1.
Jacob
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Jacob, later given the name Israel, is regarded as a Patriarch of the Israelites. According to the Book of Genesis, Jacob was the third Hebrew progenitor with whom God made a covenant and he is the son of Isaac and Rebecca, the grandson of Abraham, Sarah and Bethuel, the nephew of Ishmael, and the younger twin brother of Esau. Jacob had twelve sons and at least one daughter, by his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and by their handmaidens Bilhah and Zilpah. Jacobs twelve sons, named in Genesis, were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and his only daughter mentioned in Genesis is Dinah. The twelve sons became the progenitors of the Tribes of Israel, as a result of a severe drought in Canaan, Jacob and his sons moved to Egypt at the time when his son Joseph was viceroy. Jacob is mentioned in a number of sacred scriptures, including the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament, the Quran, hadith, Baháí scripture, and the Book of Mormon. According to the folk etymology found in Genesis 25,26, according to Jan Fokkelman, the name is a shortened version of Yaaqob-el, meaning God may protect. The Hebrew Bible says at Genesis 32, 28-29 and 35,10, etymologically, it has been suggested that the name Israel comes from the Hebrew words לִשְׂרות and אֵל. Popular English translations typically reference the face off with God, ranging from wrestles with God to God contends, some commentators say the name comes from the verb śārar, thereby making the name mean God rules or God judges, or the prince of God or El fights/struggles. The biblical account of the life of Jacob is found in the Book of Genesis, Jacob and his twin brother, Esau, were born to Isaac and Rebecca after 20 years of marriage, when Isaac was 60 years of age. Rebekah was uncomfortable during her pregnancy and went to inquire of God why she was suffering and she received the prophecy that twins were fighting in her womb and would continue to fight all their lives, even after they became two separate nations. According to Genesis 25,25, Isaac and Rebecca named the first son Hebrew, עשו, the second son they named יעקב, Jacob. The boys displayed very different natures as they matured. and Esau was a hunter, a man of the field. Moreover, the attitudes of their parents toward them also differed, And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, Genesis 25, 29-34 tells the account of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob. This passage tells that Esau, returning famished from the fields, Jacob offered to give Esau a bowl of stew in exchange for his birthright, to which Esau agreed. As Isaac aged, he became blind and was uncertain when he would die and he requested that Esau go out to the fields with his weapons to kill some venison. Isaac then requested that Esau make savory meat for him out of the venison, according to the way he enjoyed it the most, so that he could eat it and bless Esau. It is suggested that she realized prophetically that Isaacs blessings would go to Jacob, Rebecca blessed Jacob and she quickly ordered Jacob to bring her two kid goats from their flock so that he could take Esaus place in serving Isaac and receiving his blessing
2.
Evelyn De Morgan
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Evelyn De Morgan was an English painter whose works were influenced by the style of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. She was a follower of Pre-Raphaelist Edward Burne-Jones and her paintings exhibit spirituality, use of mythological, biblical, and literary themes, the role of women, light and darkness as metaphors, life and death, and allegories of war. Evelyn was educated at home and started drawing lessons when she was 15, on the morning of her seventeenth birthday, Evelyn recorded in her diary, Art is eternal, but life is short… I will make up for it now, I have not a moment to lose. She went on to persuade her parents to let her go to art school, at first they discouraged it, but in 1873 she was enrolled at the Slade School of Art. She was granted a scholarship at Slade which entitled her to three years of financial assistance, however, since the scholarship required that she draw nudes using charcoal and she did not care for this technique, she eventually declined it. She was also a pupil of her uncle John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, beginning in 1875, Evelyn often visited him in Florence where he lived. This also enabled her to study the great artists of the Renaissance and this influenced her to move away from the classical subjects favored by the Slade school and to make her own style. She first exhibited in 1877 at the Grosvenor Gallery in London, in August 1883 Evelyn met the ceramicist William De Morgan, and in 5 March 1887, they married. They spent their lives together in London, De Morgan, a pacifist, expressed her horror at the First World War and South African War in over fifteen war paintings including The Red Cross and S. O. S. Two years after his death in 1917, she died on 2 May 1919 in London and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking, in August 1875 Evelyn sold her first work Tobias and the Angel. Her first exhibited painting, St Catherine of Alexandria was shown at the Dudley Gallery in 1876, in 1877, Evelyn exhibited two works at Dudley Gallery and is invited to exhibit at the first Grosvenor Gallery exhibition. In October 1991, sixteen canvases were destroyed in a fire at Bourlets warehouse, Tobias and the Angel Cadmus and Harmonia Ariadne at Naxos Aurora Triumphans, Russell-Cotes Museum, Bournemouth. The Garden of Opportunity Life and Thought Emerging from the Tomb, Walker Art Gallery, flora Eos, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina. The Undiscovered Country, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina Lux in Tenebris Boreas and Oreithyia Earthbound Angel of Death, the impact of science and spiritualism on the works of Evelyn De Morgan 1870-1919. Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement
3.
Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
4.
Archangel
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An archangel /ˌɑːrkˈeɪndʒəl/ is an angel of high rank. The word archangel itself is associated with the Abrahamic religions. The word archangel is derived from the Greek ἀρχάγγελος, Michael and Gabriel are recognized as archangels in Judaism, Islam and by most Christians. Protestants recognize Gabriel as an angel but consider Michael to be the only archangel, raphael—mentioned in the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit—is also recognized in the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael are venerated in the Roman Catholic Church with a feast on September 29, the named archangels in Islam are Gabriel, Michael, Israfil and Azrael. Jewish literature, such as the Book of Enoch, mentions Metatron as an archangel, called the highest of the angels, some branches of the faiths mentioned have identified a group of seven Archangels, but the actual angels vary, depending on the source. Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael are always mentioned, the other archangels vary, but most commonly include Uriel, in Zoroastrianism, sacred texts allude to the six great Amesha Spenta of Ahura Mazda. An increasing number of experts in anthropology, theology and philosophy, the Amesha Spentas of Zoroastrianism are likened to archangels. They individually inhabit immortal bodies that operate in the world to protect, guide, and inspire humanity. The Avesta explains the origin and nature of archangels or Amesha Spentas, to maintain equilibrium, Ahura Mazda engaged in the first act of creation, distinguishing his Holy Spirit Spenta Mainyu, the Archangel of righteousness. Ahura Mazda also distinguished from himself six more Amesha Spentas, who, along with Spenta Mainyu, then he oversaw the development of sixteen lands, each imbued with a unique cultural catalyst calculated to encourage the formation of distinct human populations. The Amesha Spentas were charged with protecting these holy lands and through their emanation, the Amesha Spentas as attributes of God are, Spenta Mainyu, lit. Immortality The Hebrew Bible uses the ter. מלאכי אלוהים, The Hebrew word for angel is malach, מלאכי י י, בני אלוהים and הקדושים to refer to beings traditionally interpreted as angelic messengers. Other terms are used in texts, such as העליונים. References to angels are uncommon in Jewish literature except in works such as the Book of Daniel, though they are mentioned briefly in the stories of Jacob. Daniel is the first biblical figure to refer to individual angels by name and it is therefore widely speculated that Jewish interest in angels developed during the Babylonian captivity. According to Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish of Tiberias, specific names for the angels were brought back by the Jews from Babylon, there are no explicit references to archangels in the canonical texts of the Hebrew Bible. In post-Biblical Judaism, certain angels came to take on a particular significance, though these archangels were believed to have rank amongst the heavenly host, no systematic hierarchy ever developed
5.
Talmud
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The Talmud is a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. It is also referred to as Shas, a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim, the six orders. Talmud translates literally as instruction in Hebrew, and the term may refer to either the Gemara alone, or the Mishnah, the entire Talmud consists of 63 tractates, and in standard print is over 6,200 pages long. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law, Rabbis expounded and debated the Torah and discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of written works, though some may have made private notes, for example of court decisions. It is during this period that rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing, the earliest recorded oral Torah may have been of the midrashic form, in which halakhic discussion is structured as exegetical commentary on the Pentateuch. But an alternative form, organized by subject matter instead of by biblical verse, became dominant about the year 200 CE, the Oral Torah was far from monolithic, rather, it varied among various schools. The most famous two were the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel, in general, all valid opinions, even the non-normative ones, were recorded in the Talmud. The oldest full manuscript of the Talmud, known as the Munich Talmud, each tractate is divided into chapters,517 in total, that are both numbered according to the Hebrew alphabet and given names, usually using the first one or two words in the first mishnah. A perek may continue over several pages, each perek will contain several mishnayot with their accompanying exchanges that form the building-blocks of the Gemara, the name for a passage of gemara is a sugya. A sugya, including baraita or tosefta, will comprise a detailed proof-based elaboration of a Mishnaic statement. A sugya may, and often does, range widely off the subject of the mishnah, in a given sugya, scriptural, Tannaic and Amoraic statements are cited to support the various opinions. In so doing, the Gemara will highlight semantic disagreements between Tannaim and Amoraim, and compare the Mishnaic views with passages from the Baraita. Rarely are debates formally closed, in instances, the final word determines the practical law. There is a literature on the procedural principles to be used in settling the practical law when disagreements exist, see under #Logic. The Mishnah is a compilation of legal opinions and debates, statements in the Mishnah are typically terse, recording brief opinions of the rabbis debating a subject, or recording only an unattributed ruling, apparently representing a consensus view. The rabbis recorded in the Mishnah are known as the Tannaim, the Mishnahs topical organization thus became the framework of the Talmud as a whole. But not every tractate in the Mishnah has a corresponding Gemara, also, the order of the tractates in the Talmud differs in some cases from that in the Mishnah. In addition to the Mishnah, other tannaitic teachings were current at about the time or shortly thereafter
6.
