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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 13:04:24 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 13:04:24 GMT -5
NEVERMIND DON'T CHECK YOUR MAIL MORGAN
LAMB
SHEEP SHEPHARD
SHEPPARD WOLFHOUND DOG GOAT HAM SANDWICH WITCH WISH GENIE ALADDIN JASMINE GEM DIAMOND MINERAL ICE WATER SALT PEPPER SEASONING CINNAMON CHALLENGE IMMUNITY IDOL AMERICAN APPLE CHERRY VIRGIN VIRGINITY MARY GRANDMOTHER DEAD DEATH DECEASED GHOST PARANORMAL VAMPIRE INVISIBLE GOD JESUS MORGAN TINA GODDESS VULTURE
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 13:13:25 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 13:13:25 GMT -5
God From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the term "God" in the context of monotheism and henotheism. For the general concept of "a god", see Deity. For God in the context of specific religions, see an index of pages beginning in "God in". For other uses, see God (disambiguation). For discussion of the existence of God, see Existence of God. Detail of Sistine Chapel fresco Creation of the Sun and Moon by Michelangelo (c. 1512), a well-known example of the depiction of God the Father in Western art Page semi-protected Part of a series on God General conceptions Agnosticism Apatheism Atheism Deism Henotheism Ignosticism Monotheism Panentheism Pantheism Polytheism Theism Transtheism Specific conceptions Creator Demiurge Devil Father Great Architect Monad Mother Supreme Being Sustainer The All The Lord Trinity Tawhid Ditheism Monism Personal Unitarianism In particular religions Abrahamic Bahá'í Christianity Islam Judaism) Ayyavazhi Buddhism Hinduism Jainism Sikhism Zoroastrianism Attributes Eternalness Existence Gender Names "God" Omnibenevolence Omnipotence Omnipresence Omniscience Experiences and practices Belief Esotericism Faith Fideism Gnosis Hermeticism Metaphysics Mysticism Prayer Revelation Worship Related topics Euthyphro dilemma God complex Neurotheology Ontology Philosophy Problem of evil Religion Religious texts Portrayals of God in popular media v t e God is often conceived as the supreme being and principal object of faith.[1] In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe. In deism, God is the creator (but not the sustainer) of the universe. In pantheism, God is the universe itself. Theologians have ascribed a variety of attributes to the many different conceptions of God. Common among these are omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), omnibenevolence (perfect goodness), divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one God or in the oneness of God. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal (immaterial), a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent".[1] Many notable medieval philosophers and modern philosophers have developed arguments for and against the existence of God.[2] There are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about who God is and what attributes he possesses. In the Hebrew Bible "I Am that I Am", and the "Tetragrammaton" YHVH are used as names of God, while Yahweh, and Jehovah are sometimes used in Christianity as vocalizations of YHVH. In Arabic, the name Allah ("the God") is used, and because of the predominance of Islam among Arab speakers, the name "Allah" has connotations with Islamic faith and culture. Muslims regard a multitude of titular names for God, while in Judaism it is common to refer to God by the titular names Elohim or Adonai. In Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a monistic deity.[3] Other religions have names for God, for instance, Baha in the Bahá'í Faith,[4] Waheguru in Sikhism,[5] and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism.[6] Contents 1 Etymology and usage 2 General conceptions 2.1 Oneness 2.2 Theism, deism and pantheism 2.3 Other concepts 3 Existence of God 4 Specific attributes 4.1 Epitheta 4.2 Gender 4.3 Relationship with creation 5 Theological approaches 6 Non-theistic views of God 6.1 Anthropomorphism 7 Distribution of belief in God 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links Etymology and usage Main article: God (word) The earliest written form of the Germanic word God (always, in this usage, capitalized[7]) comes from the 6th century Christian Codex Argenteus. The English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic * ǥuđan. Most linguists[who?] agree that the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form * ǵhu-tó-m was based on the root * ǵhau(ə)-, which meant either "to call" or "to invoke".[8] The Germanic words for God were originally neuter—applying to both genders—but during the process of the Christianization of the Germanic peoples from their indigenous Germanic paganism, the word became a masculine syntactic form.[9] In the English language, the capitalized form of God continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic "God" and "gods" in polytheism.[10][11] The English word "God" and its counterparts in other languages are normally used for any and all conceptions and, in spite of significant differences between religions, the term remains an English translation common to all. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism, God is also given a proper name, the tetragrammaton (written YHWH), in origin the name of an Edomite or Midianite deity, Yahweh. In many translations of the Bible, when the word "LORD" is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton.[12] Allāh (Arabic: الله allāh) is the Arabic term with no plural or gender used by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians and Jews meaning "The God" (with a capital G), while "ʾilāh" (Arabic: إله ellāh) is the term used for a deity or a god in general.[13][14][15] God may also be given a proper name in monotheistic currents of Hinduism which emphasize the personal nature of God, with early references to his name as Krishna-Vasudeva in Bhagavata or later Vishnu and Hari.[16] General conceptions Main article: Conceptions of God God the Father by Cima da Conegliano, c. 1515 There is no clear consensus on the nature of God.[17] The Abrahamic conceptions of God include the monotheistic definition of God in Judaism, the trinitarian view of Christians, and the Islamic concept of God. The dharmic religions differ in their view of the divine: views of God in Hinduism vary by region, sect, and caste, ranging from monotheistic to polytheistic to atheistic. Divinity was recognized by the historical Buddha, particularly Śakra and Brahma. However, other sentient beings, including gods, can at best only play a supportive role in one's personal path to salvation. Conceptions of God in the latter developments of the Mahayana tradition give a more prominent place to notions of the divine.[citation needed] Oneness Main articles: Monotheism and Henotheism Monotheists hold that there is only one god, and may claim that the one true god is worshiped in different religions under different names. The view that all theists actually worship the same god, whether they know it or not, is especially emphasized in Hinduism[18] and Sikhism.[19] Islam's most fundamental concept is tawhīd (meaning "oneness" or "uniqueness"). God is described in the Qur'an as: "Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him."[20][21] Muslims repudiate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus, comparing it to polytheism. In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension or equal and does not resemble any of his creations in any way. Thus, Muslims are not iconodules, and are not expected to visualize God.[22] Henotheism is the belief and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities.[23] Theism, deism and pantheism Main articles: Theism, Deism, and Pantheism Theism generally holds that God exists realistically, objectively, and independently of human thought; that God created and sustains everything; that God is omnipotent and eternal; personal and interacting with the universe through for example religious experience and the prayers of humans.[24] It holds that God is both transcendent and immanent; thus, God is simultaneously infinite and in some way present in the affairs of the world.[25] Not all theists subscribe to all the above propositions, but usually a fair number of them, c.f., family resemblance.[24] Catholic theology holds that God is infinitely simple and is not involuntarily subject to time. Most theists hold that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent, although this belief raises questions about God's responsibility for evil and suffering in the world. Some theists ascribe to God a self-conscious or purposeful limiting of omnipotence, omniscience, or benevolence. Open Theism, by contrast, asserts that, due to the nature of time, God's omniscience does not mean the deity can predict the future. "Theism" is sometimes used to refer in general to any belief in a god or gods, i.e., monotheism or polytheism.[26][27] Deism holds that God is wholly transcendent: God exists, but does not intervene in the world beyond what was necessary to create it.[25] In this view, God is not anthropomorphic, and does not literally answer prayers or cause miracles to occur. Common in Deism is a belief that God has no interest in humanity and may not even be aware of humanity. Pandeism and Panendeism, respectively, combine Deism with the Pantheistic or Panentheistic beliefs discussed below.[citation needed] Pantheism holds that God is the universe and the universe is God, whereas Panentheism holds that God contains, but is not identical to, the Universe; the distinctions between the two are subtle. It is also the view of the Liberal Catholic Church, Theosophy, some views of Hinduism except Vaishnavism which believes in panentheism, Sikhism, some divisions of Neopaganism and Taoism, along with many varying denominations and individuals within denominations. Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, paints a pantheistic/panentheistic view of God — which has wide acceptance in Hasidic Judaism, particularly from their founder The Baal Shem Tov — but only as an addition to the Jewish view of a personal god, not in the original pantheistic sense that denies or limits persona to God.[citation needed] Other concepts Dystheism, which is related to theodicy, is a form of theism which holds that God is either not wholly good or is fully malevolent as a consequence of the problem of evil. One such example comes from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, in which Ivan Karamazov rejects God on the grounds that he allows children to suffer.[28] Another example would be Theistic Satanism.[citation needed] Nontheism holds that the universe can be explained without any reference to the supernatural, or to a supernatural being. Some non-theists avoid the concept of God, whilst accepting that it is significant to many; other non-theists understand God as a symbol of human values and aspirations. Others such as Richard Dawkins see the idea of God as entirely pernicious. In his book, The God Delusion, Dawkins writes: "God, in the sense defined, is a delusion; and as later chapters will show, a pernicious one." In modern times, some more abstract concepts have been developed, such as process theology and open theism. The contemporaneous French philosopher Michel Henry has however proposed a phenomenological approach and definition of God as phenomenological essence of Life.[29] God has also been conceived as being incorporeal (immaterial), a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent".[1] These attributes were all supported to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologian philosophers, including Maimonides,[30] Augustine of Hippo,[30] and Al-Ghazali,[2] respectively. Existence of God Main article: Existence of God Countless arguments have been proposed in attempt to prove the existence of God.[31] Some of the most notable arguments are the 5 Ways of Aquinas, the Argument from Desire proposed by C.S. Lewis, the Lord, Lunatic or Liar Trilemma also by C.S. Lewis, and the Ontological Argument formulated both by St. Anselm and Descartes.[32] Even among theists, these proofs are heavily debated. Some, such as the Ontological Argument, are highly controversial among theists. Aquinas spends a section of his treatise on God refuting St. Anselm's proof.[33] St. Anselm's approach was to define God as, "that than which nothing greater can be conceived". Famed pantheist philosopher Baruch Spinoza would later carry this idea to its extreme: “By God I understand a being absolutely infinite, i.e., a substance consisting of infinite attributes, of which each one expresses an eternal and infinite essence.” For Spinoza, the whole of the natural universe is made of one substance, God, or its equivalent, Nature.[34] His proof for the existence of God was a variation of the Ontological argument.[35] Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and co-author Leonard Mlodinow state in their book, The Grand Design, that it is reasonable to ask who or what created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God. In this view it is accepted that some entity exists that needs no creator, and that entity is called God. This is known as the first-cause argument for the existence of God. Both authors claim however, that it is possible to answer these questions purely within the realm of science, and without invoking any divine beings.[36] Some theologians, such as the scientist and theologian A.E. McGrath, argue that the existence of God is not a question that can be answered using the scientific method.[37][38] Agnostic Stephen Jay Gould argues that science and religion are not in conflict and do not overlap.[39] There are many philosophical issues concerning the existence of God. Some definitions of God are nonspecific, while others can be self-contradictory. Arguments for the existence of God typically include metaphysical, empirical, inductive, and subjective types, while others revolve around perceived holes in evolutionary theory and order and complexity in the world. Arguments against the existence of God typically include empirical, deductive, and inductive types. Conclusions reached include views that: "God does not exist" (strong atheism); "God almost certainly does not exist"[40] (de facto atheism[41]); "no one knows whether God exists" (agnosticism[42]); "God exists, but this cannot be proven or disproven" (weak theism); and that "God exists and this can be proven" (strong theism). There are numerous variations on these positions.[citation needed] Specific attributes Epitheta Main article: Names of God It is difficult to distinguish between proper names and epitheta of God. Throughout the Hebrew and Christian Bible there are many names for God that portray his nature and character. One of them is elohim,[43][44] (which is actually a plural word). Another one is El Shaddai, meaning “God Almighty”.[45] A third notable name is El Elyon, which means “The Most High God”.[46] God is described and referred in the Quran and hadith by certain names or attributes, the most common being Al-Rahman, meaning "Most Compassionate" and Al-Rahim, meaning "Most Merciful" (See Names of God in Islam).