1.
Russian Orthodox Church
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The Russian Orthodox Church, alternatively legally known as the Moscow Patriarchate, is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches, in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox patriarchates. The Primate of the ROC is the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus and it also exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the autonomous Church of Japan and the Orthodox Christians resident in the Peoples Republic of China. The ROC branches in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova and Ukraine since the 1990s enjoy various degrees of self-government, in Ukraine, ROC has tensions with schismatic groups supported by the current government, while it enjoys the position of numerically dominant religious organisation. The ROC should also not be confused with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, headquartered in New York, New York, the two Churches reconciled on May 17,2007, the ROCOR is now a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to one of the legends, Andrew reached the location of Kiev. The spot where he erected a cross is now marked by St. Andrews Cathedral. By the end of the first millennium AD, eastern Slavic lands started to come under the influence of the Eastern Roman Empire. There is evidence that the first Christian bishop was sent to Novgorod from Constantinople either by Patriarch Photius or Patriarch Ignatios, by the mid-10th century, there was already a Christian community among Kievan nobility, under the leadership of Byzantine Greek priests, although paganism remained the dominant religion. Princess Olga of Kiev was the first ruler of Kievan Rus′ to convert to Christianity and her grandson, Vladimir of Kiev, made Rus officially a Christian state. The Kievan church was a metropolitanate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ecumenical patriarch appointed the metropolitan, who usually was a Greek. The Metropolitans residence was located in Kiev itself, the capital of the medieval Rus state. Following the tribulations of the Mongol invasion, the Russian Church was pivotal in the survival, despite the politically motivated murders of Mikhail of Chernigov and Mikhail of Tver, the Mongols were generally tolerant and even granted tax exemption to the Church. Such holy figures as Sergius of Radonezh and Metropolitan Alexis helped the country to withstand years of Tatar oppression, the Trinity monastery founded by Sergius of Radonezh became the setting for the flourishing of spiritual art, exemplified by the work of Andrey Rublev, among others. The followers of Sergius founded four hundred monasteries, thus extending the geographical extent of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. However, the Moscow Prince Vasili II rejected the act of the Council of Florence brought to Moscow by Isidore in March 1441, Isidore was in the same year removed from his position as an apostate and expelled from Moscow. The Russian metropolitanate remained effectively vacant for the few years due largely to the dominance of Uniates in Constantinople then. In December 1448, Jonas, a Russian bishop, was installed by the Council of Russian bishops in Moscow as Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia without the consent from Constantinople. Subsequently, there developed a theory in Moscow that saw Moscow as the Third Rome, the successor to Constantinople
2.
Icon
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An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and certain Eastern Catholic churches. The most common subjects include Christ, Mary, saints and/or angels, icons may also be cast in metal, carved in stone, embroidered on cloth, painted on wood, done in mosaic or fresco work, printed on paper or metal, etc. Comparable images from Western Christianity are generally not described as icons, Eastern Orthodox tradition holds that the creation of Christian images dates back to the very early days of Christianity, and there is has been a continuous tradition since then. The icons of later centuries can be linked, often closely, to images from the 5th century onwards, there was enormous destruction of images during the Byzantine Iconoclasm of 726-842, although this did settle for good the question of the appropriateness of images. Since then icons have had a continuity of style and subject. At the same time there has been change and development, Christian tradition dating from the 8th century identifies Luke the Evangelist as the first icon painter. Aside from the legend that Pilate had made an image of Christ and he relates that King Abgar of Edessa sent a letter to Jesus at Jerusalem, asking Jesus to come and heal him of an illness. In this version there is no image, further legends relate that the cloth remained in Edessa until the 10th century, when it was taken to Constantinople. It went missing in 1204 when Crusaders sacked Constantinople, but by then numerous copies had firmly established its iconic type. They crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world that is to say, with the images of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, and the rest. They have also other modes of honouring these images, after the manner of the Gentiles. And he called him and said, Lycomedes, what do you mean by this matter of the portrait, can it be one of thy gods that is painted here. For I see that you are living in heathen fashion. Later in the passage John says, But this that you have now done is childish and imperfect, at least some of the hierarchy of the Christian churches still strictly opposed icons in the early 4th century. At the Spanish non-ecumenical Synod of Elvira bishops concluded, Pictures are not to be placed in churches, so that they do not become objects of worship and adoration. to our religion. After the emperor Constantine I extended official toleration of Christianity within the Roman Empire in 313 and this period of Christianization probably saw the use of Christian images became very widespread among the faithful, though with great differences from pagan habits. Robin Lane Fox states By the early century, we know of the ownership of private icons of saints. 480-500, we can be sure that the inside of a saints shrine would be adorned with images and votive portraits, when Constantine himself apparently converted to Christianity, the majority of his subjects remained pagans
3.
Iconostasis
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In Eastern Christianity an iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. Iconostasis also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church, the iconostasis evolved from the Byzantine templon, a process complete by the fifteenth century. A direct comparison for the function of the iconostasis can be made to the layout of the great Temple in Jerusalem. That Temple was designed with three parts, the holiest and inner-most portion was that where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. This portion, the Holy of Holies, was separated from the larger part of the buildings interior by a curtain. Only the High Priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, the third part was the entrance court. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition only men can enter the altar portion behind the iconostasis, the word comes from the Greek εἰκονοστάσι, which means icon stand. The nave is the body of the church where most of the worshippers stand. The sanctuary is one to three steps higher than the nave. The Iconostasis does not sit directly on the edge of the sanctuary and this forms a walkway in front of the iconostasis for the clergy, called a soleas. In the very center of the soleas is an extension, often rounded, called the ambon, on which the deacon will stand to give litanies during the services, the iconostasis, though often tall, rarely touches the ceiling. Acoustically, this permits the ekphoneses of the clergy to be heard clearly by the faithful, in small, modern churches the iconostasis may be completely absent, in such cases it is replaced by a few small icons on analogia, forming a virtual divide. The iconostasis typically has three openings or sets of doors, the Beautiful Gates or Holy Doors in the center, and the North and South Doors to either side. The Beautiful Gates are sometimes called the Royal Doors, but that more properly belongs to the central doors connecting the narthex, or porch. They remain shut whenever a service is not being held, modern custom as to when they should be opened during services varies depending upon jurisdiction and local custom. The North and South Doors are often called Deacons Doors because the use them frequently. Icons of sainted deacons are often depicted on these doors, alternatively, they may be called Angels Doors, and the Archangels Michael and Gabriel are often depicted there. The South Door is typically the entrance door, and Michael is depicted there because he is the Defender, the North Door is the exit and these doors may also be casually referred to as the side doors
4.
Transfiguration of Jesus
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The Transfiguration of Jesus is an event reported in the New Testament when Jesus is transfigured and becomes radiant in glory upon a mountain. The Synoptic Gospels describe it, and the Second Epistle of Peter also refers to it and it has also been hypothesized that the first chapter of the Gospel of John alludes to it. In these accounts, Jesus and three of his apostles, Peter, James, John, go to a mountain to pray, on the mountain, Jesus begins to shine with bright rays of light. Then the prophets Moses and Elijah appear next to him and he speaks with them, Jesus is then called Son by a voice in the sky, assumed to be God the Father, as in the Baptism of Jesus. Many Christian traditions, including the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, commemorate the event in the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Transfiguration is one of the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels. This miracle is unique among others that appear in the Canonical gospels, thomas Aquinas considered the Transfiguration the greatest miracle in that it complemented baptism and showed the perfection of life in Heaven. The Transfiguration is one of the five major milestones in the narrative of the life of Jesus, the others being Baptism, Crucifixion, Resurrection. In 2002, Pope John Paul II introduced the Luminous Mysteries in the Rosary, moreover, Christians consider the Transfiguration to fulfill an Old Testament messianic prophecy that Elijah would return again after his ascension. Gardner states The very last of the prophets, Malachi. Elijah himself would reappear in the Transfiguration, there he would appear alongside Moses as a representative of all the prophets who looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. Christs redemptive sacrifice was the purpose for which Elijah had ministered while on earth, and it was the goal about which Elijah spoke to Jesus in the Transfiguration. In the synoptic gospels, the account of the transfiguration happens towards the middle of the narrative and it is a key episode and almost immediately follows another important element, the Confession of Peter, you are the Christ. The Transfiguration narrative acts as a revelation of the identity of Jesus as the Son of God to some of his disciples. In the gospels, Jesus takes Peter, James, son of Zebedee and his brother John the Apostle with him and goes up to a mountain, which is not named. Once on the mountain, Matthew 17,2 states that Jesus was transfigured before them, his face shining as the sun, at that point the prophets Elijah and Moses appear and Jesus begins to talk to them. Luke states that they spoke of Jesus exodus which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem, Luke is also specific in describing Jesus in a state of glory, with Luke 9,32 referring to they saw His glory. Just as Elijah and Moses begin to depart from the scene and this has been interpreted as Peters attempt to keep the prophets there longer. But before Peter can finish, a cloud appears
5.
