1.
Twelve Tribes of Israel
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The Twelve Tribes of Israel or Tribes of Israel were the tribes said by the Hebrew Bible to have descended from the patriarch Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons and at least one daughter by two wives and two concubines, according to the biblical tradition, the twelve sons fathered the twelve tribes of Israel. Before his death, Jacob blessed or foretold the destiny of each of his sons and this is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. The confederation of tribes lived in the midst of the nationalities who continued to occupy Canaan. Modern scholarship has called into question the beginning, middle, the account of the conquest under Joshua has largely been abandoned. The Bibles depiction of the period of the Judges is widely considered doubtful, the extent to which a united Kingdom of Israel ever existed is also a matter of ongoing dispute. Living in exile in the sixth century BC, the prophet Ezekiel has a vision for the restoration of Israel which will include the ideal reallotment of the land to the tribes of Israel. In the Christian New Testament, the tribes of Israel are referred to twice in the gospels. In Matthew, paralled by Luke, Jesus anticipates that in the Kingdom of God, His followers will sit on thrones, israelites Leaders of the tribes of Israel Ten Lost Tribes The Twelve Tribes at the Jewish Encyclopedia The Twelve Tribes of Israel at the Jewish Virtual Library
2.
Tribe of Reuben
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Reuben was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. From after the conquest of the land under Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c.1050 BC, no central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. According to the Book of Chronicles, Adina and thirty Reubenites aided David as members of his mighty warriors in conquering the City of David. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. Reuben was a member of the kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c.723 BC, from that time, the Tribe of Reuben has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. According to Kenneth Kitchen, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BC, however, almost all scholars have abandoned the idea that Joshua carried out a conquest of Canaan similar to that described in the Book of Joshua. In the case of the Tribes of Reuben, Gad and Menasheh, Moses allocated land to them on the side of the Jordan River. On that basis, some have suggested that the territory of Reuben was an enclave in the territory of Gad. According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Reuben, the first son of Jacob, however, Peakes commentary viewed this as a postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. The territory of Reuben encapsulated the territory of the kingdom of Sihon. As part of the Kingdom of Israel, the territory of Reuben was conquered by the Assyrians, and the tribe exiled, Israel The Making of the Pentateuch This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Easton, Matthew George
3.
Tribe of Simeon
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Simeon was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the biblical account, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes, kenneth Kitchen, a well-known conservative biblical scholar, dates this event to slightly after 1200 BCE. However, the view of modern scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. Simeon was one of the significant tribes in the Kingdom of Judah. With Leah as a matriarch, scholars believe the tribe to have been regarded by the authors to have been part of the original Israelite confederation. According to this narrative, the tribe of Judah invited the tribe of Simeon to fight them in alliance to secure each of their allotted territories. Further verses state that about 500 men from the tribe migrated to Mount Seir, according to the Midrash, many families in the other Israelite tribes were descended from women from Simeon, which had been widowed from their original Simeonite husbands. Simeon was one of the strongest tribes during the wandering in the desert and its symbol is that of a gate representing the city of Shechem. This seeming contradiction can be explained in the following way, the tribe of Simeon, like Levi, was decreed to be scattered throughout as punishment for massacring Shechem. Levi was scattered throughout all of Israel whereas Simeon was scattered in towns only within Judah, in the Blessing of Jacob, this punishment appears to be prophesied, with the tribe being predicted to become divided and scattered. Nevertheless, an apocryphal midrash claims that the tribe was deported by the Babylonians to the Kingdom of Aksum, to a place behind the dark mountains
4.
Tribe of Levi
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The Tribe of Levi is one of the tribes of Israel, traditionally descended from Levi, son of Jacob, or high priest of the Israelites. Moses and his brother, Aaron, were descendants of the Tribe of Levi. The Tribe of Levi served particular religious duties for the Israelites and had political responsibilities as well, in return, the landed tribes were expected to give tithe to the Cohanim, particularly the tithe known as the Maaser Rishon. They performed the work in the Temple, the Levites who were not Cohanim played music in the Temple or served as guards. Notable descendants of the Levite lineage according to the Bible include Miriam, John the Baptist, Samuel, Ezekiel, Ezra, the descendants of Aaron, who was the first kohen gadol, high priest, of Israel, were designated as the priestly class, the Kohanim. The tribe is named after Levi, one of the sons of Jacob. Levi had three sons, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, kohaths son Amram was the father of Miriam, Aaron and Moses. The descendants of Aaron, the Kohanim, had the role as priests in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. The remaining Levites were divided into three groups, Gershonites, Kohathites, and Merarites, each division filled different roles in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple services. Levites principal roles in the Temple included singing Psalms during Temple services, performing construction and maintenance for the Temple, serving as guards, Levites also served as teachers and judges, maintaining cities of refuge in Biblical times. The Book of Ezra reports that the Levites were responsible for the construction of the Second Temple and also translated and explained the Torah when it was publicly read. During the Exodus the Levite tribe were particularly zealous in protecting the Mosaic law in the face of those worshipping the Golden Calf and they are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting. And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, Considerest thou not what people have spoken, saying. Jeremiah 33, 22-24 The prophet Malachi also spoke of a covenant with Levi, Know then that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them to him, and of fear, and he feared Me, and was afraid of My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips, he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, but who may abide the day of his coming. And who shall stand when he appeareth, the Levites are not mentioned by the Song of Deborah considered one of the oldest passages of the Bible. Jahwist passages have more language, traditionally interpreted as referring to a person named Levi they could also be interpreted as just referring to a social position titled levi
5.
Tribe of Judah
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel. According to the account in the Book of Joshua, following a partial conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Judahs divinely ordained portion is described in Joshua 15 as encompassing most of the portion of the Land of Israel, including the Negev. However, the consensus of scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. According to the narrative in the Book of Judges, the tribe of Judah invited the tribe of Simeon to fight them in alliance to secure each of their allotted territories. As is the case with Joshua, many scholars do not believe that the book of Judges contains reliable history. In Samuels account, after the death of Saul, all the other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul. The Book of Kings follows the expansion and unparalleled glory of the United Monarchy under King Solomon, a majority of scholars believe that the accounts concerning David and Solomons territory in the united monarchy are exaggerated, and a minority believe that the united monarchy never existed at all. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to the House of David and these tribes formed the Kingdom of Judah, which existed until Judah was conquered by Babylon in c.586 BCE and the population deported. When the Jews returned from Babylonian exile, residual tribal affiliations were abandoned, bethlehem and Hebron were initially the main cities within the territory of the tribe. In biblical times, this region was subdivided into three sections – the wilderness of En Gedi, the wilderness of Judah, and the wilderness of Maon. The hill country – the elevated plateau situated between the Shephelah and the wilderness, with rocky slopes but very fertile soil and this region was used for the production of grain, olives, grapes, and other fruit, and hence produced oil and wine. According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Judah, some Biblical scholars view this as an etiological myth created in hindsight to explain the tribes name and connect it to the other tribes in the Israelite confederation. With Leah as a matriarch, Biblical scholars regard the tribe as having been believed by the authors to have been part of the original Israelite confederation. As depicted by the Deuteronomists and post-exilic writers, the tribe of Judah was the tribe of the Kingdom of Judah. David and the line belonged to the tribe, and the line continued after the fall of the Kingdom of Judah in the Exilarchs. The traditional Jewish belief was that the Messiah would be of the Davidic line, indeed, many of the Jewish leaders and prophets of the Hebrew Bible claimed membership in the tribe of Judah. For example, the literary prophets Isaiah, Amos, Habakkuk, Joel, Micah, Obadiah, Zechariah, and Zephaniah, all belonged to the tribe
6.
Tribe of Dan
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The Tribe of Dan, meaning, Judge, was one of the tribes of Israel, according to the Torah. They were allocated a portion of land when the people of Israel entered the Promised Land. According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of the descendants of Dan, in the biblical account, Dan is one of the two children of Bilhah, the handmaid of Jacobs wife Rachel, the other child of Bilhah being Naphtali. Scholars see this as indicating that the authors saw Dan and Naphtali as being not of entirely Israelite origin. Some have noted that the territory of the handmaid tribes happens to be the territory closest to the north and eastern borders of Canaan, thus exposing them to Assyria and Aram. In the Biblical census of the Book of Numbers, the tribe of Dan is portrayed as the second largest Israelite tribe. Some textual scholars regard the census as being from the Priestly Source, dating it to around the 7th century BC, and more likely to reflect the biases of its authors. According to the narrative, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE. Dan was the last tribe to receive its territorial inheritance, the land originally allocated to Dan was a small enclave in the central coastal area of Canaan, between Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and the Philistines. On the north the territory of Dan ended opposite Joppa, the modern Jaffa and this territory, not very extensive originally, was soon diminished by its dangerous neighbors, the Philistines. The tribe was able to camp in the hill country overlooking the Sorek Valley. The region they were trying to settle extended south into the Shephelah in the area of Timnah, as a result, the modern state of Israel refers to the region as Gush Dan. From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first united Kingdom of Israel in c.1050 BC, no central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. The most celebrated Danite was Samson, a Danaite judge from the period of settlement in the lands allotted by Joshua, pnina Galpaz-Feller sees similarities between the story of Samson and Denyen tribal legends. Thus their territory in the end lay northeast of that of Naphtali, east of the upper Jordan River, near its eastern sources, a number of biblical texts thus refer to All Israel, from Dan to Beersheba. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to re-form a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. As part of the Kingdom of Israel, the territory of Dan was conquered by the Assyrians, and exiled, the manner of their exile led to their further history being lost. Simon Magus, also known as Simon the Sorcerer, and Simon the Magican, came from the village of Gitta in Samaria, according to Justin Martyr, a site settled by the tribe of Dan according to Josephus
7.
Tribe of Naphtali
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The Tribe of Naphtali was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the biblical account, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes, kenneth Kitchen, a well-known conservative biblical scholar, dates this event to slightly after 1200 BCE. However, the view of modern scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. The most significant city was Hazor, from after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c.1050 BC, the Tribe of Naphtali was a part of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. In c.732 BCE, Pekah allied with Rezin, king of Aram, threatened Jerusalem, and Ahaz, king of Judah, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help. After Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-Pileser, Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing Aram, according to 2 Kings 16,9 and 15,29, the population of Aram and the annexed part of Israel was deported to Assyria. The kingdom of Israel continued to exist until c.723 BC, when it was invaded by Assyria. From that time, the Tribe of Naphtali has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, according to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Naphtali, a son of Jacob and Bilhah, from whom it took its name. However, Biblical scholars view this as a postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation, militarism is featured in Naphtalis history. In the Blessing of Jacob, which textual scholars date to 700-600 BC - and thus a postdiction, Naphtali is compared to a hind let loose, and commended for giving goodly words. Centuries later, the Assyrians invaded Israel, which, though it had been a tributary, had also defaulted, with the land taken, the tribe were exiled, the manner of their exile led to their further history being lost. The symbol of the tribe is a very quick animal. The people of Naftali were famous for being great runners, there has been speculation that the Bukharian Jews of Central Asia are the descendants of the Naphtali tribe. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Easton
8.
