1.
Early centers of Christianity
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Early Christianity, spread from the Eastern Mediterranean throughout the Roman Empire and beyond, reaching as far east as India. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers, in the Holy Land, the first followers of Christianity were Jews or biblical proselytes, commonly referred to as Jewish Christians and Godfearers. The Apostolic Sees claim to have founded by one or more of the Apostles of Jesus. 26–36, perhaps following the Great Commission, many of these Early Christians were merchants and others who had practical reasons for traveling to northern Africa, Asia Minor, Arabia, Greece, and other places. Over 40 such communities were established by the year 100, many in Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor, Jesus and his apostles, disciples, and early followers, being Jewish or Jewish proselytes, traveled from Galilee to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, c. 33, at time the city was under Roman occupation as part of Iudaea province. According to Christian belief, on the day he was resurrected. Jerusalem was the first center of the church, according to the Book of Acts, and according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the apostles lived and taught there for some time after Pentecost. 130, when all Jews were banished from the city, in about 50, Barnabas and Paul went to Jerusalem to meet with the pillars of the church, James, Peter, and John. In roughly the time period Rabbinic Judaism made their circumcision requirement of Jewish boys even stricter. When Peter left Jerusalem after Herod Agrippa I tried to kill him, Clement of Alexandria called him Bishop of Jerusalem. A second-century church historian, Hegesippus, wrote that the Sanhedrin martyred him in 62, in 66, the Jews revolted against Rome. Rome besieged Jerusalem for four years, and the city fell in 70, the city was destroyed, including the Temple, and the population was mostly killed or removed. According to a recorded by Eusebius and Epiphanius of Salamis. P. H. R. van Houwelingen, Fleeing forward, The departure of Christians from Jerusalem to Pella, Westminster Theological Journal 65, 181-200. </ref>According to Epiphanius of Salamis, prophecies of the Second Temples destruction are found in the synoptics, specifically in the Olivet Discourse. In the 2nd century, Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as a city called Aelia Capitolina, erecting statues of Jupiter and himself on the site of the former Jewish Temple. Bar Cochba led an unsuccessful revolt as a Messiah, but Christians refused to him as such. When Bar Cochba was defeated, Hadrian barred Jews from the city, except for the day of Tisha BAv, thus the subsequent Jerusalem bishops were gentiles for the first time
2.
Cappadocia
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Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in the Nevşehir, Kayseri, Kırşehir, Aksaray, and Niğde Provinces in Turkey. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revolt, in these lists of countries, the Old Persian name is Haspaduya, which according to some researchers is derived from Iranian Huw-aspa-dahyu- the land/country of beautiful horses. Others proposed that Kat-patuka came from the Luwian language, meaning Low Country, subsequent research suggests that the adverb katta meaning down, below is exclusively Hittite, while its Luwian equivalent is zanta. Therefore the recent modification of this proposal operates with the Hittite katta peda-, Herodotus tells us that the name of the Cappadocians was applied to them by the Persians, while they were termed by the Greeks Syrians or White Syrians Leucosyri. Cappadocia appears in the account given in the book of Acts 2,9. The Cappadocians were named as one group hearing the Gospel account from Galileans in their own language on the day of Pentecost shortly after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Acts 2,5 seems to suggest that the Cappadocians in this account were God-fearing Jews. The region is mentioned in the Jewish Mishnah, in Ketubot 13,11. This division had come about before the time of Xenophon. The kingdom of Cappadocia still existed in the time of Strabo as a independent state. Cilicia was the given to the district in which Caesarea. The only two cities of Cappadocia considered by Strabo to deserve that appellation were Caesarea and Tyana, not far from the foot of the Taurus, Cappadocia lies in central Anatolia, in the heartland of what is now Turkey. The relief consists of a plateau over 1000 m in altitude that is pierced by volcanic peaks. The boundaries of historical Cappadocia are vague, particularly towards the west, to the south, the Taurus Mountains form the boundary with Cilicia and separate Cappadocia from the Mediterranean Sea. To the west, Cappadocia is bounded by the regions of Lycaonia to the southwest. This results in an area approximately 400 km east–west and 250 km north–south, due to its inland location and high altitude, Cappadocia has a markedly continental climate, with hot dry summers and cold snowy winters. Rainfall is sparse and the region is largely semi-arid, Cappadocia was known as Hatti in the late Bronze Age, and was the homeland of the Hittite power centred at Hattusa. After ending the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great tried to rule the area one of his military commanders. But Ariarathes, a Persian aristocrat, somehow became king of the Cappadocians, as Ariarathes I, he was a successful ruler, and he extended the borders of the Cappadocian Kingdom as far as to the Black Sea
3.