Kizhi Island
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Kizhi is an island near the geometrical center of the Lake Onega in the Republic of Karelia, Russia. It is elongated north to south and is about 6 km long,1 km wide and is about 68 km away from the capital of Karelia. Settlements and churches on the island were known from at least the 15th century, the population was rural, but was forced by the government to assist development of the ore mining and iron plants in the area that resulted in a major Kizhi Uprising in 1769–1771. Most villages had disappeared from the island by the 1950s and now only a rural settlement remains. In the 18th century, two churches and a bell tower were built on the island, which are now known as Kizhi Pogost. In the 1950s, dozens of wooden buildings were moved to the island from various parts of Karelia for preservation purposes. Nowadays, the island and the nearby area form a national open-air museum with more than 80 historical wooden structures. The most famous is the Kizhi Pogost, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, the name Kizhi is believed to originate from ancient Veps or Karelian word “kizhat” or kizhansuari. In Russian, it is pronounced with stress on the first syllable. Since at least the 14th century, the island was part of the route between Novgorod and White Sea. The numerous settlements on Kizhi and neighboring islands comprised an administrative entity called Spas-Kizhi Pogost, since the 13th and 14th century, the area acquired economical importance as a source of iron ores. Those plants required hard physical labor such as cutting forests for wood, coal burning, ground works, the labor was forced, the disobeyed were punished by public beating and fines that sparked local riots. Peasants disobeyed and boycotted the order and they were soon joined by up to 40,000 people from all over Karelia led by Kliment Sobolev, Andrei Salnikov and Semen Kostin. The revolt was based in the Kizhi Pogost that resulted in its name, the peasants sent petitioners to St. Petersburg, but those were arrested and punished, and a military corps was sent to suppress the uprising. They arrived to Kizhi by the end of June,1771, the leaders and 50–70 other peasants were publicly beaten and sent to exile in Siberia. Many others were forced into service, which was a form of punishment of the time. However, the recruitment of peasants for the construction of local plants, from the early times, the most important occupation of the islanders was farming. All available area, about half of the island was converted to fields, from the half, a quarter was rocky
6.
Karelia
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Karelia, the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden. It is currently divided between the Russian Republic of Karelia, the Russian Leningrad Oblast, and Finland, various subdivisions may be called Karelia. Finnish Karelia was a province of Finland, and is now divided between Finland and Russia, often called just Karjala in Finnish. The eastern part of this chiefly Lutheran area was ceded to Russia after the Winter War of 1939–40 and this area is the Karelia of the Karelian question in Finnish politics. The Republic of Karelia is a Russian federal subject, including the so-called East Karelia with a chiefly Russian Orthodox population, Karelia stretches from the White Sea coast to the Gulf of Finland. It contains the two largest lakes in Europe, Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega, the Karelian Isthmus is located between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga. In the North there were the nomadic Samis, but no natural border except for huge woods, in historical texts Karelia is sometimes divided into East Karelia and West Karelia, which are also called Russian Karelia and Finnish Karelia respectively. The area to the north of Lake Ladoga which belonged to Finland before World War II is called Ladoga Karelia, White Sea Karelia is the northern part of East Karelia and Olonets Karelia is the southern part. Tver Karelia denotes the villages in the Tver Oblast that are inhabited by Tver Karelians, the Treaty of Nöteborg in 1323 divided Karelia between the two. Viborg became the capital of the new Swedish province, in the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 large parts of Russian Karelia were ceded to Sweden. Conflicts between the new Swedish rulers and the population of these areas led to an exodus, thousands of Karelians, including the ancestors of the Tver Karelians. The Treaty of Nystad in 1721 between Imperial Russia and Sweden ceded most of Karelia to Russia, after Finland had been occupied by Russia in the Finnish War, parts of the ceded provinces were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1917, Finland became independent and the border was confirmed by the Treaty of Tartu in 1920, Finnish partisans were involved in attempts to overthrow the Bolshevists in Russian Karelia in 1918–20, such as in the failed Aunus expedition. They also wanted to incorporate the rest of Karelia into Finland and these mainly private expeditions ended after the peace treaty of Tartu. After the end of the Russian Civil War and the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922, in 1939, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, thus starting the Winter War. The Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940 handed most of Finnish Karelia to the Soviet Union, about 400,000 people, virtually the whole population, had to be relocated within Finland. In 1941, Karelia was liberated for three years during the Continuation War of 1941 to 1944 when East Karelia was occupied by the Finns. As a consequence of the treaty, the Karelian ASSR was incorporated with the Karelo-Finnish SSR 1941–1956
7.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
8.
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
9.
Hebrew Bible
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They are composed mainly in Biblical Hebrew, with some passages in Biblical Aramaic. The term does not comment upon the naming, numbering or ordering of books, the term Hebrew Bible is an attempt to provide specificity with respect to contents but avoid allusion to any particular interpretative tradition or theological school of thought. Hebrew Bible refers to the Jewish biblical canon, in its Latin form, Biblia Hebraica, it traditionally serves as a title for printed editions of the Masoretic Text. Many biblical studies scholars advocate use of the term Hebrew Bible as a substitute to terms with religious connotations. Hebrew Bible Old Testament without prescribing the use of either, however, he accepts that there is no reason why non-Christians should feel obliged to refer to these books as the Old Testament, apart from custom of use. Modern Christian formulations of this tension include Supersessionism, Covenant Theology, New Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism, in terms of canon, Christian usage of Old Testament does not refer to a universally agreed upon set of books but, rather, varies depending on denomination. The Hebrew Bible includes small portions in Aramaic, written and printed in Aramaic square-script, the books that constitute the Hebrew Bible developed over roughly a millennium. The oldest texts seem to come from the 11th or 10th centuries BCE and they are edited works, being collections of various sources intricately and carefully woven together. Since the 19th century, most biblical scholars have agreed that the Pentateuch consists of four sources which have been woven together and these four sources are J, D, E and P sources. They were combined to form the Pentateuch sometime in the 6th century BCE and this theory is now known as the documentary hypothesis, and has been the dominant theory for the past two hundred years. The Deuteronomist credited with the Pentateuchs book of Deuteronomy is also said to be the source of the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, several editions, all titled Biblia Hebraica, have been produced by various German publishers since 1906. Between 1906 and 1955, Rudolf Kittel published nine editions of it,1966, the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft published the renamed Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in six editions until 1997. Since 2004 the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft has published the Biblia Hebraica Quinta, other projects include, Hebrew University Bible Project Hebrew Bible, A Critical Edition Biblical canon Books of the Bible Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible Torah Brueggemann, Walter. An introduction to the Old Testament, the canon and Christian imagination, the People of Ancient Israel, an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper and Row,1974. Sinai and Zion, An Entry into the Jewish Bible, archived from the original on 14 March 2012. The Ancient Near East, Volume I, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press. An abridgement of Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament Noth, how the Bible Became a Book. The Old Testament, A Literary History, hebrew-English Tanakh, the Jewish Bible Complete, fully vocalized, contilated, Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible, together with the classic English translation by the Jewish Publication Society
10.
Old Testament
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Its counterpart is the New Testament, the second part of the Christian Bible. The books that comprise the Old Testament canon differ between Christian Churches as well as their order and names. The most common Protestant canon comprises 39 books, the Catholic canon comprises 46 books, the 39 books in common to all the Christian canons corresponds to 24 books of the Tanakh, with some differences of order, and there are some differences in text. The additional number reflects the split of texts in the Christian Bibles into separate books, for example, Kings, Samuel and Chronicles, Ezra–Nehemiah, the books which are part of a Christian Old Testament but which are not part of the Hebrew canon are sometimes described as deuterocanonical. In general, Protestant bibles do not include books in its canon. The Old Testament consists of translations of many books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. The canon formed in stages, first the Pentateuch by around 400 BC, then the Prophets during the Hasmonean dynasty, and finally the remaining books. The Old Testament contains 39 or 46 or more books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch, the books, the wisdom books. For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions, for the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the spelling when referring to them in the New Testament. The Talmud in Bava Batra 14b gives a different order for the books in Neviim and Ketuvim and this order is also cited in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7,15. The order of the books of the Torah is universal through all denominations of Judaism and they are present in a few historic Protestant versions, the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version. Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon, several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the Latin Vulgate, formerly the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings follow, there is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC. The two Books of Chronicles cover much the material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC. Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah, were finished during the 3rd century BC. Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two to four Books of Maccabees, written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC and these history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament. God is consistently depicted as the one who created or put into order the world, the Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel, but includes instructions for proselytes as well
11.
Book of Nahum
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The Book of Nahum is the seventh book of the 12 minor prophets of the Hebrew Bible. It is attributed to the prophet Nahum, and was written in Jerusalem in the 7th century BC. According to some, Nahum prophesied in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, others, however, think that his prophecies are to be referred to the latter half of the reign of Hezekiah. The book would then have written in Jerusalem, where Nahum would have witnessed the invasion of Sennacherib. The scholarly consensus is that the book of vision was written at the time of the fall of Nineveh at the hands of the Medes and Babylonians. This theory is demonstrated by the fact that the oracles must be dated after the Assyrian destruction of Thebes, little is known about Nahum’s personal history. His name means comforter, and he was from the town of Alqosh and he was a very nationalistic Hebrew, and lived amongst the Elkoshites in peace. His writings were written in about 615 BC, before the downfall of Assyria. The subject of Nahums prophecy is the complete and final destruction of Nineveh. Ashurbanipal was at the height of his glory, jonah had already uttered his message of warning, and Nahum was followed by Zephaniah, who also predicted the destruction of the city. Nineveh was destroyed apparently by fire around 625 BC, and the Assyrian empire came to an end, archaeological digs have uncovered the splendor of Nineveh in its zenith under Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal. Massive walls were eight miles in circumference and it had a water aqueduct, palaces and a library with 20,000 clay tablets, including accounts of a creation in Enuma Elish and a flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Babylonian chronicle of the fall of Nineveh tells the story of the end of Nineveh, nabopolassar of Babylon joined forces with Cyaxares, king of the Medes, and laid siege for three months. The Book of Nahum consists of two parts, Chapter one shows the majesty and might of God the LORD in goodness, chapters two and three describe the fall of Nineveh, which later took place in 612 BC. Nineveh is compared to Thebes, the Egyptian city that Assyria itself had destroyed in 663 BC, Nahum describes the siege and frenzied activity of Nineveh’s troops as they try in vain to halt the invaders. Poetically, he becomes a participant in the battle, and with subtle irony, Nahum uses numerous similes and metaphors. Nahums prophecy carries a warning to the Ninevites of coming events. One might even say that the book of Nahum is a celebration of the fall of Assyria, the Assyrians had been used as Gods rod of anger, and the staff in their hand indignation
12.