[47] Vaishnavism, a tradition in Hinduism, has list of titles and names of Krishna. Gender Main article: Gender of God The gender of God can be viewed as a literal or as an allegorical aspect of a deity who, in Classical western philosophy, transcends bodily form.[48][49] In polytheistic religions, the gods are more likely to have literal sexual genders which would enable them to interact with each other, and even with humans, in a sexual way. In most monotheistic religions, there is no comparable being for God to relate to in a literal gender-based way. Thus, in Classical western philosophy the gender of this one-and-only deity is most likely to be an analogical statement of how humans and God address, and relate to, each other. Namely, God is seen as begetter of the world and revelation which corresponds to the active (as opposed to feminine receptive) role in sexual intercourse.[50] God is usually characterised as male in Biblical sources, except: female in Genesis 1:26-27,[51][52] Psalm 123:2-3, and Luke 15:8-10; a mother in Hosea 11:3-4, Deuteronomy 32:18, Isaiah 66:13, Isaiah 49:15, Isaiah 42:14, Psalm 131:2; a mother eagle in Deuteronomy 32:11-12; and a mother hen in Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34. Relationship with creation See also: Creator deity and Worship Christian theologian Alister McGrath writes that there are good reasons to suggest that a "personal god" is integral to the Christian outlook, but that one has to understand it is an analogy. "To say that God is like a person is to affirm the divine ability and willingness to relate to others. This does not imply that God is human, or located at a specific point in the universe."[53] Muslims believe that the purpose of existence is to worship God.[54][55] He is viewed as a personal God and there are no intermediaries, such as clergy, to contact God. A reciprocal nature is mentioned in the hadith qudsi, "I am as My servant thinks (expects) I am".[56] Adherents of different religions generally disagree as to how to best worship God and what is God's plan for mankind, if there is one. There are different approaches to reconciling the contradictory claims of monotheistic religions. One view is taken by exclusivists, who believe they are the chosen people or have exclusive access to absolute truth, generally through revelation or encounter with the Divine, which adherents of other religions do not. Another view is religious pluralism. A pluralist typically believes that his religion is the right one, but does not deny the partial truth of other religions. An example of a pluralist view in Christianity is supersessionism, i.e., the belief that one's religion is the fulfillment of previous religions. A third approach is relativistic inclusivism, where everybody is seen as equally right; an example in Christianity is universalism: the doctrine that salvation is eventually available for everyone. A fourth approach is syncretism, mixing different elements from different religions. An example of syncretism is the New Age movement. Theological approaches The Name of God written in Arabic calligraphy by 17th century Ottoman artist Hâfız Osman. In Islam, it is considered a sin to anthropomorphize God. See also: Theology Proper and Attributes of God in Christianity Theologians and philosophers have ascribed a number of attributes to God, including omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, perfect goodness, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has been described as incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable being existent.[1] These attributes were all claimed to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars, including St Augustine,[30] Al-Ghazali,[57] and Maimonides.[30] Many medieval philosophers developed arguments for the existence of God,[2] while attempting to comprehend the precise implications of God's attributes. Reconciling some of those attributes generated important philosophical problems and debates. For example, God's omniscience may seem to imply that God knows how free agents will choose to act. If God does know this, their apparent free will might be illusory, or foreknowledge does not imply predestination; and if God does not know it, God may not be omniscient.[58] However, if by its essential nature, free will is not predetermined, then the effect of its will can never be perfectly predicted by anyone, regardless of intelligence and knowledge. Although knowledge of the options presented to that will, combined with perfect-infinite intelligence, could be said to provide God with omniscience if omniscience is defined as knowledge or understanding of all that is. The last centuries of philosophy have seen vigorous questions regarding the arguments for God's existence raised by such philosophers as Immanuel Kant, David Hume and Antony Flew, although Kant held that the argument from morality was valid. The theist response has been either to contend, like Alvin Plantinga, that faith is "properly basic"; or to take, like Richard Swinburne, the evidentialist position.[59] Some theists agree that none of the arguments for God's existence are compelling, but argue that faith is not a product of reason, but requires risk. There would be no risk, they say, if the arguments for God's existence were as solid as the laws of logic, a position summed up by Pascal as: "The heart has reasons which reason knows not of."[60] Most major religions hold God not as a metaphor, but a being that influences our day-to-day existences. Many believers allow for the existence of other, less powerful spiritual beings, and give them names such as angels, saints, djinns, demons, and devas.[61][62][63][64][65] Non-theistic views of God See also: Evolutionary origin of religions and Evolutionary psychology of religion The nineteenth century English atheist Charles Bradlaugh declared that he refused to say "There is no God", because "the word 'God' is to me a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation";[66] he said more specifically that he disbelieved in the Christian God. Stephen Jay Gould proposed an approach dividing the world of philosophy into what he called "non-overlapping magisteria" (NOMA). In this view, questions of the supernatural, such as those relating to the existence and nature of God, are non-empirical and are the proper domain of theology. The methods of science should then be used to answer any empirical question about the natural world, and theology should be used to answer questions about ultimate meaning and moral value. In this view, the perceived lack of any empirical footprint from the magisterium of the supernatural onto natural events makes science the sole player in the natural world.[67] Another view, advanced by Richard Dawkins, is that the existence of God is an empirical question, on the grounds that "a universe with a god would be a completely different kind of universe from one without, and it would be a scientific difference."[40] Carl Sagan argued that the doctrine of a Creator of the Universe was difficult to prove or disprove and that the only conceivable scientific discovery that could disprove the existence of a Creator would be the discovery that the universe is infinitely old.[68] Anthropomorphism Main article: Anthropomorphism Pascal Boyer argues that while there is a wide array of supernatural concepts found around the world, in general, supernatural beings tend to behave much like people. The construction of gods and spirits like persons is one of the best known traits of religion. He cites examples from Greek mythology, which is, in his opinion, more like a modern soap opera than other religious systems.[69] Bertrand du Castel and Timothy Jurgensen demonstrate through formalization that Boyer's explanatory model matches physics' epistemology in positing not directly observable entities as intermediaries.[70] Anthropologist Stewart Guthrie contends that people project human features onto non-human aspects of the world because it makes those aspects more familiar. Sigmund Freud also suggested that god concepts are projections of one's father.[71][not in citation given] Likewise, Émile Durkheim was one of the earliest to suggest that gods represent an extension of human social life to include supernatural beings. In line with this reasoning, psychologist Matt Rossano contends that when humans began living in larger groups, they may have created gods as a means of enforcing morality. In small groups, morality can be enforced by social forces such as gossip or reputation. However, it is much harder to enforce morality using social forces in much larger groups. Rossano indicates that by including ever-watchful gods and spirits, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more cooperative groups.[72] Distribution of belief in God The percentage of population in European countries who responded in a 2005 survey that they "believe there is a God". Countries with Roman Catholic (e.g.: Poland, Portugal), Eastern Orthodox (Greece, Romania, Cyprus) or Muslim (Turkey, Cyprus) majorities tend to poll highest. Main article: List of religious populations As of 2000, approximately 53% of the world's population identified with one of the three primary Abrahamic religions (33% Christian, 20% Islam, <1% Judaism), 6% with Buddhism, 13% with Hinduism, 6% with traditional Chinese religion, 7% with various other religions, and less than 15% as non-religious. Most of these religious beliefs involve a god or gods.[73] Abrahamic religions beyond Christianity, Islam and Judaism include Baha'i, Samaritanism, the Rastafari movement, Yazidism, and the Unification Church. See also God (male deity) God in Buddhism God in Christianity God in Gnosticism God in Hinduism God in Islam God in Jainism God in Judaism God in Sikhism God in the Baha'i Faith God the Father in Western art God the Father List of deities Pantheon (gods) Science and God P religion world.svgReligion portal EndlessKnot03d.pngSpirituality portal Ddraig.svgMythology portal Notes ^ a b c d Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1995. ^ a b c Platinga, Alvin. "God, Arguments for the Existence of", Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge, 2000. ^ Pantheism: A Non-Theistic Concept of Deity - Page 136, Michael P. Levine - 2002 ^ A Feast for the Soul: Meditations on the Attributes of God : ... - Page x, Baháʾuʾlláh, Joyce Watanabe - 2006 ^ Philosophy and Faith of Sikhism - Page ix, Kartar Singh Duggal - 1988 ^ The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam confidently with the cultured class, David S. Kidder, Noah D. Oppenheim, page 364 ^ "'God' in Merriam-Webster (online)". Merriam-Webster, Inc. Retrieved 2012-07-19. ^ The ulterior etymology is disputed. Apart from the unlikely hypothesis of adoption from a foreign tongue, the OTeut. "ghuba" implies as its preTeut-type either "*ghodho-m" or "*ghodto-m". The former does not appear to admit of explanation; but the latter would represent the neut. pple. of a root "gheu-". There are two Aryan roots of the required form ("*g,heu-" with palatal aspirate) one with meaning 'to invoke' (Skr. "hu") the other 'to pour, to offer sacrifice' (Skr "hu", Gr. χεηi;ν, OE "geotàn" Yete v). OED Compact Edition, G, p. 267 ^ Barnhart, Robert K (1995). The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology: the Origins of American English Words, page 323. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-270084-7 ^ Webster's New World Dictionary; "God n. ME < OE, akin to Ger gott, Goth guth, prob. < IE base * ĝhau-, to call out to, invoke > Sans havaté, (he) calls upon; 1. any of various beings conceived of as supernatural, immortal, and having special powers over the lives and affairs of people and the course of nature; deity, esp. a male deity: typically considered objects of worship; 2. an image that is worshiped; idol 3. a person or thing deified or excessively honored and admired; 4. [G-] in monotheistic religions, the creator and ruler of the universe, regarded as eternal, infinite, all-powerful, and all-knowing; Supreme Being; the Almighty" ^ Dictionary.com; "God /gɒd/ noun: 1. the one Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe. 2. the Supreme Being considered with reference to a particular attribute. 3. (lowercase) one of several deities, esp. a male deity, presiding over some portion of worldly affairs. 4. (often lowercase) a supreme being according to some particular conception: the God of mercy. 5. Christian Science. the Supreme Being, understood as Life, Truth, Love, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle. 6. (lowercase) an image of a deity; an idol. 7. (lowercase) any deified person or object. 8. (often lowercase) Gods, Theater. 8a. the upper balcony in a theater. 8b. the spectators in this part of the balcony." ^ Barton, G.A. (2006). A Sketch of Semitic Origins: Social and Religious. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-4286-1575-X. ^ "God". Islam: Empire of Faith. PBS. Retrieved 2010-12-18. ^ "Islam and Christianity", Encyclopedia of Christianity (2001): Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews also refer to God as Allāh. ^ L. Gardet. "Allah". Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. ^ Hastings 2003, p. 540 ^ "DOES GOD MATTER? A Social-Science Critique". by Paul Froese and Christopher Bader. Retrieved 2007-05-28.[dead link] ^ See Swami Bhaskarananda, Essentials of Hinduism (Viveka Press 2002) ISBN 1-884852-04-1 ^ "Sri Guru Granth Sahib". Sri Granth. Retrieved 2011-06-30. ^ Quran 112:1–4 ^ D. Gimaret. "Allah, Tawhid". Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. ^ Robyn Lebron (2012). Searching for Spiritual Unity...Can There Be Common Ground?. p. 117. ISBN 1-4627-1262-2. ^ Müller, Max. (1878) Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion: As Illustrated by the Religions of India. London:Longmans, Green and Co. ^ a b Smart, Jack; John Haldane (2003). Atheism and Theism. Blackwell Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 0-631-23259-1. ^ a b Lemos, Ramon M. (2001). A Neomedieval Essay in Philosophical Theology. Lexington Books. p. 34. ISBN 0-7391-0250-8. ^ "Philosophy of Religion.info – Glossary – Theism, Atheism, and Agonisticism". Philosophy of Religion.info. Archived from the original on 2008-04-24. Retrieved 2008-07-16. ^ "Theism – definition of theism by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia". TheFreeDictionary. Retrieved 2008-07-16. ^ The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky pp259-261 ^ Henry, Michel (2003). I am the Truth. Toward a philosophy of Christianity. Translated by Susan Emanuel. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3780-0. ^ a b c d Edwards, Paul. "God and the philosophers" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN=978-1-61592-446-2. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1990). In Kreeft, Peter. Summa of the Summa. Ignatius Press. p. 63. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1990). In Kreeft, Peter. Summa of the Summa. Ignatius Press. pp. 65–69. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1274). Summa Theologica. Part 1, Question 2, Article 3. ^ Curley, Edwin M. (1985). The Collected Works of Spinoza. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-07222-7. ^ Nadler, Steven, "Baruch Spinoza", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2012/entries/spinoza/>. ^ Stephen Hawking; Leonard Mlodinow (2010). The Grand Design. Bantam Books. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-553-80537-6. ^ Alister E. McGrath (2005). Dawkins' God: genes, memes, and the meaning of life. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-2539-0. ^ Floyd H. Barackman (2001). Practical Christian Theology: Examining the Great Doctrines of the Faith. Kregel Academic. ISBN 978-0-8254-2380-2. ^ Gould, Stephen J. (1998). Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms. Jonathan Cape. p. 274. ISBN 0-224-05043-5. ^ a b Dawkins, Richard. "Why There Almost Certainly Is No God". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2007-01-10. ^ The phrase atheism originated from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning "without god(s)". ^ Thomas Henry Huxley, an English biologist, was the first to come up with the word agnostic in 1869 Dixon, Thomas (2008). Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-19-929551-7. However, earlier authors and published works have promoted an agnostic points of view. They include Protagoras, a 5th-century BCE Greek philosopher. "The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Protagoras (c. 490 - c. 420 BCE)". Archived from the original on 2008-10-14. Retrieved 2008-10-06. "While the pious might wish to look to the gods to provide absolute moral guidance in the relativistic universe of the Sophistic Enlightenment, that certainty also was cast into doubt by philosophic and sophistic thinkers, who pointed out the absurdity and immorality of the conventional epic accounts of the gods. Protagoras' prose treatise about the gods began 'Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be. Many things prevent knowledge including the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life.'" ^ Isa. 45:18; 54:5; Jer. 32:27; Gen. 1:1; Deut. 5:23; 8:15; Ps. 68:7 ^ "Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com/". Biblegateway.com. Retrieved 2011-06-30. ^ Gen. 17:1; 28:3; 35:11; Ex. 6:31; Ps. 91:1, 2 ^ Gen. 14:19; Ps. 9:2; Dan. 7:18, 22, 25 ^ Bentley, David (September 1999). The 99 Beautiful Names for God for All the People of the Book. William Carey Library. ISBN 0-87808-299-9. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1274). Summa Theologica. Part 1, Question 3, Article 1. ^ of Hippo, Augustine (~397). Confessions. Book 7. ^ Lang, David; Kreeft, Peter (2002). Why Matter Matters: Philosophical and Scriptural Reflections on the Sacraments. Chapter Five: Why Male Priests?: Our Sunday Visitor. ISBN 978-1931709347. ^ Elaine H. Pagels "What Became of God the Mother? Conflicting Images of God in Early Christianity" Signs, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Winter, 1976), pp. 293-303 ^ Coogan, Michael (October 2010). "6. Fire in Divine Loins: God's Wives in Myth and Metaphor". God and Sex. What the Bible Really Says (1st ed.). New York, Boston: Twelve. Hachette Book Group. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-446-54525-9. Retrieved 2011-05-05. "humans are modeled on elohim, specifically in their sexual differences." ^ McGrath, Alister (2006). Christian Theology: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishing. p. 205. ISBN 1-4051-5360-1. ^ "Human Nature and the Purpose of Existence". Patheos.com. Retrieved 2011-01-29. ^ Quran 51:56 ^ "I am as My Servant Thinks (expects) I am". hadithaday.org. Retrieved 2011-11-06. ^ Plantinga, Alvin. "God, Arguments for the Existence of", Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge, 2000. ^ Wierenga, Edward R. "Divine foreknowledge" in Audi, Robert. The Cambridge Companion to Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 2001. ^ Beaty, Michael (1991). "God Among the Philosophers". The Christian Century. Retrieved 2007-02-20. ^ Pascal, Blaise. Pensées, 1669. ^ Tuesday, December 8, 2009 (December 8, 2009). "More Americans Believe in Angels than Global Warming". Outsidethebeltway.com. Retrieved 2012-12-04. ^ Van, David (2008-09-18). "Guardian Angels Are Here, Say Most Americans". TIME. Retrieved 2012-12-04. ^ December 23, 2011, 8:25 AM (December 23, 2011). "Poll: Nearly 8 in 10 Americans believe in angels". CBS News. Retrieved 2012-12-04. ^ "Most Americans Believe in Higher Power, Poll Finds". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2012-12-04. ^ Qur’ān 15:27 ^ "A Plea for Atheism. By 'Iconoclast'", London, Austin & Co., 1876, p. 2. ^ Dawkins, Richard (2006). The God Delusion. Great Britain: Bantam Press. ISBN 0-618-68000-4. ^ Sagan, Carl (1996). The Demon Haunted World p.278. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-40946-9. ^ Boyer, Pascal (2001). Religion Explained,. New York: Basic Books. pp. 142–243. ISBN 0-465-00696-5. ^ du Castel, Bertrand; Jurgensen, Timothy M. (2008). Computer Theology,. Austin, Texas: Midori Press. pp. 221–222. ISBN 0-9801821-1-5. ^ Barrett, Justin (1996). Conceptualizing a Nonnatural Entity: Anthropomorphism in God Concepts (PDF).[dead link] ^ Rossano, Matt (2007). Supernaturalizing Social Life: Religion and the Evolution of Human Cooperation (PDF). Retrieved 2009-06-25. ^ National Geographic Family Reference Atlas of the World p. 49 References Pickover, Cliff, The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience, Palgrave/St Martin's Press, 2001. ISBN 1-4039-6457-2 Collins, Francis, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, Free Press, 2006. ISBN 0-7432-8639-1 Miles, Jack, God: A Biography, Vintage, 1996. ISBN 0-679-74368-5 Armstrong, Karen, A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Ballantine Books, 1994. ISBN 0-434-02456-2 Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951). ISBN 0-226-80337-6 Hastings, James Rodney (2nd edition 1925–1940, reprint 1955, 2003) [1908–26]. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. John A Selbie (Volume 4 of 24 ( Behistun (continued) to Bunyan.) ed.). Edinburgh: Kessinger Publishing, LLC. p. 476. ISBN 0-7661-3673-6. "The encyclopedia will contain articles on all the religions of the world and on all the great systems of ethics. It will aim at containing articles on every religious belief or custom, and on every ethical movement, every philosophical idea, every moral practice." External links Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: God Look up god in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikinews has related news: Nebraska Senator sues God Listen to this article (info/dl) Menu 0:00 This audio file was created from a revision of the "God" article dated 2008-01-06, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. 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Christianity From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Part of a series on Christianity Jesus depicted as the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ [hide] Jesus in Christianity Virgin birth Ministry Crucifixion Resurrection Bible Foundations [hide] Old Testament New Testament Gospel Canon Books Church Creed New Covenant Theology[hide] God Father Son Holy Spirit Apologetics Baptism Catholicism Christology History of theology Mission Salvation Trinity History Tradition [hide] Mary Apostles Peter Paul Fathers Early Christianity Constantine Councils Augustine East–West Schism Crusades Aquinas Reformation Luther Related topics[hide] Art Criticism Ecumenism Liturgy Music Other religions Prayer Sermon Symbolism Denominations Groups [show] Portal icon Christianity portal v t e Christianity (from the Greek: Χριστιανός Christianos[1] and the Latin suffix -itas) is a monotheistic[2] and Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings. Most adherents of the Christian faith, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Son of God, fully divine and fully human and the savior of humanity prophesied in the Old Testament. Consequentially, Christians commonly refer to Jesus as Christ or Messiah. The foundation of Christian theology is expressed in the early ecumenical creeds which contain claims predominantly accepted by followers of the Christian faith. These professions state that Jesus suffered, died, was buried, and was subsequently resurrected from the dead in order to grant eternal life to those who believe in him and trust him for the remission of their sins. They further maintain that Jesus bodily ascended into heaven where he rules and reigns with God the Father. Most denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge all humans, living and dead, and grant eternal life to his followers. He is considered the model of a virtuous life, and his ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning "Good News" (from the Greek: εὐαγγέλιον euangélion). Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the mid-1st century.[3][4] Originating in the Levant region of the Middle East, it quickly spread to Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and Egypt. It grew in size and influence over a few centuries, and by the end of the 4th century had become the official state church of the Roman Empire, replacing other forms of religion practiced under Roman rule.[5] During the Middle Ages, most of the remainder of Europe was Christianized, with Christians also being a sometimes large religious minority in the Middle East, North Africa, Ethiopia and parts of India.[6][7] Following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization.[8][9][10] Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization.[11][12][13][14][15] Worldwide, the three largest groups of Christianity are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the various denominations of Protestantism. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox patriarchates split from one another in the schism of the 11th century, and Protestantism came into existence during the Reformation of the 16th century, splitting from the Roman Catholic Church.[16] As of the early 21st century, Christianity is the world's largest religion,[17][18] with approximately 2.2 billion adherents.[19][20][21][22] Contents 1 Beliefs 1.1 Creeds 1.1.1 Ten Commandments 1.2 Jesus Christ 1.3 Death and resurrection of Jesus 1.4 Salvation 1.5 Trinity 1.5.1 Trinitarians 1.5.2 Nontrinitarians 1.6 Scriptures 1.6.1 Catholic and Orthodox interpretations 1.6.2 Protestant interpretation 1.7 Eschaton 1.7.1 Death and afterlife 2 Worship 2.1 Sacraments 2.2 Liturgical calendar 2.3 Symbols 2.4 Baptism 2.5 Prayer 3 History 3.1 Early Church and Christological Councils 3.2 Early Middle Ages 3.3 High and Late Middle Ages 3.4 Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation 3.5 Post-Enlightenment 4 Demographics 5 Major denominations within Christianity 5.1 Catholic 5.2 Orthodox 5.3 Protestant 5.4 Restorationists and others 6 Christian culture 7 Ecumenism 8 Criticism and apologetics 9 See also 10 References 10.1 Bibliography 11 External links Beliefs The Sermon On the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch, Danish painter, d. 1890. Though there are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible on which Christianity is based, Christians share a set of beliefs that they hold as essential to their faith.[23] Creeds Main article: Creeds Wikisource has original text related to this article: Apostles' Creed Wikisource has original text related to this article: Nicene Creed Creeds (from Latin credo meaning "I believe") are concise doctrinal statements or confessions, usually of religious beliefs. They began as baptismal formulae and were later expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even while agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal "in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another."[24]  .111 Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada and the Churches of Christ.[25][26]:14–15[27]:123 An Eastern Christian Icon depicting Emperor Constantine and the Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea (325) as holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. The Apostles' Creed remains the most popular statement of the articles of Christian faith that are generally acceptable to most Christian denominations that are creedal. It is widely used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical Churches of Western Christian tradition, including the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Western Orthodoxy. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists. This particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator. Each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was apparently used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome.[28] Its main points: belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Holy Spirit the death, descent into hell, resurrection, and ascension of Christ the holiness of the Church and the communion of saints Christ's second coming, the Day of Judgement and salvation of the faithful. The Nicene Creed, largely a response to Arianism, was formulated at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in 325 and 381 respectively[29][30] and ratified as the universal creed of Christendom by the First Council of Ephesus in 431.[31] The Chalcedonian Creed, developed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451,[32] though rejected by the Oriental Orthodox Churches,[33] taught Christ "to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably": one divine and one human, and that both natures are perfect but are nevertheless perfectly united into one person.[34] The Athanasian Creed, received in the Western Church as having the same status as the Nicene and Chalcedonian, says: "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance."[35] Most Christians (Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Rite and Protestants alike) accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the creeds mentioned above.[36] Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments, are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, theft, and adultery. Different groups follow slightly different traditions for interpreting and numbering them. According to the synoptic gospels, Christ generalised the law into two underlying principles; The first is Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. While the second is You shall love your neighbor as yourself.[Matthew 22:34-40][Mark 12:28-33] These are in fact quotes from Deuteronomy 6:4 and Leviticus 19:18. Barnes' Notes on the New Testament comments on these verses saying: "These comprehend the substance of what Moses in the law, and what the prophets have spoken. What they have said has been to endeavour (sic) to win men to the love of God and each other. Love to God and man comprehends the whole [of] religion; and to produce this has been the design of Moses, the prophets, the Saviour, and the apostles."[37] Jesus Christ Main articles: Christian views of Jesus, Christology, and Jesus Christ in comparative mythology A depiction of Jesus as a child with his mother, Mary, the Theotokos of Vladimir. 12th century, Russia. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah (Christ). Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus' coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept. The core Christian belief is that through belief in and acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus, sinful humans can be reconciled to God and thereby are offered salvation and the promise of eternal life.