1.
Greek alphabet
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It is the ancestor of the Latin and Cyrillic scripts. In its classical and modern forms, the alphabet has 24 letters, Modern and Ancient Greek use different diacritics. In standard Modern Greek spelling, orthography has been simplified to the monotonic system, examples In both Ancient and Modern Greek, the letters of the Greek alphabet have fairly stable and consistent symbol-to-sound mappings, making pronunciation of words largely predictable. Ancient Greek spelling was generally near-phonemic, among consonant letters, all letters that denoted voiced plosive consonants and aspirated plosives in Ancient Greek stand for corresponding fricative sounds in Modern Greek. This leads to groups of vowel letters denoting identical sounds today. Modern Greek orthography remains true to the spellings in most of these cases. The following vowel letters and digraphs are involved in the mergers, Modern Greek speakers typically use the same, modern, in other countries, students of Ancient Greek may use a variety of conventional approximations of the historical sound system in pronouncing Ancient Greek. Several letter combinations have special conventional sound values different from those of their single components, among them are several digraphs of vowel letters that formerly represented diphthongs but are now monophthongized. In addition to the three mentioned above, there is also ⟨ου⟩, pronounced /u/, the Ancient Greek diphthongs ⟨αυ⟩, ⟨ευ⟩ and ⟨ηυ⟩ are pronounced, and respectively in voicing environments in Modern Greek. The Modern Greek consonant combinations ⟨μπ⟩ and ⟨ντ⟩ stand for and respectively, ⟨τζ⟩ stands for, in addition, both in Ancient and Modern Greek, the letter ⟨γ⟩, before another velar consonant, stands for the velar nasal, thus ⟨γγ⟩ and ⟨γκ⟩ are pronounced like English ⟨ng⟩. There are also the combinations ⟨γχ⟩ and ⟨γξ⟩ and these signs were originally designed to mark different forms of the phonological pitch accent in Ancient Greek. The letter rho, although not a vowel, also carries a rough breathing in word-initial position, if a rho was geminated within a word, the first ρ always had the smooth breathing and the second the rough breathing leading to the transiliteration rrh. The vowel letters ⟨α, η, ω⟩ carry an additional diacritic in certain words, the iota subscript. This iota represents the former offglide of what were originally long diphthongs, ⟨ᾱι, ηι, ωι⟩, another diacritic used in Greek is the diaeresis, indicating a hiatus. In 1982, a new, simplified orthography, known as monotonic, was adopted for use in Modern Greek by the Greek state. Although it is not a diacritic, the comma has a function as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό. There are many different methods of rendering Greek text or Greek names in the Latin script, the form in which classical Greek names are conventionally rendered in English goes back to the way Greek loanwords were incorporated into Latin in antiquity. In this system, ⟨κ⟩ is replaced with ⟨c⟩, the diphthongs ⟨αι⟩ and ⟨οι⟩ are rendered as ⟨ae⟩ and ⟨oe⟩ respectively, and ⟨ει⟩ and ⟨ου⟩ are simplified to ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ respectively
2.