Book of Micah
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The Book of Micah is a prophetic book in the Tanakh / Old Testament, and the sixth of the twelve minor prophets. It records the sayings of Micah, whose name is Mikayahu, an 8th-century B. C. prophet from the village of Moresheth in Judah. The book has three divisions, chapters 1–2, 3–5 and 6–7, each introduced by the word Hear, with a pattern of alternating announcements of doom. At the broadest level, Micah can be divided into three equal parts, Judgment against the nations and their leaders Restoration of Zion, Gods lawsuit against Israel. Samaria and Jerusalem are given prominence as the foci of the prophet’s attention, Judgment against Samaria, Drawing upon ancient traditions for depicting a theophany, the prophet depicts the coming of Yahweh to punish the city, whose sins are idolatry and the abuse of the poor. Warnings to the cities of Judah, Samaria has fallen, Judah is next, Micah describes the destruction of the lesser towns of Judah. For these passages of doom on the cities, the device paronomasia is used. Paronomasia is a device which plays on the sound of each word for literary effect. For example, the inhabitants of Beth-le-aphrah are told to “roll yourselves in the dust. ”Though most of the Paronomasia is lost in translation, it is the equivalent of ‘Ashdod shall be but ashes, ’ where the fate of the city matches its name. Misuse of power denounced, Denounces those who appropriate the land, the context may be simply the amassing wealth for its own sake, or could be connected with the militarisation of the region for the expected Assyrian attack. Threats against the prophet, The prophet is warned not to prophesy and he answers that the rulers are harming Gods people, and want to listen only to those who advocate the virtues of wine. A later promise, These verses assume that judgement has already fallen, Judgment on wicked Zion, Israels rulers are accused of gaining more wealth at the expense of the poor, by any means. The metaphor of flesh being torn illustrates the length to which the classes and socialites would go to further increase their wealth. Prophets are corrupt, seeking personal gain, jerusalems rulers believe that God will always be with them, but God will be with his people, and Jerusalem will be destroyed. Zions future hope This is a passage, almost identical with Isaiah 2. Zion will be rebuilt, but by God, and based not on violence and corruption but on the desire to learn Gods laws, further promises to Zion This is another later passage, promising Zion that she will once more enjoy her former independence and power. Despite their trials, God will not desert his people, the promised ruler from Bethlehem, This passage is usually dated to the exile. Assyria will be stricken, and Israels punishment will lead to the punishment of the nations, Micah then responds by that God requires only to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God
13.
Habakkuk
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Habakkuk was a prophet in the Hebrew Bible. He is the author of the Book of Habakkuk, the eighth of the twelve minor prophets. Almost nothing is known about Habakkuk, aside from what few facts are stated within the book of the Bible bearing his name, or those inferences that may be drawn from that book. His name appears in the Bible only in Habakkuk 1,1 and 3,1, even the origin of his name is uncertain. For almost every prophet, more information is given, such as the name of the prophets hometown, his occupation. For Habakkuk, however, there is no account of any of these. Although his home is not identified, scholars conclude that Habakkuk lived in Jerusalem at the time he wrote his prophecy, further analysis has provided an approximate date for his prophecy and possibilities concerning his activities and background. Jewish sources, however, do not group him with two prophets, who are often placed together, so it is possible that he was slightly earlier than the pair. Because the final chapter of his book is a song, it is assumed that he was a member of the tribe of Levi. The name Habakkuk, or Habacuc, appears in the Hebrew Bible only in Habakkuk 1,1 and 3,1, in the Masoretic Text, it is written in Hebrew, חֲבַקּוּק. This name does not occur elsewhere, the Septuagint transcribes his name into Greek as Ἀμβακοὺμ, and the Vulgate transcribes it into Latin as Abacuc. The etymology of the name is not clear, and its form has no parallel in Hebrew, the name is possibly related to the Akkadian khabbaququ, the name of a fragrant plant, or the Hebrew root חבק, meaning embrace. Habakkuk appears in Bel and the Dragon, which is part of the deuterocanonical Additions to Daniel. Verses 33–39 state that Habakkuk is in Judea and after making some stew, hes told by the angel of the Lord to take the stew to Daniel, after proclaiming he is unaware of both the den and Babylon, the angel transports Habakkuk to the lions den. Habakkuk gives Daniel the food to him, and is immediately taken back to his own place. Habakkuk is also mentioned in Lives of the Prophets, which notes his time in Babylon. According to the Zohar Habakkuk is the boy born to the Shunamite woman through Elishas blessing, And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, and she said, Nay, my lord, man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. The only work attributed to Habakkuk is the book of the Bible that bears his name
14.
Bible
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The Bible is a collection of sacred texts or scriptures that Jews and Christians consider to be a product of divine inspiration and a record of the relationship between God and humans. Many different authors contributed to the Bible, what is regarded as canonical text differs depending on traditions and groups, a number of Bible canons have evolved, with overlapping and diverging contents. The Christian Old Testament overlaps with the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint, the New Testament is a collection of writings by early Christians, believed to be mostly Jewish disciples of Christ, written in first-century Koine Greek. These early Christian Greek writings consist of narratives, letters, among Christian denominations there is some disagreement about the contents of the canon, primarily the Apocrypha, a list of works that are regarded with varying levels of respect. Attitudes towards the Bible also differ amongst Christian groups and this concept arose during the Protestant Reformation, and many denominations today support the use of the Bible as the only source of Christian teaching. With estimated total sales of over 5 billion copies, the Bible is widely considered to be the book of all time. It has estimated sales of 100 million copies, and has been a major influence on literature and history, especially in the West. The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin. Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra holy book, while biblia in Greek and it gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe. Latin biblia sacra holy books translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, the word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of paper or scroll and came to be used as the ordinary word for book. It is the diminutive of βύβλος byblos, Egyptian papyrus, possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece, the Greek ta biblia was an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books. Christian use of the term can be traced to c.223 CE, bruce notes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer to use the Greek phrase ta biblia to describe both the Old and New Testaments together. The division of the Hebrew Bible into verses is based on the sof passuk cantillation mark used by the 10th-century Masoretes to record the verse divisions used in oral traditions. The oldest extant copy of a complete Bible is an early 4th-century parchment book preserved in the Vatican Library, the oldest copy of the Tanakh in Hebrew and Aramaic dates from the 10th century CE. The oldest copy of a complete Latin Bible is the Codex Amiatinus and he states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from traditions in the second half of the first century CE. Riches says that, Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral traditions behind the Gospels, the period of transmission is short, less than 40 years passed between the death of Jesus and the writing of Marks Gospel. This means that there was time for oral traditions to assume fixed form
15.
Assyria
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Assyria was a major Mesopotamian East Semitic-speaking kingdom and empire of the ancient Near East and the Levant. Centered on the Tigris in Upper Mesopotamia, the Assyrians came to rule powerful empires at several times. Assyria is named after its capital, the ancient city of Aššur. In the 25th and 24th centuries BC, Assyrian kings were pastoral leaders, Assyria can also refer to the geographic region or heartland where Assyria, its empires and the Assyrian people were centered. The indigenous modern Eastern Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christian ethnic minority in northern Iraq, north east Syria, southeast Turkey, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to a Neanderthal culture such as has been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria were the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, during the 3rd millennium BC, a very intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians throughout Mesopotamia, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian, and vice versa, is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium BC as a sprachbund and it is highly likely that the city was named in honour of its patron Assyrian god with the same name. The city of Aššur, together with a number of other Assyrian cities, however it is likely that they were initially Sumerian-dominated administrative centres. In the late 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash, then the dominant Sumerian ruler in Mesopotamia, similarly, in c. the early 25th century BC, Lugal-Anne-Mundu the king of the Sumerian state of Adab lists Subartu as paying tribute to him. Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria, little is known, in the Assyrian King List, the earliest king recorded was Tudiya. According to Georges Roux he would have lived in the mid 25th century BC, Tudiya was succeeded on the list by Adamu, the first known reference to the Semitic name Adam and then a further thirteen rulers. The earliest kings, such as Tudiya, who are recorded as kings who lived in tents, were independent semi-nomadic pastoralist rulers and these kings at some point became fully urbanised and founded the city state of Ashur in the mid 21st century BC. During the Akkadian Empire, the Assyrians, like all the Mesopotamian Semites, became subject to the dynasty of the city state of Akkad, the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon the Great claimed to encompass the surrounding four quarters. Assyrian rulers were subject to Sargon and his successors, and the city of Ashur became an administrative center of the Empire. On those tablets, Assyrian traders in Burushanda implored the help of their ruler, Sargon the Great, the name Hatti itself even appears in later accounts of his grandson, Naram-Sin, campaigning in Anatolia. Assyrian and Akkadian traders spread the use of writing in the form of the Mesopotamian cuneiform script to Asia Minor, the Akkadian Empire was destroyed by economic decline and internal civil war, followed by attacks from barbarian Gutian people in 2154 BC. The rulers of Assyria during the period between c.2154 BC and 2112 BC once again fully independent, as the Gutians are only known to have administered southern Mesopotamia
16.
