1.
Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
2.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
3.
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
4.
Torah
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The Torah is the central reference of Judaism. It has a range of meanings and it can most specifically mean the first five books of the twenty-four books of the Tanakh, and it usually includes the rabbinic commentaries. In rabbinic literature the word Torah denotes both the five books and the Oral Torah, the Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash. According to the Midrash, the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world, traditionally, the words of the Torah are written on a scroll by a scribe in Hebrew. A Torah portion is read publicly at least once every three days in the presence of a congregation, reading the Torah publicly is one of the bases for Jewish communal life. The word Torah in Hebrew is derived from the root ירה, the meaning of the word is therefore teaching, doctrine, or instruction, the commonly accepted law gives a wrong impression. Other translational contexts in the English language include custom, theory, guidance, the earliest name for the first part of the Bible seems to have been The Torah of Moses. This title, however, is neither in the Torah itself. It appears in Joshua and Kings, but it cannot be said to refer there to the entire corpus, in contrast, there is every likelihood that its use in the post-Exilic works was intended to be comprehensive. Other early titles were The Book of Moses and The Book of the Torah, Christian scholars usually refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible as the Pentateuch, a term first used in the Hellenistic Judaism of Alexandria, meaning five books, or as the Law. The Torah starts from the beginning of Gods creating the world, through the beginnings of the people of Israel, their descent into Egypt, and it ends with the death of Moses, just before the people of Israel cross to the promised land of Canaan. Interspersed in the narrative are the teachings given explicitly or implicitly embedded in the narrative. This is followed by the story of the three patriarchs, Joseph and the four matriarchs, God gives to the patriarchs a promise of the land of Canaan, but at the end of Genesis the sons of Jacob end up leaving Canaan for Egypt due to a regional famine. They had heard there was a grain storage and distribution facility in Egypt. Exodus begins the story of Gods revelation to his people of Israel through Moses, Moses receives the Torah from God, and teaches His laws and Covenant to the people of Israel. It also talks about the first violation of the covenant when the Golden Calf was constructed, Exodus includes the instructions on building the Tabernacle and concludes with its actual construction. Leviticus begins with instructions to the Israelites on how to use the Tabernacle, leviticus 26 provides a detailed list of rewards for following Gods commandments and a detailed list of punishments for not following them. Numbers tells how Israel consolidated itself as a community at Sinai, set out from Sinai to move towards Canaan, even Moses sins and is told he would not live to enter the land
5.
Quran
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The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
6.
Arabian Peninsula
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The Arabian Peninsula, simplified Arabia is a peninsula of Western Asia situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian plate. From a geological perspective, it is considered a subcontinent of Asia and it is the largest peninsula in the world, at 3,237,500 km2. The Arabian Peninsula consists of the countries Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Arabian Peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Middle East and the Arab world due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Before the modern era, it was divided into four regions, Hejaz, Najd, Southern Arabia. Hejaz and Najd make up most of Saudi Arabia, Southern Arabia consists of Yemen and some parts of Saudi Arabia and Oman. Eastern Arabia consists of the coastal strip of the Persian Gulf. The most prominent feature of the peninsula is desert, but in the southwest there are mountain ranges, harrat ash Shaam is a large volcanic field that extends from the northwestern Arabian Peninsula into Jordan and southern Syria. The peninsulas constituent countries are Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the island nation of Bahrain lies off the east coast of the peninsula. Six countries form the Gulf Cooperation Council, however, this is a disputed term. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the part of the peninsula. The majority of the population of the live in Saudi Arabia. The peninsula contains the worlds largest reserves of oil, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, a peninsula in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home of the Arabic-language television station Al Jazeera. Kuwait, on the border with Iraq, is an important country strategically, though historically lightly populated, political Arabia is noted for a high population growth rate - as the result of both very strong inflows of migrant labor as well as sustained high birth rates. The population tends to be young and heavily skewed gender ratio dominated by males. In many states, the number of South Asians exceeds that of the local citizenry, the four smallest states, which have their entire coastlines on the Persian Gulf, exhibit the worlds most extreme population growth, roughly tripling every 20 years. In 2014, the population of the Arabian Peninsula was 77,983,936. Listed here are the human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in Arabia Haplogroup J is the most abundant component in the Arabian peninsula and its two main subclades, show opposite latitudinal gradients in the Middle East
7.
Gulf of Aqaba
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The Gulf of Aqaba or Gulf of Eilat is a large gulf at the northern tip of the Red Sea, east of the Sinai Peninsula and west of the Arabian mainland. Its coastline is divided between four countries, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, the gulf is east of the Sinai Peninsula and west of the Arabian Peninsula. With the Gulf of Suez to the west, it extends from the portion of the Red Sea. It reaches a depth of 1,850 m in its central area. The gulf measures 24 kilometres at its widest point and stretches some 160 kilometres north from the Straits of Tiran to where Israel meets Egypt, like the coastal waters of the Red Sea, the gulf is one of the worlds premier sites for diving. At this northern end of the gulf are three important cities, Taba in Egypt, Eilat in Israel, and Aqaba in Jordan and they are strategically important commercial ports and popular resorts for tourists seeking to enjoy the warm climate. Further south, Haql is the largest Saudi Arabian city on the gulf, on Sinai, Sharm el-Sheikh and Dahab are the major centers. The largest population center is Aqaba, with a population of 108,000, followed by Eilat with a population of 48,000. The gulf is one of two created by the Sinai Peninsulas bifurcation of the northern Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez lying to the west of the peninsula. Geologically, the forms the southern end of the Dead Sea Transform. It contains three small pull-apart basins, the Elat Deep, Aragonese Deep and Dakar Deep, formed between four left lateral strike-slip fault segments, movement on one of these faults caused the 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake. Trade across the Red Sea between Thebes port of Elim and Elat at the head of the gulf is documented as early as the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, egyptian settlements near Timna at the head of the gulf date to the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. At the northern edge, the ancient city of Ayla was a hub for the Nabateans. The Romans built the Via Traiana Nova, which joined the Kings Highway at Aqaba and connected Africa to Asia, Aqaba was a major Ottoman port, connected to Damascus and Medina by the Hejaz railway. During World War I, the Battle of Aqaba was the key battle that ended a 500-year Ottoman rule over Greater Syria, the gulf is one of the most popular diving destinations in the world. About 250,000 dives are performed annually in Eilats 11 km coastline, the Landscape of Wadi Rum to the east of the northern edge of the gulf is a popular destination. Other destinations are the ruins of the civilization of Ayla in the city of Aqaba. Whales, orcas, dolphins, dugongs, and whale sharks live in the gulf as well
8.
Red Sea
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The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait, to the north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez. The Red Sea is a Global 200 ecoregion, the sea is underlain by the Red Sea Rift which is part of the Great Rift Valley. The Red Sea has an area of roughly 438,000 km2, is about 2250 km long and. It has a depth of 2211 m in the central median trench. However, there are also extensive shallow shelves, noted for their marine life, the sea is the habitat of over 1,000 invertebrate species, and 200 soft and hard corals. It is the worlds northernmost tropical sea, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Red Sea as follows, On the North. The Southern limits of the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba, a line joining Husn Murad and Ras Siyyan. Red Sea is a translation of the Greek Erythra Thalassa, Latin Mare Rubrum, Arabic, البحر الأحمر. Al-Baḥr Al-Aḥmar, Somali Badda Cas and Tigrinya Qeyyiḥ bāḥrī, the name of the sea may signify the seasonal blooms of the red-coloured Trichodesmium erythraeum near the waters surface. A theory favored by modern scholars is that the name red is referring to the direction south. The basis of this theory is that some Asiatic languages used color words to refer to the cardinal directions, herodotus on one occasion uses Red Sea and Southern Sea interchangeably. Historically, it was known to western geographers as Mare Mecca. Some ancient geographers called the Red Sea the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia. C, in that version, the Yam Suph is translated as Erythra Thalassa. The Red Sea is one of four seas named in English after common color terms — the others being the Black Sea, the White Sea and the Yellow Sea. The direct rendition of the Greek Erythra thalassa in Latin as Mare Erythraeum refers to the part of the Indian Ocean. The earliest known exploration of the Red Sea was conducted by ancient Egyptians, one such expedition took place around 2500 BC, and another around 1500 BC. Both involved long voyages down the Red Sea, historically, scholars argued whether these trips were possible
9.
