——Mem ם fullness (of)——and the list under Biblical Hebrew Phonology for extended significations and meanings. The wild addax itself is also a (beautifully) marked, (shy) separated, (devouring) grazing, (spirited) resourceful creature of the desert: THSM / MSHT תחשם. Moreover, the horns of the mature animal can touch together and cross (Taw) at the tip, appearing to have become one. (see photographs of the addax.)
19. David Stein. The reader schooled according to the standards of the Masoretic Hebrew Text does not see this. The reader is confronted with orthographic and linguistic forms that have changed over a period of 1500-2000 years. The authority of the 10th century CE Masoretic Text cannot invalidate earlier accepted (variant) forms that prevailed before the 4th century CE.
20. David Stein. It should be noted that for modern students of Hebrew this perception is far more visual than phonetic, when it occurs: tahashim does not today normally phonetically suggest to them the word Hashem as it would have suggested to the ancients, and as it suggests to professional Semitic scholars today, primarily due to the influence of the much later phonetic forms of Hebrew represented in the Masoretic Text they have read and studied and the shift in the pronunciation of Heth ח from a sound similar to He ה to a sound now closer to Kaph כ : they are confronted with language forms that have changed over a period of 1500-2000 years—see above 'The Masoretes 7th to 10th centuries'--see presentism (literary and historical analysis)—see Argument from authority.
21. Aegis, Greek αιγἰς, "covering shield", from αἴγιος, from αἴξ, "goat"; from αἰγίαλος, "wave-pounded shore", from ἀὶσσω, "dash"— 'adash, Hebrew אדש, "tread down" and dishon, דשן, דוש "antelope–trample, thresh". The Hebrew word for the visible arch of the sky has an equivalent meaning: —raqiya רקיע (firmament) —from raqa רקע (to pound, to stretch). This goes back phonetically and linguistically to Akkadian and Assyrian t-h-s. see Strong's numbers 7549 and 7554.
22. About 750 years after the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt this concept of the goatskin shield as a sign of the shielding protection and sponsorship of heaven, current among the ancient peoples of the Levant at the time of Moses, had spread into Europe and into the culture of Homer and the Greeks and become a part of the development of their mythology as the aegis of Zeus and Athena. see Iliad of Homer.
23. Covering of light, and fire, and cloud round about him: Exodus 13:21,14:24,16:10,19:9,20:18,24:16,33:9-11,34:5,40:34-36. Leviticus 16:2,16:13. Numbers 9:15-22,11:24-25,12:5,14:14. Deuteronomy 4:11-12. 1 Kings 8:10-11 (in context vv.6-11). 2 Chronicles 5:11-14 (in context vv.7-14). Job 22:13-14. Psalms 18:12,97:2,104:1-4,105:39. Song (of Songs, of Solomon) 3:6. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 24:4. Isaiah 6:4 (in context vv.1-4). Lamentations 3:44. Ezekiel 1:4,1:27-28,10:3-4. Daniel 7:9-10 and 13. Matthew 17:5. Mark 9:7. Luke 9:34-35. Acts 1:9. 1 Timothy 6:15-16. Revelation 15:8.
24. "beloved sinful people" see Deuteronomy chap. 9 and 10
25. ssgwn, sasgawna, sas-gona—these transliterated forms of ססגונא are probably according to the interpretation of the letter waw / vav ו as a mater lectionis—sas-gavna is the transliterated form according to the interpretation of the letter ו as a consonant.
26. The information on the Physiologus compendium in this article is relevant because of the fact that the author/compiler does not include "tahash" as the name of any one of the animals known to the ancient world. This suggests that the word "tahash" did not denote an animal or that they did not use any Hebrew word for one.
27. According to the Sages (Baba Metzia 61b) the color of the indigo dye from the indigofera tinctoria is identical in color to tekhelet—indigo blue dye is tekhelet blue.
28. This part of the article is relevant because "Tahash" is not included in the Physiologus. This suggests that the Hebrew word "tahash" at that time did not have any meaning as the name of an animal for any of the natural historians of that period, or before, or it would have been used by them. And this is important for understanding the development and history of the meaning of the word through the ages.
