1.
Daniel Maclise
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Daniel Maclise RA was an Irish history, literary and portrait painter, and illustrator, who worked for most of his life in London, England. Maclise was born in Cork, Ireland, the son of Alexander McLish, a tanner or shoemaker and his education was of the plainest kind, but he was eager for culture, fond of reading, and anxious to become an artist. His father, however, placed him in employment, in 1820, in Newenhams Bank and it became very popular, and led to many commissions for portraits, which he executed, in pencil. There he made a sketch of Charles John Kean, the actor and he entered the Royal Academy schools in 1828, eventually being awarded the highest prizes open to students. Maclise exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1829, the years that followed were occupied with a long series of figure pictures, deriving their subjects from history and tradition and from the works of Shakespeare, Goldsmith and Le Sage. He also designed illustrations for several of Dickenss Christmas books and other works, in 1858, Maclise commenced one of the two great monumental works of his life, The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher, on the walls of Westminster Palace. It was begun in fresco, a process which proved unmanageable, Maclises vast painting of The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. It portrays the marriage of the main Norman conqueror of Ireland Strongbow to the daughter of his Gaelic ally, by the grand staircase of Halifax Town Hall, which was completed in 1863, there is a wall painting by Maclise. The intense application which he gave to these great historic works, and various circumstances connected with the commission, had a serious effect on the artists health. He began to shun the company in which he formerly delighted, his old buoyancy of spirits was gone, and when, in 1865 and he died of acute pneumonia on 25 April 1870 at his home 4 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. His fame rests most securely on his two greatest works at Westminster, a memoir of Maclise, by his friend William Justin ODriscoll, was published in 1871. The works of Maclise in portraiture were celebrated in 1972 at an exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery, the Crawford Gallery in Cork, Ireland, Maclises native town, held a major exhibition of his works from October 2008, opened by David Puttnam. It had been displayed previously from 23 May until 23 August at the Royal Armouries in Leeds as part of the Waterloo 1815, vol 35, Dictionary of National Biography. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Maclise
2.
Judaism
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Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with the Torah as its text, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth-largest religion in the world, Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic, today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditional interpretation of Judaisms requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law, today, these still exist. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, the history of Judaism spans more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions, the Hebrews and Israelites were already referred to as Jews in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title Children of Israel. Judaisms texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam, many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law. Jews are a group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2015, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14.3 million, Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism, the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Tanakh, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation, many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God, that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate Gods concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to one another, that is. These commandments are but two of a corpus of commandments and laws that constitute this covenant, which is the substance of Judaism
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Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
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Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
5.
Mandaeism
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Mandaeism or Mandaeanism, Arabic, مندائية Mandāʼīyah) is a gnostic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist, the Aramaic manda means knowledge, as does Greek gnosis. According to most scholars, Mandaeaism originated sometime in the first three centuries AD, with the Mandaen people migrating from the Southern Levant to Mesopotamia in the first centuries CE and they are Semites and speak a dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. There is a theory that they may be related to the Nabateans who were pre-Islamic pagan Arabs whose territory extended into southern Iraq, there are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide. Until the 2003 Iraq war, almost all of them lived in Iraq, by 2007, the population of Mandaeans in Iraq had fallen to approximately 5,000. The Mandaeans have remained separate and intensely private, and British cultural anthropologist Lady E. S. Drower. An Anglican vicar, Rev. Peter Owen-Jones, included a segment on a Mandaean group in Sydney, Australia, in his BBC series. The term Mandaeism comes from Classical Mandaic Mandaiia and appears in Neo-Mandaic as Mandeyānā, on the basis of cognates in other Aramaic dialects, Semiticists such as Mark Lidzbarski and Rudolf Macuch have translated the term manda, from which Mandaiia derives, as knowledge. This etymology suggests that the Mandaeans may well be the only sect surviving from late Antiquity to identify themselves explicitly as Gnostics, other scholars derive the term mandaiia from Mandā d-Heyyi or from the word mandi, which is the cultic hut in which many Mandaean ceremonies are performed. This last term is possibly to be derived from Pahlavi m’nd mānd, within the Middle East, but outside of their community, the Mandaeans are more commonly known as the Ṣubba. The term Ṣubba is derived from the Aramaic root related to baptism, in Islam, the term Sabians is used as a blanket term for adherents of a number of religions, including that of the Mandaeans, in reference to the Sabians of the Quran. Occasionally, Mandaeans are called Christians of Saint John, based upon reports made by members of the Discalced Carmelite mission in Basra during the 16th century. A mandī is a place of worship for followers of Mandaeism, a mandī must be built beside a river in order to perform maṣbattah because water is an essential element in the Mandaeic faith. Modern mandīs sometimes have a bath inside a building instead, the evidence about Mandaean history has been almost entirely confined to some of the Mandaean religious literature. While some scholars, as well as the Mandeans themselves, believe that Mandaeism formed in pre-Christian times, arab sources of early Quranic times make some references to Sabians. They are counted among the Ahl al-Kitāb, and several hadith feature them, the Sabians believed they belong to the prophet Noah, similarly, the Mandaeans claim direct descent from Noah. The earliest account we have about the Mandaeans is that of the Assyrian writer Theodore Bar Konai, in the Fihrist of Arabic scholar Al-Nadim, the Mogtasilah are counted among the followers of El-Hasaih. Called a sect of Sabians, they are located in southern Mesopotamia, Mogtasilah may thus have been Al-Nadims term for the Mandaeans, but they may just as well have been a related group which does not exist anymore today
6.
Abrahamic religions
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Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the largest Abrahamic religions in terms of numbers of adherents. As of 2005, estimates classified 54% of the population as adherents of an Abrahamic religion, about 32% as adherents of other religions. Christianity claims 33% of the population, Islam has 21%, Judaism has 0. 2%. It has been suggested that the phrase, Abrahamic religion, may mean that all these religions come from one spiritual source. Christians refer to Abraham as a father in faith, there is an Islamic religious term, Millat Ibrahim, indicating that Islam sees itself as having practices tied to the traditions of Abraham. Jewish tradition claims descent from Abraham, and adherents follow his practices and it is the Islamic tradition that Muhammad, as an Arab, is descended from Abrahams son Ishmael. Jewish tradition also equates the descendants of Ishmael, Ishmaelites, with Arabs, as the descendants of Isaac by Jacob, who was also later known as Israel, are the Israelites. The Báb, regarded by Baháís as a predecessor to Baháulláh, was a Sayyid, or a descendant of Muhammad. Tradition also holds that Baháulláh is a descendant of Abraham through his third wife, while there is commonality among the religions, in large measure their shared ancestry is peripheral to their respective foundational beliefs and thus conceals crucial differences. For example, the common Christian beliefs of Incarnation, Trinity, there are key beliefs in both Islam and Judaism that are not shared by most of Christianity, and key beliefs of Islam, Christianity, and the Baháí Faith not shared by Judaism. Judaism regards itself as the religion of the descendants of Jacob and it has a strictly unitary view of God, and the central holy book for almost all branches is the Masoretic Text as elucidated in the Oral Torah. In the 19th century and 20th centuries Judaism developed a number of branches, of which the most significant are Orthodox, Conservative. Christianity began as a sect of Judaism in the Mediterranean Basin of the first century CE and evolved into a separate religion—Christianity—with distinctive beliefs, Jesus is the central figure of Christianity, considered by almost all denominations to be God the Son, one person of the Trinity. The Christian biblical canons are usually held to be the ultimate authority, over many centuries, Christianity divided into three main branches, dozens of significant denominations, and hundreds of smaller ones. Islam arose in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century CE with a unitary view of God. Muslims hold the Quran to be the authority, as revealed and elucidated through the teachings and practices of a central. The Islamic faith consider all prophets and messengers from Adam through the messenger to carry the same Islamic monotheistic principles. Soon after its founding Islam split into two branches, each of which now have a number of denominations
7.
Antediluvian
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The Antediluvian period is the time period referred to in the Bible between the fall of humans and the Noachian Deluge in the biblical cosmology. The narrative takes up chapters 1–6 of the Book of Genesis, the term found its way into early geology and lingered in science until the late Victorian era. Colloquially, the term is used to refer to any ancient, according to Bishop Usshers 17th-century chronology, the Antediluvian period lasted for 1656 years, from Creation at 4004 BC to the Flood at 2348 BC. The Bible speaks of this era as being a time of great wickedness, There were Gibborim in the earth in those days as well as Nephilim, some translations identify the two as one and the same. The Gibborim were unusually powerful, Genesis calls them mighty men which were of old, the antediluvian period ended when God sent the Flood to wipe out all life except Noah, his family, and the animals they took with them. Nevertheless, the Nephilim reappear much later in the narrative, in Numbers 13. The primary rocks are void of fossils and were thought to be associated with the creation of the world in the primary Pre-Adamitic period. The secondary rocks, often containing copious fossils, though human remains had not been found, were thought to have laid down in the secondary Pre-Adamitic period. The Tertiary rocks were thought to have put down after Creation and possibly in connection to a flood event. The Post-Flood period was termed the Quaternary, a still in use in geology. As mapping of the geological strata progressed in the decades of the 19th century. The fossil rich Secondary Pre-Adamitic period was divided up into the Coal period, the Lias, whiston calculated that as many as 500 million humans may have been born in the Antediluvian period, based on assumptions about lifespans and fertility rates, There were no clouds or rain. Instead, the Earth was watered by mists which rose from the Earth, (Another interpretation is that the Earth was covered completely by a global cloud layer, which was the upper waters mentioned in the Creation. This is commonly called the vapor canopy view, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the understanding of the nature of early Earth went through a transformation from a biblical or deist interpretation to a naturalistic one. While vast aeons of time were involved, the narrative of the world was still influenced by the biblical story of creation in this transition. A modern naturalistic view of the ancient world, along with the abandonment of the term Antediluvian, came about with the works of Darwin and Agassiz in the 1860s. From antiquity, fossils of animals were often quoted as having lived together with the giants from the Book of Genesis. They are often described in books of the Bible, especially by God himself in the Book of Job, e. g. Reem in verse 39,9, Behemoth in chapter 40
8.
