1.
Stained glass
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The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches, mosques, although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. Modern vernacular usage has extended the term stained glass to include domestic leadlight. As a material stained glass is glass that has been coloured by adding metallic salts during its manufacture. The coloured glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together by strips of lead. Painted details and yellow stain are used to enhance the design. The term stained glass is applied to windows in which the colours have been painted onto the glass. Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive an appropriate and workable design, and the engineering skills to assemble the piece. A window must fit snugly into the space for which it is made, must resist wind and rain, Many large windows have withstood the test of time and remained substantially intact since the late Middle Ages. In Western Europe they constitute the form of pictorial art to have survived. In this context, the purpose of a glass window is not to allow those within a building to see the world outside or even primarily to admit light. For this reason stained glass windows have been described as illuminated wall decorations, Stained glass is still popular today, but often referred to as art glass. It is prevalent in luxury homes, commercial buildings, and places of worship, artists and companies are contracted to create beautiful art glass ranging from domes, windows, backsplashes, etc. During the late Medieval period, glass factories were set up there was a ready supply of silica. Silica requires very high heat to become molten, something not all glass factories were able to achieve, such materials as potash, soda, and lead can be added to lower the melting temperature. Other substances, such as lime, are added to rebuild the weakened network, Glass is coloured by adding metallic oxide powders or finely divided metals while it is in a molten state. Copper oxides produce green or bluish green, cobalt makes deep blue, much modern red glass is produced using copper, which is less expensive than gold and gives a brighter, more vermilion shade of red. Glass coloured while in the pot in the furnace is known as pot metal glass
2.
Eutropius of Saintes
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Saint Eutropius of Saintes is venerated as the first bishop of Saintes, France. He lived as a hermit near Saintes and converted to Christianity the governors daughter, according to tradition, the governor was so enraged by his daughter’s conversion that he had both her and Eutropius killed. Eutropius was killed by having his head open with an axe. Eutropius in Saintes, no one knew the legend of Eutropius. In the 6th century, the poet Venantius Fortunatus refers to Eutropius in connection with Saintes
3.
Clermont-Ferrand
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Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with a population of 141,569. Its metropolitan area had 467,178 inhabitants at the 2011 census and it is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department. Olivier Bianchi is its current mayor, Clermont-Ferrand sits on the plain of Limagne in the Massif Central and is surrounded by a major industrial area. The city is famous for the chain of volcanoes, the Chaîne des Puys surrounding it, the famous dormant volcano Puy de Dôme is one of the highest of these and well known for the telecommunication antennas that sit on its top and are visible from far away. Clermont-Ferrands most famous square is Place de Jaude, on which stands a grand statue of Vercingetorix sitting imperiously on a horse. The inscription reads, Jai pris les armes pour la liberté de tous and this statue was sculpted by Frédéric Bartholdi, who also created the Statue of Liberty. Clermont-Ferrands first name was Augusta Nemetum and it was born on the central knoll where the cathedral is situated today, known then as Nemossos. It overlooked the capital of Gaulish Avernie, the fortified castle of Clarus Mons gave its name to the whole town in 848, to which the small episcopal town of Montferrand was attached in 1731, together taking the name of Clermont-Ferrand. The old part of Clermont is delimited by the route of the ramparts, the town of Clermont-Ferrand came about with the joining together of two separate towns, Clermont and Montferrand, which was decreed by Louis XIII and confirmed by Louis XV. Clermont ranks among the oldest cities of France, the first known mention was by the Greek geographer Strabo, who called it the metropolis of the Arverni. The city was at that time called Nemessos – a Gaulish word for a sacred forest and it was somewhere in the area around Nemossos that the Arverni chieftain Vercingetorix was born in around 72 BC. Also, Nemossos was situated not far from the plateau of Gergovia, after the Roman conquest, the city became known as Augustonemetum sometime in the 1st century, a name which combined its original Gallic name with that of the Emperor Augustus. Its population was estimated at 15, 000–30,000 in the 2nd century and it then became Arvernis in the 3rd century, and expanded until the mid 3rd century. The city became the seat of a bishop in the 5th century, at the time of the bishop Namatius or Saint Namace, who built a cathedral here described by Gregory of Tours. Clermont went through a period after the disappearance of the Roman Empire and during the whole High Middle Ages. Between 471 and 475, Auvergne was often the target of Visigothic expansion, a generation later, it became part of the Kingdom of the Franks. On 8 November 535 the first Council of Clermont opened at Arvernis, with fifteen bishops participating, including Caesarius of Arles, Nizier of Lyons and Saint Hilarius, bishop of Mende. Sixteen decrees were made there, notably the second canon that recalls that the granting of episcopal dignity must be according to the merits, in 570, Bishop Avitus offered the Jews of his town the alternatives of baptism or expulsion
4.
Parables of Jesus
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The Parables of Jesus can be found in all the canonical gospels, except for John, and in some of the non-canonical gospels, but are located mainly within the three synoptic gospels. They represent a key part of the teachings of Jesus, forming one third of his recorded teachings. Christians place high emphasis on these parables, since they are the words of Jesus, they are believed to be what the Father has taught. Jesus parables are seemingly simple and memorable stories, often with imagery, scholars have commented that although these parables seem simple, the messages they convey are deep, and central to the teachings of Jesus. Christian authors view them not as mere similitudes which serve the purpose of illustration, as a translation of the Hebrew word מָשָׁל mashal, the word parable can also refer to a riddle. In all times in their history the Jews were familiar with teaching by means of parables, the use of parables by Jesus was hence a natural teaching method that fit into the tradition of his time. The parables of Jesus have been quoted, taught, and discussed since the beginnings of Christianity. Parables are one of the literary forms in the Bible. Parables are generally considered to be short stories such as the Good Samaritan, a true parable may be regarded as an extended simile. Although some suggest parables are essentially extended allegories, others argue the opposite. Dr. Kenneth Boa states that Parables are extended figures of comparison that often use short stories to teach a truth or answer a question, while the story in a parable is not historical, it is true to life, not a fairy tale. The three synoptic gospels contain the parables of Jesus, There are a growing number of scholars who also find parables in the Gospel of John, such as the little stories of the Good Shepherd or the childbearing woman. Otherwise, John includes allegories but no parables, several authors such as Barbara Reid, Arland Hultgren or Donald Griggs comment that parables are noticeably absent from the Gospel of John. The Catholic Encyclopedia states, There are no parables in St. Johns Gospel and we reckon thirty-three in all, but some have raised the number even to sixty, by including proverbial expressions. They list no parables for the Gospel of John, Parables attributed to Jesus are also found in other documents apart from the Bible. Some of these overlap those in the gospels and some are not part of the Bible. The non-canonical Gospel of Thomas contains up to fifteen parables, eleven of which have parallels in the four canonical Gospels, the unknown author of the Gospel of Thomas did not have a special word for parable, making it difficult to know what he considered a parable. Those unique to Thomas include the Parable of the Assassin and the Parable of the Empty Jar, the noncanonical Apocryphon of James also contains three unique parables attributed to Jesus
5.
Jesus
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In Christology, the Person of Christ refers to the study of the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ as they co-exist within one person. There is no discussion in the New Testament regarding the dual nature of the Person of Christ as both divine and human. Hence, since the days of Christianity theologians have debated various approaches to the understanding of these natures. In the period following the Apostolic Age, specific beliefs such as Arianism and Docetism were criticized. On the other end of the spectrum, Docetism argued that Jesus physical body was an illusion, docetic teachings were attacked by St. Ignatius of Antioch and were eventually abandoned by proto-orthodox Christians. However, after the First Council of Nicaea in 325 the Logos, historically in the Alexandrian school of christology, Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos paradoxically humanized in history, a divine Person who became enfleshed, uniting himself to the human nature. The views of these schools can be summarized as follows, Alexandria, Antioch, Logos assumes a specific human being The First Council of Ephesus in 431 debated a number of views regarding the Person of Christ. At the same gathering the council debated the doctrines of monophysitism or miaphysitism. The council rejected Nestorianism and adopted the term hypostatic union, referring to divine, the language used in the 431 declaration was further refined at the 451 Council of Chalcedon. However, the Chalcedon creed was not accepted by all Christians, because Saint Augustine died in 430 he did not participate in the Council of Ephesus in 431 or Chalcedon in 451, but his ideas had some impact on both councils. On the other hand, the major theological figure of the Middle Ages. The Third Council of Constantinople in 680 held that both divine and human wills exist in Jesus, with the divine will having precedence, leading and guiding the human will. John Calvin maintained that there was no element in the Person of Christ which could be separated from the person of The Word. Calvin also emphasized the importance of the Work of Christ in any attempt at understanding the Person of Christ, the study of the Person of Christ continued into the 20th century, with modern theologians such as Karl Rahner and Hans von Balthasar. Balthasar argued that the union of the human and divine natures of Christ was achieved not by the absorption of human attributes, thus in his view the divine nature of Christ was not affected by the human attributes and remained forever divine
6.
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
7.
Kohen
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Kohen or cohen is the Hebrew word for priest used colloquially in reference to the Aaronic priesthood. Jewish kohanim are traditionally believed and halakhically required to be of direct descent from the biblical Aaron. The term is used colloquially in Orthodox Judaism in reference to modern day descendants of Aharon, during the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, kohanim performed the daily and holiday duties of sacrificial offerings. Today, kohanim retain a lesser though distinct status within Rabbinic and Karaite Judaism, in the Samaritan community, the kohanim have remained the primary religious leaders. The noun kohen is used in the Torah to refer to priests, the Hebrew noun kohen is most often translated as priest, whether Jewish or pagan, such as the priests of Baal or Dagon, though Christian priests are referred to in Hebrew by the term komer. The word derives from a Semitic root common, at minimum, to the Central Semitic languages, as a starkly different translation the title worker, Rashi on Exodus 29,30 and servant Targum to Jeremiah 48,7, have been offered as a translation as well. Some have attempted to resolve this contradiction by suggesting that, although the priest does enjoy specific privileges. The status of priest kohen was conferred on Aaron, the brother of Moses, during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and until the Holy Temple was built in Jerusalem, the priests performed their priestly service in the portable Tabernacle. Their duties involved offering the daily and Jewish holiday sacrifices, and blessing the people in a Priestly Blessing, in a broader sense, since Aaron was a descendant of the Tribe of Levi, priests are sometimes included in the term Levites, by direct patrilineal descent. However, not all Levites are priests, when the Temple existed, most sacrifices and offerings could only be conducted by priests. The Torah mentions Melchizedek king of Salem, identified by Rashi as being Shem the son of Noah, the second is Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis, then Jethro, priest of Midian both pagan priests of their era. When Esau sold the birthright of the first born to Jacob, Rashi explains that the priesthood was sold along with it, because by right the priesthood belongs to the first-born. Only when the first-born sinned in the incident of the calf, the priesthood was given to the Tribe of Levi. Aaron received the priesthood along with his children and any descendants that would be born subsequently, however, his grandson Phinehas had already been born, and did not receive the priesthood until he killed the prince of the Tribe of Simeon and the princess of the Midianites. Thereafter, the priesthood has remained with the descendants of Aaron, in every generation when the Temple was standing, one kohen would be singled out to perform the functions of the High Priest. His primary task was the Day of Atonement service, another unique task of the high priest was the offering of a daily meal sacrifice, he also held the prerogative to supersede any priest and offer any offering he chose. Although the Torah retains a procedure to select a High Priest when needed, in the absence of the Temple in Jerusalem, prior to that time, the priestly courses numbered a mere eight. This newly instated a cycle of courses, or priestly divisions
8.
