1.
Deesis
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Mary and John, and any other figures, are shown facing towards Christ with their hands raised in supplication on behalf of humanity. In early examples, it was placed on the templon beam in Orthodox churches or above doors, though it also appears on icons. After the development of the full iconostasis screen there was room for a larger Deesis row or Great Deesis of full-length figures, and the number of figures expanded, in both Byzantium and Russia. Usually this row is above the level of the doors, and below the row depicting the Twelve Great Feasts, the central Christ is therefore above the main door in the screen. Especially in Russian examples, a number of saints of local significance are often included behind these, andrey Rublevs row for the Cathedral of the Dormition in Vladimir were 3.14 metres high. In the Greek tradition the Apostles are more likely to occupy extra panels, the Deesis composition is also commonly found in the West, especially those parts of Italy under Byzantine influence, but also the rest of Europe. It often forms part of a scene of the Last Judgement, the use of the image declined slowly throughout the Middle Ages, and it is never as common as the Western forms of Christ in Majesty. In depictions of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross is very often flanked by the Virgin standing on one side. Definition of Deesis -- Includes photos of the Deesis in the Hagia Sophia
2.
Mosaic
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A mosaic is a piece of art or image made from the assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It is often used in art or as interior decoration. Most mosaics are made of small, flat, roughly square, pieces of stone or glass of different colors, some, especially floor mosaics, are made of small rounded pieces of stone, and called pebble mosaics. Others are made of other materials, mosaics have a long history, starting in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. Pebble mosaics were made in Tiryns in Mycenean Greece, mosaics with patterns and pictures became widespread in classical times, Early Christian basilicas from the 4th century onwards were decorated with wall and ceiling mosaics. Mosaic fell out of fashion in the Renaissance, though artists like Raphael continued to practise the old technique, Roman and Byzantine influence led Jews to decorate 5th and 6th century synagogues in the Middle East with floor mosaics. Mosaic was widely used on buildings and palaces in early Islamic art, including Islams first great religious building, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Mosaic went out of fashion in the Islamic world after the 8th century, modern mosaics are made by professional artists, street artists, and as a popular craft. Many materials other than stone and ceramic tesserae may be employed, including shells, glass. The earliest known examples of made of different materials were found at a temple building in Abra, Mesopotamia. They consist of pieces of colored stones, shells and ivory, excavations at Susa and Chogha Zanbil show evidence of the first glazed tiles, dating from around 1500 BC. However, mosaic patterns were not used until the times of Sassanid Empire, mythological subjects, or scenes of hunting or other pursuits of the wealthy, were popular as the centrepieces of a larger geometric design, with strongly emphasized borders. Pliny the Elder mentions the artist Sosus of Pergamon by name, describing his mosaics of the left on a floor after a feast. Both of these themes were widely copied, most recorded names of Roman mosaic workers are Greek, suggesting they dominated high quality work across the empire, no doubt most ordinary craftsmen were slaves. Splendid mosaic floors are found in Roman villas across North Africa, in such as Carthage. The tiny tesserae allowed very fine detail, and an approach to the illusionism of painting, often small panels called emblemata were inserted into walls or as the highlights of larger floor-mosaics in coarser work. The normal technique was opus tessellatum, using larger tesserae, which was laid on site, there was a distinct native Italian style using black on a white background, which was no doubt cheaper than fully coloured work. In Rome, Nero and his architects used mosaics to cover surfaces of walls and ceilings in the Domus Aurea, built 64 AD
3.
Hagia Sophia
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Hagia Sophia was a Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal basilica, later an imperial mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. The building was converted into an Ottoman mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935, famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have changed the history of architecture. It remained the worlds largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years and it was designed by the Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. The church contained a collection of relics and featured, among other things. In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed the Conqueror, by that point, the church had fallen into a state of disrepair. Nevertheless, the Christian cathedral made an impression on the new Ottoman rulers. Islamic features—such as the mihrab, minbar, and four minarets—were added and it remained a mosque until 1931, when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum by the Republic of Turkey, Hagia Sophia was, as of 2014, the second-most visited museum in Turkey, attracting almost 3.3 million visitors annually. According to data released by the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry, from its initial conversion until the construction of the nearby Sultan Ahmed Mosque in 1616, it was the principal mosque of Istanbul. The first church on the site was known as the Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία, or in Latin Magna Ecclesia, inaugurated on 15 February 360 by the Arian bishop Eudoxius of Antioch, it was built next to the area where the imperial palace was being developed. The nearby Hagia Eirene church was completed earlier and served as cathedral until the Great Church was completed, both churches acted together as the principal churches of the Byzantine Empire. Writing in 440, Socrates of Constantinople claimed that the church was built by Constantius II, a tradition which is not older than the 7th or 8th century, reports that the edifice was built by Constantine the Great. Zonaras reconciles the two opinions, writing that Constantius had repaired the edifice consecrated by Eusebius of Nicomedia, after it had collapsed. Since Eusebius was bishop of Constantinople from 339 to 341, and Constantine died in 337, the edifice was built as a traditional Latin colonnaded basilica with galleries and a wooden roof. It was preceded by an atrium and it was claimed to be one of the worlds most outstanding monuments at the time. The Patriarch of Constantinople John Chrysostom came into a conflict with Empress Aelia Eudoxia, wife of the emperor Arcadius, during the subsequent riots, this first church was largely burned down. Nothing remains of the first church today, a second church on the site was ordered by Theodosius II, who inaugurated it on 10 October 415
4.
Istanbul
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Istanbul, historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the most populous city in Turkey and the countrys economic, cultural, and historic center. Istanbul is a city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosphorus strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives on the Asian side, the city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, both hosting a population of around 14.7 million residents. Istanbul is one of the worlds most populous cities and ranks as the worlds 7th-largest city proper, founded under the name of Byzantion on the Sarayburnu promontory around 660 BCE, the city developed to become one of the most significant in history. After its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 CE, it served as a capital for almost 16 centuries, during the Roman and Byzantine, the Latin. Overlooked for the new capital Ankara during the period, the city has since regained much of its prominence. The population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s, as migrants from across Anatolia have moved in, arts, music, film, and cultural festivals were established at the end of the 20th century and continue to be hosted by the city today. Infrastructure improvements have produced a complex transportation network, considered a global city, Istanbul has one of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in the world. It hosts the headquarters of many Turkish companies and media outlets and accounts for more than a quarter of the gross domestic product. Hoping to capitalize on its revitalization and rapid expansion, Istanbul has bid for the Summer Olympics five times in twenty years, the first known name of the city is Byzantium, the name given to it at its foundation by Megarean colonists around 660 BCE. The name is thought to be derived from a personal name, ancient Greek tradition refers to a legendary king of that name as the leader of the Greek colonists. Modern scholars have hypothesized that the name of Byzas was of local Thracian or Illyrian origin. He also attempted to promote the name Nova Roma and its Greek version Νέα Ῥώμη Nea Romē, the use of Constantinople to refer to the city during the Ottoman period is now considered politically incorrect, even if not historically inaccurate, by Turks. By the 19th century, the city had acquired other names used by foreigners or Turks. Europeans used Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoğlu. The name İstanbul is commonly held to derive from the Medieval Greek phrase εἰς τὴν Πόλιν and this reflected its status as the only major city in the vicinity. The importance of Constantinople in the Ottoman world was reflected by its Ottoman name Der Saadet meaning the gate to Prosperity in Ottoman. An alternative view is that the name evolved directly from the name Constantinople, with the first, a Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol plenty of Islam because the city was called Islambol or Islambul as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire
5.
Iconography
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The word iconography comes from the Greek εἰκών and γράφειν. A secondary meaning is the production of images, called icons, in the Byzantine and Orthodox Christian tradition. In art history, an iconography may also mean a depiction of a subject in terms of the content of the image, such as the number of figures used, their placing. Sometimes distinctions have been made between iconology and iconography, although the definitions, and so the distinction made, varies, when referring to movies, genres are immediately recognizable through their iconography, motifs that become associated with a specific genre through repetition. Gian Pietro Bellori, a 17th-century biographer of artists of his own time, describes and analyses, not always correctly, many works. Lessings study of the classical figure Amor with a torch was an early attempt to use a study of a type of image to explain the culture it originated in. These early contributions paved the way for encyclopedias, manuals, mâles lArt religieux du XIIIe siècle en France translated into English as The Gothic Image, Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century has remained continuously in print. In the United States, to which Panofsky immigrated in 1931, students such as Frederick Hartt, the period from 1940 can be seen as one where iconography was especially prominent in art history. These are now being digitised and made online, usually on a restricted basis. For example, the Iconclass code 71H7131 is for the subject of Bathsheba with Davids letter, whereas 71 is the whole Old Testament and 71H the story of David. A number of collections of different types have been classified using Iconclass, notably types of old master print, the collections of the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. These are available, usually on-line or on DVD, the system can also be used outside pure art history, for example on sites like Flickr. Central to the iconography and hagiography of Indian religions are mudra or gestures with specific meanings, the symbolic use of colour to denote the Classical Elements or Mahabhuta and letters and bija syllables from sacred alphabetic scripts are other features. Under the influence of art developed esoteric meanings, accessible only to initiates. The art of Indian Religions esp, for example, Narasimha an incarnation of Vishnu though considered a wrathful deity but in few contexts is depicted in pacified mood. Conversely, in Hindu art, narrative scenes have become more common in recent centuries, especially in miniature paintings of the lives of Krishna. Eventually the Church would succeed in weeding most of these out, after the period of Byzantine iconoclasm iconographical innovation was regarded as unhealthy, if not heretical, in the Eastern Church, though it still continued at a glacial pace. More than in the West, traditional depictions were often considered to have authentic or miraculous origins, the Eastern church also never accepted the use of monumental high relief or free-standing sculpture, which it found too reminiscent of paganism
6.