Tribe of Gad
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Gad was one of the tribes of Israel who, after the Exodus from Egypt, settled on the eastern side of the Jordan River. From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c.1050 BC, no central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. Gad was a member of the kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c.723 BC, from that time then, the Tribe of Gad has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, however, in the case of the Tribes of Gad, Reuben and Menasheh, Moses allocated land to them on the eastern side of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. The Tribe of Gad was allocated a region to the east of the River Jordan, according to the Torah, the tribe were descendants of Gad the seventh son of Jacob, from whom it took its name. However, some Biblical scholars view this also as a postdiction, furthermore, the Moabite Stone seemingly differentiates between the kingdom of Israel and the tribe of Gad, presenting Gad as predating Israel in the lands east of the Jordan. These details seems to indicate that Gad was originally a nomadic tribe. Though initially forming part of the Kingdom of Israel, from the biblical account it appears that under Uzziah and Jotham the tribe of Gad joined with the kingdom of Judah instead. The manner of the led to the further history of the tribe being lost
9.
Tribe of Asher
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Asher was one of the Tribes of Israel. According to the biblical Book of Joshua, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes, according to biblical scholar Kenneth Kitchen, this conquest should be dated slightly after 1200 BC. However, the consensus of scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. The Blessing of Moses appears to prophesy this allocation, although textual scholars view this as a postdiction. From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c.1050 BC, no central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. On the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. Asher was a member of the kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c.723 BC, from that time, the Tribe of Asher has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. In the New Testament, Anna the prophetess and her father, critical scholars generally conclude that Asher consisted of certain clans that were affiliated with portions of the Israelite tribal confederation, but were never incorporated into the body politic. According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Asher the fourth son of Jacob, critical scholars view this as an eponymous metaphor. A group named Aseru, living in a region to Asher in the 14th century BC, are mentioned in Egyptian monuments of the period. Identification with the tribe of Asher is plausible according to views that place the Exodus at the end of the Hyksos period and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Easton, Matthew George
10.
Tribe of Zebulun
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Zebulun was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes in the Book of Joshua, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Zebulun, some Biblical scholars, however, view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. With Leah as a matriarch, Biblical scholars believe the tribe to have been regarded by the authors as a part of the original Israelite confederation. In the ancient Song of Deborah, Zebulun are described as sending to the battle those that handle the sopher shebet, the Tribe of Zebulun plays an important part in the early history of Israel. At the census of the tribes in the Desert of Sinai during the year of the Exodus. This army, under the command of Eliab the son of Helon, encamped with Judah and Issachar east of the Tabernacle, among the spies sent by Moses to view the land of Canaan, Gaddiel the son of Sodi represented Zebulun. At Shittim, in the land of Moab, after 24,000 men were slain for their crime, elizaphan the son of Parnach was chosen to represent Zebulun at the division of the Promised Land. During the rule of Joshua it received no special mention. e, such as recruiting and inspecting officers. The reference is to Baraks campaign against Sisera, the commander of the forces of Jabin and they answered the call of Gideon and joined in battle against Madian, and gave to Israel Elon, who judged it ten years. When Hezekiah made reparation for the abominations of his father Ahaz, at the division of the land of Israel among the seven tribes not yet provided for, the lot of Zebulun was third. The tribes territory started with Sarid, which is supposed to have been Tel Shadud, zebuluns boundaries have not been made out. The historian Josephus assigns to Zebulun the land near to Carmel, to its northwest lay Asher, to the southeast Issachar. It included a part of the Jezreel Valley, and the highway from the sea to the lake. Within the territory of Zebulun, Jesus was raised, and did and said much that is narrated in the Gospels, especially in the Synoptics, about his Galilean ministry. As part of the Kingdom of Israel, the territory of Zebulun was conquered by the Assyrians, and the tribe exiled, israeli Knesset member Ayoob Kara speculated that the Druze are descended from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, probably Zevulun. Kara stated that the Druze share many of the same beliefs as Jews, Zebulun Tribe of Issachar This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Easton, Matthew George. Media related to Tribe of Zebulun at Wikimedia Commons
11.
Tribe of Manasseh
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Manasseh was one of the Tribes of Israel. Together with the Tribe of Ephraim, Manasseh also formed the House of Joseph, no central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. Manasseh was a member of the kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c.723 BC, from that time, the Tribe of Manasseh has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, though some groups claim descent from the tribe. The Bible records that following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes, according to biblical scholar Kenneth Kitchen, this conquest should be dated slightly after 1200 BCE. However, the consensus of scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. In c.732 BCE, Pekah, king of Israel allied with Rezin, king of Aram, ahaz, king of Judah, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help. The population of these territories were taken captive and resettled in Assyria, the diminished kingdom of Israel was again invaded by Assyria in 723 BCE and the rest of the population deported. The riverine gulch, naḥal Ḳanah, divided Ephraims territory in the south from Manassehs territory in the north, the modern Israeli town of Karnei Shomron is built near this gulch, which runs in an easterly-westerly direction. According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Manasseh, here the blessing of the first son was conferred by a grandfather rather than by the father, despite prevailing custom. From this it is regarded that originally Ephraim and Manasseh were considered one tribe - that of Joseph. As part of the Kingdom of Israel, the territory of Manasseh was conquered by the Assyrians, and the tribe exiled, however, several modern day groups claim descent, with varying levels of academic and rabbinical support. The Samaritans claim that some of their adherents are descended from this tribe, from 2006 to 2012 Richard Hewitt presented several essays at academic conferences in Kyrgyzstan linking the Kyrgyz hero Manas son of Jakyp to biblical Manasseh son of Jacob. Hewitt also visited Dr. Milui Lenthang Khuplam of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo, additionally, Manasseh is absent from the poem, in the Elohist texts Manasseh is also frequently absent, while Machir is mentioned. Additionally Machir is described as settling on the east of the Jordan, critical scholars argue that the two halves had different origins noting that in the Book of Chronicles that the western half tribe and eastern half tribe historically had separate tribal rulers. Joseph This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Easton
12.
Tribe of Ephraim
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Ephraim was one of the Tribes of Israel. The Tribe of Manasseh together with Ephraim also formed the House of Joseph, the etymology of the name is disputed. According to the Bible, the Tribe of Ephraim is descended from a man named Ephraim and this Ephraim is recorded as the son of Joseph, the son of Jacob. The descendants of Joseph formed two of the tribes of Israel, whereas each of the sons of Jacob was the founder of only one tribe. The Bible records that the Tribe of Ephraim entered the land of Canaan during its conquest by Joshua, however, almost all scholars have abandoned the idea that Joshua carried out a conquest of Canaan similar to that described in the Book of Joshua. From Joshua to the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel, no central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. With the growth of the threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes decided to form a strong centralised monarchy to meet the challenge, the Tribe of Ephraim joined the new kingdom with Saul as the first king. The widely accepted date for Sauls reign is approximately 1025-1005, some scholars dispute this date range and place Saul later, perhaps as late as the second half of the tenth century B. C. E. After the death of Saul, the Bible records all the other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BCE the northern tribes split from the House of David to form the northern Kingdom of Israel. The first king of the kingdom was an Ephraimite, Jeroboam. Ephraim was a member of the Northern Kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c.723 BCE, from that time, the Tribe of Ephraim has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Ephraim is often seen as the tribe that embodies the entire Northern Kingdom, in the biblical account, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Kenneth Kitchen, a conservative biblical scholar, dates this event to slightly after 1200 BCE. However, the view of modern scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. The region later named Samaria consisted mostly of Ephraims territory, the area was mountainous, giving it protection, and also highly fertile, giving prosperity, The territory of Ephraim contained the early centers of Israelite religion - Shechem and Shiloh. These factors contributed to making Ephraim the most dominant of the tribes in the Kingdom of Israel, Bethel was allocated by Joshua to the Tribe of Benjamin. However, even by the time of the prophetess Deborah, Bethel is described as being in the land of the Tribe of Ephraim, ephron is believed to be the Ophrah that was also allocated to the Tribe of Benjamin by Joshua
13.
Tribe of Benjamin
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According to the Torah, the Tribe of Benjamin was one of the Tribes of Israel descended from Benjamin, the youngest son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Rachel. In the Samaritan Pentateuch the name appears as Binyamīm, from after the conquest of the promised land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel, the Tribe of Benjamin was a part of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges, almost the entire tribe of Benjamin, women and children included, was wiped out by the other Israelite tribes after the Battle of Gibeah. The text refers several times to the Benjaminite warriors as men of valour despite their defeat, a remnant of the tribe was spared, those few who remained were allowed to marry women of another town, whose husbands had been killed, to enable the tribe to continue. Responding to a threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes formed a strong. The first king of this new entity was Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin and he reigned from Gibeah for 38 years. On the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BCE the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel. The tribe of Benjamin remained a part of the Kingdom of Judah until Judah was conquered by Babylon in c.586 BCE, some scholars believe that it instead originates from the tribe having the figure of a wolf in its standard. In Jewish Rabbinic literature, the Tribe of Benjamin is believed to correspond to the Hebrew month of Kislev, however, an abrupt change of character to one of placidity occurs in the text after a traumatic incident for the tribe. Six hundred of the men from the tribe of Benjamin survived by hiding in a cave for four months, the other Israelite tribes were grieved at the near loss of the tribe of Benjamin. They decided to allow these 600 men to carry on the tribe of Benjamin,400 virgin women from the tribe of Machir we found and given in marriage to the Benjaminite men. They then grabbed a wife each and took her back to their land, according to the Hebrew Bible, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Kenneth Kitchen dates this conquest to just after 1200 BCE, however, according to the consensus of modern scholars, the conquest as described in the book of Joshua did not occur. Modern Israeli scholars have identified most of the mentioned in the Book of Joshua. The Babylonian Talmud names three of these cities, all of which were enclosed by a wall, and belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, Lydda, Ono. Presumably, the boundary of the tribe of Benjamin would have stretched as far as the Mediterranean Sea. It is now an abandoned Arab village, the word Lifta is merely a corruption of the Hebrew name Nephtoah, and where a natural spring by that name still abounds. Though Jerusalem was in the allocated to the tribe of Benjamin
14.