29. A similar tradition appears in the Christian New Testament: "Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you." "The disciples came and said to him, 'Why do you speak to them in parables?' He answered them, 'To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away." (Matthew 7:6; 13:10-12 RSV)
30. "...normal modes of expression..." The Kabbalists and the Hasidim, for example, see deeper meanings in every word of the Torah. For an outstanding example of sage counsel universally applicable to all students, translators and interpreters, see the full text of the Roman Catholic Papal Encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu on the interpretation of Sacred Scripture, which says, 3 ..."there is no error whatsoever...in figurative language, or in terms which were commonly used at the time, and which in many instances are in daily use at this day, even among the most eminent men of science"...12 ..."in fine the manner of speaking, relating and writing in use among the ancients is made clear by innumerable examples".... Four levels of interpretation are set forth in Catechism of the Catholic Church: "115 According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral, and anagogical senses. 116 The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: 'All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal.' 117 The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs." These principles apply equally to the debates of the Sages in the Talmud.
31. Simon Thassi also called Simon Maccabeus (140 BCE) high priest and ethnarch of the Jews was "clothed in purple" and wore gold. "And the Jews and their priests decided that Simon should be their leader and high priest for ever...and that he should be clothed in purple and wear gold." 1 Maccabees 14:41-43 (RSV)
32. Indigo was not defined as a spectral color until Sir Isaac Newton (17th century) arbitrarily increased the number of colors named in the optical spectrum from the traditional six colors to seven, to match the seven musical notes of a western major scale, the seven (known) planets (Sol, Mercury, Venus, Luna, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), the seven days of the week, and other lists of seven. But before Newton, the color indigo was called blue or violet.
33. The Etymologiae is relevant because it does not mention the Hebrew word tahash. If "tahash" had been commonly known as the name of an animal known to the ancient and medieval world outside of the Jewish community it certainly would have been included in this work. (It is evident from the Etymologiae that Isidore was aware of Classical Greco-Roman natural histories and of African and Middle Eastern and Talmudic and Rabbinical traditions; it is not evident that he knew the Hebrew word tahash as the name of an animal.)
34. This is relevant to the ancient phonetic connotation between תחשם and השם discussed in the previous sections "Sacred word play: paranomasia" and "Orthographic paranomasia" in this article.
35. Cultivated plants and domesticated animals in their migrations from Asia to Europe, by Victor Hein, page 493 ("note 84, page 352"): "Here we follow the common opinion, namely, that tasso, taxo, taxus, badger..." —Old French: taisnier: animal den, lair (dark, hidden —in the wild), from taisse, taisson (badger—a creature known for its habit of swiftly hiding from sight in a dark den or lair)——Modern French: tani`ere. See List of French words of Gaulish origin: tani`ere, and List of French words of Germanic origin: tani`ere —see linguistic terms: "False friend" and "Etymological fallacy".
36. see also Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible: Exodus 25:5 "...and it is much questionable whether the same creature is meant we call the badger..." (badger).
37. 1776 — In 1843 Eduard Ruppell designated the dugong as Halicore tabernaculi. The "timeline" begins here with the first official 1776 zoological classification of the dugong as Trichechus dugon—instead of the much later 1843 Halicore tabernaculi—and lists each of the changes in the scientific name as they occur over the following decades.
38. see Cryptozoology: cryptids. The investigations of cryptozoologists 1892-2010 do not include seeking any evidence for the existence of the legendary tahash, indicating that they apparently do not regard the word "tahash" as denoting any kind of animal unknown to naturalists or rumored to exist.
39. Talmud: Tractate Shabbath 28a,b.—–see the Geonim 589-1038, the Rishonim 11th-15th centuries, the Acharonim 16th century to present. A general listing of their works can be seen at Rabbinical literature. See History of responsa (covering answers to questions asked over a period of 1,700 years) and Jewish Commentaries. The following articles are informative: —Kosher animals—Jewish Encyclopedia: Clean and Unclean Animals.