Christ (title)
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In Christianity, the Christ is a title for the saviour and redeemer who would bring salvation to the Jewish people and mankind. Christians believe that Jesus is the Jewish messiah called Christ in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, Christ, used by Christians as both a name and a title, is synonymous with Jesus. The role of the Christ in Christianity originated from the concept of the messiah in Judaism. Though the conceptions of the messiah in each religion are similar, for the most part they are distinct from one due to the split of early Christianity. Jesus came to be called Jesus Christ by his followers after his crucifixion and resurrection, Christians believe that the messianic prophecies were fulfilled in his mission, death, and resurrection. The Pauline epistles, the earliest texts of the New Testament, the word Christ was originally a title, but later became part of the name Jesus Christ. It is, however, still used as a title, in the reciprocal use Christ Jesus, meaning the Messiah Jesus. The followers of Jesus became known as Christians because they believed Jesus to be the Khristós or Mashiach prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. Jesus was not, and is not, accepted in Judaism as a Jewish messiah, religious Jews still await their messiahs first coming and the Messianic prophecies of Jewish tradition to be accomplished. Religious Christians believe in the Second Coming of Christ, and they await the rest of Christian messianic prophecies to be fulfilled. Muslims accept Jesus as al-Masih, the messiah in Islam, but dont believe that the messiah is divine or the Son of God, but do believe he will come again. The area of Christian theology called Christology is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the canonical gospels, the word Christ appears in English and in most European languages. English-speakers now often use Christ as if it were a name, one part of the name Jesus Christ and its usage in Christ Jesus emphasizes its nature as a title. The spelling Christ in English became standardized in the 18th century, when, in the spirit of the Enlightenment, the spelling Christ in English is attested from the 14th century. In modern and ancient usage, even in secular terminology, Christ usually refers to Jesus, at the time of Jesus, there was no single form of Second Temple Judaism, and there were significant political, social, and religious differences among the various Jews groups. However, for centuries the Jews had used the term moshiach to refer to their expected deliverer, the Greek word messias appears only twice in the Septuagint of the promised prince. This title was used when a name was wanted for the one who was to be at once King. The New Testament states that the long-awaited messiah had come and describes this savior as the Christ
3.
God
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In monotheism, God is conceived of as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith. The concept of God as described by most theologians includes the attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, divine simplicity, many theologians also describe God as being omnibenevolent and all loving. Furthermore, some religions attribute only a purely grammatical gender to God, incorporeity and corporeity of God are related to conceptions of transcendence and immanence of God, with positions of synthesis such as the immanent transcendence of Chinese theology. God has been conceived as personal or impersonal. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator, in pantheism, God is the universe itself. In atheism, God is not believed to exist, while God is deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism, God has also been conceived as the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable existent. Many notable philosophers have developed arguments for and against the existence of God, there are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about Gods identity and attributes. In the ancient Egyptian era of Atenism, possibly the earliest recorded monotheistic religion, this deity was called Aten, premised on being the one true Supreme Being and creator of the universe. In the Hebrew Bible and Judaism, He Who Is, I Am that I Am, in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, God, consubstantial in three persons, is called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Judaism, it is common to refer to God by the titular names Elohim or Adonai, in Islam, the name Allah is used, while Muslims also have a multitude of titular names for God. In Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a concept of God. In Chinese religion, God is conceived as the progenitor of the universe, intrinsic to it, other religions have names for God, for instance, Baha in the Baháí Faith, Waheguru in Sikhism, and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism. The earliest written form of the Germanic word God comes from the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus, the English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic * ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form * ǵhu-tó-m was likely based on the root * ǵhau-, in the English language, the capitalized form of God continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic God and gods in polytheism. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism, God is also given a proper name, in many translations of the Bible, when the word LORD is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton. Allāh is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians and Jews meaning The God, Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism. Mazda, or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå and it is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā, means intelligence or wisdom. Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European mn̩sdʰeh1, literally meaning placing ones mind, Waheguru is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God
4.
