Beersheba is the largest
city in the
Negev desert of southern
Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh largest city in Israel with a population of 186,100. Located in the
Southern District of the country, the city is the district's administrative centre and is home to the
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the
Soroka Medical Center, and the Israel
Sinfonietta Beersheba. From the findings unearthed at
Tel Be'er Sheva, an archaeological site a few kilometers northeast of modern-day Beersheba, it is believed that the region has been populated since the
4th millennium BC. The city was destroyed and rebuilt many times over the centuries. Beersheba was the southernmost city of Israel in Biblical times, hence the expression "from
Dan to Beersheba" to describe the whole kingdom. Beersheba is mentioned in the Book of Genesis in connection with Abraham the Patriarch and his pact with
Abimelech.
Isaac built an altar in Beersheba (Genesis 26:23-33).
Jacob had his dream about a stairway to heaven after leaving Beersheba. (Genesis 28:10-15 and 46:1-7). Beersheba was the territory of the tribe of Shimon and Judah (Joshua 15:28 and 19:2). The prophet
Elijah took refuge in Beersheba when
Jezebel ordered him killed (I Kings 19:3). The sons of the prophet
Samuel were judges in Beersheba (I Samuel 8:2). Saul, Israel's first king, built a fort for his campaign against the
Amalekites (I Samuel 14:48 and 15:2-9). The prophet
Amos mentions Beersheba in regard to idolatry (Amos 5:5 and 8:14). (more...)
February, 2009
The Plagues of Egypt are the ten calamities imposed upon
Egypt by
God in the
Bible (as recounted in the
Book of Exodus, chapters 7–12), in order to convince
Pharaoh to let the poorly treated
Israelite slaves go. The Plagues of Egypt are recognized by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The plagues as they appear in the Bible are:
Rivers and other water sources turned to blood. (Dam)
Death of the first-born of all Egyptian families. (Makat Bechorot)
The first three plagues seemed to affect "all the land of Egypt", while the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th did not affect the children of Israel. 8th is unclear. They were only spared from the final plague by
sacrificing the
Paschal lamb, marking their doorpost with the lamb's blood, and eating the sacrifice in a celebratory feast. The
Torah describes the angel of death as killing all firstborn in Egypt, but passing over (hence "Passover") houses with lambs' blood on the doorpost. It was this plague which resulted in Pharaoh finally sending the Israelites away. (more...)
March, 2009
Ishmael is a figure in the
Torah,
Bible, and
Qur'an,
Abraham's eldest son. Chapters 16-25 of the
Book of Genesis contain the stories of Ishmael.
Sarah (Abraham's wife) offers her maidservant
Hagar to Abraham as a surrogate. Hagar becomes pregnant and is proud of herself, which results in harsh treatment of her by Sarah. Hagar flees and an
angel of the Lord tells her to return, adding that God will increase her descendants through a son whose name will be Ishmael. Hagar returns to Abraham's house, and has a son whom she names Ishmael. Sarah, angered by seeing Ishmael mocking Isaac, asks Abraham to expel him and his mother. Hagar, with her son, wander in the wilderness until they run out of water. When they are reduced to great distress, an angel appears and shows Hagar a spring of water saying "Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation." They live in the wilderness of
Paran, where he becomes an expert in
archery. His mother marries him to an
Egyptian woman. He has 12 sons who become twelve tribal
chiefs and settle everywhere from
Havilah to
Shur, i.e. from
Assyria to the border of Egypt. Ishmael also has a daughter named Mahalath or Bashemath who marries
Esau. Ishmael also appears with Isaac at the burial of Abraham. Ishmael died at the age of 137. Read full article
April, 2009
The
Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the
New Testament traditionally attributed to, and explicitly ascribed to,
Paul of Tarsus. Some consider the anonymous
Epistle to the Hebrews a fourteenth Pauline epistle. Except for Hebrews (see