40. "bad" is the older form of the past tense for "bear": i.e. "and it bore one horn on its forehead..."
41. search "Nahman bar Isaac" (not "ben Isaac") then click on "JewishEncyclopedia.com- NAHMAN BAR ISAAC" for article.

References

1. Compare the Jewish translation "Tachash"—Shemot-Exodus 25, 26, 35, 36, 39; and Bamidbar-Numbers 4; and the Christian translation "Tahash"—Exodus 25, 26, 35, 36, 39; and Numbers 4
2. S. Dalley, Journal of Semitic Studies 45:1-19, Faience and Beadwork, 2000, and William H. C. Propp, The Anchor Bible: Exodus 19-40 Volume 2A, Nov. 2006, p. 374.
3. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Hebrew Lexicon "badger" 8476 tachash ("probably a species of antelope") see addax. The New American Bible translators (Deuteronomy 14:15) interpret דישן dishon as "addax", from the same word as the KJV "pygarg" and RSV "antelope", Strong's number 1758. No other particular species of antelope has been proposed by Bible translators as translation of dishon דשן (see List of animals in the bible: "antelope"). In ancient times, addax spread from North Africa through Arabia and the Levant. Pictures from Egyptian tombs show them being kept as domesticated animals in around 2500 BC. They are amply suited to live in the deep desert under extreme conditions. And according to the prescriptions of the Torah the addax is a "clean / kosher" animal: it chews the cud and divides the hoof. Leviticus 11:1-45. The translators of the authoritative Strong's number 8476 say that tahash is "probably a species of antelope." Although interesting in themselves, none of these facts, either individually or taken together, can be taken as proof that the particular antelope species addax is identical with tahash. "The identity of the tahash remains obscure." (Encyclopedia Judaica: "TAHASH")
4. Rupell & Leuckart, 1828, 1831 see Phaneropthalmus smaragdinus: Rupell and Leuckart, 1828 and Hexabranchus pulchellus: main page: Taxonomic notes: "This species is listed as Hexabranchus sanguineus (Rupell and Leuckart, 1831.)"
5. see Rothauer's Dugong Page (english): Mermaid Myths (scroll down to bottom of the page of the article, the last sentence.) —see The Probert Encyclopedia: Dugong: "A variety was discovered in the Red Sea by Ruppell, and called Halicore tabernaculi."(1843) Its zoological name has been changed several times: see The Paleobiology Database: enter Halicore tabernaculi in top field, click [SEARCH]: then select view classification of included taxa: Classification of Trichechus dugon (Halicore tabernaculi Ruppell/Rupell 1843): the chronological listing of the zoological classification of the dugong: Trichechus dugung Erxleben 1777——Dugong indicus Lacepede 1799——Dugong dugong Illiger 1811——Halicore hemprichii and Halicore lottum Ehrenberg 1832——Halicore tabernaculi Ruppell 1843——Halicore australis Owen 1847——Halicore cetacea Heuglin; it was recombined as Halicore dugung Trouessant 1898——it was recombined as "Dugong dugon" Scheffer and Rice 1963, also Husar 1978, Domning 1994, 1996, and Rice 1998.
6. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE): "Badger", also Barnes' Notes on the Bible: Exodus 25
7. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., Vol. 19: SOM-TN, 2007, p. 435: "TAHASH" "...because the Arabic tukhesh means the sea-mammal Dugong hemprichi, some endeavor to identify it with the tahash."
8. Encyclopaedia Judaica: Tahash; and Kolel's Parasha Study number 1999 "...it seems much more fun to imagine that the tachash could be a giraffe, a narwhal, or a mythical unicorn."
9. Methods in the Mediterranean: historical and archaeological views on texts & archaeology. p. 258. ISBN 978-9004095816.
10. The Torah u-Madda Journal: Giraffe: A Halakhically Oriented Dissection, Doni Zivotofsky, Ari Z. Zivotofsky and Zohar Amar.