Book of Revelation
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Its title is derived from the first word of the text, written in Koine Greek, apokalypsis, meaning unveiling or revelation. The Book of Revelation is the apocalyptic document in the New Testament canon. The author names himself in the text as John, but his identity remains a point of academic debate. Modern scholarship generally takes a different view, and many consider that nothing can be known about the author except that he was a Christian prophet, Some modern scholars characterise Revelations author as a putative figure whom they call John of Patmos. The bulk of traditional sources date the book to the reign of the emperor Domitian, the book spans three literary genres, the epistolary, the apocalyptic, and the prophetic. It begins with John, on the island of Patmos in the Aegean and he then describes a series of prophetic visions, including figures such as the Whore of Babylon and the Beast, culminating in the Second Coming of Jesus. The title is taken from the first word of the book in Koine Greek, ἀποκάλυψις apokalypsis, the author names himself as John, but it is currently considered unlikely that the author of Revelation was also the author of the Gospel of John. All that is known is that this John was a Jewish Christian prophet, probably belonging to a group of such prophets and his precise identity remains unknown, and modern scholarship commonly refers to him as John of Patmos. 70 AD is the date of writing according to Martha Himmelfarb in the recently published Blackwell series. Revelation is an apocalyptic prophecy with an epistolary introduction addressed to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia, Apocalypse means the revealing of divine mysteries, John is to write down what is revealed and send it to the seven churches. The entire book constitutes the letter—the letters to the seven churches are introductions to the rest of the book. While the dominant genre is apocalyptic, the author himself as a Christian prophet, Revelation uses the word in various forms twenty-one times. The predominant view is that Revelation alludes to the Old Testament although it is difficult among scholars to agree on the number of allusions or the allusions themselves. Revelation rarely quotes directly from the Old Testament, almost every verse alludes to or echoes older scriptures. Over half of the stem from Daniel, Ezekiel, Psalms. He very frequently combines multiple references, and again the style makes it impossible to be certain to what extent he did so consciously. Revelation was the last book accepted into the Christian biblical canon and it was considered tainted because the heretical sect of the Montanists relied on it and doubts were raised over its Jewishness and authorship. Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, disciple of Origen wrote that the Book of Revelation could have been written by Cerinthus although he himself did not adopt the view that Cerinthus was the writer and he regarded the Apocalypse as the work of an inspired man but not of an Apostle
5.
Christian symbolism
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Christian symbolism is the use of symbols, including archetypes, acts, artwork or events, by Christianity. It invests objects or actions with an inner meaning expressing Christian ideas, the symbolism of the early Church was characterized by being understood by initiates only, while after the legalization of Christianity in the 4th-century more recognizable symbols entered in use. Christianity has borrowed from the stock of significant symbols known to most periods. The shape of the cross, as represented by the letter T, at the end of the 2nd century, it is mentioned in the Octavius of Minucius Felix, rejecting the claim by detractors that Christians worship the cross. In his book De Corona, written in 204, Tertullian tells how it was already a tradition for Christians to trace repeatedly on their foreheads the sign of the cross. An early example of the halo, used to identify Christ in paintings, is found in the Miracles of the Loaves and Fishes mosaic of SantApollinare Nuovo. Instances of the St Thomas cross, a Greek cross with clover leaf edges, popular in southern India, the Patriarchal cross, a Latin cross with an additional horizontal bar, first appears in the 10th century. Although the cross was used as a symbol by early Christians, the purported discovery of the True Cross by Constantines mother, Helena, and the development of Golgotha as a site for pilgrimage led to a change of attitude. In the early period, the plain cross became depicted as the crux gemmata, covered with jewels. The first depictions of crucifixion displaying suffering are believed to have arisen in Byzantine art, Early Western examples include the Gero Cross and the reverse of the Cross of Lothair, both from the end of the 10th century. Marie-Madeleine Davy described in great detail Romanesque Symbolism as it developed in the Middle Ages in Western Europe, among the symbols employed by the early Christians, that of the fish seems to have ranked first in importance. The Staurogram ⳨, also Monogrammatic Cross or Tau-Rho symbol, is composed by a tau superimposed on a rho, in such a way the symbol expresses the idea that the Cross saves. The two letters tau and rho can also be found separately as symbols on early Christian ossuaries, the Monogrammatic Cross was later seen also as a variation of the Chi Rho symbol, and it spread over Western Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Chi Rho is formed by superimposing the first two letters chi and rho of the Greek word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ =Christ in such a way to produce the monogram, widespread in ancient Christianity, it was the symbol used by the Roman emperor Constantine I as vexillum. This symbol was explained in the Epistle of Barnabas and by Clement of Alexandria. For other christograms such as IHS, see Article Christogram, initially it was also understood as a symbol like others used in Early Christian art. By about the 5th century the more often took on the appearance of the conventional depiction of Christ, as it had developed by this time. The dove as a Christian symbol is of frequent occurrence in ancient ecclesiastical art
6.