Levite
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A Jewish male descended patrilineally from Levi is a Levi, and his full name may be written as HaLevi. The prefix ה, in the Hebrew language, means the, the daughter of a Levi is a Bat Levi. In Jewish tradition, a Levite is a member of the Israelite Tribe of Levi, descended from Levi, the Tribe of Levi served particular religious duties for the Israelites and had political responsibilities as well. In return, the tribes were expected to give tithe to support the Levites. The Kohanim were the priests, who performed the work of holiness in the Temple, Today, Levites in Orthodox Judaism continue to have additional rights and obligations compared to lay people, although these responsibilities have diminished with the destruction of the Temple. For instance, Kohanim are eligible to be called to the Torah first, Levites also provide assistance to the Kohanim, particularly washing their hands, before the Kohanim recite the Priestly Blessing. They also do not participate in the Pidyon HaBen ceremony, because they are pledged to Divine service. Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism do not observe the distinctions between Kohanim, Levites, and other Jews, Orthodox Judaism believes in the eventual rebuilding of a Temple in Jerusalem and a resumption of the Levitical role. There are a number of schools, primarily in Israel, to train priests. Conservative Judaism believes in a restoration of the Temple as a house of worship and in some role for Levites. The Kohanim are traditionally believed and halachically required to be of direct descent from the Biblical Aaron of the Levi tribe. The noun kohen is used in the Torah to refer to priests, during the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, Kohanim performed the daily and holiday duties of sacrificial offerings. Today kohanim retain a lesser though distinct status within Judaism. During the Priestly Blessing, the Levites traditionally wash the hands of the Kohanim prior to the blessing of the House of Israel. Contrary to popular belief, this is not due to any sort of lineal sanctity, in Israel, Conservative/Masorti Judaism has not extended Torah honors to either a bat Kohen or a bat Levi. He wrote, Today, we also are living through a time of flood, Not of water, but of a bright fire and we are now drowning in a flood of blood. Through the Kohanim and Leviim help will come to all Israel, a 2003 study of the Y-chromosome by Behar et al. pointed to multiple origins for Ashkenasi Levites, a priestly class who comprise approximately 4% among the Ashkenazi Jews. A2013 paper by Siiri Rootsi et al, here we report the analysis of 16 whole R1 sequences and show that a set of 19 unique nucleotide substitutions defines the Ashkenazi R1a lineage
9.
Samaritans
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The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant originating from the Israelites of the Ancient Near East. Samaritans used to include descendants who ascribed to the Benjamin tribe, in the Talmud, a central post-exilic religious text of Rabbinic Judaism, the Samaritans are called Cutheans, referring to the ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is today Iraq. In the Biblical account, however, Kuthah was one of cities from which people were brought to Samaria. Genetically, modern Samaritan populations are found to have greater affinity genetically to Jews than to neighbouring Palestinian Arabs. This suggests that the Samaritans remained an isolated population. The Samaritans are adherents of Samaritanism, a closely related to Judaism. The Samaritans believe that Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of Israel from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan, once a large community, the Samaritan population appears to have shrunk significantly in the wake of the bloody suppression of the Samaritan Revolts against the Byzantine Empire. Conversion to Christianity under the Byzantines also reduced their numbers, conversions to Islam took place as well, and by the mid Middle Ages Benjamin of Tudela estimated only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in Palestine and Syria. As of January 1,2015, the population was 777, most Samaritans in Holon and Qiryat Luza today speak Hebrew and Arabic. Hebrew and later Aramaic were languages in use by the Jewish, Samaritans have a standalone religious status in Israel, and there are occasional conversions from Judaism to Samaritanism and vice-versa due to marriages. One example is Israeli TV personality Sofi Tsedaka, who converted to Rabbinic Judaism at the age of 18. Samaritans with Israeli citizenship are obligated to undertake service in the Israel Defense Forces. There is conflict over the etymology of the name for the Samaritans in Hebrew and this has accompanied controversy over whether the Samaritans are named after the geographic area of Samaria, or whether the area received its name from the group. This distinction is controversial in part because different interpretations can be used to justify or deny claims of ancestry over this region, Biblical Hebrew Šomerim ) Guardians comes from the Hebrew Semitic root שמר, which means to watch, guard. Historically, Samaria was the key geographical concentration of the Samaritan community, thus, it may suggest the region of Samaria is named after the Samaritans, rather than the Samaritans being named after the region. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim, which would appear to mean inhabitants of Samaria. This is a politically sensitive distinction, according to Samaritan tradition, Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of the Israelites from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan and the tribes of Israel settled the land. The two mountains were used to symbolize the significance of the commandments and serve as a warning to whoever disobeyed them
10.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
11.
Book of Leviticus
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The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Old Testament from the Bible, included in the Christian biblical canons, and the third of five books of the Pentateuch. The Hebrew name of the book of the Jewish Bible. Its Greek name Levitikon, things pertaining to the Levites, and its Latin name Leviticus, are based on the term torat kohanim, instruction of the priests from early rabbinic times. The English name is from the Latin Leviticus, taken in turn from Greek and a reference to the Levites, the book, however, addresses all the people of Israel though some passages address the priests specifically. Most of its chapters consist of Gods speeches to Moses which he is commanded to repeat to the Israelites and this takes place within the story of the Israelites Exodus after they escaped Egypt and reached Mt. Sinai. The Book of Exodus narrates how Moses led the Israelites in building the Tabernacle based on Gods instructions, then in Leviticus, God tells the Israelites and their priests how to make offerings in the Tabernacle and how to conduct themselves while camped around the holy tent sanctuary. Leviticus takes place during the month or month-and-a-half between the completion of the Tabernacle and the Israelites departure from Sinai, the instructions of Leviticus emphasize ritual, legal and moral practices rather than beliefs. Nevertheless, they reflect the view of the creation story in Genesis 1 that God wishes to live with humans. The book teaches that faithful performance of the sanctuary rituals can make possible, so long as the people avoid sin. Scholars debate whether it was primarily for Jewish worship in exile that centered on reading or preaching, or was aimed instead at worshipers at temples in Jerusalem. But they are unanimous that the book had a long period of growth. Instructions for the laity on bringing offerings 1–5, the types of offering, burnt, cereal, peace, purification, reparation offerings B. The various offerings, with the addition of the priests cereal offering 7, institution of the priesthood A. Ordination of Aaron and his sons B. Aaron makes the first sacrifices C, judgement on Nadab and Abihu III. Cleansing of diseases E. Unclean discharges IV, Day of Atonement, purification of the tabernacle from the effects of uncleanliness and sin V. Blasphemy J. Sabbatical and Jubilee years K. Exhortation to obey the law, blessing, redemption of votive gifts Chapters 1–5 describe the various sacrifices from the sacrificers point of view, although the priests are essential for handling the blood. Sacrifices are to be divided between God, the priest, and the offerers, although in cases the entire sacrifice is a single portion consigned to God—i. e. Chapters 8–10 describe the consecration by Moses of Aaron and his sons as the first priests, the first sacrifices, the purpose is to underline the character of altar priesthood as an Aaronite privilege, and the responsibilities and dangers of their position
12.
Augustine of Hippo
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Augustine of Hippo was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius, located in Numidia, Augustine is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions, according to his contemporary, Jerome, Augustine established anew the ancient Faith. In his early years, he was influenced by Manichaeism. After his baptism and conversion to Christianity in 386, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine of original sin, when the Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God, distinct from the material Earthly City. His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview, the segment of the Church that adhered to the concept of the Trinity as defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople closely identified with Augustines On the Trinity. Augustine is recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Christian Church, and he is also the patron of the Augustinians. His memorial is celebrated on 28 August, the day of his death, Augustine is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, the alleviation of sore eyes, and a number of cities and dioceses. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists and Lutherans, consider him to be one of the fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation. Lutherans, and Martin Luther in particular, have held Augustine in preeminence, Luther himself was a member of the Order of the Augustinian Eremites. In the East, some of his teachings are disputed and have in the 20th century in particular come under attack by such theologians as John Romanides, but other theologians and figures of the Eastern Orthodox Church have shown significant appropriation of his writings, chiefly Georges Florovsky. The most controversial doctrine surrounding his name is the filioque, which has been rejected by the Orthodox Church, other disputed teachings include his views on original sin, the doctrine of grace, and predestination. Nevertheless, though considered to be mistaken on some points, he is considered a saint. In the Orthodox Church his feast day is celebrated on 28 August and he was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. Augustine was the bishop of Hippo Regius, located in Numidia and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions, Augustine was born in the year 354 AD in the municipium of Thagaste in Roman Africa. His mother, Monica or Monnica, was a devout Christian, in his writings, Augustine leaves some information as to the consciousness of his African heritage
13.
Allegory
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As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor whose vehicle may be a character, place or event, representing real-world issues and occurrences. Many ancient religions are based on astrological allegories, that is, allegories of the movement of the sun, in classical literature two of the best-known allegories are the Cave in Platos Republic and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa. One of the examples of allegory, Platos Allegory of the Cave. In this allegory, Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained in an all of their lives. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows, using language to identify their world. He tries to tell the people in the cave of his discovery, also allegorical is Ezekiel 16 and 17, wherein the capture of that same vine by the mighty Eagle represents Israels exile to Rome. Allegory has an ability to freeze the temporality of a story, Mediaeval thinking accepted allegory as having a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as the facts of surface appearances, if, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they necessarily confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ. This text also demonstrates the frequent use of allegory in religious texts during the Mediaeval Period, following the tradition, since meaningful stories are nearly always applicable to larger issues, allegories may be read into many stories which the author may not have recognised. This is allegoresis, or the act of reading a story as an allegory. S, lewis and A Kingdom Far and Clear, The Complete Swan Lake Trilogy by Mark Helprin. The story of the apple falling onto Isaac Newtons head is another famous allegory and it simplified the idea of gravity by depicting a simple way it was supposedly discovered. It also made the scientific revelation well known by condensing the theory into a short tale. According to Henry Littlefields 1964 article, L. Yet, George MacDonald emphasised in 1893 that, A fairy tale is not an allegory, I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and this further reinforces the idea of forced allegoresis, as allegory is often a matter of interpretation and only sometimes of original artistic intention. Like allegorical stories, allegorical poetry has two meanings – a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning, some unique specimens of allegory can be found in the following works, Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene, The several knights in the poem actually stand for several virtues. Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown, The Devils Staff symbolises defiance of God, the characters names, such as Goodman and Faith, ironically serve as paradox in the conclusion of the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter, The scarlet letter symbolises many things, the characters, while developed with interiority, are allegorical in that they represent ways of seeing the world. George Orwell – Animal Farm, The pigs stand for political figures of the Russian Revolution, lászló Krasznahorkai - The Melancholy of Resistance and the film Werckmeister Harmonies, It uses a circus to describe an occupying dysfunctional government
14.