Nineveh
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Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located on the outskirts of Mosul in modern-day northern Iraq. It is on the bank of the Tigris River, and was the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. It is also a name for the half of Mosul which lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris in the modern day. Its ruins are across the river from the major city of Mosul. The two main tells, or mound-ruins, within the walls are Kouyunjik, the Northern Palace, large amounts of Assyrian sculpture and other artifacts have been excavated and are now located in museums around the world. Site remains suffered in the 2010s from the occupation of the area by ISIS, Iraqi forces recaptured the area in January 2017. The English placename Nineveh comes from Latin Ninive and Septuagint Greek Nineuḗ under influence of the Biblical Hebrew Nīnewēh, the original meaning of the name is unclear but may have referred to a patron goddess. The cuneiform for Ninâ is a fish within a house and this may have simply intended Place of Fish or may have indicated a goddess associated with fish or the Tigris, possibly originally of Hurrian origin. The city was said to be devoted to the Ishtar of Nineveh. The city was known as Ninii or Ni in Ancient Egyptian, Ninuwa in Mari, Ninawa in Aramaic, ܢܸܢܘܵܐ in Syriac. Nabī Yūnus is the Arabic for Prophet Jonah, Kouyunjik was, according to Layard, a Turkish name, and it was known as Armousheeah by the Arabs, and is thought to have some connection with the Kara Koyunlu dynasty. This whole extensive space is now one immense area of ruins overlaid in parts by new suburbs of the city of Mosul, Nineveh was one of the oldest and greatest cities in antiquity. The area was settled as early as 6000 BC and, by 3000 BC, had become an important religious center for the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, the early city was constructed on a fault line and, consequently, suffered damage from a number of earthquakes. One such event destroyed the first temple of Ishtar, which was rebuilt in 2260 BC by the Akkadian king Manishtushu. Texts from the Hellenistic period later offered an eponymous Ninus as the founder of Nineveh, the regional influence of Nineveh became particularly pronounced during the archaeological period known as Ninevite 5, or Ninevite V. This period is defined primarily by the pottery that is found widely throughout northern Mesopotamia. Also, for the northern Mesopotamian region, the Early Jezirah chronology has been developed by archaeologists, according to this regional chronology, Ninevite 5 is equivalent to the Early Jezirah I–II period. Ninevite 5 was preceded by the Late Uruk period, Ninevite 5 pottery is roughly contemporary to the Early Transcaucasian culture ware, and the Jemdet Nasr ware
17.
Alqosh
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Alqōsh, alternatively spelled Kar Aqosh, Al-qosh or Alqush, is an Assyrian Christian town in northern Iraq. It is located 50 kilometres north of Mosul, Alqosh has adorned the Bayhidhra mountains for more than 25 centuries. The town is divided into four quarters, Sainna quarter to the west, Qasha quarter to the east, O’do quarter to the north, Alqosh traces its history back into the ancient Assyrian Empire and perhaps even further. The earliest mentioning of Alqosh appears in Sennacheribs era 750 BC as evidenced by the mural inside Sennacheribs palace that was discovered in Tel Kuyunjik/Qüyüjik in Mosul, behind this mural, the phrase This rock was brought from Alqosh’s Mountain is carved. Alqosh is primarily inhabited by Assyrian followers of the Chaldean Catholic Church, conflicting opinions appear pertaining to the name Alqosh. Some believe it derives from the Aramaic language and the word Alqoshtti, others interpret it as Alqoshtta, the god of justice. Yet some others believe it comes from Turkish Alkuş, the red bird, some contend it belongs to the name AalQoun, father of Nahum the Alqoshian, one of the Old Testament prophets whose tomb still rests in Alqosh today. The name Alqosh could also have originated from the Aramaic Eil Qushti, here, an association could be drawn in conjunction with the winged disk symbol of the Assyrian national God Ashur holding a bow. Meanwhile, in Aramaic language, rainbow is referred to as Qeshta d Maran, therefore, Alqosh is known also as Yimma d Mathwatha. A number of sites within Alqosh still carry ancient Assyrian names, for example, Sainna Neighborhood means the Moon Neighborhood, Alqosh has a semi-arid climate with extremely hot and dry summers, and cool wet winters. Alqoshs stone dwellings are spread along its mountainous slopes up to the tip of its plateau, a number of sites remain important to Alqoshnayes. Gu’ppetha D’Toomin to the north, and Toomin may be a proper name, gu’ppa D’ Magoar Gama located to the northeastern. Shweetha D’Gannaweh is a hill to the north, some of the experts interested in Alqoshs history believe that Shweetha D’Ganaweh was a site for the Assyrian god Sىin. In Syriac, Hattarein is a plural for the word Hattara that means cotton’s carders, it was also called Khtertta, the word Hatterein may have another connotation. Kerrma D’Raysha, in the past the vineyard was located on top of the mountain, Besqeen, an old orchard behind Alqosh Mountain in a rough trail valley. Three families own this orchard, the Bendaq Youhana, Kkmikha Dman family and it resembles the remains of a monastery that was erected some ten centuries ago. The inhabitants of Alqosh knew the orchard as full of fruits and vegetables, up until the 1930s, a man named Jebrail Youhana worked the orchard. The name Besqeen is a plural Syriac word that means water pond, Galeeya D’Qasha Hanna to the north
18.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
19.
Capernaum
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Capernaum was a fishing village established during the time of the Hasmoneans, located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had a population of about 1,500, Archaeological excavations have revealed two ancient synagogues built one over the other. A house turned into a church by the Byzantines is said to be the home of Saint Peter, the village was inhabited continuously from the 2nd century BCE to the 11th century CE, when it was abandoned sometime before the Crusader conquest. This includes the re-establishment of the village during the Early Islamic period soon after the 749 earthquake, kfar Nahum, the original name of the small town, means Nahums village in Hebrew, but apparently there is no connection with the prophet named Nahum. In Arabic, it is called Talhum, and it is assumed that this refers to the ruin of Hum. The town is cited in all four gospels where it was reported to have been near the hometown of the apostles Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, one Sabbath, Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernaum and healed a man who was possessed by an unclean spirit. This story is notable for being the one common between the gospels of Mark and Luke, but not contained in the gospel of Matthew. Afterwards, he healed Simon Peters mother-in-law of a fever, according to Luke 7, 1–10 and Matthew 8,5, it is also the place where Jesus healed the servant of a Roman centurion who had asked for his help. Capernaum is also the location of the healing of the paralytic lowered through the roof to reach Jesus reported in Mark 2, 1–12, and Luke 5, 17–26. In Matthew 9,1 the town is referred to only as his own city, most traditional biblical commentators assume that his own city means Capernaum because of the details which are common to the three synoptic gospels. Although the writers of the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary suggest that alternatively it could refer to Nazareth, according to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus selected this town as the center of his public ministry in Galilee after he left the small mountainous hamlet of Nazareth. He also formally cursed the city, saying you will be thrown down to Hades. because of their lack of faith in him as the Messiah. Archaeological evidence demonstrates that the town was established in the 2nd century BC during the Hasmonean period, the site had no defensive wall and extended along the shore of the nearby lake. The cemetery zone is found 200 meters north of the synagogue and it extended 3 kilometers to Tabgha, an area which appears to have been used for agricultural purposes, judging by the many oil and grain mills which were discovered in the excavation. Fishing was also a source of income, the remains of another harbor were found to the west of that built by the Franciscans, josephus referred to Capernaum as a fertile spring. He stayed the night there after bruising his wrist in a riding accident, during the first Jewish revolt of 66–70 Capernaum was spared as it didnt have to be occupied by force by the Romans. In 1838, American explorer Edward Robinson discovered the ruins of ancient Capernaum, the Franciscans raised a fence to protect the ruins from frequent vandalism, and planted palms and eucalyptus trees brought from Australia to create a small oasis for pilgrims. They also built a small harbor and these labors were directed by Franciscan Virgilio Corbo
20.
Galilee
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Al-Jalīl) is a region in northern Israel. The term Galilee traditionally refers to the part and divided into Upper Galilee. By this definition it overlaps with much of the administrative Northern District of the country, the regions Israelite name is from the Hebrew root galil, an ultimately unique word for district, and usually circle. The Hebrew form used in Isaiah 8,23 is in the state, glil hagoyim, meaning Galilee of the Nations. The region in turn gave rise to the English name for the Sea of Galilee referred to as such in many languages including ancient Arabic and these are the three names used in originally internal Jewish-authored literature rather than the Sea of Galilee. However, Jews did use the Galilee to refer to the whole region, most of Galilee consists of rocky terrain, at heights of between 500 and 700 m. Several high mountains are in the region, including Mount Tabor and Mount Meron, as a result of this climate, flora and wildlife thrive in the region, while many birds annually migrate from colder climates to Africa and back through the Hula–Jordan corridor. According to the Bible, Galilee was named by the Israelites and was the region of Naphthali and Dan. However, Dan was dispersed among the people rather than isolated to the lands of Dan, as the Tribe of Dan was the hereditary local law enforcement. Normally, Galilee is just referred to as Naphthali, hiram, to reciprocate previous gifts given to David, accepted the upland plain among the mountains of Naphtali and renamed it the land of Cabul for a time. After Judea became a Roman province in 6, C. E. Galilee briefly became a part of it, the Galilee region was presumably the home of Jesus during at least 30 years of his life. Much of the first three Gospels of the New Testament give an account of Jesus public ministry in this province, particularly in the towns of Nazareth, Galilee is also cited as the place where Jesus performed many public miracles, including curing a blind man. After the death of Jesus, some accounts suggest his disciples returned to Galilee, many are cited for their large number of students and followers throughout the Jewish people among the common people. According to the Talmud, one of the most important founders of the modern Jewish faith, simeon bar Yochai, one of the most famed of all the Tannaim, hid from the Romans in the Galilee, and dug tunnels there to hide. Many miracles are ascribed to him during his Galilean period after escaping Judea proper, in medieval Hebrew legend, he may have written the Zohar while there. Eastern Galilee retained a Jewish majority until the seventh century, after the Arab caliphate took control of the region in 638, it became part of Jund al-Urdunn. Its major towns were Tiberias, Baysan, Acre, Saffuriya, the Shia Fatimids conquered the region in the 10th century, a breakaway sect, venerating the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, formed the Druze religion, centered in Mount Lebanon and partially Galilee. During the Crusades, Galilee was organized into the Principality of Galilee, the Jewish population of Galilee increased significantly following their expulsion from Spain and welcome from the Ottoman Empire
21.