Patriarchs (Bible)
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The Patriarchs of the Bible, when narrowly defined, are Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaacs son Jacob, also named Israel, the ancestor of the Israelites. These three figures are referred to collectively as the patriarchs of Judaism, and the period in which they lived is known as the patriarchal age and they play significant roles in Hebrew scripture during and following their lifetimes. They are used as a significant marker by God in revelations and promises, more widely, the term Patriarchs can be used to refer to the twenty male ancestor-figures between Adam and Abraham. The first ten of these are called the Antediluvian patriarchs, because they came before the Flood. Only Rachel, Jacobs favorite wife, is said to be buried separately at what is known as Rachels Tomb, near Bethlehem, at the site where she is believed to have died in childbirth. The lifetimes given for the patriarchs in the Book of Genesis are, Adam 930 years, Seth 912, Enos 905, Kenan 910, Mahalalel 895, Jared 962, Enoch 365, Methuselah 969, Lamech 777, Noah 950. The lifespans given cause problems of chronology for Bible scholars, as the following quotation shows, the long lives ascribed to the patriarchs cause remarkable synchronisms and duplications. Adam lived to see the birth of Lamech, the member of the genealogy, Seth lived to see the translation of Enoch. Noah outlived Abrams grandfather, Nahor, and died in Abrams sixtieth year, Shem, Noahs son, even outlived Abram. He was still alive when Esau and Jacob were born and this list, taken from the Book of Genesis, gives the details of that genealogy. Noah, father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth Shem an hundred years old, Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah. Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber, Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg. Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu, Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug. Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor, Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah. Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, many major world religions trace their origin back to the patriarch Abraham. Israel was the given to the grandson of Abraham. All Jews consider themselves to be descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac, Abraham believed God, so in general all people with faith in God are considered sons of Abraham. Islam regards Abraham as the father of the prophets in Islam because all subsequent prophets descended from him
9.
Noah's Ark
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Noahs Ark is the vessel in the Genesis flood narrative by which God spares Noah, his family, and a remnant of all the worlds animals from the flood. According to Genesis, God gave Noah instructions for building the ark, seven days before the deluge, God told Noah to enter the ark with his household and the animals. The story goes on to describe the ark being afloat for 150 days and then coming to rest on the Mountains of Ararat, the story is repeated, with variations, in the Quran, where the ark appears as Safina Nuh. The Genesis flood narrative is similar to other flood myths from a variety of cultures. The earliest known written flood myth is the Sumerian flood myth found in the Epic of Ziusudra, searches for Noahs Ark have been made from at least the time of Eusebius to the present day. There is no evidence for a global flood, and despite many expeditions. The challenges associated with housing all living animal types, and even plants, would have made building the ark a practical impossibility. The Hebrew word for the ark, teba, occurs twice in the Bible, in the narrative and in the Book of Exodus. In both cases teba has a connection with salvation from waters, Noah is warned of the coming flood and told to construct the ark. God spells out to Noah the dimensions of the vessel,300 cubits in length,50 cubits in width and 30 cubits in height and it had three internal divisions, a door in the side, and a tsohar, which may be either a roof or a skylight. God instructs Noah to kapar the ark with koper, in Hebrew the first of these words is a formed from the second and, like gopher. Noah is instructed to take on board his wife, his three sons, and his sons wives and he is also to take two of every living thing, and seven pairs of every clean creature and of every bird, together with sufficient food. The story of the flood closely parallels the story of the creation, a cycle of creation, un-creation, the universe as conceived by the ancient Hebrews comprised a flat disk-shaped habitable earth with the heavens above and Sheol, the underworld of the dead, below. These three were surrounded by an ocean of chaos, protected by the firmament, a transparent. Noahs three-deck ark represents this three-level Hebrew cosmos in miniature, the heavens, the earth, there is a consensus among scholars that the Pentateuch was the product of a long and complex process that was not completed until after the Babylonian exile. For well over a century scholars have recognised that the Bibles story of Noahs ark is based on older Mesopotamian models. Because all these stories deal with events that allegedly happened at the dawn of history. But in fact, the myth of the flood that destroys all life only begins to appear in the Old Babylonian period
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Genesis flood narrative
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The Genesis flood narrative makes up chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis, in the Torah. Thus, the flood was a reversal of creation, although many religious groups consider the story to be largely allegorical, there are still many groups and individuals who believe the story to be literally true. Genesis 6, 1–4 presents the reason for the flood, the Sons of God marry the daughters of men and sire a race of giants, mighty men which of old, men of renown. Genesis continues, And GOD saw that the wickedness of man great in the earth, God decides to destroy the world in a reversal of creation. The flood occurs because God judges humanity, in Genesis 6, 5-8, the LORD judged man for being wicked and evil. In verses Genesis 6, 11-22, God judged all flesh for being corrupt, the judgment in verses 6, 5–8 is thought to have been written earlier and later combined with the second. This element of judgment makes the flood story different from the flood in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Gilgamesh story, the flood is mentioned only in passing as part of the Epic tale itself, beginning with Genesis 6,14, God instructed Noah to build an ark to save his immediate family, along with samples of animal life. The ark was to be made of wood covered with pitch inside and outside. The ark was 300 cubits long,50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, and it had an opening for daylight near the top, an entrance on its side, and three decks. God told Noah that he, his sons, his wife, his sons wives, and two of each kind of beast – male and female – would survive in the ark. The Priestly source, Genesis 7,11,8, 1-2, describes the nature of the waters as a cosmic cataclysm, by the opening of the springs of the deep. This is the reverse of the separation of the waters recounted in the Genesis creation narrative of chapter 1. After Noah and the remnant of animals were secured, the fountains of the great deep, the waters elevated, with the summits of the highest mountains under 15 cubits of water, flooding the world for 150 days, and then receding in 220 days. The Jahwist version of how the waters came to be is indicated in Genesis 7,12. During this time, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, then he sends out a dove to see if the waters had decreased from the ground, but the dove could not find a resting place, and returned to the ark. He waited another seven days, and again sent out the dove, and he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return. When Noah removed the covering of the ark, he saw that the ground was drying, God makes a pledge of commitment to Noah in Genesis 9, 1–17
11.
Curse of Ham
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The Curse of Ham is a misnomer for the curse upon Canaan that was imposed by the biblical patriarch Noah. The curse occurs in the Book of Genesis and concerns Noahs drunkenness and the shameful act perpetrated by his son Ham. The controversies raised by this story regarding the nature of Hams transgression, nevertheless, most Christians, Muslims and Jews now disagree with such interpretations, because in the biblical text, Ham himself is not cursed, and race or skin color is never mentioned. However, according to Nahum Sarna, the narrative of the curse upon Canaan is replete with difficulties and it is uncertain what the precise nature of Hams offense is. Verse 22 has been a subject of debate, as to whether it should be taken literally, in verse 25, Noah names Shem and Japheth as the brethren of Canaan, seven verses after indicating that they were Canaans uncles. The Table of Nations presents Canaan and Mizraim among the sons of Ham, in the Psalms, Egypt is equated with Ham. The treatment of Japheth in verses 26–27 raises questions, Why is YHWH named as the God of Shem, what does it mean that God will enlarge Japheth. And why will Japheth dwell in the tents of Shem, further difficulties include Hams being referred to as the youngest son, when all other lists make him Noahs second son. The majority of commentators, both ancient and modern, have felt that Hams seeing his father naked was not a serious crime to explain the punishment that follows. Other ancient commentators suggested that Ham was guilty of more than what the Bible says, ancient commentaries have also debated whether seeing someones nakedness meant to have sex with that person. The same idea was raised by 3rd-century rabbis, in the Babylonian Talmud, the same explanations are found in three Greek translations of the Bible, which replace the word see in verse 22 with another word denoting homosexual relations. In the Book of Jubilees, the seriousness of Hams curse is compounded by the significance of Gods covenant to never again bring a flood on the earth. In response to this covenant, Noah builds an altar to atone for the land. Noah’s practice and ceremonial functions parallel the festival of Shavuot as if it were a prototype to the celebration of the giving of the Torah and his priestly functions also emulate being first priest in accordance with halakhah as taught in the Qumranic works. By turning the drinking of the wine into a religious ceremony, thus, Ham’s offense would constitute an act of disrespect not only to his father, but also to the festival ordinances. There are those of our rabbis who say he emasculated him, Genesis 9,23, And Shem and Japheth. covered their fathers nakedness, their faces were turned backward. Genesis 9,24, his son, הפסול The defective one והבזוי. Similar to Behold, I have made you the smallest among the nations, Genesis 9,25, Cursed is Canaan, Noah said to Ham, You caused me that I should not father a fourth son, another one to serve me
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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
13.
Books of Chronicles
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In the Hebrew Bible, Chronicles is a single book, called Diḇrê Hayyāmîm, and is the final book of Ketuvim, the third and last part of the Tanakh. Chronicles was divided into two books in the Septuagint and called I and II Paralipoménōn, the English name comes from the Latin name chronikon, which was given to the text by scholar Jerome in the 5th century. Chronicles present the narrative from the first human being, Adam, through the history of ancient Judah. The Chronicles narrative begins with Adam and the story is carried forward, almost entirely by genealogical lists. The bulk of the remainder of 1 Chronicles, after an account of Saul, is concerned with the reign of David. The next long section concerns Davids son Solomon, and the part is concerned with the Kingdom of Judah with occasional references to the second kingdom of Israel. Originally a single work, Chronicles was divided into two in the Septuagint, a Greek translation produced in the immediately preceding Jesus. Within this broad structure there are signs that the author has used various devices to structure his work. The last events in Chronicles take place in the reign of Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BC and it was probably composed between 400–250 BC, with the period 350–300 BC the most likely. The latest person mentioned in Chronicles is Anani, a descendant of King Jehoiachin according to the Masoretic Text. Ananis birth would likely have been sometime between 425 and 400 BC, the Septuagint gives an additional five generations in the genealogy of Anani. For those scholars who side with the Septuagints reading, Ananis likely date of birth is a century later, Chronicles appears to be largely the work of a single individual, with some later additions and editing. The writer was probably male, probably a Levite, and probably from Jerusalem and he was well read, a skilled editor, and a sophisticated theologian. His intention was to use Israels past to convey messages to his peers. One of the most striking, although inconclusive, features of Chronicles is that its closing sentence is repeated as the opening of Ezra–Nehemiah. The last half of the 20th century saw a radical reappraisal, despite much discussion of this issue, no agreement has been reached. Recent suggestions have been that it was intended as a clarification of the history in Genesis-Kings, the message which the author wished to give to his audience was this, God is active in history, and especially the history of Israel. The faithfulness or sins of individual kings are immediately rewarded or punished by God, God calls Israel to a special relationship
14.