Israelites
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The Israelites were a Semitic-speaking people of the ancient Near East, who inhabited a part of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods. The ancient Israelites are considered to be an outgrowth of the indigenous Canaanite populations that inhabited the Southern Levant, Syria, ancient Israel. In the period of the monarchy it was only used to refer to the inhabitants of the northern kingdom. The Israelites were also known as the Hebrews and the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the Jews are named after and also descended from the southern Israelite Kingdom of Judah, particularly the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and partially Levi. The word Jews is found in 2 Kings, Chronicles, and in passages in the Book of Jeremiah, the Book of Zechariah. The Kingdom of Israel, often called the Northern Kingdom of Israel, contained all the tribes except for the tribes of Judah, following its conquest by Assyria, these ten tribes were allegedly dispersed and lost to history, and they are henceforth known as the Ten Lost Tribes. Jewish tradition holds that Samaria was so named because the mountainous terrain was used to keep Guard for incoming enemy attacks. According to Samaritan tradition, however, the Samaritan ethnonym is not derived from the region of Samaria, thus, according to Samaritan tradition, the region was named Samaria after them, not vice versa. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim, while in Samaritan Hebrew they call themselves Shamerim, in Judaism, an Israelite is, broadly speaking, a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious group, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites. In texts of Jewish law such as the Mishnah and Gemara, the term יהודי, meaning Jew, is rarely used, Samaritans commonly refer to themselves and to Jews collectively as Israelites, and they describe themselves as the Israelite Samaritans. The name Israel first appears in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 32,29, the Hebrew Bible etymologizes the name as from yisra to prevail over or to struggle/wrestle with, and el, God, the divine. The name Israel first appears in non-biblical sources c.1209 BCE, the inscription is very brief and says simply, Israel is laid waste and his seed is not. The inscription refers to a people, not to an individual or a nation-state, in modern Hebrew, bnei yisrael can denote the Jewish people at any time in history, it is typically used to emphasize Jewish religious identity. From the period of the Mishna the term Yisrael acquired a narrower meaning of Jews of legitimate birth other than Levites. In modern Hebrew this contrasts with the term Yisraeli, a citizen of the modern State of Israel, the term Hebrew has Eber as an eponymous ancestor. It is used synonymously with Israelites, or as a term for historical speakers of the Hebrew language in general. Today, Jews and Samaritans both recognize each other as communities with an authentic Israelite origin, the terms Jews and Samaritans largely replaced the title Children of Israel as the commonly used ethnonym for each respective community. The name Yahweh, the god of the later Israelites, may indicate connections with the region of Mount Seir in Edom, the Canaanites were also the first people, as far as is known, to have used an alphabet
15.
Ten Lost Tribes
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The ten lost tribes were the ten of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel that were said to have been deported from the Kingdom of Israel after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire circa 722 BCE. Claims of descent from the lost tribes have proposed in relation to many groups. The motif of the lost tribes first appeared in the era. In the 7th and 8th centuries CE, the return of the lost tribes was associated with the concept of the coming of the messiah, recorded history is at variance with the legends elaborated in apocryphal texts. Zvi Ben-Dor Benite states, The fascination with the tribes has generated, alongside ostensibly nonfictional scholarly studies, anthropologist Shalva Weil has documented differing tribes and peoples claiming affiliation to the Lost Tribes throughout the world. Some DNA studies have refuted any connection between modern-day ethnic Jews and most of the ethnic groups proposed as possible Lost Tribe candidates, for example, a recently published study into the genetic origins of Japanese people does not support a genealogical link. The Scriptural basis for the idea of 10 Lost Tribes is 2 Kings 17,6, In the ninth year of Hoshea and he settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes. According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob had 12 sons and at least one daughter by two wives and two concubines, the twelve sons fathered the twelve Tribes of Israel. When the land of Israel was apportioned among the tribes in the days of Joshua, however, the tribe of Levi were given cities. Six cities were to be refuge cities for all men of Israel, three of these cities were located on each side of the Jordan River. In addition,42 other cities, totaling 48 cities, were given to the Tribe of Levi, Jacob elevated the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh to the status of full tribes in their own right, replacing the Tribe of Joseph. Each received its own land and had its own encampment during the 40 years of wandering in the desert, nine landed tribes formed the Northern Kingdom, the tribes of Reuben, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Ephraim and Manasseh. In addition, some members of Tribe of Levi, who had no land allocation, were found in the Northern Kingdom, the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to Rehoboam, and formed the Kingdom of Judah. Members of Levi and the remnant of Simeon were also found in the Southern Kingdom, according to 2 Chronicles 15,9, members of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon fled to Judah during the reign of Asa of Judah. Whether these groups were absorbed into the population or remained distinct groups, people from these tribes, including the Reubenite leader, were taken captive and resettled in the region of the Khabur River system in Assyria/Mesopotamia. Tiglath-Pilesar also captured the territory of Naphtali and the city of Janoah in Ephraim, according to 2 Kings 16,9 and 15,29, the population of Aram and the annexed part of Israel was deported to Assyria. Many also fled south to Jerusalem, which appears to have expanded in size fivefold during this period, requiring a new wall to be built, and a new source of water to be provided by King Hezekiah. 2 Kings 17,34 says of the newly exiled Israelites that were in Assyria and they neither worship Yahweh nor adhere to the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands that Yahweh gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel
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Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
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Samaritans
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The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant originating from the Israelites of the Ancient Near East. Samaritans used to include descendants who ascribed to the Benjamin tribe, in the Talmud, a central post-exilic religious text of Rabbinic Judaism, the Samaritans are called Cutheans, referring to the ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is today Iraq. In the Biblical account, however, Kuthah was one of cities from which people were brought to Samaria. Genetically, modern Samaritan populations are found to have greater affinity genetically to Jews than to neighbouring Palestinian Arabs. This suggests that the Samaritans remained an isolated population. The Samaritans are adherents of Samaritanism, a closely related to Judaism. The Samaritans believe that Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of Israel from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan, once a large community, the Samaritan population appears to have shrunk significantly in the wake of the bloody suppression of the Samaritan Revolts against the Byzantine Empire. Conversion to Christianity under the Byzantines also reduced their numbers, conversions to Islam took place as well, and by the mid Middle Ages Benjamin of Tudela estimated only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in Palestine and Syria. As of January 1,2015, the population was 777, most Samaritans in Holon and Qiryat Luza today speak Hebrew and Arabic. Hebrew and later Aramaic were languages in use by the Jewish, Samaritans have a standalone religious status in Israel, and there are occasional conversions from Judaism to Samaritanism and vice-versa due to marriages. One example is Israeli TV personality Sofi Tsedaka, who converted to Rabbinic Judaism at the age of 18. Samaritans with Israeli citizenship are obligated to undertake service in the Israel Defense Forces. There is conflict over the etymology of the name for the Samaritans in Hebrew and this has accompanied controversy over whether the Samaritans are named after the geographic area of Samaria, or whether the area received its name from the group. This distinction is controversial in part because different interpretations can be used to justify or deny claims of ancestry over this region, Biblical Hebrew Šomerim ) Guardians comes from the Hebrew Semitic root שמר, which means to watch, guard. Historically, Samaria was the key geographical concentration of the Samaritan community, thus, it may suggest the region of Samaria is named after the Samaritans, rather than the Samaritans being named after the region. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim, which would appear to mean inhabitants of Samaria. This is a politically sensitive distinction, according to Samaritan tradition, Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of the Israelites from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan and the tribes of Israel settled the land. The two mountains were used to symbolize the significance of the commandments and serve as a warning to whoever disobeyed them
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Historicity of the Bible
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This can be extended to the question of the Christian New Testament as an accurate record of the historical Jesus and the Apostolic Age. Many fields of study span the Bible and history, such fields range from archeology and astronomy to linguistics, Archaeological discoveries since the 19th century, like any evidence, is open to interpretation. But broadly speaking, they support to some of the Old Testaments historical narratives. The Bible exists in multiple manuscripts, none of them autographs, the early discussions about the exclusion or integration of various apocryphes involve an early idea about the historicity of the core. The Ionian Enlightenment influenced early patrons like Justin Martyr and Tertullian - both saw the texts as being different than the myths of other religions. Augustine was aware of the difference between science and scripture and defended the historicity of the biblical texts e. g. against claims of Faustus of Mileve. According to Barstad, to burden the Bible with our views of truth is not only anachronistic. Instead, the Bible should not be treated differently from historical sources from the ancient world. To determine the accuracy of a manuscript, textual critics scrutinize the way the transcripts have passed through history to their extant forms. The higher the volume of the earliest texts, the greater the textual reliability, multiple copies may also be grouped into text types, with some types judged closer to the hypothetical original than others. Differences often extend beyond minor variations and may involve, for instance, interpolation of material central to issues of historicity and doctrine, the meaning of the term history is itself dependent on social and historical context. Paula McNutt, for instance, notes that the Old Testament narratives do not record history in the sense that history is understood in the twentieth century. The past, for biblical writers as well as for readers of the Bible, has meaning only when it is considered in light of the present. Even from the earliest times, there was an awareness that parts of the scriptures could not be interpreted as a strictly consistent sequence of events, the Talmud cites a dictum ascribed to the third-century teacher Abba Arika that there is no chronological order in the Torah. During the modern era, the focus of Biblical history has also diversified, the project of biblical archaeology associated with W. F. A special challenge for assessing the historicity of the Bible is sharply differing perspectives on the relationship between history and theological meaning. We further deny that scientific hypotheses about earth history may properly be used to overturn the teaching of Scripture on creation and he had earlier been effectively excommunicated by the rabbinical council of Amsterdam for his perceived heresies. By the end of the 19th century the scholarly consensus was that the Pentateuch was the work of authors writing from 1000 BCE to 500 BCE
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Ensign
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Ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern of the ship, the naval ensign, used on warships, may be different from the civil ensign or the yacht ensign. Large versions of naval ensigns called battle ensigns are used when a warship goes into battle, the ensign differs from the jack which is flown from a jackstaff at the bow of a vessel. In its widest sense, an ensign is just a flag or other standard, the European military rank of ensign, once responsible for bearing a units standard derives from it. In contrast, the Arab rank of ensign, liwa, derives from the command of a unit or units with an ensign, not the carrier of such a units ensign, and is a general officer. In Arab armies, ensign is a title equivalent to a Western brigade. In nautical use, the ensign is flown on a ship or boat to indicate its appartenance, while this includes its nationality, it may well indicate more information rather than being the national flag itself. This is particularly common for commonwealth and European countries, ensigns are usually at the stern flagstaff when in port, and may be shifted to a gaff or mast amidships when the ship is under way, becoming known as a steaming ensign. Vexillologists distinguish three varieties of a national flag used as an ensign, A civil ensign is worn by merchant. In some countries the yacht ensign, used on boats or ships instead of merchant vessels. A state ensign or government ensign is worn by government vessels, a naval ensign is used by a countrys navy. Such ensigns are strictly regulated and indicate if the vessel is a warship, a merchant ship, several Commonwealth countries national flags had their origin in the ensigns of their original colonising power, the United Kingdom. Most notable of these flags are those of Australia, New Zealand. It is also likely that the original design from which the flag of the United States developed was strongly influenced by the British Red Ensign or the flag of the East India Company. With the creation of independent air forces and the growth in aviation in the first half of the 20th century. These may be divided into air force ensigns and civil air ensigns, in heraldry, an ensign is the ornament or sign, such as the crown, coronet, or mitre, borne above the charge or arms. Distinguishing mark Maritime flag Znamierowski, Alfred, the world encyclopedia of flags, The definitive guide to international flags, banners, standards and ensigns