Chi Rho
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The Chi-Rho symbol was used by the Roman emperor Constantine I as part of a military standard. Constantines standard was known as the Labarum, Early symbols similar to the Chi Rho were the Staurogram and the IX monogram. In pre-Christian times, the Chi-Rho symbol was also to mark a particularly valuable or relevant passage in the margin of a page, some coins of Ptolemy III Euergetes were marked with a Chi-Rho. The Chi Rho symbol has two Unicode codepoints, U+2627 ☧ Chi Rho in the Miscellaneous symbols block and U+2CE9 ⳩ Coptic symbol Khi Ro in the Coptic block and that very day Constantines army fought the forces of Maxentius and won the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, outside Rome. Eusebius of Caesarea gave two different accounts of the events, in a memoir of the Roman emperor that Eusebius wrote after Constantines death, a miraculous appearance is said to have come in Gaul long before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. At noon, Constantine saw a cross of light imposed over the sun, attached to it, in Greek characters, was the saying Τούτῳ Νίκα. Not only Constantine, but the army saw the miracle. That night, Christ appeared to the Roman emperor in a dream and told him to make a replica of the sign he had seen in the sky, which would be a sure defence in battle. Eusebius wrote in the Vita that Constantine himself had told him this story and confirmed it with oaths late in life when I was deemed worthy of his acquaintance, indeed, says Eusebius, had anyone else told this story, it would not have been easy to accept it. Eusebius also left a description of the labarum, the standard which incorporated the Chi-Rho sign. After Constantine, the Chi-Rho became part of the imperial insignia. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence demonstrating that the Chi-Rho was emblazoned on the helmets of some Late Roman soldiers, coins and medallions minted during Emperor Constantines reign also bore the Chi-Rho. By the year 350, the Chi-Rho began to be used on Christian sarcophagi, the usurper Magnentius appears to have been the first to use the Chi-Rho monogram flanked by Alpha and Omega, on the reverse of some coins minted in 353. In Roman Britannia, a mosaic pavement was uncovered at Hinton St. Mary, Dorset. Another Romano-British Chi-Rho, in fresco, was found at the site of a villa at Lullingstone, the symbol was also found on Late Roman Christian signet rings in Britain. Though the letters are one after the other and the X and P not combined in a monogram. Famous examples are in the Book of Kells and Book of Lindisfarne, the X was regarded as the crux decussata, a symbol of the cross, this idea is found in the works of Isidore of Seville and other patristic and Early Medieval writers. In some other works like the Carolingian Godescalc Evangelistary, XPS in sequential letters, Alpha and Omega Chi Rho Christian symbolism Christogram Ichthys Labarum Merchants mark Media related to Chi Rho at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Jesus
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In Christology, the Person of Christ refers to the study of the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ as they co-exist within one person. There is no discussion in the New Testament regarding the dual nature of the Person of Christ as both divine and human. Hence, since the days of Christianity theologians have debated various approaches to the understanding of these natures. In the period following the Apostolic Age, specific beliefs such as Arianism and Docetism were criticized. On the other end of the spectrum, Docetism argued that Jesus physical body was an illusion, docetic teachings were attacked by St. Ignatius of Antioch and were eventually abandoned by proto-orthodox Christians. However, after the First Council of Nicaea in 325 the Logos, historically in the Alexandrian school of christology, Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos paradoxically humanized in history, a divine Person who became enfleshed, uniting himself to the human nature. The views of these schools can be summarized as follows, Alexandria, Antioch, Logos assumes a specific human being The First Council of Ephesus in 431 debated a number of views regarding the Person of Christ. At the same gathering the council debated the doctrines of monophysitism or miaphysitism. The council rejected Nestorianism and adopted the term hypostatic union, referring to divine, the language used in the 431 declaration was further refined at the 451 Council of Chalcedon. However, the Chalcedon creed was not accepted by all Christians, because Saint Augustine died in 430 he did not participate in the Council of Ephesus in 431 or Chalcedon in 451, but his ideas had some impact on both councils. On the other hand, the major theological figure of the Middle Ages. The Third Council of Constantinople in 680 held that both divine and human wills exist in Jesus, with the divine will having precedence, leading and guiding the human will. John Calvin maintained that there was no element in the Person of Christ which could be separated from the person of The Word. Calvin also emphasized the importance of the Work of Christ in any attempt at understanding the Person of Christ, the study of the Person of Christ continued into the 20th century, with modern theologians such as Karl Rahner and Hans von Balthasar. Balthasar argued that the union of the human and divine natures of Christ was achieved not by the absorption of human attributes, thus in his view the divine nature of Christ was not affected by the human attributes and remained forever divine
8.