Book of Tobit
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Athanasius mentioned that certain other books, including the book of Tobit, while not being part of the Canon, were appointed by the Fathers to be read. Augustine writes in his book On Christian Doctrine that the book of Tobit is a Canonical book, according to the monk Rufinus of Aquileia the book of Tobit and other deuterocanonical books were not called Canonical but Ecclesiastical books. Pope Innocent I sent a letter to the bishop of Toulouse citing the book of Tobit and this list mentions the book of Tobit as part of the Old Testament Canon. Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England lists it as a book of the Apocrypha, protestants regard Tobit as apocryphal because it was not included in the Tanakh nor considered canonical by Judaism. Qumran fragments of the text, which were copied between 100 BC to 25 AD, evidence a much earlier origin than previously thought, however, it could be hypothesized that some ancient Jewish rabbinic scholars considered Tobit to be historical. Midrash Bereishit Rabbah, a commentary on the Book of Genesis compiled circa 400–600 AD. Tobit was also considered part of the Septuagint, in more contemporary times, a number of Jews in Israel have sought to reclaim Tobit as part of the canon. This book tells the story of Tobit, a righteous Israelite of the tribe of Naphtali and he is particularly noted for his diligence in attempting to provide proper burials for fallen Israelites whom Sargons successor Sennacherib has slain. For this behavior the king seizes his property and exiles him, after Sennacheribs death, Tobit is allowed to return to Nineveh, where he buries a man who has been murdered on the street. That night, he sleeps in the open and is blinded by bird droppings which fall into his eyes, the blindness caused by this injury strains his marriage and, ultimately, he prays for death. Meanwhile, in faraway Media, a woman named Sarah has prayed for death in despair. The demon of lust, Asmodeus, the worst of demons, abducts and kills every man whom Sarah marries, God sends the angel Raphael, disguised as a human, to heal Tobit and to free Sarah from the demon. The main narrative is dedicated to Tobits son, Tobiah or Tobiyah, Raphael presents himself as Tobits kinsman Azariah and offers to aid and protect Tobias. Under Raphaels guidance, Tobias journeys to Media with his dog, and over the objection of Tobits wife Hannah, along the way, whilst he washes his feet in the river Tigris, a fish tries to swallow his foot. By the angels order, he captures it and removes its heart, liver, upon arriving in Media, Raphael tells Tobias of the beautiful Sarah, whom Tobias has the right to marry because he is her cousin and closest relative. The angel instructs the man to burn the fishs liver. The two marry, and the fumes of the burning organs drive the demon to Upper Egypt, sarahs father has been digging a grave to secretly bury Tobias. Surprised to find his son-in-law alive and well, he orders a double-length wedding feast and has the grave secretly filled, since the feast prevents him from leaving, Tobias sends Raphael to recover his fathers money
15.
Book of Wisdom
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The Book of Wisdom, is one of the books of the Bible. It is considered scripture, classified as deuterocanonical by the Roman Catholic Church and similarly, protestant churches generally consider it to be non-canonical, and thus not Biblical scripture. It is one of the seven Sapiential or wisdom books included within the Septuagint, along with Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Job, and Sirach. The Book of Wisdom should not be confused with the Wisdom of Sirach, an Aramaic translation of the Wisdom of Solomon is mentioned by Naḥmanides in the preface to his commentary on the Pentateuch. Athanasius writes that the book of Wisdom and three other books, while not being part of the Canon, were appointed by the Fathers to be read. Epiphanius of Salamis mentions that the Wisdom of Solomon was of disputed canonicity, augustine writes in his book On Christian Doctrine that the Wisdom of Solomon and other deuterocanonical books are Canonical books. According to the monk Rufinus of Aquileia, the book of Solomon, pope Innocent I sent a letter to the bishop of Toulouse citing the book of Solomon as a part of the Old Testament Canon. This list mentions too the book of Solomon as a part of the Old Testament Canon, the Synod of Hippo, followed by the Councils of Carthage, the Council of Florence and finally the Council of Trent listed the book of Solomon as a Canonical book. The book is believed to have written in Greek language. The traditional attribution of The Book of Wisdom to Solomon has been rejected in modern times. Although the book of Wisdom is also called the Wisdom of Solomon, scholars believe that the book represents the most literary post-classical Greek language found in the Septuagint, having been written during the Jewish Hellenistic period. The author of the text appears well versed in the philosophical, religious. Peter Ennss theory identifies the author of Wisdom of Solomon as an Alexandrian Jew writing c.26 BC, some commentaries mention Wisdom 14,22 as a clear reference and condemnation of the so-called Pax Romana. The exclusive use of references to events prior to the Solomonic kingdom is a device the author used to make his work appear to be a genuine piece of Solomonic literature. The philosophical influences on the Book of Wisdom may include those of Middle-Platonism, some religious and ethical influences may also stem from Stoicism, found in the writings of the Alexandrian Jew, Philo, to whom Book of Wisdom has on occasion been wrongly attributed. A sorites appears in Chapter 6 and this logical form is also called chain-inference, of which the Stoics were very fond. One passage has notable similarity to Virtues speech to Heracles in Xenophons Memorabilia, although the Book of Wisdom is non-canonical in the Rabbinical Jewish tradition, the work was at least known to medieval Jews, as Rabbi Moses ben Nachman attests. That it was known to ancient Jews as well is trivially true, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, the last section is devoid of all connection with what precedes it
16.
Sirach
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In Egypt, it was translated into Greek by the authors grandson, who added a prologue. This prologue is generally considered the earliest witness to a canon of the books of the prophets, the book itself is the largest wisdom book from antiquity to have been survived. Sirach is accepted as part of the Christian biblical canons by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and most of Oriental Orthodox. The Anglican Church does not accept Sirach as protocanonical, and say it should be only for example of life and instruction of manners. Similarly, the Lutheran Churches include it in their lectionaries, and as a book proper for reading, devotion and it was cited in some writings in early Christianity. There are claims that it is cited in the Epistle of James, clement of Alexandria and Origen quote from it repeatedly, as from a γραφή, or holy book. The Apostolic Canons stated as venerable and sacred the Wisdom of Sirach, the Roman Catholic Church declared it to be canonical in 1546 during the fourth session of the Council of Trent. However, some Jews in the diaspora considered Sirach scripture, for instance, it was included in the canon of the Septuagint, the 2nd century BCE Greek version of the Jewish scriptures used by Diaspora Jews, through which it became part of the Greek canon. The multiplicity of manuscript fragments uncovered in the Cairo Genizah evidence its authoritative status among Egyptian Jewry until the Middle Ages, because it was excluded from the Jewish canon, Sirach was excised from the Protestant canon following the Reformation. However, a series of six poems about the search for and attainment of wisdom divide the book into something resembling chapters, despite the lack of structure, there are certain themes running through the Book that reappear at various points. The New Oxford Annotated Apocrypha identifies ten major recurring topics,1, the Wisdom of Sirach is a collection of ethical teachings. The question of which actually originated with Sirach is open to debate. The teachings are applicable to all conditions of life, to parents and children, to husbands and wives, to the young, to masters, to friends, to the rich, and to the poor. Wisdom, in ben Sirachs view, is synonymous with the fear of God, the maxims are expressed in exact formulas, and are illustrated by striking images. They show a knowledge of the human heart, the disillusionment of experience, a fraternal sympathy with the poor. As in Ecclesiastes, two opposing tendencies war in the author, the faith and the morality of olden times, which are stronger than all argument, some of the refutations of these views are developed at considerable length. The book concludes with a justification of God, whose wisdom and these chapters are completed by the authors signature, and are followed by two hymns, the latter apparently a sort of alphabetical acrostic. Joshua ben Sirach, or, according to the Greek text Jesus the son of Sirach of Jerusalem, was a Jewish scribe who had living in Jerusalem, may have authored the work in Alexandria
17.
Book of Isaiah
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The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. While virtually no one today attributes the entire book, or even most of it, to one person, Isaiah 1–33 promises judgment and restoration for Judah, Jerusalem and the nations, and chapters 34–66 presume that judgment has been pronounced and restoration follows soon. It can thus be read as a meditation on the destiny of Jerusalem into. Isaiah speaks out against corrupt leaders and for the disadvantaged, Isaiah 44,6 contains the first clear statement of monotheism, I am the first and I am the last, besides me there is no god. This model of monotheism became the characteristic of post-Exilic Judaism. Isaiah was one of the most popular works among Jews in the Second Temple period, the scholarly consensus which held sway through most of the 20th century saw three separate collections of oracles in the book of Isaiah. God has a plan which will be realised on the Day of Yahweh, on that day all the nations of the world will come to Zion for instruction, but first the city must be punished and cleansed of evil. Israel is invited to join in this plan, chapters 5–12 explain the significance of the Assyrian judgment against Israel, righteous rule by the Davidic king will follow after the arrogant Assyrian monarch is brought down. The oppressor is about to fall, chapters 34–35 tell how Yahweh will return the redeemed exiles to Jerusalem. Chapters 36–39 tell of the faithfulness of king Hezekiah to Yahweh during the Assyrian siege as a model for the restored community, chapters 55–66 are an exhortation to Israel to keep the covenant. Gods eternal promise to David is now made to the people of Israel/Judah at large, the book ends by enjoining righteousness as the final stages of Gods plan come to pass, including the pilgrimage of the nations to Zion and the realisation of Yahwehs kingship. Chapters 56–66 assume an even later situation, in which the people are returned to Jerusalem. Anonymity → Isaiahs name suddenly stops being used after chapter 39, style → There is a sudden change in style and theology after chapter 40, numerous key words and phrases found in one section are not found in the other. These observations led scholars to the conclusion that the book can be divided into three sections, labeled Proto-Isaiah, Deutero-Isaiah, and Trito-Isaiah. Early modern-period scholars treated Isaiah as independent collections of sayings by three individual prophets, brought together at a later period, about 70 BCE, to form the present book. The second half of the 20th century saw a change in approach. The conquest of Jerusalem by Babylon and the exile of its elite in 586 BCE ushered in the stage in the formation of the book. Deutero-Isaiah addresses himself to the Jews in exile, offering them the hope of return, deutero-Isaiahs predictions of the imminent fall of Babylon and his glorification of Cyrus as the deliverer of Israel date his prophecies to 550–539 BCE, and probably towards the end of this period
18.
Book of Ezekiel
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The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Tanakh and one of the major prophetic books in the Old Testament, following Isaiah and Jeremiah. The visions, and the book, are structured around three themes, Judgment on Israel, Judgment on the nations, and Future blessings for Israel. Its themes include the concepts of the presence of God, purity, Israel as a divine community and its later influence has included the development of mystical and apocalyptic traditions in Second Temple and rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. Inaugural vision, God approaches Ezekiel as the warrior, riding in his battle chariot. The chariot is drawn by four living creatures, each having four faces, beside each living creature is a wheel within a wheel, with tall and awesome rims full of eyes all around. God commissions Ezekiel as a prophet and as a watchman in Israel, Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites. Building a new city, The Jewish exile will come to an end, a new city and new Temple will be built, and the Israelites will be gathered and blessed as never before. Most scholars today accept the authenticity of the book. According to the book that bears his name, Ezekiel ben-Buzi was born into a family of Jerusalem c.623 BCE. Josiah was killed in 609 and Judah became a vassal of the new regional power, in 597, following a rebellion against Babylon, Ezekiel was among the large group of Judeans taken into captivity by the Babylonians. He appears to have spent the rest of his life in Mesopotamia, the various dates given in the book suggest that Ezekiel was 25 when he went into exile,30 when he received his prophetic call, and 52 at the time of the last vision c.571. The Jewish scriptures were translated into Greek in the two immediately before the birth of Christ. The Greek version of books is called the Septuagint. The Jewish Bible in Hebrew is called the Masoretic text, ecclesiasticus 49,8 refers to it, so does Josephus. It is mentioned as part of the canon in Melitos catalogue, cited by Eusebius, also in Origen, Jerome, the first half of the 20th century saw several attempts to deny the authorship and authenticity of the book, with scholars such as C. C. Torrey and Morton Smith placing it variously in the 3rd century BCE, the pendulum swung back in the post-war period, with an increasing acceptance of the books essential unity and historical placement in the Exile. The most influential modern work on Ezekiel, Walther Zimmerlis two-volume commentary, appeared in German in 1969. Ezekiel depicts the destruction of Jerusalem as a sacrifice upon the altar
19.