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The Exodus
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The Exodus is the founding, or etiological, myth of Israel, its message is that the Israelites were delivered from slavery by Yahweh and therefore belong to him through the Mosaic covenant. The historicity of the story continues to attract attention. The Exodus has been central to Judaism, many of modern biblical scholars hold the opinion that the Torah, or Pentateuch was shaped in the post-exilic period. In either case, the Book of Exodus is a myth for Israel, Israel was delivered from slavery by Yahweh. The final form of the Pentateuch was based on earlier written and these have left traces in over 150 references throughout the Bible. The earliest traces of earlier traditions are in the books of prophets Amos and Hosea. In contrast, Proto-Isaiah and Micah, both of whom were active in Judah at much the same time, show no similar traces and it thus seems reasonable to conclude the Exodus tradition was important in the northern kingdom in the 8th century BCE, but not in Judah. The exodus is remembered daily in Jewish prayers and celebrated each year at the feast of Passover, despite the Exodus story, a majority of scholars do not believe that the Passover festival originated as described in the biblical story. Jewish tradition has preserved national and personal reminders of this narrative in daily life. Such elements as could be fitted into the 2nd millennium could equally belong to the 1st, so while a few scholars, notably Kenneth Kitchen and James K. According to Exodus 12, 37–38, the Israelites numbered about six hundred men on foot, besides women and children, plus many non-Israelites. Numbers 1,46 gives a more precise total of 603,550 men aged 20 and it is difficult to reconcile the idea of 600,000 Israelite fighting men with the information that the Israelites were afraid of the Philistines and Egyptians. The 600,000, plus wives, children, the elderly, marching ten abreast, and without accounting for livestock, they would have formed a line 150 miles long. The entire Egyptian population in 1250 BCE is estimated to have been around 3 to 3, some have rationalised the numbers into smaller figures, for example reading the Hebrew as 600 families rather than 600,000 men, but all such solutions have their own set of problems. The chronology of the Exodus story likewise underlines its essentially religious rather than historical nature, the Torah lists the places where the Israelites rested. Attempts to date the Exodus to a century have been inconclusive. Jericho was small and poor, almost insignificant, and unfortified here was no sign of a destruction. William F. Albright, the leading biblical archaeologist of the century, proposed a date of around 1250–1200 BCE
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Linguistics
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Linguistics is the scientific study of language, and involves an analysis of language form, language meaning, and language in context. Linguists traditionally analyse human language by observing an interplay between sound and meaning, phonetics is the study of speech and non-speech sounds, and delves into their acoustic and articulatory properties. While the study of semantics typically concerns itself with truth conditions, Grammar is a system of rules which governs the production and use of utterances in a given language. These rules apply to sound as well as meaning, and include componential sub-sets of rules, such as those pertaining to phonology, morphology, modern theories that deal with the principles of grammar are largely based within Noam Chomskys ideological school of generative grammar. In the early 20th century, Ferdinand de Saussure distinguished between the notions of langue and parole in his formulation of structural linguistics. According to him, parole is the utterance of speech, whereas langue refers to an abstract phenomenon that theoretically defines the principles. This distinction resembles the one made by Noam Chomsky between competence and performance in his theory of transformative or generative grammar. According to Chomsky, competence is an innate capacity and potential for language, while performance is the specific way in which it is used by individuals, groups. The study of parole is the domain of sociolinguistics, the sub-discipline that comprises the study of a system of linguistic facets within a certain speech community. Discourse analysis further examines the structure of texts and conversations emerging out of a speech communitys usage of language, Stylistics also involves the study of written, signed, or spoken discourse through varying speech communities, genres, and editorial or narrative formats in the mass media. In the 1960s, Jacques Derrida, for instance, further distinguished between speech and writing, by proposing that language be studied as a linguistic medium of communication in itself. Palaeography is therefore the discipline that studies the evolution of scripts in language. Linguistics also deals with the social, cultural, historical and political factors that influence language, through which linguistic, research on language through the sub-branches of historical and evolutionary linguistics also focus on how languages change and grow, particularly over an extended period of time. Language documentation combines anthropological inquiry with linguistic inquiry, in order to describe languages, lexicography involves the documentation of words that form a vocabulary. Such a documentation of a vocabulary from a particular language is usually compiled in a dictionary. Computational linguistics is concerned with the statistical or rule-based modeling of natural language from a computational perspective, specific knowledge of language is applied by speakers during the act of translation and interpretation, as well as in language education – the teaching of a second or foreign language. Policy makers work with governments to implement new plans in education, related areas of study also includes the disciplines of semiotics, literary criticism, translation, and speech-language pathology. Before the 20th century, the philology, first attested in 1716, was commonly used to refer to the science of language
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Gilead
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Gilead or Gilaad, is the name of three persons and two geographic places in the Hebrew Bible. Gilead was a region east of the Jordan River divided among the tribes of Gad and Manasseh. It is also referred to by the Aramaic name Yegar-Sahadutha, which carries the meaning as the Hebrew. From its mountainous character, it is called the mount of Gilead, the name Gilead first appears in the biblical account of the last meeting of Jacob and Laban. It is called also the land of Gilead in many translations, as a whole, it included the tribal territories of Gad, Reuben, and the eastern half of Manasseh. In the Book of Judges, the thirty sons of the biblical judge Jair controlled the thirty towns of Gilead and it was bounded on the north by Bashan, and on the south by Moab and Ammon. Half Gilead was possessed by Sihon, and the half, separated from it by the river Jabbok, by Og. Abarim, Pisgah, Nebo, and Peor are its mountains mentioned in Scripture, Gilead mentioned in the Book of Hosea may refer to Ramoth-Gilead, Jabesh-Gilead, or the whole Gilead region. After king Sihon was defeated, the Tribe of Reuben, Tribe of Gad, Ammon and Moab sometimes expanded to include southern Gilead. King David fled to Mahanaim in Gilead during the rebellion of Absalom, Gilead is later mentioned as the homeplace of the prophet Elijah. King Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria says he established the province of Galazu, Gilead is also used to refer to the mountainous land extending north and south of Jabbok. It is used generally for the entire region east of the Jordan River. It corresponds today to the part of the Kingdom of Jordan. In Israeli Hebrew, גלעד is used as a given name and is often analysed as deriving from גיל happiness, joy and עד eternity, forever. The Hebrew Bible repeatedly mentions a balm in Gilead or balm of Gilead, references, There Is A Balm In Gilead is a traditional United States African-American spiritual. Gilead Sciences, an American biopharmaceutical company with a focus on antiviral drug development. The company name and logo are references to the Balm of Gilead In Edgar Allan Poes poem The Raven, — tell me — tell me, I implore. Balm in Gilead, American dramatist Lanford Wilsons first full-length play, centers on a café frequented by heroin addicts, prostitutes, in the novel The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, the United States has been replaced by a theocratic totalitarian nation, the Republic of Gilead
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Jephthah
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Jephthah, appears in the Book of Judges as a judge over Israel for a period of six years. According to Judges, he lived in Gilead and his fathers name is also given as Gilead and, as his mother is described as a prostitute, this may mean that his father may have been any of the men of that area. Jephthah led the Israelites in battle against Ammon and, after defeating the Ammonites, fulfilled a vow of his. The story of Jephthah is found in the Old Testament Book of Judges, the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forsook the Lord and did not serve him, so the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites. Jephthah, having been born illegitimately, is out by his half-brothers and takes up his dwelling in Tob. Outlaws collected around Jephthah and went raiding with him, on behalf of Israel as a whole and in reliance on the might of God the Judge, Jephthah challenges the Ammonites. Jephthah swears an oath. and whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORDs, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. —Judges 11,31, English Standard Version The victorious Jephthah is met on his return by his only child, Jephthah tears his clothes and cries, Alas, my daughter. You have brought me very low, but is bound by his vow, I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow. The girl asks for two months grace. that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, and so Jephthah did with her according to his vow that he had made. The story ends by recounting how the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah, later, Jephthah was forced to fight against the Ephraimites, who refused to aid him in his struggle against the Ammonites. The story is remembered for the killing of the fugitive Ephraimites who were identified by their accent, at that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell. There was no intervention in the case of Jephthahs daughter who was sacrificed to God as instructed, of course, the barbarism of the Israelites says nothing about why the god of the bible would accept a child sacrifice. David Janzen argued that the story was a part of the Deuteronomist picture of moral decline through adoption of non-Israelitic practices such as child sacrifice. Solomon Landers believed that the absence of express judgement implies that the sacrifice was not acceptable to God, the Book of Judges has been seen as teaching a cycle of pride associated with rejection of Gods law and subsequent suffering of the people. Pseudo-Philos Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum gives a name for Jephthahs daughter, Seila and her character is elaborated and emphasized, the author has done his utmost to put this woman on the same level as the patriarchs, in this case especially Isaac. Ambrose cited the story as an example of how it is contrary to duty to fulfill a promise
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Jordan River
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The Jordan River is a 251-kilometre -long river in the Middle East that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and on to the Dead Sea. Israel and the West Bank border the river to the west, while the Golan Heights, both Jordan and the West Bank take their names from the river. The Jordan River has a course and a lower one. In this sense, the Jordan Valley may be separated into upper, central, over its upper course, the river drops rapidly in a 75-kilometre run to the once large and swampy Lake Hula, which is slightly above sea level. Exiting the now much diminished lake, it goes through an even steeper drop over the 25 kilometres down to the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan deposits much of the silt it is carrying within the lake, which it leaves again near its southern tip. At that point the river is situated about 210 metres below sea level, two major tributaries enter from the east during this last section, the Yarmouk River and Zarqa River. Its section north of the Sea of Galilee is within the boundaries of Israel, south of the lake, it forms the border between the Kingdom of Jordan, and Israel. The streams coming together to create the River Jordan in its basin are, west to east, Iyyon. Hasbani, a stream flows from Mount Lebanon. Dan, a stream whose source is also at the base of Mount Hermon, Banias, a stream arising from a spring at Banias at the foot of Mount Hermon. The full text of W. F. Lynchs 1849 book Narrative of the United States Expedition to the River Jordan, in 1964, Israel began operating a pumping station that diverts water from the Sea of Galilee to the National Water Carrier. Also in 1964, Jordan constructed a channel that diverted water from the Yarmouk River, another tributary of the Jordan River to the East Ghor Canal. Syria has also built reservoirs that catch the Yarmouks waters, environmentalists blame Israel, Jordan and Syria for extensive damage to the Jordan River ecosystem. In modern times, the waters are 70% to 90% used for human purposes, because of this and the high evaporation rate of the Dead Sea, as well as industrial extraction of salts through evaporation ponds, the sea is shrinking. All the shallow waters of the end of the sea have been drained in modern times and are now salt flats. A small section of the northernmost portion of the Lower Jordan, 3-kilometre below the Sea of Galilee, has been kept pristine for baptism and local tourism. Most polluted is the 100-kilometre downstream stretch—a meandering stream from above the confluence with the Yarmouk to the Dead Sea, environmentalists say the practice of letting sewage and brackish water flow into the river has almost destroyed its ecosystem. Rescuing the Jordan could take decades, according to environmentalists, the same environmentalist organization had said in a report that the Jordan River could dry up by 2011 unless the decay is stopped