Antilegomena), the Pauline authorship of these letters was not academically questioned until the nineteenth century. Seven letters are generally classified as “undisputed”, expressing contemporary scholarly near consensus that they are the work of Paul: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. Six additional letters bearing Paul's name do not currently enjoy the same academic consensus: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus. The first three, called the "Deutero-Pauline Epistles," have no consensus on whether or not they are authentic letters of Paul. The latter three, the "Pastoral Epistles", are widely regarded as
pseudographs, though certain scholars do consider them genuine. There are two examples of pseudonymous letters written in Paul’s name apart from the alleged New Testament epistles. Since the early centuries of the church, there has been debate concerning the authorship of the anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews, and contemporary liberal scholars reject Pauline authorship. Read full article
May, 2009
The Septuagint, or simply "LXX", is the
Koine Greek version of the
Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC in
Alexandria. It is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into
Greek, lingua franca of the eastern
Mediterranean Basin from the time of
Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). The word septuaginta means "seventy" in Latin and derives from a tradition that seventy (or seventy-two) Jewish scholars translated the
Pentateuch (Torah) from
Hebrew into Greek for
Ptolemy II Philadelphus, 285–246 BC. The Septuagint includes some
books not found in the
Hebrew Bible or
Protestantcanon. The Septuagint was held in great respect in ancient times;
Philo and
Josephus ascribed divine inspiration to its authors. Besides the
Old Latin versions, the LXX is also the basis for the
Slavonic,
Syro-hexaplar (but not the
Peshitta), Old
Armenian, Old
Georgian and
Coptic versions of the Old Testament. Of significance for all Christians and for Bible scholars, the LXX is quoted by the Christian
New Testament and by the
Apostolic Fathers. While Jews have not used the LXX in worship or religious study since the second century AD, recent scholarship has brought renewed interest in it in Judaic Studies. Some of the
Dead Sea Scrolls attest to Hebrew texts other than those on which the
Masoretic Text was based; in many cases, these newly found texts accord with he LXX version. The oldest surviving codices of LXX (
Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 and
Codex Sinaiticus) date to the fourth century AD. (more...)
June, 2009
The internal consistency of the Bible is the question of how self-consistent the Hebrew and Christian scriptures are. This has long been an issue for
Christians and
Jews, who consider the
Bible and
Tanakh, respectively, to be
divinely inspired: inconsistencies appear to throw doubt on this. Concerns regarding biblical consistency have a long history. In
Contra Celsus, the
church fatherOrigen replied to the writer
Celsus, a critic of Christianity, who had complained that "certain of the Christian believers, like persons who in a fit of drunkenness lay violent hands upon themselves, have corrupted the Gospel from its original integrity, to a threefold, and fourfold, and many-fold degree, and have remodelled it, so that they might be able to answer objections". Origen responded that "I know of no others who have altered the Gospel, save the followers of
Marcion, and those of
Valentinus, and, I think, also those of
Lucian. But such an allegation is no charge against the Christian system, but against those who dared so to trifle with the Gospels. And as it is no ground of accusation against philosophy, that there exist
Sophists, or
Epicureans, or
Peripatetics, or any others, whoever they may be, who hold false opinions; so neither is it against genuine Christianity that there are some who corrupt the Gospel histories, and who introduce
heresies opposed to the meaning of the doctrine of Jesus." Among the classic texts which discuss textual inconsistencies are The Age of Reason by
Thomas Paine, the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus by
Baruch Spinoza, the Encyclopédie of
Denis Diderot and the Dictionnaire philosophique of
Voltaire. (more...)