Book of Genesis
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The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. The basic narrative expresses the theme, God creates the world and appoints man as his regent. The new post-Flood world is also corrupt, God does not destroy it, instead calling one man, Abraham, to be the seed of its salvation. At Gods command Abraham descends from his home into the land of Canaan, given to him by God, Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus. The narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, the books author or authors appear to have structured it around ten toledot sections, but modern commentators see it in terms of a primeval history followed by the cycle of Patriarchal stories. In Judaism, the importance of Genesis centers on the covenants linking God to his chosen people. It is not clear, however, what this meant to the original authors, while the first is far shorter than the second, it sets out the basic themes and provides an interpretive key for understanding the entire book. The primeval history has a symmetrical structure hinging on chapters 6–9, God creates the world in six days and consecrates the seventh as a day of rest. God creates the first humans Adam and Eve and all the animals in the Garden of Eden but instructs them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A talking serpent portrayed as a creature or trickster, entices Eve into eating it anyway. Eve bears two sons, Cain and Abel, Cain kills Abel after God accepts Abels offering but not Cains. Eve bears another son, Seth, to take Abels place, after many generations of Adam have passed from the lines of Cain and Seth, the world becomes corrupted by the sin of man and Nephilim, and God determines to wipe out mankind. First, he instructs the righteous Noah and his family to build a huge boat, then God sends a great flood to wipe out the rest of the world. When the waters recede, God promises that he not destroy the world a second time with water with the rainbow as the symbol of his promise. But upon seeing mankind cooperating to build a great tower city, God instructs Abram to travel from his home in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. Abrams name is changed to Abraham and that of his wife Sarai to Sarah, because Sarah is old, she tells Abraham to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as a second wife. God resolves to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sins of their people, Abraham protests and gets God to agree not to destroy the cities if 10 righteous men can be found. Angels save Abrahams nephew Lot and his family, but his wife back on the destruction against their command and is turned into a pillar of salt
10.
Abraham
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Abraham, originally Abram, is the first of the three patriarchs of Judaism. His story features in the texts of all the Abrahamic religions and Abraham plays a prominent role as an example of faith in Judaism, Christianity. The biblical narrative revolves around the themes of posterity and land, Abraham is called by God to leave the house of his father Terah and settle in the land originally given to Canaan, but which God now promises to Abraham and his progeny. Various candidates are put forward who might inherit the land after Abraham, Abraham later marries Keturah and has six more sons, but on his death, when he is buried beside Sarah, it is Isaac who receives all Abrahams goods, while the other sons receive only gifts. Terah, the ninth in descent from Noah, was the father of three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran, Haran was the father of Lot, and died in his native city, Ur of the Chaldees. Abram married Sarah, who was barren, Terah, with Abram, Sarai, and Lot, then departed for Canaan, but settled in a place named Haran, where Terah died at the age of 205. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and the substance and souls that they had acquired, and traveled to Shechem in Canaan. There was a famine in the land of Canaan, so that Abram and Lot and their households. On the way Abram told his wife Sarai to say that she was his sister, however, God afflicted Pharaoh and his household with great plagues, for which he tried to find the reason. Upon discovering that Sarai was a woman, Pharaoh demanded that they and their household leave immediately. When they came back to the Bethel and Hai area, Abrams and this became a problem for the herdsmen who were assigned to each familys cattle. But Lot chose to go east to the plain of Jordan where the land was well watered everywhere as far as Zoar, Abram went south to Hebron and settled in the plain of Mamre, where he built another altar to worship God. During the rebellion of the Jordan River cities against Elam, Abrams nephew, the Elamite army came to collect the spoils of war, after having just defeated the king of Sodoms armies. Lot and his family, at the time, were settled on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Sodom which made them a visible target, one person who escaped capture came and told Abram what happened. Once Abram received this news, he immediately assembled 318 trained servants, Abrams force headed north in pursuit of the Elamite army, who were already worn down from the Battle of Siddim. When they caught up with them at Dan, Abram devised a plan by splitting his group into more than one unit. Not only were able to free the captives, Abrams unit chased and slaughtered the Elamite King Chedorlaomer at Hobah. They freed Lot, as well as his household and possessions, upon Abrams return, Sodoms king came out to meet with him in the Valley of Shaveh, the kings dale
11.
Keturah
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Keturah was a concubine and wife of the Biblical patriarch Abraham. According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham married Keturah after the death of his first wife, Sarah, Abraham, one modern commentator on the Hebrew Bible has called Keturah the most ignored significant person in the Torah. Some Jewish scholars have believed Keturah to be the person as Abrahams concubine Hagar. Keturah is mentioned in two passages of the Hebrew Bible, in the Book of Genesis, and also in the First Book of Chronicles, still, despite these mentions in various sources, the ancestry of Keturah is not known. Keturah is referred to in Genesis as another wife of Abraham, in First Chronicles, she is called Abrahams concubine. Eric Lyon theorizes that it is possible that Keturah was Abraham’s concubine in the beginning, the discussion of Genesis 25, 1–6 in the Genesis Rabbah includes statements by Rabbi Yehuda ha-Nasi arguing that Hagar returned to Abraham and was renamed Keturah. Her new name is said to refer to the pleasant aroma of incense—symbolic of her having turned from misdeeds committed during her time away from Abraham. Since Keturah is referred to in First Chronicles as Abrahams concubine, some concluded that this was why Keturah was identified with Hagar in the Midrash. The theory that Keturah was Hagar was also supported by the 11th-century scholar Rashi, Biblical scholar Richard Elliott Friedman dismisses the identification of Keturah with Hagar as an old rabbinic idea for which there is no basis. In the text, and also notes that the idea was rejected by traditional commentators such as Ibn Ezra, Ramban, the Book of Jubilees also supports the conclusion that Keturah and Hagar were two different people, by stating that Abraham waited until after Hagars death before marrying Keturah. Keturah bore Abraham six sons, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, Genesis and First Chronicles also list seven of her grandsons. Keturahs sons were said to have represented the Arab tribes who lived south, according to the African writer Olaudah Equiano, the 18th-century English theologian John Gill believed the African people were descended from Abraham via Keturah. According to the Baháí author John Able, Baháís consider their founder, Baháulláh, to have been descended doubly, from both Abraham and Sarah, and separately from Abraham and Keturah
12.
Genesis (Hebrew Bible)
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The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. The basic narrative expresses the theme, God creates the world and appoints man as his regent. The new post-Flood world is also corrupt, God does not destroy it, instead calling one man, Abraham, to be the seed of its salvation. At Gods command Abraham descends from his home into the land of Canaan, given to him by God, Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus. The narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, the books author or authors appear to have structured it around ten toledot sections, but modern commentators see it in terms of a primeval history followed by the cycle of Patriarchal stories. In Judaism, the importance of Genesis centers on the covenants linking God to his chosen people. It is not clear, however, what this meant to the original authors, while the first is far shorter than the second, it sets out the basic themes and provides an interpretive key for understanding the entire book. The primeval history has a symmetrical structure hinging on chapters 6–9, God creates the world in six days and consecrates the seventh as a day of rest. God creates the first humans Adam and Eve and all the animals in the Garden of Eden but instructs them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A talking serpent portrayed as a creature or trickster, entices Eve into eating it anyway. Eve bears two sons, Cain and Abel, Cain kills Abel after God accepts Abels offering but not Cains. Eve bears another son, Seth, to take Abels place, after many generations of Adam have passed from the lines of Cain and Seth, the world becomes corrupted by the sin of man and Nephilim, and God determines to wipe out mankind. First, he instructs the righteous Noah and his family to build a huge boat, then God sends a great flood to wipe out the rest of the world. When the waters recede, God promises that he not destroy the world a second time with water with the rainbow as the symbol of his promise. But upon seeing mankind cooperating to build a great tower city, God instructs Abram to travel from his home in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. Abrams name is changed to Abraham and that of his wife Sarai to Sarah, because Sarah is old, she tells Abraham to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as a second wife. God resolves to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sins of their people, Abraham protests and gets God to agree not to destroy the cities if 10 righteous men can be found. Angels save Abrahams nephew Lot and his family, but his wife back on the destruction against their command and is turned into a pillar of salt
13.
