1.
Sistine Chapel
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The Sistine Chapel is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope, in Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, since that time, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today it is the site of the Papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected, the fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescos that decorate the interior, and most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment by Michelangelo. In a different climate after the Sack of Rome, he returned, the fame of Michelangelos paintings has drawn multitudes of visitors to the chapel ever since they were revealed five hundred years ago. At the time of Pope Sixtus IV in the late 15th century, there were 50 occasions during the year on which it was prescribed by the Papal Calendar that the whole Papal Chapel should meet. Of these 50 occasions,35 were masses, of which 8 were held in Basilicas, in general St. Peters and these included the Christmas Day and Easter masses, at which the Pope himself was the celebrant. The other 27 masses could be held in a smaller, less public space, the Cappella Maggiore derived its name, the Greater Chapel, from the fact that there was another chapel also in use by the Pope and his retinue for daily worship. At the time of Pope Sixtus IV, this was the Chapel of Pope Nicholas V, the Cappella Maggiore is recorded as existing in 1368. The proportions of the present chapel appear to follow those of the original. The first mass in the Sistine Chapel was celebrated on 15 August 1483, the Sistine Chapel has maintained its function to the present day, and continues to host the important services of the Papal Calendar, unless the Pope is travelling. There is a permanent choir, the Sistine Chapel Choir, for whom much original music has been written, one of the functions of the Sistine Chapel is as a venue for the election of each successive pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals. On the occasion of a conclave, a chimney is installed in the roof of the chapel, if white smoke appears, created by burning the ballots of the election, a new Pope has been elected. The conclave also provided for the cardinals a space in which they can hear mass, and in which they can eat, sleep, and pass time attended by servants. From 1455, conclaves have been held in the Vatican, until the Great Schism, canopies for each cardinal-elector were once used during conclaves—a sign of equal dignity. After the new Pope accepts his election, he would give his new name, at this time, until reforms instituted by Saint Pius X, the canopies were of different colours to designate which Cardinals had been appointed by which Pope. Its exterior is unadorned by architectural or decorative details, as is common in many Italian churches of the Medieval, subsidence and cracking of masonry such as must also have affected the Cappella Maggiore has necessitated the building of very large buttresses to brace the exterior walls. The accretion of other buildings has further altered the appearance of the Chapel. The building is divided into three stories of which the lowest is a tall basement level with several utilitarian windows
2.
Fresco
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Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster. Because of the makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster, after a number of hours, many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later, new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, if the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. This area is called the giornata, and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, if mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area—or to change them later, a secco. An indispensable component of this process is the carbonatation of the lime, the eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark outlining of his central figures within his frescoes, in a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has fallen off. One of the first painters in the period to use this technique was the Isaac Master in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist, a secco or fresco-secco painting is done on dry plaster. The pigments thus require a medium, such as egg. Blue was a problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli. By the end of the century this had largely displaced buon fresco
3.
Adam and Eve
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Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman and the ancestors of all humans. It provides the basis for the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. It also provides much of the basis for the doctrines of the fall of man and original sin that are important beliefs in Christianity. In the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, chapters one through five, in the first, Adam and Eve are not mentioned. Instead, God created humankind in Gods image and instructed them to multiply, in the second narrative, God fashions Adam from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden. Adam is told that he can till the ground and eat freely of all the trees in the garden, except for a tree of the knowledge of good, subsequently, Eve is created from one of Adams ribs to be Adams companion. They are innocent and unashamed about their nakedness, however, a serpent deceives Eve into eating fruit from the forbidden tree, and she gives some of the fruit to Adam. These acts give them additional knowledge, but it gives them the ability to conjure negative and destructive concepts such as shame, God later curses the serpent and the ground. God prophetically tells the woman and the man what will be the consequences of their sin of disobeying God, then he banishes them from the Garden of Eden. The story underwent extensive elaboration in later Abrahamic traditions, and it has been analyzed by modern biblical scholars. The story of Adam and Eve is often depicted in art, the story of the fall of Adam is often understood to be an allegory. There is no evidence that Adam and Eve ever literally existed. In the Book of Genesis, the Genesis creation narrative tells of the creation of the first humans, humankind, in Genesis 1, scholars recognize two separate accounts of the creation in the Old Testament. In the Priestly narrative, God creates the world in six days, culminating in the creation of humanity, here, in the Priestly narrative, the emphasis is on the entirety of the universe and its creation. Here, in the Jahwist narrative, the emphasis is on the Earth within the universe, and humankinds residence on the Earth. Contrast, for example, the order of terms in Genesis 1,1 where it says that God made the heavens and the Earth with Genesis 2,4 where it says God made the Earth and the heavens. In the Jahwist version of the story, God places the man in a garden in Eden where he is permitted to till the land and tend the garden and animals, Genesis 2, 8–15. But none of the animals are found to be a companion for the man, so God causes the man to sleep
4.
Tree of the knowledge of good and evil
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The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is one of two specific trees in the story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2–3, along with the tree of life. Genesis 2 narrates that God places the first man and woman in a garden with trees of fruits they may eat. When, in Genesis 3, a serpent seduces the woman to eat from its fruit and she also lets the man taste it, God expels them from the garden. The phrase in Hebrew, טוֹב וָרָע, tov wa-raʿ, literally translates as good and this is seen in the Egyptian expression evil-good, which is normally employed to mean everything. In Greek literature, Homer also uses the device when he lets Telemachus say, I know all things, the good and the evil. If tree of the knowledge of good and evil is to be understood to mean a tree whose fruit imparts knowledge of everything and this view is held by several scholars. However, given the context of disobedience to God, other interpretations of the implications of this phrase also demand consideration. Robert Alter emphasizes the point that when God forbids the man to eat from that tree, he says that if he does so. The Hebrew behind this is in a regularly used in the Hebrew Bible for issuing death sentences. In Jewish tradition, the Tree of Knowledge and the eating of its fruit represents the beginning of the mixture of good, before that time, the two were separate, and evil had only a nebulous existence in potential. While free choice did exist before eating the fruit, evil existed as an entity separate from the human psyche, eating and internalizing the forbidden fruit changed this and thus was born the yeitzer hara, the Evil Inclination. In Rashis notes on Genesis 3,3, the first sin came about because Eve added a clause to the Divine command. By saying this, Eve added to YHWHs command and thereby came to detract from it, as it is written, since evil has no independent existence, it depends on holiness to draw down the Divine life-force, on whose leftovers it then feeds and derives existence. Once evil is separated from holiness through beirurim, its source of life is cut off and this is accomplished through observance of the 613 commandments in the Torah, which deal primarily with physical objects wherein good and evil are mixed together. Thus, the task of beirurim rectifies the sin of the Tree and draws the Shechinah back down to earth, where the sin of the Tree had caused Her to depart. In Christian theology, consuming the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the sin committed by Adam. In Catholicism, Augustine of Hippo taught that the tree should be understood both symbolically and as a real tree - similarly to Jerusalem being both a city and a figure of Heavenly Jerusalem. Augustine underlined that the fruits of that tree were not evil by themselves, in Western Christian art, the fruit of the tree is commonly depicted as the apple, which originated in central Asia
5.
Life
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Various forms of life exist, such as plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria. The criteria can at times be ambiguous and may or may not define viruses, viroids, biology is the primary science concerned with the study of life, although many other sciences are involved. The definition of life is controversial, the current definition is that organisms maintain homeostasis, are composed of cells, undergo metabolism, can grow, adapt to their environment, respond to stimuli, and reproduce. However, many other definitions have been proposed, and there are some borderline cases. Modern definitions are more complex, with input from a diversity of scientific disciplines, biophysicists have proposed many definitions based on chemical systems, there are also some living systems theories, such as the Gaia hypothesis, the idea that the Earth itself is alive. Another theory is that life is the property of systems, and yet another is elaborated in complex systems biology. Abiogenesis describes the process of life arising from non-living matter. Properties common to all organisms include the need for certain chemical elements to sustain biochemical functions. Life on Earth first appeared as early as 4.28 billion years ago, soon after ocean formation 4.41 billion years ago, Earths current life may have descended from an RNA world, although RNA-based life may not have been the first. The mechanism by which began on Earth is unknown, though many hypotheses have been formulated and are often based on the Miller–Urey experiment. The earliest known forms are microfossils of bacteria. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes believed to be present in the last universal ancestor of all living organisms. Since its primordial beginnings, life on Earth has changed its environment on a time scale. To survive in most ecosystems, life must often adapt to a range of conditions. Some microorganisms, called extremophiles, thrive in physically or geochemically extreme environments that are detrimental to most other life on Earth, Aristotle was the first person to classify organisms. Later, Carl Linnaeus introduced his system of nomenclature for the classification of species. Eventually new groups and categories of life were discovered, such as cells and microorganisms, cells are sometimes considered the smallest units and building blocks of life. There are two kinds of cells, prokaryotic and eukaryotic, both of which consist of cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane and contain many such as proteins
6.