World English Bible
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The World English Bible is a free updated revision of the American Standard Version. It is one of the few public domain, modern-English translations of the entire Bible, the Bible was created by volunteers using the ASV as the base text as part of the ebible. org project through Rainbow Missions, Inc. a Colorado nonprofit corporation. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and it was first known as the American Standard Version 1997. The World English Bible project was started in order to produce a modern English Bible version that is not copyrighted, does not use archaic English, and is not translated into Basic English. The World English Bible follows the American Standard Versions decision to transliterate the Tetragrammaton, the British and Messianic Names editions as well as the Apocryphal books and New Testament use the traditional forms. These alternate readings are usually ignored or restricted to the footnotes, the translation process included seven passes of editing and proofreading for each book. An initial automated pass updated approximately 1,000 archaic words, phrases and grammatical constructs
15.
Jerusalem
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Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem
16.
Jericho
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Jericho is a city in the Palestinian Territories and is located near the Jordan River in the West Bank. It is the seat of the Jericho Governorate, and is governed by the Fatah faction of the Palestinian National Authority. In 2007, it had a population of 18,346, the city was occupied by Jordan from 1949 to 1967, and has been held under Israeli occupation since 1967, administrative control was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 1994. It is believed to be one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and it was thought to have the oldest stone tower in the world as well, but excavations at Tell Qaramel in Syria have discovered stone towers that are even older. Copious springs in and around the city have attracted human habitation for thousands of years, Jericho is described in the Hebrew Bible as the City of Palm Trees. Jerichos Arabic name, ʼArīḥā, means fragrant and also has its roots in Canaanite Reaẖ, the first excavations of the site were made by Charles Warren in 1868. Ernst Sellin and Carl Watzinger excavated Tell es-Sultan and Tulul Abu el-Alayiq between 1907–1909 and in 1911, and John Garstang excavated between 1930 and 1936, extensive investigations using more modern techniques were made by Kathleen Kenyon between 1952 and 1958. Lorenzo Nigro and Nicolo Marchetti conducted excavations in 1997-2000, the earliest settlement was located at the present-day Tell es-Sultan, a couple of kilometers from the current city. In both Arabic and Hebrew, tell means mound - consecutive layers of habitation built up a mound over time, as is common for ancient settlements in the Middle East, Jericho is the type site for the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B periods. Jericho has evidence of settlement dating back to 10,000 BCE, during the Younger Dryas period of cold and drought, permanent habitation of any one location was impossible. However, the Ein es-Sultan spring at what would become Jericho was a camping ground for Natufian hunter-gatherer groups. Pre-Pottery Neolithic A The first permanent settlement on the site of Jericho developed near the Ein es-Sultan spring between 9,500 and 9000 BCE, as the world warmed up, a new culture based on agriculture and sedentary dwelling emerged, which archaeologists have termed Pre-Pottery Neolithic A. At Jericho, circular dwellings were built of clay and straw bricks left to dry in the sun, each house measured about 5 metres across, and was roofed with mud-smeared brush. Hearths were located within and outside the homes, by about 9400 BCE, the town had grown to more than 70 modest dwellings. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A phase at Tell es-Sultan is sometimes called Sultanian and this tower and the even older ones excavated at Tell Qaramel in Syria are the oldest ever to be discovered. The wall may have served as a defence against flood-water, with the used for ceremonial purposes. The wall and tower were built during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period around 8000 BCE, for the tower, carbon dates published in 1981 and 1983 indicate that it was built around 8300 BCE and stayed in use until ca.7800 BCE. The wall and tower would have taken a hundred men more than a hundred days to construct, the town contained round mud-brick houses, yet no street planning
17.
Priest
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A priest or priestess, is a person authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites, in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of and their office or position is the priesthood, a term which also may apply to such persons collectively. The necessity to read sacred texts and keep temple or church records helped foster literacy in early societies. Priests exist in many religions today, such as all or some branches of Judaism, Christianity, the question of which religions have a priest depends on how the titles of leaders are used or translated into English. In some cases, leaders are more like those that other believers will often turn to for advice on spiritual matters, for example, clergy in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy are priests, but in Protestant Christianity they are typically minister and pastor. The terms priest and priestess are sufficiently generic that they may be used in a sense to describe the religious mediators of an unknown or otherwise unspecified religion. In many religions, being a priest or priestess is a full-time position, many Christian priests and pastors choose or are mandated to dedicate themselves to their churches and receive their living directly from their churches. In other cases it is a part-time role, for example, in the early history of Iceland the chieftains were titled goði, a word meaning priest. In some religions, being a priest or priestess is by election or human choice. In Judaism the priesthood is inherited in familial lines, in a theocracy, a society is governed by its priesthood. The word priest, is derived from Greek, via Latin presbyter. Old High German also has the disyllabic priester, priestar, apparently derived from Latin independently via Old French presbtre, the Latin presbyter ultimately represents Greek presbyteros, the regular Latin word for priest being sacerdos, corresponding to Greek hiereus. That English should have only the term priest to translate presbyter. The feminine English noun, priestess, was coined in the 17th century, in the 20th century, the word was used in controversies surrounding the ordination of women. In the case of the ordination of women in the Anglican communion, it is common to speak of priests. In historical polytheism, a priest administers the sacrifice to a deity, in the Ancient Near East, the priesthood also acted on behalf of the deities in managing their property. Priestesses in antiquity often performed sacred prostitution, and in Ancient Greece, some such as Pythia, priestess at Delphi. Sumerian and Akkadian Entu or EN were top-ranking priestesses who were distinguished with special ceremonial attire and they owned property, transacted business, and initiated the hieros gamos ceremony with priests and kings
18.
Denarius
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In the Roman currency system, the dēnārius, plural, dēnāriī was a small silver coin first minted about 211 BC during the Second Punic War. It is the origin of modern words such as the currency name dinar, it is also the origin for the common noun for money in Italian denaro, in Portuguese dinheiro. Its symbol is X̶, a x with stroke. A predecessor of the denarius was first struck in 267 BC, five years before the first Punic War with a weight of 6.81 grams. Contact with the Greeks prompted a need for coinage in addition to the bronze currency that the Romans were using during that time. The predecessor of the denarius was a Greek-styled silver coin, very similar to the didrachm and drachma struck in Metapontion and these coins were inscribed for Rome but closely resemble their Greek counterparts. They were most likely used for purposes and were seldom used in Rome. The first distinctively Roman silver coin appeared around 226 BC, Rome overhauled its coinage around 211 BC and introduced the denarius alongside a short-lived denomination called the victoriatus. This denarius contained an average 4.5 grams, or 1⁄72 of a Roman pound of silver and it formed the backbone of Roman currency throughout the Roman republic. The denarius began to undergo slow debasement toward the end of the republican period, under the rule of Augustus, its silver content fell to 3.9 grams. It remained at nearly this weight until the time of Nero, debasement of the coins silver content continued after Nero. Later Roman emperors reduced its content to 3 grams around the third century. The value at its introduction was 10 asses, giving the denarius its name, in about 141 BC, it was re-tariffed at 16 asses, to reflect the decrease in weight of the as. The denarius continued to be the coin of the Roman Empire until it was replaced by the antoninianus in the middle of the third century. The last issuance of this occurred in bronze form by Aurelian. For more details, see Denarius, in A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins, the denarius has a link from the Roman times to the British penny and US1 cent piece. It is difficult to give even rough comparative values for money from before the 20th century, as the range of products and services available for purchase was different. Classical historians often say that in the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire the daily wage for an unskilled laborer and common soldier was 1 denarius or about US$2. 8$ in bread
19.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, with the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize the 1963 nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech, on October 14,1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In 1965, he helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches, in the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled Beyond Vietnam. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D. C. to be called the Poor Peoples Campaign, Kings death was followed by riots in many U. S. cities. Ray, who fled the country, was arrested two months later at London Heathrow Airport, King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a holiday in numerous cities and states beginning in 1971, hundreds of streets in the U. S. have been renamed in his honor, and a county in Washington State was also renamed for him. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, King was born on January 15,1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. It was during this time he chose to be called Martin Luther King in honor of the German reformer Martin Luther, King had Irish ancestry through his paternal great-grandfather, as well as African ancestry. King was a child, between an older sister, Willie Christine King, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King. King sang with his choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of the movie Gone with the Wind. His mother was an accomplished organist and choir leader, and she took him to various churches to sing and he received attention for singing I Want to Be More and More Like Jesus. King later became a member of the choir in his church. King said that his father regularly whipped him until he was fifteen, King saw his fathers proud and fearless protests against segregation, such as King Sr. When King was a child, he befriended a boy whose father owned a business near his familys home. When the boys were six, they started school, King had to attend a school for African Americans, King lost his friend because the childs father no longer wanted the boys to play together. King suffered from depression throughout much of his life, in his adolescent years, he initially felt resentment against whites due to the racial humiliation that he, his family, and his neighbors often had to endure in the segregated South
20.