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Canaan
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Canaan was a Semitic-speaking region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. The name Canaan occurs commonly in the Hebrew Bible, in particular, the references in Genesis 10 and Numbers 34 define the Land of Canaan as extending from Lebanon southward to the Brook of Egypt and eastward to the Jordan River Valley. References to Canaan in the Bible are usually backward-looking, referring to a region that had something else. The term Canaanites serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled, the Amarna Letters and other cuneiform documents use Kinaḫḫu, while other sources of the Egyptian New Kingdom mention numerous military campaigns conducted in Ka-na-na. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna period as the area where the spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite, Mitanni and Assyrian Empires converged. Much of the knowledge about Canaan stems from archaeological excavation in this area at sites such as Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo. The English term Canaan comes from the Hebrew כנען, via Greek Χαναάν Khanaan and it appears as KUR ki-na-ah-na in the Amarna letters, and knʿn is found on coins from Phoenicia in the last half of the 1st millennium. It first occurs in Greek in the writings of Hecataeus as Khna, scholars connect the name Canaan with knʿn, Kanaan, the general Northwest Semitic name for this region. An early explanation derives the term from the Semitic root knʿ to be low, humble, purple cloth became a renowned Canaanite export commodity which is mentioned in Exodus. The dyes may have named after their place of origin. The purple cloth of Tyre in Phoenicia was well known far, however, according to Robert Drews, Speisers proposal has generally been abandoned. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, Jonathan Tubb states that the term ga-na-na may provide a third millennium reference to Canaanite while at the same time stating that the first certain reference is in the 18th century BC. See Ebla-Biblical controversy for further details, Mari letters A letter from Mutu-bisir to Shamshi-Adad I of the Old Assyrian Empire has been translated, It is in Rahisum that the brigands and the Canaanites are situated. It was found in 1973 in the ruins of Mari, an Assyrian outpost at that time in Syria, additional unpublished references to Kinahnum in the Mari letters refer to the same episode. Alalakh texts A reference to Ammiya being in the land of Canaan is found on the Statue of Idrimi from Alalakh in modern Syria. After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mothers relatives to seek refuge in the land of Canaan, the other references in the Alalakh texts are, AT154 AT181, A list of Apiru people with their origins. All are towns, except for Canaan AT188, A list of Muskenu people with their origins, the letters are written in the official and diplomatic East Semitic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, though Canaanitish words and idioms are also in evidence. May the king ask Yanhamu about these matters, may the king ask his commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan EA151, Letter from Abimilku to the Pharaoh, The king, my lord wrote to me, write to me what you have heard from Canaan
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Jordan
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Jordan, officially The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab kingdom in Western Asia, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. Jordan is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the east and south, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north, Israel, Palestine and the Dead Sea to the west, Jordan is strategically located at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe. The capital, Amman, is Jordans most populous city as well as the countrys economic, what is now Jordan has been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period. Three stable kingdoms emerged there at the end of the Bronze Age, Ammon, Moab, later rulers include the Nabataean Kingdom, the Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. After the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in 1916 during World War I, the Emirate of Transjordan was established in 1921 by the then Emir Abdullah I and became a British protectorate. In 1946, Jordan became an independent state known as The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. Jordan captured the West Bank, which it later lost in 1967, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jordan is a founding member of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and is one of two Arab states to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. The country is a monarchy, but the king holds wide executive and legislative powers. Jordan is a relatively-small, semi-arid, almost-landlocked country with a population numbering at 9.5 million, Sunni Islam, practiced by around 92% of the population, is the dominant religion in Jordan. It coexists with an indigenous Christian minority, Jordan is considered to be among the safest of Arab countries in the Middle East, and has avoided long-term terrorism and instability. The kingdom is also a refuge to thousands of Iraqi Christians fleeing the Islamic State, while Jordan continues to accept refugees, the recent large influx from Syria placed substantial strain on national resources and infrastructure. Jordan is classified as a country of high human development with a middle income economy. The Jordanian economy, one of the smallest economies in the region, is attractive to foreign investors based upon a skilled workforce, the country is a major tourist destination, and also attracts medical tourism due to its well developed health sector. Nonetheless, a lack of resources, large flow of refugees. Jordan is named after the Jordan River, where Jesus is said to have been baptized, the origin of the rivers name is debated, but the most common explanation is that it derives from the word yarad, found in Hebrew, Aramaic, and other Semitic languages. Others regard the name as having an Indo-Aryan origin, combining the words yor and don, another theory is that it is from the Arabic root word wrd, as in people coming to a major source of water. The name Jordan appears in an ancient Egyptian papyrus called Papyrus Anastasi I, the lands of modern-day Jordan were historically called Transjordan, meaning beyond the Jordan River. The name was Arabized into Al-Urdunn during the Muslim conquest of the Levant, during crusader rule, it was called Oultrejordain
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Samaria
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The name Samaria is derived from the ancient city of Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel. Since 1967, Samaria has been used by Israeli officials to refer to the north of the West Bank, as the administrative Judea, Jordan ceded its claim to the area to the Palestine Liberation Organization in August 1988. In 1994, control of Areas A and B were transferred by Israel to the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Authority and the international community do not recognize the term Samaria, in modern times, the territory is generally known as part of the West Bank. According to the Hebrew Bible, the Hebrew name Shomron is derived from the individual Shemer, in modern times, Samaria was one of six administrative districts of the Mandatory Palestine. The fact that the mountain was called Shomeron when Omri bought it may indicate that an earlier etymology of the name may be watch mountain. In the earlier cuneiform inscriptions, Samaria is designated under the name of Bet Ḥumri, but in those of Tiglath-Pileser III and later it is called Samirin, after its Aramaic name. To the north, Samaria is bounded by the Jezreel Valley, to the east by the Jordan Rift Valley, to the west by the Carmel Ridge, in Biblical times, Samaria reached from the sea to the Jordan Valley, including the Carmel Ridge and Plain of Sharon. The Samarian hills are not very high, seldom reaching the height of over 800 metres, samarias climate is more hospitable than the climate further south. The mountain ranges in the south of the region continue into Judaea without a clear division, according to the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites captured the region known as Samaria from the Canaanites and assigned it to the Tribe of Joseph. After the death of King Solomon, the tribes, including those of Samaria, separated from the southern tribes. Initially its capital was Tirzah until the time of King Omri, in 726–722 BC, the new king of Assyria, Shalmaneser V, invaded Canaan and besieged the city of Samaria. After an assault of three years, the city fell and much of its population was taken into captivity and deported, little documentation exists for the period between the fall of Samaria and the end of the Assyrian Empire. In the Bible, Samaria was condemned by the Hebrew prophets for its ivory houses, in 6 AD the region became part of the Roman province of Judaea, after the death of king Herod the Great. The New Testament mentions Samaria in Luke 17, 11–20, in the healing of the ten lepers. John 4, 1–26 records Jesus encounter at Jacobs Well with the woman of Sychar, in Acts 8,2 it is recorded that the early community of disciples of Jesus began to be persecuted in Jerusalem and were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached and healed the sick there, in the time of Jesus, Iudaea of the Romans was divided into the toparchies of Judea, Samaria, Galilee and the Paralia. Samaria occupied the centre of Iudaea, in the Talmud, Samaria is called the land of the Cuthim. The 1947 UN partition plan called for the Arab state to consist of several parts, as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, most of the territory was unilaterally incorporated as Jordanian-controlled territory and was administered as part of the West Bank
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Judea
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Judea or Judæa is the ancient Hebrew and Israelite biblical, the exonymic Roman/English, and the modern-day name of the mountainous southern part of Canaan-Israel. As a consequence of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in 135 CE the region was renamed and merged with Roman Syria to form Syria Palaestina by the victorious Roman Emperor Hadrian, a large part of Judea was included in Jordanian West Bank between 1948 and 1967. The name Judea is a Greek and Roman adaptation of the name Judah, nimrud Tablet K.3751, dated c.733 BCE, is the earliest known record of the name Judah. Judea was sometimes used as the name for the entire region, in 200 CE Sextus Julius Africanus, cited by Eusebius, described Nazara as a village in Judea. Judea was the used by English-speakers until the Jordanian occupation of the area in 1948. Jordan called the area ad-difa’a al-gharbiya, yehuda is the Hebrew term used for the area in modern Israel since the region was captured and occupied by Israel in 1967. The classical Roman-Jewish historian Josephus wrote, In the limits of Samaria and Judea lies the village Anuath and this is the northern boundary of Judea. The southern parts of Judea, if they be measured lengthways, are bounded by a village adjoining to the confines of Arabia, however, its breadth is extended from the river Jordan to Joppa. The city Jerusalem is situated in the middle, on which account some have, with sagacity enough. This country begins at Mount Libanus, and the fountains of Jordan, and reaches breadthways to the lake of Tiberias and its inhabitants are a mixture of Jews and Syrians. And thus have I, with all possible brevity, described the country of Judea, Judea is a mountainous region, part of which is considered a desert. It varies greatly in height, rising to an altitude of 1,020 m in the south at Mount Hebron,30 km southwest of Jerusalem, and descending to as much as 400 m below sea level in the east of the region. The climate, accordingly, moves between Mediterranean in the west and desert climate in the east, with a strip of steppe climate in the middle, major urban areas in the region include Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Gush Etzion, Jericho and Hebron. Geographers divide Judea into several regions, the Hebron hills, the Jerusalem saddle, the Bethel hills and the Judean desert east of Jerusalem, the hills are distinct for their anticline structure. In ancient times the hills were forested, and the Bible records agriculture, animals are still grazed today, with shepherds moving them between the low ground to the hilltops as summer approaches, while the slopes are still layered with centuries-old stone terracing. The Jewish Revolt against the Romans ended in the devastation of vast areas of the Judaean countryside, regardless, the Northern Kingdom was conquered into the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 720 BCE. Judea is central to much of the narrative of the Torah, with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, the Babylonian Empire fell to the conquests of Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE. Judea lost its independence to the Romans in the 1st century BCE, by becoming first a tributary kingdom, then a province, queen Alexandra Salome had recently died, and a civil war broke out between her sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II
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Galilee