Black Sea
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The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and by the Caucasus Mountains to the east, the longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km. The Black Sea has a water balance, that is, a net outflow of water 300 km3 per year through the Bosphorus. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange, the Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, via the Aegean Sea and various straits. The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and these waters separate Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch, the water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the level in the basin. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established and it is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is a basin, operating independently of the global ocean system. Currently the Black Sea water level is high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows, On the Southwest. The Northeastern limit of the Sea of Marmara, a line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia. Strabos Geographica reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called the Sea, for the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the Hospitable sea, Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos. This is a euphemism replacing an earlier Inhospitable Sea, Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, strabo thinks that the Black Sea was called inhospitable before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes. The name was changed to hospitable after the Milesians had colonized the southern shoreline and it is also possible that the epithet Áxeinos arose by popular etymology from a Scythian word axšaina- unlit, dark, the designation Black Sea may thus date from antiquity. A map of Asia dating to 1570, entitled Asiae Nova Descriptio, from Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, english-language writers of the 18th century often used the name Euxine Sea to refer to the Black Sea
4.
Zeus
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Zeus /ˈzjuːs/ is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter and his mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, in most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe That Zeus is king in heaven is a common to all men. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak, in addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical cloud-gatherer also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses, standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his right hand. The gods name in the nominative is Ζεύς Zeús and it is inflected as follows, vocative, Ζεῦ Zeû, accusative, Δία Día, genitive, Διός Diós, dative, Διί Dií. Diogenes Laertius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name, Ζάς, Zeus is the Greek continuation of *Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr. The god is known under this name in the Rigveda, Latin, Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek
5.
Attis
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Attis /ˈætɪs/ was the consort of Cybele in Phrygian and Greek mythology. His priests were eunuchs, the Galli, as explained by origin myths pertaining to Attis and castration. Attis was also a Phrygian god of vegetation, and in his self-mutilation, death, and resurrection he represents the fruits of the earth, the 19th-century identification with the name Atys encountered in Herodotus as the historical name of the son of Croesus is mistaken. An Attis cult began around 1250 BCE in Dindymon and he was originally a local semi-deity of Phrygia, associated with the great Phrygian trading city of Pessinos, which lay under the lee of Mount Agdistis. The mountain was personified as a daemon, whom foreigners associated with the Great Mother Cybele, in the late 4th century BC, a cult of Attis became a feature of the Greek world. But the Olympian gods, fearing Agdistis, cut off the male organ, there grew up from it an almond-tree, and when its fruit was ripe, Nana, who was a daughter of the river-god Sangarius, picked an almond and laid it in her bosom. The almond disappeared, and she became pregnant, the infant was tended by a he-goat. As Attis grew, his beauty was godlike, and Agdistis as Cybele then fell in love with him. But the foster parents of Attis sent him to Pessinos, where he was to wed the kings daughter, according to some versions the King of Pessinos was Midas. Just as the marriage-song was being sung, Agdistis/Cybele appeared in her transcendent power, Attis father-in-law-to-be, the king who was giving his daughter in marriage, followed suit, prefiguring the self-castrating corybantes who devoted themselves to Cybele. But Agdistis repented and saw to it that the body of Attis should neither rot at all nor decay, at the temple of Cybele in Pessinus, the mother of the gods was still called Agdistis, the geographer Strabo recounted. As neighboring Lydia came to control Phrygia, the cult of Attis was given a Lydian context too, Attis is said to have introduced to Lydia the cult of the Mother Goddess Cybele, incurring the jealousy of Zeus, who sent a boar to destroy the Lydian crops. Then certain Lydians, with Attis himself, were killed by the boar, pausanias adds, to corroborate this story, that the Gauls who inhabited Pessinos abstained from pork. This myth element may have been invented solely to explain the unusual dietary laws of the Lydian Gauls, in Rome, the eunuch followers of Cybele were known as Galli. Julian the Apostate gives an account of the spread of the cult of Cybele in his Oratio 5. It spread from Anatolia to Greece and eventually to Rome in Republican times, the first literary reference to Attis is the subject of one of the most famous poems by Catullus but it appears that Attis was not worshipped at Rome until the early Empire. Oscar Wilde mentions Attis self-mutilation in his poem The Sphinx, And Atys with his knife were better than the thing I am. The most important representation of Attis is the life size statue discovered at Ostia, the statue is of a reclining Attis, after the emasculation
6.