2 Esdras
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2 Esdras is the name of an apocalyptic book in many English versions of the Bible. Its authorship is ascribed to Ezra and it is reckoned among the apocrypha by Roman Catholics, Protestants, and most Eastern Orthodox Christians. Although Second Esdras was preserved in Latin as an appendix to the Vulgate and passed down as a unified book, as with 1 Esdras, there is some confusion about the numbering of this book. The Vulgate of Jerome includes 1,2,3 and 4 Esdras. Protestant writers, after the Geneva Bible, called 1 and 2 Esdras of the Vulgate Ezra and Nehemiah and it appears in the Appendix to the Old Testament in the Slavonic Bible, where it is called 3 Esdras, and the Georgian Orthodox Bible numbers it 3 Ezra. This text is also known as Apocalypse of Ezra. The first two chapters of 2 Esdras are found only in the Latin version of the book, and are called 5 Ezra by scholars. They are considered by most scholars to be Christian in origin, they assert Gods rejection of the Jews and these are generally considered to be late additions to the work. Chapters 3–14, or the bulk of 2 Esdras, is a Jewish apocalypse also sometimes known as 4 Ezra. The latter name should not be confused with a work called the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra. The Ethiopian Church considers 4 Ezra to be canonical, written during the Babylonian captivity and it was also often cited by the Fathers of the Church. In the Eastern Armenian tradition it is called 3 Ezra and it is conjectured by Protestant scholars to have been written in the late 1st century CE following the destruction of the Second Temple. Among Greek Fathers of the Church,4 Ezra is generally cited as Προφήτης Ἔσδρας Prophetes Esdras or Ἀποκάλυψις Ἔσδρα Apokalupsis Esdra,4 Ezra consists of seven visions of Ezra the scribe. The first vision takes place as Ezra is still in Babylon and he asks God how Israel can be kept in misery if God is just. The archangel Uriel is sent to answer the question, responding that Gods ways cannot be understood by the human mind, soon, however, the end would come, and Gods justice would be made manifest. Similarly, in the vision, Ezra asks why Israel was delivered up to the Babylonians, and is again told that man cannot understand this. In the third vision Ezra asks why Israel does not possess the world, Uriel responds that the current state is a period of transition. Here follows a description of the fate of evil-doers and the righteous, Ezra asks whether the righteous may intercede for the unrighteous on Judgment Day, but is told that Judgment Day is final
20.
4 Maccabees
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The book of 4 Maccabees is a homily or philosophic discourse praising the supremacy of pious reason over passion. It is not in the Bible for most churches, but is an appendix to the Greek Bible and it was included in the 1688 Romanian Orthodox and the 18th-century Romanian Catholic Bibles where it was called Iosip. It is no longer printed in the Romanian Bibles today, the last chapters concern the authors impressions drawn from these martyrdoms. The work thus appears to be an independent composition to 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees and it was composed originally in the Greek language, in what Stephen Westerholm of the Eastern / Greek Orthodox Bible calls very fluently. and in a highly rhetorical and affected Greek style. According to some scholars, the last chapter shows signs of later addition to the work, the dispute is based on the weak ending the book would have without the added chapter, as well as arguments based on style. Others hold that a homily would have to be based on scriptural texts, in style, the book is oratorical, but not so much as 3 Maccabees. What can be interpreted as Stoic philosophy is cited by the author, the writer appears to be an Alexandrian Jew who used a philosophical approach in order to present a concept of piety. Regarded as Jewish literature, it is cited as the best example of syncretism between Jewish and Hellenistic thought, the book is ascribed to Josephus by Eusebius and Jerome, and this opinion was accepted for many years, leading to its inclusion in many editions of Josephus works. Scholars have however pointed to perceived differences of language and style, the book is generally dated between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, due to its reliance on 2 Maccabees and use by some of early Christians. It has been suggested that it was written before the persecution of the Jews under Caligula, the writer believes in the immortality of the soul, but never mentions the resurrection of the dead. Good souls are said to live forever in happiness with the patriarchs and God, Greek text from Septuaginta, Id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interpretes, via The Online Pseudepigrapha
21.
New Testament
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The New Testament is the second major part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity, Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture. The New Testament has frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world and it reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Both extended readings and phrases directly from the New Testament are also incorporated into the various Christian liturgies, the New Testament has influenced religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom and left an indelible mark on literature, art, and music. In almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books, John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Others give a date of 80 AD, or at 96 AD. Over time, some disputed books, such as the Book of Revelation, other works earlier held to be Scripture, such as 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Diatessaron, were excluded from the New Testament. However, the canon of the New Testament, at least since Late Antiquity, has been almost universally recognized within Christianity. The term new testament, or new covenant first occurs in Jeremiah 31,31, the same Greek phrase for new covenant is found elsewhere in the New Testament. Modern English, like Latin, distinguishes testament and covenant as alternative translations, John Wycliffes 1395 version is a translation of the Latin Vulgate and so follows different terms in Jeremiah and Hebrews, Lo. Days shall come, saith the Lord, and I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel, for he reproving him saith, Lo. Days come, saith the Lord, when I shall establish a new testament on the house of Israel, use of the term New Testament to describe a collection of first and second-century Christian Greek Scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian. In Against Marcion, written circa 208 AD, he writes of the Divine Word, by the 4th century, the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius, a 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin Institutiones Divinae and that which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the Old, but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The canon of the New Testament is the collection of books that most Christians regard as divinely inspired, several of these writings sought to extend, interpret, and apply apostolic teaching to meet the needs of Christians in a given locality. The book order is the same in the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, the Slavonic, Armenian and Ethiopian traditions have different New Testament book orders. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament narrates the life, death, the word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning good news or glad tidings. The gospel was considered the good news of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and the redemption through the life and death of Jesus, Gospel is a calque of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion
22.
Gospel of Matthew
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The Gospel According to Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. The narrative tells how the Messiah, Jesus, rejected by Israel, most scholars believe the Gospel of Matthew was composed between AD80 and 90, with a range of possibility between AD70 to 110. The title Son of David identifies Jesus as the healing and miracle-working Messiah of Israel, as Son of Man he will return to judge the world, an expectation which his disciples recognise but of which his enemies are unaware. As Son of God he is God revealing himself through his son, the gospel reflects the struggles and conflicts between the evangelists community and the other Jews, particularly with its sharp criticism of the scribes and Pharisees. The original versions of the Gospel of Matthew and the gospels are lost. The oldest relatively complete extant manuscripts of the Bible are the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus, besides these, there exist manuscript fragments ranging from a few verses to whole chapters. P104 and P67 are notable fragments of Matthew, in the process of recopying, variations slipped in, different regional manuscript traditions emerged, and corrections and adjustments were made. The Gospel of Matthew is anonymous, the author is not named within the text, the consensus is that Papias does not describe the Gospel of Matthew as we know it, and it is generally accepted that Matthew was written in Greek, not in Aramaic or Hebrew. The majority view of scholars is that Mark was the first gospel to be composed. The author of Matthew did not, however, simply copy Mark, an additional 220 verses, shared by Matthew and Luke but not found in Mark, from a second source, a hypothetical collection of sayings to which scholars give the name Quelle, or the Q source. The author also had at his disposal the Greek scriptures, both as book-scrolls and in the form of collections, and, if Papias is correct. The majority view among scholars is that Matthew was a product of the last quarter of the 1st century, the Christian community to which Matthew belonged, like many 1st-century Christians, were still part of the larger Jewish community, hence the designation Jewish Christian to describe them. The author of Matthew wrote for a community of Greek-speaking Jewish Christians located probably in Syria, Matthew, alone among the gospels, alternates five blocks of narrative with five of discourse, marking each off with the phrase When Jesus had finished. The Gospel of Matthew begins with the words The Book of Genealogy of Jesus Christ, John baptizes Jesus, and the Holy Spirit descends upon him. Jesus prays and meditates in the wilderness for forty days, and is tempted by Satan and his early ministry by word and deed in Galilee meets with much success, and leads to the Sermon on the Mount, the first of the discourses. The sermon presents the ethics of the kingdom of God, introduced by the Beatitudes and it concludes with a reminder that the response to the kingdom will have eternal consequences, and the crowds amazed response leads into the next narrative block. From the authoritative words of Jesus the gospel turns to three sets of three miracles interwoven with two sets of two stories, followed by a discourse on mission and suffering. Opposition to Jesus comes to a head with accusations that his deeds are done through the power of Satan, Jesus in turn accuses his opponents of blaspheming the Holy Spirit
23.
Gospel of Luke
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The Gospel According to Luke, also called the Gospel of Luke, or simply Luke, is the third of the four canonical Gospels. It tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, Luke is the second-longest of the four gospels, and together with Acts of the Apostles, the pair make up a two-volume work from the same pen, called Luke–Acts. The cornerstone of Luke-Acts theology is salvation history, the understanding that Gods purpose is seen in the way he has acted. The gospels sources are the Gospel of Mark, the collection called the Q source, and a collection of material called the L source. Luke-Acts does not name its author, the most probable date for its composition is around 80–100 AD, and there is evidence that it was still being revised well into the 2nd century. Autographs of Luke and the other Gospels have not been preserved, as is typical for ancient documents, the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles make up a two-volume work which scholars call Luke–Acts. The author is not named in either volume and he admired Paul, but his theology was significantly different from Pauls on key points and he does not represent Pauls views accurately. The eclipse of the attribution to Luke the companion of Paul has meant that an early date for the gospel is now rarely put forward. Luke-Acts is a history of the Founder of the church and his successors. All three authors anchor the histories of their respective peoples by dating the births of the founders and narrate the stories of the founders births from God, each founder taught authoritatively, appeared to witnesses after death, and ascended to heaven. Crucial aspects of the teaching of all three concerned the relationship between rich and poor and the question of whether foreigners were to be received into the people. The author used as his sources the gospel of Mark, the collection called the Q source. Mark, written around 70 AD, provided the narrative outline, for these Luke turned to Q, which consisted mostly, although not exclusively, of sayings. Mark and Q account for about 64% of Luke, the remaining material, known as the L source, is of unknown origin and date. Most Q and L-source material is grouped in two clusters, Luke 6, 17-8,3 and 9, 51-18,14, Luke was written to be read aloud to a group of Jesus-followers gathered in a house to share the Lords supper. The author assumes an educated Greek-speaking audience, but directs his attention to specifically Christian concerns rather than to the Greco-Roman world at large. He begins his gospel with a preface addressed to Theophilus, the name means Lover of God, here he informs Theophilus of his intention, which is to lead his reader to certainty through an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us. He did not, however, intend to provide Theophilus with a justification of the Christian faith – did it happen
24.