July, 2009
Ashdod is the
fifth-largest city in
Israel, located in the
Southern District of the country, on the
Mediterraneancoast, with a population of 207,000. Ashdod is an important regional industrial centre. The
Port of Ashdod is Israel's largest port accounting for sixty percent of the country's imported goods. The first documented settlement in Ashdod dates to the
Canaanite culture of
17th century BC, making the city one of the most ancient in the world. Ashdod is mentioned thirteen times in the Bible. Judah's claim upon Ashdod is mentioned in the
Book of Joshua. In the
Book of Samuel Ashdod is mentioned among the principal Philistine cities. After
capturing the
Ark of the covenant from the Israelites, the Philistines took it to Ashdod, where it was placed in the temple of
Dagon. The next morning Dagon was found prostrate, bowed down, before it; on being restored to his place, he was on the following morning again found prostrate and broken. In the
Book of Nehemiah, some residents of
Jerusalem are said to have married women from Ashdod, and half of the children of these unions were unable to understand
Hebrew, but spoke "the language of Ashdod." In the
Book of Isaiah an
Assyrian general named Tartan, sent by
Sargon, gained control of Ashdod in 711. The capture of the city by King
Uzziah shortly after 815 B.C. is mentioned within the text of the
Book of Chronicles and in the
Book of Zechariah, speaking of the false Jews. The
Book of Acts refers to Azotus (the Hellenistic name of Ashdod) as the place to which
Philip the evangelist walked after the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. (more...)
August, 2009
The Book of Exodus is the second book of the
Hebrew Bible/Christian
Old Testament, and the second of five books of the Jewish
Torah or
Pentateuch. The book tells how
Moses leads the Hebrews out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Mountain of God
Sinai. There
Yahweh (
YHWH), through Moses, gives the Hebrews their laws and enters into a covenant with them, by which he will give them the land of
Canaan in return for their faithfulness. The book ends with the construction of the
Tabernacle. According to tradition, Exodus and the other four books of the Torah were written by Moses. Modern biblical scholarship places its final textual in the mid 5th century BC, i.e.
post-exilic but earlier than the
Hellenistic period, although some parts, such as the
Song of the sea and the
Covenant Code may date to as early as the 9th to 10th century BC. (more...)
September, 2009
Cain and Abel have long been understood as the first and second sons of
Adam and Eve in the religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Their story is told in the
Bible and
Torah at
Genesis 4:1–16 and the
Qur'an at 5:26-32. However the Greek New Testament says of Cain that "he was from the wicked one". This assertion is also found in Jewish legend, that the serpent (Hebrew nahash נחש) from the
Garden of Eden was father to firstborn Cain. In all versions, Cain is an arable
farmer and his younger brother Abel is a
shepherd. Cain is portrayed as sinful, committing the first
murder by killing his brother, after
God has rejected his offerings of produce but accepted the animal sacrifices brought by Abel. The oldest known copy of the Biblical narration is from the 1st century
Dead Sea Scrolls. Cain and Abel also appear in a number of other texts, and the story is the subject of various interpretations. Abel, the first murder victim, is sometimes seen as the first
martyr; while Cain, the first murderer, is sometimes seen as a
progenitor of
evil. A few scholars suggest the
pericope may have been based on a
Sumerian story representing the conflict between nomadic shepherds and settled farmers. Others think that it may refer to the days in which
Agriculture began to replace the ways of the
hunter-gatherer.
Allusions to Cain and Abel as an
archetype of
fratricide persist in numerous references and retellings, through
medieval art and
Shakespearean works up to present day fiction.
October, 2009
The temptation of Christ in
Christianity, refers to the
temptation of
Jesus by the
devil as detailed in each of the
Synoptic Gospels, at
Matthew 4:1–11,
Mark 1:12–13, and
Luke 4:1–13. According to these texts, after being
baptized, Jesus
fasted for forty days and nights in the
desert. During this time, the devil appeared to Jesus and tempted him to demonstrate his
supernatural powers as proof of his
divinity, each temptation being refused by Jesus with a quote of
scripture. The Gospels state that having failed, the devil departed and
angels came and brought nourishment to Jesus.
Mark's account is very brief, merely noting the aforementioned events, but giving no details about them, not even how many there were. Matthew and Luke on the other hand, describe the temptations by recounting the details of the conversations between Jesus and the devil. Since the elements of the narrative that are in
Matthew and
Luke but not Mark are mostly pairs of quotations, rather than detailed narrative, many scholars believe that these extra details originate in the
Q Document. The story of the Temptation is one of the notable
Omissions in the Gospel of John. (more...)