11. The New American Bible footnote to Exodus 25:5 —See also SearchGodsWord.com Greek Lexicon number 5192 huakinthos "jacinth (hyacinth)" and Strong's Concordance Greek Lexicon 5191/5192 "jacinth (hyacinth)
12. Alfred Ely-Day, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) "Badger" (end of entry). —See also Tyndale Bulletin 5-6 (April 1960) "Some Egyptian Background To The Old Testament" by K. A. Kitchen, University of Liverpool, p. 7-8, footnote 29: (which says) "Heb. tahash is probably best derived from the old Egyptian word tj-h-s, "to treat leather," Erman & Grapow, Worterbuch d. Aeg. Sprache, V, 396, 7. So Bondi, Aegyptiaca, 1-4, corrected by Griffith, in Petrie, Deshasheh, 1898, 45-6, and revival by Albright and Cross, Bibl. Archaeol., 10, (1947), 62 and n. 22." — —The title Aegyptiaca refers to the ancient original classic Egyptian work by Manetho.
13. Sharphouse, J.H. (1983). Leather Technician's Handbook. Leather Producer's Association. ISBN 0950228516.
14. Simmons, Rabbi Shraga. "Tallit stripes"; Rabbi Yehudah, Yerusahlmi (Jerusalem Talmud), Shabbath 2:3; Arukh s.v. Teynun; Koheleth Rabbah 1:9; Josephus 3:6:1 (3.102), 3:6:4 (3.132); Septuagint; Aquila; Maimonides; Saadia Gaon, Jonah ibn Janah.
15. The two statements in this section are taken from the Anchor Bible Series: Anchor Bible (Ezekiel 16:10, Comments) and the Anchor Bible Dictionary: "TAHASH".
16. Tyndale Bulletin 5-6 (April 1960) "Some Egyptian Background To The Old Testament" by K. A. Kitchen, University of Liverpool, p. 7-8, footnote 29, citing Erman & Grapow, Worterbuch d. Aeg. Sprache, V, 396, 7—J. H. Bondi, Aegyptiaca 1-4—Griffith, in Petrie, Deshahsheh, 1898, 45-46—Albright and Cross, Bibl. Archaeol., 10, (1947), 62 and n.22.
17. Alfred Ely-Day, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), "Badger"
18. Navigating the Bible II: Exodus 25:5 —footnote: blue-processed skins. For an expanded discussion see Ancient Dyes, scroll down to M. Breier' commentary: "This is something that had actually been on my mind for some time..."
19. Navigating the Bible II (2000), NAB (1991), GW (1995), NRSV (1989), NJB (1985), RSV (1952), BBE (1949).
20. see Kolel's Parasha Study number 1999 and Strong's Concordance Hebrew Lexicon number 2363 hish, and hoosh.
21. Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar: §7. The Vowels in General, Vowel Letters and Vowel Signs, §6. Pronunciation and Division of Consonants and §2. Sketch of the History of the Hebrew Language: 4. "As the Hebrew writing on monuments and coins...consists only of consonants, so also the writers of the Old Testament books used merely the consonant-signs..."
22. Barnes' Notes on the Bible: Exodus 25:5 "badgers' skins".
23. See "Biblical Hebrew Poetry and Word Play: Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience: Wordplay in the Hebrew Bible", by David Steinberg.