King James Version
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The King James Version, also known as Authorized Version or simply King James Bible, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. The books of the King James Version include the 39 books of the Old Testament, a section containing 14 books of the Apocrypha. It was first printed by the Kings Printer Robert Barker and was the translation into English approved by the English Church authorities. The first had been the Great Bible, commissioned in the reign of King Henry VIII, the translation is noted for its majesty of style, and has been described as one of the most important books in English culture. The translation was done by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of England. In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek, the Old Testament from Hebrew and Aramaic, and the Apocrypha from Greek and Latin. In the Book of Common Prayer, the text of the Authorized Version replaced the text of the Great Bible for Epistle and Gospel readings, over the course of the 18th century, the Authorized Version supplanted the Latin Vulgate as the standard version of scripture for English-speaking scholars. Today the unqualified title King James Version usually indicates that this Oxford standard text is meant, the title page carries the words Appointed to be read in Churches, and F. F. For many years it was not to give the translation any specific name. In his Leviathan of 1651, Thomas Hobbes referred to it as the English Translation made in the beginning of the Reign of King James. Similarly, a History of England, whose edition was published in 1775, writes merely that new translation of the Bible, viz. that now in Use, was begun in 1607. King Jamess Bible is used as the name for the 1611 translation in Charles Butlers Horae Biblicae and this name was also found as King James Bible, for example in a book review from 1811. The phrase King Jamess Bible is used as far back as 1715, the use of Authorized Version or Authorised Version, capitalized and used as a name, is found as early as 1814. For some time before this, descriptive phrases such as our present, and only publicly authorised version, our Authorised version, the Oxford English Dictionary records a usage in 1824. In Britain, the 1611 translation is known as the Authorised Version today. As early as 1814, we find King James version, evidently a descriptive phrase, the King James Version is found, unequivocally used as a name, in a letter from 1855. The next year King James Bible, with no possessive, appears as a name in a Scottish source, in the United States, the 1611 translation is generally known as the King James Version today. The followers of John Wycliffe undertook the first complete English translations of the Christian scriptures in the 14th century and these translations were banned in 1409 due to their association with the Lollards
14.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
15.
Moabites
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Moab is the historical name for a mountainous tract of land in Jordan. The land lies alongside much of the shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by numerous archaeological findings, most notably the Mesha Stele, according to the Hebrew Bible, Moab was often in conflict with its Israelite neighbours to the west. Moab occupied a plateau about 3,000 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, or 4,300 feet above the Dead Sea, the northern boundary varied, but generally is represented by a line drawn some miles above the northern extremity of the Dead Sea. In Ezekiel 25,9 the boundaries are given as being marked by Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, the principal rivers of Moab mentioned in the Bible are the Arnon, the Dimon or Dibon, and the Nimrim. The limestone hills which form the almost treeless plateau are generally steep, in the spring they are covered with grass and the table-land itself produces grain. In the north are a number of long, deep ravines, the rainfall is fairly plentiful and the climate, despite the hot summer, is cooler than the area west of the Jordan river, snow falling frequently in winter and in spring. The plateau is dotted with hundreds of dolmens, menhirs, and stone circles, the land is now occupied chiefly by Bedouin, though it contains such towns as al-Karak. The country of Moab was the source of natural resources, including limestone, salt. The Moabites occupied a place along the Kings Highway, the ancient trade route connecting Egypt with Mesopotamia, Syria. Like the Edomites and Ammonites, trade along this route gave them considerable revenue, the Moabites likely settled in the Transjordanian highlands. Whether they were among the nations referred to in the Egyptian language as Shutu or Shasu is a matter of debate among scholars. According to the account, Moab and Ammon were born to Lot and Lots elder and younger daughters, respectively, in the aftermath of the destruction of Sodom. The Bible refers to both the Moabites and Ammonites as Lots sons, born of incest with his daughters and these Amorites, described in the Bible as being ruled by King Sihon, confined the Moabites to the country south of the river Arnon, which formed their northern boundary. God renewed his covenant with the Israelites at Moab before the Israelites entered the promised land, Moses died there, prevented by God from entering the promised land. He was buried in a location in Moab and the Israelites spent a period of thirty days there in mourning. According to the Book of Judges, the Israelites did not pass through the land of the Moabites, after the conquest of Canaan the relations of Moab with Israel were of a mixed character, sometimes warlike and sometimes peaceable. With the tribe of Benjamin they had at least one severe struggle, in union with their kindred the Ammonites and the Amalekites
16.
Heresy of Peor
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The heresy of Peor is an event related in the Torah at Numbers 25, 1–15. Later biblical references to the event occur in Numbers 25,18 and 31,16, Deuteronomy 4,3, Joshua 22,17, Hosea 9,10, another reference is found in the New Testament,1 Corinthians 10,8. The story proceeds from that of the prophet Balaam, in which he ascends the mountain of Pe‘or, when the narrative focus returns to the point of view of the Israelites, the contrast between Balaams voiced opinion of them, and their actual behaviour, is distinctly noticeable. According to the Torah, the Israelites, after spending a time in the plain of Moab. Yahweh orders Moses to gather the chiefs of the people and hang up the idolaters before Yahweh to turn away Yahwehs anger, the scene then abruptly shifts from concerns about Moabites to those about Midianites. A man — Israelite Zimri, the son of Salu — brings a Midianite woman Cozbi into the camp in the sight of Moses, where the people are weeping. Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, thereupon rises up with a spear, follows the man into a tent, the plague, from which 24,000 had died, then ceased to take life. A war with Midian follows later, in Revelation 2,14, a quotation by Jesus implies that after Balaam had blessed Israel, he later went back and influenced Balak to corrupt Israel through seducing them with women into idolatry. The biblical references are the ancient records referring to Ba‘al Pe‘or. There is no way of knowing whether Ba‘al Pe‘or was identical with any other Baal, of which there were several, or was only a local god of Mount Pe‘or. If Pe‘or is connected to the Hebrew stem p‘r open, used both of mouth and bowels, it might mean opening and so Ba‘al Pe‘or could mean Lord of the Opening and this apparent meaning is probably the source of Talmudic traditions associating Ba‘al Pe‘or with exposure and excrement. The tractate Sanhedrin 64a attributes to Rab through Rabbi Judah the story of a sick Gentile woman who vowed to worship every idol in the world if she recovered. Upon recovery she set out to fulfill her vow, but drew back at Pe‘or as the rites disgusted her, eating beets, drinking strong drink, and then uncovering oneself. Tractate ‘Avodah Zarah 3 states in the Gemara that the area before the idol Pe‘or was used as a latrine and that the worship of the idol consisted of defecating before it. Rashi comments on Numbers 25.3 that Pe‘or was so called because they would uncover before it the end of the rectum and bring forth excrement, this is its worship. If Beor and Peor are one and the same, then son of Beor merely identifies Balaam as being a prophet of Baal Peor, Balaam, though still a son of Beor, in this narrative is a prophet of Shamash, the Semitic sun god. If this reflects the god that El refers to in the biblical text concerning Balaam, thus, this later writer could easily have changed Moab to Midian to facilitate this addition. Baal Balaam Balak Belphegor Documentary hypothesis Tzoah Rotachat Jewish Encyclopedia, Baal-Peor
17.