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Al-Jalīl) is a region in northern Israel. The term Galilee traditionally refers to the part and divided into Upper Galilee. By this definition it overlaps with much of the administrative Northern District of the country, the regions Israelite name is from the Hebrew root galil, an ultimately unique word for district, and usually circle. The Hebrew form used in Isaiah 8,23 is in the state, glil hagoyim, meaning Galilee of the Nations. The region in turn gave rise to the English name for the Sea of Galilee referred to as such in many languages including ancient Arabic and these are the three names used in originally internal Jewish-authored literature rather than the Sea of Galilee. However, Jews did use the Galilee to refer to the whole region, most of Galilee consists of rocky terrain, at heights of between 500 and 700 m. Several high mountains are in the region, including Mount Tabor and Mount Meron, as a result of this climate, flora and wildlife thrive in the region, while many birds annually migrate from colder climates to Africa and back through the Hula–Jordan corridor. According to the Bible, Galilee was named by the Israelites and was the region of Naphthali and Dan. However, Dan was dispersed among the people rather than isolated to the lands of Dan, as the Tribe of Dan was the hereditary local law enforcement. Normally, Galilee is just referred to as Naphthali, hiram, to reciprocate previous gifts given to David, accepted the upland plain among the mountains of Naphtali and renamed it the land of Cabul for a time. After Judea became a Roman province in 6, C. E. Galilee briefly became a part of it, the Galilee region was presumably the home of Jesus during at least 30 years of his life. Much of the first three Gospels of the New Testament give an account of Jesus public ministry in this province, particularly in the towns of Nazareth, Galilee is also cited as the place where Jesus performed many public miracles, including curing a blind man. After the death of Jesus, some accounts suggest his disciples returned to Galilee, many are cited for their large number of students and followers throughout the Jewish people among the common people. According to the Talmud, one of the most important founders of the modern Jewish faith, simeon bar Yochai, one of the most famed of all the Tannaim, hid from the Romans in the Galilee, and dug tunnels there to hide. Many miracles are ascribed to him during his Galilean period after escaping Judea proper, in medieval Hebrew legend, he may have written the Zohar while there. Eastern Galilee retained a Jewish majority until the seventh century, after the Arab caliphate took control of the region in 638, it became part of Jund al-Urdunn. Its major towns were Tiberias, Baysan, Acre, Saffuriya, the Shia Fatimids conquered the region in the 10th century, a breakaway sect, venerating the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, formed the Druze religion, centered in Mount Lebanon and partially Galilee. During the Crusades, Galilee was organized into the Principality of Galilee, the Jewish population of Galilee increased significantly following their expulsion from Spain and welcome from the Ottoman Empire
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Mount Hermon
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Mount Hermon is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon and, at 2,814 m above sea level, is the highest point in Syria. On the top, in the United Nations buffer zone between Syrian- and Israeli-occupied territories, is the highest permanently manned UN position in the world, the southern slopes of Mount Hermon extend to the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, where the Mount Hermon ski resort is located. A peak in this rising to 2,236 m is the highest elevation in Israeli-controlled territory. Mount Hermon is actually a cluster of mountains with three summits, each about the same height. The Hermon range covers an area of about 700 km2 of which about 70 km2 are under Israeli control, most of the portion of Mount Hermon within the Israeli-controlled area constitutes the Hermon nature reserve. The entire relatively narrow range, with the Lebanon-Syria boundary along its spine, the mountain forms one of the greatest geographic resources of the area. Because of its height it captures a great deal of precipitation in a dry area of the world. The Jurassic limestone is broken by faults and solution channels to form a karst topography, Mount Hermon has seasonal winter and spring snow falls, which cover all three of its peaks for most of the year. Melt water from the mountains western and southern bases seeps into the rock channels and pores, feeding springs at the base of the mountain. These merge to become the Jordan River, additionally, the runoff facilitates fertile plant life below the snow line, where vineyards and pine, oak, and poplar trees are abundant. The springs, and the mountain itself, are contested by the nations of the area for the use of the water. Mount Hermon is also called the mountain, the gray-haired mountain. It is also called the eyes of the nation in Israel because its elevation makes it Israels primary strategic early warning system, in the Book of Enoch, Mount Hermon is the place where the Watcher class of fallen angels descended to Earth. They swear upon the mountain that they would take wives among the daughters of men, the mountain or summit is referred to as Saphon in Ugaritic texts where the palace of Baal is located in a myth about Attar. The Book of Chronicles also mentions Mount Hermon as a place where Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, france, in his book on the Gospel of Matthew, noted that Mount Hermon was a possible location of the Transfiguration of Jesus. Various Temples of Mount Hermon can be found in villages on the slopes, there is a sacred building made of hewn blocks of stone on the summit of Mount Hermon. Known as Qasr Antar, it is the highest temple of the ancient world and was documented by Sir Charles Warren in 1869
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Shechem
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Traditionally associated with Nablus, it is now identified with the nearby site of Tell Balata in Balata al-Balad in the West Bank. The site of Shechem in patristic sources is almost invariably identified with, or located close to, the old city of Shechem dates back to about an estimated four thousand years. Shechem is mentioned in the third-millennium Ebla tablets found at Tell Mardikh in the context of a city of which Rasap is the patron deity, Shechem was a commercial center due to its position in the middle of vital trade routes through the region. It traded in local grapes, olives, wheat, livestock, Shechem had been a Canaanite settlement, first mentioned in Egyptian texts on the Sebek-khu Stele, an Egyptian stele of a noble at the court of Senusret III. In the Amarna Letters of about 1350 BC, Šakmu was the center of a carved out by Labaya. It may be identical to the Sakama mentioned in an account dated to the 19th Egyptian dynasty, Shechem first appears in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 12, 6-8, which records how Abraham reached the great tree of Moreh at Shechem and offered sacrifice nearby. Genesis, Deuteronomy, Joshua and Judges hallow Shechem over all other cities of the land of Israel, at Shechem, Abram built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. And had given land to his descendants. The Bible states that on occasion, God confirmed the covenant he had first made with Abraham in Harran. In Jewish tradition, the old name was understood in terms of the Hebrew word shékém — shoulder, saddle, the oak is associated with the Oak of Moreh where Abram had set up camp during his travels in this area. Shechem and its lands were given as a Levitical city to the Kohathites. The city, including its Bronze Age temple, fell to the Israelites sometime before 1000 BC, jerubbaal, whose home was at Ophrah, visited Shechem, and his concubine who lived there was mother of his son Abimelech. She came from one of the leading Shechemite families who were influential with the Lords of Shechem, after Gideons death, Abimelech was made king. Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, made a speech on Mount Gerizim in which he warned the people of Shechem about Abimelechs future tyranny. When the city rose in rebellion three years later, Abimelech took it, utterly destroyed it, and burnt the temple of Baal-berith where the people had fled for safety, from the excavations, it was learned that the city was destroyed in 1100 BC. The city was rebuilt in the 10th century BC and was probably the capital of Ephraim, when the kings of Israel moved first to Tirzah, and later on to Samaria, Shechem lost its importance, and we do not hear of it until after the fall of Jerusalem. The events connected with the restoration were to bring it again into prominence, in Acts 7,16 the place is called Sychem. It is not known whether Sychar in the Gospel of John 4,5 refers to Shechem or to a nearby village, Shechem is also the location of Jacobs Well, where John 4, 5–6 describes Jesus meeting with the woman of Samaria
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Shiloh (biblical city)
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Shiloh was an ancient city in Samaria mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. It has been identified with modern Khirbet Seilun, a tell or archaeological mound. It is located near modern Shilo, south of ancient Tirzah and 16 kilometres north of Beth El, Shiloh was the major Israelite worship centre before the first Temple was built in Jerusalem. The meaning of the word Shiloh is unclear, sometimes it is translated as a Messianic title that means He Whose It Is or as Pacific, Pacificator or Tranquility that refers to the Samaritan Pentateuch. Regardless, the name of Shiloh the town is derived from שלה, mentioned in the time of the Genesis, Book of Joshua and Judges, Shiloh is situated north of Bethel, east of the Bethel–Shechem highway, and south of Lebonah in the hill-country of Ephraim. Shiloh was identified unambiguously with Khirbet Seilun by American philologist E. Robinson in 1838, the location had been established long before by the Roman writer Eusebius, and by Nestorius ha-Parhi. Located in the west bank Long before the advent of the Israelites, Shiloh was a city with a religious shrine or sanctuary during Middle. When the Israelites arrived in the land, they set up there the ancient wilderness tent shrine, there Joshua and Eleazar divided the land among the tribes who had not yet received their allocation and dealt with the allocation of cities to the Levites. Subsequently, Shiloh became one of the leading religious shrines in ancient Israel, the Tent of Meeting is to be distinguished from the Dwelling Place often translated Tabernacle. The whole congregation of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tent of the congregation there, the tabernacle had been built under Moses direction from God to house the Ark of the Covenant, also built under Moses direction from God. According to Talmudic sources, the tent sanctuary remained at Shiloh for 369 years until the Ark of the Covenant was taken into the camp at Eben-Ezer. At some point during its stay at Shiloh, the portable tent seems to have been enclosed within a compound — a Greek temenos. It was at Shiloh that Eli and Samuel ministered and Shiloh was the site of a structure that had doors. At some point, the Tent of Meeting was moved to Gibeon, Shiloh was one of the main centers of Israelite worship during the pre-monarchic period, by virtue of the presence there of the Tent Shrine and Ark of the Covenant. The people made there for major feasts and sacrifices. According to I Samuel 1–3, the sanctuary at Shiloh was administered by the Aaronite high priest Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phineas. According to this account, the young Samuel was dedicated by his mother Hannah there, to be raised at the shrine by the high priest and it was under Eli and his sons that the Ark was lost to Israel in a battle with the Philistines at Aphek. The great biblical historian and archaeologist, W. F, albright, hypothesized that the Philistines also destroyed Shiloh at this time, but this conclusion is disputed
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Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)
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The United Monarchy is the name given to the Israelite kingdom of Israel and Judah, during the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon, as depicted in the Hebrew Bible. This is traditionally dated between 1050 and 930 BCE, modern historians are divided on the historicity of the United Monarchy as described in the Bible. There is no evidence of a united Kingdom of Judah. According to standard source criticism, a number of source texts were spliced together to produce the current books of Samuel. The most prominent in the parts of the first book are the pro-monarchical source. In identifying these two sources, two separate accounts can be reconstructed, the anti-monarchical source describes Samuel to have thoroughly routed the Philistines, yet begrudgingly accepting that the people demanded a ruler, and thus appointing Saul by cleromancy. Textual critics also point to disparities in the account of Davids rise to power as indicative of separate threads being merged later to create an age of a united monarchy. David is thought by scholars to have been a ruler in Judah while Israel, comparatively immense, modern archaeology also supports this view. Most scholars believe the Books of Samuel exhibit too many anachronisms to have been a contemporary account, for example, there is mention of later armor, use of camels, cavalry, and iron picks and axes. According to the Book of Judges, the Israelite tribes previously lived as a confederation under ad hoc charismatic leaders called Judges. Abimelech was the first to be declared king by the men of Shechem and the house of Millo, and reigned over Israel for three years before he was killed during the Battle of Thebez. The Bible treats the notion of kingship as having been an anathema at the time, it being seen as one man put in a position of reverence and power, which in their faith was reserved for God. According to the Second Book of Samuel, due to his disobedience to God, Sauls reign was curtailed, the Masoretic Text says that Saul ruled for only two years. The Bible portrays Saul as having died in battle against the Philistines, Sauls heir, Ishbaal, took over rulership of Israel but, according to Samuel, ruled for only two years before he was assassinated. David, who had become king of Judah only, ended the conspiracy, a number of textual critics and biblical scholars have suggested that David was actually responsible for the assassination, and Davids innocence was a later invention to legitimize his actions. Israel rebels, according to Samuel, and appoints Davids son Absalom as their new king, the Bible then describes Israel as taking over Judah and ultimately forcing David into exile east of the Jordan. This section of the text, and the bulk of the remainder of the Books of Samuel, is thought by textual critics to belong to a single large source known as the Court History of David. Israel and Judah are portrayed in this source as quite distinct kingdoms, eventually, according to the Book of Samuel, David launches a counter-attack, and wins, although with the loss of Absalom