Old English
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Old English or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest historical form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century, Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. As the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in England, their language replaced the languages of Roman Britain, Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish and West Saxon. It was West Saxon that formed the basis for the standard of the later Old English period, although the dominant forms of Middle. The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule, Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon. Like other old Germanic languages, it is different from Modern English. Old English grammar is similar to that of modern German, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms. The oldest Old English inscriptions were using a runic system. Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the Norman invasion. While indicating that the establishment of dates is a process, Albert Baugh dates Old English from 450 to 1150, a period of full inflections. Perhaps around 85 per cent of Old English words are no longer in use, Old English is a West Germanic language, developing out of Ingvaeonic dialects from the 5th century. It came to be spoken over most of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which became the Kingdom of England and this included most of present-day England, as well as part of what is now southeastern Scotland, which for several centuries belonged to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Other parts of the island – Wales and most of Scotland – continued to use Celtic languages, Norse was also widely spoken in the parts of England which fell under Danish law. Anglo-Saxon literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century, the oldest surviving text of Old English literature is Cædmons Hymn, composed between 658 and 680. There is a corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries. The Old English Latin alphabet was introduced around the 9th century, with the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms by Alfred the Great in the later 9th century, the language of government and literature became standardised around the West Saxon dialect. In Old English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, a later literary standard, dating from the later 10th century, arose under the influence of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, and was followed by such writers as the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham. This form of the language is known as the Winchester standard and it is considered to represent the classical form of Old English
7.
New Testament Greek
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It was based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties. Koine Greek displayed a wide spectrum of different styles, ranging from more conservative literary forms to the vernaculars of the time. As the dominant language of the Byzantine Empire, it developed further into Medieval Greek, Koine Greek remained the court language of the Byzantine Empire until its dissolution in 1453, while Medieval and eventually Modern Greek were the everyday language. Literary Koine was the medium of much of post-classical Greek literary and scholarly writing, such as the works of Plutarch, Koine is also the language of the Christian New Testament, of the Septuagint, and of most early Christian theological writing by the Church Fathers. In this context, Koine Greek is also known as Biblical, New Testament and it continues to be used as the liturgical language of services in the Greek Orthodox Church. The word koinē is the Greek word for common, and is understood as referring to the common dialect. The word is pronounced /kɔɪˈneɪ/, /ˈkɔɪneɪ/ or /kiːˈniː/ in US English, the pronunciation of the word in Koine gradually changed from Greek pronunciation, to Greek pronunciation. Its pronunciation in Modern Greek is, the term was applied in several different senses by ancient scholars. Others chose to refer to Koine as the Alexandrian dialect or the dialect of Alexandria, the former was often used by modern classicists. Koine Greek arose as a dialect within the armies of Alexander the Great. Under the leadership of Macedon, their newly formed common variety was spoken from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt to the Seleucid Empire of Mesopotamia and it replaced existing ancient Greek dialects with an everyday form that people anywhere could understand. The passage into the period, known as Medieval Greek. The post-Classical period of Greek thus refers to the creation and evolution of Koine Greek throughout the entire Hellenistic, the linguistic roots of the Common Greek dialect had been unclear since ancient times. During the Hellenistic period, most scholars thought of Koine as the result of the mixture of the four main Ancient Greek dialects, ἡ ἐκ τῶν τεττάρων συνεστῶσα. The view accepted by most scholars today was given by the Greek linguist Georgios Hatzidakis, who showed that, despite the composition of the Four, the stable nucleus of Koine Greek is Attic. In other words, Koine Greek can be regarded as Attic with the admixture of elements especially from Ionic, the degree of importance of the non-Attic linguistic elements on Koine can vary depending on the region of the Hellenistic World. The literary Koine of the Hellenistic age resembles Attic in such a degree that it is mentioned as Common Attic. Koine Greek was therefore considered a form of Greek which was not worthy of attention
8.
Archery
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Archery is the sport, practice or skill of using a bow to propel arrows. The word comes from the Latin arcus, historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern times, it is mainly a competitive sport and recreational activity, a person who participates in archery is typically called an archer or a bowman, and a person who is fond of or an expert at archery is sometimes called a toxophilite. The bow and arrow seems to have invented in the later Paleolithic or early Mesolithic periods. The oldest signs of its use in Europe come from the Stellmoor in the Ahrensburg valley north of Hamburg, Germany and dates from the late Paleolithic, about 10, 000–9000 BC. The arrows were made of pine and consisted of a mainshaft, there are no definite earlier bows, previous pointed shafts are known, but may have been launched by spear-throwers rather than bows. The oldest bows known so far come from the Holmegård swamp in Denmark, bows and arrows have been present in Egyptian culture since its predynastic origins. In the Levant, artifacts that could be arrow-shaft straighteners are known from the Natufian culture, the Khiamian and PPN A shouldered Khiam-points may well be arrowheads. Classical civilizations, notably the Assyrians, Greeks, Armenians, Persians, Parthians, Indians, Koreans, Chinese, akkadians were the first to use composite bows in war according to the victory stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad. The Welsh longbow proved its worth for the first time in Continental warfare at the Battle of Crécy, in the Americas archery was widespread at European contact. Archery was highly developed in Asia, the Sanskrit term for archery, dhanurveda, came to refer to martial arts in general. In East Asia, Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea was well known for its regiments of skilled archers. Central Asian tribesmen and American Plains Indians became extremely adept at archery on horseback, lightly armoured, but highly mobile archers were excellently suited to warfare in the Central Asian steppes, and they formed a large part of armies that repeatedly conquered large areas of Eurasia. Shorter bows are more suited to use on horseback, and the bow enabled mounted archers to use powerful weapons. It is possible that barbarian peoples were responsible for introducing archery or certain types of bows to their civilized counterparts—the Xiong-nu, similarly, short bows seem to have been introduced to Japan by northeast Asian groups. The development of firearms rendered bows obsolete in warfare, albeit efforts were made to preserve archery practice. In Wales and England, for example, the government tried to practice with the Longbow until the end of the 16th century. This was because it was recognised that the bow had been instrumental to military success during the Hundred Years War, early firearms were inferior in rate-of-fire, and were very susceptible to wet weather
9.
Buddhism
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Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas life are mentioned in many early Buddhist texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
10.
Karma in Buddhism
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Karma is a Sanskrit term that literally means action or doing. In the Buddhist tradition, karma refers to action driven by intention which leads to future consequences and those intentions are considered to be the determining factor in the kind of rebirth in samsara, the cycle of rebirth. Karma is a Sanskrit term that literally means action or doing, the word karma derives from the verbal root kṛ, which means do, make, perform, accomplish. Karmaphala is the fruit, effect or result of karma, a similar term is karmavipaka, the maturation or cooking of karma, The remote effects of karmic choices are referred to as the maturation or fruit of the karmic act. The metaphor is derived from agriculture, One sows a seed, there is a time lag during which some mysterious invisible process takes place, Karma and karmaphala are fundamental concepts in Buddhism. Rebirth, is a belief in all Buddhist traditions. It says that birth and death in the six realms occur in successive cycles driven by ignorance, desire, the cycle of rebirth is called samsarā. It is a beginningless and ever-ongoing process, liberation from samsarā can be attained by following the Buddhist Path. This path leads to vidyā, and the stilling of trsnā, hereby the ongoing process of rebirth is stopped. The cycle of rebirth is determined by karma, literally action, in the Buddhist tradition, karma refers to actions driven by intention, a deed done deliberately through body, speech or mind, which leads to future consequences. The Nibbedhika Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya 6.63, Intention I tell you, is kamma, intending, one does kamma by way of body, speech, & intellect. According to Peter Harvey, It is the impulse behind an action that is karma. Actions, then, must be if they are to generate karmic fruits. According to Gombrich, this was an innovation, which overturns brahmanical. Its a rejection of caste-bound differences, giving the possibility to reach liberation to all people, not just Brahmanins, Not by birth is one a brahmin or an outcaste. How this emphasis on intention was to be interpreted became a matter of debate in, Karma leads to future consequences, karma-phala, fruit of action. Any given action may cause all sorts of results, but the results are only those results which are a consequence of both the moral quality of the action, and of the intention behind the action. According to Reichenbach, he envisioned by the law of karma encompass more than the observed natural or physical results which follow upon the performance of an action
11.