Asherah
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Asherah, in ancient Semitic religion, is a mother goddess who appears in a number of ancient sources. She appears in Akkadian writings by the name of Ašratu, Asherah is generally considered identical with the Ugaritic goddess ʼAṯirat. Asherah is identified as the consort of the Sumerian god Anu, and Ugaritic El, the oldest deities of their respective pantheons, as well as Yahweh. This role gave her a high rank in the Ugaritic pantheon. Despite her association with Yahweh in extra-biblical sources, Yahweh in the Bible commands the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain purity of worship to Yahweh Himself. The Book of Jeremiah, written circa 628 BC, possibly refers to Asherah when it uses the title Queen of Heaven in Jeremiah 7, 16-18 and Jeremiah 44, for a discussion of the Queen of Heaven in the Hebrew Bible, see Queen of heaven. In the Ugaritic texts Athirat is almost always given her full title rbt ʼaṯrt ym, rabat ʼAṯirat yammi and this occurs 12 times in the Baʿal Epic alone. The name is understood by various translators and commentators to be from the Ugaritic root ʼaṯr stride, cognate with the Hebrew root ʼšr, there she appears to champion Yam, in his struggle with Baal. Her other main divine epithet was qaniyatu ʾilhm which may be translated as the creatrix of the Gods. In those texts, Athirat is the consort of the god El, there is one reference to the 70 sons of Athirat and she is also called Elat and Qodesh, holiness. Athirat in Akkadian texts appears as Ashratum, the wife of Anu, among the Hittites this goddess appears as Asherdu or Asertu, the consort of Elkunirsa and mother of either 77 or 88 sons. Among the Amarna letters a King of the Amorites is named Abdi-Ashirta, in Egypt, beginning in the Eighteenth Dynasty, a Semitic goddess named Qudshu Holiness begins to appear prominently, equated with the native Egyptian goddess Hathor. Some think this is Athirat/Ashratu under her Ugaritic name, some biblical scholars believe that Asherah at one time was worshiped as the consort of Yahweh, the national God of Israel. Josiahs grandfather Manasseh had erected one of such statues, the inscriptions found invoke not only Yahweh but El and Baal, and two include the phrases Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah and Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah. The Asherah is most likely a cultic object, although the relationship of this object to Yahweh and to the goddess Asherah, in another inscription called Yahweh and his Asherah, there appears a cow feeding its calf. If Asherah is to be associated with Hathor/Qudshu, it can then be assumed that the cow is whats being referred to as Asherah, william Devers book Did God Have a Wife. The word Asherah is translated in Greek as alsos, grove, or alse, groves, or occasionally by dendra, trees, Vulgate in Latin provided lucus or nemus, the association of Asherah with trees in the Hebrew Bible is very strong. For example, she is found under trees and is made of wood by human beings, trees described as being an asherah or part of an asherah include grapevines, pomegranates, walnuts, myrtles, and willows
18.
Hathor
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Hathor is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of joy, feminine love, and motherhood. She was one of the most important and popular throughout the history of Ancient Egypt. Hathor was worshipped by royalty and common people alike, in tomb paintings, she is often depicted as Mistress of the West, welcoming the dead into the next life. In other roles, she was a goddess of music, dance, foreign lands and she was believed to assist women in childbirth. She was also believed to be the goddess of miners. Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess with horns in which is set a sun disk with Uraeus, twin feathers are also sometimes shown in later periods as well as a menat necklace. The Ancient Egyptians viewed reality as multi-layered in which deities who merge for various reasons, while retaining divergent attributes and myths, were not seen as contradictory but complementary. In a complicated relationship Hathor is at times the mother, daughter and wife of Ra and, like Isis, is at times described as the mother of Horus, the cult of Osiris promised eternal life to those deemed morally worthy. Originally the justified dead, male or female, became an Osiris but by early Roman times females became identified with Hathor, the Ancient Greeks sometimes identified Hathor with the goddess Aphrodite. Hathor is ambiguously depicted until the fourth dynasty, in the historical era Hathor is shown using the imagery of a cow deity. At times they are regarded as one and the goddess, though likely having separate origins. The evidence pointing to the deity being Hathor in particular is based on a passage from the Pyramid texts which states that the Kings apron comes from Hathor, from the Old Kingdom she was also called Lady of the Sycamore in her capacity as a tree deity. Hathor had a relationship with Ra. At times she is the eye of Ra and considered his daughter and she absorbed this role from another cow goddess Mehet-Weret who was the mother of Ra in a creation myth and carried him between her horns. As a mother she gave birth to Ra each morning on the eastern horizon, the Milky Way was seen as a waterway in the heavens, sailed upon by both the sun deity and the moon, leading the ancient Egyptians to describe it as The Nile in the Sky. Hathor also was favoured as a protector in desert regions, as Serabit el-Khadim was where turquoise was mined, Hathors titles included Lady of Turquoise, Mistress of Turquoise, and Lady of Turquoise Country. Hathors identity as a cow, perhaps depicted as such on the Narmer Palette, meant that she identified with another ancient cow-goddess of fertility. The assimilation of Bat, who was associated with the sistrum, in this later form, Hathors cult became centred in Dendera in Upper Egypt and it was led by priestesses and priests who also were dancers, singers and other entertainers
19.
Timna Valley
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The Timna Valley is located in southern Israel in the southwestern Arabah, approximately 30 kilometres north of the Gulf of Aqaba and the town of Eilat. The area is rich in ore and has been mined since the 5th millennium BCE. There is controversy whether the mines were active during the Kingdom of Israel, a large section of the valley, containing ancient remnants of copper mining and ancient worship, is encompassed in a recreation park. In July 2011, the Israeli government approved the construction of an international airport, copper has been mined in the area since the 5th or 6th millennium BCE. The copper was used for ornaments, but more importantly for stone cutting, as saws, scientific attention and public interest was aroused in the 1930s, when Nelson Glueck attributed the copper mining at Timna to King Solomon and named the site King Solomons Mines. His excavation and restoration of the allowed for the reconstruction of Timna Valley’s long and complex history of copper production. The modern state of Israel also began mining copper on the edge of the valley in 1955. The mine was reopened in 1980, the mine was named Timnah after a Biblical chief. Timna Valley is notable for its uncommon stone formations and sand, although predominantly red, the sand can be yellow, orange, grey, dark brown, or black. Light green or blue sand occurs near the copper mines, water and wind erosion have created several unusual formations that are only found in similar climates. The most striking and well-known formation in Timna Valley are Solomons Pillars, the pillars are natural structures that were formed by centuries of water erosion through fractures in the sandstone cliff until it became a series of distinct, pillar-shaped structures. American archaeologist Nelson Glueck caused a surge of attention for the pillars in the 1930s and he claimed that the pillars were related to King Solomon and gave them the name Solomons Pillars. Although his hypothesis lacked support and has not been accepted, the name stuck, the pillars are known as the backdrop for evening concerts and dance performances the park presents in the summer. The Mushroom is a monolithic, mushroom-shaped, red sandstone rock formation known as a hoodoo. The mushroom shape was caused by wind, humidity, and water erosion over centuries, the Mushroom is surrounded by copper ore smelting sites from between the 14th and 12th centuries BCE. The Arches are natural arches formed by erosion, as well, Arches are not as rare as Solomons Pillars and the Mushroom, and similar structures can be found in elsewhere in the world. The walking trail goes to the Arches also goes past the copper mine shafts. Beno Rothenberg, the excavator of the Timna Valley area, excavated a small Egyptian temple dedicated to Hathor
20.
Tabernacle
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Solomons Temple in Jerusalem superseded it as the dwelling-place of God some 300 years later. The main source for the account of the construction of the Tabernacle is the biblical Book of Exodus, specifically Exodus 25–31 and 35–40. It was standing diagonally, partially covering a table for showbread and this description is generally identified as part of the Priestly source, written in the sixth or fifth century BCE. However whilst the first Priestly source takes the form of instructions, traditional scholars contend that it describes an actual tabernacle used in the time of Moses and thereafter. According to historical criticism, an earlier, pre-exilic source, the Elohist, the English word tabernacle is derived from the Latin tabernāculum meaning tent or hut, which in ancient Roman religion was a ritual structure. The word sanctuary is used for the biblical tabernacle, as is the phrase tent of meeting. The Hebrew word mishkan implies dwell, rest, or to live in, historical criticism has identified two accounts of the tabernacle in Exodus, a briefer Elohist account and a longer Priestly one. Traditional scholars believe the account describes a different structure, perhaps Moses personal tent. The Hebrew nouns in the two differ, one is most commonly translated as tent of meeting, while the other is usually translated as tabernacle. Exodus 33, 7-10 refers to the Tabernacle of the congregation, the people directed their worship toward this center. Historical criticism attributes this description to the Elohist source, which is believed to have written about 850 BCE or later. It is an enclosure containing the altar and bronze laver for the priests to wash surrounded these chambers. This description is identified by historical criticism as part of the Priestly source and this view is based on Exodus 36,37,38 and 39 that describe in full detail how the actual construction of the Tabernacle took place during the time of Moses. The detailed outlines for the tabernacle and its priests are enumerated in the Book of Exodus, Exodus 25, Materials needed, the Ark, the table for 12 showbread, Exodus 26, The tabernacle, the bars, partitions. Exodus 27, The copper altar, the enclosure, oil, Exodus 28, Vestments for the priests, ephod garment, ring settings, the breastplate, robe, head-plate, tunic, turban, sashes, pants. Exodus 29, Consecration of priests and altar, Exodus 30, Incense altar, washstand, anointing oil, incense. There is a set of rules to be followed for the carriage of the Tabernacle laid out in the Hebrew Bible. For example, You must put the Levites in charge of the Tabernacle of the Covenant, along with its furnishings and they must carry the Tabernacle and its equipment as you travel, and they must care for it and camp around it
21.