Land of Israel
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The Land of Israel is the traditional Jewish name for an area of indefinite geographical extension in the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in the Hebrew Bible, with mentions in Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34. Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the land is referred as from Dan to Beersheba. According to the Book of Genesis, the land was first promised by God to the descendants of Abram, abrams name was later changed to Abraham, with the promise refined to pass through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abrahams grandson. During the mandatory period the term Eretz Yisrael or the Land of Israel was part of the official Hebrew name of Mandatory Palestine, official Hebrew documents used the Hebrew transliteration of the word “Palestine” פלשתינה followed always by the two initial letters of Eretz Yisrael, א״י Aleph-Yod. The Land of Israel concept has been evoked by the founders of the State of Israel. It often surfaces in political debates on the status of the West Bank, Ezekiel, though generally preferring the phrase soil of Israel, employs eretz israel twice, respectively at Ezekiel 40,2 and Ezekiel 47,18. According to Anita Shapira, the term Eretz Yisrael was a term, vague as far as the exact boundaries of the territories are concerned. The Hebrew Bible provides three specific sets of borders for the Promised Land, each with a different purpose. And to their descendants after them, whilst Numbers 34, 1–15 describes the Land of Canaan which is allocated to nine, the expression Land of Israel is first used in a later book,1 Samuel 13,19. It is defined in detail in the exilic Book of Ezekiel as a land where both the tribes and the strangers in midst, can claim inheritance. The name Israel first appears in the Hebrew Bible as the name given by God to the patriarch Jacob, deriving from the name Israel, other designations that came to be associated with the Jewish people have included the Children of Israel or Israelite. The term Land of Israel occurs in one episode in the New Testament, the section in which it appears was written as a parallel to the earlier Book of Exodus. The passage describes the area as the land of the ten named ancient peoples living there. Genesis gives the border with Egypt as Nahar Mitzrayim – nahar in Hebrew denotes a river, never a wadi. Only the Red Sea and the Euphrates are mentioned to define the southern and eastern borders of the land promised to the Israelites. The Red Sea corresponding to Hebrew Yam Suf was understood in ancient times to be the Erythraean Sea, thus the entire Arabian peninsula lies within the borders described
21.
Dead Sea
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The Dead Sea, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and Palestine to the west. Its surface and shores are 430.5 metres below sea level, the Dead Sea is 304 m deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. With 34. 2% salinity, it is 9.6 times as salty as the ocean and this salinity makes for a harsh environment in which plants and animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea is 50 kilometres long and 15 kilometres wide at its widest point and it lies in the Jordan Rift Valley and its main tributary is the Jordan River. The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years and it was one of the worlds first health resorts, and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from asphalt for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers. People also use the salt and the minerals from the Dead Sea to create cosmetics, the Dead Sea water has a density of 1.24 kg/litre, which makes swimming similar to floating. The Dead Sea is receding at an alarming rate, multiple canals and pipelines were proposed to reduce its recession, which had begun causing many problems. The Red Sea–Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, carried out by Jordan, will provide water to neighboring countries, the first phase of the project is scheduled to begin in 2018 and be completed in 2021. In Hebrew, the Dead Sea is Yām ha-Melaḥ, meaning sea of salt, the Bible uses this term alongside two others, the Sea of the Arabah, and the Eastern Sea. The designation Dead Sea never appears in the Bible, in prose sometimes the term Yām ha-Māvet is used, due to the scarcity of aquatic life there. In Arabic the Dead Sea is called al-Bahr al-Mayyit, or less commonly baḥrᵘ lūṭᵃ, another historic name in Arabic was the Sea of Zoʼar, after a nearby town in biblical times. The Greeks called it Lake Asphaltites, the Dead Sea is an endorheic lake located in the Jordan Rift Valley, a geographic feature formed by the Dead Sea Transform. This left lateral-moving transform fault lies along the plate boundary between the African Plate and the Arabian Plate. It runs between the East Anatolian Fault zone in Turkey and the end of the Red Sea Rift offshore of the southern tip of Sinai. It is here that the Upper Jordan River/Sea of Galilee/Lower Jordan River water system comes to an end. The Jordan River is the major water source flowing into the Dead Sea, although there are small perennial springs under and around the Dead Sea, forming pools. The Mujib River, biblical Arnon, is one the larger sources of the Dead Sea other than the Jordan. The Wadi Mujib valley,420 m below the sea level in the southern of Jordan valley, is a biosphere reserve, other more substantial sources are Wadi Darajeh /Nahal Dragot, and Nahal Arugot
22.
Mount Gerizim
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The mountain is one of the highest peaks in the West Bank and rises to 881 m above sea level,70 m lower than Mount Ebal. In Samaritan tradition, Mount Gerizim is held to be the highest, oldest and most central mountain in the world. The mountain is steep on the northern side, is sparsely covered at the top with shrubbery. A Samaritan village and an Israeli settlement are situated on the mountain ridge, the mountain is sacred to the Samaritans who regard it, rather than Jerusalems Temple Mount, as having been the location chosen by Yahweh for a holy temple. The passover is celebrated by the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim, according to classical rabbinical sources, in order to convert to Judaism, a Samaritan must first and foremost renounce any belief in the sanctity of Mount Gerizim. Moses instructed the Israelites, on first entering Canaan, to celebrate the event with ceremonies of blessings and cursings on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal respectively. However, the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges argues that the face of Gerizim, the mount of blessing, is the fertile, the opposite face of Ebal. Recent Dead Sea Scrolls work supports the accuracy of the Samaritan Pentateuchs designation of Mount Gerizim rather than Mount Ebal as the sacred site, no attempts to explain this division of tribes either by their Biblical ethnology or by their geographical distribution have been generally accepted in academic circles. The text goes on to list twelve curses, which were to be pronounced by the Levite priesthood, scholars consider it plausible for the sanctuary to have been pre-Israelite. A straightforward etymology for Gerizim would give the meaning of mountain cut in two, according to a Jewish midrash, one of these idols, in the shape of a dove, was later recovered by the Samaritans, and used in their worship on Mount Gerizim. After the end of the Babylonian Captivity, a schism between the Samaritans and Judaism developed, with the Samaritans, but not the Jews, regarding Mount Gerizim as the holy place chosen by God. Subsequently, in the Persian Period, the Samaritans built a temple there probably in the middle of 5th century BCE, the date of the Samaritan temple destruction, the 21st of Kislev, became a holiday for the Jews during which it is forbidden to eulogize the dead. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, nevertheless, the hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshipers will worship the Father with spirit and truth. Eventually, when Christianity became the church of the Roman Empire. In 475 CE a Christian church was built on its summit, in 529, Justinian I made Samaritanism illegal, and arranged for a protective wall to be constructed around the church. As a result, the year, Julianus ben Sabar led a pro-Samaritan revolt. However, in 531, after Justinian enlisted the help of Ghassanids, the revolt was completely quashed, in 533 Justinian had a castle constructed on Mount Gerizim to protect the church from raids by the few disgruntled Samaritans left in the area. As a result of the church and previous Samaritan temple
23.
Temple in Jerusalem
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These successive temples stood at this location and functioned as a site of ancient Israelite and later Jewish worship. The Hebrew name given in the Hebrew Bible for the complex is either Beit YHWH, Beit HaElohim House of God, or simply Beiti my house. The term hekhal hall or main building is often translated temple in older English Bibles, in rabbinical literature the temple is Beit HaMikdash, The Sanctified House, and only the Temple in Jerusalem is referred to by this name. The Hebrew Bible says that the First Temple was built in 957 BCE by King Solomon and this temple was sacked a few decades later by Shoshenq I, Pharaoh of Egypt. The First Temple was totally destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, according to the Book of Ezra, construction of the Second Temple was authorized by Cyrus the Great and began in 538 BCE, after the fall of the Babylonian Empire the year before. It was completed 23 years later, on the day of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the Great. However, with a reading of the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah, there were four edicts to build the Second Temple. Cyrus in 536 BCE, which is recorded in the first chapter of Ezra, next, Darius I of Persia in 519 BCE, which is recorded in the sixth chapter of Ezra. Third, Artaxerxes I of Persia in 457 BCE, which was the year of his reign. Finally, by Artaxerxes again in 444 BCE in the chapter of Nehemiah. Moreover, the narrowly avoided being destroyed again in 332 BCE when the Jews refused to acknowledge the deification of Alexander the Great of Macedonia. Alexander was allegedly turned from his anger at the last minute by astute diplomacy, further, after the death of Alexander on 13 June 323 BCE, and the dismembering of his empire, the Ptolemies came to rule over Judea and the Temple. Under the Ptolemies, the Jews were given many civil liberties, however, when the Ptolemaic army was defeated at Panium by Antiochus III of the Seleucids in 198 BCE, this policy changed. Antiochus wanted to Hellenize the Jews, attempting to introduce the Greek pantheon into the temple. Moreover, a rebellion ensued and was crushed, but no further action by Antiochus was taken. However, his policies never took effect in Judea, since he was assassinated the year after his ascension, Antiochus IV Epiphanes succeeded his older brother to the Seleucid throne and immediately adopted his fathers previous policy of universal Hellenisation. The Jews rebelled again and Antiochus, in a rage, retaliated in force, considering the previous episodes of discontent, the Jews became incensed when the religious observances of Sabbath and circumcision were officially outlawed. When Antiochus erected a statue of Zeus in their temple and Hellenic priests began sacrificing pigs, when a Greek official ordered a Jewish priest to perform a Hellenic sacrifice, the priest killed him
24.
Passover
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Passover or Pesach, is an important, biblically derived Jewish holiday. The Jewish people celebrate Passover as a commemoration of their liberation by God from slavery in Egypt and it commemorates the story of the Exodus as described in the Hebrew Bible especially in the Book of Exodus, in which the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. According to standard biblical chronology, this event would have place at about 1300 BCE. Passover commences on the 15th of the Hebrew month of Nisan and lasts for seven days or eight days for Orthodox, Hasidic. The rituals unique to the Passover celebrations commence with the Passover Seder when the 15th of Nisan has begun, in the Northern Hemisphere Passover takes place in spring as the Torah prescribes it, in the month of spring. It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays, when the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise. In commemoration, for the duration of Passover no leavened bread is eaten, thus matzo is eaten during Passover and it is a tradition of the holiday. Samaritans still make this pilgrimage to Mount Gerizim, but only men participate in public worship, the Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which typically falls in March or April of the Gregorian calendar. Passover is a festival, so the 15th day of Nisan typically begins on the night of a full moon after the northern vernal equinox. However, due to months or leap months falling after the vernal equinox, Passover sometimes starts on the second full moon after vernal equinox. If the barley was not ripe, or various other phenomena indicated that spring was not yet imminent, however, since at least the 4th century, the date has been fixed mathematically. Diaspora Jews historically observed the festival for eight days, and most still do, reform and Reconstructionist Jews and Israeli Jews, wherever they are, usually observe the holiday over seven days. The reason for this day is due to enactment of the ancient Jewish sages. It is thought by scholars that Jews outside of Israel could not be certain if their local calendars fully conformed to practice of the Temple at Jerusalem. Karaites and Samaritans use different versions of the Jewish calendar, which are out of sync with the modern Jewish calendar by one or two days. In 2009, for example, Nisan 15 on the Jewish calendar used by Rabbinic Judaism corresponds to April 9, on the calendars used by Karaites and Samaritans, Abib or Aviv 15 corresponds to April 11 in 2009. The Karaite and Samaritan Passovers are each one day long, followed by the six-day Festival of Unleavened Bread – for a total of seven days, scholarly consensus dates the origin of the festival to a period earlier than the Exodus. Hyssop was employed to daub the blood of a sheep on the lintels
25.