Satan
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Satan is a figure appearing in the texts of the Abrahamic religions who brings evil and temptation, and is known as the deceiver who leads humanity astray. In the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, Satan is primarily an accuser and adversary, a malevolent entity, also called the devil. Although Satan is generally viewed as having negative characteristics, some groups have different beliefs. In Theistic Satanism, Satan is considered a deity who is either worshipped or revered, in LaVeyan Satanism, Satan is a symbol of virtuous characteristics and liberty. The original Hebrew term satan is a noun from a verb meaning primarily to obstruct, oppose, as it is found in Numbers 22,22,1 Samuel 29,4, ha-Satan is traditionally translated as the accuser or the adversary. The definite article ha- is used to show that this is a title bestowed on a being, thus, this being would be referred to as the satan. Ha-Satan with the definite article occurs 13 times in the Masoretic Text, in two books of the Hebrew Bible, Job ch. 1–2 and Zechariah 3, 1–2. 32 behold, I went out to thee,1 Samuel 29,4 The Philistines say, lest he be an adversary against us 2 Samuel 19,22 David says. 1 Kings 5,4 Solomon writes to Hiram, there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent, when the angels present themselves to God, Satan comes as well. God informs Satan about Jobs blameless, morally upright character, God therefore gives Satan permission to test Job. In the end, Job remains faithful and righteous, and there is the implication that Satan is shamed in his defeat, some scholars see contact with religious dualism in Babylon, and early Zoroastrianism in particular, as influencing Second Temple Judaism, and consequently early Christianity. Subsequent development of Satan as a deceiver has parallels with the spirit in Zoroastrianism, known as the Lie. In the Septuagint, the Hebrew ha-Satan in Job and Zechariah is translated by the Greek word diabolos, the Book of Enoch contains references to Satariel, thought also to be Sataniel and Satanel. The similar spellings mirror that of his angelic brethren Michael, Raphael, Uriel, the Second Book of Enoch, also called the Slavonic Book of Enoch, contains references to a Watcher called Satanael. It is a text of an uncertain date and unknown authorship. The text describes Satanael as being the prince of the Grigori who was cast out of heaven, a similar story is found in the book of 1 Enoch, however, in that book, the leader of the Grigori is called Semjâzâ. In the Book of Wisdom, the devil is represented as the being who brought death into the world, in the Book of Jubilees, Mastema induces God to test Abraham through the sacrifice of Isaac. He is identical to Satan in both name and nature, in Judaism, the term satan used since its earliest biblical contexts to refer to a human opponent
7.
Seducer
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Strategies of seduction include, conversation and sexual scripts, paralingual features, non-verbal communication and short term behavioural strategies. The word seduction stems from Latin and means literally leading astray, as a result, the term may have a positive or negative connotation. Famous seducers from history or legend include Lilith, Giacomo Casanova, the emergence of the Internet and technology has supported the availability and the existence of a seduction community, which is based on discourse about seduction. This is predominately by pickup artists, Seduction is also used within marketing to increase compliance and willingness. Seduction is a motif in history and fiction, both as a warning of the social consequences of engaging in the behaviour or becoming its victim. In the Bible, Eve offers the forbidden fruit to Adam, Eve herself was verbally seduced by the serpent, believed in Christianity to be Satan, later, Chapter 7 of Proverbs warns of the pitfalls of seduction. Sirens of Greek mythology lured sailors to their death by singing them to shipwreck, famous male seducers, their names synonymous with sexual allure, range from Genji to James Bond. If her father refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins. The Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament describes King David seducing Bathsheba, King David has sexual relations with this woman, and then sends her husband to the front lines of battle with near certainty of death. Once Uriah is dead, King David takes Bathsheba as his wife, males and females both implement the strategy of seduction as a method of negotiating their sexual relationships. This can often involve manipulation of other individuals and this is primarily based on desire, normally physical, as well as attraction towards them. Popular phrases often used include, ‘the language of love is universal’ and these phrases help to demonstrate the extensively pervasive and ubiquitous strategy use within love and relationships amongst humans. Research has indicated that seduction could substitute or equate to a form of collapsed or condensed courtship, evolutionary psychology suggests that this form of sexual enticement can be used in order to cajole desired individuals to engage in sexual intercourse and ultimately reproduce. This behaviour is also aimed at persuading someone to develop a short-term or long-term sexual relationship with them, males declare that they adopt the strategy of seduction statistically more frequently than females. From an evolutionary perspective this is due to higher parental investment. Females therefore need to be seduced more prior to engaging in sexual intercourse, men more commonly wish to engage in more frequent short-term mating, which may require this strategy of seduction used to access the female for intercourse. However, this finding has been contradicted by non-verbal seduction results which indicate that females have more control within this area, other potential strategies individuals employ to gain access to a mate include courting or having relatives select mates for socioeconomic reasons. Ultimately, both males and females have reported preferring seduction above all other strategies, such as the use power or aggression, Seduction is related to human mate poaching
8.
Esau
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Esau, in the Hebrew Bible, is the older son of Isaac. He is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and by the prophets, Obadiah, the New Testament of the Christian Bible alludes to him in the Epistle to the Romans and in the Epistle to the Hebrews. According to the Hebrew Bible, Esau is the progenitor of the Edomites and the twin brother of Jacob. Esau and Jacob were the sons of Isaac and Rebekah, of the twins, Esau was the first to be born with Jacob following, holding his heel. Isaac was sixty years old and Rebekah is believed to have been younger when the boys were born, Esaus grandfather Abraham was still alive, being 160 years old at that time. Esau, a man of the field became a hunter who had rough qualities that distinguished him from his twin brother, among these distinguishing qualties were his red hair and noticeable hairiness. Jacob was a shy or simple man, depending on the translation of the Hebrew word Tam, throughout Genesis, Esau is frequently shown as being supplanted by his younger twin Jacob. Genesis 25,25 narrates Esaus birth, Now the first came forth, red all over like a hairy garment, the meaning of the word Esau is disputed, with some connecting it to the word ‘āsāh. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan specifically connects the name Esau to this etymology, stating because he was fully completed, with hair of the head, beard, teeth. It could also be related to the Arabic root ġšw, meaning to cover, others have noted the similarity to Arabic ’a‘tay meaning stupid or šāv meaning worthless. In Hebrew, the word hairy is a wordplay on Seir, the name Edom is also attributed to Esau, meaning red, the same color describing Esaus skintone. Genesis parallels his redness to the red lentil pottage that he sold his birthright for, Esau became the progenitor of the Edomites in Seir. In Genesis, Esau returned to his twin brother Jacob, famished from the fields and he begs Jacob to give him some red pottage This, of course, refers to his red hair. Jacob offers Esau a bowl of stew in exchange for Esaus birthright. This is believed to be the origin of the English phrase for a mess of pottage, in Genesis 27, 1–40, Jacob uses deception, motivated by his mother Rebecca, to lay claim to his blind father Isaacs blessing that was inherently due to the firstborn, Esau. In Genesis 27, 5–7, Rebecca is listening while Isaac speaks to his son Esau, Jacob follows through with the plan to steal his brothers birthright by bringing the meal his father Isaac requested and pretending to be Esau. Jacob pulled off his disguise by covering himself in hairy lamb skin so that when his father went to touch him. Jacob successfully received his father Isaacs blessing, as a result, Jacob becomes the spiritual leader of the family after Isaacs death and the heir of the promises of Abraham
9.
Tutelary deity
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A tutelary is a deity or spirit who is a guardian, patron or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture or occupation. One type of deity is the genius, the personal deity or daimon of an individual from birth to death. Another form of personal tutelary spirit is the spirit of European folklore. Socrates spoke of hearing the voice of his spirit or daimonion. This sign I have had ever since I was a child, the Greeks also thought deities guarded specific places, for instance, Athena was the patron goddess of the city of Athens. Tutelary deities who guard and preserve a place or a person are fundamental to ancient Roman religion, the tutelary deity of a man was his Genius, or that of a woman her Juno. In the Imperial era, the Genius of the Emperor was a focus of Imperial cult, an emperor might also adopt a major deity as his personal patron or tutelary, as Augustus did Apollo. Each town or city had one or more deities, whose protection was considered particularly vital in time of war. Rome itself was protected by a goddess whose name was to be kept secret on pain of death. The Capitoline Triad of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva were also tutelaries of Rome, the Italic towns had their own tutelary deities. Juno often had this function, as at the Latin town of Lanuvium and the Etruscan city of Veii, the tutelary deity of Praeneste was Fortuna, whose oracle was renowned. The depiction of some such as the Magna Mater as tower-crowned represents their capacity to preserve the city. Tutelary deities were also attached to sites of a smaller scale, such as storerooms, crossroads. The poet Martial lists the tutelary deities who watch over various aspects of his farm, the Lares Compitales were the tutelary gods of a neighborhood, each of which had a compitum devoted to these. During the Republic, the cult of local or neighborhood tutelaries sometimes became rallying points for political and social unrest, chinese folk religion, both past and present, includes a myriad of tutelary deities. Exceptional individuals may become deified after death, guan Yu is a well-known tutelary. In Korean shamanism, jangseung and sotdae were placed at the edge of villages to frighten off demons and they were also worshiped as deities. In Shinto, the spirits, or kami, which life to human bodies come from nature
10.