James Tissot
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Jacques Joseph Tissot, Anglicized as James Tissot, was a French painter and illustrator. He was a painter of Paris society before moving to London in 1871. He became famous as a painter of fashionably dressed women shown in various scenes of everyday life. He also painted scenes and characters from the Bible, jacques Tissot was born in the port town of Nantes, France and spent his early childhood there. His father, Marcel Théodore Tissot, was a successful drapery merchant and his mother, Marie Durand, assisted her husband in the family business and designed hats. A devout Catholic, Tissots mother instilled pious devotion in the future artist from a young age. Tissots youth spent in Nantes likely contributed to his frequent depiction of shipping vessels, the involvement of his parents in the fashion industry is believed to have been an influence on his painting style, as he depicted womens clothing in fine detail. By the time Tissot was 17, he knew he wanted to pursue painting as a career and his father opposed this, preferring his son to follow a business profession, but the young Tissot gained his mothers support for his chosen vocation. Around this time, he began using the name of James. By 1854 he was known as James Tissot, he may have adopted it because of his increasing interest in everything English. In 1856 or 1857, Tissot travelled to Paris to pursue an education in art, while staying with a friend of his mother, painter Elie Delaunay, Tissot enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts to study in the studios of Hippolyte Flandrin and Louis Lamothe. Both were successful Lyonnaise painters who moved to Paris to study under Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Lamothe provided the majority of Tissots studio education, and the young artist studied on his own by copying works at the Louvre, as did most other artists of the time in their early years. Around this time, Tissot also made the acquaintance of the American James McNeill Whistler, and French painters Edgar Degas, in 1859, Tissot exhibited in the Paris Salon for the first time. He showed five paintings of scenes from the Middle Ages, many depicting scenes from Goethes Faust and these works show the influence in his work of the Belgian painter Henri Leys, whom Tissot had met in Antwerp earlier that same year. Other influences include the works of the German painters Peter von Cornelius, in about 1863, Tissot suddenly shifted his focus from the medieval style to the depiction of modern life through portraits. During this period, Tissot gained high acclaim, and quickly became a success as an artist. Like contemporaries such as Alfred Stevens and Claude Monet, Tissot also explored japonisme, including Japanese objects and costumes in his pictures, Degas painted a portrait of Tissot from these years, in which he is sitting below a Japanese screen hanging on the wall. Tissot fought in the Franco-Prussian War as part of the defence of Paris
22.
John Calvin
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John Calvin was an influential French theologian, pastor and reformer during the Protestant Reformation. Various Congregational, Reformed, and Presbyterian churches, which look to Calvin as the expositor of their beliefs, have spread throughout the world. Calvin was a polemic and apologetic writer who generated much controversy. He also exchanged cordial and supportive letters with many reformers, including Philipp Melanchthon, in addition to his seminal Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin wrote commentaries on most books of the Bible, confessional documents, and various other theological treatises. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530, at the invitation of Martin Bucer, Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg, where he became the minister of a church of French refugees. He continued to support the movement in Geneva, and in 1541 he was invited back to lead the church of the city. Following his return, Calvin introduced new forms of government and liturgy. During this period, Michael Servetus, a Spaniard regarded by both Roman Catholics and Protestants as having a view of the Trinity, arrived in Geneva. He was denounced by Calvin and burned at the stake for heresy by the city council, following an influx of supportive refugees and new elections to the city council, Calvins opponents were forced out. Calvin spent his final years promoting the Reformation both in Geneva and throughout Europe, John Calvin was born as Jehan Cauvin on 10 July 1509, at Noyon, a town in Picardy, a province of the Kingdom of France. He was the first of four sons who survived infancy and his mother, Jeanne le Franc, was the daughter of an innkeeper from Cambrai. She died of a cause in Calvins childhood, after having borne four more children. Calvins father, Gérard Cauvin, had a career as the cathedral notary and registrar to the ecclesiastical court, he died in 1531. Gérard intended his three sons — Charles, Jean, and Antoine — for the priesthood, however, by age 12, he was employed by the bishop as a clerk and received the tonsure, cutting his hair to symbolise his dedication to the Church. He also won the patronage of a family, the Montmors. Through their assistance, Calvin was able to attend the Collège de la Marche, Paris, once he completed the course, he entered the Collège de Montaigu as a philosophy student. In 1525 or 1526, Gérard withdrew his son from the Collège de Montaigu, according to contemporary biographers Theodore Beza and Nicolas Colladon, Gérard believed that Calvin would earn more money as a lawyer than as a priest. After a few years of study, Calvin entered the University of Bourges in 1529
23.
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
24.
Mosul
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Mosul is a major city in northern Iraq. Since October 2016 it has been the site of an operation led by the Iraqi Government, under Haider al-Abadi, in an effort to dislodge. The city has been under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since June 2014, and no westerner has entered the city until the latest initiative. The Battle of Mosul, an offensive to retake the city begun in October 2016, is the largest deployment of Iraqi forces since the 2003 invasion by U. S. Located some 400 km north of Baghdad, Mosul stands on the west bank of the Tigris, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank. The metropolitan area has grown to encompass substantial areas on both the Left Bank and the Right Bank, as the two banks are described by the locals compared to the direction of Tigris. Mosuls population grew rapidly around the turn of the millennium and by 2004 was estimated to be 1,846,500, an estimated half million people fled Mosul in the second half of 2014 when the IS fought with government forces for control of the city. On November 17,2014, ISIS attacked the city of Mosul, ultimately killing seven civilians, while some residents returned, more fled in 2015 as fighting and violence increased, and US bombings pounded the city. Historically, important products of the area include Mosul marble and oil, the city of Mosul is home to the University of Mosul and its renowned Medical College, which together was one of the largest educational and research centers in Iraq and the Middle East. The University has since been closed, the Islamic States leadership in Mosul has kept the Medical College open but it is reported to be barely functional. The name of the city is first mentioned by Xenophon in his expeditionary logs in Achaemenid Assyria of 401 BC, there, he notes a small Assyrian town of Mépsila on the Tigris somewhere about where modern Mosul is today. Be that as it may, the name Mepsila is doubtless the root for the modern name, in its current Arabic form and spelling, the term Mosul, or rather Mawsil, stands for the linking point – or loosely, the Junction City, in Arabic. Mosul should not be confused with the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh and this area is known today as the town of Nebi Yunus and is now populated largely by Kurds. It is the only neighborhood in Mosul. The site contains the tomb of the Biblical Jonah, as he lived and died in the capital of ancient Assyria. Today, this area has been absorbed into the Mosul metropolitan area. The indigenous Assyrians still refer to the city of Mosul as Nineveh. The ancient Nineveh was succeeded by Mepsila after the fall of Assyria between 612-599 BC at the hands of a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Scythians, Cimmerians and Sagartians, the Assyrians largely abandoned the city, building new smaller settlements such as Mepsila nearby
25.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
26.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
27.
West Bank
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The West Bank shares boundaries to the west, north, and south with Israel, and to the east, across the Jordan River, with Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant section of the western Dead Sea shore, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has a land area of 5,640 km2 plus a water area of 220 km2, consisting of the northwest quarter of the Dead Sea. As of July 2015 it has an population of 2,785,366 Palestinians, and approximately 371,000 Israeli settlers. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, illegal under international law and this annexation was recognized only by Britain, Iraq and Pakistan. The term was chosen to differentiate the west bank of the River Jordan from the east bank of this river, the neo-Latin name Cisjordan or Cis-Jordan is the usual name for the territory in the Romance languages and Hungarian. The name West Bank, however, has become the standard usage for this entity in English. The analogous Transjordan has historically used to designate the region now roughly comprising the state of Jordan. From 1517 through 1917, the now known as the West Bank was under Ottoman rule as part of the provinces of Syria. At the 1920 San Remo conference, the victorious Allied powers allocated the area to the British Mandate of Palestine, the San Remo Resolution adopted on 25 April 1920 incorporated the Balfour Declaration of 1917. It and Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations were the basic documents upon which the British Mandate for Palestine was constructed. Faced with the determination of Emir Abdullah to unify Arab lands under the Hashemite banner, the West Bank area, was conquered by Jordan during the 1948 war with the new state of Israel. In 1947, it was designated as part of a proposed Arab state by the United Nations partition plan for Palestine. 1949 Armistice Agreements defined the boundary between Israel and Jordan. In 1950, Transjordan annexed the area west of the Jordan River, naming it West Bank or Cisjordan, Jordan ruled over the West Bank from 1948 until 1967. Jordans annexation was never recognized by the international community, with the exception of the United Kingdom. King Abdullah of Jordan had been crowned King of Jerusalem by the Coptic Bishop on 15 November 1948. and granted Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank, in June 1967, the West Bank and East Jerusalem were captured by Israel as a result of the Six-Day War. With the exception of East Jerusalem and the former Israeli-Jordanian no mans land, the Israeli settlements were, on the other hand, administered subsequently as Judea and Samaria Area directly by Israel. Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority officially controls a geographically non-contiguous territory comprising approx, 11% of the West Bank which remains subject to Israeli incursions
28.