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
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Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus is a fifth-century Greek manuscript of the Bible, sometimes referred to as one of the four great uncials. The manuscript is called Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus because it is a codex, i. e. Manuscripts of this sort, the later text was written in the 12th century. The lower text of the palimpsest was deciphered by biblical scholar and palaeographer Tischendorf in 1840–1843, currently it is housed in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. 208 leaves of the codex are extant,144 belong to the New Testament and 64 to the Old Testament, the codex measures 12¼ in/31. 4-32.5 cm by 9 in/25. 6-26.4 cm. The text is written in a column per page, 40–46 lines per page. The uncial writing is continuous, with the punctuation consisting only of a single point, the capitals at the beginning sections stand out in the margin as in codices Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Basilensis. The breathings and accents were added by a later hand, the nomina sacra tend to be contracted into three-letter forms rather than the more common two-letter forms. Before the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of John, a list of κεφαλαια is preserved, but their τιτλοι were apparently not placed in the upper margin of the page as in Codex Alexandrinus. It is possible, however, that the upper margins once contained τιτλοι in red ink which has faded away. The text of the Gospels is accompanied by marginal notations indicating the Ammonian Sections, probably when the codex was pristine, numerals representing the Eusebian Canons were also present in red ink which has completely vanished. There are no divisions in the other books. The Pericope Adulterae was almost certainly not included in Codex C when it was in pristine condition, the two leaves which contained John 7, 3–8,34 are not extant. The text of Mark 16, 9–20 is included in Codex C on folio 148r and it is difficult to determine whether Luke 22, 43-44 Christs agony at Gethsemane was originally in the text of Codex C, the leaves that contained the surrounding verses are not extant. Lacunae Gospel of Matthew,1, 1–2,5, 15–7,5,17, 26–18,28,22, 21–23,17,24, 10–45,25, 30–26,22,27, 11–46,28, 15-fin. Epistle to the Romans,1, 1–3,2, 5–3,21,9, 6–10,15,11, 31–13,10, First Epistle to the Corinthians,1, 1–2,7, 18–9,6,13, 8–15,40, Second Epistle to the Corinthians,1, 1–2,10, 8-fin. Epistle to the Galatians,1, 1–20 Epistle to the Ephesians,1, 1–2,18,4, Epistle to the Philippians,1, 1–22,3, 5-fin. Epistle to the Colossians,1, 1–2, First Epistle to the Thessalonians,1,1,2, Second Epistle to the Thessalonians lost First Epistle to Timothy,1, 1–3,9,5, 20-fin. Second Epistle to Timothy,1, 1–2, Epistle to Titus,1, 1–2 Epistle to Philemon, 1–2 Epistle to the Hebrews,1, 1–2,4,7, 26–9,15,10, 24–12,15, Epistle of James,1, 1–2,4, 2-fin
9.