Three poisons (Buddhism)
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The three poisons or the three unwholesome roots, in Buddhism, refer to the three root kleshas of Moha, Raga, and Dvesha. These three poisons are considered to be three afflictions or character flaws innate in a being, the root of Taṇhā, and thus in part the cause of Dukkha and rebirths. The three poisons are symbolically drawn at the center of Buddhist Bhavachakra artwork, with cock, snake and pig, representing greed, ill will, in the Buddhist teachings, the three poisons are the primary causes that keep sentient beings trapped in samsara. These three poisons are said to be the root of all of the other kleshas, the three poisons are represented in the hub of the wheel of life as a pig, a bird, and a snake. As shown in the wheel of life, the three lead to the creation of karma, which leads to rebirth in the six realms of samsara. The three kleshas of ignorance, attachment and aversion are referred to as the three poisons in the Mahayana tradition and as the three roots in the Theravada tradition. The Sanskrit, Pali, and Tibetan terms for each of the three poisons are as follows, In the Mahayana tradition moha is identified as a subcategory of avidya, whereas avidya is defined as a fundamental ignorance, moha is defined as delusion, confusion and incorrect beliefs. Bhavacakra Buddhism and psychology Dvesha Kleshas Karma in Buddhism Taṇhā Dalai Lama, the Meaning of Life, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Boston, Wisdom. Gentle Voice #22, September 2004 Issue, how Karma Works, The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising, Snow Lion Goleman, Daniel. Destructive Emotions, A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the Treatise on the Great Virtue of Wisdom of Nagarjuna. Awakening the Sacred Body, Tibetan Yogas of Breath and Movement, gampopa, the Monk and the Yogi, His Life and Teachings. Access to Insight, Mula Sutta, Roots Access to Insight, Nidana Sutta, Causes Transforming the three poisons Three poisons on Ranjung Yeshe wiki
12.
Buddhist ethics
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Buddhist ethics are traditionally based on what Buddhists view as the enlightened perspective of the Buddha, or other enlightened beings such as Bodhisattvas. The Indian term for ethics or morality used in Buddhism is Śīla or sīla and it has been variously described as virtue, right conduct, morality, moral discipline and precept. Sīla is an internal, aware, and intentional ethical behavior and it is an ethical compass within self and relationships, rather than what is associated with the English word morality. Sīla is one of the three practices foundational to Buddhism and the non-sectarian Vipassana movement — sīla, samādhi, and paññā as well as the Theravadin foundations of sīla, Dāna and it is also the second pāramitā. Sīla is also wholehearted commitment to what is wholesome, two aspects of sīla are essential to the training, right performance, and right avoidance. Honoring the precepts of sīla is considered a gift to others, because it creates an atmosphere of trust, respect. It means the practitioner poses no threat to another life, property, family, rights. Moral instructions are included in Buddhist scriptures or handed down through tradition, the source for the ethics of Buddhists around the world are the Three Jewels of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The Buddha is seen as the discoverer of liberating knowledge and hence the foremost teacher, the Dharma is both the teachings of the Buddhas path and the truths of these teachings. The Sangha is the community of noble ones, who practice the Dhamma and have attained some knowledge and can provide guidance. Having proper understanding of the teachings is vital for proper ethical conduct, the Buddha taught that right view was a necessary prerequisite for right conduct. A central foundation for Buddhist morality is the law of Karma, Karma is a word which literally means action and is seen as a natural law of the universe which manifests as cause and effect. In the Buddhist conception, Karma is a type of moral action which has moral consequences on the actor. The core of karma is the intention, and hence the Buddha stated ‘It is intention, O monks. Therefore, accidentally hurting someone is not bad Karma, but having hurtful thoughts is, ones past actions are said to mold ones consciousness and to leave seeds which later ripen in the next life. The goal of Buddhist practice is generally to break the cycle, the root of ones intention is what conditions an action to be good or bad. There are three roots and three negative roots. Actions which produce good outcomes are termed merit and obtaining merit is an important goal of lay Buddhist practice, the early Buddhist texts mention three bases for effecting karmic fruitfulness’, giving, moral virtue and meditation
13.
Consequentialism
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Consequentialism is the class of normative ethical theories holding that the consequences of ones conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct. Thus, from a consequentialist standpoint, a right act is one that will produce a good outcome. Consequentialist theories differ in how they define moral goods, some argue that consequentialist and deontological theories are not necessarily mutually exclusive. For example, T. M. Scanlon advances the idea that human rights, similarly, Robert Nozick argues for a theory that is mostly consequentialist, but incorporates inviolable side-constraints which restrict the sort of actions agents are permitted to do. It is the business of the benevolent man to seek to promote what is beneficial to the world and to eliminate what is harmful, what benefits he will carry out, what does not benefit men he will leave alone. Mohist consequentialism, also known as state consequentialism, is a theory which evaluates the moral worth of an action based on how much it contributes to the welfare of a state. Unlike utilitarianism, which views utility as the moral good. Order, material wealth, and increase in population, during Mozis era, war and famines were common, and population growth was seen as a moral necessity for a harmonious society. If people have plenty, they would be good, filial, kind, the Mohists believed that morality is based on promoting the benefit of all under heaven and eliminating harm to all under heaven. In contrast to Jeremy Benthams views, state consequentialism is not utilitarian because it is not hedonistic or individualistic, the importance of outcomes that are good for the community outweigh the importance of individual pleasure and pain. The term state consequentialism has also applied to the political philosophy of the Confucian philosopher Xunzi. On the other hand, the Legalist Han Fei is motivated almost totally from the point of view. Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure and it is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and they govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think. Happiness on this account is defined as the maximization of pleasure, historically, hedonistic utilitarianism is the paradigmatic example of a consequentialist moral theory. This form of utilitarianism holds that what matters is the aggregate happiness, however, some contemporary utilitarians, such as Peter Singer, are concerned with maximizing the satisfaction of preferences, hence preference utilitarianism. Other contemporary forms of utilitarianism mirror the forms of consequentialism outlined below, ethical egoism can be understood as a consequentialist theory according to which the consequences for the individual agent are taken to matter more than any other result. Thus, egoism will prescribe actions that may be beneficial, detrimental, ethical altruism can be seen as a consequentialist ethic which prescribes that an individual take actions that have the best consequences for everyone except for himself
14.
Nirvana
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Nirvāṇa literally means blown out, as in an oil lamp. The term nirvana is most commonly associated with Buddhism, and represents its ultimate state of soteriological release, in Indian religions, nirvana is synonymous with moksha and mukti. All Indian religions assert it to be a state of perfect quietude, freedom, highest happiness along with it being the liberation from samsara, however, Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions describe these terms for liberation differently. In the Buddhist context, nirvana refers to realization of non-self and emptiness, in Hindu philosophy, it is the union of or the realization of the identity of Atman with Brahman, depending on the Hindu tradition. In Jainism, it is also the goal, it represents the release of a soul from karmic bondage. The word nirvāṇa, states Steven Collins, is from the verbal root √vā blow in the form of past participle vāna blown, hence the original meaning of the word is blown out, extinguished. Sandhi changes the spelling, the v of vāna causes nis to become nir, the term nirvana in the soteriological sense of blown out, extinguished state of liberation does not appear in the Vedas nor in the pre-Buddhist Upanishads. According to Collins, the Buddhists seem to have been the first to call it nirvana, nirvāṇa is a term found in the texts of all major Indian religions – Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism. It refers to the peace of mind that is acquired with moksha, liberation from samsara, or release from a state of suffering. The hope for life after death started with notions of going to the worlds of the Fathers or Ancestors and/or the world of the Gods or Heaven. The earliest layers of Vedic text incorporate the concept of life, followed by an afterlife in heaven, however, the ancient Vedic Rishis challenged this idea of afterlife as simplistic, because people do not live an equally moral or immoral life. Between generally virtuous lives, some are more virtuous, while evil too has degrees, the Vedic thinkers introduced the idea of an afterlife in heaven or hell in proportion to ones merit, and when this runs out, one returns and is reborn. The idea of rebirth following running out of merit appears in Buddhist texts as well, the Samsara, the life after death, and what impacts rebirth came to be seen as dependent on karma. The liberation from Saṃsāra developed as a goal and soteriological value in the Indian culture. This basic scheme underlies Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, where the aim is the timeless state of moksa, or, as the Buddhists first seem to have called it. Although the term occurs in the literatures of a number of ancient Indian traditions and it was later adopted by other Indian religions, but with different meanings and description, such as in the Hindu text Bhagavad Gita of the Mahabharata. Nirvana literally means blowing out or quenching and it is the most used as well as the earliest term to describe the soteriological goal in Buddhism, release from the cycle of rebirth. Nirvana is part of the Third Truth on cessation of dukkha in the Four Noble Truths doctrine of Buddhism and it is the goal of the Noble Eightfold Path
15.