November, 2009
The Book of Kells is an ornately illustrated
manuscript, produced by
Celticmonks around AD
800. It is one of the most lavishly
illuminated manuscripts to survive the
mediæval period. Because of its technical brilliance and great beauty, it is considered by many scholars to be one of the most important works in the history of mediæval art. It contains the
four gospels of the
Bible, in
Latin, along with prefatory and explanatory matter, all decorated with numerous colourful illustrations and illuminations. Today it is on permanent display at the
Trinity College Library in
Dublin,
Ireland where it is catalogued as MS 58. (more...)
December, 2009
The night sky as it appeared looking south from Jerusalem on Nov. 12, 7 BC, 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
The Star of Bethlehem, also called the Christmas Star, is a star in
Christian tradition that revealed the birth of
Jesus to the
magi, or "wise men", and later led them to
Bethlehem. According to the
Gospel of Matthew, the magi were men "from the east" who were inspired by the appearance of the star to travel to
Jerusalem. There they met King
Herod of
Judea, and asked where the
king of the Jews had been born. Herod then asked his advisers where a
messiah could be born. They replied
Bethlehem, a nearby village, and quoted a prophecy by
Micah. While the magi were on their way to Bethlehem, the star appeared again. Following the star, which stopped above the place where Jesus was born, the magi found Jesus with his mother, paid him homage, worshipped him and gave gifts. They then returned to their "own country". Many
Christians see the star as a miraculous
sign to mark the birth of the christ (or
messiah). Some
theologians claimed that the star fulfilled a prophecy, known as the
Star Prophecy. In modern times, astronomers have proposed various explanations for the star. A
nova, a
planet, a
comet, an
occultation, and a
conjunction (gathering of planets) have all been suggested. (more...)
Beersheba is the largest
city in the
Negev desert of southern
Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh largest city in Israel with a population of 186,100. Located in the
Southern District of the country, the city is the district's administrative centre and is home to the
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the
Soroka Medical Center, and the Israel
Sinfonietta Beersheba. From the findings unearthed at
Tel Be'er Sheva, an archaeological site a few kilometers northeast of modern-day Beersheba, it is believed that the region has been populated since the
4th millennium BC. The city was destroyed and rebuilt many times over the centuries. Beersheba was the southernmost city of Israel in Biblical times, hence the expression "from
Dan to Beersheba" to describe the whole kingdom. Beersheba is mentioned in the Book of Genesis in connection with Abraham the Patriarch and his pact with
Abimelech.
Isaac built an altar in Beersheba (Genesis 26:23-33).
Jacob had his dream about a stairway to heaven after leaving Beersheba. (Genesis 28:10-15 and 46:1-7). Beersheba was the territory of the tribe of Shimon and Judah (Joshua 15:28 and 19:2). The prophet
Elijah took refuge in Beersheba when
Jezebel ordered him killed (I Kings 19:3). The sons of the prophet
Samuel were judges in Beersheba (I Samuel 8:2). Saul, Israel's first king, built a fort for his campaign against the
Amalekites (I Samuel 14:48 and 15:2-9). The prophet
Amos mentions Beersheba in regard to idolatry (Amos 5:5 and 8:14). (more...)
February, 2009
The Plagues of Egypt are the ten calamities imposed upon
Egypt by
God in the
Bible (as recounted in the
Book of Exodus, chapters 7–12), in order to convince
Pharaoh to let the poorly treated
Israelite slaves go. The Plagues of Egypt are recognized by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The plagues as they appear in the Bible are:
Rivers and other water sources turned to blood. (Dam)
Death of the first-born of all Egyptian families. (Makat Bechorot)
The first three plagues seemed to affect "all the land of Egypt", while the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th did not affect the children of Israel. 8th is unclear. They were only spared from the final plague by
sacrificing the
Paschal lamb, marking their doorpost with the lamb's blood, and eating the sacrifice in a celebratory feast. The
Torah describes the angel of death as killing all firstborn in Egypt, but passing over (hence "Passover") houses with lambs' blood on the doorpost. It was this plague which resulted in Pharaoh finally sending the Israelites away. (more...)