American Anti-Slavery Society
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The American Anti-Slavery Society was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison, and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass, a slave, was a key leader of this society who often spoke at its meetings. William Wells Brown was also a slave who often spoke at meetings. By 1838, the society had 1,350 local charters with around 250,000 members, anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Theodore Dwight Weld, Lewis Tappan, James G. Downing, and John Greenleaf Whittier, among others. Headquartered in New York City, from 1840 to 1870 the society published a weekly newspaper, by the 1820s, the controversy surrounding the Missouri Compromise had quieted down considerably, but was revived by a series of events near the end of the decade. Serious debates over abolition took place in the Virginia legislature in 1829 and 1831, in the North discussion began about the possibility of freeing the slaves and then resettling them back in Africa. Nat Turner and more than 70 enslaved and free blacks spontaneously launched a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia and they moved from farm to farm, indiscriminately killing whites along the way and picking up additional slaves. By the time the militia put down the insurrection, more than 80 slaves had joined the rebellion, while the uprising led some southerners to consider abolition, the reaction in all southern states was to tighten the laws governing slave behavior. President Andrew Jackson swept aside the states rights arguments and threatened to use the army to enforce federal laws. In the face of Jacksons determination, the state backed down, southern anxiety increased in 1833 with the founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. The society was considered controversial and sometimes met with violence, according to the Britannica Encyclopedia, The societys antislavery activities frequently met with violent public opposition, with mobs invading meetings, attacking speakers, and burning presses. In the mid-1830s, slavery had become so involved in the U. S. that getting rid of it would cause a major blow to the economy. A convention of abolitionists was called to meet in December 1833 at the Adelphi Building in Philadelphia, the convention had 62 delegates, of which 21 were Quakers. The new American Anti-Slavery Society charged William Lloyd Garrison with writing the new declaration. The document condemns the institution of slavery and accuses slave owners of the sin of being a man-stealer and it calls for the immediate abolition of slavery without terms, and is critical of the efforts of the American Colonization Society. At the same time, it declares the group to be pacifist, in July 1834 the aims of the society appear to have been misrepresented in the prelude to the Farren Riots in New York, which led to attacks on the homes and properties of abolitionists. The black clergyman Theodore S. Wright was a significant founding member, a Presbyterian minister, Wright together with well-known spokesmen such as Tappan and Garrison agitated for temperance, education, black suffrage and land reform. According to Wright, I will say nothing about the inconvenience which I have experienced myself, I will say nothing about the inconvenience of traveling, how we are frowned upon and despised
26.
William Jay (jurist)
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William Jay was an American reformer, jurist, and the son of Founding Father and first U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay. He was born in New York City, and graduated from Yale in 1808, after his graduation, he took up the management of his fathers large estate in Westchester County, New York, and also studied law at Albany. Poor eyesight soon compelled him to give up the legal profession and he early became interested in various philanthropic enterprises and reforms and identified himself especially with the temperance, antislavery, and antiwar movements. He was one of the founders of the American Bible Society and he was judge of common pleas in New York from 1818 to 1820, and was first judge of Westchester County from 1820 to 1842, when he was removed on account of his antislavery views. From 1835 to 1837 he was the corresponding foreign secretary. He was also a proponent of theories and was for many years president of the Peace Society. Jay was married with 8 children, all but 2 survived to adulthood and these included the lawyer John Jay, Anna Jay Balch, Maria Jay Butterworth, Sarah Louisa Jay Bruen and Augusta Jay Pellew. Life and Writings of John Jay His most valuable publication, in which the part played by his father in the diplomacy of the Revolution was first adequately pointed out, thurston, H. T. Colby, F. M. eds. In Wilson, James Grant, Fiske, John, rines, George Edwin, ed. Jay, William, American jurist. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Jay. This source reports 1807 as the year he graduated from Yale, Works by William Jay at Project Gutenberg Works by or about William Jay at Internet Archive
27.
Multiracial
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Multiracial is defined as made up of or relating to people of many races. Many terms exist for people of multiracial backgrounds. While some of the used in the past are considered insulting and offensive. Individuals of multiracial backgrounds make up a significant portion of the population in parts of the world. In North America, studies have found that the population is continuing to grow. Because of a decline in racism, multiracial people no longer feel the need to hide their heritage, in many countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, mixed-race people make up the majority of the population. While defining race is controversial, race remains a commonly used term for categorization, insofar as race is defined differently in different cultures, perceptions of multiraciality will naturally be subjective. Some percentage of people who look black will possess genetic markers indicating the majority of their recent ancestors were European. The revised OMB standards identify a minimum of five categories, White, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian. Perhaps the most significant change for Census 2000 was that respondents were given the option to one or more races on the questionnaire to indicate their racial identity. Census 2000 race data are shown for people who reported a race either alone or in combination with one or more other races, in the English-speaking world, many terms for people of various multiracial backgrounds exist, some of which are pejorative or are no longer used. Mulato, zambo and mestizo are used in Spanish, mulato, caboclo, cafuzo, ainoko and mestiço in Portuguese and mulâtre and these terms are also in certain contexts used in the English-speaking world. In Canada, the Métis are an ethnic group of mixed European and First Nation descent. Half-breed is a term that referred to people of partial Native American ancestry, it is now considered pejorative. Mestee, once used, is now used mostly for members of historically mixed-race groups, such as Louisiana Creoles, Melungeons, Redbones. In South Africa, and much of English-speaking southern Africa, the term Coloured was used to describe a mixed-race person, while the term is socially accepted, it is becoming an outdated due to its association with the apartheid era. Charts and diagrams intended to explain the classifications were common, the well-known Casta paintings in Mexico and, to some extent, Peru, were illustrations of the different classifications. Most Brazilians of all groups are to some extent mixed-race according to genetic research
28.
Cleansing ten lepers
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Jesus cleansing of ten lepers is one of the miracles of Jesus reported in the Gospels. According to Lukes account, on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee, as he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a voice, Jesus. When he saw them, he said, Go, show yourselves to the priests, and as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back and he threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked him - and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, Were not all ten cleansed, was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner. Then he said to him, Rise and go, your faith has saved you, life of Jesus in the New Testament Ministry of Jesus Miracles of Jesus Parables of Jesus Christ cleansing a leper Related Bible part, Luke 17
29.
Gospel of John
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The Gospel According to John is one of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament. It traditionally appears fourth, after the gospels of Matthew, Mark. John begins with the witness and affirmation of John the Baptist and concludes with the death, burial, resurrection, although the Gospel of John is anonymous, Christian tradition historically has attributed it to John the Apostle, son of Zebedee and one of Jesus Twelve Apostles. C. K. Barrett, and later Raymond E. Brown, suggested that a tradition developed around the Johannine Community, and that this tradition gave rise to the gospel. The discovery of a number of papyrus fragments of manuscripts with Johannine themes has led more scholars to recognize that the texts were among the most influential in the early Church. The discourses contained with this gospel seem to be concerned with issues of the debate at the time of composition. It is notable that in John, the community appears to define itself primarily in contrast to Judaism, though Christianity started as a movement within Judaism, it gradually separated from Judaism because of mutual opposition between the two religions. The Gospel of John can be divided into four sections, a prologue, a Book of Signs, a Book of Glory, the narrative of Jesus public ministry, beginning with the introduction of the first disciples of Jesus. It consists of seven miracles, or signs, interspersed with long dialogues, discourses, Amen, amen sayings, in John it is this, and not the cleansing of the Temple, that prompts the authorities to have Jesus executed. The narrative of Jesus Passion, Resurrection, and post-Resurrection appearances and this is followed by Jesus Farewell Discourse, an account of his betrayal, arrest, trial, death, burial, post-Resurrection appearances, and final commission for his followers. Jesus mocking and crowning with thorns, the Ecce homo, the discovery of the empty tomb, the noli me tangere, the Great Commission, and the incredulity of Thomas. The section ends with a conclusion on the purpose of the gospel, that may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, a large majority of scholars believes this chapter to be an addition to the gospel. The Gospel of John is anonymous, traditionally, Christians have identified the author as the Disciple whom Jesus loved mentioned in John 21,24, who is understood to be John son of Zebedee, one of Jesus Twelve Apostles. These identifications, however, are rejected by the majority of biblical scholars. Nevertheless, the author of the fourth Gospel is sometimes called John the Evangelist, a significant minority consider the traditional account of John the Apostles authorship to be genuine. In addition, the ancient external attestation for Johannine authorship is strong, John is usually dated to AD 90–110. It arose in a Jewish Christian community in the process of breaking from the Jewish synagogue, scholars believe that the text went through two to three redactions, or editions, before reaching its current form. John, which regularly describes Jesus opponents simply as the Jews, is more hostile to the Jews than any other body of New Testament writing
30.
Samaritan woman at the well
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The Samaritan woman at the well is a figure from the Gospel of John, in John 4, 4–26. In Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic traditions, she is venerated as a saint with the name Photine, the woman appears in John 4, 4-26, But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph, jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. A Samaritan woman came to water, and Jesus said to her. Where do you get that living water, what you have said is true. ’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, but the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. ’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’. ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us. ’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the two communities seem to have drifted apart in the post-exilic period. Both communities share the Pentateuch, although crucially the Samaritan Pentateuch locates the holy mountain at Mount Gerizim rather than at Mount Zion, scholars differ as to whether the Samaritan references in the New Testament are historical. One view is that the historical Jesus had no contact with Samaritans, note that in Acts 1,8, Jesus promises the apostles that they will be witnesses to the Samaritans. Scholars have noted that this appears to be modelled on a standard betrothal scene from Hebrew scripture. The passages that comprise John 4, 10–26 are sometimes referred to as the Water of Life Discourse, in Eastern Orthodox tradition, the womans name at the time of her meeting Jesus is unknown, though she was later christened Photini. She is celebrated as a saint of renown, as further recounted in John 4, 28-30 and John 4, 39-42, she was quick to spread the news of her meeting with Jesus, and through this many came to believe in him. Her continuing witness is said to have brought so many to the Christian faith that she is described as equal to the apostles. Eventually, having drawn the attention of Emperor Nero, she was brought him to answer for her faith, suffering many tortures. She is remembered on the Sunday four weeks after Pascha, which is known as the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, in Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, a celebration of the Samaritan woman takes place on the fourth Friday of Lent. The custom of the day involves churches, schools, and businesses giving away fruit drinks to passers-by. org
31.
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
32.