Epistle to the Hebrews
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The Epistle to the Hebrews, or Letter to the Hebrews, or in the Greek manuscripts, simply To the Hebrews is one of the books of the New Testament. Scholars of Greek consider its writing to be polished and eloquent than any other book of the New Testament. The book has earned the reputation of being a masterpiece and it has also been described as an intricate New Testament book. Scholars believe it was written for Jewish Christians who lived in Jerusalem and its purpose was to exhort Christians to persevere in the face of persecution. The theme of the epistle is the doctrine of the person of Christ, the epistle opens with an exaltation of Jesus as the radiance of Gods glory, the express image of his being, and upholding all things by his powerful word. The epistle presents Jesus with the pioneer or forerunner, Son and Son of God, priest. The epistle casts Jesus as both exalted Son and high priest, a unique dual Christology, Hebrews uses Old Testament quotations interpreted in light of first century rabbinical Judaism. Although the author of Hebrews was not directly influenced by Qumrans Messiah of Aaron, to conceive Jesus similarly as a priest making atonement and eternal intercession in the heavenly sanctuary. By the end of the first century there was not a consensus over the author’s identity, Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Paul the Apostle, and other names were proposed. Others later suggested Luke the Evangelist, Apollos and Priscilla as possible authors, though no author is named, the original King James Version of the Bible titled the work The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews. However, the KJVs attribution to Paul was only a guess and its vastly different style, different theological focus, different spiritual experience, different Greek vocabulary—all are believed to make Pauls authorship of Hebrews increasingly indefensible. At present, neither modern scholarship nor church teaching ascribes Hebrews to Paul, because of its anonymity, it had some trouble being accepted as part of the Christian canon, being classed with the Antilegomena. Eventually it was accepted as scripture because of its theology, eloquent presentation. In antiquity, certain circles began to ascribe it to Paul in an attempt to provide the work an explicit apostolic pedigree. Scholars argued that in the 13th Chapter of Hebrews, Timothy is referred to as a companion, Timothy was Pauls missionary companion in the same way Jesus sent disciples out in pairs of two. Also, the states that he wrote the letter from Italy. The difference in style is explained as simply an adjustment to a distinct audience, many scholars now believe that the author was one of Pauls pupils or associates, citing stylistic differences between Hebrews and the other Pauline epistles. Recent scholarship has favored the idea that the author was probably a leader of a predominantly Jewish congregation to whom he or she was writing
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First Epistle of Peter
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The First Epistle of Peter, usually referred to simply as First Peter and often written 1 Peter, is a book of the New Testament. The letter is addressed to various churches in Asia Minor suffering religious persecution, the authorship of 1 Peter has traditionally been attributed to the Apostle Peter because it bears his name and identifies him as its author. Although the text identifies Peter as its author the language, dating, style, many scholars are convinced that Peter was not the author of this letter because the author had to have a formal education in rhetoric/philosophy and an advanced knowledge of the Greek language. Current scholarship has abandoned the persecution argument because the described persecution within the work does not necessitate a time period outside of the period of Peter, others argue that it makes little sense to ascribe the work to Peter when it could have been ascribed to Paul. One theory used to support Petrine authorship of 1 Peter is the secretarial hypothesis, on the one hand, some scholars such as Bart D. On the other hand, some argue that there is not enough evidence to conclude that Peter did not write 1 Peter. For instance, there are similarities between 1 Peter and Peters speeches in the Biblical book of Acts, and the earliest attestation of Peters authorship comes from 2 Peter, ultimately, the authorship of 1 Peter remains contested. 1 Peter is addressed to the “elect resident aliens” scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, the five areas listed in 1,1 as the geographical location of the first readers were Roman provinces in Asia Minor. The order in which the provinces are listed may reflect the route to be taken by the messenger who delivered the circular letter. The recipients of this letter are referred to in 1,1 as “exiles of the Dispersion. ”In 1,17, while the new Christians have encountered oppression and hostility from locals, Peter advises them to maintain loyalty to both their religion and the Roman Empire. David Bartlett lists the following outline to structure the literary divisions of 1 Peter, based on such internal evidence, biblical scholar John Elliott summarizes the addressees’ situation as one marked by undeserved suffering. Verse, Spirits in prison, is a theme in Christianity. A number of verses in the epistle contain possible clues about the reasons Christians experienced opposition, however, scholars differ on the nature of persecution inflicted on the addressees of 1 Peter. Some read the epistle to be describing persecution in the form of social discrimination, some scholars believe that the sufferings the epistles addressees were experiencing were social in nature, specifically in the form of verbal derision. Internal evidence for this includes the use of words like “malign” and it is significant to him that the author notes that “your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering”, indicating suffering that is worldwide in scope. On the other hand, scholars who support the official persecution theory take the exhortation to defend ones faith as a reference to court proceedings. They believe that these persecutions involved court trials before Roman authorities, one common supposition is that 1 Peter was written during the reign of Domitian. Domitians aggressive claim to divinity would have rejected and resisted by Christians
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Second Epistle of Peter
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Some modern scholars regard it as pseudepigraphical. It is the only New Testament book to treat other New Testament writings as scripture, Second Peter was one of the last letters included in the New Testament canon and is one of the texts that were in dispute before the canon was finalized. According to the Epistle itself, it was composed by the Apostle Peter and it criticizes false teachers who distort the authentic, apostolic tradition, and predicts judgment for them. 2 Peter explains that God has delayed the Second Coming of Christ so that people will have the chance to reject evil. It calls on Christians to wait patiently for the parousia and to study scripture, the date of composition has proven to be very difficult to determine. Commentaries and reference books have placed 2 Peter in almost every decade from AD60 to 160. Many believe that it was written between 65-68 A. D. because Peter was martyred around 68 A. D. by Nero, most biblical scholars have concluded Peter is not the author, considering the epistle pseudepigraphical. The questions of authorship and date are closely related, for Petrine authorship to be authentic, it must have been written prior to Peters death in c. The letter refers to the Pauline epistles and so must post-date at least some of them, regardless of authorship, thus a date before 60 is improbable. Further, it goes as far to name the Pauline epistles as scripture — the only time a New Testament work refers to another New Testament work in this way — implying that it postdates them by some time. Chester & Martin say scholars consider the epistle to be written between c, AD 100–150 and so contend that it is pseudepigraphical. For an argument for a late date see Harris, for a middle date see Bauckham who opts for a date between AD 80–90 as most probable. For an early date and for a defense of the Apostle Peters authorship see Kruger, Zahn, Spitta, Bigg, jeremy Duff argues that the various strands of evidence point towards the period 60–130 CE, with some reason to favour 80–90 CE. Acceptance of the letter into the canon did not occur without some difficulty, however, nowhere did doubts about the letters authorship take the form of definitive rejection. ”Origen, in both content and style this letter is very different from 1 Peter. This epistle presciently declares that it is shortly before the apostles death. The epistle contains eleven references to the Old Testament, in 3,15,16 a reference is made to one of Pauls epistles, which some have identified as 1 Thessalonians 4, 13–5,11. Because the Epistle of Jude is much shorter than 2 Peter, and due to various stylistic details, tartarus is mentioned in 2 Pet 2,4 as devoted to the holding of certain fallen angels. It is elaborated on in Jude 6, Jude 6 however, is a clear reference to the Book of Enoch
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Quran
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The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
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Surah
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A Surah is the term for a chapter of the Quran. There are 114 Surahs in the Quran, each divided into verses, the chapters or suras are of unequal length, the shortest chapter has only three ayat while the longest contains 286 verses. Of the 114 chapters in the Quran,87 are classified as Meccan, except for sura At-Tawba, all chapters or suras commence with In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This formula is known as the Bismillah and denotes the boundaries between chapters, the chapters are arranged roughly in order of descending size, therefore the arrangement of the Quran is neither chronological nor thematic. Suras are recited during the portions of Muslim prayers. Sura Al-Fatiha, the first chapter of the Quran, is recited in every unit of prayer, the word sura was used at the time of Muhammad as a term with the meaning of a chapter or a portion of the Quran. Its plural form suwar is also mentioned in the Quran, Or do they say, say, Then bring ten suwar like it and call upon whomever you can besides God, if you are truthful. Nöldeke following Buxtorf suggested that the sura has similar root with the Hebrew word שורה meaning a row. Some took it as connected with the Arabic word Sur meaning a wall, jeffery believes that it has a common origin with a Syrian word that means writing. Chapters in the Quran are not arranged in the order of revelation. For this reason, no attempt was made to edit the numerous revelations, organize them into thematic units, a number of medieval Islamic writers attempted to compile a chronologically ordered list of the chapters, with differing results. One version is given in a 15th-century work by Abd al-Kafi, another list is mentioned by Abu Salih, while a significantly different version of Abu Salihs is preserved in the book Kitab Mabani. Yet another, from the 10th century, is given by Ibn Nadim, a number of verses are associated with particular events which helps date them. Muhammads first revelation was chapter 96, verses 16,41 and 47,13 refer to migration of Muslims which took place in the year 622. Verses 8, 1-7 and 3, 120-175 refer to battles of Badr, Muhammads last pilgrimage is mentioned in 5,3 which occurred in 632, a few months before he died. This method is of limited usefulness because the Quran narrates the life of Muhammad or the history of the Muslim community only incidentally. In fact, very few chapters contain clear references to events which took place in Muhammads life, theodor Nöldekes chronology is based on the assumption that the style of the Quran changes in one direction without reversals. Tripartite chapters open with a warning, followed by one or more narratives about unbelievers
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Sura 71
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Sūrat Nūḥ is the seventy-first sura of the Quran with 28 ayat. It is about the Islamic prophet Noah and his complaint about his people rejecting all warning God gave them through Noah, in Nuh, the seventy-first surah, the Quran refers to Nuh’s prophethood in snippets. Nuh is a messenger of God, when Nuh realizes the messages are not accepted by the community, he supplicated to God. God planned to flood the community of Nuh at a specified time, God commanded Nuh to warn the people of the flood. God brings forth the water from the skies to prove Nuh’s message to be accurate, in the Quran, the flood is a symbolization of the mercy of God to the believers. God gives the world a new beginning, the disbelievers disbelieved Gods message and messenger Nuh so they were drowned. Because his people are unable to grasp the idea of the existence of one God, the surah was used to increase the faith of the believers, it shows that Nuh before Muhammad had difficulties in dealing with the disbelievers of his time. Ayat 1–4 discusses the message Nuh received from God to share with his community, in Ayat 5–20, Nuh informs God that his people are not accepting his message. Nuh tries to clear to the people that all of the Earth, the sun. In Ayat 21–24, Nuh asks God to rid the world of the evildoers because they refused to abandon their idols, in Ayat 25–28, the disbelievers were all drowned and sent to Hell. Nuh asks God to forgive the believers and to destroy the disbelievers because their faith will lead many astray, the surah is entirely Meccan meaning it was revealed while Muhammad was trying to create a Muslim community in Mecca. According to the Tanzil version, it was the seventy-first surah revealed and it was revealed after the sixteenth surah, An-Nahl and before the fourteenth surah Ibrahim. According to Nöldeke’s version, Nūḥ was the fifty-third surah to be revealed and it was revealed after the thirty-seventh surah Saaffaat, and before the seventy-sixth surah, Insaan or Dahr. Belief in God Signs of God Punishment of denying Allahs message