Depiction of Jesus
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No useful description of the physical appearance of Jesus is given in the New Testament and the depiction of Jesus in pictorial form was controversial in the early Church. The depiction of him in art took several centuries to reach a conventional standardized form for his physical appearance, most images of Jesus have in common a number of traits which are now almost universally associated with Jesus, although variants are seen. The conventional image of a fully bearded Jesus with long hair emerged around 300, but did not become established until the 6th century in Eastern Christianity, and much later in the West. It has always had the advantage of being easily recognizable, and distinguishing Jesus from other figures shown around him, earlier images were much more varied. Images of Jesus tend to show characteristics similar to those of the culture in which the image has been created. The Shroud of Turin is now the best-known example, though the Image of Edessa, no physical description of Jesus is contained in any of the canonical Gospels. In the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus is said to have manifested as a light from heaven that temporarily blinded the Apostle Paul and his hair was like wool, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters, in his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance, use in art of the Revelation description of Jesus has generally been restricted to illustrations of the book itself. Exodus 20, 4-6 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image is one of the Ten Commandments, irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesarea disapproved of portrayals in images of Jesus. The issue remained the subject of controversy until the end of the 4th century, initially Jesus was represented indirectly by pictogram symbols such as the Ichthys, the peacock, or an anchor. The staurogram seems to have been an early representation of the crucified Jesus within the sacred texts. It continues the classical Kriophoros, and in cases may also represent the Shepherd of Hermas. The oldest known portrait of Jesus, found in Syria and dated to about 235, shows him as a young man of authoritative. He is depicted dressed in the style of a philosopher, with close-cropped hair and wearing a tunic. The appearance of Jesus had some theological implications, for Augustine he was beautiful as a child, beautiful on earth, beautiful in heaven. There are some surviving scenes from Christs Works of about 235 from the Dura Europos church on the Persian frontier of the Empire, Jesus is sometimes shown performing miracles by means of a wand, as on the doors of Santa Sabina in Rome. He uses the wand to change water to wine, multiply the bread and fishes, when pictured healing, he only lays on hands
7.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
8.
Names of God in Judaism
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The name of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton YHWH. It is frequently anglicized as Jehovah and Yahweh and written in most English editions of the Bible as the Lord owing to the Jewish tradition of reading it as Adonai out of respect. Rabbinic Judaism describes seven names which are so holy that, once written, should not be erased, The Tetragrammaton, El, Eloah, Elohim, Shaddai, Ehyeh, and Tzevaot. The documentary hypothesis proposes that the Torah was compiled from original sources. The seven names of God that, once written, cannot be erased because of their holiness are the Tetragrammaton, El, Elohim, Eloah, Elohai, El Shaddai, in addition, the name Jah—because it forms part of the Tetragrammaton—is similarly protected. Rabbi Jose considered Tzevaot a common name and Rabbi Ishmael that Elohim was, all other names, such as Merciful, Gracious and Faithful, merely represent attributes that are also common to human beings. The name of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible is YHWH, Hebrew is a right-to-left abjad, so the words letters Yōd, Hē, Vav, Hē are usually taken for consonants and expanded to Yahweh or Jehovah in English. The Tetragrammaton first appears in Genesis and occurs 6828 times in total in the Stuttgart edition of the Masoretic Text and it is thought to be an archaic third-person singular imperfect tense of the verb to be. This agrees with the passage in Exodus where God names Himself as I Will Be What I Will Be using the first-person singular imperfect tense. Rabbinical Judaism teaches that the name is forbidden to all except the High Priest and he then pronounces the name just as it is written. As each blessing was made, the people in the courtyard were to prostrate themselves completely as they heard it spoken aloud. As the Temple has been destroyed since CE70, most modern Jews never pronounce YHWH but instead read Adonai during prayer and while reading the Torah and as HaShem at other times. Similarly, the Vulgate used Dominus and most English translations of the Bible write the Lord for YHWH and the Lord God for Adonai YHWH instead of transcribing the name. Or Theos for occurrences of the name. )El appears in Ugaritic, Phoenician and other 2nd, in the Hebrew Bible El appears very occasionally alone, but usually with some epithet or attribute attached, in which cases it can be understood as the generic god. A common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is Elohim, despite the -im ending common to many plural nouns in Hebrew, the word Elohim when referring to God is grammatically singular, and takes a singular verb in the Hebrew Bible. When the Hebrew Bible uses elohim not in reference to God, there are a few other such uses in Hebrew, for example Behemoth. In Modern Hebrew, the singular word baalim looks plural, a number of scholars have traced the etymology to the Semitic root *yl, to be first, powerful, despite some difficulties with this view. Elohim is thus the plural construct powers, Hebrew grammar allows for this form to mean He is the Power over powers, just as the word Baalim means owner
9.
Hebrew Bible
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They are composed mainly in Biblical Hebrew, with some passages in Biblical Aramaic. The term does not comment upon the naming, numbering or ordering of books, the term Hebrew Bible is an attempt to provide specificity with respect to contents but avoid allusion to any particular interpretative tradition or theological school of thought. Hebrew Bible refers to the Jewish biblical canon, in its Latin form, Biblia Hebraica, it traditionally serves as a title for printed editions of the Masoretic Text. Many biblical studies scholars advocate use of the term Hebrew Bible as a substitute to terms with religious connotations. Hebrew Bible Old Testament without prescribing the use of either, however, he accepts that there is no reason why non-Christians should feel obliged to refer to these books as the Old Testament, apart from custom of use. Modern Christian formulations of this tension include Supersessionism, Covenant Theology, New Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism, in terms of canon, Christian usage of Old Testament does not refer to a universally agreed upon set of books but, rather, varies depending on denomination. The Hebrew Bible includes small portions in Aramaic, written and printed in Aramaic square-script, the books that constitute the Hebrew Bible developed over roughly a millennium. The oldest texts seem to come from the 11th or 10th centuries BCE and they are edited works, being collections of various sources intricately and carefully woven together. Since the 19th century, most biblical scholars have agreed that the Pentateuch consists of four sources which have been woven together and these four sources are J, D, E and P sources. They were combined to form the Pentateuch sometime in the 6th century BCE and this theory is now known as the documentary hypothesis, and has been the dominant theory for the past two hundred years. The Deuteronomist credited with the Pentateuchs book of Deuteronomy is also said to be the source of the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, several editions, all titled Biblia Hebraica, have been produced by various German publishers since 1906. Between 1906 and 1955, Rudolf Kittel published nine editions of it,1966, the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft published the renamed Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in six editions until 1997. Since 2004 the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft has published the Biblia Hebraica Quinta, other projects include, Hebrew University Bible Project Hebrew Bible, A Critical Edition Biblical canon Books of the Bible Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible Torah Brueggemann, Walter. An introduction to the Old Testament, the canon and Christian imagination, the People of Ancient Israel, an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper and Row,1974. Sinai and Zion, An Entry into the Jewish Bible, archived from the original on 14 March 2012. The Ancient Near East, Volume I, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press. An abridgement of Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament Noth, how the Bible Became a Book. The Old Testament, A Literary History, hebrew-English Tanakh, the Jewish Bible Complete, fully vocalized, contilated, Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible, together with the classic English translation by the Jewish Publication Society
10.