[38] While there have been many theological disputes over the nature of Jesus over the earliest centuries of Christian history, Christians generally believe that Jesus is God incarnate and "true God and true man" (or both fully divine and fully human). Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin. As fully God, he rose to life again. According to the Bible, "God raised him from the dead",[39] he ascended to heaven, is "seated at the right hand of the Father"[40] and will ultimately return[Acts 1:9–11] to fulfill the rest of Messianic prophecy such as the Resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and final establishment of the Kingdom of God. According to the canonical gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary. Little of Jesus' childhood is recorded in the canonical Gospels, however infancy Gospels were popular in antiquity. In comparison, his adulthood, especially the week before his death, is well documented in the Gospels contained within the New Testament. The Biblical accounts of Jesus' ministry include: his baptism, miracles, preaching, teaching, and deeds. Death and resurrection of Jesus Main articles: Crucifixion of Jesus and Resurrection of Jesus Crucifixion, representing the death of Jesus on the Cross, painting by D. Velázquez, 17th century Resurrection of Christ by Noel Coypel, 1700, using a hovering depiction of Jesus. Christians consider the resurrection of Jesus to be the cornerstone of their faith (see 1 Corinthians 15) and the most important event in human history.[41] Among Christian beliefs, the death and resurrection of Jesus are two core events on which much of Christian doctrine and theology is based.[42][43] According to the New Testament Jesus was crucified, died a physical death, was buried within a tomb, and rose from the dead three days later.[Jn. 19:30–31] [Mk. 16:1] [16:6] The New Testament mentions several resurrection appearances of Jesus on different occasions to his twelve apostles and disciples, including "more than five hundred brethren at once",[1Cor 15:6] before Jesus' Ascension to heaven. Jesus' death and resurrection are commemorated by Christians in all worship services, with special emphasis during Holy Week which includes Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The death and resurrection of Jesus are usually considered the most important events in Christian theology, partly because they demonstrate that Jesus has power over life and death and therefore has the authority and power to give people eternal life.[44] Christian churches accept and teach the New Testament account of the resurrection of Jesus with very few exceptions.[45] Some modern scholars use the belief of Jesus' followers in the resurrection as a point of departure for establishing the continuity of the historical Jesus and the proclamation of the early church.[46] Some liberal Christians do not accept a literal bodily resurrection,[47][48] seeing the story as richly symbolic and spiritually nourishing myth. Arguments over death and resurrection claims occur at many religious debates and interfaith dialogues.[49] Paul the Apostle, an early Christian convert and missionary, wrote, "If Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless."[1Cor 15:14] [50] Salvation Main article: Salvation Paul of Tarsus, like Jews and Roman pagans of his time, believed that sacrifice can bring about new kinship ties, purity, and eternal life.[51] For Paul the necessary sacrifice was the death of Jesus: Gentiles who are "Christ's" are, like Israel, descendants of Abraham and "heirs according to the promise".[Gal. 3:29] [52] The God who raised Jesus from the dead would also give new life to the "mortal bodies" of Gentile Christians, who had become with Israel the "children of God" and were therefore no longer "in the flesh".[Rom. 8:9,11,16] [51] Modern Christian churches tend to be much more concerned with how humanity can be saved from a universal condition of sin and death than the question of how both Jews and Gentiles can be in God's family. According to both Catholic and Protestant doctrine, salvation comes by Jesus' substitutionary death and resurrection. The Catholic Church teaches that salvation does not occur without faithfulness on the part of Christians; converts must live in accordance with principles of love and ordinarily must be baptized.[53][54] Martin Luther taught that baptism was necessary for salvation, but modern Lutherans and other Protestants tend to teach that salvation is a gift that comes to an individual by God's grace, sometimes defined as "unmerited favor", even apart from baptism. Christians differ in their views on the extent to which individuals' salvation is pre-ordained by God. Reformed theology places distinctive emphasis on grace by teaching that individuals are completely incapable of self-redemption, but that sanctifying grace is irresistible.[55] In contrast Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Arminian Protestants believe that the exercise of free will is necessary to have faith in Jesus.[56] Trinity Main article: Trinity Three angels hosted by Abraham by Ludovico Carracci: The three angels represent the three persons of God. Trinity refers to the teaching that the one God comprises three distinct, eternally co-existing persons; the Father, the Son (incarnate in Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. Together, these three persons are sometimes called the Godhead,[57][58][59] although there is no single term in use in Scripture to denote the unified Godhead.[60] In the words of the Athanasian Creed, an early statement of Christian belief, "the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God".[61] They are distinct from another: the Father has no source, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father. Though distinct, the three persons cannot be divided from one another in being or in operation.[62] The Trinity is an essential doctrine of mainstream Christianity. "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" represents both the immanence and transcendence of God. God is believed to be infinite and God's presence may be perceived through the actions of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.[63] According to this doctrine, God is not divided in the sense that each person has a third of the whole; rather, each person is considered to be fully God (see Perichoresis). The distinction lies in their relations, the Father being unbegotten; the Son being begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and (in Western Christian theology) from the Son. Regardless of this apparent difference, the three 'persons' are each eternal and omnipotent. The word trias, from which trinity is derived, is first seen in the works of Theophilus of Antioch. He wrote of "the Trinity of God (the Father), His Word (the Son) and His Wisdom (Holy Spirit)".[64] The term may have been in use before this time. Afterwards it appears in Tertullian.[65][66] In the following century the word was in general use. It is found in many passages of Origen.[67] Trinitarians Main article: Trinitarianism Trinitarianism denotes those Christians who believe in the concept of the Trinity. Almost all Christian denominations and Churches hold Trinitarian beliefs. Although the words "Trinity" and "Triune" do not appear in the Bible, theologians beginning in the 3rd century developed the term and concept to facilitate comprehension of the New Testament teachings of God as Father, God as Jesus the Son, and God as the Holy Spirit. Since that time, Christian theologians have been careful to emphasize that Trinity does not imply three gods, nor that each member of the Trinity is one-third of an infinite God; Trinity is defined as one God in three Persons.[68] Nontrinitarians Main article: Nontrinitarianism Nontrinitarianism refers to theology that rejects the doctrine of the Trinity. Various nontrinitarian views, such as adoptionism or modalism, existed in early Christianity, leading to the disputes about Christology.[69] Nontrinitarianism later appeared again in the Gnosticism of the Cathars in the 11th through 13th centuries, in the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, and in some groups arising during the Second Great Awakening of the 19th century. Scriptures Main articles: Bible and Development of the Christian Biblical canon Christianity, like other religions, has adherents whose beliefs and biblical interpretations vary. Christianity regards the Biblical canon, the Old Testament and New Testament, as the inspired word of God. The traditional view of inspiration is that God worked through human authors so that, what they produced was what God wished to communicate. The Greek word referring to inspiration in 2 Timothy 3:16 is Theopneustos, which literally means "God-breathed".[70] Some believe that divine inspiration makes our present Bibles "inerrant". Others claim inerrancy for the Bible in its original manuscripts, though none of those are extant. Still others maintain that only a particular translation is inerrant, such as the King James Version.[71][72][73] Another view closely related is Biblical infallibility or Limited inerrancy, which affirms that the Bible is free of error as a guide to salvation, but may include errors on matters such as history, geography, or science. The Gutenberg Bible, the first printed Bible The Books of the Bible, considered to be inspired, among Judaism, and the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches vary, thus each define the canon differently, although there is substantial overlap. These variations are a reflection of the range of traditions and councils that have convened on the subject. Every version of the Bible always includes books of the Tanakh, the canon of the Hebrew Bible. This makes up what Christians regard as the Old Testament. The Catholic and Orthodox canons, in addition to the Tanakh, also include the Deuterocanonical Books, as part of the Old Testament. These Books appear in the Septuagint, but are regarded by Protestants to be apocryphal. However, they are considered to be important historical documents which help to inform the understanding of words, grammar and syntax used in the historical period of their conception. Some versions of the Bible include a separate Apocrypha section between the Old Testament and the New Testament.[74] The New Testament, originally written in Koine Greek, contains 27 books which are agreed upon by all churches. Modern scholarship has raised many issues with the Bible. While the Authorized King James Version is held to by many because of its striking english prose, in fact it was translated from the Erasmus Greek Bible which in turn "was based on a single 12th Century manuscript that is one of the worst manuscripts we have available to us".[75] Much scholarship in the past several hundred years has gone into comparing different manuscripts in order to reconstruct the original text. Another issue is that several books are considered to be forgeries. The injunction that women "be silent and submissive" in 1 Timothy 12[76] is thought by many to be a forgery by a follower of Paul, a similar phrase in 1 Corinthians 14,[77] which is thought to be by Paul, appears in different places in different manuscripts and is thought to originally be a margin note by a copyist.[78] Other verses in 1 Corinthians contradict this verse such as 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 where women are instructed to wear a covering over their hair "when they pray or prophesies".[79] Clearly when they are not silent! A final issue with the Bible is the selection of which books were included in the New Testament. Other texts have been recovered, such as the Gnostic Gospels of Nag Hammadi. While some of these texts are quite different to what modern Christians are used to, it should be understood that they existed simultaneously in early Christianity with those later selected as canon. The Gospel of Thomas contains much that is familiar with existing Gospels, while it has a gnostic twist so that rather than being completely different there is an element of overlap. The Gospel of John, described as the "gnostic Gospel", is believed to have been a response to the Gospel of Thomas which makes it closer to the original events. And while the Gospel of Thomas verse 113 states: "the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it"[80] the same verse can be found in Luke 17:20-21.[81][82] Catholic and Orthodox interpretations St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, the largest church in the world and a symbol of the Catholic Church. In antiquity, two schools of exegesis developed in Alexandria and Antioch. Alexandrine interpretation, exemplified by Origen, tended to read Scripture allegorically, while Antiochene interpretation adhered to the literal sense, holding that other meanings (called theoria) could only be accepted if based on the literal meaning.[83] Catholic theology distinguishes two senses of scripture: the literal and the spiritual.[84] The literal sense of understanding scripture is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture. The spiritual sense is further subdivided into: the allegorical sense, which includes typology. An example would be the parting of the Red Sea being understood as a "type" (sign) of baptism.[1Cor 10:2] the moral sense, which understands the scripture to contain some ethical teaching. the anagogical sense, which applies to eschatology, eternity and the consummation of the world Regarding exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation, Catholic theology holds: the injunction that all other senses of sacred scripture are based on the literal[85][86] that the historicity of the Gospels must be absolutely and constantly held[87] that scripture must be read within the "living Tradition of the whole Church"[88] and that "the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome".[89] Protestant interpretation Clarity of Scripture Protestant Christians believe that the Bible is a self-sufficient revelation, the final authority on all Christian doctrine, and revealed all truth necessary for salvation. This concept is known as sola scriptura.[90] Protestants characteristically believe that ordinary believers may reach an adequate understanding of Scripture because Scripture itself is clear (or "perspicuous"), because of the help of the Holy Spirit, or both. Martin Luther believed that without God's help Scripture would be "enveloped in darkness".[91] He advocated "one definite and simple understanding of Scripture".[91] John Calvin wrote, "all who ... follow the Holy Spirit as their guide, find in the Scripture a clear light."[92] The Second Helvetic Confession, composed by the pastor of the Reformed church in Zurich (successor to Protestant reformer Zwingli) was adopted as a declaration of doctrine by most European Reformed churches.[93] Original intended meaning of Scripture Protestants stress the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture, the historical-grammatical method.[94] The historical-grammatical method or grammatico-historical method is an effort in Biblical hermeneutics to find the intended original meaning in the text.