Catacombs
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Catacombs are human-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a place is a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire. The name of place in late Latin was catacumbae, a word of obscure origin, possibly deriving from a proper name, or else a corruption of the Latin phrase cata tumbas. The word referred originally only to the Roman catacombs, but was extended by 1836 to refer to any subterranean receptacle of the dead, Catacombs in the world include, Australia – Catacombs of Trinity College, Melbourne Austria – Catacombs of St. Mine workings were used at end of the 18th century and had no purpose other than as an ossuary for storing the bones of cleared graveyards. Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, Sicily were used as late as the 1920s, Catacombs were available in some of the grander English cemeteries founded in the 19th Century, such as Sheffield General Cemetery and West Norwood Cemetery. There are catacombs in Bulgaria near Aladzha Monastery and in Romania as medieval underground galleries in Bucharest, in Ukraine and Russia, catacomb also refers to the network of abandoned caves and tunnels earlier used to mine stone, especially limestone. Catacombs, although most notable as underground passageways and cemeteries, also many decorations. Most of these decorations were used to identify, immortalize and show respect to the dead, decorations in the catacombs of Rome were primarily decorated with images and words exalting Christ or depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Three representations of Christ as Orpheus charming animals with peaceful music have found in the catacombs of Domatilla. Another figure was made of gilded glass and dates back to the century, featuring Jesus with the world balanced in his hand. A common and particularly interesting one found in Roman catacombs is the Ichthys, or Monogram of Christ which reads ΙΧΘΥΣ, standing for Jesus Christ, Son of God, in recent years unique strains of bacteria have been discovered that thrive in catacombs, inducing mineral efflorescence and decay. These include Kribbella sancticallisti, Kribbella catacumbae, and three types of non-thermophilic Rubrobacter, american University in Cairo Press,2005 pp. 44–71. ISBN 978-977-424-858-0 The Catacombs of Saint Sebastian The Catacombs of Naples The Catacombs of Paris Catacombs The Catacombs of Saint Callist Subterranean Britannica The Catacombs of Lima, Peru
10.
Early Christian art and architecture
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In practice identifiably Christian art only survives from the 2nd century onwards. After 550 at the latest, Christian art is classified as Byzantine and it is hard to know when distinctly Christian art began. Prior to 100, Christians may have been constrained by their position as a group from producing durable works of art. Since Christianity was largely a religion of the classes in this period, the lack of surviving art may reflect a lack of funds for patronage. The Old Testament restrictions against the production of images may also have constrained Christians from producing art. Christians may have made or purchased art with pagan iconography, but given it Christian meanings, if this happened, Christian art would not be immediately recognizable as such. Early Christianity used the artistic media as the surrounding pagan culture. These media included fresco, mosaics, sculpture, and manuscript illumination, Early Christian art not only used Roman forms, it also used Roman styles. Late classical style included a portrayal of the human body. Late classical style is seen in early Christian frescos, such as those in the Catacombs of Rome, Early Christians adapted Roman motifs and gave new meanings to what had been pagan symbols. Among the motifs adopted were the peacock, grapevines, and the Good Shepherd, Early Christians also developed their own iconography, for example, such symbols as the fish, were not borrowed from pagan iconography. The earlier period being called the Pre-Constantinian or Ante-Nicene Period and after being the period of the First seven Ecumenical Councils, the earliest surviving Christian art comes from the late 2nd to early 4th centuries on the walls of Christian tombs in the catacombs of Rome. From literary evidence, there may well have been panel icons which, initially Jesus was represented indirectly by pictogram symbols such as the Ichthys, peacock, Lamb of God, or an anchor. The image of The Good Shepherd, a youth in pastoral scenes collecting sheep, was the most common of these images. These images bear some resemblance to depictions of figures in Greco-Roman art. The almost total absence from Christian monuments of the period of persecutions of the plain, the dove is a symbol of peace and purity. It can be found with a halo or celestial light, in one of the earliest known Trinitarian images, the Throne of God as a Trinitarian image, the dove represents the Spirit. It is flying above an empty throne representing God, in the throne are a chlamys, the Chi-Rho monogram, XP, apparently first used by Constantine I, consists of the first two characters of the name Christos in Greek
11.