Hamartiology
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Hamartiology, a branch of Christian theology, studies sin. In contrast, a view sometimes ascribed to Pelagius states that humans enter life as moral blank slates responsible for their own moral nature, the Fall that occurred when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, according to Pelagianism, affected humankind only minimally as it established a negative moral precedent. Few contemporary theologians and no orthodox theologians, however, continue to hold this hamartiological viewpoint, biblical law in Christianity Christian ethics Hamartia Hamartiology
16.
Christian views on sin
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The doctrine of sin is central to Christianity, since its basic message is about redemption in Christ. Christian hamartiology describes sin as an act of offence against God by despising his persons and Christian biblical law, in Christian views it was an evil human act, which violates the rational nature of man as well as Gods nature and his eternal law. According to the definition of St. Augustine of Hippo sin is a word, deed. As with the definition of sin, this definition also affects the understanding of Christian grace and salvation. The first reference to sin as a noun is of sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” waiting to be mastered by Cain, a form of literary theriomorphism. The first use of the verb is God appears to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. ”Isaiah announced the consequences, But your iniquities have separated you from your God, your sins have hidden his face from you, for your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things — a separation between God and man, and unrequited worshipping, the concept of original sin was first alluded to in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in his controversy with certain dualist Gnostics. Other church fathers such as Augustine also developed the doctrine, seeing it as based on the New Testament teaching of Paul the Apostle, tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose and Ambrosiaster considered that humanity shares in Adams sin, transmitted by human generation. The Jansenist movement, which the Catholic Church declared to be heretical, the way Thomas Aquinas viewed sin and vices was radically different from later approaches, especially that of 17th century moral theology. He presented sin and vices as contraries of virtues and he discusses the subject in his Summa Theologica part Ia-IIae qq. 71-89. In one of his definitions of sin Thomas quotes Augustine of Hippos description of sin as a thought, words and deed against the Eternal Law. Now there are two rules of the human will, one is proximate and homogeneous, viz. the human reason, the other is the first rule, viz. the eternal law, which is Gods reason, so to speak. To recognise the possibilities of sin in man is equal to acknowledge his human nature, his control, sin is a motion to the goal, it is judged by the object to which it is directed. The field of sin is the same as the field of virtue, there are three major fields, relationship with God, with oneself and with the neighbour. Thomas distinguished between mortal and venial sins, mortal sin is when a person has irreparably destroyed the very principle of his/her order to the goal of life. According to Aquinas the gravity of sin depends also on some disposition of the agent, sin, venial by reason of its object, may become mortal. It happens when person fixes his/her ultimate happiness, the last end of life in the object of that venial sin
17.
Christian views on the Old Covenant
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Theologian Thomas Aquinas explained that there are three types of biblical precepts, moral, ceremonial, and judicial. He holds that moral precepts are permanent, having held even before the Law was given, ceremonial precepts and judicial precepts came into existence only with the Law of Moses and were only temporary. The ceremonial commands were ordained to the Divine worship for that particular time, however, while the judicial laws ceased to bind with the advent of Christ, it was not a mortal sin to enforce them. Aquinas says, if a sovereign were to order these judicial precepts to be observed in his kingdom, thus some scholars refer to his views on government as General Equity Theonomy. Unlike the ceremonial and judicial precepts, moral commands continue to bind, the mission of teaching all peoples, and of preaching the Gospel to every creature, so that all men may attain salvation through faith, Baptism and the observance of the Commandments. The Ten Commandments belong to Gods revelation, at the same time they teach us the true humanity of man. They bring to light the essential duties, and therefore, indirectly, the Decalogue contains a privileged expression of the natural law, From the beginning, God had implanted in the heart of man the precepts of the natural law. Then he was content to him of them. Since they express mans fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbour and they are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them, the Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart. The Roman Catholic Church thus applies to Sunday, the Lords Day, between 1580 and 1713 this principle was considered of fundamental importance by Lutheran theologians. Lutherans, quoting Colossians 2 and Romans 14, believe that circumcision, the Westminster Confession of Faith divides the Mosaic laws into three categories, moral, civil, and ceremonial. In the view of the Westminster Divines, only the laws of the Mosaic Law, which include the Ten Commandments. Ceremonial laws, in view, include the regulations pertaining to ceremonial cleanliness, festivals, diet. In keeping with this, most advocates also hold that when the Law is spoken of as everlasting, anglican theology is defined to the degree it is expressed by its historic defining statements known as the Thirty-Nine Articles. As a theological system, Dispensationalism is rooted in the writings of John Nelson Darby and the Brethren Movement, dispensationists divide the Bible into varying numbers of separate dispensations or ages. Wayne G. Strickland, professor of theology at the Multnomah University and this view holds that Mosaic Laws and the penalties attached to them were limited to the particular historical and theological setting of the Old Testament. In that view, the Law was given to Israel and does not apply since the age of the New Covenant
18.
Seven deadly sins
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The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices of Christian origin. Behaviors or habits are classified under this category if they give birth to other immoralities. According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth and these sins are often thought to be abuses or excessive versions of ones natural faculties or passions. This classification originated with the fathers, especially Evagrius Ponticus. To inspire people to focus on the seven sins, the vices are discussed in treatises. The seven deadly sins in their current form are not found in the Bible, one such antecedent is found in the Book of Proverbs 6, 16–19, however only in the Masoretic Text. Since the apostle Paul goes on to say that the persons who practice these sins shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, still another list of things that God hates comes from Revelation 21,8. While the seven deadly sins as we know them did not originate with the Greeks or Romans, Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics lists several positive, healthy human qualities, excellences, or virtues. Aristotle argues that for each positive quality there are two negative vices that are found on each extreme of the virtue, courage, for example, is the human excellence or virtue in facing fear and risk. Excessive courage makes one rash, while a deficiency of courage makes one cowardly and this principle of virtue found in the middle or mean between excess and deficiency is Aristotles notion of the golden mean. Aristotle lists virtues like courage, temperance or self-control, generosity, greatness of soul, proper response to anger, friendliness, roman writers like Horace extolled the value of virtue while listing and warning against vices. His first epistles says that to flee vice is the beginning of virtue, Gregory combined tristitia and acedia, vanagloria and superbia, and added envy. Gregorys list became the standard list of sins, Thomas Aquinas uses and defends Gregorys list in his Summa Theologica. The Anglican Communion, Lutheran Church, and Methodist Church, among other Christian denominations, moreover, modern day evangelists, such as Billy Graham have explicated the seven deadly sins. In the seven sins are seven ways of eternal death. The capital sins from lust to envy are generally associated with pride, lust, or lechery, is intense longing. It is usually thought of as intense or unbridled sexual desire, which leads to fornication, adultery, rape, bestiality, however, lust could also mean simply desire in general, thus, lust for money, power, and other things are sinful. In accordance with the words of Henry Edward, the impurity of lust makes one a slave of the devil, lust, if not managed properly, can subvert propriety
19.
Old Testament
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Its counterpart is the New Testament, the second part of the Christian Bible. The books that comprise the Old Testament canon differ between Christian Churches as well as their order and names. The most common Protestant canon comprises 39 books, the Catholic canon comprises 46 books, the 39 books in common to all the Christian canons corresponds to 24 books of the Tanakh, with some differences of order, and there are some differences in text. The additional number reflects the split of texts in the Christian Bibles into separate books, for example, Kings, Samuel and Chronicles, Ezra–Nehemiah, the books which are part of a Christian Old Testament but which are not part of the Hebrew canon are sometimes described as deuterocanonical. In general, Protestant bibles do not include books in its canon. The Old Testament consists of translations of many books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. The canon formed in stages, first the Pentateuch by around 400 BC, then the Prophets during the Hasmonean dynasty, and finally the remaining books. The Old Testament contains 39 or 46 or more books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch, the books, the wisdom books. For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions, for the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the spelling when referring to them in the New Testament. The Talmud in Bava Batra 14b gives a different order for the books in Neviim and Ketuvim and this order is also cited in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7,15. The order of the books of the Torah is universal through all denominations of Judaism and they are present in a few historic Protestant versions, the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version. Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon, several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the Latin Vulgate, formerly the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings follow, there is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC. The two Books of Chronicles cover much the material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC. Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah, were finished during the 3rd century BC. Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two to four Books of Maccabees, written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC and these history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament. God is consistently depicted as the one who created or put into order the world, the Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel, but includes instructions for proselytes as well
20.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
21.