[95] This original intended meaning of the text is drawn out through examination of the passage in light of the grammatical and syntactical aspects, the historical background, the literary genre as well as theological (canonical) considerations.[96] The historical-grammatical method distinguishes between the one original meaning and the significance of the text. The significance of the text includes the ensuing use of the text or application. The original passage is seen as having only a single meaning or sense. As Milton S. Terry said: "A fundamental principle in grammatico-historical exposition is that the words and sentences can have but one significance in one and the same connection. The moment we neglect this principle we drift out upon a sea of uncertainty and conjecture."[97] Technically speaking, the grammatical-historical method of interpretation is distinct from the determination of the passage's significance in light of that interpretation. Taken together, both define the term (Biblical) hermeneutics.[98] Some Protestant interpreters make use of typology.[99] Eschaton Main article: Christian eschatology The end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world, broadly speaking is Christian eschatology; the study of the destiny of humans as it is revealed in the Bible. The major issues in Christian eschatology are the Tribulation, death and the afterlife, the Rapture, the Second Coming of Jesus, Resurrection of the Dead, Heaven and Hell, Millennialism, the Last Judgment, the end of the world, and the New Heavens and New Earth. Christians believe that the second coming of Christ will occur at the end of time after a period of severe persecution (the Great Tribulation). All who have died will be resurrected bodily from the dead for the Last Judgment. Jesus will fully establish the Kingdom of God in fulfillment of scriptural prophecies.[100][101] Death and afterlife Most Christians believe that human beings experience divine judgment and are rewarded either with eternal life or eternal damnation. This includes the general judgement at the resurrection of the dead as well as the belief (held by Roman Catholics,[102][103] Orthodox[104][105] and most Protestants) in a judgment particular to the individual soul upon physical death. In Roman Catholicism, those who die in a state of grace, i.e., without any mortal sin separating them from God, but are still imperfectly purified from the effects of sin, undergo purification through the intermediate state of purgatory to achieve the holiness necessary for entrance into God's presence.[106] Those who have attained this goal are called saints (Latin sanctus, "holy").[107] Some Christian groups, such as Seventh-day Adventists, hold to mortalism, the belief that the human soul is not naturally immortal, and is unconscious during the intermediate state between bodily death and resurrection. These Christians also hold to Annihilationism, the belief that subsequent to the final judgement, the wicked will cease to exist rather than suffer everlasting torment. Jehovah's Witnesses hold to a similar view.[108] Worship Main article: Christian worship Samples of Catholic religious objects—The Holy Bible, a Crucifix, and a Rosary. Justin Martyr described 2nd-century Christian liturgy in his First Apology (c. 150) to Emperor Antoninus Pius, and his description remains relevant to the basic structure of Christian liturgical worship: And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. —Justin Martyr[109] Thus, as Justin described, Christians assemble for communal worship on Sunday, the day of the resurrection, though other liturgical practices often occur outside this setting. Scripture readings are drawn from the Old and New Testaments, but especially the gospel accounts. Often these are arranged on an annual cycle, using a book called a lectionary. Instruction is given based on these readings, called a sermon, or homily. There are a variety of congregational prayers, including thanksgiving, confession, and intercession, which occur throughout the service and take a variety of forms including recited, responsive, silent, or sung. The Lord's Prayer, or Our Father, is regularly prayed. The Eucharist is the part of liturgical worship that consists of a consecrated meal, usually bread and wine. Some Christian denominations practice closed communion. They offer communion to those who are already united in that denomination or sometimes individual church. Catholics restrict participation to their members who are not in a state of mortal sin. Most other churches practice open communion since they view communion as a means to unity, rather than an end, and invite all believing Christians to participate. A modern Protestant worship band leading a contemporary worship session. Some groups depart from this traditional liturgical structure. A division is often made between "High" church services, characterized by greater solemnity and ritual, and "Low" services, but even within these two categories there is great diversity in forms of worship. Seventh-day Adventists meet on Saturday, while others do not meet on a weekly basis. Charismatic or Pentecostal congregations may spontaneously feel led by the Holy Spirit to action rather than follow a formal order of service, including spontaneous prayer. Quakers sit quietly until moved by the Holy Spirit to speak. Some Evangelical services resemble concerts with rock and pop music, dancing, and use of multimedia. For groups which do not recognize a priesthood distinct from ordinary believers the services are generally led by a minister, preacher, or pastor. Still others may lack any formal leaders, either in principle or by local necessity. Some churches use only a cappella music, either on principle (for example, many Churches of Christ object to the use of instruments in worship) or by tradition (as in Orthodoxy). Worship can be varied for special events like baptisms or weddings in the service or significant feast days. In the early church, Christians and those yet to complete initiation would separate for the Eucharistic part of the worship. In many churches today, adults and children will separate for all or some of the service to receive age-appropriate teaching. Such children's worship is often called Sunday school or Sabbath school (Sunday schools are often held before rather than during services). Sacraments Main article: Sacrament See also: Sacraments of the Catholic Church, Anglican sacraments, and Lutheran sacraments In Christian belief and practice, a sacrament is a rite, instituted by Christ, that mediates grace, constituting a sacred mystery. The term is derived from the Latin word sacramentum, which was used to translate the Greek word for mystery. Views concerning both what rites are sacramental, and what it means for an act to be a sacrament vary among Christian denominations and traditions.[110] |
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 13:18:37 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 13:18:37 GMT -5
The Book of Genesis (from the Latin Vulgate, in turn borrowed or transliterated from Greek γένεσις, meaning "origin"; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית, Bərēšīṯ, "In [the] beginning"), is the first book of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) and the Christian Old Testament.[1]
The basic narrative expresses the central theme: God creates the world and appoints man as his regent, but man proves disobedient and God destroys his world through the Flood but preserves a righteous man, Noah, and his family. The new post-Flood world is equally corrupt, but God does not destroy it, instead calling one man, Abraham, to be the seed of its salvation. At God's command Abraham descends from his home into the land of Canaan, given to him by God, where he dwells as a sojourner, as does his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and through the agency of his son Joseph, the children of Israel descend into Egypt, 70 people in all with their households, and God promises them a future of greatness. Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus. The narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, successively narrowing in scope from all mankind (the covenant with Noah) to a special relationship with one people alone (Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob).[2]
Tradition credits Moses as the author of Genesis, but the book is in fact anonymous;[3] current thinking places the first draft of Genesis either just before or during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BCE, and the final edition in the late Exilic period or soon after.[4] The author or authors appear to have structured it around ten "toledot" sections (the "these are the generations of..." phrases), but many modern commentators see it in terms of a "primeval history" (chapters 1–11) followed by the cycle of Patriarchal stories (chapters 12–50).[5] For Jews and Christians alike, the theological importance of Genesis centers on the covenants linking God to his Chosen People and the people to the Promised Land. Christianity has interpreted Genesis as the prefiguration of certain cardinal Christian beliefs, primarily the need for salvation (the hope or assurance of all Christians) and the redemptive act of Christ on the Cross as the fulfillment of covenant promises as the Son of God.
Contents
1 Structure
2 Summary
3 Composition
3.1 Origins
3.2 Genre
4 Themes
4.1 Promises to the ancestors
4.2 God's chosen people
5 Judaism's weekly Torah portions
6 See also
7 References
8 Bibliography
8.1 Commentaries on Genesis
8.2 General
9 External links
Structure
Genesis appears to be structured around the recurring phrase elleh toledot, meaning "these are the generations," with the first use of the phrase referring to the "generations of heaven and earth" and the remainder marking individuals—Noah, the "sons of Noah", Shem, etc., down to Jacob.[6] It is not clear, however, what this meant to the original authors, and most modern commentators divide it into two parts based on subject matter, a "primeval history" (chapters 1–11) and a "patriarchal history" (chapters 12–50).[7] While the first is far shorter than the second, it sets out the basic themes and provides an interpretive key for understanding the entire book.[8] The "primeval history" has a symmetrical structure hinged around chapter 6–9, the flood story, with the events before the flood mirrored by the events after.[9] The "patriarchal history" recounts the events of the major patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom God reveals himself and to whom the promise of descendants and land is made, while the story of Joseph serves to take the Israelites into Egypt in preparation for the next book, Exodus.
Summary
God creates the world in six days and consecrates the seventh after giving mankind his first commandment: "be fruitful and multiply". God pronounces the world "very good", but it becomes corrupted by the sin of man and God sends a deluge (a great flood) to destroy it, saving only the righteous (Noah) and his family, from whose seed the world is repopulated. Man sins again, but God has promised that he will not destroy the world a second time with water.
God instructs Abram (the future Abraham) to travel from his home in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) to the land of Canaan. There God makes a covenant with Abram promising that his descendants shall be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, but that they shall suffer oppression in a foreign land for four hundred years, after which they shall inherit the land "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates." Abram's name is changed to Abraham and that of his wife Sarai to Sarah, and circumcision of all males is instituted as the sign of the covenant.
Sarah is barren, and tells Abraham to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as a concubine. Through Hagar, Abraham becomes the father of Ishmael. Abraham asks God that Ishmael "might live in Thy sight," (that is, be favored), but God replies that Sarah will bear a son, who will be named Isaac, through whom the covenant will be established. At Sarah's insistence Ishmael and his mother Hagar are driven out into the wilderness, but God saves them and promises to make Ishmael a great nation.
God resolves to destroy the city of Sodom for the sins of its people. Abraham protests that it is not just "to slay the righteous with the wicked," and asks if the whole city can be spared if even ten righteous men are found there. God replies: "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it." Abraham's nephew Lot is saved from the destruction of Sodom, and through incest with his daughters becomes the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites.
God tests Abraham by demanding that he sacrifice Isaac. As Abraham is about to lay the knife upon his son, God restrains him, promising him numberless descendants. On the death of Sarah, Abraham purchases Machpelah (modern Hebron) for a family tomb and sends his servant to Mesopotamia to find among his relations a wife for Isaac, and Rebekah is chosen. Other children are born to Abraham by another wife, Keturah, among whose descendants are the Midianites, and he dies in a prosperous old age and is buried in his tomb at Hebron.
Isaac's wife Rebekah is barren, but Isaac prays to God and she gives birth to the twins Esau, father of the Edomites, and Jacob. Through deception, Jacob becomes the heir instead of Esau and gains his father's blessing. He flees to his uncle where he prospers and earns his two wives. Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and by his wives Rachel and Leah and their handmaidens he has twelve sons, the ancestors of the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel, and a daughter, Dinah.
Joseph, Jacob's favourite son, is sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers. But Joseph prospers, and when famine comes he brings his father and his brothers and their households, seventy persons in all, to Egypt, where Pharaoh assigns to them the land of Goshen. Jacob calls his sons to his bedside and reveals their future to them before he dies and is interred in the family tomb at Machpelah. Joseph lives to see his great-grandchildren, and on his death-bed he exhorts his brethren, if God should remember them and lead them out of the country, to take his bones with them. The book ends with Joseph's remains being "put in a coffin in Egypt."
Composition
Abram's Journey from Ur to Canaan (József Molnár, 1850)
Origins
Main article: Documentary hypothesis
For much of the 20th century most scholars agreed that the five books of the Pentateuch—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—came from four sources, the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomist and the Priestly source, each telling the same basic story, and joined together by various editors.[10] Since the 1970s there has been a revolution in scholarship: the Elohist source is now widely regarded as no more than a variation on the Yahwist, while the Priestly source is increasingly seen not as a document but as a body of revisions and expansions to the Yahwist (or "non-Priestly") material. (The Deuteronomistic source does not appear in Genesis).[11]