Mishnah
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The Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions known as the Oral Torah. It is also the first major work of Rabbinic literature, most of the Mishnah is written in Mishnaic Hebrew, while some parts are Aramaic. The Mishnah consists of six orders, each containing 7–12 tractates,63 in total, the word Mishnah can also indicate a single paragraph or a verse of the work itself, i. e. the smallest unit of structure in the Mishnah. For this reason the work is sometimes called by the plural. The term Mishnah originally referred to a method of teaching by presenting topics in an order, as contrasted with Midrash. The Mishnah consists of six orders, each containing 7–12 tractates,63 in total, each masechet is divided into chapters and then paragraphs. In this last context, the word means a single paragraph of the work, i. e. the smallest unit of structure, leading to the use of the plural, Mishnayot. Because of the division into six orders, the Mishnah is sometimes called Shas, in each order, tractates are arranged from biggest to smallest. A popular mnemonic consists of the acronym ZMaN NaKaT, the Babylonian Talmud states that there were either six hundred or seven hundred orders of the Mishnah. Hillel the Elder organized them into six orders to make it easier to remember, the historical accuracy of this tradition is disputed. There is also a tradition that Ezra the scribe dictated from memory not only the 24 books of the Tanakh but 60 esoteric books. It is not known whether this is a reference to the Mishnah, interestingly, Reuvein Margolies posited that there were originally seven orders of Mishnah, citing a Gaonic tradition on the existence of a seventh order containing the laws of Stam and Berachot. A number of important laws are not elaborated upon in the Mishnah and these include the laws of tzitzit, tefillin, mezuzot, the holiday of Hanukkah, and the laws of conversion to Judaism. These were later discussed in the minor tractates, nissim ben Jacobs Hakdamah Lemafteach Hatalmud argued that it was unnecessary for Judah the Prince to discuss them as many of these laws were so well known. Rabbinic commentaries on the Mishnah from the four centuries, done in the Land of Israel. In themselves they are known as Gemara, the books which set out the Mishnah in its original structure, together with the associated Gemara, are known as Talmuds. Two Talmuds were compiled, the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud, unlike the Hebrew Mishnah, the Gemara is written primarily in Aramaic. The Mishnah does not claim to be the development of new laws, the term Mishnah is related to the verb shanah, to teach or repeat, and to the adjectives sheni and mishneh, meaning second
33.
Rossano Gospels
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Also known as Codex purpureus Rossanensis due to the reddish-purple appearance of its pages, the codex is one of the oldest surviving illuminated manuscripts of the New Testament. The now incomplete codex contains the text of the Gospel of Matthew, probably it had companion second volume which is apparently lost. Like the Vienna Genesis and the Sinope Gospels, the Rossano Gospels are written in ink on purple dyed parchment. The large book has written in a 215 mm square block with two columns of twenty lines each. There is a cycle of illustrations which are also on purple dyed parchment. It contains the Epistula ad Carpianum, tables of the κεφάλαια before each Gospel, τίτλοι at the top of the pages, numbers of Ammonian Sections, the text of the Codex agrees generally with the Byzantine text-type in close relationship to the Codex Petropolitanus Purpureus. The Rossano Gospels, along with the manuscripts N, O, aland placed all four manuscripts of the group in Category V. In Matthew 1,11 it has the additional reading τον Ιωακιμ, Ιωακιμ δε εγεννησεν — M U Θ f1332584786619541216123013541604 Lectionary 54 syrh geo. In Matthew 23,25 it reads ακαθαρσιας for ακρασιας, a reading supported by Old Latin, the Syriac Sinaiticus manuscript, currently the manuscript is dated by the INTF to the 6th century. The codex was discovered in 1879 in the Italian city of Rossano by Oskar von Gebhardt and Adolf Harnack, on 9 October 2015 the international UNESCO Committee, inscribed the Codex Purpureus Rossanensis in the register memory of the world, in Abu Dabi. Early Christian art and architecture List of New Testament uncials Purple parchment A. I, T. Jonker, Studien, Groningen 1880, Bd. Zucker, Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen, Göttingen 1881, Heft 30, S. Lamprecht, Jahrbuch des Vereins von Alterhumsfreunden im Rheinland, Bonn 1880, Heft 69, S. 90-98. S. A. Usow, Die Miniaturen zu. dem in Rossano entdeckten Evangeliencodex aus dem 6, oscar von Gebhardt, Die Evangelien des Matthaeus und des Marcus aus dem Codex purpureus Rossanensis. William Sanday, The Text of the Codex Rossanensis Studia biblica, Oxford 1885, walther, Ingo F. and Norbert Wolf. Codices Illustres, The worlds most famous illuminated manuscripts,400 to 1600, Köln, Taschen,2005, weitzmann, Kurt, ed. Age of spirituality, late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century, no. 443,1979, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ISBN9780870991790, late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination, New York, George Braziller,1977. The Miniatures of the Trial in the Rossano Gospels
34.
Halo (religious iconography)
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A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They have been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, halos may be shown as almost any colour or combination of colours, but are most often depicted as golden, yellow or white when representing light or red when representing flames. Homer describes a light around the heads of heroes in battle. 450-30 BC, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the sun-god Helios and had his usual radiate crown. Hellenistic rulers are shown wearing radiate crowns that seem clearly to imitate this effect. The rulers of the Kushan Empire were perhaps the earliest to give themselves haloes on their coins, in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist art the halo has also been used since the earliest periods in depicting the image of Amitabha Buddha and others. Thin lines of gold often radiate outwards or inwards from the rim of the halo, elaborate haloes and especially aureoles also appear in Hindu sculpture, where they tend to develop into architectural frames in which the original idea can be hard to recognise. Theravada Buddhism and Jainism did not use the halo for many centuries, in Asian art, the nimbus is often imagined as consisting not just of light, but of flames. This type seems to first appear in Chinese bronzes of which the earliest surviving examples date from before 450 and this type is also very rarely found, and on a smaller scale, in medieval Christian art. Sometimes a thin line of flames rise up from the edges of a halo in Buddhist examples. In Tibetan paintings the flames are shown as blown by a wind. Halos are found in Islamic art from various places and periods, especially in Persian miniatures and Moghul, flaming halos derived from Buddhist art surround angels, and similar ones are often seen around Muhammad and other sacred human figures. The halo represents an aura or glow of sanctity which was conventionally drawn encircling the head, though Roman paintings have largely disappeared, save some fresco decorations, the haloed figure remains fresh in Roman mosaics. In a 2nd-century AD Roman floor mosaic preserved at Bardo, Tunisia, significantly, the triton and nereid who accompany the sea-god are not haloed. In a late 2nd century AD floor mosaic from Thysdrus, El Djem, another haloed Apollo in mosaic, from Hadrumentum, is in the museum at Sousse. The conventions of representation, head tilted, lips slightly parted, large-eyed. The halo was incorporated into Early Christian art sometime in the 4th century with the earliest iconic images of Christ, initially the only figure shown with one. At least in later Orthodox images, each bar of cross is composed of three lines, symbolising the dogmas of the Trinity, the oneness of God and the two natures of Christ
35.
Origen
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Origen, or Origen Adamantius, was a Greek scholar, ascetic, and early Christian theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Alexandria. He was a writer in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, philosophical theology, preaching. He was anathematised at the Second Council of Constantinople and he was one of the most influential figures in early Christian asceticism. Origens Greek name Ōrigénēs probably means child of Horus and his nickname or cognomen Adamantios derives from Greek adámas, which means adamant, unalterable, unbreakable, unconquerable, diamond. He acquired it because of his ascetical practices. Origen was born in Alexandria to Christian parents and he was educated by his father, Leonides of Alexandria, who gave him a standard Hellenistic education, but also had him study the Christian scriptures. The name of his mother is unknown, in 202, Origens father was martyred in the outbreak of the persecution during the reign of Septimius Severus. A story reported by Eusebius has it that Origen wished to follow him in martyrdom, the death of Leonides left the family of nine impoverished when their property was confiscated. Many modern scholars, however, doubt that Clements school had been an ecclesiastical institution as Origens was. His fame and the number of his pupils increased rapidly, so that Bishop Demetrius of Alexandria, Origen, to be entirely independent, sold his library for a sum which netted him a daily income of 4 obols, on which he lived by exercising the utmost frugality. Teaching throughout the day, he devoted the greater part of the night to the study of the Bible, Eusebius reported that Origen, following Matthew 19,12 literally, castrated himself. The later church historian Philostorgius of Apamea, on the other hand, Eusebius story was accepted during the Middle Ages and was cited by Peter Abelard in his letters to Heloise. Edward Gibbon, in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, during the past century, scholars have often questioned this, surmising that this may have been a rumor circulated by his detractors. Henry Chadwick points out that, while the story may be true, it seems unlikely, however, many noted historians, such as Peter Brown and William Placher, continue to find no reason to deny the truth of Eusebius claims. But the school had far outgrown the strength of a man, the catechumens pressed eagerly for elementary instruction. Under these circumstances, Origen entrusted the teaching of the catechumens to Heraclas and his own interests became more and more centered in exegesis, and he accordingly studied Hebrew, though there is no certain knowledge concerning his instructor in that language. From about this period dates Origens acquaintance with Ambrose of Alexandria, later Ambrose, a man of wealth, made a formal agreement with Origen to promulgate his writings, and all the subsequent works of Origen were dedicated to Ambrose. In the following year, an uprising at Alexandria caused Caracalla to let his soldiers plunder the city, shut the schools
36.