Joseph (Genesis)
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Joseph is an important figure in the Bibles Book of Genesis and also in the Quran as well as the Book of Mormon. In Rabbinic tradition Joseph is considered the ancestor of another Messiah called Mashiach ben Yosef and he will wage war against the evil forces alongside Mashiach ben David and die in combat with the enemies of God and Israel. Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, lived in the land of Canaan with ten half-brothers, one full brother and he was Rachels firstborn and Jacobs eleventh son. Of all the sons, Joseph was preferred by his father, when Joseph was seventeen years old he had two dreams that made his brothers plot his demise. In the first dream, Joseph and his brothers gathered bundles of grain, in the second dream, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed to Joseph himself. These dreams, implying his supremacy, angered his brothers, unaware of this secondary intention, the others obeyed his first. Upon imprisoning Joseph, the brothers saw a caravan carrying spices and perfumes to Egypt. Thereafter the guilty brothers painted goats blood on Josephs coat and showed it to Jacob, ultimately, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaohs guard. Later, Joseph became Potiphars personal servant, and subsequently his households superintendent, here, Potiphars wife Zuleika tried to seduce Joseph, which he refused. Angered by his running away from her, she made an accusation of rape. Joseph requested the cup-bearer to mention him to Pharaoh and secure his release from prison, after two more years, the Pharaoh dreamt of seven lean cows which devoured seven fat cows, and of seven withered ears of grain which devoured seven fat ears. When the Pharaohs advisers failed to interpret dreams, the cup-bearer remembered Joseph. He interpreted the dream as seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine, following the prediction, Joseph became Vizier, under the name of Zaphnath-Paaneah, and was given Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On, to be his wife. During the seven years of abundance, Joseph ensured that the storehouses were full, in the sixth year, Asenath bore two children to Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. When the famine came, it was so severe that people from surrounding nations came to Egypt to buy bread, the narrative also indicates that they went straight to Joseph or were directed to him, even by the Pharaoh himself. This mandate lasted until the days of Moses, in the second year of famine, Josephs half brothers were sent to Egypt to buy goods. After questioning them, he accused them of being spies, after they mentioned a younger brother at home, the Vizier demanded that he be brought to Egypt as a demonstration of their veracity. This was Josephs full brother, Benjamin, Joseph placed his brothers in prison for three days
22.
Moses
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Moses is a prophet in Abrahamic religions. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew, he is the most important prophet in Judaism and he is also an important prophet in Christianity, Islam, the Baháí Faith as well as a number of other Abrahamic religions. Moses Hebrew mother, Jochebed, secretly hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed in order to reduce the population of the Israelites. Through the Pharaohs daughter, the child was adopted as a foundling from the Nile river and grew up with the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slavemaster, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he could not speak with assurance or eloquence, so God allowed Aaron, his brother, to become his spokesperson. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, after 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land on Mount Nebo. According to archaeologist William G. Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE, Jerome gives 1592 BCE, the Biblical account of Moses birth provides him with a folk etymology to explain the ostensible meaning of his name. He is said to have received it from the Pharaohs daughter and she named him Moses, saying, I drew him out of the water. This explanation links it to a verb mashah, meaning to draw out, the princess made a grammatical mistake which is prophetic of his future role in legend, as someone who will draw the people of Israel out of Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea. Abraham Yahuda, based on the spelling given in the Tanakh, argues that it combines water or seed and pond, expanse of water, the Hebrew etymology in the Biblical story may reflect an attempt to cancel out traces of Moses Egyptian origins. The Egyptian character of his name was recognized as such by ancient Jewish writers like Philo of Alexandria and Josephus. Philo linked Mōēsēs to the Egyptian word for water, while Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, claimed that the element, -esês. Hizkuni suggested she either converted or took a tip from Jochebed, the Israelites had settled in the Land of Goshen in the time of Joseph and Jacob, but a new pharaoh arose who oppressed the children of Israel. At this time Moses was born to his father Amram, son of Kehath the Levite, who entered Egypt with Jacobs household, his mother was Jochebed, Moses had one older sister, Miriam, and one older brother, Aaron. One day after Moses had reached adulthood he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, Moses, in order to escape the Pharaohs death penalty, fled to Midian. There, on Mount Horeb, God revealed to Moses his name YHWH and commanded him to return to Egypt and bring his people out of bondage. Moses returned to carry out Gods command, but God caused the Pharaoh to refuse, from Egypt, Moses led the Israelites to biblical Mount Sinai, where he was given the Ten Commandments from God, written on stone tablets
23.
Zipporah
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Zipporah or Tzipora is mentioned in the Book of Exodus as the wife of Moses, and the daughter of Reuel/Jethro, the priest or prince of Midian and the spiritual founder and ancestor of the Druze. In the Book of Chronicles, two of her descendants are mentioned, Shebuel, son of Gershom, and Rehabiah, son of Eliezer. In the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible Zipporah was one of the seven daughters of Jethro, in Exodus 2,18 Jethro is also referred to as Reuel and referred to as Hobab in the Book of Judges. While the Israelites/Hebrews were captives in Egypt, Moses killed an Egyptian who was striking a Hebrew, Moses therefore fled from Egypt and arrived in Midian. One day while he sat by a well, Reuels daughters came to water their fathers flocks, other shepherds arrived and drove the girls away so they could water their own flocks first. Moses defended the girls and watered their flock, upon their return home their father asked them, How is it that you have come home so early today. The girls answered, An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds, he drew water for us. Why did you leave the man, invite him for supper to break bread. Moses stayed and lived with the Midianite and his family, Reuel gave him his daughter Zipporah in marriage and, in due time, she gave birth to Gershom and then to Eliezer. The Book of Numbers 12,1 calls the wife of Moses a Cushite woman, the rhetorical question Can the Cushite change his skin. In Jeremiah 13,23 implies people of a different skin color from the Israelites, most likely a Nubian people, also. Another person named Cush in the Hebrew Bible is a Benjamite who is mentioned only in Psalm 7, after all the men in Egypt who had sought his death had died, Moses returned to Egypt. Moses took his wife and sons and started his journey back to Egypt, on the road, they stayed in an inn, where a mysterious and much-debated incident that features Zipporah took place. The Bible describes that God came to kill Moses, Zipporah quickly circumcised Gershom with a sharp stone and touched Moses feet with it, saying You are a husband of blood. Some scholars explain the reason why God came to kill Moses was because of the covenant he made with Abraham. He who is born in house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised. And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, the Bible does not say when Zipporah and her sons rejoined Reuel/Jethro, only that after he heard of what God did for the Israelites, he brought Moses family to him. The most common translation is that Moses sent her away, but another grammatically permissible translation is that she sent things or persons, the word that makes this difficult is shelucheiha, the sendings of her
24.
Jethro (Bible)
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In the Hebrew Bible, Jethro or Reuel was Moses father-in-law, a Kenite shepherd and priest of Midian. In Exodus, Moses father-in-law is initially referred to as Reuel and he was the father of Hobab in the Book of Numbers 10,29. He is also revered as the founder and chief prophet in his own right in the Druze religion. Jethro is called a priest of Midian and became father-in-law of Moses after he gave his daughter, Zipporah and he is introduced in Exodus 2,18. Jethro is recorded as living in Midian, a territory stretching along the edge of the Gulf of Aqaba in what is today northwestern Saudi Arabia. Some believe Midian is within the Sinai Peninsula, Biblical maps from antiquity show Midian on both locations. Jethros daughter, Zipporah, became Mosess wife after Moses had fled Egypt, having fled to Midian, Moses intervened in a water-access dispute between Jethros seven daughters and the local shepherds, Jethro consequently invited Moses into his home and offered him hospitality. However, Moses remained conscious that he was a stranger in exile, naming his first son Gershom, Moses is said to have worked as a shepherd for Jethro for 40 years before returning to Egypt to lead the Hebrews to Canaan, the promised land. After the Battle at Rephidim against the Amalekites, word reached Jethro that under Moses leadership the Israelites had been delivered out of Egypt, so he set out to meet with Moses. And Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, for in the thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them. ”Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering. These events take place in the Torah portion Yitro, there is some disagreement over the name of Moses father-in-law. In the KJV translation of Judges 4,11, a man named Hobab appears as Moses father-in-law, while Numbers 10,29 makes him the son of Raguel the Midianite, Reuel is noted Exodus 2,16, as a priest of Midian who had seven daughters. Exodus 2,18 the girls returned to Reuel their father, Reuel becomes Moses father in law in Exodus 2,21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. In Numbers 10,29, the Hebrew for the name Raguel is the same as the Hebrew for Reuel, re-u-el, with the first syllable strong accented, is nearer to the true pronunciation. Some suppose he was father to Hobab, who was also called Jethro, another thing to consider is that there is only one Biblical Hebrew word for both brother-in-law and father-in-law. It is, in fact, the word for any and all relations by marriage, however, this is disputed among theologians. Jethro, Moses non-Hebrew father-in-law, is a figure, particularly in the rites and pilgrimages
25.