24. Examples of Biblical paranomasia (pun) are abundant (consult the textual footnotes and the study notes provided by the editors of the various published English translations of the Bible for explanations of the kinds of word play, paranomasia, used by the sacred author in the following texts): Genesis 2:7-8,23; 3:20; 4:1,25; 5:29; 9:27; 10:25; 11:9; 19:20,37-38; 25:25,30; 27:36; 29:32-35; 30:6,8,11,13,18,20,24; 31:47,49; 32:29,31; 38:30; 41:51-52; 49:16,19. Exodus 2:10,22; 12:11; 25:5. Deuteronomy 14:4-5 (addax); 32:15. Joshua 5:9. Judges 6:32. 2 Kings 1:12; 23:13. 1 Chronicles 25:4. Tobit 5:13-14. 1 Maccabees 1:54. 2 Maccabees 1:36; 5:24 and Revelation 9:11. Psalm 104:4. Sirach 6:23. Isaiah 15:9; 65:11-12. Jeremiah 1:11; 9:3; 23:33-40; 46:17. Ezekiel 16:8 (aegis). Daniel 8:13; 13:55-59. Hosea 4:15. Joel 2:23. Matthew 2:23; 16:18; 27:16-17,62 (preparation/I go to prepare a place for you). Matthew 26:50 and Mark14:46 (laid hands on--Exodus 29:10,15; Leviticus 4:15; 8:14,18,22; 16:21; 24:14; Numbers 27:22-23; Deuteronomy 34:9). John1:11; 3:8; 7:6,8; 19:13,30. Romans 3:27; 7:21,23; 8:2. 1 Corinthians 11:29-32. 2 Corinthians 1:18-22; 2:14-16; 8:1; 9:11-15; 10:2-4,13; 13:5-9. Ephesians 3:14-15. Philippians 3:2. 1 Thessalonians 5:10. 1 Timothy 1:18. Philemon 11. Hebrews 4:8,14; 9:28 and John 1:29 (to take away / to bear). Revelation 2:9 and 3:17; Revelation 9:11 and 1 Maccabees 3:10 (Apollonius / Apollyon); Revelation 13:18.
25. Strong's Concordance Hebrew Lexicon, Brown Driver Briggs English-Hebrew Lexicon, Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar.
26. "same as" —notice the definitions for each: Hashum = "rich, enriched": Hashem = "fat, wealthy". Strong's Concordance Hebrew Lexicon: number 2044 השם Hashem = fat, wealthy "is perhaps from the same as" number 2828 חשם Hashum = rich, enriched.
27. The Canon Debate, McDonald & Sanders editors, 2002, chapter 6: Questions of Canon through the Dead Sea Scrolls by James C. VanderKam, page 94, citing private communication with Emanuel Tov on biblical manuscripts.
28. Scholarly evaluation of the Samaritan Pentateuch after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls shows that some of the Dead Sea manuscripts display a text that closely corresponds to that of the Samaritan Pentateuch. Benjamin Kennicott 1758 stated that the Hebrew version cannot be supposed to be the most authentic one, simply because it is the Hebrew version. The State of the Printed Hebrew Text of the Old Testament Vol. 2: On The Samaritan Pentateuch, Benjamin Kennicott, pp. 20-165. See also Benjamin Kennicott and Giovanni de Rossi and the Search for the True Hebrew Bible Text, and Dating the Samaritan Pentateuch's Compilation in Light of the Qumran Biblical Scrolls by Esther Eshel and Hanan Eshel, 2003, pp. 215-240, and The Samaritan Pentateuch by Mark Shoulson (select "Religion"), site started 2007.
29. Biblical Hebrew Poetry and Word Play: Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience: Wordplay in the Hebrew Bible, David Steinberg
30. see The Masoretes 7th to 10th centuries and David Stein's "Biblical Hebrew Poetry and Word Play: Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience"
31. William H. C. Propp. See huakinthos, huakinthinos: LXX, Josephus Ant. 3.102, Vulgate, Palestinian/Jerusalem Talmud Tractate Sabbat 2:3, mishnah Qohelet Rabba 1:9, and Aramaic sasgawna / sasgona (Tgs.-Syr.): according to William H. C. Propp, The Anchor Bible: Exodus 19-40: Volume 2A: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Nov. 2006, p. 374.
32. Flavius Josephus (1835), "The works of Flavius Josephus: the ...", books.google.co.uk, Armstrong and Plaskitt, and Plaskitt & Co., retrieved 11 December 2010 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |Chapter= ignored (|chapter= suggested) (help)