Edom
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Edom is the name of a country and a people located initially in Transjordan, between Ammon to the north, the Dead Sea and the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian desert to the south and east. Edom is a used in written sources relating to the late Bronze Age and to the entire Iron Age in the Levant, such as the Hebrew Bible. In classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to an area in the same general region. Edom is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, but also in a list of the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I from c.1215 BC, the Edomites, who have been identified archaeologically, were a Semitic people who probably arrived in the region around the 14th century BC. Archaeological investigation showed that the country flourished between the 13th and 8th centuries BC, and was destroyed after a period of decline in the 6th century BC by the Babylonians. Once pushed out of their territory, the Edomites settled during the Persian period in an area comprising the hills of Judea down to the area north of Beer Sheva. Here the people appear under the form of their old name, as Idumeans or Idumaeans, and their new territory is called Idumea or Idumaea. The Hebrew word Edom means red, and is derived from the name of its founder, whose name was Esau. Later, as an adult, he sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for red pottage. The Tanakh describes the Edomites as descendants of Esau, the Edomites may have been connected with the Shasu and Shutu, nomadic raiders mentioned in Egyptian sources. The earliest Iron Age settlements—possibly copper mining camps—date to the 9th century BC, settlement intensified by the late 8th century BC and the main sites so far excavated have been dated between the 8th and 6th centuries BC. This occurred after the Hebrew prophet Isaiah had earlier quoted Yahweh as pronouncing that Edom was marked for destruction, another scriptural reference from Ezekiel chapter 35 foretells that Edom will be completely destroyed. According to the Egyptian inscriptions, the Aduma at times extended their possessions to the borders of Egypt, after the conquest of Judah by the Babylonians, Edomites settled in the region of Hebron. They prospered in this new country, called by the Greeks and Romans Idumaea or Idumea, the Edomites original country, according to the Hebrew Bible, stretched from the Sinai peninsula as far as Kadesh Barnea. Southward it reached as far as Eilat, which was the seaport of Edom, on the north of Edom was the territory of Moab. The boundary between Moab and Edom was the Wadi Zered, the ancient capital of Edom was Bozrah. According to Genesis, Esaus descendants settled in land after displacing the Horites. It was also called the land of Seir, Mount Seir appears to have been identified with them
11.
Heavenly host
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Heavenly host refers to the army of angels mentioned both in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, as well as other Jewish and Christian texts. Several descriptions of angels in the Bible describe them in terms, such as encampment, command structure. The heavenly host participate in the War in Heaven, in the Book of Joshua 5, 13-15, Joshua encounters a captain of the host of the Lord in the early days of his campaigns in the Promised Land. Cherubim are depicted as accompanying Gods chariot-throne, exodus 25, 18-22 refers to statues of two cherubim placed on top of the Ark of the Covenant. J. A. Motyer writes, the cherbim overshadowing the ark were a pedestal for the throne of the invisible God. Other guard-like duties include being posted in locations such as the gates of Eden, cherubim were mythological winged bulls or other beasts that were part of ancient Near Eastern traditions. This designation might be given to angels of various ranks, an example would be Raphael who is ranked variously as a Seraph, Cherub, and Archangel. This is usually a result of conflicting schemes of hierarchies of angels, in Revelation 5,11 a figure of ten thousand times ten thousand is given for the number of many angels in a circle around the throne, as well as the living creatures and the elders. In the Book of Revelation, the forces of Satan are defeated by the Heavenly Host led by Michael the Archangel during the War in Heaven. This name is transliterated in Latin as Sabaoth, a form that will be more familiar to many English readers. The term Lord of Hosts is also used in the Baháí Faith as a title of God, in the English epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton, the Archangel Michael commands the army of angels loyal to God against the rebel forces of Satan. Armed with a sword from Gods armory, he bests Satan in personal combat, astrolatry Divine Council Hierarchy of Angels
12.
Death (personification)
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Death, also known as the Grim Reaper, is a common element in culture and history. As a personified force it has been imagined in many different ways, in some mythologies, the Grim Reaper causes the victims death by coming to collect him. In turn, people in some stories try to hold on to life by avoiding Deaths visit, in many mythologies, Death is personified in male form, while in others, Death is perceived as female. Mot was personified to Canaanites as a god of death and he was considered a son of the king of the gods, El. His contest with the storm god Baʿal forms part of the myth cycle discovered in the 1920s in the ruins of Ugarit, lacunae obscure some of the details, but Mot apparently consumes Baʿal before being split open and mutilated by that gods sister, the warrior Anat. After a time, both gods are restored and resume battle before the sun goddess Shapash prompts a truce by warning Mot that, if forced to, El would intervene on Baʿals behalf. The Phoenicians also worshipped death under the name Mot and a version of Mot later became Maweth, Ancient Greece found Death to be inevitable, and therefore, he is not represented as purely evil. He is often portrayed as a bearded and winged man, but has also portrayed as a young boy. Death, or Thanatos, is the counterpart of life, death being represented as male and he is the twin brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep. He is typically shown with his brother and is represented as being just and his job is to escort the dead to the underworld, Hades. He then hands the dead over to Charon, who mans the boat that carries them over the river Styx, which separates the land of the living from the land of the dead. It was believed if the ferryman did not receive some sort of payment. Thanatos sisters, the Keres, were the spirits of violent death and they were associated with deaths from battle, disease, accident, and murder. The sisters were portrayed as evil, often feeding on the blood of the body after the soul had been escorted to Hades and they had fangs and talons, and would be dressed in bloody garments. Breton folklore shows us a spectral figure portending death, the Ankou, the Ankou drives a deathly wagon or cart with a creaking axle. The cart or wagon is piled high with corpses and a stop at a cabin means instant death for those inside. In Ireland there was a known as a dullahan, whose head would be tucked under his or her arm, and the head was said to have large eyes. The dullahan would ride a horse or a carriage pulled by black horses, and stop at the house of someone about to die, and call their name
13.
Angel
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An angel, especially according to Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism, is a spiritual being superior to humans in power and intelligence. Most of them either as intermediaries between Heaven and Earth, or as guardian spirits. They are studied in the doctrine of angelology. In Christian Science, the angel is used to refer to an inspiration from God. In fine art, angels are depicted as having the shape of human beings of extraordinary beauty, they are often identified using the symbols of bird wings, halos. The word angel in English is a blend of Old English engel, both derive from Late Latin angelus messenger, which in turn was borrowed from Late Greek ἄγγελος ángelos. According to R. S. P. Beekes, ángelos itself may be an Oriental loan, the words earliest form is Mycenaean a-ke-ro attested in Linear B syllabic script. The ángelos is the default Septuagints translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mal’ākh denoting simply messenger without specifying its nature. In the Latin Vulgate, however, the meaning becomes bifurcated, if the word refers to some supernatural being, the word angelus appears. Such differentiation has been taken over by later vernacular translations of the Bible, early Christian and Jewish exegetes, in Zoroastrianism there are different angel-like figures. For example, each person has one guardian angel, called Fravashi and they patronize human beings and other creatures, and also manifest Gods energy. In the commentaries of Proclus on the Timaeus of Plato, Proclus uses the terminology of angelic, according to Aristotle, just as there is a First Mover, so, too, must there be spiritual secondary movers. The Torah uses the terms מלאך אלהים, מלאך יהוה, בני אלהים and הקודשים to refer to beings traditionally interpreted as angels, later texts use other terms, such as העליונים. The term מלאך is also used in books of the Tanakh. Depending on the context, the Hebrew word may refer to a messenger or to a supernatural messenger. Daniel is the first biblical figure to refer to individual angels by name, mentioning Gabriel in Daniel 9,21 and these angels are part of Daniels apocalyptic visions and are an important part of all apocalyptic literature. One of these is hāšāṭān, a figure depicted in the Book of Job, philo of Alexandria identifies the angel with the Logos inasmuch as the angel is the immaterial voice of God. The angel is something different from God himself, but is conceived as Gods instrument, in post-Biblical Judaism, certain angels took on particular significance and developed unique personalities and roles
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Seven Heavens
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Some of these traditions, including Jainism, also have a concept of seven earths or seven underworlds. The idea of seven heavens was originated in ancient Mesopotamia and it was probably a symbolic concept. In Sumerian language, the words for heaven and earth are An, Sumerian incantations of the late second millennium BCE make references to seven heavens and seven earths. One such incantation is, an-imin-bi ki-imin-bi The notion of seven heavens may have derived from the magical properties of the number seven. The number seven appears frequently in Babylonian magical rituals, the seven Jewish and the seven Islamic heavens may have had their origin in Babylonian astronomy. In general, heaven is not a place for humans in Mesopotamian religion, as Gilgamesh says to his friend Enkidu, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Who can go up to heaven, my friend. Only the gods dwell with Shamash forever, along with the idea of seven heavens, the idea of three heavens was also common in ancient Mesopotamia. In 2 Enoch, Enoch travels through the seven heavens and gives geographical and visual documentation of them, describing houses, olive oil and he passes through the Garden of Eden in the Third Heaven on his way to meet the Lord in the 7th Heaven. The Quran frequently mentions the existence of seven samaawat, plural of samaaa, the word is cognate to Hebrew shamayim. Some of the verses in which Quran mentions seven samaawat, are, there are two interpretations of using the number seven. One viewpoint is that the number seven here simply means many and is not to be taken literally, but many other commentators use the number 7 literally. One interpretation of heavens is that all the stars and galaxies are all part of the first heaven, and beyond that six still bigger worlds are there, in other sources, the concept is presented in metaphorical terms. Each of the seven heavens is depicted as being composed of a different material, the first heaven is depicted as being made of silver and is the home of Adam and Eve, as well as the angels of each star. The second heaven is depicted as being made of gold and is the home of John the Baptist, the third heaven is depicted as being made of pearls or other dazzling stones, Joseph and Azrael are resident there. The fourth heaven is depicted as being made of gold, Enoch. The fifth heaven is depicted as being made of silver, Aaron, the sixth heaven is composed of garnets and rubies, Moses can be found here. The seventh heaven, which borrows some concepts from its Jewish counterpart, is depicted as being composed of divine light incomprehensible to the mortal man, abraham is a resident of the seventh heaven. According to some hadiths, the highest level of Jannah is firdaws, and Sidrat al-Muntaha, an epistle of the Apostle Paul, included in the New Testament, contains an explicit reference to the Third Heaven
15.