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Sura 7
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Sūrat al-Aʻrāf is the seventh sura of the Quran, with 206 verses. Its final verse, verse 206, requires a sajdah, or prostration, story of Hud, Hud lived with his people Aad, Aad were not ignorant of the existence of Allah, nor did they refuse to worship Him. What they did refuse was to worship Allah alone and they worshipped other gods, also, including idols. This is one sin Allah does not forgive, the Prophet Hud said to his people, He created you, He provides for you and He is the One Who will cause you to die. He gave you wonderful physiques and blessed you in many ways, so believe in Him and do not be blind to His favors, or the same fate that destroyed Noahs people will overtake you. Story of Saleh, Saleh was sent to an Arab tribe called Thamud and they were vain people who took great pride in their fertile farmland and grand architecture. Prophet Saleh tried to call his people to the worship of One God and he called upon the rich to stop oppressing the poor, and for an end to all mischief and evil. Story of Shuaib, His people were people who did not believe that Allah existed. Most of them were merchandisers and they gave short measure, praised their goods beyond their worth and they lied to their customers, thereby cheating them. Allah sent his prophet Shuaib armed with many miracles, Shuaib preached to them, begging them to be mindful of Allahs favors and warning them of the consequences of their evil ways, but they only mocked him. Shuaib remained calm as he reminded them of his kinship to them, story of Musa/Moses and Haroon/Aaron, The pharaoh who ruled Egypt was a tyrant who oppressed the children of Israel. He used every means to demean and disgrace them and they were kept in bondage and forced to work for him. Under this system the people obeyed and worshipped the pharaoh, Allah sent his prophet Moses to save the Children of Israel from the pharaoh, he gave him great power to face the pharaoh and win over him. He succeeded and saved his people and it also reveals that prophecies about the coming of Muhammad were present in the Jewish law and Gospel.7,157 Al Aaraaf — a poem based on it by Edgar Allan Poe Limbo Purgatory Surah Al-Araf Mp3
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Sura 11
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Sura Hud is the 11th chapter of the Quran with 123 verses. It is about the prophet Hud, the main content of the sura is a series of stories of prophets who warned their people to follow God, the people persisting in defying God, and God punishing and killing them. The sura opens with a discussion on the nature of man, ayat 25–49 tell the story of Noah and how his people did not believe his commands to follow God. The unbelievers are drowned in a flood, which includes Noahs son, Noah asks God about this act, Sura 66, At-Tahrim, elaborates on this and says that Noahs wife is an unbeliever in hell who was unfaithful to her husband. Ayat 50–60 deal with the prophet Hud, the namesake of the Sura and he was sent to the Aad, an Omani tribe which according to history crumbled sometime between the 3rd and 6th century AD. The Aad do not believe Hud, and Hud and those who do believe are rescued by God, ayat 61–68 concern the people of Thamud and the prophet Saleh. Saleh tries to convince Thamud to repent, but once more the unbelievers ignore the prophet, Saleh offers a she-camel as an offering of peace, but says that it should be left alone. If anything befalls it, the people will be punished, the camel is hamstrung, Saleh and those who believe are rescued, and the unbelievers are smitten by a blast from heaven. The Quranic version of the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah is in ayat 69–83, abraham and Sarah are given the news of their son and grandsons forthcoming birth, after which they plead for mercy for Lots people. God refuses the request, saying that the punishment cannot be averted, Lot offers his daughters to the men of Sodom, but they respond with disinterest and say you know what we want. Sura 7, 80–84 confirms the Biblical account of homosexuality as being the crime of Lots people, angels descend to protect Lot and his daughters, and the city is destroyed by a stone rain. Ayat 84–95 deal with the prophet Shuaib sent to Midian, once more, the people ignore the prophets warnings, this time, Shuaib reminds the people of the fate of the people of Noah, Hud, Saleh, and Lot. It doesnt work, and the people spare Shuaib from death by stoning only because he comes from a powerful clan, Shuaib and those who believe are rescued by God. Afterward, the seized by a punishment from heaven. The remaining text of the sura discusses the theme once more. The harsh punishment is explained as We did not wrong them, other gods are decried as false, powerless, and useless. Believers are commanded to walk the path and follow God
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Sura 21
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Sūrat al-Anbiyāʼ is the 21st sura of the Quran with 112 ayat. Its principal subject matter is prophets of the past, who preached the same faith as Muhammad. This sura was revealed in the Second Meccan Period and is listed as Number 65 according to the Nöldeke Chronology, within its verses are found numerous evocations of earlier Judeo-Christian prophets. These examples help to emphasize and define Muhammads role as a messenger within the Quranic context, the sura is thematically and stylistically characteristic of the Second Meccan Period. This clear self-referentiality, or self-declaration, and intertextuality are perceptibly unique to the Quran, verses 1-40 affirm. the revelation and commits Muhammad to his role as the chosen prophet. It declares the oneness of God in his creation, verses 41-91 seek to draw examples of faith and righteousness through the narratives of earlier prophets. This method of revelation simultaneously thrusts the Quran upward and integrates the religious identity of Islam into a broader existing context. Verses 92-112 work to conclude the sura with another affirmation of revelation, the chapter ends with a final exaltation of Allahs merciful nature
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Mosaic
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A mosaic is a piece of art or image made from the assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It is often used in art or as interior decoration. Most mosaics are made of small, flat, roughly square, pieces of stone or glass of different colors, some, especially floor mosaics, are made of small rounded pieces of stone, and called pebble mosaics. Others are made of other materials, mosaics have a long history, starting in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. Pebble mosaics were made in Tiryns in Mycenean Greece, mosaics with patterns and pictures became widespread in classical times, Early Christian basilicas from the 4th century onwards were decorated with wall and ceiling mosaics. Mosaic fell out of fashion in the Renaissance, though artists like Raphael continued to practise the old technique, Roman and Byzantine influence led Jews to decorate 5th and 6th century synagogues in the Middle East with floor mosaics. Mosaic was widely used on buildings and palaces in early Islamic art, including Islams first great religious building, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Mosaic went out of fashion in the Islamic world after the 8th century, modern mosaics are made by professional artists, street artists, and as a popular craft. Many materials other than stone and ceramic tesserae may be employed, including shells, glass. The earliest known examples of made of different materials were found at a temple building in Abra, Mesopotamia. They consist of pieces of colored stones, shells and ivory, excavations at Susa and Chogha Zanbil show evidence of the first glazed tiles, dating from around 1500 BC. However, mosaic patterns were not used until the times of Sassanid Empire, mythological subjects, or scenes of hunting or other pursuits of the wealthy, were popular as the centrepieces of a larger geometric design, with strongly emphasized borders. Pliny the Elder mentions the artist Sosus of Pergamon by name, describing his mosaics of the left on a floor after a feast. Both of these themes were widely copied, most recorded names of Roman mosaic workers are Greek, suggesting they dominated high quality work across the empire, no doubt most ordinary craftsmen were slaves. Splendid mosaic floors are found in Roman villas across North Africa, in such as Carthage. The tiny tesserae allowed very fine detail, and an approach to the illusionism of painting, often small panels called emblemata were inserted into walls or as the highlights of larger floor-mosaics in coarser work. The normal technique was opus tessellatum, using larger tesserae, which was laid on site, there was a distinct native Italian style using black on a white background, which was no doubt cheaper than fully coloured work. In Rome, Nero and his architects used mosaics to cover surfaces of walls and ceilings in the Domus Aurea, built 64 AD
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Book of Genesis
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The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. The basic narrative expresses the theme, God creates the world and appoints man as his regent. The new post-Flood world is also corrupt, God does not destroy it, instead calling one man, Abraham, to be the seed of its salvation. At Gods command Abraham descends from his home into the land of Canaan, given to him by God, Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus. The narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, the books author or authors appear to have structured it around ten toledot sections, but modern commentators see it in terms of a primeval history followed by the cycle of Patriarchal stories. In Judaism, the importance of Genesis centers on the covenants linking God to his chosen people. It is not clear, however, what this meant to the original authors, while the first is far shorter than the second, it sets out the basic themes and provides an interpretive key for understanding the entire book. The primeval history has a symmetrical structure hinging on chapters 6–9, God creates the world in six days and consecrates the seventh as a day of rest. God creates the first humans Adam and Eve and all the animals in the Garden of Eden but instructs them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A talking serpent portrayed as a creature or trickster, entices Eve into eating it anyway. Eve bears two sons, Cain and Abel, Cain kills Abel after God accepts Abels offering but not Cains. Eve bears another son, Seth, to take Abels place, after many generations of Adam have passed from the lines of Cain and Seth, the world becomes corrupted by the sin of man and Nephilim, and God determines to wipe out mankind. First, he instructs the righteous Noah and his family to build a huge boat, then God sends a great flood to wipe out the rest of the world. When the waters recede, God promises that he not destroy the world a second time with water with the rainbow as the symbol of his promise. But upon seeing mankind cooperating to build a great tower city, God instructs Abram to travel from his home in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. Abrams name is changed to Abraham and that of his wife Sarai to Sarah, because Sarah is old, she tells Abraham to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as a second wife. God resolves to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sins of their people, Abraham protests and gets God to agree not to destroy the cities if 10 righteous men can be found. Angels save Abrahams nephew Lot and his family, but his wife back on the destruction against their command and is turned into a pillar of salt
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Shem
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Shem was one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Islamic literature. Genesis 10,21 refers to ages of Shem and his brother Japheth. The verse is translated in the KJV as Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born. However, the New American Standard Bible gives, Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born. Genesis 11,10 records that Shem was 100 years old at the birth of Arphaxad, two years after the flood, and that he lived for another 500 years after this, making his age at death 600 years. The children of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram, Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrews and Arabs, was one of the descendants of Arphaxad. Islamic literature describes Shem as one of the sons of Noah. Some sources even identify Shem as a prophet in his own right, in one Muslim legend, Shem was one of the people whom God made Jesus resurrect as a sign to the Children of Israel. According to some Jewish traditions, Shem is believed to have been Melchizedek, King of Salem whom Abraham is recorded to have met after the battle of the four kings. Shem is mentioned in Genesis 5,32,6,10,7,13,9,18,23, 26-27,10,11,10, some have reconstructed more complete genealogies based on this information as follows, Shem. Also Sem Literal meanings are named or renown, the sons of Shem were, Elam eternity - Asshur a step or strong - Arphaxad - Chaldeans, Hebrews Ziezi - son of Shem and a grandson of Noah. His name is mentioned in the excerpt Ziezi ex quo vulgares meaning Ziezi, of whom the Bulgars, according to Luke 3,36 Jesus is a descendant of Shem. Early Islamic historians like Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham always included Shems name in the genealogy of Muhammad, the following family tree contains information from the Hebrew Bible, without data from any other sources. According to Luke 3, a figure named Cainan is the son of Arpachshad. Finnegans Wake Wives aboard the Ark Herbermann, Charles, ed. Sem