Septuagint
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The Septuagint is a Koine Greek translation of an Hebraic textual tradition that included certain texts which were later included in the canonical Hebrew Bible and other related texts which were not. As the primary Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is called the Greek Old Testament. This translation is quoted a number of times in the New Testament, particularly in Pauline epistles, the title and its Roman numeral LXX refer to the legendary seventy Jewish scholars who solely translated the Five Books of Moses into Koine Greek as early as the 3rd century BCE. Separated from the Hebrew canon of the Jewish Bible in Rabbinic Judaism, the traditional story is that Ptolemy II sponsored the translation of the Torah. The Septuagint should not be confused with the seven or more other Greek versions of the Old Testament, of these, the most important are those by Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. However, it was not until the time of Augustine of Hippo that the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures came to be called by the Latin term Septuaginta. This narrative is found in the pseudepigraphic Letter of Aristeas to his brother Philocrates, the story is also found in the Tractate Megillah of the Babylonian Talmud, King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one and he entered each ones room and said, Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher. God put it in the heart of one to translate identically as all the others did. Philo of Alexandria, who relied extensively on the Septuagint, says that the number of scholars was chosen by selecting six scholars from each of the tribes of Israel. After the Torah, other books were translated over the two to three centuries. It is not altogether clear which was translated when, or where, some may even have been translated twice, into different versions, the quality and style of the different translators also varied considerably from book to book, from the literal to paraphrasing to interpretative. The translation of the Septuagint itself began in the 3rd century BCE and was completed by 132 BCE, initially in Alexandria, the Septuagint is the basis for the Old Latin, Slavonic, Syriac, Old Armenian, Old Georgian and Coptic versions of the Christian Old Testament. Some sections of the Septuagint may show Semiticisms, or idioms and phrases based on Semitic languages like Hebrew, other books, such as Daniel and Proverbs, show Greek influence more strongly. The Septuagint may also elucidate pronunciation of pre-Masoretic Hebrew, many nouns are spelled out with Greek vowels in the LXX. However, it is unlikely that all ancient Hebrew sounds had precise Greek equivalents. As the work of translation progressed, the canon of the Greek Bible expanded, the Torah always maintained its pre-eminence as the basis of the canon, but the collection of prophetic writings, based on the Jewish Neviim, had various hagiographical works incorporated into it. In addition, some books were included in the Septuagint
11.
Heavenly host
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Heavenly host refers to the army of angels mentioned both in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, as well as other Jewish and Christian texts. Several descriptions of angels in the Bible describe them in terms, such as encampment, command structure. The heavenly host participate in the War in Heaven, in the Book of Joshua 5, 13-15, Joshua encounters a captain of the host of the Lord in the early days of his campaigns in the Promised Land. Cherubim are depicted as accompanying Gods chariot-throne, exodus 25, 18-22 refers to statues of two cherubim placed on top of the Ark of the Covenant. J. A. Motyer writes, the cherbim overshadowing the ark were a pedestal for the throne of the invisible God. Other guard-like duties include being posted in locations such as the gates of Eden, cherubim were mythological winged bulls or other beasts that were part of ancient Near Eastern traditions. This designation might be given to angels of various ranks, an example would be Raphael who is ranked variously as a Seraph, Cherub, and Archangel. This is usually a result of conflicting schemes of hierarchies of angels, in Revelation 5,11 a figure of ten thousand times ten thousand is given for the number of many angels in a circle around the throne, as well as the living creatures and the elders. In the Book of Revelation, the forces of Satan are defeated by the Heavenly Host led by Michael the Archangel during the War in Heaven. This name is transliterated in Latin as Sabaoth, a form that will be more familiar to many English readers. The term Lord of Hosts is also used in the Baháí Faith as a title of God, in the English epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton, the Archangel Michael commands the army of angels loyal to God against the rebel forces of Satan. Armed with a sword from Gods armory, he bests Satan in personal combat, astrolatry Divine Council Hierarchy of Angels
12.
New Testament
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The New Testament is the second major part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity, Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture. The New Testament has frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world and it reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Both extended readings and phrases directly from the New Testament are also incorporated into the various Christian liturgies, the New Testament has influenced religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom and left an indelible mark on literature, art, and music. In almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books, John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Others give a date of 80 AD, or at 96 AD. Over time, some disputed books, such as the Book of Revelation, other works earlier held to be Scripture, such as 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Diatessaron, were excluded from the New Testament. However, the canon of the New Testament, at least since Late Antiquity, has been almost universally recognized within Christianity. The term new testament, or new covenant first occurs in Jeremiah 31,31, the same Greek phrase for new covenant is found elsewhere in the New Testament. Modern English, like Latin, distinguishes testament and covenant as alternative translations, John Wycliffes 1395 version is a translation of the Latin Vulgate and so follows different terms in Jeremiah and Hebrews, Lo. Days shall come, saith the Lord, and I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel, for he reproving him saith, Lo. Days come, saith the Lord, when I shall establish a new testament on the house of Israel, use of the term New Testament to describe a collection of first and second-century Christian Greek Scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian. In Against Marcion, written circa 208 AD, he writes of the Divine Word, by the 4th century, the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius, a 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin Institutiones Divinae and that which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the Old, but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The canon of the New Testament is the collection of books that most Christians regard as divinely inspired, several of these writings sought to extend, interpret, and apply apostolic teaching to meet the needs of Christians in a given locality. The book order is the same in the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, the Slavonic, Armenian and Ethiopian traditions have different New Testament book orders. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament narrates the life, death, the word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning good news or glad tidings. The gospel was considered the good news of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and the redemption through the life and death of Jesus, Gospel is a calque of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion
13.
Paul the Apostle
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Paul the Apostle, commonly known as Saint Paul, and also known by his native name Saul of Tarsus was an apostle who taught the gospel of the Christ to the first century world. He is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age, in the mid-30s to the mid-50s AD, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul took advantage of his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to minister to both Jewish and Roman audiences, according to writings in the New Testament, Paul was dedicated to the persecution of the early disciples of Jesus in the area of Jerusalem. He was struck blind but, after three days, his sight was restored by Ananias of Damascus, and Paul began to preach that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah, approximately half of the book of Acts deals with Pauls life and works. Fourteen of the books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul. Seven of the epistles are undisputed by scholars as being authentic, Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not asserted in the Epistle itself and was already doubted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It was almost unquestioningly accepted from the 5th to the 16th centuries that Paul was the author of Hebrews, but that view is now almost universally rejected by scholars. The other six are believed by scholars to have come from followers writing in his name. Other scholars argue that the idea of an author for the disputed epistles raises many problems. Today, Pauls epistles continue to be roots of the theology, worship, and pastoral life in the Catholic and Protestant traditions of the West. Augustine of Hippo developed Pauls idea that salvation is based on faith, martin Luthers interpretation of Pauls writings influenced Luthers doctrine of sola fide. The main source for information about Pauls life is the material found in his epistles, however, the epistles contain little information about Pauls past. The book of Acts recounts more information but leaves several parts of Pauls life out of its narrative, such as his probable, some scholars believe Acts also contradicts Pauls epistles on multiple accounts, in particular concerning the frequency of Pauls visits to the church in Jerusalem. It has been assumed that Sauls name was changed when he converted from Judaism to Christianity. His Jewish name was Saul, perhaps after the biblical King Saul, a fellow Benjamite, according to the Book of Acts, he inherited Roman citizenship from his father. As a Roman citizen, he bore the Latin name of Paul—in biblical Greek, Παῦλος. It was quite usual for the Jews of that time to have two names, one Hebrew, the other Latin or Greek. Jesus called him Saul, Saul in the Hebrew tongue in the book of Acts, later, in a vision to Ananias of Damascus, the Lord referred to him as Saul, of Tarsus
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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
15.
Byzantine art
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Byzantine art is the name for the artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. A number of states contemporary with the Byzantine Empire were culturally influenced by it, after the fall of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in 1453, art produced by Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the Ottoman Empire was often called post-Byzantine. Byzantine art never lost sight of this classical heritage, the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, was adorned with a large number of classical sculptures, although they eventually became an object of some puzzlement for its inhabitants. And indeed, the art produced during the Byzantine Empire, although marked by periodic revivals of an aesthetic, was above all marked by the development of a new aesthetic. The most salient feature of new aesthetic was its abstract. The nature and causes of this transformation, which took place during late antiquity, have been a subject of scholarly debate for centuries. Giorgio Vasari attributed it to a decline in skills and standards. Although this point of view has been revived, most notably by Bernard Berenson. Alois Riegl and Josef Strzygowski, writing in the early 20th century, were all responsible for the revaluation of late antique art. Riegl saw it as a development of pre-existing tendencies in Roman art. In any case, the debate is purely modern, it is clear that most Byzantine viewers did not consider their art to be abstract or unnaturalistic, religious art was not, however, limited to the monumental decoration of church interiors. One of the most important genres of Byzantine art was the icon, an image of Christ, the illumination of manuscripts was another major genre of Byzantine art. The most commonly illustrated texts were religious, both scripture itself and devotional or theological texts, secular texts were also illuminated, important examples include the Alexander Romance and the history of John Skylitzes. Small ivories were also mostly in relief, Byzantine ceramics were relatively crude, as pottery was never used at the tables of the rich, who ate off silver. Two events were of importance to the development of a unique. First, the Edict of Milan, issued by the emperors Constantine I and Licinius in 313, allowed for public Christian worship, second, the dedication of Constantinople in 330 created a great new artistic centre for the eastern half of the Empire, and a specifically Christian one. Major Constantinopolitan churches built under Constantine and his son, Constantius II, included the foundations of Hagia Sophia. The next major building campaign in Constantinople was sponsored by Theodosius I, the most important surviving monument of this period is the obelisk and base erected by Theodosius in the Hippodrome
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Sicily
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Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous Region of Italy, along with surrounding minor islands, Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula, from which it is separated by the narrow Strait of Messina. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, the island has a typical Mediterranean climate. The earliest archaeological evidence of activity on the island dates from as early as 12,000 BC. It became part of Italy in 1860 following the Expedition of the Thousand, a revolt led by Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Italian unification, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region after the Italian constitutional referendum of 1946. Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine. It is also home to important archaeological and ancient sites, such as the Necropolis of Pantalica, the Valley of the Temples, Sicily has a roughly triangular shape, earning it the name Trinacria. To the east, it is separated from the Italian mainland by the Strait of Messina, about 3 km wide in the north, and about 16 km wide in the southern part. The northern and southern coasts are each about 280 km long measured as a line, while the eastern coast measures around 180 km. The total area of the island is 25,711 km2, the terrain of inland Sicily is mostly hilly and is intensively cultivated wherever possible. Along the northern coast, the ranges of Madonie,2,000 m, Nebrodi,1,800 m. The cone of Mount Etna dominates the eastern coast, in the southeast lie the lower Hyblaean Mountains,1,000 m. The mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta districts were part of a leading sulphur-producing area throughout the 19th century, Sicily and its surrounding small islands have some highly active volcanoes. Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and still casts black ash over the island with its ever-present eruptions and it currently stands 3,329 metres high, though this varies with summit eruptions, the mountain is 21 m lower now than it was in 1981. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps, Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under the mountain by Zeus, Mount Etna is widely regarded as a cultural symbol and icon of Sicily. The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the northeast of mainland Sicily form a volcanic complex, the three volcanoes of Vulcano, Vulcanello and Lipari are also currently active, although the latter is usually dormant
17.