Halo (religious iconography)
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A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They have been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, halos may be shown as almost any colour or combination of colours, but are most often depicted as golden, yellow or white when representing light or red when representing flames. Homer describes a light around the heads of heroes in battle. 450-30 BC, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the sun-god Helios and had his usual radiate crown. Hellenistic rulers are shown wearing radiate crowns that seem clearly to imitate this effect. The rulers of the Kushan Empire were perhaps the earliest to give themselves haloes on their coins, in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist art the halo has also been used since the earliest periods in depicting the image of Amitabha Buddha and others. Thin lines of gold often radiate outwards or inwards from the rim of the halo, elaborate haloes and especially aureoles also appear in Hindu sculpture, where they tend to develop into architectural frames in which the original idea can be hard to recognise. Theravada Buddhism and Jainism did not use the halo for many centuries, in Asian art, the nimbus is often imagined as consisting not just of light, but of flames. This type seems to first appear in Chinese bronzes of which the earliest surviving examples date from before 450 and this type is also very rarely found, and on a smaller scale, in medieval Christian art. Sometimes a thin line of flames rise up from the edges of a halo in Buddhist examples. In Tibetan paintings the flames are shown as blown by a wind. Halos are found in Islamic art from various places and periods, especially in Persian miniatures and Moghul, flaming halos derived from Buddhist art surround angels, and similar ones are often seen around Muhammad and other sacred human figures. The halo represents an aura or glow of sanctity which was conventionally drawn encircling the head, though Roman paintings have largely disappeared, save some fresco decorations, the haloed figure remains fresh in Roman mosaics. In a 2nd-century AD Roman floor mosaic preserved at Bardo, Tunisia, significantly, the triton and nereid who accompany the sea-god are not haloed. In a late 2nd century AD floor mosaic from Thysdrus, El Djem, another haloed Apollo in mosaic, from Hadrumentum, is in the museum at Sousse. The conventions of representation, head tilted, lips slightly parted, large-eyed. The halo was incorporated into Early Christian art sometime in the 4th century with the earliest iconic images of Christ, initially the only figure shown with one. At least in later Orthodox images, each bar of cross is composed of three lines, symbolising the dogmas of the Trinity, the oneness of God and the two natures of Christ
12.
Hebrew alphabet
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Historically, there have been two separate abjad scripts to write Hebrew. In the remainder of this article, the term Hebrew alphabet refers to the Jewish square script unless otherwise indicated, the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. It does not have case, but five letters have different forms used at the end of a word. Hebrew is written right to left. Originally, the alphabet was an abjad consisting only of consonants, as with other abjads, such as the Arabic alphabet, scribes later devised means of indicating vowel sounds by separate vowel points, known in Hebrew as niqqud. In both biblical and rabbinic Hebrew, the letters א ה ו י are also used as matres lectionis to represent vowels. There is a trend in modern Modern Hebrew toward the use of matres lectionis to indicate vowels that have traditionally gone unwritten, the paleo-Hebrew alphabet was used in the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The Samaritans, who remained in the Land of Israel, continued to use the paleo-Hebrew alphabet, after the fall of the Persian Empire in 330 BCE, Jews used both scripts before settling on the Assyrian form. The square Hebrew alphabet was adapted and used for writing languages of the Jewish diaspora – such as Karaim, the Judeo-Arabic languages, Judaeo-Spanish. In the traditional form, the Hebrew alphabet is an abjad consisting only of consonants and it has 22 letters, five of which use different forms at the end of a word. Also, a system of points to indicate vowels, called niqqud, was developed. In modern forms of the alphabet, as in the case of Yiddish and to some extent Modern Hebrew, today, the trend is toward full spelling with the weak letters acting as true vowels. When used to write Yiddish, vowels are indicated, using letters, either with or without niqqud-diacritics, except for Hebrew words. To preserve the proper vowel sounds, scholars developed several different sets of vocalization, one of these, the Tiberian system, eventually prevailed. Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, and his family for generations, are credited for refining and maintaining the system. These points are used only for special purposes, such as Biblical books intended for study. The Tiberian system also includes a set of marks, called trope. These are shown below the normal form in the following table, although Hebrew is read and written from right to left, the following table shows the letters in order from left to right
Hassett, Maurice M. (1907). "A and Ω". In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Hassett, Maurice M. (1907). "