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Ham (son of Noah)
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Ham, according to the Table of Nations in the Book of Genesis, was a son of Noah and the father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan. Hams descendants are interpreted by Moses, Flavius Josephus and others as having populated Africa, the Bible refers to Egypt as the land of Ham in Psalms.78,51,105,23,27,106,22,1 Chronicles 4,40. Since the 17th century a number of suggestions have been made that relate the name Ham to a Hebrew word for burnt, black or hot, to an Egyptian word for servant, or the Egyptian word Kmt for Egypt. Genesis 5,32 indicates that Noah became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth from the age of 500 years old, an incident involving Ham is related in Genesis 9, 20-27. 20And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard,21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father,25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem,27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. —Authorized King James Version Ham was blessed in Genesis 9,1 – Noah did not curse him directly, the Talmud deduces two possible explanations, one attributed to Rab and one to Rabbi Samuel, for what Ham did to Noah to warrant the curse. According to Rab, Ham castrated Noah on the basis that, since Noah cursed Ham by his fourth son Canaan, emasculating him thus deprived Noah of the possibility of a fourth son. In Genesis 34,2 it reads, And when Shechem the son of Hamor saw her, he took her and lay with her, according to this argument, similar abuse must have happened each time that the Bible uses the same language. The Talmud concludes that, in fact, both indignities were perpetrated, although the story can be taken literally, in more recent times, some scholars have suggested that Ham may have had intercourse with his fathers wife. Under this interpretation, Canaan is cursed as the product of Hams illicit union, the chronological scheme of the Book of Jubilees has Ham born in the year 1209 A. M. — two years after Shem, three before Japheth, and 99 before the flood. It gives the name of his wife who survived the flood as Naeltamauk. After his youngest son Canaan was cursed in 1321 A. M. he left Mount Ararat and built a city named for his wife on the south side of the mountain. In 1569 A. M. he received a division of the earth along with his two brothers for his inheritance, everything west of the Nile River, and to the south of Gadir. Dwell not in the dwelling of Shem, for to Shem and to his sons did it come by their lot. Cursed art thou, and cursed shalt thou be beyond all the sons of Noah, by the curse by which we bound ourselves by an oath in the presence of the holy judge, and in the presence of Noah our father. But he did not hearken unto them, and dwelt in the land of Lebanon from Hamath to the entering of Egypt, he, and for this reason that land is named Canaan
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Japheth
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In medieval and early modern European tradition he was considered to be the progenitor of European and, later, East Asian peoples. Japheth first appears in the Book of Genesis as a one of the three sons of Noah, saved through the Ark, following the Flood he features in the story of Noahs drunkenness. ”. Scholars increasingly see this as a product of the Achaemenid Empire, almost none of the persons, places and stories in the first eleven chapters of Genesis are ever mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. This has led scholars to suppose that the History is a composition, attached to Genesis to serve as an introduction to that book. Japheth is a transliteration of the Greek Iapetos, the ancestor of the Hellenic peoples, however, Genesis 10,14 identifies their ancestor as Ham rather than Japheth. For those who take the genealogies of Genesis to be historically accurate, the link between Japheth and the Europeans stems from Genesis 10,5, which states, By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands. Prince Hal notes of such people. they will be kin to us, in the Bible, Japheth is ascribed seven sons, Gomer, Magog, Tiras, Javan, Meshech, Tubal, and Madai. Josephus subsequently detailed the nations supposed to have descended from the seven sons of Japheth, the Book of Jasher, published by Talmudic rabbis in the 17th century, provides some new names for Japheths grandchildren not found in the Bible, and provided a much more detailed genealogy. In the seventh century, Isidore of Seville published his noted history, scholars in almost every European nation continued to repeat and develop Saint Isidores assertion of descent from Noah through Japheth into the nineteenth century. In Scotland, histories tracing the Scottish people to Japheth were published as late as George Chalmers well-received Caledonia, the term Japhetic was also applied by William Jones and other early linguists to what became known as the Indo-European language group. In a different sense, it was used by the Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr in his Japhetic theory. Japheth is not mentioned by name in the Quran but is referred to indirectly in the narrative of Noah, Muslim exegesis, however, names all of Noahs sons, and these include Japheth. In identifying Japheths descendants, Muslim exegesis more-or-less agrees with the Biblical traditions and he is usually regarded as the ancestor of the Gog and Magog tribes, and, at times, of the Turks, Khazars, and Slavs. Some traditions narrated that 36 languages of the world could be traced back to Japheth
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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
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Flood myth
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A flood myth or deluge myth is a narrative in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Most flood myths also contain a culture hero, who represents the human craving for life, the Mesopotamian flood stories concern the epics of Ziusudra, Gilgamesh, and Atrahasis. In the Sumerian King List, it relies on the motif to divide its history into preflood and postflood periods. The preflood kings had enormous lifespans, whereas postflood lifespans were much reduced, in the Atrahasis version, the flood is a river flood. In the Genesis mythology of the Hebrew Bible, Yahweh decides to flood the earth because of the depth of the state of mankind. Righteous Noah is given instructions to build an ark, when the ark is completed, Noah, his family, and representatives of all the animals of the earth are called upon to enter the ark. When the destructive flood begins, all life outside of the ark perishes, after the waters recede, all those aboard the ark disembark and have Gods promise that he will never judge the earth with a flood again. He gives the rainbow as the sign of this promise, in the 19th century, Assyriologist George Smith translated the Babylonian account of a great flood. Further discoveries produced several versions of the Mesopotamian flood myth, with the account closest to that in Genesis found in a 700 BCE Babylonian copy of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the vessel would save Utnapishtim, his family, his friends, and the animals. In Platos Timaeus, Timaeus says that because the Bronze race of Humans had been making wars constantly Zeus was angered and decided to punish humanity by a flood. Prometheus the Titan knew of this and told the secret to Deucalion, after 9 nights and days, the water started receding and the ark was landed at Mount Parnassus. In ancient Mesopotamia, the Sumerian King List reads After kingship came down from heaven, the kingship was taken to Shuruppak. In Shuruppak, Ubara-Tutu became king, he ruled for 5 sars and 1 ner, in 5 cities 8 kings, they ruled for 241,200 years. Excavations in Iraq have revealed evidence of localized flooding at Shuruppak, a layer of riverine sediments, radiocarbon dated to about 2900 BC, interrupts the continuity of settlement, extending as far north as the city of Kish, which took over hegemony after the flood. Polychrome pottery from the Jemdet Nasr period was discovered immediately below the Shuruppak flood stratum, other sites, such as Ur, Kish, Uruk, Lagash, and Ninevah, all present evidence of flooding. However, this comes from different time periods. Geologically, the Shuruppak flood coincides with the 5.9 kiloyear event at the end of the Older Peron, in Israel, there is no such evidence of a widespread flood. Given the similarities in the Mesopotamian flood story and the Biblical account, floods in the wake of the last glacial period may have inspired myths that survive to this day
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Yahweh
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Yahweh was the national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah. By the end of the Babylonian exile, the existence of foreign gods was denied, and Yahweh was proclaimed as the creator of the cosmos. The Israelites originated as Bronze Age Canaanites, but Yahweh was not initially a Canaanite god, in this case a plausible etymology for the name could be from the root HWY, which would yield the meaning he blows, appropriate to a weather divinity. There is considerable but not universal support for the view that the Egyptian inscriptions refer to Yahweh, the question that arises is how he made his way to the north. A widely accepted hypothesis is that traders brought Yahweh to Israel along the routes between Egypt and Canaan, the Kenite hypothesis, named after one of the groups involved. Israel emerges into the record in the last decades of the 13th century BCE, at the very end of the Late Bronze Age. The milieu from which Israelite religion emerged was accordingly Canaanite and he lived in a tent on a mountain from whose base originated all the fresh waters of the world, with the goddess Asherah as his consort. This pair made up the top tier of the Canaanite pantheon, the tier was made up of their children. Baals sphere was the thunderstorm with its life-giving rains, so that he was also a fertility god, below the seventy second-tier gods was a third tier made up of comparatively minor craftsman and trader deities, with a fourth and final tier of divine messengers and the like. He subdues the ancient gods, shatters the forces of old, so Israel lives in safety, untroubled is Jacobs abode. Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread on their backs. After the 9th century BCE the tribes and chiefdoms of Iron Age I were replaced by ethnic nation states, Israel, Judah, Moab, Ammon and others, each with its national god, and all more or less equal. Thus Chemosh was the god of the Moabites, Milcom the god of the Ammonites, Qaus the god of the Edomites, the festivals thus celebrated Yahwehs salvation of Israel and Israels status as his holy people, although the earlier agricultural meaning was not entirely lost. Sacrifice was presumably complemented by the singing or recital of psalms, prayer played little role in official worship. Shiloh, Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, Ramah and Dan were also sites for festivals, sacrifices, the making of vows, private rituals. Yahweh-worship was famously aniconic, meaning that the god was not depicted by a statue or other image, pre-exilic Israel, like its neighbours, was polytheistic, and Israelite monotheism was the culmination of a unique set of historical circumstances. The original god of Israel was El, as the name demonstrates—its probable meaning is may El rule or some other sentence-form involving the name of El. Asherah, formerly the wife of El, was worshipped as Yahwehs consort, and various biblical passages indicate that her statues were kept in his temples in Jerusalem, Bethel, and Samaria
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Earth