Christ in Majesty
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The image develops from Early Christian art, which directly borrowed the formulae of depictions of the enthroned Roman Emperor. John the Baptist, and often other figures, the central group of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus of 359 is the earliest example with a clear date. This depiction is known as the Traditio legis, or Christ the lawgiver - the apostles are indeed officials and this depiction tends to merge into one of Christ the teacher, which also derives from classical images of bearded philosophers. Other Imperial depictions of Christ, standing as a general, or seated on a ball representing the world. Christ Triumphant had a future development, usually standing, often with both hands raised high. The Pantocrator figure first became half-length because large versions filled the semi-dome of the apse of many, if not most, a full-length figure would need to be greatly reduced for the head to make maximum impact from a distance. The gesture Christ makes has become one of blessing, but is originally an orators gesture of his right to speak. The Deesis became standard at the centre of the beam in Orthodox churches and the templons successor, the iconostasis. Generally the Pantocrator has no visible throne, but the earlier Deesis does, the Deesis continues to appear in Western art, but not as often or in such an invariable composition as in the East. In the Romanesque period the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse are often seen, Christ also holds a book and makes the blessing gesture, no doubt under Byzantine influence. In both, Christs head is surrounded by a crossed halo and this development paralleled the movement towards a more realistic depiction of the heavenly court seen in the increasingly popular subjects of the Maestà and the Coronation of the Virgin by Christ. A Christ in Majesty became standard carved in the tympanum of a decorated Gothic church portal, by now surrounded by a large number of much smaller figures around the archivolts. In painting, the Ghent Altarpiece is the culmination of the Gothic image, although a minority of art historians believe that in case it is God the Father, not Christ. A variant figure, or the figure in a different context, of Christ as Judge, became common in Last Judgements. Generally Christ still looks straight forward at the viewer, but has no book, he gestures with his hands to direct the damned downwards
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Encaustic painting
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Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid or paste is applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas. Pure, powdered pigments can be used, though some mixtures use oil paints or other forms of pigment. Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape the paint before it cools, today, tools such as heat lamps, heat guns, and other methods of applying heat allow artists to extend the amount of time they have to work with the material. Because wax is used as the pigment binder, encaustics can be sculpted as well as painted, other materials can be encased or collaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to stick them to the surface. The word encaustic originates from the Greek word enkaustikos which means to burn in, kut-kut, a lost art of the Philippines, employs sgraffito and encaustic techniques. It was practiced by the tribe of Samar island around 1600 to 1800. Artists in the Mexican muralism movement, such as Diego Rivera, the Belgian artist James Ensor also experimented with encaustic. The wax encaustic painting technique was described by the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder in his Natural History from the 1st Century AD, the oldest surviving encaustic panel paintings are the Romano-Egyptian Fayum mummy portraits from the 1st Century BC. Faiss held two German patents related to the preparation of waxes for encaustic painting, one covered a method for treating beeswax so that its melting point was raised from 60 to 100 °C. This occurred after boiling the wax in a solution of sea water, the resulting harder wax is the same as the Punic wax referred to in ancient Greek writings on encaustic painting. Encaustic art has seen a resurgence in popularity since the 1990s with people using electric irons, hotplates and heated styli on different surfaces including card, paper, the iron makes producing a variety of artistic patterns easier. The medium is not limited to just simple designs, it can be used to create paintings, just as in other media such as oil. Although technically difficult to master, attractions of this medium for artists are its dimensional quality. Artists specializing in encaustic painting include the following, the Mysterious Fayum Portraits, Faces from Ancient Egypt. El Primer Fresco de Jean Charlot, La Masacre en el Templo Mayor, congreso Internacional de Muralismo, San Ildefonso cuna del muralismo mexicano, Reflexiones historiográficas y artísticas. The Artists Handbook of Materials and Techniques, unique Wax Paintings by Immigrant Artist should Endure 10,000 Years. Los Angeles Times, Oct.19,1952 Birgit Hüttemann-Holz, gedichte und Malerei in Enkaustik - poems and encaustic paintings
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Saint Catherine's Monastery
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The monastery is controlled by the autocephalous Church of Sinai, part of the wider Eastern Orthodox Church, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built between 548 and 565, the monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world, the site contains the worlds oldest continually operating library, possessing many unique books including the Syriac Sinaiticus and, until 1859, the Codex Sinaiticus. A small town with hotels and swimming pools, called Saint Katherine City, has grown around the monastery, according to tradition, Catherine of Alexandria was a Christian martyr sentenced to death on the wheel. When this failed to kill her, she was beheaded, according to tradition, angels took her remains to Mount Sinai. Around the year 800, monks from the Sinai Monastery found her remains, although it is commonly known as Saint Catherines, the monasterys full official name is the Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai. The patronal feast of the monastery is the Transfiguration, the monastery has become a favorite site of pilgrimage. The oldest record of life at Sinai comes from the travel journal written in Latin by a woman named Egeria about 381-384. She visited many places around the Holy Land and Mount Sinai, the living bush on the grounds is purportedly the one seen by Moses. Structurally the monasterys king post truss is the oldest known surviving roof truss in the world, the site is sacred to Christianity, Islam and Judaism. During the Ottoman Empire, the mosque was in desolate condition, during the seventh century, the isolated Christian anchorites of the Sinai were eliminated, only the fortified monastery remained. The monastery is surrounded by the massive fortifications that have preserved it. Until the twentieth century, access was through a high in the outer walls. The monastery was supported by its dependencies in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Crete, Cyprus, the monastery, along with several dependencies in the area, constitute the entire Church of Sinai, which is headed by an archbishop, who is also the abbot of the monastery. The archbishop is traditionally consecrated by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the monastery library preserves the second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts in the world, outnumbered only by the Vatican Library. It contains Greek, Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Hebrew, Georgian, the finding from 1859 left the monastery in the 19th century for Russia, in circumstances that had been long disputed. But in 2003 Russian scholars discovered the donation act for the manuscript signed by the Council of Cairo Metochion, the monastery received 9000 rubles as a gift from Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The Codex was sold by Stalin in 1933 to the British Museum and is now in the British Library, London, prior to September 1,2009, a previously unseen fragment of Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in the monasterys library. In February 1892, Agnes Smith Lewis identified a palimpsest in St Catherines library that became known as the Syriac Sinaiticus and is still in the Monasterys possession
20.