Heaven
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According to the beliefs of some religions, heavenly beings can descend to earth or incarnate, and earthly beings can ascend to Heaven in the afterlife, or in exceptional cases enter Heaven alive. Some believe in the possibility of a Heaven on Earth in a World to Come, another belief is in an axis mundi or world tree which connects the heavens, the terrestrial world, and the underworld. In Indian religions, Heaven is considered as Svarga loka, and this cycle can be broken after a soul achieves Moksha or Nirvana. Any place of existence, either of humans, souls or deities, the modern English word heaven is derived from the earlier heven, this in turn was developed from the previous Old English form heofon. By about 1000, heofon was being used in reference to the Christianized place where God dwells, all of these have been derived from a reconstructed Proto-Germanic form *Hemina-. In Ancient Egyptian religion, belief in an afterlife is much more stressed than in ancient Judaism, Heaven was a physical place far above the Earth in a dark area of space where there were no stars, basically beyond the Universe. Their heart would finally be weighed with the feather of truth, almost nothing is known of Bronze Age Canaanite views of Heaven, and the archeological findings at Ugarit have not provided information. The 1st century Greek author Philo of Byblos may preserve elements of Iron Age Phoenician religion in his Sanchuniathon, in the Middle Hittite myths, Heaven is the abode of the gods. In the Song of Kumarbi, Alalu was king in Heaven for nine years before giving birth to his son, Anu was himself overthrown by his son, Kumarbi. The Baháí Faith regards the description of Heaven as a specific place as symbolic. The Baháí writings describe Heaven as a condition where closeness to God is defined as Heaven. For Baháís, entry into the life has the potential to bring great joy. Baháulláh likened death to the process of birth and he explains, The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother. Accordingly, Baháís view life as a stage, where one can develop. The key to progress is to follow the path outlined by the current Manifestation of God. Baháulláh wrote, Know thou, of a truth, that if the soul of man hath walked in the ways of God, it will, assuredly return, in Buddhism there are several Heavens, all of which are still part of samsara. Those who accumulate good karma may be reborn in one of them, however, their stay in Heaven is not eternal—eventually they will use up their good karma and will undergo rebirth into another realm, as a human, animal or other being. Because Heaven is temporary and part of samsara, Buddhists focus more on escaping the cycle of rebirth, Nirvana is not a heaven but a mental state
16.
Judaism
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Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with the Torah as its text, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth-largest religion in the world, Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic, today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditional interpretation of Judaisms requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law, today, these still exist. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, the history of Judaism spans more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions, the Hebrews and Israelites were already referred to as Jews in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title Children of Israel. Judaisms texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam, many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law. Jews are a group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2015, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14.3 million, Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism, the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Tanakh, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation, many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God, that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate Gods concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to one another, that is. These commandments are but two of a corpus of commandments and laws that constitute this covenant, which is the substance of Judaism
17.
Michael (archangel)
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Michael is an archangel in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions, he is called Saint Michael the Archangel, in the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox traditions, he is called Taxiarch Archangel Michael or simply Archangel Michael. Michael is mentioned three times in the Book of Daniel, in the New Testament Michael leads Gods armies against Satans forces in the Book of Revelation, where during the war in heaven he defeats Satan. In the Epistle of Jude Michael is specifically referred to as the archangel Michael, by the 6th century, devotions to Archangel Michael were widespread both in the Eastern and Western Churches. Over time, teachings on Michael began to vary among Christian denominations, Michael is mentioned three times in the Hebrew Scriptures, all in the book of Daniel. The prophet Daniel experiences a vision after having undergone a period of fasting, Daniel 10, 13-21 describes Daniels vision of an angel who identifies Michael as the protector of Israel. At Daniel 12,1, Daniel is informed that Michael will arise during the time of the end, the Book of Revelation describes a war in heaven in which Michael, being stronger, defeats Satan. After the conflict, Satan is thrown to earth along with the fallen angels, in the Epistle of Jude 1,9, Michael is referred to as an archangel when he again confronts Satan. A reference to an archangel also appears in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians 4,16 and this archangel who heralds the second coming of Christ is not named, but is often associated with Michael. Michael, is one of the two mentioned in the Quran, alongside Jibreel. In the Quran, Michael is mentioned only, in Sura 2,98, Whoever is an enemy to God, and His angels and His messengers. Then, God is an enemy to the disbelievers, some Muslims believe that the reference in Sura 11,69 is Michael, one of the three angels who visited Abraham. Michaels enmity with Samael dates from the time when the latter was thrown down from heaven, Samael took hold of the wings of Michael, whom he wished to bring down with him in his fall, but Michael was saved by God. But appeal to Michael seems to have more common in ancient times. Thus Jeremiah is said to have addressed a prayer to him, the rabbis declare that Michael entered upon his role of defender at the time of the biblical patriarchs. Thus, according to Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob, it was Michael who rescued Abraham from the furnace into which he had been thrown by Nimrod. It was Michael, the one that had escaped, who told Abraham that Lot had been taken captive, and he announced to Sarah that she would bear a son and he rescued Lot at the destruction of Sodom. It is said that Michael prevented Isaac from being sacrificed by his father by substituting a ram in his place, later Michael prevented Laban from harming Jacob
18.
Yalkut Shimoni
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The Yalkut Shimoni or simply Yalkut is an aggadic compilation on the books of the Hebrew Bible. The individual elucidations form a whole only insofar as they refer to the same Biblical passage. Lengthy citations from ancient works are often abridged or are partially quoted. In many instances, however, only the beginning of such an explanation is given, the division into sections is arbitrary, and the sections are very unequal in length, Deut. 818, for example, in the Wilna edition containing five lines. In his exegesis of each passage, often in the text itself, in the Salonica edition they are given at the beginning of each corresponding Biblical passage, although in later editions they were placed in the margin. The sources embrace not only the portion of halakic and haggadic literature during the ancient and geonic epochs. The latter works are often cited simply as Midrash, without any more definite identification, in that portion of the Yalḳuṭ which treats of the books of Samuel, Psalms, and Proverbs, the term Midrash designates the midrash on the respective books. The term Midrash is used also to indicate the source of passages which belong to older or more recent works. In these few instances the author was apparently either uncertain of his references or he used a collection known under the name of Midrash. Akiba, to which he alludes in Gen.1, the author of the Yalḳuṭ can not be determined with certainty. If the Yalḳuṭ was so old, moreover, it would be difficult to explain why no mention of it is made by R. Nathan b, jehiel, the author of the Aruk, or by Rashi. A. Epstein inclines to agree with Zunz that the author of the Yalḳuṭ flourished in the part of the 13th century. According to Zunz, the work was written by R. Simeon Ḳara, who lived in southern Germany at that period, and the title ha-Darshan was bestowed upon him probably at a later date. It is certain that a manuscript of the Yalḳuṭ, mentioned by Azariah dei Rossi, existed in 1310, the editio princeps of the Yalḳuṭ was printed in Salonica in 1521, the latter part of the work, relating to the Prophets and the Hagiographa, appearing first. The part treating of the Pentateuch appeared between 1526 and 1527, and the work was later published in Venice with certain emendations and deviations from the Salonica edition. All later texts are merely reprints of the Venetian edition, with the exception of one published at Livorno, to this edition is appended a brief commentary by Abraham Abele Gumbiner of Kalisz entitled Zayit Raanan. Yalkut Shimoni, Midrash al Torah, Neviim u-Khetuvim, yarid ha-Sefarim, Jerusalem 2006 Midrash Yalkut Shimoni, Torah, Neviim, u-Khetuvim
19.
Guardian angel
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A guardian angel is an angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group, kingdom, or country. Belief in guardian angels can be traced throughout all antiquity, the concept of tutelary angels and their hierarchy was extensively developed in Christianity in the 5th century by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The theology of angels and tutelary spirits has undergone many refinements since the 5th century, belief in both the East and the West is that guardian angels serve to protect whichever person God assigns them to, and present prayer to God on that persons behalf. The belief in guardian angels can be traced throughout all antiquity, pagans such as Menander and Plutarch, the guardian angel concept is present in the books of the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and its development is well marked. These books described Gods angels as his ministers who carried out his behests, in this latter case, the prince of the kingdom of Persia contends with Gabriel. The same verse mentions Michael, one of the chief princes, in Rabbinic literature, the Rabbis expressed the notion that there are indeed guardian angels appointed by Adonai to watch over people. Lailah is an angel of the night in charge of conception, lailah serves as a guardian angel throughout a persons life and at death, leads the soul into the afterlife. According to Leo Trepp, in late Judaism, the belief developed that the people have a heavenly representative, every human being has a guardian angel. Previously the term Malakh, angel, simply meant messenger of God, modern rabbis clarify that people might indeed have guardian angels. In the New Testament the concept of guardian angel may be noted, other examples in the New Testament are the angel who succoured Christ in the garden, and the angel who delivered St. Peter from prison. In Acts 12, 12-15, after Peter had been escorted out of prison by an angel, he went to the home of Mary the mother of John, the servant girl, Rhoda, recognized his voice and ran back to tell the group that Peter was there. However, the replied, It must be his angel. Hebrews 1,14 says, Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, in this view, the function of the guardian angel is to lead people to the Kingdom of Heaven. In the New Testament Epistle of Jude, Michael is described as an archangel, according to Saint Jerome, the concept of guardian angels is in the mind of the Church. He stated, how great the dignity of the soul, since one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it. The first Christian theologian to outline a specific scheme for guardian angels was Honorius of Autun in the 12th century and he said that every soul was assigned a guardian angel the moment it was put into a body. Scholastic theologians augmented and ordered the taxonomy of angelic guardians, in the 15th century, the Feast of the Guardian Angels was added to the official calendar of Catholic holidays. In his 2014 homily for the Feast of Holy Guardian Angels, October 2, Pope Francis told those gathered for daily Mass to be children who pay attention to their “traveling companion. ”“No one journeys alone and no one should think that they are alone
20.