Mosaic covenant
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The Mosaic covenant, also known as the Sinaitic Covenant, refers to a biblical covenant between God and the biblical Israelites, including their proselytes. Scholars have examined the sources of the Mosaic covenant, including those within the Pentateuch, in the mid-twentieth century, George Mendenhall advanced comparisons of the covenant with agreements in nearby cultures. The concept of a covenant began long before the biblical era, according to George E. Mendenhall, covenants were originally established as legal customs and then later were replicated in the field of religion. These covenants were created on the basis of an oath, a promise between two parties followed by performance, engaging in an oath implied that if one side were to default, God would consequently ensure they receive proper punishment. Such covenants assured that either blessings or curses be enacted in response to the circumstances, however, in addition to the legal influence in regards to the creation of covenants, Mendenhall also addresses the theory behind blood ties and their significance to the concept of a covenant. As stated in the bible, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the descendants of Israel and because of their shared blood, they consequently form a bond. This blood tie is compared to the tie that is established by a covenant, according to Mendenhall, the covenant was not just an idea, but actually a historical event. This event was the formation of the covenant community, wandering the desert, the clans left Egypt following Moses. These people were all of different backgrounds, containing no status in any social community, with all these circumstances they formed their own community by a covenant whose texts turned into the Decalogue. The Israelites did not bind themselves to Moses as their leader though, Moses was just seen as a historical figure of some type sent as a messenger. The Israelites followed the form of the suzerainty treaty and were bound to obey stipulations that were set by Yahweh, not Moses. In addition to Mendenhalls input and perspective, Weinfeld argues that there are two forms of covenants to have occurred throughout the Old Testament,1. )These translate to a “political treaty” as evidenced by the Hittite Empire, and a “royal grant” as shown through the covenants tied to Abraham and David. A treaty entails a promise to the master by the vassal and this consequently works in a manner that promotes future loyalty of the vassal since the suzerain had previously done favors for them. A grant on the other pertains to an obligation from the master to his servant thus ensuring protection of the servant’s rights. This method of covenant emphasizes focus on rewarding loyalty and good deeds that have already been done, Weinfeld supports his characterization of a treaty by identifying the parallels exposed through the covenant between Yahweh and Israel. Similarly, he utilizes the Abrahamic and Davidic covenant to reveal its correspondence with a royal grant, in an article comparing covenants and forms of treaties common at the time, Mendenhall focuses on Hittite suzerainty treaties. These treaties, established between an emperor and inferior king, were defined by several important elements, the treaties were based on past aid or good fortune that the suzerain had previously delivered unto the vassal and the obligations that the vassal, therefore, had to the suzerain. This foundation for a treaty relationship is similar to the foundation for the Mosaic covenant, God had delivered the Israelites from Egypt in the Exodus, and they therefore are obligated to follow the commandments in the Decalogue
22.
The gospel
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In Christianity, the Gospel, or the Good News, is the news of the coming of the Kingdom of God, and of Jesuss death on the cross and resurrection to restore peoples relationship with God. It may also include the descent of the Holy Spirit upon believers, the message of good news is described as a narrative in the four canonical gospels. The message of good news is described as theology in many of the New Testament letters and it relates to the saving acts of God due to the work of Jesus on the cross and Jesus resurrection from the dead which bring reconciliation between people and God. It is called Proto-Evangelion or Proto-Gospel, Good News is the English translation of the Koine Greek εὐαγγέλιον euangélion. The Greek term was Latinized as evangelium in the Vulgate, in Old English, it was translated as gōdspel. The Old English term was retained as gospel in Middle English Bible translations, the written accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus are also generally known as Gospels. The good news can be summarized in many ways, reflecting various emphases, Acts 3, 18-26 This has taken place through the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acts 2, 22-31 By virtue of the resurrection, Jesus has been exalted at the hand of God as Messianic head of the new Israel. Acts 2, 32-36 The Holy Spirit in the church is the sign of Christs present power, Acts 10, 44-48 The Messianic Age will reach its consummation in the return of Christ. Acts 3, 20-21 An appeal is made for repentance with the offer of forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, Christian writers and teachers often present the Good News set within the context of the storyline of the whole Bible. This discipline, of understanding the Christian message in terms of Biblical salvation history, is known as Biblical Theology and this attempts to posit a connection between Old Testament and the Christian teachings of the good news about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. For example, the Roman Catholic Church promotes the teaching of the news in the context of biblical salvation history as a fundamental part of the content of its instruction. There are numerous exponents of the Biblical Theology approach to understanding the Good News, many Bible scholars and Christian groups have placed similar descriptions on the internet. Because the good news is multifaceted, there is a degree of variation in perspective between such descriptions. A brief summary of the teachings of the Bible writers, might read as follows, The Book of Genesis describes humanity, male and female, humanity was given a perfect place in which to live in perfect relationship with God, dependent upon God for all his needs. This resulted in the breaking of mankinds fellowship with God, leading to spiritual death, Genesis describes how God scattered mankind over the face of the earth, forming the different nations and ethnic groups. Beginning with the prophet and patriarch Abram, God chose specific people to live in obedience and fellowship with him, and blessed them, their land and this was so that the different peoples of the world would receive Gods blessing. This person would be called the Messiah, Gods son, the prophet Isaiah described a servant-like figure, who would suffer because of the offences of mankind against God
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New Testament
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The New Testament is the second major part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity, Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture. The New Testament has frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world and it reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Both extended readings and phrases directly from the New Testament are also incorporated into the various Christian liturgies, the New Testament has influenced religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom and left an indelible mark on literature, art, and music. In almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books, John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Others give a date of 80 AD, or at 96 AD. Over time, some disputed books, such as the Book of Revelation, other works earlier held to be Scripture, such as 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Diatessaron, were excluded from the New Testament. However, the canon of the New Testament, at least since Late Antiquity, has been almost universally recognized within Christianity. The term new testament, or new covenant first occurs in Jeremiah 31,31, the same Greek phrase for new covenant is found elsewhere in the New Testament. Modern English, like Latin, distinguishes testament and covenant as alternative translations, John Wycliffes 1395 version is a translation of the Latin Vulgate and so follows different terms in Jeremiah and Hebrews, Lo. Days shall come, saith the Lord, and I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel, for he reproving him saith, Lo. Days come, saith the Lord, when I shall establish a new testament on the house of Israel, use of the term New Testament to describe a collection of first and second-century Christian Greek Scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian. In Against Marcion, written circa 208 AD, he writes of the Divine Word, by the 4th century, the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius, a 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin Institutiones Divinae and that which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the Old, but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The canon of the New Testament is the collection of books that most Christians regard as divinely inspired, several of these writings sought to extend, interpret, and apply apostolic teaching to meet the needs of Christians in a given locality. The book order is the same in the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, the Slavonic, Armenian and Ethiopian traditions have different New Testament book orders. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament narrates the life, death, the word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning good news or glad tidings. The gospel was considered the good news of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and the redemption through the life and death of Jesus, Gospel is a calque of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion
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Epistle to the Romans
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The Epistle to the Romans or Letter to the Romans, often shortened to Romans, is the sixth book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by the Apostle Paul to explain that salvation is offered through the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is the longest of the Pauline epistles and is often considered his most important theological legacy and magnum opus. N. T. Wright notes that Romans is. neither a systematic theology nor a summary of Pauls lifework and it dwarfs most of his other writings, an Alpine peak towering over hills and villages. Not all onlookers have viewed it in the light or from the same angle. Not all climbers have taken the route up its sheer sides. What nobody doubts is that we are dealing with a work of massive substance. The scholarly consensus is that Paul authored the Epistle to the Romans, cranfield, in the introduction to his commentary on Romans, says, The denial of Pauls authorship of Romans by such critics. Is now rightly relegated to a place among the curiosities of NT scholarship, today no responsible criticism disputes its Pauline origin. The evidence of its use in the Apostolic Fathers is clear, every extant early list of NT books includes it among his letters. The external evidence of authenticity could indeed hardly be stronger, and it is borne out by the internal evidence, linguistic, stylistic, literary. The letter was most probably written while Paul was in Corinth, probably while he was staying in the house of Gaius, There are a number of reasons why Corinth is considered most plausible. Paul was about to travel to Jerusalem on writing the letter and this probably implies Corinth as it was the location of Paul’s greatest missionary success in Greece. Erastus, mentioned in Romans 16,23, also lived in Corinth, being the commissioner for public works and city treasurer at various times. The majority of writing on Romans propose the letter was written in late 55/early 56 or late 56/early 57. Early 55 and early 58 both have some support, while German New Testament scholar Gerd Lüdemann argues for a date as early as 51/52, following on from Knox, Lüdemann is the only serious challenge to the consensus of mid to late 50s. For ten years writing the letter, Paul had traveled around the territories bordering the Aegean Sea evangelizing. Churches had been planted in the Roman provinces of Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia and Asia, Paul, considering his task complete, wanted to preach the gospel in Spain, where he would not build upon another man’s foundation. This allowed him to visit Rome on the way, an ambition of his