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Torah
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The Torah is the central reference of Judaism. It has a range of meanings and it can most specifically mean the first five books of the twenty-four books of the Tanakh, and it usually includes the rabbinic commentaries. In rabbinic literature the word Torah denotes both the five books and the Oral Torah, the Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash. According to the Midrash, the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world, traditionally, the words of the Torah are written on a scroll by a scribe in Hebrew. A Torah portion is read publicly at least once every three days in the presence of a congregation, reading the Torah publicly is one of the bases for Jewish communal life. The word Torah in Hebrew is derived from the root ירה, the meaning of the word is therefore teaching, doctrine, or instruction, the commonly accepted law gives a wrong impression. Other translational contexts in the English language include custom, theory, guidance, the earliest name for the first part of the Bible seems to have been The Torah of Moses. This title, however, is neither in the Torah itself. It appears in Joshua and Kings, but it cannot be said to refer there to the entire corpus, in contrast, there is every likelihood that its use in the post-Exilic works was intended to be comprehensive. Other early titles were The Book of Moses and The Book of the Torah, Christian scholars usually refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible as the Pentateuch, a term first used in the Hellenistic Judaism of Alexandria, meaning five books, or as the Law. The Torah starts from the beginning of Gods creating the world, through the beginnings of the people of Israel, their descent into Egypt, and it ends with the death of Moses, just before the people of Israel cross to the promised land of Canaan. Interspersed in the narrative are the teachings given explicitly or implicitly embedded in the narrative. This is followed by the story of the three patriarchs, Joseph and the four matriarchs, God gives to the patriarchs a promise of the land of Canaan, but at the end of Genesis the sons of Jacob end up leaving Canaan for Egypt due to a regional famine. They had heard there was a grain storage and distribution facility in Egypt. Exodus begins the story of Gods revelation to his people of Israel through Moses, Moses receives the Torah from God, and teaches His laws and Covenant to the people of Israel. It also talks about the first violation of the covenant when the Golden Calf was constructed, Exodus includes the instructions on building the Tabernacle and concludes with its actual construction. Leviticus begins with instructions to the Israelites on how to use the Tabernacle, leviticus 26 provides a detailed list of rewards for following Gods commandments and a detailed list of punishments for not following them. Numbers tells how Israel consolidated itself as a community at Sinai, set out from Sinai to move towards Canaan, even Moses sins and is told he would not live to enter the land
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Joseph (Genesis)
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Joseph is an important figure in the Bibles Book of Genesis and also in the Quran as well as the Book of Mormon. In Rabbinic tradition Joseph is considered the ancestor of another Messiah called Mashiach ben Yosef and he will wage war against the evil forces alongside Mashiach ben David and die in combat with the enemies of God and Israel. Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, lived in the land of Canaan with ten half-brothers, one full brother and he was Rachels firstborn and Jacobs eleventh son. Of all the sons, Joseph was preferred by his father, when Joseph was seventeen years old he had two dreams that made his brothers plot his demise. In the first dream, Joseph and his brothers gathered bundles of grain, in the second dream, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed to Joseph himself. These dreams, implying his supremacy, angered his brothers, unaware of this secondary intention, the others obeyed his first. Upon imprisoning Joseph, the brothers saw a caravan carrying spices and perfumes to Egypt. Thereafter the guilty brothers painted goats blood on Josephs coat and showed it to Jacob, ultimately, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaohs guard. Later, Joseph became Potiphars personal servant, and subsequently his households superintendent, here, Potiphars wife Zuleika tried to seduce Joseph, which he refused. Angered by his running away from her, she made an accusation of rape. Joseph requested the cup-bearer to mention him to Pharaoh and secure his release from prison, after two more years, the Pharaoh dreamt of seven lean cows which devoured seven fat cows, and of seven withered ears of grain which devoured seven fat ears. When the Pharaohs advisers failed to interpret dreams, the cup-bearer remembered Joseph. He interpreted the dream as seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine, following the prediction, Joseph became Vizier, under the name of Zaphnath-Paaneah, and was given Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On, to be his wife. During the seven years of abundance, Joseph ensured that the storehouses were full, in the sixth year, Asenath bore two children to Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. When the famine came, it was so severe that people from surrounding nations came to Egypt to buy bread, the narrative also indicates that they went straight to Joseph or were directed to him, even by the Pharaoh himself. This mandate lasted until the days of Moses, in the second year of famine, Josephs half brothers were sent to Egypt to buy goods. After questioning them, he accused them of being spies, after they mentioned a younger brother at home, the Vizier demanded that he be brought to Egypt as a demonstration of their veracity. This was Josephs full brother, Benjamin, Joseph placed his brothers in prison for three days
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Jacob
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Jacob, later given the name Israel, is regarded as a Patriarch of the Israelites. According to the Book of Genesis, Jacob was the third Hebrew progenitor with whom God made a covenant and he is the son of Isaac and Rebecca, the grandson of Abraham, Sarah and Bethuel, the nephew of Ishmael, and the younger twin brother of Esau. Jacob had twelve sons and at least one daughter, by his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and by their handmaidens Bilhah and Zilpah. Jacobs twelve sons, named in Genesis, were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and his only daughter mentioned in Genesis is Dinah. The twelve sons became the progenitors of the Tribes of Israel, as a result of a severe drought in Canaan, Jacob and his sons moved to Egypt at the time when his son Joseph was viceroy. Jacob is mentioned in a number of sacred scriptures, including the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament, the Quran, hadith, Baháí scripture, and the Book of Mormon. According to the folk etymology found in Genesis 25,26, according to Jan Fokkelman, the name is a shortened version of Yaaqob-el, meaning God may protect. The Hebrew Bible says at Genesis 32, 28-29 and 35,10, etymologically, it has been suggested that the name Israel comes from the Hebrew words לִשְׂרות and אֵל. Popular English translations typically reference the face off with God, ranging from wrestles with God to God contends, some commentators say the name comes from the verb śārar, thereby making the name mean God rules or God judges, or the prince of God or El fights/struggles. The biblical account of the life of Jacob is found in the Book of Genesis, Jacob and his twin brother, Esau, were born to Isaac and Rebecca after 20 years of marriage, when Isaac was 60 years of age. Rebekah was uncomfortable during her pregnancy and went to inquire of God why she was suffering and she received the prophecy that twins were fighting in her womb and would continue to fight all their lives, even after they became two separate nations. According to Genesis 25,25, Isaac and Rebecca named the first son Hebrew, עשו, the second son they named יעקב, Jacob. The boys displayed very different natures as they matured. and Esau was a hunter, a man of the field. Moreover, the attitudes of their parents toward them also differed, And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, Genesis 25, 29-34 tells the account of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob. This passage tells that Esau, returning famished from the fields, Jacob offered to give Esau a bowl of stew in exchange for his birthright, to which Esau agreed. As Isaac aged, he became blind and was uncertain when he would die and he requested that Esau go out to the fields with his weapons to kill some venison. Isaac then requested that Esau make savory meat for him out of the venison, according to the way he enjoyed it the most, so that he could eat it and bless Esau. It is suggested that she realized prophetically that Isaacs blessings would go to Jacob, Rebecca blessed Jacob and she quickly ordered Jacob to bring her two kid goats from their flock so that he could take Esaus place in serving Isaac and receiving his blessing
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Rachel
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Rachel was the favorite of Biblical patriarch Jacobs two wives as well as the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel was the daughter of Laban and the sister of Leah. Rachel was a niece of Rebekah, Laban being Rebekahs brother, Rachel is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 29 when Jacob happens upon her as she is about to water her fathers flock. She was the daughter of Laban, Rebekah’s brother. Jacob had traveled a distance to find Laban. Rebekah had sent him there to be safe from his furious twin brother, during Jacobs stay, he fell in love with Rachel and agreed to work seven years for Laban in return for her hand in marriage. On the night of the wedding, the bride was veiled and Jacob did not notice that Leah, whereas Rachel was lovely in form and beautiful, Leah had tender eyes. Later Jacob confronted Laban, who excused his own deception by insisting that the older sister should marry first and he assured Jacob that after his wedding week was finished, he could take Rachel as a wife as well, and work another seven years as payment for her. When God “saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb”, Rachel, like Sarah and Rebecca, remained unable to conceive. Rachel became jealous of Leah and gave Jacob her maidservant, Bilhah, Bilhah gave birth to two sons that Rachel named and raised. Leah responds by offering her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob, and names and raises the two sons that Zilpah bears, according to some commentaries, Bilhah and Zilpah are actually half-sisters of Leah and Rachel. After Leah conceived again, Rachel was finally blessed with a son, Joseph, Rachels son, Joseph, was destined to be the leader of Israels tribes between exile and nationhood. After Josephs birth, Jacob decided to return to the land of Canaan with his family, fearing that Laban would deter him, he fled with his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and twelve children without informing his father-in-law. Laban pursued him and accused him of stealing his idols, indeed, Rachel had taken her fathers idols, hidden them inside her camels seat cushion, and sat upon them. Laban had neglected to give his daughters their inheritance, Rachel becomes a trickster like her father, her aunt, and her husband. Not knowing that the idols were in his wifes possession, Jacob pronounced a curse on whoever had them, With whoever you will find your gods, Laban left her alone, but the curse Jacob had pronounced came true shortly thereafter. Near Ephrath, Rachel went into a difficult labor with her second son, the midwife told her in the middle of the birth that her child was a boy. Before she died, Rachel named her son Ben Oni, Rachel was buried by Jacob on the road to Efrat, just outside Bethlehem, and not in the ancestral tomb at Machpelah
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Biblical criticism
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Biblical criticism is the scholarly study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings. It will vary depending on whether the focus is on the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. It also plays an important role in the quest for a historical Jesus and it also addresses the physical text, including the meaning of the words and the way in which they are used, its preservation, history and integrity. Biblical criticism draws upon a range of scholarly disciplines including archaeology, anthropology, folklore, linguistics, Oral Tradition studies. Biblical criticism, defined as the treatment of biblical texts as natural rather than supernatural artifacts, a division is still sometimes made between historical criticism and literary criticism. Literary criticism asks what audience the authors wrote for, their purpose. In the 18th century Jean Astruc, a French physician, set out to refute these critics, borrowing methods of textual criticism already in use to investigate Greek and Roman texts, he discovered what he believed were two distinct documents within Genesis. These, he felt, were the original written by Moses, much as the four Gospel writers had produced four separate but complementary accounts of the life. Later generations, he believed, had conflated these original documents to produce the book of Genesis, producing the inconsistencies and contradictions noted by Hobbes. The implications of higher criticism were not welcomed by many religious scholars, quite rightly employed in the case of the Sacred Books. For the fact is that truth is presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts. Reimaruss conclusions appealed to the rationalism of 18th century intellectuals, but were deeply troubling to contemporary believers, baron dHolbach - Ecce Homo -The History of Jesus of Nazareth, a Critical Inquiry, the first Life of Jesus described as a mere historical man, published anonymously in Amsterdam. George Houston translated the work into English—published in Edinburgh,1799, London,1813, the questions they addressed were, What was Jesus’s key message. How was that message related to Judaism, does that message speak to our reality today. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948 revitalised interest in the possible contribution archaeology could make to the understanding of the New Testament, contemporary New Testament criticism continues to follow the synthesising trend set during the latter half of the 20th century. The critical methods and perspectives now to be found are numerous, Textual criticism refers to the examination of the text itself to identify its provenance or to trace its history. It takes as its basis the fact that errors crept into texts as generations of scribes reproduced each others manuscripts. For example, Josephus employed scribes to copy his Antiquities of the Jews, as the scribes copied the Antiquities, they made mistakes