Parasang
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The parasang is a historical Iranian unit of itinerant distance, the length of which varied according to terrain and speed of travel. The European equivalent is the league, the parasang may have originally been some fraction of the distance an infantryman could march in some predefined period of time. Mid-5th-century BCE Herodotus speaks of traveling the equivalent of five parasangs per day, in antiquity, the term was used throughout much of the Middle East, and the Old Iranian language from which it derives can no longer be determined. There is no consensus with respect to its etymology or literal meaning, the present-day New Persian word is also farsakh, and should not be confused with the present-day farsang, which is a metric unit. The earliest surviving mention of the parasang comes from the mid-5th-century BCE Herodotus, a length of 30 stadia is also given by several later Greek and Roman writers. The 6th-century Agathias however—while referring to Herodotus and Xenophon—notes that in his time the Pérsai considered the parasang to have only 21 stadia, strabo also notes that some writers considered it to be 60, others 40, and yet others 30. In his 1st-century Parthian stations, Isidore of Charax evidently the same measure as the Arabic parasang, the 1st-century Pliny noted that the Iranians themselves assigned different lengths to it. Recalling local legend, Mostofi states the unit was defined by the mythological Kai Kobad to be equal to 12,000 cubits, following the 30-stadia definition of Herodotus and Xenophon, the parasang would be equal to either 5.7 km or 5.3 km. But in 1920, Kenneth Mason of the Royal Geographical Society adduced that the used in Xenophons Babylonian travel accounts was equal to only 2.4 miles. Whatever the basis of calculation, theoretical values for the stade, a 1985 suggestion proposes that the parasang and Attic stade were defined in terms of the Babylonian beru, an astromically-derived sexagesimal unit of time and linear distance. At 1 beru =60 stadia =2 parasang, the parasang could then be expressed as as 10,800 common Babylonian cubits, or 18,000 Attic feet, the parasangs were longer when the road was flat and dry, but shorter when travel was slower. The term has survived in Modern Greek in the stereotypical expression απέχει παρασάγγας meaning that something is far away from something else. As Hebrew parsah, the parasang also finds use in the Babylonian Talmud, in several uses, for instance in a description of the ladder to heaven. In the commentary of Pesachim 9, the 4th-century Rabbah bar bar Hana, on the authority of the 3rd-century Rabbah Johanan, the farsang was also used as Ethiopian unit for length
21.
Moses
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Moses is a prophet in Abrahamic religions. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew, he is the most important prophet in Judaism and he is also an important prophet in Christianity, Islam, the Baháí Faith as well as a number of other Abrahamic religions. Moses Hebrew mother, Jochebed, secretly hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed in order to reduce the population of the Israelites. Through the Pharaohs daughter, the child was adopted as a foundling from the Nile river and grew up with the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slavemaster, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he could not speak with assurance or eloquence, so God allowed Aaron, his brother, to become his spokesperson. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, after 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land on Mount Nebo. According to archaeologist William G. Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE, Jerome gives 1592 BCE, the Biblical account of Moses birth provides him with a folk etymology to explain the ostensible meaning of his name. He is said to have received it from the Pharaohs daughter and she named him Moses, saying, I drew him out of the water. This explanation links it to a verb mashah, meaning to draw out, the princess made a grammatical mistake which is prophetic of his future role in legend, as someone who will draw the people of Israel out of Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea. Abraham Yahuda, based on the spelling given in the Tanakh, argues that it combines water or seed and pond, expanse of water, the Hebrew etymology in the Biblical story may reflect an attempt to cancel out traces of Moses Egyptian origins. The Egyptian character of his name was recognized as such by ancient Jewish writers like Philo of Alexandria and Josephus. Philo linked Mōēsēs to the Egyptian word for water, while Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, claimed that the element, -esês. Hizkuni suggested she either converted or took a tip from Jochebed, the Israelites had settled in the Land of Goshen in the time of Joseph and Jacob, but a new pharaoh arose who oppressed the children of Israel. At this time Moses was born to his father Amram, son of Kehath the Levite, who entered Egypt with Jacobs household, his mother was Jochebed, Moses had one older sister, Miriam, and one older brother, Aaron. One day after Moses had reached adulthood he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, Moses, in order to escape the Pharaohs death penalty, fled to Midian. There, on Mount Horeb, God revealed to Moses his name YHWH and commanded him to return to Egypt and bring his people out of bondage. Moses returned to carry out Gods command, but God caused the Pharaoh to refuse, from Egypt, Moses led the Israelites to biblical Mount Sinai, where he was given the Ten Commandments from God, written on stone tablets
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Kabbalah
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Kabbalah is an esoteric method, discipline, and school of thought that originated in Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist in Judaism is called a Mekubbal, Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal, and mysterious Ein Sof and the mortal and finite universe. While it is used by some denominations, it is not a religious denomination in itself. It forms the foundations of religious interpretation. Kabbalah seeks to define the nature of the universe and the human being, the nature and purpose of existence and it also presents methods to aid understanding of the concepts and thereby attain spiritual realisation. Kabbalah originally developed within the realm of Jewish tradition, and kabbalists often use classical Jewish sources to explain, traditional practitioners believe its earliest origins pre-date world religions, forming the primordial blueprint for Creations philosophies, religions, sciences, arts, and political systems. Safed Rabbi Isaac Luria is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah and it was popularised in the form of Hasidic Judaism from the 18th century onwards. According to the Zohar, a text for kabbalistic thought. These four levels are called pardes from their initial letters, peshat, the direct interpretations of meaning. Derash, midrashic meanings, often with imaginative comparisons with similar words or verses, sod, the inner, esoteric meanings, expressed in kabbalah. Kabbalah is considered by its followers as a part of the study of Torah – the study of Torah being an inherent duty of observant Jews. A third tradition, related but more shunned, involves the magical aims of Practical Kabbalah and they can be readily distinguished by their basic intent with respect to God, The Theosophical tradition of Theoretical Kabbalah seeks to understand and describe the divine realm. Consequently, it formed a minor tradition shunned from Kabbalah. According to traditional belief, early kabbalistic knowledge was transmitted orally by the Patriarchs, prophets, According to this view, early kabbalah was, in around the 10th century BC, an open knowledge practiced by over a million people in ancient Israel. Foreign conquests drove the Jewish spiritual leadership of the time to hide the knowledge and make it secret and it is hard to clarify with any degree of certainty the exact concepts within kabbalah. There are several different schools of thought with different outlooks, however. From the Renaissance onwards Jewish Kabbalah texts entered non-Jewish culture, where they were studied and translated by Christian Hebraists, syncretic traditions of Christian Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah developed independently of Jewish Kabbalah, reading the Jewish texts as universal ancient wisdom. Both adapted the Jewish concepts freely from their Judaic understanding, to merge with other theologies, religious traditions, with the decline of Christian Cabala in the Age of Reason, Hermetic Qabalah continued as a central underground tradition in Western esotericism
23.
Beri'ah
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It is known as the World of Creation, or Korsia. Beriah is the first of the four worlds to be created ex nihilo, Beriah is the abode of the permanent archangels, as opposed to the non-permanent angels which dwell in Yetzirah. The first of the two letter heis ה in the Tetragrammaton The sefirah of Binah and hence the partzuf of Ima The element of Water, the Biblical Archangels dwell in the realm of Beriah. The fixed zodiac sign of water, Scorpio and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Singer, Isidore, et al. eds. New York, Funk & Wagnalls Company, in Paul Foster Cases An Introduction To The Tarot this world has a water element as its correspondence to better fit the Suit Of Cups
24.
Asmodeus
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Asmodeus or Ashmedai is a king of demons mostly known from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit, in which he is the primary antagonist. The demon is mentioned in some Talmudic legends, for instance. He was supposed by some Renaissance Christians to be the King of the Nine Hells, Asmodeus also is referred to as one of the seven princes of Hell. In Binsfelds classification of demons, each one of these princes represents one of the seven deadly sins, Asmodeus is the demon of lust and is therefore responsible for twisting peoples sexual desires, as seen in the book of Tobias especially. He is also said to be here on Earth after millions of years in hell and it is said in Asmodeus, Or, The Devil on Two Sticks that people who fall to Asmodeus ways will be sentenced to an eternity in the second level of hell. The name Asmodai is believed to derive from Avestan language *aēšma-daēva, where aēšma means wrath, while the daēva Aēšma is thus Zoroastrianisms demon of wrath and is also well attested as such, the compound aēšma-daēva is not attested in scripture. It is nonetheless likely that such a form did exist, and that the Book of Tobits Asmodaios, the spellings Asmodai, Asmodee, Osmodeus, and Osmodai have also been used. The name is spelled in the bastardized forms Hashmedai, Hammadai, Shamdon. Some traditions have subsequently identified Shamdon as the father of Asmodeus and it also could be a bastardized version of the Greek Ozymandias, the Greek name for Ramses the Great. The full name Ashmedai is not found, but in 2 Kings 17,30, not only does this name better resemble that of the Persian daeva Aeshma, but the name also greatly resembles the name Ashmedai in Hebrew. Likewise, the Bible is clear in that at least some heathen gods are not just idols, according to the Kabbalah and the school of Rashba, Asmodeus is a cambion born as the result of a union between Agrat Bat Mahlat, a succubus, and King David. The Asmodeus of the Book of Tobit is hostile to Sarah, Raguels daughter and he is described as the worst of demons. When the young Tobias is about to marry her, Asmodeus proposes the same fate for him, by placing a fishs heart and liver on red-hot cinders, Tobias produces a smoky vapor that causes the demon to flee to Egypt, where Raphael binds him. According to some translations Asmodeus is strangled, perhaps Asmodeus punishes the suitors for their carnal desire, since Tobit prays to be free from such desire and is kept safe. Asmodeus is also described as a spirit in general, Ασμοδαίος τὸ πονηρὸν δαιμόνιον or τõ δαιμόνιον πονηρόν. The figure of Ashmedai in the Talmud is less malign in character than the Asmodeus of Tobit, in the former, he appears repeatedly in the light of a good-natured and humorous fellow. But besides that, there is one feature in which he parallels Asmodeus, inasmuch as his desires turn upon Solomons wives, another Talmudic legend has King Solomon tricking Asmodai into collaborating in the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem. Another legend depicts Asmodai throwing king Solomon over 400 leagues away from the capital by putting one wing on the ground and he then changed places for some years with King Solomon
25.