Promised Land
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The promise was first made to Abraham, then confirmed to his son Isaac, and then to Isaacs son Jacob, Abrahams grandson. The promised land was described in terms of the territory from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates river, moses anticipated that God might subsequently give the Israelites land reflecting the boundaries of Gods original promise, if they were obedient to the covenant. Palestinians also claim descent from the Israelites and Maccabees, as well as all the other peoples who have lived in the region. The imagery of the Promised Land was invoked in Negro spirituals as heaven or paradise and as an escape from slavery, often which can only be reached by death. The imagery and term have also used in popular culture, sermons and in speeches, such as the Ive Been to the Mountaintop speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. And Hes allowed me to go up to the mountain, and Ive seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, the promise that is the basis of the term is contained in several verses of Genesis in the Torah. In Genesis 12,1 it is said, The LORD had said to Abram, Leave your country, your people and your fathers household, and in Genesis 12,7, The LORD appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring I will give this land. Commentators have noted problems with this promise and related ones, It is to Abrams descendants that the land will be given, not to Abram directly nor there. However, in Genesis 15,7 it is said, He also said to him, I am the LORD, however, how this verse relates to the promises is a matter of controversy. There is nothing in the promise to indicate God intended it be applied to Abraham’s physical descendants unconditionally, exclusively, exhaustively or in perpetuity, the verse is said to describe what are known as borders of the Land. In Jewish tradition, these define the maximum extent of the land promised to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac. The promise was confirmed to Jacob at Genesis 28,13, other geographical borders are given in Exodus 23,31 which describes borders as marked by the Red Sea, the Sea of the Philistines i. e. the Mediterranean, and the River. The promise is fulfilled at the end of the Exodus from Egypt, deuteronomy 1,8 says, See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and it took a long time before the Israelites could subdue the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. The furthest extent of the Land of Israel was achieved during the time of the united Kingdom of Israel under David, the actual land controlled by the Israelites has fluctuated considerably over time, and at times the land has been under the control of various empires. However, under Jewish tradition, even when it is not in Jewish occupation and this may however reflect an eisegesis or reconstruction of primary verses based on the later biblical emphasis of Jacobs descendants
26.
Tribe of Simeon
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Simeon was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the biblical account, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes, kenneth Kitchen, a well-known conservative biblical scholar, dates this event to slightly after 1200 BCE. However, the view of modern scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. Simeon was one of the significant tribes in the Kingdom of Judah. With Leah as a matriarch, scholars believe the tribe to have been regarded by the authors to have been part of the original Israelite confederation. According to this narrative, the tribe of Judah invited the tribe of Simeon to fight them in alliance to secure each of their allotted territories. Further verses state that about 500 men from the tribe migrated to Mount Seir, according to the Midrash, many families in the other Israelite tribes were descended from women from Simeon, which had been widowed from their original Simeonite husbands. Simeon was one of the strongest tribes during the wandering in the desert and its symbol is that of a gate representing the city of Shechem. This seeming contradiction can be explained in the following way, the tribe of Simeon, like Levi, was decreed to be scattered throughout as punishment for massacring Shechem. Levi was scattered throughout all of Israel whereas Simeon was scattered in towns only within Judah, in the Blessing of Jacob, this punishment appears to be prophesied, with the tribe being predicted to become divided and scattered. Nevertheless, an apocryphal midrash claims that the tribe was deported by the Babylonians to the Kingdom of Aksum, to a place behind the dark mountains
27.
Miscegenation
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Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, or procreation. The term miscegenation has been used since the 19th century to refer to marriage and interracial sexual relations. Historically, the term has been used in the context of laws banning marriage and sex. The Latin term entered historical records during European colonialism and the Age of Discovery, in the present day, the word miscegenation is avoided by many scholars, because the term suggests a concrete biological phenomenon, rather than a categorization imposed on certain relationships. The term remains in use among scholars when referring to past practices concerning multiraciality, in Spanish, Portuguese and French, the words used to describe the mixing of races are mestizaje, mestiçagem and métissage. These words, much older than the term miscegenation, are derived from the Late Latin mixticius for mixed, Portuguese also uses miscigenação, derived from the same Latin root as the English word. Today, the mixes among races and ethnicities are diverse, so it is considered preferable to use the term mixed-race or simply mixed, Intermarriage occurred significantly from the very first settlements, with their descendants achieving high rank in government and society. To this day, there are controversies if Brazilian class system would be drawn mostly around socio-economic lines, conversely, people classified in censuses as black, brown or indigenous have disadvantaged social indicators in comparison to the white population. The concept of miscegenation is tied to concepts of racial difference, Mestizo are people of mixed white and indigenous, usually Amerindian ancestry, who do not self-identify as indigenous peoples or Native Americans. Thus the Comte de Montlosier, in exile during the French Revolution, Mixture of all races and of all times. Miscegenation comes from the Latin miscere, to mix and genus, the word was coined in an anonymous propaganda pamphlet published in New York City in December 1863, during the American Civil War. The pamphlet was entitled Miscegenation, The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro. It purported to advocate the intermarriage of whites and blacks until they were mixed, as a desirable goal. There was already much opposition to the war effort, the pamphlet and variations on it were reprinted widely in both the north and south by Democrats and Confederates. Only in November 1864 was the pamphlet exposed as a hoax, the hoax pamphlet was written by David Goodman Croly, managing editor of the New York World, a Democratic Party paper, and George Wakeman, a World reporter. By then, the word miscegenation had entered the language of the day as a popular buzzword in political and social discourse. The issue of miscegenation, raised by the opponents of Abraham Lincoln, in the United States, miscegenation has referred primarily to the intermarriage between whites and non-whites, especially blacks. Before the publication of Miscegenation, the amalgamation, borrowed from metallurgy, had been in use as a general term for ethnic
28.
Yahweh
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Yahweh was the national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah. By the end of the Babylonian exile, the existence of foreign gods was denied, and Yahweh was proclaimed as the creator of the cosmos. The Israelites originated as Bronze Age Canaanites, but Yahweh was not initially a Canaanite god, in this case a plausible etymology for the name could be from the root HWY, which would yield the meaning he blows, appropriate to a weather divinity. There is considerable but not universal support for the view that the Egyptian inscriptions refer to Yahweh, the question that arises is how he made his way to the north. A widely accepted hypothesis is that traders brought Yahweh to Israel along the routes between Egypt and Canaan, the Kenite hypothesis, named after one of the groups involved. Israel emerges into the record in the last decades of the 13th century BCE, at the very end of the Late Bronze Age. The milieu from which Israelite religion emerged was accordingly Canaanite and he lived in a tent on a mountain from whose base originated all the fresh waters of the world, with the goddess Asherah as his consort. This pair made up the top tier of the Canaanite pantheon, the tier was made up of their children. Baals sphere was the thunderstorm with its life-giving rains, so that he was also a fertility god, below the seventy second-tier gods was a third tier made up of comparatively minor craftsman and trader deities, with a fourth and final tier of divine messengers and the like. He subdues the ancient gods, shatters the forces of old, so Israel lives in safety, untroubled is Jacobs abode. Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread on their backs. After the 9th century BCE the tribes and chiefdoms of Iron Age I were replaced by ethnic nation states, Israel, Judah, Moab, Ammon and others, each with its national god, and all more or less equal. Thus Chemosh was the god of the Moabites, Milcom the god of the Ammonites, Qaus the god of the Edomites, the festivals thus celebrated Yahwehs salvation of Israel and Israels status as his holy people, although the earlier agricultural meaning was not entirely lost. Sacrifice was presumably complemented by the singing or recital of psalms, prayer played little role in official worship. Shiloh, Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, Ramah and Dan were also sites for festivals, sacrifices, the making of vows, private rituals. Yahweh-worship was famously aniconic, meaning that the god was not depicted by a statue or other image, pre-exilic Israel, like its neighbours, was polytheistic, and Israelite monotheism was the culmination of a unique set of historical circumstances. The original god of Israel was El, as the name demonstrates—its probable meaning is may El rule or some other sentence-form involving the name of El. Asherah, formerly the wife of El, was worshipped as Yahwehs consort, and various biblical passages indicate that her statues were kept in his temples in Jerusalem, Bethel, and Samaria
29.