Jerusalem in Christianity
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According to the New Testament, Jerusalem was the city to which Jesus was brought as a child, to be presented at the Temple and to attend festivals. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus preached and healed in Jerusalem, the events of Pentecost, which are recorded in the New Testament Book of Acts, also took place at this location. There is also an account of Jesus cleansing of the Temple at the Temple Court, much of this area was also uncovered by the excavations conducted by the elder Mazar. Tradition holds that the place of the Last Supper is the Cenacle, archaeologist Bargil Pixner claims to have found three walls of the original structure still extant today. The place of Jesus anguished prayer and betrayal, Gethsemane, is somewhere near the Church of All Nations on the Mount of Olives. Jesus trial before Pontius Pilate may have taken place at the Antonia Fortress, popularly, the exterior pavement where the trial was conducted is beneath the Convent of the Sisters of Zion. Other Christians believe that Pilate tried Jesus at Herods Palace on Mount Zion, the Via Dolorosa, or way of suffering, is the traditional route to Golgotha, the place of crucifixion, and is an important pilgrimage. The route ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Holy Sepulchre is traditionally believed to be the location of Golgotha and Jesus nearby tomb. The original church was built in 336 by Constantine I, the Garden Tomb is a popular pilgrimage site near the Damascus Gate. It was suggested by Charles George Gordon that this site, rather than the Holy Sepulchre, is the place of Golgotha. The Acts of the Apostles and Pauline Epistles show James the Just and he and his successors were the focus for Jewish Christians until the destruction of the city by Emperor Hadrian in 135. The exclusion of Jews from the new city of Aelia Capitolina meant that gentile bishops were appointed under the authority of the Metropolitans of Caesarea and, ultimately, the Patriarchs of Antioch. Helena is remembered as the Patron Saint of Archaeologists and claimed to have found the Cross of Christ, Jerusalem received special recognition in Canon VII of Nicaea in 325, without yet becoming a metropolitan see. The traditional founding date for the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre is 313 which corresponds with the date of the Edict of Milan which legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 raised the Bishop of Jerusalem to the rank of patriarch, together with Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch, however, Byzantine politics meant that Jerusalem simply passed from the Syrian jurisdiction of Antioch to the Greek authorities in Constantinople. For centuries, Greek clergy dominated the Jerusalem church, meanwhile, the Roman church never accepted the Pentarchy and instead claimed primacy, see Papal supremacy and East–West Schism. In 638, Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, handed over the keys of the city to Calif Umars Muslim forces, the Muslim authorities in Jerusalem were not kind to their Christian subjects, forcing them to live a life of discrimination, servitude and humiliation. The mistreatment of Christians would only worsen as the armies of the First Crusade approached Jerusalem, on 15 July 1099, the army of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem
37.
613 commandments
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The tradition that 613 commandments is the number of mitzvot in the Torah, began in the 3rd century CE, when Rabbi Simlai mentioned it in a sermon that is recorded in Talmud Makkot 23b. These principles of Biblical law are sometimes called connections or commandments and referred to collectively as the Law of Moses, Mosaic Law, Sinaitic Law, the word mitzvot is plural, singular is mitzvah. Although there have been attempts to codify and enumerate the commandments contained in the Torah. The 613 commandments include positive commandments, to perform an act, though the number 613 is mentioned in the Talmud, its real significance increased in later medieval rabbinic literature, including many works listing or arranged by the mitzvot. Three types of negative commandments fall under the self-sacrificial principle yehareg veal yaavor and these are murder, idolatry, and forbidden sexual relations. The 613 mitzvot have been divided also into three categories, mishpatim, edot, and chukim. Mishpatim include commandments that are deemed to be self-evident, such as not to murder, edot commemorate important events in Jewish history. For example, the Shabbat is said to testify to the story that Hashem created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, chukim are commandments with no known rationale, and are perceived as pure manifestations of the Divine will. Many of the mitzvot cannot be observed now, following the destruction of the Second Temple, According to one standard reckoning, there are 77 positive and 194 negative commandments that can be observed today, of which there are 26 commands that apply only within the Land of Israel. Furthermore, there are some time-related commandments from which women are exempt, some depend on the special status of a person in Judaism, while others apply only to men or only to women. 33,04 is to be interpreted to mean that Moses transmitted the Torah from God to the Israelites, Moses commanded us the Torah as an inheritance for the community of Jacob. The Talmud attributes the number 613 to Rabbi Simlai, but other classical sages who hold this view include Rabbi Simeon ben Azzai and it is quoted in Midrash Shemot Rabbah 33,7, Bamidbar Rabbah 13, 15–16,18,21 and Talmud Yevamot 47b. Many Jewish philosophical and mystical works find allusions and inspirational calculations relating to the number of commandments. The tzitzit of the tallit are connected to the 613 commandments by interpretation, principal Torah commentator Rashi bases the number of knots on a gematria, Each tassel has eight threads and five sets of knots, totalling 13. The sum of all numbers is 613 and this reflects the concept that donning a garment with tzitzit reminds its wearer of all Torah commandments. Rabbinic support for the number of commandments being 613 is not without dissent and, even as the number gained acceptance, some rabbis declared that this count was not an authentic tradition, or that it was not logically possible to come up with a systematic count. No early work of Jewish law or Biblical commentary depended on the 613 system, the classical Biblical commentator and grammarian Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra denied that this was an authentic rabbinic tradition. Nahmanides held that this particular counting was a matter of controversy
38.
Neviim
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Neviim is the second main division of the Hebrew Bible, between the Torah and Ketuvim. The Neviim are divided into two groups, the Former Prophets consists of the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, while the Latter Prophets include the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and The Twelve minor prophets. In Judaism, Samuel and Kings are each counted as one book, in addition, twelve relatively short prophetic books are counted as one in a single collection called Trei Asar or The Twelve Minor Prophets. The Jewish tradition thus counts a total of eight books in Neviim out of a total of 24 books in the entire Tanakh, the Book of Daniel is part of the Writings, or Ketuvim, in the Tanakh. The Former Prophets are the books Joshua, Judges, 1st & 2nd Samuel, after Moses death, Joshua, by virtue of his previous appointment as Moses successor, receives from God the command to cross the Jordan. The book essentially consists of three parts, The history of the conquest of the land, the allotment of the land to the different tribes, with the appointment of cities of refuge, the provision for the Levites, and the dismissal of the eastern tribes to their homes. The farewell addresses of Joshua, with an account of his death, the Book of Judges consists of three distinct parts, The Introduction giving a summary of the book of Joshua. The Main Text, discussing the five Great Judges, Abimelech, the Appendices, giving two stories set in the time of the Judges, but not discussing the Judges themselves. The Books of Samuel consists of five parts, The period of Gods rejection of Eli, Samuels birth, the period of the life of Saul prior to meeting David. The period of Sauls interaction with David, the period of Davids reign and the rebellions he suffers. An appendix of material concerning David in no order. A conclusion of sorts appears at 1 Kings 1-2, concerning Solomon enacting a final revenge on those who did what David perceived as wrongdoing, the Latter Prophets are divided into two groups, the Major prophets and the Twelve Minor Prophets collected into a single book. The 66 chapters of Isaiah consist primarily of prophecies of the judgments awaiting nations that are persecuting Judah and these nations include Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Israel, Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, and Phoenicia. Chapter 6 describes Isaiahs call to be a prophet of God, Chapters 36–39 provide historical material about King Hezekiah and his triumph of faith in God. This section is seen by Jews as describing an actual king, a descendant of their king, David. The prophecy continues with some scholars have called The Book of Comfort which begins in chapter 40. In chapter 45,1 the Persian ruler Cyrus is named as the messiah who will overthrow the Babylonians, the remaining chapters of the book contain prophecies of the future glory of Zion under the rule of a righteous servant. The Book of Jeremiah can be divided into subsections
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Church (congregation)
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A local church is a Christian religious organization or community that meets in a particular location. Many are formally organized, with constitutions and by-laws, maintain offices, are served by clergy or lay leaders, Local churches often relate with, affiliate with, or consider themselves to be constitutive parts of denominations, which are also called churches in many traditions. Non-denominational churches are not part of denominations, but may consider themselves part of larger church movements without institutional expression and it may be united with other congregations under the oversight of a council of pastors as are Presbyterian churches. It may be united with other parishes under the oversight of bishops, as are Anglican, finally, the local church may function as the lowest subdivision in a large, global hierarchy under the leadership of one priest, such as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Such association or unity is a churchs ecclesiastical polity, among congregational churches, since each local church is autonomous, there are no formal lines of responsibility to organizational levels of higher authority. Deacons of each church are elected by the congregation, in many such local churches, the role of deacons includes pastoral and nurturing responsibilities. Typically, congregational churches have informal worship styles, less structured services, Local churches united with others under the oversight of a bishop are normally called parishes, by Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran communions. Each parish usually has one parish church, though seldom. The parish church has always been fundamental to the life of every parish community, for example, in the Church of England, parish churches are the oldest churches to be found in England. A number are substantially of Anglo-Saxon date and all subsequent periods of architecture are represented in the country, most parishes have churches that date back to the Middle Ages. Thus, such local churches tend to favor traditional, formal styles, liturgy. Local parishes of the Roman Catholic Church, like episcopal parishes, favor formal worship styles, likewise, vestments are valued to inculcate the solemnity of the Holy Eucharist and are typically more elaborate than in other churches. A local church may also be a mission, that is a church under the sponsorship of a larger congregation. Often congregational churches prefer to call such local mission churches church plants, a local church may also work in association with parachurch organizations. While ParaChurch Organizations/Ministries are vital to accomplishing specific missions on behalf of the church they do not normally take the place of the local church, the word denomination is sometimes used as a synonym of local church. Sometimes, however, denomination is used to mean the whole tradition to which the church belongs. So, for example, some refer to the United Methodist Church as a denomination. The Local Churches Ecclesia Ecclesiastical polity Congregational church Parish Particular church Simple church Early centers of Christianity
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Second Coming
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The Second Coming is a Christian concept regarding the future return of Jesus to Earth after his first coming and ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The belief is based on messianic prophecies found in the gospels and is part of most Christian eschatologies. Views about the nature of Jesus Second Coming vary among Christian denominations, most English versions of the Nicene Creed include the following statements. he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Several different terms are used to refer to the Second Coming of Christ, In the New Testament, the Greek New Testament uses the Greek term parousia twenty-four times, seventeen of them concerning Christ. The word is used six times referring to individuals and one time referring to the coming of the lawless one. The etymology of the Greek word parousia is related to para beside ousia presence, in English parousia always has a special, Christian meaning. The Bauer-Danker Lexicon provides the definition. of Christ, and nearly always of his Messianic Advent in glory to judge the world at the end of this age. The Catholic Encyclopedia article on the General judgment states, In the New Testament the second Parousia, the Saviour Himself not only foretells the event but graphically portrays its circumstances. The Apostles give a most prominent place to this doctrine in their preaching, besides the name Parusia, or Advent, the second coming is also called Epiphany, epiphaneia, or Appearance and Apocalypse, or Revelation. The time of the second coming is spoken of as that Day the day of the Lord, the day of Christ, the day of the Son of Man, and the last day. Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared, from this we know that it is the last hour. The position associating the Second Coming with 1st century events such as the destruction of Jerusalem, some Preterists see this coming of the Son of Man in glory primarily fulfilled in Jesus death on the cross. They believe the signs are already fulfilled including the sun will be dark. Will be shaken, and then they will see, moreover, Jesus was reported to have told his disciples, Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Some, such as Jerome, interpret the phrase this generation to mean in the lifetime of the Jewish race, however, other scholars believe that if Jesus meant race he would have used genos not genea. Most English versions of the Nicene Creed in current use include the statements about Jesus. he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come