Philippi
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Philippi was a city in eastern Macedonia, in the Edonis region. Its original name was Crenides after its establishment by Thasian colonists in 360/359 BC, the city was renamed by Philip II of Macedon in 356 BC and abandoned in the 14th century after the Ottoman conquest. The present municipality, Filippoi, is located near the ruins of the ancient city and is part of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Kavalla and it was made a World Heritage Site in 2016. Philippi was established by Thasian colonists in 360/359 BC with the name Crenides, in 356 BC Philip II of Macedon, conquered the city and renamed it to Philippi. Philip II endowed the city with important fortifications, which blocked the passage between the swamp and Mt. Orbelos, and sent colonists to occupy it. Philip also had the marsh partially drained, as is attested by the writer Theophrastus, Philippi preserved its autonomy within the kingdom of Macedon and had its own political institutions. The discovery of new gold mines near the city, at Asyla, contributed to the wealth of the kingdom, the city was fully integrated into the kingdom under Philip V. When the Romans destroyed the Antigonid dynasty of Macedon in the Third Macedonian War and it was Amphipolis and not Philippi that became the capital of the eastern Macedonian state. Almost nothing is known about the city in this period, aside from the walls, the Greek theatre, the foundations of a house under the Roman forum and a little temple dedicated to a hero cult. This monument covers the tomb of a certain Exekestos, is situated on the agora and is dedicated to the κτίστης. The city reappears in the sources during the Roman civil war followed the assassination of Julius Caesar. Antony and Octavian were victorious in this battle against the partisans of the Republic. They released some of their soldiers, probably from Legion XXVIII and colonized them in the city. In 30 BC, Octavian became Roman emperor, reorganized the colony, the city was renamed Colonia Iulia Philippensis, and then Colonia Augusta Iulia Philippensis after January,27 BC, when Octavian received the title Augustus from the Roman Senate. Following this second renaming, and perhaps after the first, the territory of Philippi was centuriated and distributed to the colonists. The city kept its Macedonian walls, and its plan was modified only partially by the construction of a forum. It was a miniature Rome, under the law of Rome. The colony recognized its dependence on the mines that brought it its privileged position on the Via Egnatia, there is an abundance of Latin inscriptions testifying to the prosperity of the city
7.
Tetragrammaton
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The tetragrammaton is the four Hebrew letters יהוה, commonly transliterated into Latin letters as YHWH. It is one of the names of God used in the Hebrew Bible, the name may be derived from a verb that means to be, to exist, to cause to become, or to come to pass. The books of the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible contain the Hebrew word יהוה, common substitutions for Hebrew forms are hakadosh baruch hu, Adonai, or HaShem. The letters, properly read from right to left, are, in unpointed Biblical Hebrew, most vowels are not written and the rest are written only ambiguously, as certain consonants can double as vowel markers. These are referred to as matres lectionis, for similar reasons, an appearance of the Tetragrammaton in ancient Egyptian records of the 13th century BCE sheds no light on the original pronunciation. Thus the first-century Jewish historian and philosopher Josephus said that the name of God consists of four vowels. The original consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible was, several centuries later, in places that the consonants of the text to be read differed from the consonants of the written text, they wrote the qere in the margin as a note showing what was to be read. In such a case the vowels of the qere were written on the ketiv, for a few frequent words, the marginal note was omitted, these are called qere perpetuum. The combination produces יְהֹוָה and יֱהֹוִה respectively, non-words that would spell Yehovah, the vocalisations of יְהֹוָה and אֲדֹנָי are not identical. The shva in YHWH and the hataf patakh in DNY appear different, the vocalisation can be attributed to Biblical Hebrew phonology, where the hataf patakh is grammatically