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Salvation (Christianity)
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Salvation in Christianity, σωτηρία is the saving of the soul from sin and death. It may also be called deliverance or safety from sinful nature and it is a freedom from the flesh and temptations that steer mankind off track from full enlightenment and communion with God. The fault lines include conflicting definitions of depravity, predestination, atonement, Christian soteriology ranges from exclusive salvation to universal reconciliation concepts. At the heart of Christian faith is the reality and hope of salvation in Jesus Christ, Christian faith is faith in the God of salvation revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. This is perhaps the item of Christian faith. What has been a matter of debate is the relation between salvation and our activities in the world, different theories of atonement have been proposed for how Christian salvation can be understood. Over the centuries, Christians have held different ideas about how Jesus saved people, in this view, Jesus saved people from sinfulness through his life and teachings, thus transforming their character to become righteous. This salvation is seen as undeserved, since God graciously sent Jesus to save people when they were unrighteous, in the moral transformation paradigm, a person is saved from sinfulness by faithfully following the teachings of Jesus, and the example he set of how to live. Consequently, a person becomes righteous in Gods sight, and can expect a final judgment by God. Perfection is not required, and mistakes are forgiven after repentance, in this view, Jesus crucifixion is understood primarily as a martyrdom. The moral transformation view has been criticised and rejected by many Protestant Christians, critics believe that the moral transformation view conflicts with various biblical passages, underestimates the seriousness of sin and denies the atoning value of Jesus death. In the Christus Victor view, people needed salvation from the powers of evil, Jesus achieved salvation for people by defeating the powers of evil, particularly Satan. This view has been dated in writings of the Church Fathers up to the 4th centuries AD, several perspectives on this idea existed, which can be roughly divided into conquest of Satan and rescue from Satans power. In the conquest of Satan version, writers such as Eusebius of Caesarea depicted Jesus defeating Satan in a spiritual battle that occurred between his death and resurrection. By winning this battle, Jesus overthrew Satan and saved people from his dominion, the Christus Victor view is not widely held in the West. The ransom theory of atonement entails the idea that Satan had power over sinful souls in the afterlife, often, the death of Christ plays an important role in this rescue. The view appears to have arisen during the 3rd century, in the writings of Origen, in one version of the idea, Satan attempted to take Jesus soul after he had died, but in doing so over-extended his authority, as Jesus had never sinned. As a consequence, Satan lost his authority completely, and all humanity gained freedom, other versions held that Jesus divinity was masked by his human form, so Satan tried to take Jesus’ soul without realizing that his divinity would destroy Satans power
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Jewish Christianity
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Jewish Christians, also Hebrew Christians or Judeo-Christians, were the original members of the Jewish movement that later became Christianity. In the earliest stage the community was made up of all those Jews who accepted Jesus as a person or the Messiah. It is also a used for Jews who converted to Christianity but kept their Jewish heritage. 1st century Jewish Christians were totally faithful religious Jews and they differed from other contemporary Jews only in their acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. Those that taught that Gentile converts to Christianity ought to adopt more Jewish practices than the Church had already included, nevertheless, Judaizing continued for several centuries, particularly among Jewish Christians. As Christianity grew throughout the Gentile world, Christians diverged from their Jewish, Hebrew Christians — a 19th-century movement of Jewish converts to Christianity acting semi-autonomously within the Anglican and other established churches. Though it is used in some texts concerning the early church. Hebrew Roots — A religious movement that embraces both Old and New Testaments but without the observance of the Jewish Talmud and many Jewish traditions not supported by Scripture, Christian Jews — a modern term which is frequently encountered in texts dealing with sociology and demographics. Judaizers — Early Christians who maintained or adopted Jewish religious practices, judean Christians — Christians from Judea who were predominantly Jewish. Jesus was a Jew, and his movement was Jewish. He preached in the Jewish countryside, not the Hellenistic cities, after his execution, his followers saw him alive, although in what sense historians do not know. They formed a community to wait for him to return, Later, the Gospels represent a time when Christian theology was not fully formed and the separation from Judaism was not yet complete. It has been argued that this Jewish Christian sect was in danger of being wiped out as they were being persecuted. Peter and John were imprisoned by a Jewish leadership who were annoyed because they were teaching the people. The Sadducees in particular rejected the Pharisaic doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, Saint Stephen was tried by a Sanhedrin for blasphemy against Moses and God and was stoned to death, under the watch of Paul of Tarsus, before his conversion. A further blow to this Jewish sect was the death of their second leader, the High Priest Ananus ben Ananus took advantage of this lack of imperial oversight to assemble a Sanhedrin who condemned James on the charge of breaking the law, then had him executed by stoning. Josephus reports that Ananus act was viewed as little more than judicial murder. Three events would greatly affect the fortunes of early Jewish Christianity, after that, the Jerusalem bishops were uncircumcised Greeks
27.
God in Christianity
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In Christianity, God is the eternal being who created and preserves all things. Christians believe God to be both transcendent and immanent, although the Judæo-Christian sect of the Ebionites protested against this apotheosis of Jesus, the great mass of Gentile Christians accepted it. This began to differentiate the Gentile Christian views of God from traditional Jewish teachings of the time, in the 8th century, John of Damascus listed eighteen attributes which remain widely accepted. As time passed, theologians developed systematic lists of these attributes, some based on statements in the Bible and this never becomes a tritheism, i. e. this does not imply three Gods. The doctrine of the Trinity can be summed up as, The One God exists in Three Persons and One Substance, as God the Father, God the Son, Trinitarians, who form the large majority of Christians, hold it as a core tenet of their faith. Nontrinitarian denominations define the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in a number of different ways, early Christian views of God are reflected in Apostle Pauls statement in 1 Corinthians, written ca. In John 14,26 Jesus also refers to the Holy Spirit, by the middle of the 2nd century, in Against Heresies Irenaeus had emphasized that the Creator is the one and only God and the maker of heaven and earth. These preceded the presentation of the concept of Trinity by Tertullian early in the 3rd century. This did not exclude either the fact the father of the universe was also the Father of Jesus the Christ or that he had even vouchsafed to adopt as his son by grace. Eastern creeds began with an affirmation of faith in one God and almost always expanded this by adding the Father Almighty, as time passed, theologians and philosophers developed more precise understandings of the nature of God and began to produce systematic lists of his attributes. These varied in detail, but traditionally the attributes fell into two groups, those based on negation and those based on eminence. Throughout the Christian development of ideas about God, the Bible “has been, in Christian theology the name of God has always had much deeper meaning and significance than being just a label or designator. It is not an invention, but has divine origin and is based on divine revelation. This is reflected in the first petition in the Lords Prayer addressed to God the Father, in Revelation 3,12 those who bear the name of God are destined for Heaven. John 17,6 presents the teachings of Jesus as the manifestation of the name of God to his disciples, the Bible usually uses the name of God in the singular, generally using the terms in a very general sense rather than referring to any special designation of God. However, general references to the name of God may branch to other forms which express his multifaceted attributes. Scripture presents many references to the names for God, but the key names in the Old Testament are, God the High and Exalted One, El-Shaddai, in the New Testament Theos, Kyrios and Pater are the essential names. The theological underpinnings of the attributes and nature of God have been discussed since the earliest days of Christianity
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Christ