Hypostatic union
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Hypostatic union is a technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the union of Christs humanity and divinity in one hypostasis, or individual existence. The Greek term hypostasis had come into use as a technical term prior to the Christological debates of the fourth and fifth centuries. In pre-Christian times, Greek philosophy used the word, some occurrences of the term hypostasis in the New Testament foreshadow the later, technical understanding of the word. Although it can translate literally as substance, this has been a cause of some confusion, hypostasis denotes an actual, concrete existence, in contrast with abstract categories such as Platonic ideals. As the precise nature of union is held to defy finite human comprehension. Apollinaris of Laodicea was the first to use the term hypostasis in trying to understand the Incarnation, Apollinaris described the union of the divine and human in Christ as being of a single nature and having a single essence — a single hypostasis. In the 5th century, a dispute arose between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius in which Nestorius claimed that the term theotokos could not be used to describe Mary, the mother of Christ. Nestorius argued for two distinct natures of Christ, maintaining that God could not be born because the nature is unoriginate. Therefore, Nestorius believed that the man Jesus of Nazareth was born in union with, but separate from and not strictly identifiable with and we say … that the Word, by having united to himself hypostatically flesh animated by a rational soul, inexplicably and incomprehensibly became man. However, in Theodores time the word hypostasis could be used in a synonymous with ousia as it had been used by Tatian. The Greek and Latin interpretations of Theodores Christology have come under scrutiny since the recovery of his Catechetical Orations in the Syriac language, in 451, the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon promulgated the Chalcedonian Definition. It agreed with Theodore that there were two natures in the Incarnation, however, the Council of Chalcedon also insisted that hypostasis be used as it was in the Trinitarian definition, to indicate the person and not the nature as with Apollinaris. Thus, the Council declared that in Christ there are two natures, each retaining its own properties, and together united in one subsistence and in one single person. The Oriental Orthodox Churches, having rejected the Chalcedonian Creed, were known as Miaphysites because they maintain Cyrilian definition that characterized the incarnate Son as having one nature, the Chalcedonian in two natures formula was seen as derived from and akin to a Nestorian Christology. Contrariwise, the Chalcedonians saw the Oriental Orthodox as tending towards Eutychian Monophysitism, the term miaphysis means one united nature as opposed to one singular nature. Thus the Miaphysite position maintains that although the nature of Christ is from two, it may only be referred to as one in its incarnate state because the natures always act in unity. In recent times, leaders from the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches have signed joint statements in an attempt to work towards reunification, god-man Person of Christ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles, ed. article name needed
21.
Icon
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An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and certain Eastern Catholic churches. The most common subjects include Christ, Mary, saints and/or angels, icons may also be cast in metal, carved in stone, embroidered on cloth, painted on wood, done in mosaic or fresco work, printed on paper or metal, etc. Comparable images from Western Christianity are generally not described as icons, Eastern Orthodox tradition holds that the creation of Christian images dates back to the very early days of Christianity, and there is has been a continuous tradition since then. The icons of later centuries can be linked, often closely, to images from the 5th century onwards, there was enormous destruction of images during the Byzantine Iconoclasm of 726-842, although this did settle for good the question of the appropriateness of images. Since then icons have had a continuity of style and subject. At the same time there has been change and development, Christian tradition dating from the 8th century identifies Luke the Evangelist as the first icon painter. Aside from the legend that Pilate had made an image of Christ and he relates that King Abgar of Edessa sent a letter to Jesus at Jerusalem, asking Jesus to come and heal him of an illness. In this version there is no image, further legends relate that the cloth remained in Edessa until the 10th century, when it was taken to Constantinople. It went missing in 1204 when Crusaders sacked Constantinople, but by then numerous copies had firmly established its iconic type. They crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world that is to say, with the images of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, and the rest. They have also other modes of honouring these images, after the manner of the Gentiles. And he called him and said, Lycomedes, what do you mean by this matter of the portrait, can it be one of thy gods that is painted here. For I see that you are living in heathen fashion. Later in the passage John says, But this that you have now done is childish and imperfect, at least some of the hierarchy of the Christian churches still strictly opposed icons in the early 4th century. At the Spanish non-ecumenical Synod of Elvira bishops concluded, Pictures are not to be placed in churches, so that they do not become objects of worship and adoration. to our religion. After the emperor Constantine I extended official toleration of Christianity within the Roman Empire in 313 and this period of Christianization probably saw the use of Christian images became very widespread among the faithful, though with great differences from pagan habits. Robin Lane Fox states By the early century, we know of the ownership of private icons of saints. 480-500, we can be sure that the inside of a saints shrine would be adorned with images and votive portraits, when Constantine himself apparently converted to Christianity, the majority of his subjects remained pagans
22.
Apse
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In architecture, an apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an Exedra. Smaller apses may also be in other locations, especially shrines, an apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault. Commonly, the apse of a church, cathedral or basilica is the semicircular or polygonal termination to the choir or sanctuary, in relation to church architecture it is generally the name given to where the altar is placed or where the clergy are seated. An apse is occasionally found in a synagogue, e. g. Maoz Haim Synagogue, the apse is separated from the main part of the church by the transept. Smaller apses are sometimes built in other than the east end. The domed apse became a part of the church plan in the early Christian era. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the apse is known as diaconicon. Various ecclesiastical features of which the apse may form part are drawn here, The chancel, directly to the east beyond the choir contains the High Altar. This area is reserved for the clergy, and was formerly called the presbytery. Hemi-cyclic choirs, first developed in the East, came to use in France in 470, famous northern French examples of chevets are in the Gothic cathedrals of Amiens, Beauvais and Reims. The word ambulatory refers to an aisle in the apse that passes behind the altar and choir. An ambulatory may refer to the passages that enclose a cloister in a monastery, or to other types of aisles round the edge of a church building
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Nave
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The nave /ˈneɪv/ is the central aisle of a basilica church, or the main body of a church between its western wall and its chancel. It is the zone of a church accessible by the laity, the nave extends from the entry — which may have a separate vestibule — to the chancel and may be flanked by lower side-aisles separated from the nave by an arcade. If the aisles are high and of a width comparable to the central nave and it provides the central approach to the high altar. The term nave is from medieval Latin navis, a ship was an early Christian symbol. The term may also have suggested by the keel shape of the vaulting of a church. The earliest churches were built when builders were familiar with the form of the Roman basilica and it had a wide central area, with aisles separated by columns, and with windows near the ceiling. Old St. Peters Basilica in Rome is a church which had this form. It was built in the 4th century on the orders of Roman emperor Constantine I, the nave, the main body of the building, is the section set apart for the laity, while the chancel is reserved for the clergy. In medieval churches the nave was separated from the chancel by the rood screen, medieval naves were divided into bays, the repetition of form giving an effect of great length, and the vertical element of the nave was emphasized. During the Renaissance, in place of dramatic effects there were more balanced proportions, longest nave in Denmark, Aarhus Cathedral,93 metres. Longest nave in England, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans,84 metres, longest nave in Ireland, St Patricks Cathedral, Dublin,91 metres. Longest nave in France, Bourges Cathedral,91 metres, including choir where a crossing would be if there were transepts, longest nave in Germany, Cologne cathedral,58 metres, including two bays between the towers. Longest nave in Italy, St Peters Basilica in Rome,91 metres, longest nave in Spain, Seville,60 metres, in five bays. Longest nave in the United States, Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City, highest vaulted nave, Beauvais Cathedral, France,48 metres high but only one bay of the nave was actually built but choir and transepts were completed to the same height. Highest completed nave, Rome, St. Peters, Italy,46 metres high, abbey, with architectural discussion and groundplans Cathedral architecture Cathedral diagram List of highest church naves
24.
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
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The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about 13 m tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. A sculpture of ivory plates and gold panels over a framework, it represented the god Zeus sitting on an elaborate cedar wood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold. The statue of Zeus was commissioned by the Eleans, custodians of the Olympic Games, seeking to outdo their Athenian rivals, the Eleans employed the renowned sculptor Phidias, who had previously made the massive statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon. The great seated statue as fashioned by Phidias occupied half the width of the aisle of the temple built to house it and it seems that if Zeus were to stand up, the geographer Strabo noted early in the 1st century BC, he would unroof the temple. The Zeus was a sculpture, made with ivory and gold panels on a wooden substructure. No copy in marble or bronze has survived, though there are recognizable but only approximate versions on coins of nearby Elis and on Roman coins, in the 2nd century AD, the geographer and traveler Pausanias gave a detailed description. The statue was crowned with a wreath of olive sprays. In its right hand was a small statue of crowned Nike. Its left hand held a scepter inlaid with many metals, supporting an eagle, the throne featured painted figures and wrought images and was decorated in gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory. Zeus golden sandals rested upon a footstool decorated with an Amazonomachy in relief, the passage underneath the throne was restricted by painted screens. Pausanias also recounts that the statue was kept constantly coated with oil to counter the harmful effect on the ivory caused by the marshiness of the Altis grove. The floor in front of the image was paved with tiles and surrounded by a raised rim of marble. This reservoir acted as a pool which doubled the apparent height of the statue. He spoke, the son of Cronos, and nodded his head with the dark brows, and the immortally anointed hair of the great god swept from his divine head, and all Olympos was shaken. According to Pausanias, when the image was quite finished Pheidias prayed the god to show by a sign whether the work was to his liking. Immediately, runs the legend, a fell on that part of the floor where down to the present day the bronze jar stood to cover the place. In 391 AD the Roman emperor Theodosius I banned participation in pagan cults, the sanctuary at Olympia fell into disuse. The circumstances of the eventual destruction are unknown
25.