March, 2009
Ishmael is a figure in the
Torah,
Bible, and
Qur'an,
Abraham's eldest son. Chapters 16-25 of the
Book of Genesis contain the stories of Ishmael.
Sarah (Abraham's wife) offers her maidservant
Hagar to Abraham as a surrogate. Hagar becomes pregnant and is proud of herself, which results in harsh treatment of her by Sarah. Hagar flees and an
angel of the Lord tells her to return, adding that God will increase her descendants through a son whose name will be Ishmael. Hagar returns to Abraham's house, and has a son whom she names Ishmael. Sarah, angered by seeing Ishmael mocking Isaac, asks Abraham to expel him and his mother. Hagar, with her son, wander in the wilderness until they run out of water. When they are reduced to great distress, an angel appears and shows Hagar a spring of water saying "Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation." They live in the wilderness of
Paran, where he becomes an expert in
archery. His mother marries him to an
Egyptian woman. He has 12 sons who become twelve tribal
chiefs and settle everywhere from
Havilah to
Shur, i.e. from
Assyria to the border of Egypt. Ishmael also has a daughter named Mahalath or Bashemath who marries
Esau. Ishmael also appears with Isaac at the burial of Abraham. Ishmael died at the age of 137. Read full article
April, 2009
The
Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the
New Testament traditionally attributed to, and explicitly ascribed to,
Paul of Tarsus. Some consider the anonymous
Epistle to the Hebrews a fourteenth Pauline epistle. Except for Hebrews (see
Antilegomena), the Pauline authorship of these letters was not academically questioned until the nineteenth century. Seven letters are generally classified as “undisputed”, expressing contemporary scholarly near consensus that they are the work of Paul: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. Six additional letters bearing Paul's name do not currently enjoy the same academic consensus: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus. The first three, called the "Deutero-Pauline Epistles," have no consensus on whether or not they are authentic letters of Paul. The latter three, the "Pastoral Epistles", are widely regarded as
pseudographs, though certain scholars do consider them genuine. There are two examples of pseudonymous letters written in Paul’s name apart from the alleged New Testament epistles. Since the early centuries of the church, there has been debate concerning the authorship of the anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews, and contemporary liberal scholars reject Pauline authorship. Read full article
May, 2009
The Septuagint, or simply "LXX", is the
Koine Greek version of the
Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC in
Alexandria. It is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into
Greek, lingua franca of the eastern
Mediterranean Basin from the time of
Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). The word septuaginta means "seventy" in Latin and derives from a tradition that seventy (or seventy-two) Jewish scholars translated the
Pentateuch (Torah) from
Hebrew into Greek for
Ptolemy II Philadelphus, 285–246 BC. The Septuagint includes some
books not found in the
Hebrew Bible or
Protestantcanon. The Septuagint was held in great respect in ancient times;
Philo and
Josephus ascribed divine inspiration to its authors. Besides the
Old Latin versions, the LXX is also the basis for the
Slavonic,
Syro-hexaplar (but not the
Peshitta), Old
Armenian, Old
Georgian and
Coptic versions of the Old Testament. Of significance for all Christians and for Bible scholars, the LXX is quoted by the Christian
New Testament and by the
Apostolic Fathers. While Jews have not used the LXX in worship or religious study since the second century AD, recent scholarship has brought renewed interest in it in Judaic Studies. Some of the
Dead Sea Scrolls attest to Hebrew texts other than those on which the
Masoretic Text was based; in many cases, these newly found texts accord with he LXX version. The oldest surviving codices of LXX (
Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 and
Codex Sinaiticus) date to the fourth century AD. (more...)
