THABOR (Gr. Θαβώρ τὸ Ἰταβώριον, Arabic Çebel et-Tôr). - A mountain of Palestine about 7 km. southwest of Nazareth, at the northeastern end of the plain of Esdrelon, cone-shaped, 560 m. above the Mediterranean and about 320 above the surrounding plain.
Isolated by two watercourses that form the Wādī el-Bīreh, a tributary of the Jordan, it appears from afar as a solitary lookout, and it dominates the principal access, from the south, to Galilee. Its slopes are covered with holm oaks, carobs, terebinths; on the summit, crowned by a plateau 1200 m. long and 400 wide, the wooded scrub is thicker and denser. Jacob alludes to T. in his blessing on Issachar and Zebulun as a gathering place of peoples to offer sacrifices there (Deut. 33:19); not included within the boundaries of any tribe (Josh. 19:22), it was sacred to all those of the north. There Deborah summoned Barak of Kedesh with his army made up of people from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, to fight the enemy that dominated the plain. The Israelites rushed down from the mountain upon Sisera's army, defeated it and pursued it along the river Kishon (Nahr el-Muqatta'), winning a complete victory (Judg. 4-5).
Because of its characteristic profile it always aroused a religious admiration; in Ps. 88:12 it is paired with Hermon to sing the praises of God; and in Jer. 46:18 the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar victorious is compared to T. and Carmel. The veneration of T., perhaps revived by the priests of Ephraim, is stigmatized as schismatic by the prophet Hosea (5:1), "a snare spread on the mountain to attract the ignorant there." In 218 B.C. Antiochus III, after seizing Philoteria south of the lake of Tiberias, seized T., which he fortified (Polybius, V, 70). Then at the time of the Jewish revolt T. was again fortified by Flavius Josephus (Vita, 37; Bell. Iud., II, 20,6), but in 67 it fell into the power of Vespasian. Christian tradition from the 4th century venerates on T. the mystery of the Transfiguration (v.) and from then on the history of the mountain is that of the Sanctuary.
Donato Baldi
# THABRACA: v. TABARCA.