33. The Complete Jewish Bible With Rashi Commentary: " I put shoes of glory on your feet."
34. Physiologus, Translated by Michael J. Curley: First translation into English of the Latin versions of Physiologus as established by Francis Carmody, 92 pages, c. 1979 by the University of Texas Press. Woodcuts in this edition are reproduced from the 1587 G. Ponce de Leon edition of Physiologus, courtesy of the Newberry Library, Chicago. ISBN 0-292-76456-1. Notes included tell the reader, "The legend of the unicorn arises out of reports concerning the rhinoceros." p. 86
35. Jerusalem Talmud Yerushalmi: Shabbath 2:3. Also —(Eccles. R. 1:9) Encyclopaedia Judaica: "Tahash". The reference Eccles. R. 1:9 designates a textual passage in the mishnaic compendium: Ecclesiastes Rabba 1:9 or Qohelet Rabba 1:9 (Qoh. Rab. 1:9): in context, the notation R. or Rab. or Rabbah designates the mishnaic compendium within the Talmud. see Midrash and Aggadah.
36. Zoo Torah: Contents: Education: see section "Education"—–Zoo Torah by Rabbi Natan Slifkin.
37. Babylonian Talmud: Shabbath 28a,b.
38. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. 2007, "TAHASH". Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi), Shabbath, 2:3. see also commentaries under ANCIENT DYES for discussions of "tekhelet", "sky-blue" and "blue processed skins".
39. see Strong's Exhaustive Concordance: "BLUE": 40 bible-verse references: 39 of them keyed to Strong's (Hebrew Lexicon) number 8504 "tkeleth", and 1 to Strong's number 8336 "shesh". There is also 1 related entry there for "BLUENESS" keyed to number 2250 which begins with the root "cH' / kH'." Notice in particular at entry for 8504 the words: "...i.e. the color violet...or stuff dyed therewith:—blue." The source of the blue or purple violet color used by the ancients at the time of Moses is the subject of the debate. see Semantic change.
40. The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, translation and c. by Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, and Oliver Berghof, 2006, Cambridge University Press, The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK. information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521837491 . ISBN 0-521-83749-9. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help).
41. Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, pp. 251-2.
42. The work of the Masoretes has long been regarded as a kind of anti-Christian conspiracy by some "Hebraists". See two representative external links "The Septuagint v. the Masoretic Text (Bible), David Icke.com" and "The Masoretic Text of the Old Testament, By V. S. Herrell"
43. see Strong's Exhaustive Concordance: "VIRGIN": Hebrew Dictionary entries 1330 "b'thuwlah" and 5959 " 'almah". See also related entries under number 5956.
44. Menachem Cohen, The Idea of the Sanctity of the Biblical Text and the Science of Textual Criticism in HaMikrah V'anachnu, ed. Uriel Simon, HaMachon L'Yahadut U'Machshava Bat-Z'mananu and Dvir, Tel-Aviv, 1979
45. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "badger".
46. "black leather (dark blue skins)" —Navigating the Bible II: Exodus 25: –footnote: "blue-processed skins."
47. Jewish Encyclopedia: Ibn Janah, Abu al-Walid Merwan
48. Navigating the Bible II: Exodus 25: –footnote: blue-processed skins.
49. Navigating the Bible II: Exodus 25: footnote: blue-processed skins.
50. Biographical information on Rashi at Answers.com—Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Rashi; Gale Encyclopedia of Biography: Rashi; Encyclopedia of Judaism: Rashi; Columbia Encyclopedia: Rashi.
51. Talmud: Shabbat 28a,b —according to Kolel's Parasha Study, number 1999. The zebra, okapi, antelope, giraffe, tiger and many other kinds of animals are multi-colored. Two possible patterns of (six-colored) coloration in nature are: black, brown, red, yellow, orange, white (e.g. the gazelle); and black, blue-black, dark grey, ash grey, brown, tan, red, orange, silver, white (e.g. the blackbuck): see also Bos aegyptiacus (multi-colored) and natural camouflage.
52. see Judaica Press Complete Tanach with Rashi (Chabad.org)—scroll down to the commentary on verse 10. "... badger,...". see also כהניא All Targums on a verse (Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon).
53. See Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible: Exodus 25:5 "...and it is much questionable whether the same creature is meant we call the badger, since that with the Israelites was an unclean creature..."
54. "Rabbi Abraham Maimon Ha-Nagid"
55. Navigating the Bible II: Exodus 25: –footnote: blue-processed skins—see also Garments of Salvation - Ancient Dyes: scroll down to "blue processed skins".