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Earth, otherwise known as the World, or the Globe, is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets, according to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago. Earths gravity interacts with objects in space, especially the Sun. During one orbit around the Sun, Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times, thus, Earths axis of rotation is tilted, producing seasonal variations on the planets surface. The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides, stabilizes the Earths orientation on its axis, Earths lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of Earths surface is covered with water, mostly by its oceans, the remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. The majority of Earths polar regions are covered in ice, including the Antarctic ice sheet, Earths interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the Earths magnetic field, and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics. Within the first billion years of Earths history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earths atmosphere and surface, some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earths distance from the Sun, physical properties, in the history of the Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely, over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival. Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures, politically, the world has about 200 sovereign states, the modern English word Earth developed from a wide variety of Middle English forms, which derived from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe. It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their proto-Germanic root has been reconstructed as *erþō, originally, earth was written in lowercase, and from early Middle English, its definite sense as the globe was expressed as the earth. By early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the became the Earth. More recently, the name is simply given as Earth. House styles now vary, Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, another convention capitalizes Earth when appearing as a name but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the. It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as what on earth are you doing, the oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4. 5672±0.0006 billion years ago. By 4. 54±0.04 Gya the primordial Earth had formed, the formation and evolution of Solar System bodies occurred along with the Sun
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Chaos (cosmogony)
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Chaos refers to the formless or void state preceding the creation of the universe or cosmos in the Greek creation myths, or to the initial gap created by the original separation of heaven and earth. Greek χάος means emptiness, vast void, chasm, abyss, from the verb χαίνω, gape, be open, etc. from Proto-Indo-European *ǵheh2n, cognate to Old English geanian, to gape. It may also mean space, the expanse of air, pherecydes of Syros interpretes chaos as water, like something formless which can be differentiated. Hesiod and the Pre-Socratics use the Greek term in the context of cosmogony, Hesiods chaos has been interpreted as a moving, formless mass from which the cosmos and the gods originated. In Hesiods opinion the origin should be indefinite and indeterminate, and it represents disorder, Chaos has been linked with the term tohu wa-bohu of Genesis 1,2. The term may refer to a state of non-being prior to creation or to a formless state, in the Book of Genesis, the spirit of God is moving upon the face of the waters, and the earliest state of the universe is like a watery chaos. The Septuagint makes no use of χάος in the context of creation, instead using the term for גיא, chasm, cleft, in Micah 1,6, a parallel can be found in the Genesis. In the beginning God creates the earth and the sky, the earth is formless and void, and later God divides the waters under the firmament from the waters over the firmament, and calls the firmament heaven. In both cases, chaos referring to a notion of a primordial state contains the cosmos in potentia and this model of a primordial state of matter has been opposed by the Church Fathers from the 2nd century, who posited a creation ex nihilo by an omnipotent God. In modern biblical studies, the chaos is commonly used in the context of the Torah. Parallels between the Hebrew Genesis and the Babylonian Enuma Elish were established by Hermann Gunkel in 1910, besides Genesis, other books of the Old Testament, especially a number of Psalms, some passages in Isaiah and Jeremiah and the Book of Job are relevant. Use of chaos in the sense of complete disorder or confusion first appears in Elizabethan Early Modern English. The motif of Chaoskampf is ubiquitous in myth and legend, depicting a battle of a culture hero deity with a chaos monster, often in the shape of a serpent or dragon. The same term has also extended to parallel concepts in the religions of the Ancient Near East, such as the abstract conflict of ideas in the Egyptian duality of Maat. Early work by German academics such as Gunkel and Bousset in comparative mythology popularized translating the mythological sea serpent as a dragon. Indo-European examples of this mythic trope include Thor vs. Jörmungandr, Tarhunt vs. Illuyanka, Indra vs. Vritra, Fereydun vs. Aži Dahāka, and Zeus vs. Typhon among others. In the Theogony of Hesiod, Chaos is a divine primordial condition, which is the origin of the gods and it seems that in Hesiods opinion, the origin should be indefinite and indeterminate, and it may represent infinite space, or formless matter. The notion of the temporal infinity was familiar to the Greek mind from remote antiquity in the conception of immortality
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Genesis creation narrative
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The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity. Two creation stories are found in the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the second story, God, now referred to by the personal name Yahweh, creates Adam, the first man, from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden, eve, the first woman, is created from Adam and as his companion. The two sources can be identified in the narrative, Genesis 1, 1–2,3 is Priestly and Genesis 2. The combined narrative is a critique of the Mesopotamian theology of creation, Genesis affirms monotheism, robert Alter described the combined narrative as compelling in its archetypal character, its adaptation of myth to monotheistic ends. Misunderstanding the genre of the Genesis creation narrative, meaning the intention of the author/s, reformed evangelical scholar Bruce Waltke cautions against one such misreading, the approach which reads it as history rather than theology and so leads to Creationism and the denial of evolution. As noted scholar of Jewish studies, Jon D. Levenson, puts it, although tradition attributes Genesis to Moses, biblical scholars hold that it, together with the following four books, is a composite work, the product of many hands and periods. The two sources appear in chronological order, Genesis 1, 1–2,3 is Priestly. As for the background which led to the creation of the narrative itself. The creation narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the two first chapters of the Book of Genesis. The first account employs a structure of divine fiat and fulfillment, then the statement And there was evening and there was morning. In each of the first three days there is an act of division, day one divides the darkness from light, day two the waters above from the waters below, and day three the sea from the land. Together, this combination of character and contrasting profile point to the different origin of materials in Genesis 1,1 and Genesis 2,4. The primary accounts in each chapter are joined by a bridge at Genesis 2,4, These are the generations of the heavens. This echoes the first line of Genesis 1, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and is reversed in the next phrase. in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. This verse is one of ten generations phrases used throughout Genesis and they normally function as headings to what comes after, but the position of this, the first of the series, has been the subject of much debate. Comparative mythology provides historical and cross-cultural perspectives for Jewish mythology, Genesis 1–11 as a whole is imbued with Mesopotamian myths. Genesis 1 bears both striking differences from and striking similarities to Babylons national creation myth, the Enuma Elish, still, Genesis 1 bears similarities to the Baal Cycle of Israels neighbor, Ugarit
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Covenant (biblical)
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A biblical covenant is a religious covenant that is described in the Bible. All Abrahamic religions consider biblical covenants important, in the Book of Jeremiah, verses 31, 30-33 predict a new covenant that God will establish with the house of Israel. In the ancient middle east, a covenant was an agreement that caused several things,1. First, a covenant defined a relationship and this relationship might be between a king and his vassal states, between a deity and his nation, between two humans, etc.2. Some covenants are conditional, just as with a present-day contract, but generally, ancient covenants are unconditional. Covenants often included the slaughter of animals as a symbol of their significance, unlike present-day contracts, covenants often carried no expiration date. Thus the parties were understood to be bound by the covenant until death, a contract is enforced by the civil government, a covenant is regulated by God. A contract involves the exchange of property or actions, a covenant binds two parties together personally, students of the Bible hold wildly differing opinions as to how many major covenants exist between God and humanity, with numbers ranging from one to at least twelve. The Noahic covenant applies to all of humanity and to all living creatures. The covenant found in Genesis 12-17 is known as the Brit bein HaBetarim, the Covenant Between the Parts in Hebrew, the covenant was for Abraham and his seed, or offspring, both of natural birth and adoption. In Genesis chapters 12–17 three covenants can be distinguished based on the differing Jahwist, Elohist and Priestly sources, in Genesis 12 and 15, God grants Abraham land and a multitude of descendants but does not place any stipulations on Abraham for the covenants fulfillment. By contrast, Genesis 17 contains the covenant of circumcision, to give Abrahams descendants all the land from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates. Later, this came to be referred to as the Promised Land or the Land of Israel. To make Abraham the father of many nations and of many descendants, circumcision is to be the permanent sign of this everlasting covenant with Abraham and his male descendants and is known as the brit milah. Covenants in biblical times were often sealed by severing an animal, in Hebrew, the verb meaning to seal a covenant translates literally as to cut. It is presumed by Jewish scholars that the removal of the foreskin symbolically represents such a sealing of the covenant, according to Weinfeld, the Abraham covenant represents a covenant of grant, which binds the suzerain. It is the obligation of the master to his servant and involves gifts given to individuals who were serving their masters. In the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, it is God who is the suzerain who commits himself, in the covenant there are procedures of taking the oath, which involve a smoking oven and a blazing torch
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Rainbow covenant
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The Genesis flood narrative makes up chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis, in the Torah. Thus, the flood was a reversal of creation, although many religious groups consider the story to be largely allegorical, there are still many groups and individuals who believe the story to be literally true. Genesis 6, 1–4 presents the reason for the flood, the Sons of God marry the daughters of men and sire a race of giants, mighty men which of old, men of renown. Genesis continues, And GOD saw that the wickedness of man great in the earth, God decides to destroy the world in a reversal of creation. The flood occurs because God judges humanity, in Genesis 6, 5-8, the LORD judged man for being wicked and evil. In verses Genesis 6, 11-22, God judged all flesh for being corrupt, the judgment in verses 6, 5–8 is thought to have been written earlier and later combined with the second. This element of judgment makes the flood story different from the flood in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Gilgamesh story, the flood is mentioned only in passing as part of the Epic tale itself, beginning with Genesis 6,14, God instructed Noah to build an ark to save his immediate family, along with samples of animal life. The ark was to be made of wood covered with pitch inside and outside. The ark was 300 cubits long,50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, and it had an opening for daylight near the top, an entrance on its side, and three decks. God told Noah that he, his sons, his wife, his sons wives, and two of each kind of beast – male and female – would survive in the ark. The Priestly source, Genesis 7,11,8, 1-2, describes the nature of the waters as a cosmic cataclysm, by the opening of the springs of the deep. This is the reverse of the separation of the waters recounted in the Genesis creation narrative of chapter 1. After Noah and the remnant of animals were secured, the fountains of the great deep, the waters elevated, with the summits of the highest mountains under 15 cubits of water, flooding the world for 150 days, and then receding in 220 days. The Jahwist version of how the waters came to be is indicated in Genesis 7,12. During this time, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, then he sends out a dove to see if the waters had decreased from the ground, but the dove could not find a resting place, and returned to the ark. He waited another seven days, and again sent out the dove, and he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return. When Noah removed the covering of the ark, he saw that the ground was drying, God makes a pledge of commitment to Noah in Genesis 9, 1–17
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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