identical to a shva, always replacing every shva naḥ under a guttural letter. Since the first letter of אֲדֹנָי is a letter while the first letter of יְהֹוָה is not. The table below considers the vowel points for יְהֹוָה and אֲדֹנָי, respectively, In the table directly above, the simple shewa in Yehovah and the hatef patah in Adonai are not the same vowel. The difference being, the simple shewa is an a sound as in alone and his proposal to read YHWH as יַהְוֶה was based in large part on various Greek transcriptions, such as ιαβε, dating from the first centuries CE but also on the forms of theophoric names. Gesenius proposal to read YHWH as יַהְוֶה is accepted as the best scholarly reconstructed vocalised Hebrew spelling of the tetragrammaton, recently, as Yahweh is likely an imperfective verb form, Yahu is its corresponding preterite or jussive short form, compare yiŝtahaweh, yiŝtáhû = do obeisance. Jehovah is a late hybrid formed by combining the Latin letters JHVH with the vowels of Adonai, however, it is no longer used in most mainstream English translations, with Lord or LORD usually used instead, generally indicating that the corresponding Hebrew is YHWH or Yehowah. The oldest known inscription of the dates to 840 BCE. It bears the earliest certain reference to the Israelite God Yahweh. The most recent discovery of an inscription, dating to the 6th century BCE, was found written in Hebrew on two silver scrolls recovered from Jerusalem
8.
Psalms
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The Book of Psalms, commonly referred to simply as Psalms or the Psalms, is the first book of the Ketuvim, the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament. The title is derived from the Greek translation, ψαλμοί psalmoi, meaning instrumental music and, by extension, the book is an anthology of individual psalms, with 150 in the Jewish and Western Christian tradition and more in the Eastern Christian churches. Many of the psalms are linked to the name of David, over a third appear to be musical directions, addressed to the leader or choirmaster, including such statements as with stringed instruments and according to lilies. Others appear to be references to types of composition, such as A psalm and Song. Many superscriptions carry the names of individuals, the most common being of David, others named include Moses, Asaph, the Sons of Korah and Solomon. A natural way of understanding these attributions is as a claim to authorship, Psalms are usually identified by a sequence number, often preceded by the abbreviation Ps. Numbering of the Psalms differs—mostly by one digit, see table—between the Hebrew and it is generally admitted that Pss.9 and 10 were originally a single acrostic poem, they have been wrongly separated by Massorah, rightly united by the Septuagint and Vulgate. On the other hand, Ps.144 is made up of two songs — verses 1–11 and 12–15, Pss.42 and 43 are shown by identity of subject, of metrical structure and of refrain, to be three strophes of one and the same poem. The Hebrew text is correct in counting as one Ps.146, later liturgical usage would seem to have split up these and not a few other psalms. Zenner combines into what he deems were the original choral odes,1,2,3,4,6 +13,9 +10,19,20,21,56 +57,69 +70,114 +115,148,149,150. A choral ode would seem to have been the form of Pss.14 +70. The two strophes and the epode are Ps,14, the two antistrophes are Ps.70. It is noteworthy that, on the breaking up of the ode, each portion crept twice into the Psalter, Ps.14 =53, Ps.70 =40. Other such duplicated psalms are Ps and this loss of the original form of some of the psalms is allowed by the Biblical Commission to have been due to liturgical uses, neglect of copyists, or other causes. The Septuagint bible, present in Eastern Orthodox churches, includes a Psalm 151, Some versions of the Peshitta include Psalms 152–155. There are also the Psalms of Solomon, which are a further 18 psalms of Jewish origin, likely written in Hebrew. These and other indications suggest that the current Western Christian and Jewish collection of 150 psalms were selected from a wider set, gunkel divided the psalms into five primary types, Hymns, songs of praise for Gods work in creation or in history. They typically open with a call to praise, describe the motivation for praise, two sub-categories are enthronement psalms, celebrating the enthronement of Yahweh as king, and Zion psalms, glorifying Mount Zion, Gods dwelling-place in Jerusalem
9.