Early Christianity
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Early Christianity is the period of Christianity preceding the First Council of Nicaea in 325. It is typically divided into the Apostolic Age and the Ante-Nicene Period, the early Gospel message was spread orally, probably in Aramaic, but almost immediately also in Greek. After the conversion of Paul the Apostle, he claimed the title of Apostle to the Gentiles, Pauls influence on Christian thinking is said to be more significant than that of any other New Testament author. As the New Testament canon developed, the Pauline epistles, the canonical gospels, Early Christians demonstrated a wide range of beliefs and practices, many of which were later denounced as heretical. The earliest followers of Jesus composed an apocalyptic, Second Temple Jewish sect, the first part of the period, during the lifetimes of the Twelve Apostles, is called the Apostolic Age. The relationship of Paul the Apostle and Judaism is still disputed although Pauls influence on Christian thinking is said to be more significant than any other New Testament author and they think the Christians the cause of every public disaster, of every affliction with which the people are visited. The first action taken against Christians by the order of an emperor occurred half a century earlier under Nero after the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. During the Ante-Nicene Period following the Apostolic Age, a diversity of views emerged simultaneously with strong unifying characteristics lacking in the apostolic period. Part of the trend was an increasingly harsh anti-Judaism and rejection of Judaizers. Early Christianity gradually grew apart from Judaism during the first two centuries and established itself as a predominantly gentile religion in the Roman Empire. From the writings of early Christians, historians have tried to piece together an understanding of various early Christian practices including worship services, customs, Early Christian writers such as Justin Martyr described these practices. Early Christian beliefs regarding baptism probably predate the New Testament writings and it seems certain that numerous Jewish sects and certainly Jesuss disciples practised baptism, which became integral to nearly every manifestation of the religion of the Jews. John the Baptist had baptized many people, before took place in the name of Jesus Christ. Many of the interpretations that would later become Orthodox Christian beliefs concerning baptism can be traced to such as Paul. On the basis of this description, it was supposed by some modern theologians that the early Christians practised baptism by submersion and this interpretation is debated between those Christian denominations who advocate immersion baptism exclusively and those who practice baptism by affusion or aspersion as well as by immersion. Yet the Didache, one of the earliest Christian writings on liturgical practices, the Orthodox Church continues this practice, submerging the baptized and then pouring water on the head in that formula. Infant baptism was practised at least by the 3rd century. Others believe that infants were excluded from the baptism of households, citing verses of the Bible that describe the baptized households as believing, in the 2nd century, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, may have referred to it
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Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
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Blessing
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A blessing is the infusion of something with holiness, spiritual redemption, or divine will. The modern English language term bless likely derives from the 1225 term blessen, due to this, the term is related to the term blōd, meaning blood. References to this practice, Blót, exist in related Icelandic sources. To be blessed means to be favored by God, Blessings therefore are directly associated with God and come from God. Thus to express a blessing is like bestowing a wish on someone that they experience the favor of God. May you have a blessed Christmas, therefore can also be translated as, a curse, at least in its most formal sense, is the opposite of a blessing. In the Bible, blessings and curses are related, the book of Deuteronomy prescribes that obedience to the Law of Moses brings Gods blessing, similar constructions appear in the New Testament, as in the blessings and curses of Jesus recorded in the Beatitudes of Luke 6, 20-22. One of the first incidences of blessing in the Bible is in Genesis 12, 1-2 where Abram is ordered by the LORD to leave his country and is told, I will bless you, I will make your name great. In Judaism, a blessing is recited at a moment during a prayer, ceremony or other activity, especially before. The function of these blessings is to acknowledge God as the source of all blessing, a berakhah typically starts with the words, Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe. Judaism teaches that food ultimately is a gift of the one great Provider, God, within Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and similar traditions, formal blessings of the church are performed by bishops, priests, and deacons. Particular formulas may be associated with episcopal blessings and papal blessings and they also give blessings to begin divine services and at the dismissal at the end. In the Orthodox Church liturgical blessings are performed over people, objects, or are given at specific points during divine services. A priest or bishop blesses with his hand, but may use a blessing cross, candles, an icon. When blessing with the hand, a priest uses his hand, holding his fingers so that they form the Greek letters IC XC. A bishop does the same, except he uses both hands, or may hold the crozier in his hand, using both to make the Sign of the Cross. A bishop may also bless with special candlesticks known as the dikirion and trikirion, when blessing an object, the rubrics often instruct Orthodox bishops and priests to make use of such substances as incense and holy water. Also, formal ecclesiastical permission to undertake an action is referred to as a blessing, the blessing may be bestowed by a bishop or priest, or by ones own spiritual father
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Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
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Mandorla
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A mandorla is an aureola, usually in the shape of a vesica piscis, which surrounds the figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary in traditional Christian art. It is distinguished from a halo in that it encircles the entire body and it is commonly used to frame the figure of Christ in Majesty in early medieval and Romanesque art, as well as Byzantine art of the same periods. The term mandorla, from the Italian language name for the almond nut, sometimes however, especially in earlier depictions, the mandorla takes circular or elliptical forms. Sometimes, also usually in forms, the mandorla is shown as the intersection of two circles. Rhombic mandorlas are also sometimes seen and these mandorla will often be painted in several concentric patterns of color which grow darker as they come close to the center. This is in keeping with the use of apophatic theology, as described by Dionysius the Areopagite. As holiness increases, there is no way to depict its brightness except by darkness, in architectural iconography, the frame of the mandorla is often marked with decorative mouldings. The interior of the mandorla is usually undecorated, but may contain the symbols Α and Ω or, less frequently, in a famous romanesque fresco of Christ in Glory at Sant Climent de Taüll, the inscription Ego Sum Lux Mundi is incorporated in the mandorla design. The tympanum at Conques has Christ, with a carved in romanesque sculpture. Six surrounding stars, resembling blossoming flowers, indicate the known planets including the Moon, here the symbolism implies Christ as the Sun. In one special case, at Cervon, Christ is seated surrounded by eight stars, at Conques the flowers are six-petalled. The symbolism of the nine-branched Chanukkiyah candelabrum may be relevant, in the 12th century a great school of Judaic thought radiated from Narbonne, coinciding with the origins of the Kabbalah
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Four Evangelists
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The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels, because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence. Also known to have written the book of Acts and to have been a friend of Paul of Tarsus, John – a disciple of Jesus. They are called evangelists, an meaning people who proclaim good news. Images normally, but not invariably, appear with wings like angels. e. Man, the king of creation as the image of the creator, the lion as the king of beasts of prey, the ox as the king of domesticated animals and the eagle as the king of the birds. Matthew the Evangelist, the author of the first gospel account, is symbolized by a winged man, matthews gospel starts with Josephs genealogy from Abraham, it represents Jesus Incarnation, and so Christs human nature. This signifies that Christians should use their reason for salvation, Mark the Evangelist, the author of the second gospel account, is symbolized by a winged lion – a figure of courage and monarchy. The lion also represents Jesus resurrection, and Christ as king and this signifies that Christians should be courageous on the path of salvation. Luke the Evangelist, the author of the gospel account, is symbolized by a winged ox or bull – a figure of sacrifice, service. Lukes account begins with the duties of Zacharias in the temple, it represents Jesus sacrifice in His Passion and Crucifixion, the ox signifies that Christians should be prepared to sacrifice themselves in following Christ. John the Evangelist, the author of the gospel account, is symbolized by an eagle – a figure of the sky. This symbolizes that Christians should look on eternity without flinching as they journey towards their goal of union with God, each of the symbols is depicted with wings, following the biblical sources first in Ezekiel 1–2, and in Revelation. They were presented as one of the most common found on church portals and apses. When surrounding Christ, the figure of the man appears at top left – above Christs right hand. Underneath the man is the ox and underneath the lion is the eagle and this both reflects the medieval idea of the order of nobility of nature of the beasts and the text of Ezekiel 1.10. From the thirteenth century their use began to decline, as a new conception of Christ in Majesty, showing the wounds of the Passion, sometimes in Evangelist portraits they appear to dictate to the writing evangelist. Matthew is often cited as the first Gospel account, not only owing to its place in the canon, most biblical scholars however, see the gospel account of Mark as having been written first and Johns gospel account as having been written last. It has become customary to speak of the Gospel of Matthew
31.