In composing the Patriarchal history the Yahwist drew on four separate blocks of traditional stories about Abraham, Jacob, Judah and Joseph, combining them with genealogies, itineraries and the "promise" theme to create a unified whole.[12] Similarly, when composing the "primeval history" he drew on Greek and Mesopotamian sources, editing and adding to them to create a unified work that fit his theological agenda.[13] The Yahwistic work was then revised and expanded into the final edition by the authors of the Priestly source.[14]
This leaves the question of when these works were created. Scholars in the first half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that the Yahwist was produced in the monarchic period, specifically at the court of Solomon, and the Priestly work in the middle of the 5th century BC (the author was even identified as Ezra), but more recent thinking is that the Yahwist was written either just before or during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century, and the Priestly final edition was made late in the Exilic period or soon after.[4]
As for why the book was created, a theory which has gained considerable interest, although still controversial is "Persian imperial authorisation". This proposes that the Persians, after their conquest of Babylon in 538 BC, agreed to grant Jerusalem a large measure of local autonomy within the empire, but required the local authorities to produce a single law code accepted by the entire community. The two powerful groups making up the community—the priestly families who controlled the Temple and who traced their origin to Moses and the wilderness wanderings, and the major landowning families who made up the "elders" and who traced their own origins to Abraham, who had "given" them the land—were in conflict over many issues, and each had its own "history of origins", but the Persian promise of greatly increased local autonomy for all provided a powerful incentive to cooperate in producing a single text.[15]
Genre
Genesis is perhaps best seen as an example of "antiquarian history", a type of literature telling of the first appearance of humans, the stories of ancestors and heroes, and the origins of culture, cities and so forth.[16] The most notable examples are found in the work of Greek historians of the 6th century BC: their intention was to connect notable families of their own day to a distant and heroic past, and in doing so they did not distinguish between myth, legend, and facts.[17] Professor Jean-Louis Ska of the Pontifical Biblical Institute calls the basic rule of the antiquarian historian the "law of conservation": everything old is valuable, nothing is eliminated.[18] Ska also points out the purpose behind such antiquarian histories: antiquity is needed to prove the worth of Israel's traditions to the nations (the neighbours of the Jews in early Persian Palestine), and to reconcile and unite the various factions within Israel itself.[18]
Themes
Joseph recognized by his brothers (Léon Pierre Urbain Bourgeois, 1863)
Promises to the ancestors
In 1978 David Clines published his influential The Theme of the Pentateuch – influential because he was one of the first to take up the question of the theme of the entire five books. Clines' conclusion was that the overall theme is "the partial fulfillment – which implies also the partial nonfulfillment – of the promise to or blessing of the Patriarchs." (By calling the fulfillment "partial" Clines was drawing attention to the fact that at the end of Deuteronomy the people are still outside Canaan).[19]
The patriarchs, or ancestors, are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with their wives (Joseph is normally excluded).[20] Through the patriarchs God announces the election of Israel, meaning that he has chosen Israel to be his special people and committed himself to their future.[21] God tells the patriarchs that he will be faithful to their descendants (i.e. to Israel), and Israel is expected to have faith in God and his promise. ("Faith" in the context of Genesis and the Hebrew bible means agreement to the promissory relationship, not a body of belief).[22]
The promise itself has three parts: offspring, blessings, and land.[23] The fulfilment of the promise to each patriarch depends on having a male heir, and the story is constantly complicated by the fact that each prospective mother – Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel – is barren. The ancestors, however, retain their faith in God and God in each case gives a son – in Jacob's case, twelve sons, the foundation of the chosen Israelites. All three promises are more richly fulfilled in each succeeding generation, until through Joseph "all the world" is saved from famine,[24] and by bringing the children of Israel down to Egypt he becomes the means through which the promise can be fulfilled.[20]
God's chosen people
Scholars generally agree that the theme of divine promise unites the patriarchal cycles, but many would dispute the idea that a single theme (or theology) runs through Genesis – a theology of the Abraham cycle or the Jacob cycle or the Joseph cycle might be possible, or a theology of the Yahwist or the Priestly source, but not a single theology or overarching theme for all of Genesis.[25] The problem lies in finding a way to unite the patriarchal theme of divine promise to the primeval history, with its theme of God's continuing mercy in the face of man's sinful nature.[26] One solution is to see the patriarchal stories as resulting from God's decision not to remain alienated from mankind:[26] God creates the world and mankind, mankind rebels, and God "elects" (chooses) Abraham.[2]
To this basic plot (which comes from the Yahwist) the Priestly source has added a series of covenants dividing history into stages, each with its own distinctive "sign". The first covenant is between God and all living creatures, and is marked by the sign of the rainbow; the second is with the descendants of Abraham (Ishmaelites and others as well as Israelites), and its sign is circumcision; and the last, which doesn't appear until the book of Exodus, is with Israel alone, and its sign is Sabbath. Each covenant is mediated by a great leader (Noah, Abraham, Moses), and at each stage God progressively reveals himself by his name (Elohim with Noah, El Shaddai with Abraham, Yahweh with Moses).[2]
Judaism's weekly Torah portions
Main article: Weekly Torah portion
First Day of Creation (from the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle)
Bereishit, on Genesis 1–6: Creation, Eden, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Lamech, wickedness
Noach, on Genesis 6–11: Noah's Ark, the Flood, Noah's drunkenness, the Tower of Babel
Lech-Lecha, on Genesis 12–17: Abraham, Sarah, Lot, covenant, Hagar and Ishmael, circumcision
Vayeira, on Genesis 18–22: Abraham's visitors, Sodomites, Lot's visitors and flight, Hagar expelled, binding of Isaac
Chayei Sarah, on Genesis 23–25: Sarah buried, Rebekah for Isaac
Toledot, on Genesis 25–28: Esau and Jacob, Esau's birthright, Isaac's blessing
Vayetze, on Genesis 28–32: Jacob flees, Rachel, Leah, Laban, Jacob's children and departure
Vayishlach, on Genesis 32–36: Jacob's reunion with Esau, the rape of Dinah
Vayeshev, on Genesis 37–40: Joseph's dreams, coat, and slavery, Judah with Tamar, Joseph and Potiphar
Miketz, on Genesis 41–44: Pharaoh's dream, Joseph's in government, Joseph's brothers visit Egypt
Vayigash, on Genesis 44–47: Joseph reveals himself, Jacob moves to Egypt
Vayechi, on Genesis 47–50: Jacob's blessings, death of Jacob and of Joseph
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 13:19:26 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 13:19:26 GMT -5
The Garden of Eden (Hebrew גַּן עֵדֶן, Gan ʿEdhen) is the biblical "garden of God", described most notably in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 2-3), but also mentioned, directly or indirectly, in Ezekiel, Isaiah and elsewhere in the Old Testament.[1] In the past, the favoured derivation of the name "Eden" was from the Akkadian edinnu, itself derived from a Sumerian word meaning "plain" or "steppe", but it is now believed to be more closely related to an Aramaic root meaning "fruitful, well-watered."[1]
The Eden of Genesis has been variously located at the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates in northern Iraq, in Africa, and in the Persian Gulf. The Eden in Ezekiel, however, is unequivocally located in Lebanon. For many medieval writers, the image of the Garden of Eden also creates a location for human love and sexuality, often associated with the classic and medieval trope of the locus amoenus.[2]
Contents
1 Summary
1.1 Genesis 2:4-3:24
1.2 Ezekiel and elsewhere
2 Assyrian-Babylonian and Sumerian parallels
3 Location
3.1 Lebanon
3.2 Iran (Tabriz)
3.3 Jackson County, Missouri, North America
3.4 Sri Lanka
4 From Eden to Paradise
5 Jewish eschatology
6 Art
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Summary
Genesis 2:4-3:24
"Expulsion from Paradise", marble bas-relief by Lorenzo Maitani on the Orvieto Cathedral, Italy
The second part of the Genesis creation narrative opens with God creating the first human, whom he places in a garden "in the east, in Eden". God tasks the man to tend the garden, but forbids him to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God then forms a woman from a rib of the man to be a companion to the man. The first man and woman break God's command and eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, and God expels them from the garden to prevent them from eating of a second tree, the tree of life, and living forever. God then placed cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth on the east side of the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.
Ezekiel and elsewhere
Main article: Ezekiel's cherub in Eden
In Ezekiel 28:12-19 the prophet Ezekiel (the "son of man") sets down God's word against the king of Tyre: the king was the "seal of perfection", adorned with precious stones from the day of his creation, placed by God in the garden of Eden on the holy mountain as a guardian cherub. But the king sinned through wickedness and violence, and so he was driven out of the garden and thrown to the earth, where now he is consumed by God's fire: "All the nations who knew you are appalled at you, you have come to a horrible end and will be no more."
The "garden of God" is mentioned in Genesis 14, and the trees of the garden are mentioned in Ezekiel 31, and scattered passages from Ezekiel, Zechariah and the Psalms refer to trees and water in relation to the Temple without explicitly mentioning Eden.[3]
Assyrian-Babylonian and Sumerian parallels
Map showing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
Sumerian mythology had a parallel to the Eden garden in Dilmun, the dwelling-place of the immortals where sickness and death were unknown.[4]
Location
Spanish-Arabic world map from 1109 AD with Eden in east (at top)
Genesis 2-3 locates the garden with reference to four rivers and the regions they flow through:
"A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates."
—Genesis 2:10-14
"Kush" is often incorrectly translated as Ethiopia, which was also known as Cush, but in this case thought to be referring to Cossaea, a Greek name for the Kassite lands north of Elam, immediately to the east of ancient Babylon, which, unlike Ethiopia, does lie within the region being described.[5] In Antiquities of the Jews by the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, he identifies the Pishon as what "the Greeks called Ganges," and the Geon as the Nile.[6]
Lebanon
Ezekiel 31 appears to identify Eden with Lebanon.[7] "t appears that the Lebanon is an alternative placement in Phoenician myth (as in Ez 28,13, III.48) of the Garden of Eden",[8] and there are connections between paradise, the garden of Eden and the forests of Lebanon (possibly used symbolically) within prophetic writings.[9] Edward Lipinski and Peter Kyle McCarter have suggested that the Garden of the gods (Sumerian paradise), the oldest Sumerian version of the Garden of Eden, relates to a mountain sanctuary in the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges.[10]
Iran (Tabriz)
David M. Rohl (British Egyptologist and former director of the Institute for the Study of Interdisciplinary Sciences) posits a location for the legendary Garden of Eden in Iranian Azerbaijan, in the vicinity of Tabriz upon which the Genesis tradition was based. According to Rohl, the Garden of Eden was then located in a long valley to the north of Sahand volcano, near Tabriz. He cites several geographical similarities and toponyms which he believes match the biblical description. These similarities include the nearby headwaters of the four rivers of Edin, the Tigris (Heb. Hiddekel, Akk. Idiqlat), Euphrates (Heb. Perath, Akk. Purattu), Gaihun-Aras (Heb., Gihon), and Uizun (Heb. Pishon)[11]
Jackson County, Missouri, North America
See also: Adam and Eve (LDS Church)
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormons or Latter-day Saints) believe that the Garden of Eden was located in present-day Jackson County, Missouri.[12]
Sri Lanka
Sri Pada is named after a footprint-like formation found near the summit of a conical mountain in Sri Lanka. The Buddhist tradition deems it to be the footprint of the Buddha, the Hindu tradition considers it that of Shiva, and in Muslim and Christian tradition the footprint is that of Adam. Moreover, there are four rivers starting from this mountain.
From Eden to Paradise
"The Garden of Eden" by Thomas Cole (c.1828)
The Expulsion illustrated in the English Caedmon manuscript, c. AD 1000
The Garden of Eden as depicted in the first or left panel of Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights Triptych. The panel includes many imagined and exotic African animals.[13]
After c.500 BC the Persian term "paradise" (Hebrew פרדס, pardes), meaning a royal garden or hunting-park, gradually became a synonym for Eden. The word "pardes" occurs three times in the Old Testament, but always in contexts other than a connection with Eden: in the Song of Solomon iv. 13: "Thy plants are an orchard (pardes) of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard"; Ecclesiastes 2. 5: "I made me gardens and orchards (pardes), and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits"; and in Nehemiah ii. 8: "And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's orchard (pardes), that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city." In these examples pardes clearly means "orchard" or "park", but in the apocalyptic literature and in the Talmud, "paradise" gains its associations with the Garden of Eden and its heavenly prototype, and in the New Testament "paradise" becomes the realm of the blessed (as opposed to the realm of the cursed) among those who have already died, with literary Hellenistic influences.
The Greek Garden of the Hesperides was somewhat similar to the Christian concept of the Garden of Eden, and by the 16th century a larger intellectual association was made in the Cranach painting (see illustration at top). In this painting, only the action that takes place there identifies the setting as distinct from the Garden of the Hesperides, with its golden fruit.