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Jesus, also referred to as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ, was a Jewish preacher and religious leader who became the central figure of Christianity. Christians believe him to be the Son of God and the awaited Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, Jesus was a Galilean Jew who was baptized by John the Baptist and subsequently began his own ministry, preaching his message orally and often being referred to as rabbi. He was arrested and tried by the Jewish authorities, and was crucified by the order of Pontius Pilate, Jesus debated fellow Jews on how to best follow God, performed healings, taught in parables and gathered followers. After his death, his followers believed he rose from the dead, and his birth is celebrated annually on December 25 as a holiday known as Christmas, his crucifixion is honored on Good Friday, and his resurrection is celebrated on Easter. The widely used calendar era AD, from the Latin anno Domini, most Christians believe Jesus enables humans to be reconciled to God. The Nicene Creed asserts that Jesus will judge the living and the dead either before or after their bodily resurrection, the great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of a Divine Trinity. A minority of Christian denominations reject Trinitarianism, wholly or partly, in Islam, Jesus is considered one of Gods important prophets and the Messiah. Muslims believe Jesus was a bringer of scripture and was born of a virgin but was not the Son of God, the Quran states that Jesus himself never claimed divinity. To most Muslims, Jesus was not crucified but was raised into Heaven by God. Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill Messianic prophecies, a typical Jew in Jesus time had only one name, sometimes supplemented with the fathers name or the individuals hometown. Thus, in the New Testament, Jesus is commonly referred to as Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus neighbors in Nazareth refer to him as the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, the carpenters son, or Josephs son. In John, the disciple Philip refers to him as Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth, the name Jesus is derived from the Latin Iesus, a transliteration of the Greek Ἰησοῦς. The Greek form is a rendering of the Hebrew ישוע, a variant of the earlier name יהושע, the name Yeshua appears to have been in use in Judea at the time of the birth of Jesus. The 1st century works of historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote in Koine Greek, the etymology of Jesus name in the context of the New Testament is generally given as Yahweh is salvation. Since early Christianity, Christians have commonly referred to Jesus as Jesus Christ, the word Christ is derived from the Greek Χριστός, which is a translation of the Hebrew משיח, meaning the anointed and usually transliterated into English as Messiah. Christians designate Jesus as Christ because they believe he is the Messiah, whose arrival is prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, in postbiblical usage, Christ became viewed as a name—one part of Jesus Christ—but originally it was a title. The term Christian has been in use since the 1st century, the four canonical gospels are the only substantial sources for the life and message of Jesus. Acts of the Apostles refers to the ministry of Jesus
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Satisfaction theory of atonement
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The theory draws primarily from the works of Anselm of Canterbury. It has been taught in the Roman Catholic, Lutheran. Theologically and historically, the word satisfaction does not mean gratification as in common usage, since one of Gods characteristics is justice, affronts to that justice must be atoned for. It is thus connected with the concept of balancing out an injustice. Anselm regarded his satisfaction view of the atonement as an improvement over the older ransom theory of atonement. Anselms theory was a precursor to the refinements of Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin, the classic Anselmian formulation of the satisfaction view should be distinguished from penal substitution. Anselm speaks of sin as defrauding God of the honour he is due. Christs death, the act of obedience, brings God great honour. As it was beyond the call of duty for Christ, it is more honour than he was obliged to give, Christs surplus can therefore repay our deficit. Hence Christs death is substitutionary, he pays the honour to the Father instead of us paying, Penal substitution differs in that it sees Christs death not as repaying God for lost honour but rather paying the penalty of death that had always been the moral consequence for sin. The key difference here is that for Anselm, satisfaction is an alternative to punishment, The honor taken away must be repaid, by Christ satisfying our debt of honor to God, we avoid punishment. In Calvinist Penal Substitution, it is the punishment which satisfies the demands of justice, another distinction must be made between penal substitution and substitutionary atonement. Both affirm the substitutionary and vicarious nature of the atonement, but penal substitution offers an explanation as to what the suffering is for. However, the specific interpretation differed as to what this suffering for sinners meant, the early Church Fathers, including Athanasius and Augustine, taught that through Christs suffering in humanitys place, he overcame and liberated us from death and the devil. Thus while the idea of atonement is present in nearly all atonement theories. St. Anselm of Canterbury first articulated the view in his Cur Deus Homo. as a modification to the ransom theory that was postulated at the time in the West. The then-current ransom theory of the atonement held that Jesus death paid a ransom to Satan, for Anselm, this solution was inadequate. Why should the Son of God have to become a human to pay a ransom, why should God owe anything at all to Satan
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Eastern Christianity
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Eastern Christianity consists of four main church families, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Assyrian Church of the East, as well as the Eastern Catholic Churches. The term is used in contrast with Western Christianity, the term does not describe a single communion or religious denomination. Some Eastern churches have more in common historically and theologically with Western Christianity than with one another, the various Eastern churches do not normally refer to themselves as Eastern, with the exception of the Assyrian Church of the East and its offshoots. Eastern Christians do not share the religious traditions, but do share many cultural traditions. Christianity divided itself in the East during its early centuries both within and outside of the Roman Empire in disputes about Christology and fundamental theology, as well as national divisions and it would be many centuries later that Western Christianity fully split from these traditions as its own communion. The Eastern churches differences from Western Christianity have as much, if not more, to do with culture, language, for the non-Catholic Eastern churches, a definitive date for the commencement of schism cannot usually be given. Oriental Orthodoxy separated after the Council of Chalcedon in 451, since the time of the historian Edward Gibbon, the split between the Church of Rome and the Orthodox Church has been conveniently dated to 1054, though the reality is more complex. This split is referred to as the Great Schism. Eastern Orthodox Christians accept the decisions of the First seven Ecumenical Councils, the Eastern Orthodox Church is organized into self-governing jurisdictions along geographical, national, ethnic, and/or linguistic lines. Eastern Orthodoxy is thus made up of 15 or 16 autocephalous bodies, smaller churches are autonomous and each have a mother church that is autocephalous. This is in contrast to the Catholic Church and its various Churches, members of the latter are all in communion with each other, parts of a top-down hierarchy. The majority of Catholics accept both the Filioque clause and, since 1950, the Assumption of Mary and this puts them in sharp contrast with the Eastern Orthodox. Yet some Catholics who are not in communion with the Catholic Church side with the Eastern Orthodox here and reject these teachings and it is estimated that there are approximately 240 million Eastern Orthodox Christians in the world. Today, many adherents shun the term Eastern as denying the universal character. They refer to Eastern Orthodoxy simply as the Orthodox Church, hence, these churches are also called Old Oriental churches. Oriental Orthodoxy developed in reaction to Chalcedon on the limit of the Byzantine Empire and in Egypt. In those locations, there are also Eastern Orthodox patriarchs, thereafter it was often known, possibly inaccurately, as the Nestorian Church in the West. Surviving a period of persecution within Persia, the Church of the East flourished under the caliphate and branched out, in the 16th century dynastic struggles sent the church into schism, resulting in the formation of two rival churches
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Book of Genesis
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The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. The basic narrative expresses the theme, God creates the world and appoints man as his regent. The new post-Flood world is also corrupt, God does not destroy it, instead calling one man, Abraham, to be the seed of its salvation. At Gods command Abraham descends from his home into the land of Canaan, given to him by God, Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus. The narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, the books author or authors appear to have structured it around ten toledot sections, but modern commentators see it in terms of a primeval history followed by the cycle of Patriarchal stories. In Judaism, the importance of Genesis centers on the covenants linking God to his chosen people. It is not clear, however, what this meant to the original authors, while the first is far shorter than the second, it sets out the basic themes and provides an interpretive key for understanding the entire book. The primeval history has a symmetrical structure hinging on chapters 6–9, God creates the world in six days and consecrates the seventh as a day of rest. God creates the first humans Adam and Eve and all the animals in the Garden of Eden but instructs them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A talking serpent portrayed as a creature or trickster, entices Eve into eating it anyway. Eve bears two sons, Cain and Abel, Cain kills Abel after God accepts Abels offering but not Cains. Eve bears another son, Seth, to take Abels place, after many generations of Adam have passed from the lines of Cain and Seth, the world becomes corrupted by the sin of man and Nephilim, and God determines to wipe out mankind. First, he instructs the righteous Noah and his family to build a huge boat, then God sends a great flood to wipe out the rest of the world. When the waters recede, God promises that he not destroy the world a second time with water with the rainbow as the symbol of his promise. But upon seeing mankind cooperating to build a great tower city, God instructs Abram to travel from his home in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. Abrams name is changed to Abraham and that of his wife Sarai to Sarah, because Sarah is old, she tells Abraham to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as a second wife. God resolves to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sins of their people, Abraham protests and gets God to agree not to destroy the cities if 10 righteous men can be found. Angels save Abrahams nephew Lot and his family, but his wife back on the destruction against their command and is turned into a pillar of salt
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Original sin