John Gill (theologian)
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John Gill was an English Baptist pastor, biblical scholar, and theologian who held to a firm Calvinistic soteriology. Born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, he attended Kettering Grammar School where he mastered the Latin classics and he continued self-study in everything from logic to Hebrew, his love for the latter remaining throughout his life. At the age of about 12, Gill heard a sermon from his pastor, William Wallis, on the text, And the LORD God called unto Adam, the message stayed with Gill and eventually led to his conversion. It was not until seven years later that he made a profession when he was 18. His first pastoral work was as an intern assisting John Davis at Higham Ferrers in 1718 at age 21 and he became pastor at the Strict Baptist church at Goat Yard Chapel, Horsleydown, Southwark in 1719. In 1757 his congregation needed larger premises and moved to a Carter Lane, St. Olave’s Street and this Baptist church was once pastored by Benjamin Keach and would later become the New Park Street Chapel and then the Metropolitan Tabernacle pastored by Charles Spurgeon. During Gills ministry, the church supported the preaching of George Whitefield at nearby Kennington Common. In 1748, Gill was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Aberdeen. He was a scholar and a prolific author. Gill also edited and re-published the works of Rev. Tobias Crisp, John Gill was the first major writing Baptist theologian, his work retaining influence into the 21st century. Gills relationship with hyper-Calvinism in English Baptist life is a matter of debate, Peter Toon has argued that Gill was himself a hyper-Calvinist, which would make Gill the father of Baptist hyper-Calvinism. Tom Nettles has argued that Gill was not a hyper-Calvinist himself, unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of Edinburgh,1983. John Gill and the Cause of God and Truth, murray, Iain H. Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism, The Battle for Gospel Preaching. By His Grace and for His Glory, A Historical, Theological, ISBN 0-8010-6742-1 Oliver, Robert W. History of the English Calvinistic Baptists, 1771–1892. ISBN 0-85151-920-2 Peter Toon, The Emergence of Hyper-Calvinism in English Nonconformity, brief Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Reverend John Gill. ISBN 0-87377-920-7 This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Jackson, Samuel Macauley. New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, london and New York, Funk and Wagnalls. Christ alone exalted, in the perfection and encouragement of the saints, notwithstanding sins and trials, containing fifty-two sermons, on several select texts of Scripture
30.
Book of Deuteronomy
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The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Torah and the Christian Old Testament. The Hebrew title is taken from the opening phrase Eleh ha-devarim, the English title is from a Greek mistranslation of the Hebrew phrase mishneh haTorah hazoth, a copy of this law, in Deuteronomy 17,18, as to deuteronomion touto – this second law. The book consists of three sermons or speeches delivered to the Israelites by Moses on the plains of Moab, shortly before they enter the Promised Land. Many scholars see the book as reflecting the needs and social status of the Levite caste. One of its most significant verses is Deuteronomy 6,4, the Shema Yisrael, which has become the definitive statement of Jewish identity, Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Verses 6, 4–5 were also quoted by Jesus in Mark 12, Patrick D. Miller in his commentary on Deuteronomy suggests that different views of the structure of the book will lead to different views on what it is about. Chapters 1–4, The journey through the wilderness from Horeb to Kadesh, chapters 4–11, After a second introduction at 4, 44–49 the events at Mount Horeb are recalled, with the giving of the Ten Commandments. Chapters 12–26, the Deuteronomic code, Laws governing Israels worship, the appointment and regulation of community and religious leaders, social regulation, chapters 27–28, Blessings and curses for those who keep and break the law. Chapters 29–30, Concluding discourse on the covenant in the land of Moab, including all the laws in the Deuteronomic code after those given at Horeb, Israel is again exhorted to obedience. Chapters 31–34, Joshua is installed as Mosess successor, Moses delivers the law to the Levites, and ascends Mount Nebo or Pisgah, the narrative of these events is interrupted by two poems, the Song of Moses and the Blessing of Moses. Deuteronomy 12–26, the Deuteronomic Code, is its oldest part of the book and it is a series of mitzvot to the Israelites regarding how they ought to conduct themselves in Canaan, the land promised by Yahweh, God of Israel. The following list organizes most of the laws into thematic groups, The worship of Canaanite gods is forbidden, native mourning practices such as deliberate disfigurement are forbidden. The worship at Asherah groves and setting up of ritual pillars are forbidden, all sacrifices are to be brought and vows are to be made at a central sanctuary. Sacrificed animals must be without blemish, first-born male livestock must be sacrificed. The procedure for tithing produce or donating its equivalent is given, the Pilgrimage Festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot are instituted. A catalog of which animals are permitted and which forbidden for consumption is given, the consumption of animals which are found dead and have not been slaughtered is prohibited. Judges are to be appointed in every city, judges are to be impartial and bribery is forbidden. Should the Israelites choose to be ruled by a King, regulations for the office are given, Regulations of the rights, and revenue, of the Levites are given
31.
Prisoner of war
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A prisoner of war is a person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the prisoner of war dates to 1660. The first Roman gladiators were prisoners of war and were named according to their ethnic roots such as Samnite, Thracian, typically, little distinction was made between enemy combatants and enemy civilians, although women and children were more likely to be spared. Sometimes, the purpose of a battle, if not a war, was to capture women, a known as raptio. Typically women had no rights, and were legally as chattel. For this he was eventually canonized, during Childerics siege and blockade of Paris in 464, the nun Geneviève pleaded with the Frankish king for the welfare of prisoners of war and met with a favourable response. Later, Clovis I liberated captives after Genevieve urged him to do so, many French prisoners of war were killed during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. In the later Middle Ages, a number of religious wars aimed to not only defeat, in Christian Europe, the extermination of heretics was considered desirable. Examples include the 13th century Albigensian Crusade and the Northern Crusades, likewise, the inhabitants of conquered cities were frequently massacred during the Crusades against the Muslims in the 11th and 12th centuries. Noblemen could hope to be ransomed, their families would have to send to their captors large sums of wealth commensurate with the status of the captive. In feudal Japan there was no custom of ransoming prisoners of war, in Termez, on the Oxus, all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain. The Aztecs were constantly at war with neighbouring tribes and groups, for the re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, between 10,000 and 80,400 persons were sacrificed. During the early Muslim conquests, Muslims routinely captured large number of prisoners, aside from those who converted, most were ransomed or enslaved. Christians who were captured during the Crusades, were either killed or sold into slavery if they could not pay a ransom. The freeing of prisoners was highly recommended as a charitable act, there also evolved the right of parole, French for discourse, in which a captured officer surrendered his sword and gave his word as a gentleman in exchange for privileges. If he swore not to escape, he could gain better accommodations, if he swore to cease hostilities against the nation who held him captive, he could be repatriated or exchanged but could not serve against his former captors in a military capacity. Early historical narratives of captured colonial Europeans, including perspectives of literate women captured by the peoples of North America. The writings of Mary Rowlandson, captured in the fighting of King Philips War, are an example
32.