Waw (letter)
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Waw is the sixth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician wāw, Aramaic waw, Hebrew vav ו, Syriac waw ܘ and Arabic wāw و. It represents the consonant and the vowels and and it is the origin of Greek Ϝ, Υ and Latin F, V and the derived letters U, W, Y. The preceding consonant could either have no diacritic or a mark, damma. A long /oː/ In many dialects, as a result of the monophthongization that underwent the diphthong /aw/ in most of the words, a part of a diphthong, /aw/. In this case it has no diacritic, but could be marked with a sukun in some traditions, the preceding consonant could either have no diacritic or have fatḥa sign, hinting to the first vowel /a/ in the diphthong. As a vowel, wāw can serve as the carrier of a hamza, wāw serves several functions in Arabic. Perhaps foremost among them is that it is the conjunction in Arabic, equivalent to and, it is usually prefixed to other conjunctions, such as وَلَكِن wa-lākin, meaning. Another function is the oath, by preceding a noun of great significantly valued by the speaker and it is often literally translatable to By. or I swear to. And is often used in the Quran in this way, with an additional triple dot diacritic above waw, the letter then named ve is used to represent distinctively the consonant /v/ sometimes in Arabic-based Sorani Kurdish and in Arabic-based Uyghur. /o/ in Sorani Kurdish, /v/ in Arabic-based Kazakh, /ø/ in Uyghur, thirty-fourth letter of the Azerbaijani Arabic script, represents Ô /ɔ/. In Jawi script, Used for /v/. 00% and it is pronounced, like in Arabic, as a by some Jews of Mizrahi origin. In modern Israeli Hebrew, some loanwords, the pronunciation of whose source contains /w/, modern Hebrew has no standardized way to distinguish orthographically between and. The pronunciation is determined by prior knowledge or must be derived through context, some non standard spellings of the sound are sometimes found in modern Hebrew texts, such as word-initial double-vav, וואללה – /ˈwala/ or, rarely, vav with a geresh, ו׳יליאם – /ˈwiljam/. Vav can be used as a mater lectionis for an o vowel, in case it is known as a ḥolam male. The distinction is normally ignored and the HEBREW POINT HOLAM is used in all cases and this vowel can be denoted without the vav, as just the dot placed above and to the left of the letter it points, and is called then ḥolam ḥaser. Some inadequate typefaces dont support the distinction between the ḥolam male ⟨וֹ⟩ /o/, the consonantal vav pointed with a ḥolam ḥaser ⟨וֺ⟩ /vo/. In the word שִׁוּוּק, marketing, the first denotes a vav with dagesh and this is the most common usage. For example, yomar means he will say and vayomar means he said, for example, ahavtah means you loved, and veahavtah means you will love
26.
Baal Shem
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The unofficial title was given by others who recognised or benefited from the Baal Shems ability to perform wondrous deeds, and emerged in the Middle Ages, continuing until the early-Modern era. Baal Shem were seen as miracle workers who could bring about cures and healing, as well having mystical powers to foresee or interpret events and they were considered to have a direct line to Heaven evoking Gods mercies and compassion on suffering human beings. The Baal Shem, the communal Maggid preacher, and the Mokhiakh of penitence were seen as lower level unofficial Jewish intelligentsia, below contract Rabbis and study Kabbalists. The activity of Baalei Shem among the community, as well as the influence of kabbalistic ideas, a few people received the title of Baal Shem among Eastern and Central European Ashkenazi Jewry. The name is most well known in reference to the founder of Hasidic Judaism, the Baal Shem Tov started public life as a traditional Baal Shem, but with his teachings of Hasidism, introduced a new way into mystical thought and practice. His role is distinguished from other, predominantly earlier, Baal Shem by the addition of Tov – Good to his title, Hasidism popularised esoteric Kabbalah into a social mysticism movement. The 1814–15 Praises of the Besht sets the Baal Shem Tovs teaching circle against his occupation as travelling Baal Shem. The Name referred to in Master of the Name is the most holy Four-Letter Name of God or Tetragrammaton, in Jewish tradition, this Name was pronounced only by the High Priest on Yom Kippur. With the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in the year 70 CE, in some accounts, a Baal Shem was believed to have re-discovered the true pronunciation, perhaps during deep meditation, and could use it in magical ways to work miracles. Some stories say he pronounced it out loud, others say he visualized the Name in his mind and he also used the names of angels in this way. As the Temple in Jerusalem is not standing, and no one possesses the ashes of the Red Heifer, without these things, he said, Practical Kabbalah is very damaging. There is a source for amulets in the Torah, when a great sage writes Holy Names, without pronouncing them, on parchment and puts it into a container which is worn by the recipient, it can possess healing and spiritual powers. At the beginning of the Baal Shem Tovs life, since he was a healer, sometimes the amulet works because of the faith of the recipient in the spiritual power of the amulet. At the end of his life, the Baal Shem Tov never wrote the Names of God, only his own signature and this was the ultimate amulet given by the Baal Shem Tov. The Sages teach us that whoever receives a coin from the hands of Job receives a blessing and this is the source in the Talmud that receiving a coin from a great tzaddik brings with it a blessing. Thus we see that there are amulets that are permissible, the determining factor is the righteousness and intentions of the person giving the amulet. A rare group of people have recorded as holding the title of Baal Shem. The first recorded person to receive the title was Eliyahu of Chelm, other Baalei Shem include, Elchanan, rabbi in Vienna, 17th century Elijah Loans Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms Hayyim Samuel Jacob Falk of London Gedaliah of Worms, an eminent Talmudist Joel b
27.
Belial
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Belial is a term occurring in the Hebrew Bible which later became personified as the devil in Jewish and Christian texts. The term belial is a Hebrew adjective meaning worthless, the etymology of the word is traditionally understood as lacking worth, from two common words, beli- and yaal. Some scholars translate it from Hebrew as worthless, while others translate it as yokeless, only a few etymologists have assumed it to be an invented name from the start. It occurs twenty-seven times in the Masoretic Text, in such as Proverbs 6,12. In the Hebrew text the phrase is either sons of Belial or simply sons of worthlessness, phrases beginning with sons of are a common semitic idiom such as sons of destruction sons of lawlessness. Of these 27 occurrences, the sons of Belial appears 15 times to indicate worthless people, including idolaters, the men of Gibeah, the sons of Eli, Nabal. In his entirety he will certainly be cut off, the term belial appears frequently in Jewish texts of the Second Temple period. Also a large number of references to Belial are evidenced in the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at Qumran from 1948, all the spirits 12 of his lot are angels of destruction, they walk in the laws of darkness, towards it goes their only sire. In the Rules of the Community, God is depicted as saying, I shall not retain Belial within my heart. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, Belial is further contrasted with God and these are the Angel of Light and the Angel of Darkness. The Manual of Discipline identifies the Angel of Light as God himself, the Angel of Darkness is identified in the same scroll as Belial. Also in The Dead Sea Scrolls is a recounting of a dream of Amram, the father of Moses, one is Belial who is described as the King of Evil and Prince of Darkness. Belial is also mentioned in the Fragments of a Zadokite Work, the Fragments also speak of three nets of Belial which are said to be fornication, wealth, and pollution of the sanctuary. In this work, Belial is sometimes presented as an agent of divine punishment and sometimes as a rebel and it was Belial who inspired the Egyptian sorcerers, Jochaneh and his brother, to oppose Moses and Aaron. The Fragments also say that anyone who is ruled by the spirits of Belial and speaks of rebellion should be condemned as a necromancer, in the Book of Jubilees, uncircumcised Gentiles are called sons of Belial. Belial is also mentioned in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the author of the work seems to be a dualist because he presents Belial as Gods opponent, not as a servant, but does not mention how or why this came to be. Simeon 5,3 says that fornication separates man from God, levi tells his children to choose between the Law of God and the works of Belial It also states that when the soul is constantly disturbed, the Lord departs from it and Belial rules over it. Naphtali contrasts the Law and will of God with the purposes of Belial, also, in 20,2, Joseph prophesies that when Israel leaves Egypt, they will be with God in light while Belial will remain in darkness with the Egyptians
28.
Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer
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Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer is an aggadic-midrashic work on the Torah containing exegesis and retellings of biblical stories. The composition enjoyed widespread circulation and recognition throughout Jewish history, leopold Zunz has suggested that the book has had interpolations made to copies owned by private citizens in the 8th century. Isaak Jost first noticed the inclusion of 8th century interpolations, the topic of chapters one and two of the composition is the beginnings of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanus, it is due to them that medieval sages attributed the entire work to him. However, Zunz conclusively proved that this traditional ascription is not historically accurate and this is further proved by one manuscript which places the title “Pirkei R. Eliezer ben Hyrkanus” and begins the chapter numbering only after chapter two. Nevertheless, it is critical to note that both chapters are found in all manuscripts of the composition, which increases the likelihood that they have always been part of the composition. Furthermore, examination of the language of these chapters also points to the fact that these chapters are considered part of the composition. PRE contains distinct literary phrases which appear and reappear throughout the entire work, there is a complex problem about the completeness of the composition. Zunz detected two literary structures around which the author of PRE has organized his composition, but which are not complete in the composition as it is known to us today. A) At the beginning of chapter fourteen there is a list of ten times that God descended into the world and these “descents” are expounded upon in various places throughout the work. However, the last descent to appear is the eighth, the two are missing. B) From chapter twenty-six and onwards, several chapters conclude with a blessing from the Shemoneh Esreh prayer, alongside this possibility, Zunz raised the possibility that the work was at one point complete, but that parts of it were lost in its early period. This suggestion has found acceptance among scholars, who are in almost complete agreement that the composition as it is in our hands is missing pieces that were once in existence. However, subsequent analysis by Treitl has usually demonstrated that the ascription of these pieces of works to a more original PRE is without basis. No textual witness includes the blessing for forgiveness or redemption, chapter ten concludes with a reference to the blessing for converts, making it clearly out of place within the larger composition, which only begins referring to the blessings in chapter twenty-six. It seems therefore likely that the author of the work never succeeded in weaving all of the various blessings into the work in their correct order, the passage that concludes the composition in all of the complete manuscripts may be interpreted as referring to this situation. In this passage the author praises Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the text itself attributes the authorship of the text to Tannaim Rabbis. This would place the text, minus any interpolations or additions. If a statement in ch. xxviii, the work is ascribed to R. Eliezer, although he was a tanna, while the book itself the Pirḳe Abot is quoted
29.