June, 2009
The internal consistency of the Bible is the question of how self-consistent the Hebrew and Christian scriptures are. This has long been an issue for
Christians and
Jews, who consider the
Bible and
Tanakh, respectively, to be
divinely inspired: inconsistencies appear to throw doubt on this. Concerns regarding biblical consistency have a long history. In
Contra Celsus, the
church fatherOrigen replied to the writer
Celsus, a critic of Christianity, who had complained that "certain of the Christian believers, like persons who in a fit of drunkenness lay violent hands upon themselves, have corrupted the Gospel from its original integrity, to a threefold, and fourfold, and many-fold degree, and have remodelled it, so that they might be able to answer objections". Origen responded that "I know of no others who have altered the Gospel, save the followers of
Marcion, and those of
Valentinus, and, I think, also those of
Lucian. But such an allegation is no charge against the Christian system, but against those who dared so to trifle with the Gospels. And as it is no ground of accusation against philosophy, that there exist
Sophists, or
Epicureans, or
Peripatetics, or any others, whoever they may be, who hold false opinions; so neither is it against genuine Christianity that there are some who corrupt the Gospel histories, and who introduce
heresies opposed to the meaning of the doctrine of Jesus." Among the classic texts which discuss textual inconsistencies are The Age of Reason by
Thomas Paine, the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus by
Baruch Spinoza, the Encyclopédie of
Denis Diderot and the Dictionnaire philosophique of
Voltaire. (more...)
July, 2009
Ashdod is the
fifth-largest city in
Israel, located in the
Southern District of the country, on the
Mediterraneancoast, with a population of 207,000. Ashdod is an important regional industrial centre. The
Port of Ashdod is Israel's largest port accounting for sixty percent of the country's imported goods. The first documented settlement in Ashdod dates to the
Canaanite culture of
17th century BC, making the city one of the most ancient in the world. Ashdod is mentioned thirteen times in the Bible. Judah's claim upon Ashdod is mentioned in the
Book of Joshua. In the
Book of Samuel Ashdod is mentioned among the principal Philistine cities. After
capturing the
Ark of the covenant from the Israelites, the Philistines took it to Ashdod, where it was placed in the temple of
Dagon. The next morning Dagon was found prostrate, bowed down, before it; on being restored to his place, he was on the following morning again found prostrate and broken. In the
Book of Nehemiah, some residents of
Jerusalem are said to have married women from Ashdod, and half of the children of these unions were unable to understand
Hebrew, but spoke "the language of Ashdod." In the
Book of Isaiah an
Assyrian general named Tartan, sent by
Sargon, gained control of Ashdod in 711. The capture of the city by King
Uzziah shortly after 815 B.C. is mentioned within the text of the
Book of Chronicles and in the
Book of Zechariah, speaking of the false Jews. The
Book of Acts refers to Azotus (the Hellenistic name of Ashdod) as the place to which
Philip the evangelist walked after the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. (more...)
August, 2009
The Book of Exodus is the second book of the
Hebrew Bible/Christian
Old Testament, and the second of five books of the Jewish
Torah or
Pentateuch. The book tells how
Moses leads the Hebrews out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Mountain of God
Sinai. There
Yahweh (
YHWH), through Moses, gives the Hebrews their laws and enters into a covenant with them, by which he will give them the land of
Canaan in return for their faithfulness. The book ends with the construction of the
Tabernacle. According to tradition, Exodus and the other four books of the Torah were written by Moses. Modern biblical scholarship places its final textual in the mid 5th century BC, i.e.
post-exilic but earlier than the
Hellenistic period, although some parts, such as the
Song of the sea and the
Covenant Code may date to as early as the 9th to 10th century BC. (more...)