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The concept of original sin was first alluded to in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in his controversy with certain dualist Gnostics. Other church fathers such as Augustine also developed the doctrine, seeing it as based on the New Testament teaching of Paul the Apostle, tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose and Ambrosiaster considered that humanity shares in Adams sin, transmitted by human generation. The Jansenist movement, which the Catholic Church declared to be heretical, the story of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man represents a tradition among the Abrahamic peoples, with a presentation more or less symbolical of certain moral and religious truths. The idea of divine justice taking the form of punishment is also ubiquitous in the Hebrew Bible. St Pauls idea of redemption hinged on the contrast between the sin of Adam and the death and resurrection of Jesus. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. Up till then the transgression in the Garden of Eden had not been given great significance, as the Jesus scholar, Geza Vermes has said, Paul believed that Adams transgression in a mysterious way affected the nature of the human race. The primeval sin, a Pauline creation with no biblical or post-biblical Jewish precedent, was irreparable by ordinary human effort, the formalized Christian doctrine of original sin was first developed in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyon, in his struggle against Gnosticism. Irenaeus contrasted their doctrine with the view that the Fall was a step in the direction by Adam, with whom, Irenaeus believed. The Greek Fathers emphasized the cosmic dimension of the Fall, namely that since Adam human beings are born into a fallen world and they thus did not teach that human beings are deprived of free will and involved in total depravity, which is one understanding of original sin. During this period the doctrines of human depravity and the sinful nature of human flesh were taught by Gnostics. Christian Apologists insisted that Gods future judgment of humanity implied humanity must have the ability to live righteously, when Adam sinned, human nature was thenceforth transformed. Adam and Eve, via sexual reproduction, recreated human nature and their descendants now live in sin, in the form of concupiscence, a term Augustine used in a metaphysical, not a psychological sense. Augustine insisted that concupiscence was not a being but a bad quality, in Augustines view, all of humanity was really present in Adam when he sinned, and therefore all have sinned. Original sin, according to Augustine, consists of the guilt of Adam which all humans inherit, as sinners, humans are utterly depraved in nature, lack the freedom to do good, and cannot respond to the will of God without divine grace. Justo Gonzalez interprets Augustines teaching that grace is irresistible, results in conversion, Pelagius claimed that the influence of Adam on other humans was merely that of bad example. Augustine held that the effects of Adams sin are transmitted to his descendants not by example, a wounded nature comes to the soul and body of the new person from his/her parents, who experience libido. Augustines view was that human procreation was the way the transmission was being effected and he did not blame, however, the sexual passion itself, but the spiritual concupiscence present in human nature, soul and body, even after baptismal regeneration
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Garden of Eden
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The Garden of Eden or often Paradise is the biblical garden of God, described most notably in the Book of Genesis chapters 2 and 3, and also in the Book of Ezekiel. The garden of God, not called Eden, is mentioned in Genesis 13, the Book of Zechariah and the Book of Psalms also refer to trees and water in relation to the temple without explicitly mentioning Eden. Traditionally, the derivation of the name Eden was from the Akkadian edinnu. Eden is now believed to be closely related to an Aramaic root word meaning fruitful. The Hebrew term is translated pleasure in Sarahs secret saying in Genesis 18,12, in the Hebrew Bible, Adam and Eve are depicted as walking around the Garden of Eden naked due to their innocence. Eden and its rivers may signify the real Jerusalem, the Temple of Solomon and it may also represent the divine garden on Zion, and the mountain of God, which was also Jerusalem. The imagery of the Garden, with its serpent and cherubs, has compared to the images of the Solomonic Temple with its copper serpent. The second part of the Genesis creation narrative, Genesis, opens with Adonai Elohim creating the first man, the man was free to eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Last of all, the God made a woman from a rib of the man to be a companion the man, cherubim were placed east of the garden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep him away from the tree of life. Genesis lists four rivers in association with the garden of Eden, Pishon, Gihon, the Tigris, and it also refers to the land of Cush - translated/interpreted as Ethiopia, but thought by some to equate to Cossaea, a Greek name for the land of the Kassites. These lands lie north of Elam, immediately to the east of ancient Babylon, in Antiquities of the Jews, the first-century Jewish historian Josephus identifies the Pishon as what the Greeks called Ganges and the Geon as the Nile. According to Terje Stordalen, the Eden in Ezekiel appears to be located in Lebanon. According to the Bible, the location of Eden is described in the Book of Genesis, chapter 2, verse 10-14, A river flowed from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided to make four streams. The first is named the Pishon, and this winds all through the land of Havilah where there is gold, the gold of this country is pure, bdellium and cornelian stone are found there. The second river is named the Gihon, and this winds all through the land of Cush, the third river is named the Tigris, and this flows to the east of Ashur. The fourth river is the Euphrates, the city of Dilmun in the Sumerian mythological story of Enki and Ninhursag is a paradisaical abode of the immortals, where sickness and death were unknown. In this painting, only the action takes place there identifies the setting as distinct from the Garden of the Hesperides. The Persian term paradise, meaning a garden or hunting-park
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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
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Eternity
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Eternity in common parlance is either an infinite or an indeterminately long period of time. In classical philosophy, however, eternity is defined as what exists outside time while sempiternity is the concept that corresponds to the definition of eternity. Eternity is an important concept in many religions, where the God or the gods are said to endure eternally. Some, such as Aristotle, would say the same about the cosmos in regard to both past and future eternal duration, and like the eternal Platonic forms, immutability was considered essential. Aristotle argued that the cosmos has no beginning, in Aristotles metaphysics, eternity is the unmoved mover, understood as the gradient of total synergy. Boethius defined eternity as simultaneously full and perfect possession of interminable life, eternity is often symbolized by the image of a snake swallowing its own tail, known as the Ouroboros. The circle is commonly used as a symbol for eternity, as is the mathematical symbol of infinity. Http, //www. iep. utm. edu/g/god-time. htm Entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy on the relationship between God and Time
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Gluttony
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Gluttony, derived from the Latin gluttire meaning to gulp down or swallow, means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or wealth items. In Christianity, it is considered a sin if the desire for food causes it to be withheld from the needy. Some Christian denominations consider gluttony as one of the seven deadly sins, in Deut 21,20 and Proverbs 23,21, it is זלל. The Gesenius Entry has indications of squandering and profligacy, in Matthew 11,19 and Luke 7,34, it is φαγος, The LSJ Entry is tiny, and only refers to one external source, Zenobius Paroemiographus 1.73. The word could mean merely an eater, since φαγω means eat, according to the list of 613 commandments that Jews must keep according to the Rambam, gluttony or excessive eating or drinking is prohibited. It is listed as #169, Not to eat or drink like a glutton or a drunkard, eating before the time of meals in order to satisfy the palate. Biblical example, Jonathan eating a little honey, when his father Saul commanded no food to be taken before the evening, seeking delicacies and better quality of food to gratify the vile sense of taste. Biblical example, When Israelites escaping from Egypt complained, Who shall give us flesh to eat. We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks and the onions, seeking to stimulate the palate with overly or elaborately prepared food. Biblical example, Two sons of Eli the high priest made the meat to be cooked in one manner rather than another. Exceeding the necessary quantity of food, biblical example, One of the sins of Sodom was fullness of bread. Taking food with too much eagerness, even eating the proper amount. Biblical example, Esau selling his birthright for ordinary food of bread and his punishment was that of the profane person. Who, for a morsel of meat sold his birthright, we learn that he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully, the fifth way is worse than all others, said St. Gregory, because it shows attachment to pleasure most clearly. To recapitulate, St Gregory the Great said that one may succumb to the sin of gluttony by,1 and he asserts that the irregular desire is the sin, not the food, For it is not the food, but the desire that is in fault. He says that abstinence from food and drink overcome the sin of gluttony, in general, fasting is useful to restrain concupiscence of the flesh. St. However, it is not a fault to feel pleasure in eating, for it is, generally speaking, but it is a defect to eat, like beasts, through the sole motive of sensual gratification, and without any reasonable object. Deuteronomy 21,20 - And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice, he is a glutton, and a drunkard
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Eternal sin
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In Christian hamartiology, eternal sins, unforgivable sins, or unpardonable sins are sins which will not be forgiven by God. One eternal or unforgivable sin is specified in several passages of the synoptic gospels, mark 3, 28-29, Matthew 12, 31-32, and Luke 12,10 state that there is one sin considered eternal and that is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Several passages in the Bible are frequently interpreted as referring to the sin, Matthew 12, 30-32, Whoever is not with me is against me. And so I tell you, people will be forgiven every sin, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, mark 3, 28-30, Truly I tell you, all sins and blasphemes will be forgiven for the sons of men. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven and he said this because they were saying, ‘He has an evil spirit’. Luke 12, 8-10, I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, but he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, according to one source however these are mortal sins against the Holy Spirit and not blasphemy against him though apart from presumption none of these are listed as mortal sins by the Catechism. The Catechism says that Christ desires the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin, as did St Augustine the Catholic Church today teaches that only dying not being sorry for ones sins is the only unforgivable sin. This means the refusal to come to the sources of Redemption, protestant denominations and theologians have taken various approaches in defining the sin against the Holy Spirit. Similarly, Jacob Arminius defined it as the rejection and refusing of Jesus Christ through determined malice, however, Arminius differed with Calvin in believing that the sin could be committed by believers, a conclusion he reached through his interpretation of Hebrews 6, 4-6. According to Billy Graham, refusing to turn to God and accept his forgiveness is the eternal sin, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, have a similar understanding of eternal sin. What must a man do to commit the unpardonable sin and he must receive the Holy Ghost, have the heavens opened unto him, and know God, and then sin against him. After a man has sinned against the Holy Ghost, there is no repentance for him, anantarika-karma Shirk CCEF Counseling article What is the Unforgivable Sin. by Jeremy Myers