Midrash
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The Midrash, capitalized, refers to a specific compilation of these writings, primarily from the first ten centuries CE. Gesenius ascribes the etymology of midrash to the Qal of the common Hebrew verb darash to seek, study, inquire. The word midrash occurs twice in the Hebrew Bible,2 Chronicles 13,22 in the midrash of the prophet Iddo, in Second Temple Jewish literature it began to be used in the sense of education and learning generally. According to the PaRDeS approaches to exegesis, interpretation of Biblical texts in Judaism is realized through peshat, remez, derash, the Midrash concentrates somewhat on remez but mostly on derash. Many different exegetical methods are employed in an effort to derive meaning from a text. This is not limited to the traditional thirteen textual tools attributed to the Tanna Rabbi Ishmael, in many cases, a dialogue is expanded manifold, handfuls of lines in the Biblical narrative may become long philosophical discussions. It is unclear whether the midrash assumes these dialogues took place in reality or if this refers only to subtext or religious implication, many midrashim start off with a seemingly unrelated sentence from the Biblical books of Psalms, Proverbs or the Prophets. This sentence later turns out to reflect the content of the rabbinical interpretation offered. This strategy is used particularly in a subgenre of midrash known as the Petikhta, some Midrash discussions are highly metaphorical, and many Jewish authors stress that they are not intended to be taken literally. Rather, other sources may sometimes serve as a key to particularly esoteric discussions. Later authors maintain that this was done to make this material accessible to the casual reader. In general the midrash is focused on either halakha or aggadic subject matter, Midrash halakha is the name given to a group of tannaitic expositions on the first four books of the Hebrew Bible. These Midrashim, which are written in Mishnahic Hebrew set out a distinction between the Biblical texts that they discuss, and the rabbinic interpretation of that text. They often go well beyond simple interpretation and derive or provide support for halakha and this work is based on pre set assumptions about the sacred and divine nature of the text, and the belief in the legitimacy that accords with rabbinic interpretation. By collecting and compiling these thoughts they could be presented in a manner which helped to refute claims that they were only human interpretations, Midrashim which seek to explain the non-legal portions of the Hebrew Bible are sometimes referred to as aggadah or haggadah. Some of these midrashim entail mystical teachings, the presentation is such that the Midrash is a simple lesson to the uninitiated, and a direct allusion, or analogy, to a Mystical teaching for those educated in this area. An example of a Midrashic interpretation, And God saw all that He had made, and there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. —Midrash, Rabbi Nahman said in Rabbi Samuels name, Behold, it was very good refers to the Good Desire, AND behold, can then the Evil Desire be very good
30.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
31.
Book of Genesis
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The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. The basic narrative expresses the theme, God creates the world and appoints man as his regent. The new post-Flood world is also corrupt, God does not destroy it, instead calling one man, Abraham, to be the seed of its salvation. At Gods command Abraham descends from his home into the land of Canaan, given to him by God, Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus. The narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, the books author or authors appear to have structured it around ten toledot sections, but modern commentators see it in terms of a primeval history followed by the cycle of Patriarchal stories. In Judaism, the importance of Genesis centers on the covenants linking God to his chosen people. It is not clear, however, what this meant to the original authors, while the first is far shorter than the second, it sets out the basic themes and provides an interpretive key for understanding the entire book. The primeval history has a symmetrical structure hinging on chapters 6–9, God creates the world in six days and consecrates the seventh as a day of rest. God creates the first humans Adam and Eve and all the animals in the Garden of Eden but instructs them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A talking serpent portrayed as a creature or trickster, entices Eve into eating it anyway. Eve bears two sons, Cain and Abel, Cain kills Abel after God accepts Abels offering but not Cains. Eve bears another son, Seth, to take Abels place, after many generations of Adam have passed from the lines of Cain and Seth, the world becomes corrupted by the sin of man and Nephilim, and God determines to wipe out mankind. First, he instructs the righteous Noah and his family to build a huge boat, then God sends a great flood to wipe out the rest of the world. When the waters recede, God promises that he not destroy the world a second time with water with the rainbow as the symbol of his promise. But upon seeing mankind cooperating to build a great tower city, God instructs Abram to travel from his home in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. Abrams name is changed to Abraham and that of his wife Sarai to Sarah, because Sarah is old, she tells Abraham to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as a second wife. God resolves to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sins of their people, Abraham protests and gets God to agree not to destroy the cities if 10 righteous men can be found. Angels save Abrahams nephew Lot and his family, but his wife back on the destruction against their command and is turned into a pillar of salt
32.
Quran
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The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
33.
Adam
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Adam is a figure from the Book of Genesis who is also mentioned in the New Testament, the deuterocanonical books, the Quran, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Iqan. According to the myth of the Abrahamic religions, he was the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by God, Christian churches differ on how they view Adams subsequent behavior of disobeying God, and to the consequences that those actions had on the rest of humanity. Christian and Jewish teachings sometimes hold Adam and Eve to a different level of responsibility for the Fall, in addition, Islam holds that Adam was eventually forgiven, while Christianity holds that redemption occurred only later through the sacrifice of Jesus. The Baháí Faith, Islam and some Christian denominations consider Adam to be the first prophet, Adam as a proper name, predates its generic use in Semitic languages. Its earliest known use as a name in historicity is Adamu. Its use as a word in the Hebrew language is ׳āḏām. Coupled with the article, it becomes the human. Its root is not attributed to the Semitic root for man --sh, rather, ׳āḏām is linked to its triliteral root אָדָם, meaning red, fair, handsome. As a masculine noun, adam means man, mankind usually in a context as in humankind. The noun adam is also the form of the word adamah which means ground or earth. It is related to the words, adom, admoni, according to a number of observers, the word Adam derives from Sanskrit word Adima, meaning progenitor, first, primitive in Sanskrit. In the Book of Genesis, the Hebrew word ׳āḏām is often rendered mankind in the most generic sense, the use of mankind in Genesis, gives the reflection that Adam was the ancestor of all men. Kabbalistic works indicate that Adam also comes from the Hebrew word Adame, in the first five chapters of Genesis the word אָדָם is used in all of its senses, collectively, individually, gender nonspecific, and male. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, its use in Genesis 1 is generic, while in Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 the generic and personal usages are mixed. In Genesis 1,27 adam is used in the sense, whereby not only the individual Adam. Genesis 2,7 is the first verse where Adam takes on the sense of an individual man, the gender distinction of adam is then reiterated in Genesis 5, 1–2 by defining male and female. A recurring literary motif that occurs, is the bond between Adam and the earth, Gods cursing of Adam also results in the ground being cursed, causing him to have to labour for food, and Adam returns to the earth from which he was taken
34.
Lilith
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Lilith is a figure in Jewish mythology, developed earliest in the Babylonian Talmud. Evidence in later Jewish materials is plentiful, but little information has survived relating to the original Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian view of these demons. In Hebrew-language texts, the term lilith or lilit first occurs in a list of animals in Isaiah 34,14, in the Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q510-511, the term first occurs in a list of monsters. In Jewish magical inscriptions on bowls and amulets from the 6th century CE onwards, Lilith is identified as a female demon and the first visual depictions appear. In Jewish folklore, from the satirical book Alphabet of Sirach onwards, Lilith appears as Adams first wife, the legend developed extensively during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadah, the Zohar, and Jewish mysticism. The resulting Lilith legend continues to serve as material in modern Western culture, literature, occultism, fantasy. The semitic root L-Y-L served as derivative for the Hebrew layil and Arabic layl, the Talmudic and Yiddish use of Lilith cognates with the Hebrew. In the Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia the terms lili, some uses of līlītu are listed in The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, in Wolfram von Sodens Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, and Reallexikon der Assyriologie. The Sumerian female demons lili have no relation to Akkadian lilu. Archibald Sayce considered that Hebrew lilit Hebrew, לילית, and the earlier Akkadian, charles Fossey has this literally translating to female night being/demon, although cuneiform inscriptions from Mesopotamia exist where Līlīt and Līlītu refers to disease-bearing wind spirits. Samuel Noah Kramer translated ki-sikil-lil-la-ke as Lilith in Tablet XII of the Epic of Gilgamesh dated c.600 BCE. Tablet XII is not part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but is a later Assyrian Akkadian translation of the part of the Sumerian poem of Gilgamesh. The ki-sikil-lil-la-ke is associated with a serpent and a zu bird, in Gilgamesh and the Netherworld, a huluppu tree grows in Inannas garden in Uruk, whose wood she plans to use to build a new throne. After ten years of growth, she comes to harvest it and finds a serpent living at its base, a Zu bird raising young in its crown, and that a ki-sikil-lil-la-ke made a house in its trunk. Gilgamesh is said to have smitten the snake, and then the zu bird flew away to the mountains with its young, while the ki-sikil-lil-la-ke fearfully destroys its house, identification of ki-sikil-lil-la-ke as Lilith is stated in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Suggested translations for the Tablet XII spirit in the tree include ki-sikil as sacred place, lil as spirit, but also simply owl, given that the lil is building a home in the trunk of the tree. A connection between the Gilgamesh ki-sikil-lil-la-ke and the Jewish Lilith was rejected by Dietrich Opitz and rejected on grounds by Sergio Ribichini. The terracotta plaque depicts a beautiful, naked goddess-like sylph with bird-like features who stands atop two lions and between two owls
35.