Veneration
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Veneration, or veneration of saints, is the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions, philologically, to venerate derives from the Latin verb, venerare, meaning to regard with reverence and respect. Veneration of saints is practiced, formally or informally, by adherents of some branches of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam. The practice of veneration is deemed heretical by iconoclastic denominations, Hinduism has a long tradition of veneration of saints, expressed toward various gurus and teachers of sanctity, both living and dead. Branches of Buddhism include formal liturgical worship of saints, with Mahayana Buddhism classifying degrees of sainthood, other sects, such as Wahhabists etc. abhor the practice. In Judaism, there is no classical or formal recognition of saints, in some regions, for example within Judaism in Morocco, there is a long and widespread tradition of saint veneration. Both main branches of Buddhism, Theravada and Mahayana, recognize those who have achieved a degree of enlightenment as an Arhat. Mahayana Buddhism particularly gives emphasis to the power of saints to aid ordinary people on the path to enlightenment and those who have reached enlightenment, and have delayed their own complete enlightenment in order to help others, are called Bodhisattvas. Mahayana Buddhism has formal liturgical practices for venerating saints, along with specific levels of sainthood. Tibetan Buddhists venerate especially holy lamas, such as the Dalai Lama, veneration towards those who were considered holy began in early Christianity, with the martyrs first being given special honor. Official church commemoration of saints in Rome beginning as early as the third century, over time, the honor also began to be given to those Christians who lived lives of holiness and sanctity. Various denominations venerate and determine saints in different ways, with some having a formal canonization or glorification process, in Roman Catholic and Orthodox theology, veneration is a type of honor distinct from the adoration due to God alone. It is the manifestation of submission, and acknowledgement of dependence, appropriately shown towards the excellence of a divine person. It is the worship of the Creator that God alone deserves, veneration, known as dulia in classical theology, is the honor and reverence appropriately due to the excellence of a created person. Excellence exhibited by created beings likewise deserves recognition and honor and we see a general example of veneration in events like the awarding of academic awards for excellence in school, or the awarding of olympic medals for excellence in sports. There is nothing contrary to the adoration of God when we offer the appropriate honor. We must make a further clarification regarding the use of the term “worship” in relation to the categories of adoration and veneration, historically, schools of theology have used the term “worship” as a general term which included both adoration and veneration. They would distinguish between “worship of adoration” and “worship of veneration. ”The word “worship” was not synonymous with adoration, hence Catholic sources will sometimes use the term “worship” not to indicate adoration, but only the worship of veneration given to Mary and the saints
29.
Saint
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A saint, also historically known as a hallow, is a term used for a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness or likeness to God. Depending on the context and denomination, the term also retains its original Christian meaning, as any believer who is in Christ and in whom Christ dwells, whether in Heaven or on Earth. Depending on the religion, saints are recognized either by official ecclesiastical declaration, the English word saint comes from the Latin sanctus. The word translated the Greek ἅγιος, which derives from the verb ἁγιάζω, the word ἅγιος appears 229 times in the Greek New Testament, and its English translation 60 times in the corresponding text of the King James Version of the Bible. In the New Testament, saint did not denote the deceased who had recognized as especially holy or emulable. Many religions also use similar concepts to venerate persons worthy of some honor, the anthropologist Lawrence Babb in an article about Sathya Sai Baba asks the question Who is a saint. These saintly figures, he asserts, are the points of spiritual force-fields. They exert powerful attractive influence on followers but touch the lives of others in transforming ways as well. In the Bible, only one person is called a saint, They envied Moses also in the camp. The apostle Paul declared himself to be less than the least of all saints in Ephesians 3,8, in the Catholic Church, a saint is anyone in Heaven, whether recognized on Earth or not. There are many persons that the Church believes to be in Heaven who have not been formally canonized, sometimes the word saint also denotes living Christians. They remind us that the Church is holy, can never stop being holy and is called to show the holiness of God by living the life of Christ, the Catholic Church teaches that it does not make or create saints, but rather recognizes them. Proofs of heroicity required in the process of beatification will serve to illustrate in detail the general principles exposed above upon proof of their holiness or likeness to God. On 3 January 993, Pope John XV became the first pope to proclaim a person a saint, on the petition of the German ruler, before that time, the popular cults, or venerations, of saints had been local and spontaneous. Pope John XVIII subsequently permitted a cult of five Polish martyrs, walter of Pontoise was the last person in Western Europe to be canonized by an authority other than the Pope, Hugh de Boves, the Archbishop of Rouen, canonized him in 1153. Thenceforth a decree of Pope Alexander III in 1170 reserved the prerogative of canonization to the Pope, one source claims that there are over 10,000 named saints and beatified people from history, the Roman Martyrology and Orthodox sources, but no definitive head count. Alban Butler published Lives of the Saints in 1756, including a total of 1,486 saints, the latest revision of this book, edited by Rev. Herbert Thurston, SJ and British author Donald Attwater, contains the lives of 2,565 saints. Monsignor Robert Sarno, an official of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints of the Holy See, expressed that it is impossible to give an exact number of saints
30.
Eastern Christianity
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Eastern Christianity consists of four main church families, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Assyrian Church of the East, as well as the Eastern Catholic Churches. The term is used in contrast with Western Christianity, the term does not describe a single communion or religious denomination. Some Eastern churches have more in common historically and theologically with Western Christianity than with one another, the various Eastern churches do not normally refer to themselves as Eastern, with the exception of the Assyrian Church of the East and its offshoots. Eastern Christians do not share the religious traditions, but do share many cultural traditions. Christianity divided itself in the East during its early centuries both within and outside of the Roman Empire in disputes about Christology and fundamental theology, as well as national divisions and it would be many centuries later that Western Christianity fully split from these traditions as its own communion. The Eastern churches differences from Western Christianity have as much, if not more, to do with culture, language, for the non-Catholic Eastern churches, a definitive date for the commencement of schism cannot usually be given. Oriental Orthodoxy separated after the Council of Chalcedon in 451, since the time of the historian Edward Gibbon, the split between the Church of Rome and the Orthodox Church has been conveniently dated to 1054, though the reality is more complex. This split is referred to as the Great Schism. Eastern Orthodox Christians accept the decisions of the First seven Ecumenical Councils, the Eastern Orthodox Church is organized into self-governing jurisdictions along geographical, national, ethnic, and/or linguistic lines. Eastern Orthodoxy is thus made up of 15 or 16 autocephalous bodies, smaller churches are autonomous and each have a mother church that is autocephalous. This is in contrast to the Catholic Church and its various Churches, members of the latter are all in communion with each other, parts of a top-down hierarchy. The majority of Catholics accept both the Filioque clause and, since 1950, the Assumption of Mary and this puts them in sharp contrast with the Eastern Orthodox. Yet some Catholics who are not in communion with the Catholic Church side with the Eastern Orthodox here and reject these teachings and it is estimated that there are approximately 240 million Eastern Orthodox Christians in the world. Today, many adherents shun the term Eastern as denying the universal character. They refer to Eastern Orthodoxy simply as the Orthodox Church, hence, these churches are also called Old Oriental churches. Oriental Orthodoxy developed in reaction to Chalcedon on the limit of the Byzantine Empire and in Egypt. In those locations, there are also Eastern Orthodox patriarchs, thereafter it was often known, possibly inaccurately, as the Nestorian Church in the West. Surviving a period of persecution within Persia, the Church of the East flourished under the caliphate and branched out, in the 16th century dynastic struggles sent the church into schism, resulting in the formation of two rival churches
31.
Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar
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The Eastern Orthodox Liturgical Calendar describes and dictates the rhythm of the life of the Eastern Orthodox Church. There are two types of feasts in the Orthodox Church calendar, fixed and movable, Fixed feasts occur on the same calendar day every year, whereas movable feasts change each year. The moveable feasts are generally relative to Pascha, and so the cycle of feasts is referred to as the Paschal cycle. The following list of links only to fixed feasts of the Orthodox Church. These are the dates, the particular day on which that date is observed differs depending upon whether one follows the Julian Calendar or the Revised Julian Calendar. All dates having to do with Pascha - the beginning of Great Lent, Ascension, Pentecost, etc. - are moveable feasts and these important notes should be remembered in using the following calendar, For the day in the modern Gregorian Calendar. For example, Christmas Day on the Julian Calendar falls on January 7 of the modern Gregorian Calendar, for those churches which follow the Revised Julian Calendar the dates below correspond exactly to the dates on the Gregorian Calendar. The Orthodox liturgical year begins on September 1, Pascha is, by far, the most important day in the ecclesiastical year, and all other days, in one way or another, are dependent upon it. Pascha falls on different calendar dates from year to year, calculated according to a set of rules. While the Fixed Cycle begins on September 1, the new Paschal Cycle begins on Zaccheus Sunday, eleven Sundays before Pascha, the Epistle and Gospel readings at the Divine Liturgy throughout the year are determined by the date of Pascha. There are Twelve Great Feasts throughout the church year—not counting Pascha and these are feasts which celebrate major historical events in the lives of Jesus Christ or the Theotokos. Simpler wall calendars will show the major commemoration of the day together with the scripture readings. Nashville, Tennessee, Thomas Nelson Publishers,1993, 771-780
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Calendar of saints
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The word feast in this context does not mean a large meal, typically a celebratory one, but instead an annual religious celebration, a day dedicated to a particular saint. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, a calendar of saints is called a Menologion, Menologion may also mean a set of icons on which saints are depicted in the order of the dates of their feasts, often made in two panels. As the number of recognized saints increased during Late Antiquity and the first half of the Middle Ages, eventually every day of the year had at least one saint who was commemorated on that date. To deal with this increase, some saints were moved to days in some traditions or completely removed. For example, St. Perpetua and Felicity died on 7 March, when the 1969 reform of the Catholic calendar moved him to 28 January, they were moved back to 7 March. Both days can thus be said to be their feast day, the Roman Catholic calendars of saints in their various forms, which list those saints celebrated in the entire church, contains only a selection of the saints for each of its days. A fuller list is found in the Roman Martyrology, and some of the saints there may be celebrated locally, Saint Martin of Tours is said to be the first or at least one of the first non-martyrs to be venerated as a saint. The title confessor was used for saints, who had confessed their faith in Christ by their lives rather than by their deaths. Martyrs are regarded as dying in the service of the Lord, a broader range of titles was used later, such as, Virgin, Pastor, Bishop, Monk, Priest, Founder, Abbot, Apostle, Doctor of the Church. Pope Pius XII added a common formula for Popes, the 1962 Roman Missal of Pope John XXIII omitted the common of Apostles, assigning a proper Mass to every feast day of an Apostle. The present Roman Missal has common formulas for the Dedication of Churches, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Martyrs, Pastors, Doctors of the Church, Virgins, some Christians continue the tradition of dating by saints days, their works may appear dated as The Feast of Saint Martin. Poets such as John Keats commemorate the importance of The Eve of Saint Agnes, as different Christian jurisdictions parted ways theologically, differing lists of saints began to develop. In the present ordinary form of the Roman Rite, feast days are ranked as solemnities and those who use even earlier forms of the Roman Rite rank feast days as Doubles, Semidoubles, and Simples. See Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite, in the Eastern Orthodox Church the ranking of feasts varies from church to church. In the Russian Orthodox Church they are, Great Feasts, middle, each portion of such feasts may also be called feasts as follows, All-Night Vigils, Polyeleos, Great Doxology, Sextuple. There are also distinctions between Simple feasts and Double, in Double Feasts the order of hymns and readings for each feast are rigidly instructed in Typikon, the liturgy book. In the Church of England, there are Principal Feasts and Principal Holy Days, Festivals, Lesser Festivals, and Commemorations. com
33.
December 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
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Nov 30 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - Dec 2 All fixed commemorations below celebrated on December 14 by Orthodox Churches on the Old Calendar. For December 1st, Orthodox Churches on the Old Calendar commemorate the Saints listed on November 18, prophet Nahum St. Onesimus, Archbishop of Ephesus Saints Ananias and Solochonus, Archbishops of Ephesus. Protection of the Mother of God Church, OCA - The Lives of the Saints. Latin Saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Rome, transl. by the Archbishop of Baltimore. Last Edition, According to the Copy Printed at Rome in 1914, revised Edition, with the Imprimatur of His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons. A Menology of England and Wales, or, Brief Memorials of the Ancient British and English Saints Arranged According to the Calendar, greek Sources Great Synaxaristes,1 ΔΕΚΕΜΒΡΙΟΥ. Православная Энциклопедия под редакцией Патриарха Московского и всея Руси Кирилла, Русская Православная Церковь Отдел внешних церковных связей
34.
Prophet
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Claims of prophethood have existed in many cultures through history, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, in Ancient Greece, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and many others. Traditionally, prophets are regarded as having a role in society that promotes change due to their messages and actions which can convey the displeasure of God for the behavior of people. In the late 20th century the appellation of prophet has been used to refer to individuals particularly successful at analysis in the field of economics, alternatively, social commentators who suggest escalating crisis are often called prophets of doom. In Hebrew, the word נָבִיא, spokesperson, traditionally translates as prophet, the second subdivision of the Hebrew Bible, TaNaKh, is devoted to the Hebrew prophets. The meaning of navi is perhaps described in Deuteronomy 18,18, where God said. and I will put My words in his mouth, thus, the navi was thought to be the mouth of God. The root nun-bet-alef is based on the two-letter root nun-bet which denotes hollowness or openness, to receive transcendental wisdom, cf. Rashbams comment to Genesis 20,7. In addition to writing and speaking messages from God, Israelite or Jewish neviim often acted out prophetic parables in their life. For example, in order to contrast the people’s disobedience with the obedience of the Rechabites, God has Jeremiah invite the Rechabites to drink wine, the Rechabites refuse, wherefore God commends them. Other prophetic parables acted out by Jeremiah include burying a linen belt so that it gets ruined to illustrate how God intends to ruin Judahs pride. Likewise, Jeremiah buys a jar and smashes it in the Valley of Ben Hinnom in front of elders and priests to illustrate that God will smash the nation of Judah. God instructs Jeremiah to make a yoke from wood and leather straps and to put it on his own neck to demonstrate how God will put the nation under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The prophetic assignment is not always portrayed as positive in the Hebrew Bible, likewise, Isaiah was told by his hearers who rejected his message, Leave the way. Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel, the life of Moses being threatened by Pharaoh is another example. According to I Samuel 9,9, the old name for navi is roeh, רֹאֶה and that could document an ancient shift, from viewing prophets as seers for hire to viewing them as moral teachers. The seer-priests were usually attached to a shrine or temple, such as Shiloh. Canonical prophets were not organised this way, the similar term ben-navi means member of a seer-priest guild. Some examples of prophets in the Tanakh include Abraham, Moses, Miriam, Isaiah, Samuel, Ezekiel, Malachi, in Jewish tradition Daniel is not counted in the list of prophets. A Jewish tradition suggests that there were twice as many prophets as the number which left Egypt, the Talmud recognizes the existence of 48 male prophets who bequeathed permanent messages to mankind
35.
Armenian Apostolic Church
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The Armenian Apostolic Church is the national church of the Armenian people. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christian communities, Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion, in the early 4th century. The church claims to have originated in the missions of Apostles Bartholomew and it is sometimes referred to as the Armenian Orthodox Church or Gregorian Church. It is also known as the Armenian Church. The Armenian Church believes apostolic succession through the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus, according to legend, the latter of the two apostles is said to have cured Abgar V of Edessa of leprosy with the Image of Edessa, leading to his conversion in 30 AD. After this, Bartholomew came to Armenia, bringing a portrait of the virgin Mary, Bartholomew then converted the sister of Sanatruk, who once again martyred a female relative and the apostle who converted her. Both apostles ordained native bishops before their execution, and some other Armenians had been ordained outside of Armenia by James the Just. According to Eusebius and Tertullian, Armenian Christians were persecuted by kings Axidares, Khosrov I, and Tiridates III, ancient Armenias adoption of Christianity as a state religion has been referred to by Nina Garsoïan as probably the most crucial step in its history. This conversion distinguished it from its Iranian and Mazdean roots and protected it from further Parthian influence, other scholars as well have stated that the acceptance of Christianity by the Arsacid-Armenian rulers was partly in defiance of the Sassanids. When King Trdat IV made Christianity the state religion of Armenia between 301 and 314, it was not a new religion there. It had penetrated the country from at least the third century, Tiridates declared Gregory to be the first Catholicos of the Armenian Church and sent him to Caesarea to be consecrated. Upon his return, Gregory tore down shrines to idols, built churches and monasteries, while meditating in the old capital city of Vagharshapat, Gregory had a vision of Christ descending to the earth and striking it with a hammer. From that spot arose a great Christian temple with a huge cross and he was convinced that God intended him to build the main Armenian church there. With the kings help he did so in accord with his vision and he renamed the city Etchmiadzin, which means the place of the descent of the only-begotten. Initially the Armenian church participated in the church world. Its Catholicos was represented at the First Council of Nicea and the First Council of Constantinople, although unable to attend the Council of Ephesus, the Catholicos Isaac Parthiev sent a message agreeing with its decisions. Christianity was strengthened in Armenia in the 5th century by the translation of the Bible into the Armenian language by the theologian, monk. Before the 5th century, Armenians had a language
36.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
37.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
38.
Synaxarium
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The notices given in the historical synaxaria are summaries of those in the great menologies, or collections of lives of saints, for the twelve months of the year. As the lessons in the Byzantine Divine Office are always lives of saints, the exact meaning of the name has changed at various times. Its first use was for the index to the Biblical and other lessons to be read in church, in this sense it corresponds to the Latin Capitulare and Comes. Then the Synaxarion was filled up with the text of the pericopes to be read. As far as the Holy Liturgy was concerned this meant that it was transformed into the Gospel. Synaxarion remained the title for the index to the other lessons, without changing its name it was filled up with complete texts of these lessons. The mere index of such lessons is generally called menologion heortastikon, certain calendars extant in the Middle Ages were also called Synaxaria. Krumbacher describes those composed by Christopher of Mytilene and Theodore Prodromus, the oldest historical synaxaria apparently go back to the tenth century. There are a number of medieval Synaxaria extant in manuscript. They are important for Byzantine heortology and church history, the short lives that form the lessons were composed or collected by various writers. Of these Symeon Metaphrastes is the most important, the accounts are of very varying historical value. Emperor Basil II ordered a revision of the Synaxarion, which forms an important element of the present official edition, the Synaxarion is not now used as a separate book, it is incorporated in the Menaia. The account of the saint or feast is read in the Orthros after the sixth ode of the Canon and it is printed in its place here, and bears each time the name synaxarion as title. Synaxarion then in modern use means, not the whole collection, an example of such a Synaxarion will be found in Nilles, op. cit. infra, I, xlix. The publication of the Arabic text of the synaxarion of the Coptic Orthodox Church was started simultaneously by J. Forget in the Corp. script, orient. and by R. Basset in the Patrologia Orientalis, and that of the Ethiopian synaxarion was begun by I. The Armenian synaxarion, called the Synaxarion of Ter Israel, was published at Constantinople in 1834, there are also various Georgian synaxaria. During the Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Divine Services the reading of the synaxarion will take place after the Sixth Ode of the Canon at Matins or at the Divine Liturgy. The synaxaria may be printed in a volume or may be included with other liturgical texts such as the Menaion or Horologion
39.
Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
40.
Cain and Abel
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Cain and Abel were sons of Adam and Eve. Cain, the firstborn, tilled the soil, and his brother Abel was a shepherd, the brothers made sacrifices to God, each of his own produce, but God favored Abels sacrifice instead of that of Cain. God punished Cain to a life of wandering, but set a mark on him so that no man would kill him, Cain then wandered in the land of Nod, where he built a city and fathered the line of Cain. The story of Cains murder of Abel and its consequences is told in Genesis 4, 1-18, And the human knew Eve his woman and she conceived and bore Cain, and she said, I have got me a man with the Lord. And she bore as well his brother Abel, and Abel became a herder of sheep while Cain was a tiller of the soil, and it happened in the course of time that Cain brought from the fruit of the soil an offering to the Lord. And Abel too had brought from the choice firstlings of his flock, and Cain was very incensed, and his face fell. And the Lord said to Cain, Why are you incensed, for whether you offer well, or whether you do not, at the tent flap sin crouches and for you is its longing, but you will rule over it. And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go out to the field, and the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother. And he said, I do not know, am I my brothers keeper, the story continues with Gods punishment of Cain, the soil which received his brothers blood will reject him, and he will be a wanderer on the earth. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain so that whoever found him would not slay him, and Cain went out from the Lords presence and dwelled in the land of Nod east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch, then he became the builder of a city and he called the name of the city like his sons name, Enoch. Some scholars believe that Cain and Abel are symbolic rather than real, the following family tree of the line of Cain is compiled from a variety of biblical and extra-biblical texts. The story appears in the Quran, in Surah 5, verses 27 to 31, tell them the truth about the story of Adams two sons, each of them offered a sacrifice, and it was accepted from one and not the other. One said, I will kill you, but the other said, if you raise your hand to kill me, I will not raise mine to kill you. I fear God, the Lord of all worlds, and I would rather you were burdened with my sins as well as yours and became an inhabitant of the Fire, but his soul prompted him to kill his brother, he killed him and became one of the losers. God sent a raven to scratch up the ground and show him how to cover his brothers corpse and he said, could I not have been like this raven and covered up my brothers body. The story of Cain and Abel has always used as a deterrent from murder in Islamic tradition. Muslim scholars were divided on the motives behind Cains murder of Abel, some scholars believed that Cains motives were plain jealousy and lust
41.
Enoch (ancestor of Noah)
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Enoch is a figure in Biblical literature. In the seventh generation from Adam, he was considered the author of the Book of Enoch, in addition to an appearance in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, Enoch is the subject of many Jewish and Christian writings. Enoch was the son of Jared, the father of Methuselah, at 65 years old, he begot Methuselah. Regim and Gaidad are also mentioned as his sons according to 2 Enoch, the Bible says that Enoch lived 365 years before he was taken by God. The text reads that Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God took him and this Enoch is not to be confused with Cains son Enoch. The Christian New Testament has three references to Enoch from the lineage of Seth, Enoch appears in the Book of Genesis of the Pentateuch as the seventh of the ten pre-Deluge Patriarchs. Genesis recounts that each of the pre-Flood Patriarchs lived for several centuries, Genesis 5 provides a genealogy of these ten figures, providing the age at which each fathered the next, and the age of each figure at death. Enoch is considered by many to be the exception, who is said to not see death. Furthermore, Genesis 5, 22–29 states that Enoch lived 365 years which is short in the context of his peers. The brief account of Enoch in Genesis 5 ends with the note that he not, 3rd Book of Enoch, a Rabbinic text in Hebrew usually dated to the fifth century AD. These recount how Enoch was taken up to Heaven and was appointed guardian of all the treasures, chief of the archangels. He was subsequently taught all secrets and mysteries and, with all the angels at his back, fulfils of his own accord whatever comes out of the mouth of God, executing His decrees. Much esoteric literature like the 3rd Book of Enoch identifies Enoch as the Metatron, the Book of Giants resembles the Book of Enoch, a pseudepigraphical Jewish work from the 3rd century BC. At least six and as many as eleven copies were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls collections, the third-century BC translators who produced the Greek Septuagint rendered the phrase God took him with the Greek verb metatithemi meaning moving from one place to another. Sirach 44,16, from about the period, states that Enoch pleased God and was translated into paradise that he may give repentance to the nations. The Greek word used here for paradise, paradeisos, was derived from an ancient Persian word meaning enclosed garden, later, however, the term became synonymous for heaven, as is the case here. In classical Rabbinical literature, there are views of Enoch. One view regarding Enoch was that found in the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, which thought of Enoch as a man, taken to Heaven
42.
Noah
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In the Abrahamic religions, Noah was the tenth and last of the pre-flood Patriarchs. The story of Noahs Ark is told in the Bibles Genesis flood narrative, the biblical account is followed by the story of the Curse of Canaan. Noah was the subject of much elaboration in the literature of later Abrahamic religions, the primary account of Noah in the Bible is in the Book of Genesis. Noah was the tenth of the pre-flood Patriarchs and his father was Lamech and his mother is unknown. When Noah was five hundred years old, he begat Shem, Ham, the Genesis flood narrative makes up chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis, in the Bible. Thus, the flood was no ordinary overflow but a reversal of creation, and God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. They were also told that all fowls, land animals, furthermore, as well as green plants, every moving thing would be their food with the exception that the blood was not to be eaten. Mans life blood would be required from the beasts and from man, whoso sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. Noah died 350 years after the flood, at the age of 950, the maximum human lifespan, as depicted by the Bible, diminishes rapidly thereafter, from almost 1,000 years to the 120 years of Moses. After the flood, Noah became a husbandman and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and was drunken, and was uncovered within his tent. Noahs son Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his brethren, in Jewish tradition and rabbinic literature, rabbis blame Satan for the intoxicating properties of the wine. In the field of biblical criticism, J. H. Ellens and W. G. Rollins address the narrative of Genesis 9. Because of its brevity and textual inconsistencies, it has suggested that this narrative is a splinter from a more substantial tale. A fuller account would explain what exactly Ham had done to his father, or why Noah directed a curse at Canaan for Hams misdeed, or how Noah came to know what occurred. The narrator relates two facts, Noah became drunken and he was uncovered within his tent, and Ham saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. Thus, these passages revolve around sexuality and the exposure of genitalia as compared with other Hebrew Bible texts, such as Habakkuk 2,15 and Lamentations 4,21. Genesis 10 sets forth the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, among Japheth’s descendants were the maritime nations. Ham’s son Cush had a son named Nimrod, who became the first man of might on earth, a mighty hunter, king in Babylon, from there Asshur went and built Nineveh
43.
Noah in rabbinic literature
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In this manner Noah really brought rest to mankind and to the earth itself. Other reasons for this name are given by the ancient rabbis, e. g. Noah restored mans rule over everything, just as it had been before Adam sinned, thus setting mankind at rest. Formerly the water used to inundate the graves so that the corpses floated out, the apparent discrepancy in Gen. v. Noah was born circumcised. Although Noah is styled a just man and perfect in his generations and these same rabbis go still further and assert that Noah himself was included in the divine decree of destruction, but that he found grace in the eyes of the Lord for the sake of his descendants. In like manner, the wise and stupid are applied to Noah by different rabbis. Still, it is acknowledged that before the Flood, Noah was, by comparison with his contemporaries, a really upright man. He was considered as Gods shepherd, two different reasons are given why Noah begat no children until he had reached the advanced age of 500 years, while his ancestors had families at a much younger age. One explanation is that Noah, foreseeing that a flood would destroy the world on account of its corruption, God, however, ordered him to take a wife, so that after the Flood he might repeople the earth. The Sefer haYashar and Genesis Rabba both agree that Noahs wife was called Naamah, according to the latter, she was the sister of Tubal-cain, according to the former, she was a daughter of Enoch, and Noah married her when he was 498 years old. On being informed of the end of the world, Noah exhorted his contemporaries to repentance, according to a tradition, Noah planted cedar-trees and felled them, continuing to do so for the space of one hundred and twenty years. When the people asked him for what purpose he prepared so many trees, but the people heeded not his words, they mocked at him, and used vile language, and Noah suffered violent persecution at their hands. The construction of the ark lasted fifty-two years, Noah purposely working slowly, in the hope that the people would take warning therefrom, the Sefer haYashar, however, assigns only five years for the construction of the ark. Noah could distinguish between clean and unclean animals inasmuch as the ark of itself gave admittance to seven of the clean animals, the Sefer haYashar describes another method for distinguishing them, the clean animals and fowls crouched before Noah, while the unclean ones remained standing. A difference of opinion concerning Noah prevails also with regard to his entering into the ark, when Noah and his family and everything that he had taken with him were inside the ark, the people left outside asked him to admit them too, promising repentance. Noah refused to admit them, objecting that he had exhorted them to repent many years before the Flood. The people then assembled in great numbers around the ark in order to break into it, Noah was constantly occupied in the ark, for he had to attend to all the living things which were with him and which fed at different times. One of the lions, having become enraged at Noah, attacked and injured him, Noah, during the twelve months that he was in the ark, did not sleep one moment. Noah had also to feed Og, who, being unable to enter the ark, sat upon it, Noah made a hole in the side of the ark through which he passed food to Og, the latter thereupon swore to be Noahs servant eternally
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