Enemy
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Enemy or foe is an individual or a group that is seen as forcefully adverse or threatening. The concept of an enemy has been observed to be basic for both individuals and communities, the term enemy serves the social function of designating a particular entity as a threat, thereby invoking an intense emotional response to that entity. The state of being or having an enemy is enmity, foehood or foeship, as for the etymology the term enemy is derived from Latin language for bad friend. Enemy is a word, and emotions associated with the enemy would include anger, hatred, frustration, envy, jealousy, fear, distrust. As a political concept, an enemy is likely to be met with hate, violence, battle, the opposite of an enemy is a friend or ally. Because the term the enemy is a bit bellicose and militaristic to use in polite society, often the substituted terms become pejoratives in the context that they are used. In any case, the designation of an enemy exists solely to denote the status of a group of people as a threat. Substituted terms for an enemy often go further to identify a known group as an enemy. A government may seek to represent a person or group as a threat to the good by designating that person or group to be a public enemy. The characterization of an individual or/and group as an enemy is called demonization, the propagation of demonization is a major aspect of propaganda. An enemy may also be conceptual, used to describe phenomena such disease. In theology, the Enemy is typically reserved to represent an evil deity, devil or a demon. For example, in early Iroquois legend, the Sun and Moon, as god and goddess of Day and Night, had acquired the characters of the great friend and enemy of man. The enemy, as the object of social anger or repulsion, has throughout history been used as the prototypical propaganda tool to focus the fear and anxiety within a society toward a particular target. The target is often general, as with a group or race of people, or it can also be a conceptual target. In some cases the concept of the enemy have morphed, whereas once racial, the existence or perceived existence of a collective enemy tends to increase the cohesiveness of the group. However, the identification and treatment of other entities as enemies may be irrational, irrational approaches may extend to treating impersonal phenomena not merely as conceptual enemies, but as sentient actors intentionally bringing strife to the sufferer. The concept of the enemy is well covered in the field of peace and conflict studies, in peace studies, enemies are those entities who are perceived as frustrating or preventing achievement of a goal
33.
Book of Numbers
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The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and complex history, but its form is probably due to a Priestly redaction of a Yahwistic source made some time in the early Persian period. The name of the book comes from the two taken of the Israelites. Numbers begins at Mount Sinai, where the Israelites have received their laws, the task before them is to take possession of the Promised Land. The people are numbered and preparations are made for resuming their march, the Israelites begin the journey, but they murmur at the hardships along the way, and about the authority of Moses and Aaron. For these acts, God destroys approximately 15,000 of them through various means and they arrive at the borders of Canaan and send spies into the land. Upon hearing the spies fearful report concerning the conditions in Canaan, God condemns them to death in the wilderness until a new generation can grow up and carry out the task. The book ends with the new generation of Israelites in the Plain of Moab ready for the crossing of the Jordan River, Numbers is the culmination of the story of Israels exodus from oppression in Egypt and their journey to take possession of the land God promised their fathers. Numbers also demonstrates the importance of holiness, faithfulness and trust, despite Gods presence and his priests, Israel lacks faith and the possession of the land is left to a new generation. God orders Moses, in the wilderness of Sinai, to number those able to bear all the men from twenty years old and upward. A total of 603,550 Israelites are found to be fit for military service, the tribe of Levi is exempted from military service and therefore not included in the census. Moses consecrates the Levites for the service of the Tabernacle in the place of the first-born sons, the Levites are divided into three families, the Gershonites, the Kohathites, and the Merarites, each under a chief. The Kohathites were headed by Eleazar, son of Aaron, while the Gershonites and Merarites were headed by Aarons other son, preparations are then made for resuming the march to the Promised Land. Various ordinances and laws are decreed, the Israelites set out from Sinai. The people murmur against God and are punished by fire, Moses complains of their stubbornness and is ordered to choose seventy elders to assist him in the government of the people, twelve spies are sent out into Canaan and come back to report to Moses. Yahweh decrees that the Israelites will be punished for their loss of faith by having to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, Moses is ordered by God to make plates to cover the altar. The children of Israel murmur against Moses and Aaron on account of the destruction of Korahs men and are stricken with the plague, Aaron and his family are declared by God to be responsible for any iniquity committed in connection with the sanctuary. The Levites are again appointed to help in the keeping of the Tabernacle, the Levites are ordered to surrender to the priests a part of the tithes taken to them
34.
Book of Judges
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The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible. Judges can be divided into three sections, a double prologue, a main body, and a double epilogue. The book opens with the Israelites in the land which God has promised to them but worshiping foreign gods instead of Yahweh, the God of Israel, and with the Canaanites still present everywhere. Chapters 1, 1–2,5 are thus a confession of failure while chapters 2, 6–3,6 are a major summary and reflection from the Deuteronomists. Once peace was regained, for a time Israel does right and receives Yahwehs blessings, only to relapse later into doing evil, Judges follows on from the Book of Joshua and opens with reference to Joshuas death. The Israelites meet, most likely at the sanctuary at Gilgal or at Shechem, the cyclic pattern set out in the prologue is readily apparent at the beginning, but as the stories progress it begins to disintegrate, mirroring the disintegration of the world of the Israelites. The stories are not presented in order, but the judges as they appear in the text are, Othniel vs. Chushan-Rishathaim, King of Aram. Some scholars have inferred that the judges were actual adjudicators, whereas the major judges were leaders. The only time a judge is said to have made legal judgments was Deborah. Despite their appearance at the end of the book, certain characters, early in the period of the judges. Judges contains a chronology of its events and it is overtly schematic and, according to biblical scholar Jeremy Hughes, shows signs of having been introduced at a later period. The basic source for Judges was a collection of connected stories about tribal heroes who saved the people in battle. A statement repeated throughout the book, In those days there was no king in Israel implies a date in the monarchy for the redaction editing) of Judges. Since the second half of the 20th century most scholars have agreed with Martin Noths thesis that the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings form parts of a single work. Noth believed that history was the work of a single author, living in the mid-6th century BCE. After a period of peace, the cycle recurs, further themes are also present, the sovereign freedom of Yahweh, the satirisation of foreign kings, the concept of the flawed agent and the disunity of the Israelite community. Although Judges probably had a monarchist redaction, the book contains passages and themes that represent anti-monarchist views, one of the major themes of the book is Yahwehs sovereignty and the importance of being loyal to Him and His laws above all other gods and sovereigns. Indeed, the authority of the judges comes not through prominent dynasties nor through elections or appointments, anti-monarchist theology is most apparent toward the end of the Gideon cycle in which the Israelites beg Gideon to create a dynastic monarchy over them and Gideon refuses
35.
Gideon
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Gideon was the son of Joash, from the Abiezrite clan in the tribe of Manasseh and lived in Ephra. As a leader of the Israelites, he won a victory over a Midianite army despite a vast numerical disadvantage. The nineteenth-century Strongs Concordance derives the name Jerubbaal from Baal will contend, according to biblical scholar Lester Grabbe,6.32 gives a nonsensical etymology of his name, it means something like Let Baal be great. Likewise, where Strong gave the meaning hewer to the name Gideon, God chose Gideon, a young man from the tribe of Manasseh, to free the people of Israel and to condemn their idolatry. The Angel of the Lord, or the Lord’s angelic messenger came in the character, of a traveller who sat down in the shade to enjoy a little refreshment and repose and entered into conversation with Gideon. The narrative has echoes of the meeting between Abraham and the visitors who came to him in the trees of Mamre and promised Abraham and Sarah, in their old age. The Angel of the Lord greeted Gideon, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor, God first instructed Gideon to send home those men who were afraid. Gideon invited any man who wanted to leave, to do so,22,000 men returned home and 10,000 remained, during the night, God instructed Gideon to approach the Midianite camp. There, Gideon overheard a Midianite man tell a friend of a dream in which a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and this was interpreted as meaning that God had given the Midianites over to Gideon. Gideon returned to the Israelite camp and gave each of his men a trumpet, divided into three companies, Gideon and the three hundred marched on the enemy camp. He instructed them to blow the trumpet, give a battle cry and light torches, as they did so, the Midianite army fled. Gideon sent messengers ahead into Israel calling for the Ephraimites to pursue the retreating Midianites, Gideon and the three hundred pursued Zebah and Zalmunna, the two Midianite kings. When he had asked for provisions in his pursuit, the men of Succoth, after capturing the two kings, Gideon punished the men of Succoth, and pulled down the tower of Peniel killing all the men there. Gideon then killed Zebah and Zalmunna as justice for the death of his brothers, the Israelites invited Gideon to become their king and to found a dynasty, but he refused, telling them that only God was their ruler. G. A. Gideon went on to make an out of the gold won in battle. Gideon had 70 sons from the women he took as wives. He also had a Shechemite concubine who bore him a son whom he named Abimelech, there was peace in Israel for 40 years during the life of Gideon. As soon as Gideon died of old age, the Israelites again turned to worship the false god Baal-Berith, the text of Judges 6–8 is a composite narrative, combining Jahwist, Elohist and Deuteronomic sources, with further interpolations and editorial comments of the Second Temple period
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "article name needed". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.