56. This section is relevant because the Medieval bestiaries don't include the word tahash or tachash as the name of an animal. Some of the animals described do resemble the description of the tahash. This is important for an understanding of the etymology (history of meaning) of the word.
57. See Jewish Folklore, and "The Legends of the Jews" by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg (Volume III: Bible Times and Characters from the Exodus to the Death of Moses: →The Altar.
58. Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 19 SOM-TN, page 435.
59. basilisk: see Isaiah 14:29, Psalm 90:13, Biblia Sacra Vulgata, Douay-Rheims Bible (Psalm 91:13 Hebrew/Protestant versions)
60. Talmud: Chullin 59b. The keresh is a giant deer, the tigris is a giant lion, Dvei Ilai is a dense forest.
61. Encyclopedia Judaica: "TAHASH"
62. Bible translations: ASV 1901, NWT 1961, NASB 1971, NIV 1978, JPS Tanakh 1985.
63. Exodus 25:5; 26:14; 35:7; 35:23; 36:19; 39:24; Numbers 4:6; 4:8; 4:10; 4:11; 4:12; 4:14; 4:25; Ezekiel 16:10
64. Brown-Driver-Briggs: at linked site locate index number , click it: image of page 1065 will appear on right, enlarge the page, locate fourth entry down †i. תחש tahas...
65. S. M. Perlmann, Shanghai businessman and scholar. See article Kaifeng Jews "History" 9th paragraph, "Despite their isolation...", 6th sentence, "S. M. Perlmann, a Shanghai businessman..."
66. Alfred Ely-Day, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) "Badger" (end of entry).
67. V. B. Scheffer and D. W. Rice. 1963. A list of the marine animals of the world. United States Fish and Wildlife Service Special Scientific Report--Fisheries 143:1-12.
68. The Anchor Bible, Vol. 22, Ezekiel 1-20, 1964, page 270: "XV. Jerusalem the Wanton. Ezekiel 16:10", page 278: Comment: "tahas, out of which..." The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 6 Si-Z, 1992, page 298, TABERNACLE: d. The Outer Enclosures; and page 307, TAHASH: "Heb. tahas..."
69. dusu/duhsu a reddish-yellow stone or leather of that color used for sandals and other purposes. William H. C. Propp, The Anchor Bible: Exodus 19-40: Volume 2A: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Nov. 2006 (First Edition) p. 374.
70. William H. C. Propp, The Anchor Bible: Exodus 19-40: Volume 2A, p. 374.
71. The Anchor Bible: Exodus 19-40: Volume 2A, p. 310 "5 and reddened ram skins and beaded skins and acacia wood," and p. 374 "beaded skins T'hasim (singular tahas) is an ancient riddle..."
72. Chanan Morrison. Gold from the Land of Israel: A New Light on the Weekly Torah Portion from the Writings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook. p. 147. ISBN 978-9657108925.
73. Natan Slifkin. Sacred Monsters: Mysterious and Mythical Creatures of Scripture, Talmud and Midrash. p. 68. ISBN 978-1933143187.
74. Soncino Babylonian Talmud: Translated into English, with notes, glossary and indices, under the editorship of Rabbi Dr. I. Epstein, B.A., Ph.D., D. Lit., c. 1938, 1948, 1952, 1961, The Soncino Press, London.
75. SearchGodsWord.org Hebrew Lexicon 08476 תחש and Eliyah.com on-line Strong's Hebrew Lexicon number 8476: "tahash, takh'-ash; prob. of for. der.; a (clean) animal with fur, prob. a species of antelope—badger." See Addax as the most probable meaning of "dishon" (antelope). The word for the particular antelope "addax" is phonetically very similar to the Hebrew " 'adash" and "tahash". Another antelope that anciently ranged the region of the Levant is the Oryx. Both are multi-colored, each has a distinctive, singular horn. The NAB translation (Deut. 14:5) lists the addax and the oryx separately: the NJB lists them as "antelope and oryx"; the REB lists them as "white-rumped deer and long-horned antelope".

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