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Irenaeus
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Irenaeus, also referred to as Saint Irenaeus, was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire. He was an early Church Father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the development of Christian theology. A resident of Smyrna, he heard the preaching of St. Polycarp, as one of the first great Christian theologians, he emphasized the traditional elements in the Church, especially the episcopate, Scripture, and tradition. His polemical work is credited for laying out the orthodoxies of the Christian church, its faith, its preaching and his writings, with those of Clement and Ignatius, are taken as among the earliest signs of the doctrine of the primacy of the Roman see. Irenaeus is the earliest witness to recognition of the character of all four gospels. Irenaeus is recognized as a saint in both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church commemorates Irenaeus on that same date for his life of exemplary Christian witness. In the Eastern Catholic Church and Orthodox Church his feast day is 23 August, Irenaeus was born during the first half of the 2nd century, and he is thought to have been a Greek from Polycarps hometown of Smyrna in Asia Minor, now İzmir, Turkey. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he was brought up in a Christian family rather than converting as an adult, during the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor from 161–180, Irenaeus was a priest of the Church of Lyon. While Irenaeus was in Rome, a massacre took place in Lyon, returning to Gaul, Irenaeus succeeded the martyr Saint Pothinus and became the second Bishop of Lyon. During the religious peace which followed the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, almost all his writings were directed against Gnosticism. The most famous of these writings is Adversus haereses, Irenaeus alludes to coming across Gnostic writings, and holding conversations with Gnostics, and this may have taken place in Asia Minor or in Rome. However, it appears that Gnosticism was present near Lyon. Little is known about the career of Irenaeus after he became bishop, nothing is known of the date of his death, which must have occurred at the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century. A few within the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church celebrate him as a martyr and he was buried under the Church of Saint John in Lyon, which was later renamed St Irenaeus in his honour. The tomb and his remains were destroyed in 1562 by the Huguenots. Irenaeus wrote a number of books, but the most important that survives is the Against Heresies, in Book I, Irenaeus talks about the Valentinian Gnostics and their predecessors, who go as far back as the magician Simon Magus. In Book II he attempts to provide proof that Valentinianism contains no merit in terms of its doctrines, in Book III Irenaeus purports to show that these doctrines are false, by providing counter-evidence gleaned from the Gospels. Book IV consists of Jesus sayings, and here Irenaeus also stresses the unity of the Old Testament, in the final volume, Book V, Irenaeus focuses on more sayings of Jesus plus the letters of Paul the Apostle
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Clement of Alexandria
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Titus Flavius Clemens, known as Clement of Alexandria to distinguish him from the earlier Clement of Rome, was a Christian theologian who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. A convert to Christianity, he was a man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy. As his three works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular by Plato. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. Clement is usually regarded as a Church Father and he is venerated as a saint in Coptic Christianity, Ethiopian Christianity and Anglicanism. He was previously revered in the Roman Catholic Church, but his name was removed from the Roman Martyrology in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V on the advice of Baronius, neither Clements birthdate or birthplace is known with any degree of certainty. It is conjectured that he was born in around 150, according to Epiphanius Scholasticus, he was born in Athens, but there is also a tradition of an Alexandrian birth. His parents were pagans, and Clement was a convert to Christianity, in the Protrepticus he displays an extensive knowledge of Greek mythology and mystery religions, which could only have arisen from the practice of his familys religion. Having rejected paganism as a man due to its perceived moral corruption, he travelled in Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine. Clements journeys were primarily a religious undertaking, in around 180, Clement reached Alexandria, where he met Pantaenus, who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Eusebius suggests that Pantaenus was the head of the school, Clement studied under Pantaenus, and was ordained to the priesthood by Pope Julian before 189. Otherwise, virtually nothing is known of Clements life in Alexandria and he may have been married, a conjecture supported by his writings. During the Severian persecutions of 202–203, Clement left Alexandria, in 211, Alexander of Jerusalem wrote a letter commending him to the Church of Antioch, which may imply that Clement was living in Cappadocia or Jerusalem at that time. The date and location of his death are unknown, three of Clements major works have survived in full, and they are collectively referred to as the trilogy, the Protrepticus – written c. The Stromata – written c.198 – c, the Protrepticus is, as its title suggests, an exhortation to the pagans of Greece to adopt Christianity, and within it Clement demonstrates his extensive knowledge of pagan mythology and theology. It is chiefly important due to Clements exposition of religion as an anthropological phenomenon, after a short philosophical discussion, it opens with a history of Greek religion in seven stages. Clement suggests that at first, men believed the Sun
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John Chrysostom
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John Chrysostom, c.349 –407, Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. The epithet Χρυσόστομος means golden-mouthed in Greek and denotes his celebrated eloquence, Chrysostom was among the most prolific authors in the early Christian Church exceeded only by Augustine in the quantity of his surviving writings. He is honored as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, the Eastern Orthodox, together with the Byzantine Catholics, hold him in special regard as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs. The feast days of John Chrysostom in the Eastern Orthodox Church are 13 November and 27 January, in the Roman Catholic Church he is recognized as a Doctor of the Church and commemorated on 13 September. Other churches of the Western tradition, including some Anglican provinces and some Lutheran churches, however, certain Lutheran churches and Anglican provinces commemorate him on the traditional Eastern feast day of 27 January. The Coptic Church also recognizes him as a saint, John was born in Antioch in 349 to Greek parents from Syria. Different scholars describe his mother Anthusa as a pagan or as a Christian, Johns father died soon after his birth and he was raised by his mother. He was baptised in 368 or 373 and tonsured as a reader, as a result of his mothers influential connections in the city, John began his education under the pagan teacher Libanius. From Libanius, John acquired the skills for a career in rhetoric, as well as a love of the Greek language and literature. As he grew older, however, John became more committed to Christianity and went on to study theology under Diodore of Tarsus. According to the Christian historian Sozomen, Libanius was supposed to have said on his deathbed that John would have been his if the Christians had not taken him from us. John lived in asceticism and became a hermit in about 375. As a consequence of these practices, his stomach and kidneys were permanently damaged, John was ordained as a deacon in 381 by Saint Meletius of Antioch who was not then in communion with Alexandria and Rome. After the death of Meletius, John separated himself from the followers of Meletius, without joining Paulinus, but after the death of Paulinus he was ordained a presbyter in 386 by Evagrius, the successor of Paulinus. He was destined later to bring reconciliation between Flavian I of Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome, thus bringing those three sees into communion for the first time in nearly seventy years. The most valuable of his works from this period are his Homilies on various books of the Bible and he emphasised charitable giving and was concerned with the spiritual and temporal needs of the poor. He spoke against abuse of wealth and personal property, Do you wish to honour the body of Christ, do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not pay him homage in the temple clad in silk, only then to him outside where he is cold
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Ambrose
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Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose, was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He was the Roman governor of Liguria and Emilia, headquartered in Milan, Ambrose was a staunch opponent of Arianism, and has been accused of fostering persecutions of Arians, Jews, and pagans. Ambrose was one of the four original Doctors of the Church and he is notable for his influence on Augustine of Hippo. Ambrose was born into a Roman Christian family about 340 and was raised in Gallia Belgica and his mother was a woman of intellect and piety. Ambroses siblings, Satyrus and Marcellina, are venerated as saints. There is a legend that as an infant, a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle and his father considered this a sign of his future eloquence and honeyed tongue. For this reason, bees and beehives often appear in the saints symbology, after the early death of his father, Ambrose followed his fathers career. He was educated in Rome, studying literature, law, Ambrose was the Governor of Aemilia-Liguria in northern Italy until 374, when he became the Bishop of Milan. He was a popular political figure, and since he was the Governor in the effective capital in the Roman West. In the late 4th century there was a conflict in the diocese of Milan between the Nicene Church and Arians. In 374 the bishop of Milan, Auxentius, an Arian, died, Ambrose went to the church where the election was to take place, to prevent an uproar, which was probable in this crisis. His address was interrupted by a call Ambrose, bishop, which was taken up by the whole assembly. Ambrose was known to be Nicene Christian in belief, but also acceptable to Arians due to the charity shown in matters in this regard. At first he refused the office, for which he was in no way prepared. Upon his appointment, Ambrose fled to a colleagues home seeking to hide, upon receiving a letter from the Emperor Gratian praising the appropriateness of Rome appointing individuals evidently worthy of holy positions, Ambroses host gave him up. Within a week, he was baptized, ordained and duly consecrated bishop of Milan and this raised his popularity even further, giving him considerable political leverage over even the emperor. Ambrose also wrote a treatise by the name of The Goodness of Death, according to legend, Ambrose immediately and forcefully stopped Arianism in Milan. He studied theology with Simplician, a presbyter of Rome, in the confrontation with Arians, Ambrose sought to theologically refute their propositions, which were contrary to the Nicene creed and thus to the officially defined orthodoxy
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Bourges Cathedral
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Bourges Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church located in Bourges, France. It is dedicated to Saint Stephen, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Bourges, the present Cathedral was built as a replacement for a mid-11th-century structure, traces of which survive in the crypt. The date when construction began is unknown, although a document of 1195 recording expenditure on rebuilding works suggests that construction was underway by that date. The main phase of construction is therefore roughly contemporaneous with Chartres Cathedral, as with most Early- and High-Gothic cathedrals, the identity of the architect or master-mason is unknown. The choir was in use by 1214 and the nave was finished by 1255, the building was finally consecrated in 1324. Most of the west façade was finished by 1270, though work on the towers proceeded more slowly, partly due to the rock strata beneath the site. Structural problems with the South tower led to the building of the adjoining buttress tower in the mid-14th century, the North tower was completed around the end of the 15th century but collapsed in 1506, destroying the Northern portion of the façade in the process. The North tower and its portal were subsequently rebuilt in a contemporary style. Generally the cathedral suffered far less than some of its peers during the French Wars of Religion and its location meant it was also relatively safe from the ravages of both World Wars. The cathedral was added to the list of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 1992, Bourges Cathedral covers a surface of 5,900 square meters. The cathedrals nave is 15 m wide by 37m high, its arcade is 20m high, the aisle is 21.3 m. The use of flying buttresses was employed to help the structure of the building, however, since this was a fairly new technique, one can easily see the walls were still made quite thick to take the force. Sexpartite vaults are used to span the nave, the double aisles continue without interruption beyond the position of the screen to form a double ambulatory around the choir. This design, with its distinctive cross section, was subsequently copied at Toledo Cathedral. The flying buttresses surrounding the cathedral are relatively slender and efficient, particularly compared to the contemporary and their steep angle helps to channel the thrust from the nave vaults and the wind loading on the roof to the outer buttress piers more effectively. The west façade is on a grand scale when compared to earlier cathedrals. The four side aisles and central nave each have their own portal reflecting the scale of the spaces beyond, the north portals were destroyed when the tower collapsed but surviving fragments indicate that their sculptural programmes were dedicated to the life and death of the Virgin. Unifying all five portals is a screen of gabled niches which stretches the whole width of the façade