Book of Daniel
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The Book of Daniel is a biblical apocalypse, combining a prophecy of history with an eschatology which is both cosmic in scope and political in its focus. In more mundane language, it is an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, in the Hebrew Bible it is found in the Ketuvim, while in Christian Bibles it is grouped with the Major Prophets. Its message is that just as the God of Israel saved Daniel and his friends from their enemies, the book divides into two parts, a set of six court tales in chapters 1–6 followed by four apocalyptic visions in chapters 7–12. The literary structure of the book of Daniel is marked by three prominent features, the most fundamental is a genre division between the court tales of chapters 1–6 and the apocalyptic visions of 7–12. The second is a division between the Hebrew of chapters 1 and 8–12, and the Aramaic of chapters 2–7. This language division is reinforced by the arrangement of the Aramaic chapters. Various suggestions have been made by scholars to explain the fact that the division does not coincide with the other two. It should also be noted that the settings of chapters 1–6 show a progression from Babylonian to Median times. Among them are Daniel and his three companions, who refuse to touch the food and wine for fear of defilement. They are allowed to continue to refrain from eating the kings food, in the second year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. When he wakes up, he realizes that he forgot the content of the dream and he then demands that his wise men tell him its content. When the wise men protest that this is beyond the power of any man, he sentences all, including Daniel and his friends, to death. Daniel explains the dream to the king, the statue symbolized four successive kingdoms, starting with Nebuchadnezzar, all of which would be crushed by Gods kingdom, which would endure forever. Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the supremacy of Daniels god, raises him over all his wise men, Daniels companions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow to King Nebuchadnezzars golden statue and are thrown into a fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar is astonished to see a figure in the furnace with the three, one with the appearance like a son of the gods. So the king called the three to come out of the fire, and blessed the God of Israel, and decreed that any who blasphemed against him should be torn limb from limb. Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a tree that is suddenly cut down at the command of a heavenly messenger. Daniel is summoned and interprets the dream, the tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself, who for seven years will lose his mind and live like a wild beast
10.
Kashrut
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Kashrut is a set of Jewish religious dietary laws. Food that may be consumed according to halakha is termed kosher /ˈkoʊʃər/ in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér, there are also laws regarding agricultural produce that might impact the suitability of food for consumption. Most of the laws of kashrut are derived from the Torahs Books of Leviticus. Their details and practical application, however, are set down in the oral law, while the Torah does not state the rationale for most kashrut laws, many reasons have been suggested, including philosophical, practical and hygienic. Over the past century, there have developed numerous rabbinical organizations that certify products, manufacturers, currently, about a sixth of American Jews or 0. 3% of the American population fully keep kosher, and many more abstain from some non-kosher foods, especially pork. Some Jewish scholars say that kashrut should be categorized as laws for which there is no particular explanation, in this line of thinking, the dietary laws were given as a demonstration of Gods authority, and man must obey without asking why. However, Maimonides believed that Jews were permitted to seek out reasons for the laws of the Torah, some theologians have said that the laws of kashrut are symbolic in character, Kosher animals represent virtues, while non-kosher animals represent vices. The 1st century BCE Letter of Aristeas argues that the laws have been given, to awake pious thoughts and to form the character. This view reappears in the work of the 19th century Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the Torah prohibits seething the kid in its mothers milk. While the Bible does not provide a reason, it has suggested that the practice was perceived as cruel. These sparks of Holiness are released whenever a Jew manipulates any object for a reason, however. The Hasidic argument is that animals are imbued with signs that reveal the release of these sparks, in 1953, David Macht, an Orthodox Jew and proponent of the theory of biblical scientific foresight, conducted toxicity experiments on many kinds of animals and fish. At the same time, these explanations are controversial, scholar Lester L. Grabbe, writing in the Oxford Bible Commentary on Leviticus, says n explanation now almost universally rejected is that the laws in this section have hygiene as their basis. Although some of the laws of ritual purity roughly correspond to ideas of physical cleanliness. For example, there is no evidence that the animals are intrinsically bad to eat or to be avoided in a Mediterranean climate. The laws of kashrut can be classified according to the origin of the prohibition, biblically prohibited foods include, Non-kosher animals and birds, mammals require certain identifying characteristics, while birds require a tradition that they can be consumed. All invertebrates are non-kosher apart from certain types of locust, on which most communities lack a clear tradition, no reptiles or amphibians are kosher. Carrion, meat from an animal that has not been slaughtered according to the laws of shechita
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Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Hypsistarians". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913).