Jewish eschatology
In modern Jewish eschatology, it is believed that history will complete itself and the ultimate destination will be when all mankind returns to the Garden of Eden.[14]
In the Talmud and the Jewish Kabbalah,[15] the scholars agree that there are two types of spiritual places called "Garden in Eden". The first is rather terrestrial, of abundant fertility and luxuriant vegetation, known as the "lower Gan Eden". The second is envisioned as being celestial, the habitation of righteous, Jewish and non-Jewish, immortal souls, known as the "higher Gan Eden". The Rabbanim differentiate between Gan and Eden. Adam is said to have dwelt only in the Gan, whereas Eden is said never to be witnessed by any mortal eye.[16]
According to Jewish eschatology,[17][18] the higher Gan Eden is called the "Garden of Righteousness". It has been created since the beginning of the world, and will appear gloriously at the end of time. The righteous dwelling there will enjoy the sight of the heavenly chayot carrying the throne of God. Each of the righteous will walk with God, who will lead them in a dance. Its Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants are "clothed with garments of light and eternal life, and eat of the tree of life" (Enoch 58,3) near to God and His anointed ones.[19] This Jewish rabbinical concept of a higher Gan Eden is opposed by the Hebrew terms gehinnom[20] and sheol, figurative names for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism, a place envisioned as being at the greatest possible distance from heaven.[21]
Art
Garden of Eden motifs most frequently portrayed in illuminated manuscripts and paintings are the "Sleep of Adam" ("Creation of Eve"), the "Temptation of Eve" by the Serpent, the "Fall of Man" where Adam takes the fruit, and the "Expulsion". The idyll of "Naming Day in Eden" was less often depicted. Much of Milton's Paradise Lost occurs in the Garden of Eden. Michelangelo depicted a scene at the Garden of Eden in the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
See also
Antelapsarianism
Christian naturism
Epic of Gilgamesh
Eridu
Fertile Crescent
Golden Age
Jannah
Persian gardens
Tamoanchan
The Summerland
Utopia
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 13:20:34 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 13:20:34 GMT -5
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. These religions teach that all humans are descended from Adam and Eve.[1] In the Book of Genesis, chapters one through five, there are two creation narratives with two distinct perspectives on woman. In the first, Adam and Eve were created together in God's image and jointly given instructions to multiply and to be stewards over everything else that God had made. In the far more detailed second narrative, God fashions Adam from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden where he is to have dominion over the plants and animals. God places a tree in the garden which he prohibits Adam from eating. Eve is later created to be Adam's companion. However, "the serpent" tricks Eve into eating from it. God curses only the serpent and the ground. He prophetically tells the woman and the man what will be the consequences of their sin of disobeying God. Then he banishes the man (and presumably also the woman) from the Garden of Eden. Interpretations and beliefs regarding Adam and Eve and the story revolving around them vary across religions and sects. Contents 1 Creation of man and woman 1.1 Priestly narrative: Gen. 1:1-2:4a 1.2 Yahwist-Elohist narrative: Genesis 2:4b-25 2 Genesis 3: The Fall 3 Genesis 4 and 5 4 Textual notes 5 Abrahamic traditions 5.1 Jewish traditions 5.2 Christianity 5.3 Gnostic and Manichaean traditions 5.4 Islamic tradition 5.5 Baha'i Faith 6 Art and literature 7 Science vs. literalism 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links Creation of man and woman Adam and Eve expelled from Eden, detail of a Baroque pulpit See also: Genesis creation narrative According to Claus Westermann,[2] the Old Testament presents not one but many Creation accounts. He finds the recognition of two separate creation accounts in In Genesis, the accounts of creation appear in at least two narratives, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. Westermann and other scholars are generally agreed that the two stories derive from originally independent sources: a Priestly (P) Code (sixth-fifth centuries B.C.) in Gen. 1:1-2:4a and in Genesis 5; and an older Yahwist (J) or Yahwist-Elohist (J-E) Code (tenth-ninth centuries B.C.) in Genesis 2:4b-25. Westerman finds the recognition of two separate creation accounts to be "one of the most important and most assured results of the literary-critical examination of the Old Testament". .6 Priestly narrative: Gen. 1:1-2:4a In the first and probably more recently-written (sixth-fifth centuries B.C.) "Priestly" P-source narrative, Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 2:4a, Elohim creates the world in six days, culminating in the creation of mankind, then rests on, blesses and sanctifies the seventh day. Known as the "non-subordinating view" (of woman), man and woman are presented as equals—both created in the image of God, and both are assigned "dominion" over all else in creation.[1:24-30] [3]:pp.16-20 It is noteworthy that Jesus built upon the "non-subordinating view" of chapter 1, quoting from chapter 2 only 2:24 which dignifies woman. The apostle Paul and other New Testament writers built upon the "subordinating view" of chapter 2.[3]:pp.16-17 The first account of God's creation of humankind appears in Genesis 1:26-30: Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so. — Genesis 1:26-30, NIV Yahwist-Elohist narrative: Genesis 2:4b-25 In an older Yahwist (J) or Yahwist-Elohist (J-E) Code (tenth-ninth centuries B.C.) in Genesis 2:4b-25, also known as the "subordinating (of woman) account", Yahweh fashions a man (Heb. adam, "man" or "mankind") from the dust (Heb. adamah) and blows the breath of life into his nostrils.[4] Then he plants a garden (the Garden of Eden) and causes to grow in the middle of the garden the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the Tree of life. Yahweh sets the man in the garden "to work it and watch over it," permitting him to eat from all the trees in the garden except the Tree of Knowledge, "for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die." God brings the animals to the man for him to name. None of them are found to be a suitable companion for the man, so God causes the man to sleep and creates a woman from a part of his body (English-language tradition describes the part as a rib, but the Hebrew word tsela, from which this interpretation is derived, has multiple meanings, the most likely for this scenario being "side". See the Textual Note below). Describing her in Gen. 2:23a as "bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh," the man calls his new partner "woman" (Heb. ishshah), "for this one was taken from a man" (Heb. ish). The chapter ends by establishing the state of primeval innocence, noting that the man and woman were naked and not ashamed, and so provides the departure point for the subsequent narrative in which wisdom is gained through disobedience at severe cost. Genesis 3: The Fall The fall depicted in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo See also: Fall of man The serpent, "more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made," tempts the woman to eat "of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden", telling her that "You will not certainly die" and that "God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil". After some reflection about the tree—that "the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom", the woman took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it." Though traditionally woman has received the major blame for the Fall of mankind, it is seldom mentioned that Adam was with her throughout the temptation and the disobedience. For example, Paul gives as his rationale for directing that a woman (NIV: possibly "wife") "should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man (NIV: possibly "husband"); she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner."[1 Tim. 2:11-14] Aware now of their nakedness, they make coverings of fig leaves and hide from the sight of God. He asked them what they have done, and man blames the woman: "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." In turn, the woman blames the serpent for seducing her to disobedience: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." God curses the serpent "above all animals," causing it to become an eternal enemy of the human race. God also explicitly curses the ground because of Adam. Genesis only uses the word "curse" in referring to the serpent and the ground. God then passes judgment for the disobedience of the man and woman, condemning the man to sustain life through hard labor and the woman to create new life through painful childbirth. Perhaps as a prophecy of the natural consequences of sin entering the human race, God forecasts that her husband "will rule over you". Richard and Catherine Kroeger, in their scholarly book on rethinking 1 Tim. 2:11-15 in light of ancient evidence,[5] .21 quote a professor of New Testament arguing that all women are bearers of Eve's guilt. He said, "...The punishments, subjection and child bearing, are the two issues in 1 Timothy 2:11-15. The woman's conduct in the fall is, according to Genesis, a primary reason for her universal, timeless subordinate relationship" (Emphasis added). The Kroegers retort is that "There is a serious theological contradiction in telling a woman that when she comes to faith in Christ, her personal sins are forgiven but she must continue to be punished for the sin of Eve." They maintain that judgmental comments such as the professor's are a "dangerous interpretation, in terms both of biblical theology and of the call to Christian commitment". They ask a rhetorical question: "If (the apostle) Paul was forgiven for what he did ignorantly in unbelief" including persecuting and murdering Christians, "and thereafter was given a ministry, why would the same forgiveness and ministry be denied women" (for the sins of their foremother eons ago)? Addressing that, the Kroegers conclude that Paul was referring to the promise of Genesis 3:15 that through the defeat of Satan on the cross of Jesus Christ, the woman's Child (Jesus) would crush the serpent's head, but the serpent would only bruise the heel of her Child.[5] .144 "Expulsion from Paradise", marble bas-relief by Lorenzo Maitani on the Orvieto Cathedral, Italy Adam named his wife Eve (Heb. hawwah) "because she was the mother of all living" and Adam receives his name "the man", changing from "eth-ha'adham", before the fall to "ha'Adham" (with article/command), to Adam after the fall (disobedience). Eve/woman is also established as subordinate to Adam/man. Then Yahweh banished "the man" from the Garden and posted a cherub with a flaming sword at the entrance to block the way to the Tree of Life, "lest he put out his hand...and eat, and live forever."[Gen. 3:22] Genesis 4 and 5 Genesis four tells of the birth of Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve's first children, while Genesis five gives Adam's genealogy past that. Adam and Eve are listed as having three children, Cain, Abel and Seth, then "other sons and daughters".[Gen 5:4] Textual notes A picture of Adam and Eve in a 1932 Polish illustrated Torah "...a living being"[Gen. 2:7] – God breathes into the man's nostrils and he becomes nefesh hayya. The earlier translation of this phrase as "living soul" is now recognised as incorrect: "nefesh" signifies something like the English word "being", in the sense of a corporeal body capable of life; the concept of a "soul" in our sense did not exist in Hebrew thought until around the 2nd century BC, when the idea of a bodily resurrection gained popularity.[6] "...tree of knowledge of good and evil..."[Gen. 2:9] – The tree imparts knowledge of tov wa-ra, "good and bad". The traditional translation is "good and evil", but tov wa-ra is a fixed expression denoting "everything," rather than a moral concept.[6] "...you shall surely die"[Gen. 2:16-17] – Adam is told that if he eats of the forbidden tree the consequence will be moth tamuth, "die a death", indicating not merely death but emphatically so. As Adam does not in fact die immediately on eating the fruit, some exegetes have argued that it means "you shall die eventually," so that Adam and Eve would have had immortality in the Garden, but lost it by eating the forbidden fruit. However, the grammar does not support this reading, nor does the narrative: Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden lest they eat of the second tree, the tree of life, and gain immortality.[Gen. 3:22] [6] Another explanation is that Adam will undergo "a spiritual death". The 2nd century Book of Jubilees (4:29–31) explained that "one day" is equivalent to a thousand years and thus Adam died within that same "day".[7] The Greek Septuagint, on the other hand, has "day" translated into the Greek word for a twenty-four hour period (ἡμέρα, hēméra). "...a rib..."[Gen 2:21–24] – Hebrew tsala` or tsela (from Strong's Concordance #6760 Prime Root) can mean curve, limp, adversity and side. "tsal'ah" (fem of #6760) being side, chamber, rib, or beam. The traditional reading of "rib" has been questioned recently by feminist theologians who suggest it should instead be rendered as "side", supporting the idea that woman is man's equal and not his subordinate.[8] Such a reading shares elements in common with Aristophanes' story of the origin of love and the separation of the sexes in Plato's Symposium.[9] The 3rd century BC Septuagint translation into Greek says: "ἔλαβε μίαν τῶν πλευρῶν αὐτοῦ", literally: "[God] took one of his (i.e., Adam's) pleurōn". The word pleurá in Greek means both "side", or "flank", and "rib"; it is used in the Genitive Plural (tőn pleurōn) in the Septuagint text. Usage of the Dual number would have rendered taīn pleuraīn rather than tőn pleurōn, and would have clearly directed exegesis towards "one of his [two] flanks" rather than towards "one of his [several] ribs"; however, the Dual number is never used in the Septuagint, as it had become practically obsolete in Koine Greek by that time. Therefore, as it stands, the Septuagint supports either reading. A recent suggestion, based upon observations that men and women have the same number of ribs, is that the bone was the baculum, a small structure found in the penis of many mammals, but not in humans.[10] Abrahamic traditions Jewish traditions Even in ancient times, the presence of two distinct accounts of the creation of the first man (or couple) was noted. The first account says "male and female [God] created them", implying simultaneous creation, whereas the second account states that God created Eve subsequent to the creation of Adam. The Midrash Rabbah – Genesis VIII:1 reconciled the two by stating that Genesis one, "male and female He created them", indicates that God originally created Adam as a hermaphrodite, bodily and spiritually both male and female, before creating the separate beings of Adam and Eve. Other rabbis suggested that Eve and the woman of the first account were two separate individuals, the first being identified as Lilith, a figure elsewhere described as a night demon. Genesis does not tell how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, but the 2nd century BC Book of Jubilees provides more specific information. It states (ch3 v17) that the serpent convinced Eve to eat the fruit on the 17th day of the 2nd month in the 8th year after Adam's creation. It also states that they were removed from the Garden on the new moon of the fourth month of that year (ch3 v33). According to traditional Jewish belief Adam and Eve are buried in the Cave of Machpelah, in Hebron. Christianity Adam, Eve, and the (female) Serpent (often identified as Lilith) at the entrance to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Medieval Christian art often depicted the Edenic Serpent as a woman, thus both emphasizing the Serpent's seductiveness as well as its relationship to Eve. Several early Church Fathers, including Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea, interpreted the Hebrew "Heva" as not only the name of Eve, but in its aspirated form as "female serpent." The story of Adam and Eve forms the basis for the Christian doctrine of original sin: "Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned" wrote Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans.[5:12] Chapter 3 of Genesis does not use the word "sin" and Genesis 3:24 makes clear that the couple are expelled "lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever". St Augustine of Hippo (354–430), working with a Latin translation of the epistle, understood Paul to have said that Adam's sin was hereditary: "Death passed upon (i.e., spread to) all men because of Adam, [in whom] all sinned".[11] Original sin, the concept that man is born in a condition of sinfulness and must await redemption, thus became a cornerstone of Western Christian theological tradition; the belief is not shared by Judaism or the Orthodox churches.[12] Most conservative Protestants/evangelical denominations interpret Genesis 3 as leading to these conclusions: Humanity's original parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God's prime directive that they were not to eat "the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." (NIV). When they disobeyed, they committed a major transgression against God and were immediately punished. This is generally referred to as "the fall" of humanity. Sin and death entered the universe for the first time Adam and Eve were ejected from the Garden of Eden, never to return.