Iconoclasm
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Iconoclasm is the destruction of religious icons and other images or monuments for religious or political motives. Over time, the word, usually in the form, has also come to refer to aggressive statements or actions against any well-established status quo. It is a frequent component of political or religious changes. The term does not generally encompass the destruction of images of a ruler after his death or overthrow. Conversely, one who reveres or venerates religious images is called an iconolater, in a Byzantine context, Iconoclasm may be carried out by people of a different religion, but is often the result of sectarian disputes between factions of the same religion. The Church Fathers identified Jews and Judaism with heresy and they saw deviations from orthodox Christianity and opposition to the veneration of images as heresies that were essentially Jewish in spirit. The degree of iconoclasm among Christian branches greatly varies, Islam, in general, tends to be more iconoclastic than Christianity, with Sunni Islam being more iconoclastic than Shia Islam. Akhenatens actions are described thusly, In rebellion against the old religion, public references to Akhenaten were destroyed soon after his death. Comparing the ancient Egyptians with the Israelites, Jan Assmann writes, For Egypt, in the eyes of the Israelites, the erection of images meant the destruction of divine presence, in the eyes of the Egyptians, this same effect was attained by the destruction of images. In Egypt, iconoclasm was the most terrible crime, in Israel. It is more probable that these traditions evolved under mutual influence. In this respect, Moses and Akhenaten became, after all, the period after the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian evidently saw a huge increase in the use of images, both in volume and quality, and a gathering aniconic reaction. In the Eastern Roman Empire, government-led iconoclasm began with Byzantine Emperor Leo III, the religious conflict created political and economic divisions in Byzantine society. It was generally supported by the Eastern, poorer, non-Greek peoples of the Empire who had to frequently with raids from the new Muslim Empire. On the other hand, the wealthier Greeks of Constantinople, and also the peoples of the Balkan and Italian provinces, within the Byzantine Empire the government had probably been adopting Christian images more frequently. One notable change came in 695, when Justinian IIs government added an image of Christ on the obverse of imperial gold coins. The change caused the Caliph Abd al-Malik to stop his earlier adoption of Byzantine coin types and he started a purely Islamic coinage with lettering only. As a result, individuals attacked statues and images, however, in most cases, civil authorities removed images in an orderly manner in the newly reformed Protestant cities and territories of Europe
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Sinai Peninsula
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The Sinai Peninsula or simply Sinai is a peninsula in Egypt, situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, serving as a land bridge between Asia and Africa. It is the part of Egyptian territory located in Asia. Sinai has an area of about 60,000 km2. The bulk of the peninsula is divided administratively into two of Egypts 27 governorates, the Sinai Peninsula has been a part of Egypt from the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt. In periods of occupation, the Sinai was, like the rest of Egypt, also occupied and controlled by foreign empires, in more recent history the Ottoman Empire. Israel invaded and occupied Sinai during the Suez Crisis of 1956, on 6 October 1973, Egypt launched the Yom Kippur War to retake the peninsula, which was the site of fierce fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces. Today, Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its setting, rich coral reefs. Mount Sinai is one of the most religiously significant places in Abrahamic faiths, in addition to its formal name, Egyptians also refer to it as Arḍ ul-Fairūz. The ancient Egyptians called it Ta Mefkat, or land of turquoise, Sinai is triangular in shape, with northern shore lying on the southern Mediterranean Sea, and southwest and southeast shores on Gulf of Suez and Gulf of Aqaba of the Red Sea. It is linked to the African continent by the Isthmus of Suez,125 kilometres wide strip of land, the eastern isthmus, linking it to the Asian mainland, is around 200 kilometres wide. The peninsulas eastern shore separates the Arabian plate from the African plate, the southernmost tip is the Ras Muhammad National Park. Most of the Sinai Peninsula is divided among the two governorates of Egypt, South Sinai and North Sinai, together, they comprise around 60,000 square kilometres and have a population of 597,000. Three more governates span the Suez Canal, crossing into African Egypt, Suez is on the end of the Suez Canal, Ismailia in the centre. The largest city of Sinai is Arish, capital of the North Sinai, other larger settlements include Sharm el-Sheikh and El-Tor, on the southern coast. Inland Sinai is arid, mountainous and sparsely populated, the largest settlements being Saint Catherine, Sinai is one of the coldest provinces in Egypt because of its high altitudes and mountainous topographies. Winter temperatures in some of Sinais cities and towns reach −16 °C, the mines were worked intermittently and on a seasonal basis for thousands of years. Modern attempts to exploit the deposits have been unprofitable and these may be the first historically attested mines. According to the Hebrew Bible, the peninsula was crossed by the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt and this included numerous halts over a 40-year period of travel sometime towards the end of the Bronze Age
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Constantinople
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Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
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Semi-dome
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A semi-dome, also called a half-dome, is the term in architecture for half a dome, used to cover a semi-circular area. Semi-domes are a feature of apses in Ancient Roman and traditional church architecture. Islamic examples may use muqarnas decorative corbelling, while in Late Antique, Byzantine and medieval architecture the semi-dome is the classic location for a focal mosaic. In buildings like Hagia Sophia in Byzantine architecture, apsidal openings or exhedras from the central nave appear in several directions, the tetraconch, triconch and cross-in-square are other typically Eastern Christian church plans that produce several semi-domes. The buildings of Mimar Sinan and his pupil Sedefkar Mehmed Agha are the masterpieces of this style, mihrabs are another common location for semi-domes. In Western Europe the external appearance of a semi-dome is less often exploited than in Byzantine and Ottoman architecture, the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati, OH features the largest semi-dome in the western hemisphere, measuring 180 feet wide and 106 feet high. Ancient Jewish art and archaeology in the diaspora, leiden, Brill,1998 Kim, Tae Won, John H. Christy & Jae C
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Cross
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A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally, a cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is also termed a saltire in heraldic terminology. The word [[wikt, cross|crossded from Old Irish, possibly via Old Norse, ultimately from the Latin crux, stake, the English verb to cross arises from the noun c. 1200, first in the sense to make the sign of the cross, the Latin word was, however, influenced by popular etymology by a native Germanic word reconstructed as*krukjo. This word, by conflation with Latin crux, gave rise to Old French crocier, Latin crux referred to the gibbet where criminals were executed, a stake or pole, but not necessarily to intersecting or cruciform beams. The Latin word derived from the verb crucio to torture, Latin crux originally referred to the tree or stake on which criminals were crucified in the pre-imperial period. This was later specified as crux acuta or crux simplex, the method of execution may have been adopted from the Phoenicians. The addition of a bar, to which the criminal would be fastened with nails or cords. The Latin name of the cross is crux decussata, the heraldic term saltire is introduced only towards the end of the medieval period. The Greek equivalent of Latin crux stake, gibbet is σταυρός stauros stake, the letter Tau was associated with the stauros or crux, while the notion of cruciform shapes, i. e. intersecting lines, were associated with the letter Chi. The Greek term for crossing was χίασμα chiasma, from a verb χιάζω chiázō to shape like the letter Chi, Latin had the comparable decussatus shaped like the numeral ten. Also of prehistoric age are numerous variants of the cross mark, including the crux gammata with curving or angular lines. Speculation of this kind became popular in the mid- to late-19th century in the context of comparative mythology seeking to tie Christian mythology to ancient cosmological myths. Influential works in this vein included G. de Mortillet, L. Müller, W. W. Blake, Ansault, in the European Bronze Age the cross symbol appeared to carry a religious meaning, perhaps as a symbol of consecration, especially pertaining to burial. The cross sign occurs trivially in tally marks, and develops into a number symbol independently in the Roman numerals, the Chinese rod numerals and the Brahmi numerals. In the Phoenician alphabet and derived scripts, the symbol represented the phoneme /t/, i. e. the letter taw. The letter name taw means mark, presumably continuing the Egyptian hieroglyph two crossed sticks, according to W. E. Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, worshippers of Tammuz in Chaldea and thereabouts used the cross as symbol of that god. The shape of the cross, as represented by the letter T, clements contemporary Tertullian rejects the accusation that Christians are crucis religiosi, and returns the accusation by likening the worship of pagan idols to the worship of poles or stakes
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Gospel