September, 2009
Cain and Abel have long been understood as the first and second sons of
Adam and Eve in the religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Their story is told in the
Bible and
Torah at
Genesis 4:1–16 and the
Qur'an at 5:26-32. However the Greek New Testament says of Cain that "he was from the wicked one". This assertion is also found in Jewish legend, that the serpent (Hebrew nahash נחש) from the
Garden of Eden was father to firstborn Cain. In all versions, Cain is an arable
farmer and his younger brother Abel is a
shepherd. Cain is portrayed as sinful, committing the first
murder by killing his brother, after
God has rejected his offerings of produce but accepted the animal sacrifices brought by Abel. The oldest known copy of the Biblical narration is from the 1st century
Dead Sea Scrolls. Cain and Abel also appear in a number of other texts, and the story is the subject of various interpretations. Abel, the first murder victim, is sometimes seen as the first
martyr; while Cain, the first murderer, is sometimes seen as a
progenitor of
evil. A few scholars suggest the
pericope may have been based on a
Sumerian story representing the conflict between nomadic shepherds and settled farmers. Others think that it may refer to the days in which
Agriculture began to replace the ways of the
hunter-gatherer.
Allusions to Cain and Abel as an
archetype of
fratricide persist in numerous references and retellings, through
medieval art and
Shakespearean works up to present day fiction.
October, 2009
The temptation of Christ in
Christianity, refers to the
temptation of
Jesus by the
devil as detailed in each of the
Synoptic Gospels, at
Matthew 4:1–11,
Mark 1:12–13, and
Luke 4:1–13. According to these texts, after being
baptized, Jesus
fasted for forty days and nights in the
desert. During this time, the devil appeared to Jesus and tempted him to demonstrate his
supernatural powers as proof of his
divinity, each temptation being refused by Jesus with a quote of
scripture. The Gospels state that having failed, the devil departed and
angels came and brought nourishment to Jesus.
Mark's account is very brief, merely noting the aforementioned events, but giving no details about them, not even how many there were. Matthew and Luke on the other hand, describe the temptations by recounting the details of the conversations between Jesus and the devil. Since the elements of the narrative that are in
Matthew and
Luke but not Mark are mostly pairs of quotations, rather than detailed narrative, many scholars believe that these extra details originate in the
Q Document. The story of the Temptation is one of the notable
Omissions in the Gospel of John. (more...)
November, 2009
The Book of Kells is an ornately illustrated
manuscript, produced by
Celticmonks around AD
800. It is one of the most lavishly
illuminated manuscripts to survive the
mediæval period. Because of its technical brilliance and great beauty, it is considered by many scholars to be one of the most important works in the history of mediæval art. It contains the
four gospels of the
Bible, in
Latin, along with prefatory and explanatory matter, all decorated with numerous colourful illustrations and illuminations. Today it is on permanent display at the
Trinity College Library in
Dublin,
Ireland where it is catalogued as MS 58. (more...)
December, 2009
The night sky as it appeared looking south from Jerusalem on Nov. 12, 7 BC, 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
The Star of Bethlehem, also called the Christmas Star, is a star in
Christian tradition that revealed the birth of
Jesus to the
magi, or "wise men", and later led them to
Bethlehem. According to the
Gospel of Matthew, the magi were men "from the east" who were inspired by the appearance of the star to travel to
Jerusalem. There they met King
Herod of
Judea, and asked where the
king of the Jews had been born. Herod then asked his advisers where a
messiah could be born. They replied
Bethlehem, a nearby village, and quoted a prophecy by
Micah. While the magi were on their way to Bethlehem, the star appeared again. Following the star, which stopped above the place where Jesus was born, the magi found Jesus with his mother, paid him homage, worshipped him and gave gifts. They then returned to their "own country". Many
Christians see the star as a miraculous
sign to mark the birth of the christ (or
messiah). Some
theologians claimed that the star fulfilled a prophecy, known as the
Star Prophecy. In modern times, astronomers have proposed various explanations for the star. A
nova, a
planet, a
comet, an
occultation, and a
conjunction (gathering of planets) have all been suggested. (more...)