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Eponym
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An eponym is a person, place, or thing for whom or for which something is named, or believed to be named. For example, Elizabeth I of England is the eponym of the Elizabethan era, recent usage, especially in the recorded-music industry, also allows eponymous to mean named after its central character or creator. In ancient Greece, the eponymous archon was the highest magistrate in classical Athens, Eponymous archons served a term of one year which took the name of that particular archon. Later historians provided yet another case of eponymy by referring to the period of Fifth-century Athens as The Age of Pericles after its most influential statesman Pericles. In Ptolemaic Egypt, the head priest of the Cult of Alexander, the Hebrew Bible explains the origins of peoples through individuals who bear their name. In most cases, the experiences and behavior of the ancestor is meant to indicate the characteristics of the people who take their name, in ancient Rome, one of the two formal ways of indicating a year was to cite the two annual consuls who served in that year. For example, the year we know as 59 BC would have described as the consulship of Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus and Gaius Julius Caesar. Under the empire, the consuls would change as often as two months, but only the two consuls at the beginning of the year would lend their names to that year. During the Christian era, itself eponymous, many households used eponymous dating by regnal years. The Roman Catholic Church, however, eventually used the Anno Domini dating scheme based on the birth of Christ on both the public and royalty. Government administrations may become referred to eponymously, such as Kennedys Camelot, British monarchs have become eponymous throughout the English-speaking world for time periods, fashions, etc. Elizabethan, Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian are examples of these, trends Political trends or movements often become eponymous with a government leader. Examples include Jacksonian democracy, Stalinism, Maoism, Obamacare, in intellectual property law an eponym can refer to a generic trademark or brand name, a form of metonymy, such as aspirin, heroin and thermos in the United States. In geography, places and towns can also be given a name through a relationship to an important figure. Peloponnesus, for instance, was said to derive its name from the Greek hero Pelops, in historical times, new towns have often been named after their founders, discoverers, or notable individuals. In science and technology, discoveries and innovations are often named after the discoverer or a figure influential in their advance, examples are Avogadros number, the Diesel engine, meitnerium, Alzheimers disease, and the Apgar score. For a different view of the process see Stiglers law of eponymy, the term is also applied to music, usually with regard to record titles, where it is prevalent and leads to confusion. For example, Bad Companys first album was entitled Bad Company, titled a 1988 compilation album Eponymous
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Metaphor
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A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers, for rhetorical effect, to one thing by mentioning another thing. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas, antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and simile are all types of metaphor. The Philosophy of Rhetoric by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes a metaphor as having two parts, the tenor and the vehicle, the tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed, other writers employ the general terms ground and figure to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the target and source, respectively. Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes, a simile is a specific type of metaphor that uses the words like or as in comparing two objects, whereas what is commonly referred to as a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A. What is usually referred to as a metaphor asserts the two objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, a simile merely asserts a similarity, for this reason a common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile. The metaphor category also contains these types, Allegory, An extended metaphor wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of the subject. Antithesis, A rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences Catachresis, A mixed metaphor used by design and accident. Hyperbole, Excessive exaggeration to illustrate a point Metonymy, A figure of speech using the name of one thing in reference to a different thing of which the first is associated, example, in lands belonging to the crown the word crown is metonymy for ruler or monarch. Parable, An extended metaphor narrated as an anecdote illustrating and teaching such as in Aesops fables, pun, Similar to a metaphor, a pun alludes to another term. However, the difference is that a pun is a frivolous allusion between two different things whereas a metaphor is a purposeful allusion between two different things. Metaphor, like other types of analogy, can usefully be distinguished from metonymy as one of two modes of thought. Thus, a metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas a metonymy relies on the links within them. A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of an image has become absent. Examples, to grasp a concept and to gather what youve understood use physical action as a metaphor for understanding, the audience does not need to visualize the action, dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some people distinguish between a dead metaphor and a cliché, others use dead metaphor to denote both. A mixed metaphor is one that leaps from one identification to a second identification inconsistent with the first, e. g. Checkmate
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Aetiology
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Etiology is the study of causation, or origination. The word is derived from the Greek αἰτιολογία, aitiologia, giving a reason for, an etiological myth is a myth intended to explain a name or create a mythic history for a place or family, an origin story. In medicine, etiology refers to the many factors coming together to cause an illness and it is normally the focus of epidemiological studies. The etiology of scurvy is a good example, with scurvy, sailors going to sea often lacked fresh vegetables. Without knowing the cause, Captain James Cook suspected scurvy was caused by the lack of vegetables in the diet. It was only two centuries later, in 1926, that it was discovered that it was the lack of vitamin C in a sailors diet that was the basic cause of scurvy. From modern knowledge we can see that the sauerkraut was probably much less effective than Cook supposed, an etiological myth, or origin myth, is a myth intended to explain the origins of cult practices, natural phenomena, proper names and the like. While Delphi is actually related to the word delphus, many myths are similarly based on folk etymology. In the Aeneid, Virgil claims the descent of Augustus Caesars Julian clan from the hero Aeneas through his son Ascanius, also called Iulus. In Ovids Pyramus and Thisbe, the origin of the color of mulberries is explained, backstory Bradford Hill criteria Creation myth Just-so story Just So Stories Pathology The dictionary definition of etiology at Wiktionary
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Benjamin
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Benjamin was the last-born of Jacobs thirteen children, and the second and last son of Rachel in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. He was the progenitor of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin, in the Hebrew Bible unlike Rachels first son, Joseph, Benjamin was born in Canaan. In the Samaritan Pentateuch, Benjamins name appears as Binyaamem, in the Quran, Benjamin is referred to as righteous young child, who remained with Jacob when the older brothers plotted against Joseph. Later rabbinic traditions name him as one of four ancient Israelites who died without sin, textual scholars regard these two names as fragments of naming narratives coming from different sources - one being the Jahwist and the other being the Elohist. The etymology of the name interpreted as son of the right side, being associated with the right hand side was traditionally a reference to strength and virtue. This is, however, not the literal translation, as the root for right is identical to that for south. This meaning is advocated by several classical sources, which argue that it refers to the birth of Benjamin in Canaan. Inside the Samaritan Pentateuch, the name is written as בן ימים, with a terminal mem, making it Benjamim. Some classical rabbinical literature argues that this was the form of the name and was a reference to the advanced age of Jacob when Benjamin was born. According to classical sources, Benjamin was only born after Rachel had fasted for a long time. By then Jacob had become over 100 years old, Benjamin is treated as a young child in most of the Biblical narrative, but at one point is abruptly described as the father of ten sons. The narrative goes on to state that when Judah begged Joseph not to enslave Benjamin and instead enslave him and this caused Joseph to recant and reveal his identity. However, some classical rabbinical sources argue that Joseph identified himself for other reasons, the Quran, in the narrative of Joseph, refers to Benjamin as the righteous youngest son of Jacob. Biblical scholars regard it as obvious, from their geographic overlap and their treatment in older passages, that originally Ephraim and Manasseh were considered one tribe, that of Joseph. According to several scholars, Benjamin was also originally part of this single tribe. According to Genesis 46,21, Benjamin had ten sons, Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, the name of his wife/wives are not given. Material on the tribe, its territory, Rabbinical tradition and Islam
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Textual criticism
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Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants in either manuscripts or printed books. Ancient scribes made alterations when copying manuscripts by hand, given a manuscript copy, several or many copies, but not the original document, the textual critic might seek to reconstruct the original text as closely as possible. The same processes can be used to attempt to reconstruct intermediate versions, or recensions, the ultimate objective of the textual critics work is the production of a critical edition containing a scholarly curated text. There are three approaches to textual criticism, eclecticism, stemmatics, and copy-text editing. Techniques from the discipline of cladistics are currently also being used to determine the relationships between manuscripts. Textual criticism has been practiced for two thousand years. Early textual critics were concerned with preserving the works of antiquity, many ancient works, such as the Bible and the Greek tragedies, survive in hundreds of copies, and the relationship of each copy to the original may be unclear. Textual scholars have debated for centuries which sources are most closely derived from the original, hence which readings in those sources are correct. Although biblical books that are letters, like Greek plays, presumably had one original, interest in applying textual criticism to the Quran has also developed after the discovery of the Sanaa manuscripts in 1972, which possibly date back to the 7–8th centuries. However, the application of textual criticism to non-religious works does not antedate the invention of printing, while Christianity has been relatively receptive to textual criticism, application of it to the Jewish Torah and the Quran is, to the devout, taboo. The business of textual criticism is to produce a text as close as possible to the original, Maas comments further that A dictation revised by the author must be regarded as equivalent to an autograph manuscript. The lack of autograph manuscripts applies to many cultures other than Greek, in such a situation, a key objective becomes the identification of the first exemplar before any split in the tradition. That exemplar is known as the archetype, if we succeed in establishing the text of, the constitutio is considerably advanced. The textual critics ultimate objective is the production of a critical edition and this contains the text that the author has determined most closely approximates the original, and is accompanied by an apparatus criticus or critical apparatus. Before mechanical printing, literature was copied by hand, and many variations were introduced by copyists, the age of printing made the scribal profession effectively redundant. Printed editions, while less susceptible to the proliferation of variations likely to arise during manual transmission, are not immune to introducing variations from an authors autograph. Instead of a scribe miscopying his source, a compositor or a shop may read or typeset a work in a way that differs from the autograph. Since each scribe or printer commits different errors, reconstruction of the lost original is often aided by a selection of readings taken from many sources, an edited text that draws from multiple sources is said to be eclectic
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Ephraim". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the