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A gospel is an account describing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity places a value on the four canonical gospels, which it considers to be revelations from God. This position however, requires a view of Biblical inerrancy. The word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning good news or glad tidings, the gospel was considered the good news of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and of redemption through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, the central Christian message. The Greek word euangelion is also the source of the terms evangelist, the authors of the four canonical Christian gospels are known as the Four Evangelists. Paul the Apostle used the term εὐαγγέλιον when he reminded the people of the church at Corinth of the gospel I preached to you, the earliest extant use of gospel to denote a particular genre of literature dates to the 2nd century. Justin Martyr in the Apology wrote of. the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, more generally, gospels compose a genre of early Christian writings. Gospels that did not become canonical also circulated in Early Christianity, many, such as the work known today as Gospel of Thomas, lack the narrative framework typical of a gospel. Scholars hold a wide spectrum of views on the origins and composition of the gospels, for example, the vast majority of material in Mark is also present in either Luke or Matthew or both, suggesting that Mark was a source for Matthew and Luke. He writes that the four gospels were probably all written by the end of the first century. But they did not yet at that time have a consistent narrative, in 170 Tatian sought to find a solution by composing a single narrative out of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, with some additional oral material. Richies concludes that the gospel passages themselves can be unclear, and some of the messages within are straightforwardly ambiguous, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are considered synoptic gospels on the basis of many similarities between them that are not shared by the Gospel of John. Synoptic means here that they can be seen or read together, the fourth gospel, the Gospel of John, presents a very different picture of Jesus and his ministry from the synoptics. Of the many gospels written in antiquity, only four came to be accepted as part of the New Testament. An insistence upon there being a canon of four gospels, and no others, was a theme of Irenaeus of Lyons. Irenaeus was ultimately successful in declaring that the four gospels collectively and he also supported reading each gospel in light of the others. This canon, which corresponds to the modern Catholic canon, was used in the Vulgate, Gospel of Matthew Gospel of John Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark This order is found in the following manuscripts, Bezae, Monacensis, Washingtonianus, Tischendorfianus IV, Uncial 0234. Although there is no set order of the four gospels in patristic lists or discussions, moody Smith suggests that the standard order of Matthew-Mark-Luke-John projects a kind of intention that can scarcely be ignored
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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
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Christogram
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A Christogram is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a religious symbol within the Christian Church. One of the oldest Christograms is the Chi-Rho and it consists of the superimposed Greek letters chi and rho, which are the first two letters of Greek χριστός Christ. It was displayed on the military standard used by Constantine I in AD312. The IX monogram is a form, using the initials of the name Ἰησοῦς Χριστός Jesus Christ, as is the ΙΗ monogram. The name Jesus, spelt ΙΗΣΟΥΣ in Greek capitals, has the abbreviations IHS, in Eastern Christian tradition, the monogram ΙϹΧϹ is used for in both Greek and Cyrillic tradition. A Middle Latin term for abbreviations of the name of Christ is chrisimus, similarly, Middle Latin crismon, chrismon refers to the Chi Rho monogram specifically. In antiquity, the cross, i. e. the instrument of Christs crucifixion was taken to be T-shaped, while the X-shape had different connotations. In Platos Timaeus, it is explained that the two bands which form the world cross each other like the letter chi, possibly referring to the ecliptic crossing the celestial equator. The most commonly encountered Christogram in English-speaking countries in modern times is the Χ, representing the first letter of the word Christ, in such abbreviations as Xmas, the Alpha and Omega symbols may at times accompany the Chi-Rho monogram. Chrismon since the 17th century has been used as a New Latin term for the Chi Rho monogram. Because the chrismon was used as a kind of invocation at the beginning of documents of the Merovingian period, the term also came to be used of the cross-signatures in early medieval charters. Chrismon in this context may refer to the Merovingian period abbreviation I. C. N. for in Christi nomine, later also I. C. for in Christo, and still later just C. for Christus. The Greek letter iota is represented by I, and the eta by H, while the Greek letter sigma is either in its form, represented by C, or its final form. Because the Latin-alphabet letters I and J were not systematically distinguished until the 17th century, JHS and JHC are equivalent to IHS, IHS is sometimes interpreted as meaning Jesus Hominum Salvator, or connected with In Hoc Signo. Such interpretations are known as backronyms, used in Latin since the seventh century, the first use of IHS in an English document dates from the fourteenth century, in The vision of William concerning Piers Plowman. The IHS monogram with the H surmounted by a cross above three nails and surrounded by a Sun is the emblem of the Jesuits, according to tradition introduced by Ignatius of Loyola in 1541, english-language interpretations of IHS have included In His Service. On icons, this Christogram may be split, ΙϹ on the left of the image and it is sometimes rendered as ΙϹ ΧϹ ΝΙΚΑ, meaning Jesus Christ Conquers. ΙϹΧϹ may also be inscribed on the Ichthys
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Iota
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Iota /aɪˈoʊtə/ is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh, letters that arose from this letter include the Latin I and J, the Cyrillic І, Yi, and Je, and iotated letters. In the system of Greek numerals, iota has a value of 10, in ancient Greek it occurred in both long and short versions, but this distinction was lost in Koine Greek. Iota participated as the element in falling diphthongs, with both long and short vowels as the first element. Examples include ᾼ ᾳ ῌ ῃ ῼ ῳ, the former diphthongs became digraphs for simple vowels in Koine Greek. This refers to iota, the smallest letter, or possibly Yodh, י, the word jot derives from iota. The German, Portuguese and Spanish name for the letter J is derived from iota, in some programming languages iota is used to represent and generate an array of consecutive integers. For example, in APL ι4 gives 1234, the lowercase iota symbol is sometimes used to write the imaginary unit, but more often Roman i or j is used. In mathematics, the map of one space into another is sometimes denoted by the lowercase iota. In logic, the lowercase iota denotes the definite descriptor, the lowercase iota symbol has Unicode code point U+03B9 and the uppercase U+0399. Greek Iota / Ypogegrammeni Coptic Iaude Latin Iota Cyrillic Iota Technical Iota Mathematical Iota These characters are used only as mathematical symbols, stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style
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Sigma
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Sigma is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. When used at the end of a word, the form is used, e. g. Ὀδυσσεύς. The shape and alphabetic position of sigma is derived from Phoenician shin
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Chi (letter)
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Chi is the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet, pronounced /ˈkaɪ/ or /ˈkiː/ in English. Its value in Ancient Greek was a velar stop /kʰ/. In Koine Greek and later dialects it became a fricative along with Θ and Φ, in front of low or back vowels and consonants, it is pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative, as in German ach. Chi is romanized as ⟨ch⟩ in most systematic transliteration conventions, in addition, in Modern Greek, it is often also romanized as ⟨h⟩ or ⟨x⟩ in informal practice. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 600, in ancient times, some local forms of the Greek alphabet used the chi instead of xi to represent the /ks/ sound. This was borrowed into the early Latin language, which led to the use of the letter X for the sound in Latin. Chi was also included in the Cyrillic script as the letter Х, in the International Phonetic Alphabet, the minuscule chi is the symbol for the voiceless uvular fricative. Chi is the basis for the name literary Chiastic structure and the name of Chiasmus, in Platos Timaeus, it is explained that the two bands that form the soul of the world cross each other like the letter Χ. Platos analogy, along several other examples of chi as a symbol occur in Thomas Brownes discourse The Garden of Cyrus. Chi or X is often used to abbreviate the name Christ, when fused within a single typespace with the Greek letter Rho, it is called the labarum and used to represent the person of Jesus Christ. These characters are used only as mathematical symbols, stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style. In statistics, the term chi-squared or χ2 has various uses, including the distribution, the chi-squared test. In algebraic topology, Chi is used to represent the Euler characteristic of a surface, in neurology, the optic chiasm is named for the letter Chi because of its Χ-shape. In chemistry, the fraction and electronegativity may be denoted by the lowercase χ. In rhetoric, both chiastic structure and the figure of speech Chiasmus derive from their names from the shape of the letter Chi. In engineering, chi is used as a symbol for the factor of relevant buckling loads in the EN1993. In graph theory, a lowercase chi is used to represent a graphs chromatic number
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Church of the Holy Sepulchre
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The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, a few steps away from the Muristan. The tomb is enclosed by the 18th-century shrine, called the Aedicule, within the church proper are the last four Stations of the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of Jesus Passion. The main denominations sharing property over parts of the church are the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Roman Catholic, and to a lesser degree the Egyptian Copts, Syriacs and Ethiopians. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, the Roman emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD built a dedicated to the goddess Venus in order to bury the cave in which Jesus had been buried. The first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, ordered in about 325/326 that the temple be replaced by a church, during the building of the Church, Constantines mother, Helena, is believed to have rediscovered the tomb. Socrates Scholasticus, in his Ecclesiastical History, gives a description of the discovery. The remains are enveloped by a marble sheath placed some 500 years before to protect the ledge from Ottoman attacks. However, there are several thick window wells extending through the marble sheath and they appear to reveal an underlying limestone rock, which may be part of the original living rock of the tomb. The church was starting in 325/326, and was consecrated on 13 September 335. From pilgrim reports it seems that the housing the tomb of Jesus was freestanding at first. Each year, the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the anniversary of the consecration of the Church of the Resurrection on 13 September and this building was damaged by fire in May of 614 when the Sassanid Empire, under Khosrau II, invaded Jerusalem and captured the True Cross. In 630, the Emperor Heraclius restored it and rebuilt the church after recapturing the city, after Jerusalem came under Arab rule, it remained a Christian church, with the early Muslim rulers protecting the citys Christian sites. A story reports that the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab visited the church and stopped to pray on the balcony and he feared that future generations would misinterpret this gesture, taking it as a pretext to turn the church into a mosque. Eutychius added that Umar wrote a decree prohibiting Muslims from praying at this location, the building suffered severe damage due to an earthquake in 746. Early in the century, another earthquake damaged the dome of the Anastasis. The damage was repaired in 810 by Patriarch Thomas, in the year 841, the church suffered a fire. In 935, the Orthodox Christians prevented the construction of a Muslim mosque adjacent the Church, in 938, a new fire damaged the inside of the basilica and came close to the rotunda. In 966, due to a defeat of Muslim armies in the region of Syria, the doors and roof were burnt, and the Patriarch John VII was murdered
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