Doubt
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Doubt characterises a status in which the mind remains suspended between two contradictory propositions and unable to assent to either of them. Doubt on a level is indecision between belief and disbelief. Doubt involves uncertainty, distrust or lack of sureness of a fact, an action. Doubt questions a notion of a reality, and may involve delaying or rejecting relevant action out of concerns for mistakes or faults or appropriateness. Doubt sometimes tends to call on reason, Doubt may encourage people to hesitate before acting, and/or to apply more rigorous methods. Doubt may have particular importance as leading towards disbelief or non-acceptance, societally, doubt creates an atmosphere of distrust, being accusatory in nature and de facto alleging either foolishness or deceit on the part of another. Such a stance has been fostered in Western European society since the Enlightenment, in opposition to tradition, psychoanalytic theory attributes doubt to childhood, when the ego develops. Childhood experiences, these theories maintain, can plant doubt about ones abilities, cognitive mental as well as more spiritual approaches abound in response to the wide variety of potential causes for doubt. Behavioral therapy — in which a person systematically asks his own if the doubt has any real basis — uses rational. This method contrasts to those of say, the Buddhist faith, buddhism sees doubt as a negative attachment to ones perceived past and future. To let go of the history of ones life plays a central role in releasing the doubts — developed in. Partial or intermittent negative reinforcement can create a climate of fear. Descartes employed Cartesian doubt as a pre-eminent methodological tool in his fundamental philosophical investigations, branches of philosophy like logic devote much effort to distinguish the dubious, the probable and the certain. Much of illogic rests on assumptions, dubious data or dubious conclusions, with rhetoric, whitewashing. Doubt that god exist may form the basis of agnosticism — the belief that one cannot determine the existence or non-existence of god. It may also form other brands of skepticism, such as Pyrrhonism, which do not take a stance in regard to the existence of god. Alternatively, doubt over the existence of god may lead to acceptance of a particular religion, Doubt of a specific theology, scriptural or deistic, may bring into question the truth of that theologys set of beliefs. On the other hand, doubt as to some doctrines but acceptance of others may lead to the growth of heresy and/or the splitting off of sects or groups of thought, thus proto-Protestants doubted papal authority, and substituted alternative methods of governance in their new churches
36.
Demon
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A demon is a supernatural, mythological and often malevolent being prevalent in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology and folklore. The original Greek word daimon does not carry the negative connotation initially understood by implementation of the Koine δαιμόνιον, the Ancient Greek word δαίμων daimōn denotes a spirit or divine power, much like the Latin genius or numen. Daimōn most likely came from the Greek verb daiesthai, the Greek conception of a daimōn notably appears in the works of Plato, where it describes the divine inspiration of Socrates. To distinguish the classical Greek concept from its later Christian interpretation, the Greek terms do not have any connotations of evil or malevolence. In fact, εὐδαιμονία eudaimonia, means happiness, far into the Byzantine period Christians eyed their cities old pagan statuary as a seat of the demons presence. It was no longer beautiful, it was infested, the term had first acquired its negative connotations in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, which drew on the mythology of ancient Semitic religions. This was then inherited by the Koine text of the New Testament, the Western medieval and neo-medieval conception of a demon derives seamlessly from the ambient popular culture of Late Antiquity. The Hellenistic daemon eventually came to include many Semitic and Near Eastern gods as evaluated by Christianity, the supposed existence of demons remains an important concept in many modern religions and occultist traditions. Demons are still feared largely due to their power to possess living creatures. In the contemporary Western occultist tradition, a demon is a metaphor for certain inner psychological processes. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, In Chaldean mythology the seven evil deities were known as shedu, storm-demons and they were represented as winged bulls, derived from the colossal bulls used as protective jinn of royal palaces. From Chaldea, the term shedu traveled to the Israelites, the writers of the Tanach applied the word as a dialogism to Canaanite deities. There are indications that demons in popular Hebrew mythology were believed to come from the nether world, various diseases and ailments were ascribed to them, particularly those affecting the brain and those of internal nature. Examples include catalepsy, headache, epilepsy and nightmares, there also existed a demon of blindness, Shabriri who rested on uncovered water at night and blinded those who drank from it. Demons supposedly entered the body and caused the disease while overwhelming or seizing the victim, to cure such diseases, it was necessary to draw out the evil demons by certain incantations and talismanic performances, at which the Essenes excelled. In mythology, there were few defences against Babylonian demons, the mythical mace Sharur had the power to slay demons such as Asag, a legendary gallu or edimmu of hideous strength. As referring to the existence or non-existence of shedim there are converse opinions in Judaism, there are practically nil roles assigned to demons in the Jewish Bible. In conclusion, Jews are not obligated to believe in the existence of shedim, the word shedim appears only in two places in the Tanakh
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Azazel
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Azazel, also spelled Azazael, appears in the Bible in association with the scapegoat rite. In some traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam it is the name for a fallen angel, the next words are לַעֲזָאזֵל, read either as for absolute removal or as for Azazel. This goat was then cast out in the desert as part of Yom Kippur, despite the expectation of Brandt to date no evidence has surfaced of Azazel as a demon or god prior to the earliest Jewish sources among the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the Dead Sea Scrolls the name Azazel occurs in the line 6 of 4Q203, The Book of Giants, according to the Peshitta, Azazel is rendered Za-za-eil, as in Qumran fragment 4Q180. According to the Book of Enoch, Azazel was one of the chief Grigori, a group of fallen angels who married women. This same story is told in the book of Genesis 6, 2–4, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, Enoch portrays Azazel as responsible for teaching people to make weapons and cosmetics, for which he was cast out of heaven. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray and became corrupt in all their ways. God sees the sin brought about by Azazel and has Raphael “bind Azazel hand and foot and cast him into the darkness, and make an opening in the desert – which is in Dudael – and cast him therein. And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there forever, daniel Stökl also observes that the punishment of the demon resembles the treatment of the goat in aspects of geography, action, time and purpose. Stökl remarks that the name of place of judgment is conspicuously similar in both traditions and can likely be traced to a common origin. Azazels fate is foretold near the end of Enoch 2,8, the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel, to him ascribe all sin. In the fifth-century 3 Enoch, Azazel is one of the three angels who opposed Enochs high rank when he became the angel Metatron, whilst they were fallen at this time they were still in Heaven, but Metatron held a dislike for them, and had them cast out. They were thenceforth known as the three who got the most blame for their involvement in the fall of the angels marrying women, the other angels dispersed to every corner of the Earth. In the extracanonical text the Apocalypse of Abraham, Azazel is portrayed as a bird who came down upon the sacrifice which Abraham prepared. The text also associates Azazel with the serpent and hell, in Chapter 23, verse 7, it is described as having seven heads,14 faces, hands and feet like a mans on his back six wings on the right and six on the left. Go, Azazel, into the parts of the earth. For your heritage is over those who are with you. Here there is the idea that Gods heritage is largely under the dominion of evil – i. e. it is shared with Azazel, again identifying him with Satan, who was called the prince of this world by Jesus
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Zohar
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The Zohar is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on mysticism, mythical cosmogony. Its scriptural exegesis can be considered a form of the Rabbinic literature known as Midrash. The Zohar is mostly written in what has been described as a cryptic, Aramaic, the day-to-day language of Israel in the Second Temple period, was the original language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, and is the main language of the Talmud. The Zohar first appeared in Spain in the 13th century, and was published by a Jewish writer named Moses de León and this accords with the traditional claim by adherents that Kabbalah is the concealed part of the Oral Torah. In the Bible the word Zohar appears in the vision of Ezekiel 8,2 and is translated as meaning radiance or light. It appears again in Daniel 12,3, The wise ones will shine like the radiance of the firmament and she confessed that her husband himself was the author of the work. The story indicates that shortly after its appearance the work was believed by some to have been written by Moses de Leon. Over time, the view in the Jewish community came to be one of acceptance of Moses de Leons claims. Rav Kaplan concludes saying this was the series of events. The Zohar spread among the Jews with remarkable swiftness, scarcely fifty years had passed since its appearance in Spain before it was quoted by many Kabbalists, including the Italian mystical writer Menahem Recanati and by Todros Abulafia. Certain Jewish communities, however, such as the Dor Daim, Andalusian, the Zohar instead declared Man to be the lord of the creation, whose immortality is solely dependent upon his morality. Conversely, Elijah Delmedigo, in his Bechinat ha-Dat endeavored to show that the Zohar could not be attributed to Shimon bar Yochai and they found it unsurprising that bar Yochai should have foretold future happenings or made references to historical events of the post-Talmudic period. However R Soloman Luria admits in responsa 98 that the zohar cant override a minhag, in the Ashkenazi community of Eastern Europe, religious authorities including the Vilna Gaon and Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi believed in the authenticity of the Zohar. Especially controversial were the views of the Dor Daim on the Zohar, as presented in Milhamoth Hashem, instead, they intermarried, sat together in batei midrash, and continued to sit with Rabbi Qafeḥ in beth din. Most of Orthodox Judaism holds that the teachings of Kabbalah were transmitted from teacher to teacher, in a long and continuous chain, the greatest acceptance of this sequence of events is held within Haredi Judaism, especially Chasidic groups. R Yechiel Michel Epstein, and R Yisrael Meir Kagan both believed in the authenticity of the Zohar, Rabbis Eliyahu Dessler and Gedaliah Nadel maintained that it is acceptable to believe that the Zohar was not written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and that it had a late authorship. Some claim the tradition that Rabbi Shimon wrote that the concealment of the Zohar would last for exactly 1200 years from the time of destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem
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