[13] Because Eve tempted Adam to eat of the fatal fruit, some early Fathers of the Church held her and all subsequent women to be the first sinners, and especially responsible for the Fall. "You are the devil's gateway" Tertullian told his female listeners in the early 2nd century, and went on to explain that they were responsible for the death of Christ: "On account of your desert (i.e., punishment for sin), that is, death, even the Son of God had to die."[14] In 1486, the Dominicans Kramer and Sprengler used similar tracts in Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches") to justify the persecution of "witches". Over the centuries, a system of uniquely Christian beliefs has developed from the Adam and Eve story. Baptism has become understood as a washing away of the stain of hereditary sin in many churches, although its original symbolism was apparently rebirth. Additionally, the serpent that tempted Eve was interpreted to have been Satan, or that Satan was using a serpent as a mouthpiece, although there is no mention of this identification in the Torah and it is not held in Judaism. Gnostic and Manichaean traditions See also: Gnostics and Manichaeans Gnostic Christianity discussed Adam and Eve in two known surviving texts, namely the "Apocalypse of Adam" found in the Nag Hammadi documents and the "Testament of Adam". The creation of Adam as Protoanthropos, the original man, is the focal concept of these writings. The Manichean conception of Adam and Eve is pessimistic. According to them, the copulative action of two demons, Adam and Eve were born to further imprison the soul in the material universe. "Mani said, 'Then Jesus came and spoke to the one who had been born, who was Adam, and … made him fear Eve, showing him how to suppress (desire) for her, and he forbade him to approach her… Then that (male) Archon came back to his daughter, who was Eve, and lustfully had intercourse with her. He engendered with her a son, deformed in shape and possessing a red complexion, and his name was Cain, the Red Man.'"[15] Another Gnostic tradition held that Adam and Eve were created to help defeat Satan. The serpent, instead of being identified with Satan, is seen as a hero by the Ophites. Still other Gnostics believed that Satan's fall, however, came after the creation of humanity. As in Islamic tradition, this story says that Satan refused to bow to Adam due to pride. Satan said that Adam was inferior to him as he was made of fire, whereas Adam was made of clay. This refusal led to the fall of Satan recorded in works such as the Book of Enoch. Islamic tradition Main article: Biblical narratives and the Quran#Adam and Eve (آدم Adam and حواء Hawwaa) See also: Forbidden fruit#Islamic tradition In Islam, Adam (Adem; Arabic: آدم ), whose role is being the father of mankind, is looked upon by Muslims with reverence. Eve (Hawwāʾ; Arabic: حواء ) is the "mother of mankind".[16] The creation of Adam and Eve is referred to in the Quran, although different Qur'anic interpreters give different views on the actual creation story (Qur'an surah 4: Surah An-Nisa' 1).[17] In Al-Qummi's tafsir of Eden, such place was not entirely earthly. According to the Quran, both Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in a Heavenly Eden (See also Jannah). As a result, they were both sent down to Earth as God's representatives. Each person was sent to a mountain peak; Adam on Al-Safa, and Eve on Al-Marwa. In this Islamic tradition, Adam wept 40 days until he repented, after which God sent down the Black Stone, teaching him the hajj. According to a prophetic hadith, Adam and Eve reunited in the plain of 'Arafat, near Mecca.[citation needed] They had two sons together, Qabil and Habil. The concept of original sin does not exist in Islam because Adam and Eve were forgiven by God. When God orders the angels to bow to Adam, ʾIblīs questioned, "why should I bow to man, I am made of pure fire and he is made of soil". The Liberal movements within Islam have viewed God's commanding the angels to bow before Adam as an exaltation of humanity, and as a means of supporting human rights, others view it as an act of showing Adam that the biggest enemy of humans on earth will be their ego.[18] Baha'i Faith In the Baha'i Faith, Adam is seen as a manifestation of God, and the Adam and Eve narratives are seen as having divine mysteries and containing universal meanings, but are also seen as having mythical features. Abdul-Baha described Adam as a spirit and Eve as a soul. Their story is explained in the Baha'i text Some Answered Questions.[19][20] Art and literature Adam and Eve were used by early Renaissance artists as a theme to represent female and male nudes. Later, the nudity was objected to by more modest elements, and fig leaves were added to the older pictures and sculptures, covering their genitals. The choice of the fig was a result of Mediterranean traditions identifying the unnamed Tree of knowledge as a fig tree, and since fig leaves were actually mentioned in Genesis as being used to cover Adam and Eve's nudity. Treating the concept of Adam and Eve as the historical truth introduces some logical dilemmas. One such dilemma is whether they should be depicted with navels (the Omphalos theory). Since they were created fully grown, and did not develop in a uterus, they would not have been connected to an umbilical cord as were all born humans. Paintings without navels looked unnatural and some artists obscure that area of their bodies, sometimes by depicting them covering up that area of their body with their hand or some other intervening object. John Milton's Paradise Lost is a famous 17th-century epic poem written in blank verse which explores the story of Adam and Eve in great detail. American painter Thomas Cole painted The Garden of Eden (1828), with lavish detail of the first couple living amid waterfalls, vivid plants, and attractive deer.[21] Mark Twain wrote humorous and satirical diaries for Adam and Eve in both Eve's Diary (1906) and The Private Life of Adam and Eve (1931), posthumously published. Adam and Eve depicted in a mural in Abreha wa Atsbeha Church, Ethiopia. Adam and Eve by Titian. Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Adam and Eve by Albrecht Dürer. Adam and Eve by Maarten van Heemskerck (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg). Note the emphasis of the gender difference by the use of different skin colours. Adam and Eve from a copy of the Falnama (Book of Omens) ascribed to Ja´far al-Sadiq, ca. 1550, Safavid dynasty, Iran. Detail of a stained glass window (XIIth century) in Saint-Julien cathedral - Le Mans, France. Painting from Manafi al-Hayawan (The Useful Animals), depicting Adam and Eve, From Maragheh in Iran, 1294–99]] Science vs. literalism Most people do not believe that all humans descend from a historical Adam and Eve. Genetic evidence indicates humans descended from a group of at least 10,000 people due to the amount of human genetic variation. If all humans descended from two individuals several thousand years ago, it would require a seemingly impossibly high mutation rate to account for the observed variation. This has caused some literalists to move away from a literal interpretation and belief in creation myth, while others continue to believe in what they see as a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith.[22] See also Adam & Eve, illuminated manuscript circa 950, Escorial Beatus Adam and Eve (LDS Church) Ask and Embla Balbira & Kalmana Biblical narratives and the Qur'an Christian naturism Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan Creation myth Generations of Adam Líf and Lífþrasir Mitochondrial Eve Pre-Adamite Tree of Jiva and Atman Y-chromosomal Adam |
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 13:21:27 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 13:21:27 GMT -5
A creation myth is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it.[2][3] While in popular usage the term "myth" is often thought to refer to false or fanciful stories, creation myths are by definition stories which cultures take to be true to varying degrees.[4] Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions;[3] and they are the most common form of myth, found throughout human culture.[5][6] In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths, metaphorically, symbolically and sometimes even in a historical or literal sense.[5][7] They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths—that is they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness.[8]
Creation myths often share a number of features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions.[9] They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily.[10] They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past, what historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore ("at that time").[9][11] Also, all creation myths speak to deeply meaningful questions held by the society that shares them, revealing of their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a universal context.[12]
Contents
1 Definitions
2 Classification
3 Meaning and function
4 Types
4.1 Ex nihilo
4.2 Creation from chaos
4.3 World parent
4.4 Emergence
4.5 Earth-diver
5 See also
6 References
7 Bibliography
8 External links
Definitions
In Daoist creation myth, "The Way gave birth to unity, Unity gave birth to duality, Duality gave birth to trinity, Trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures. The myriad creatures bear yin on their back and embrace yang in their bosoms. They neutralize these vapors and thereby achieve harmony" (Daodejing, 4th century BCE)[13]
Defining the English collocation creation myth is semantically and culturally complex. Mircea Eliade defined "myth" in terms of "creation,"
Speaking for myself, the definition that seems least inadequate because most embracing is this: Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the "beginnings." In other words, myth tells how, through the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality came into existence, be it the whole of reality, the Cosmos, or only a fragment of reality – an island, a species of plant, a particular kind of human behavior, an institution. Myth, then is always an account of a "creation"; it related how something was produced, began to be.[14]
Compare the following creation myth definitions from modern reference works:
symbolic narrative of the beginning of the world as understood in a particular tradition and community. Creation myths are of central importance for the valuation of the world, for the orientation of humans in the universe, and for the basic patterns of life and culture.[15]
Creation myths tell us how things began. All cultures have creation myths; they are our primary myths, the first stage in what might be called the psychic life of the species. As cultures, we identify ourselves through the collective dreams we call creation myths, or cosmogonies. … Creation myths explain in metaphorical terms our sense of who we are in the context of the world, and in so doing they reveal our real priorities, as well as our real prejudices. Our images of creation say a great deal about who we are.[16]
philosophical and theological elaboration of the primal myth of creation within a religious community. The term myth here refers to the imaginative expression in narrative form of what is experienced or apprehended as basic reality ... The term creation refers to the beginning of things, whether by the will and act of a transcendent being, by emanation from some ultimate source, or in any other way.[17]
Classification
Mythologists have applied various schemes to classify creation myths found throughout human cultures. Eliade and his colleague Charles H. Long developed a classification based on some common motifs that reappear in stories the world over. The classification identifies five basic types:[18]
Brahmā, the Hindu deva of creation, emerges from a lotus risen from the navel of Viṣņu, who lies with Lakshmi on the serpent Ananta Shesha
Creation ex nihilo in which the creation is through the thought, word, dream or bodily secretions of a divine being
Earth diver creation in which a diver, usually a bird or amphibian sent by a creator, plunges to the seabed through a primordial ocean to bring up sand or mud which develops into a terrestrial world
Emergence myths in which progenitors pass through a series of worlds and metamorphoses until reaching the present world
Creation by the dismemberment of a primordial being
Creation by the splitting or ordering of a primordial unity such as the cracking of a cosmic egg or a bringing order from chaos
In Maya religion, the dwarf was an embodiment of the Maize God's helpers at creation[19]
Marta Weigle further developed and refined this typology to highlight nine themes, adding elements such as deus faber, a creation crafted by a deity, creation from the work of two creators working together or against each other, creation from sacrifice and creation from division/conjugation, accretion/conjunction, or secretion.[18]
An alternative system based on six recurring narrative themes was designed by Raymond Van Over:[18]
a primeval abyss, an infinite expanse of waters or space
an originator deity which is awakened or an eternal entity within the abyss
an originator deity poised above the abyss
a cosmic egg or embryo
an originator deity creating life through sound or word
life generating from the corpse or dismembered parts of an originator deity
Meaning and function
All creation myths are in one sense etiological because they attempt to explain how the world was formed and where humanity came from.[20]
Shaman's drum depicting Tungus cosmology, with the World Tree at center joining underworld, earth and heaven (based on a 1924 drawing from the original drum)
Ethnologists and anthropologists who study these myths point out that in the modern context theologians try to discern humanity's meaning from revealed truths and scientists investigate cosmology with the tools of empiricism and rationality, but creation myths define human reality in very different terms. In the past historians of religion and other students of myth thought of them as forms of primitive or early-stage science or religion and analyzed them in a literal or logical sense. However they are today seen as symbolic narratives which must be understood in terms of their own cultural context. Charles H. Long writes, "The beings referred to in the myth -- gods, animals, plants -- are forms of power grasped existentially. The myths should not be understood as attempts to work out a rational explanation of deity."[21]
While creation myths are not literal explications they do serve to define an orientation of humanity in the world in terms of a birth story. They are the basis of a worldview that reaffirms and guides how people relate to both the spiritual and natural world as well as to each other. The creation myth acts as a cornerstone for distinguishing primary reality from relative reality, the origin and nature of being from non-being.[22] In this sense they serve as a philosophy of life but one expressed and conveyed through symbol rather than systematic reason. And in this sense they go beyond etiological myths which mean to explain specific features in religious rites, natural phenomena or cultural life. Creation myths also help to orient human beings in the world, giving them a sense of their place in the world and the regard that they must have for humans and nature.[2]
Types
See also: List of creation myths
Ex nihilo
Creation on the exterior shutters of Hieronymus Bosch's triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights (1480–90)
Main article: Ex nihilo#Theological usage
Creation ex nihilo (Latin "out of nothing"), also known as "creation de novo", is a common type of mythical creation. Ex nihilo creation is found in creation stories from ancient Egypt, the Rig Veda, the Bible and the Quran, and many animistic cultures in Africa, Asia, Oceania and North America.[23] The Debate between sheep and grain is an example of an even earlier form of ex nihilo creation myth from ancient Sumer.[24] In most of these stories the world is brought into being by the speech, dream, breath, or pure thought of a creator but creation ex nihilo may also take place through a creator's bodily secretions. The literal translation of the phrase ex nihilo is "from nothing" but in many creation myths the line is blurred whether the creative act would be better classified as a creation ex nihilo or creation from chaos. With ex nihilo, the potential and the substance of creation springs from within the creator. Such a creator may or may not be existing in physical surroundings such as darkness or water, but does not create the world from them. In creation from chaos the substance used for creation is pre-existing within the unformed void.[25]
Creation from chaos
Main article: Chaos (cosmogony)
In creation from chaos myth, initially there is nothing but a formless, shapeless expanse. In these stories the word "chaos" means "disorder", and this formless expanse, which is also sometimes called a void or an abyss, contains the material with which the created world will be made. Chaos may be described as having the consistency of vapor or water, dimensionless, and sometimes salty or muddy. These myths associate chaos with evil and oblivion, in contrast to "order" (cosmos) which is the good. The act of creation is the bringing of order from disorder, and in many of these cultures it is believed that at some point the forces preserving order and form will weaken and the world will once again be engulfed into the abyss.[26]
World parent
In one Maori creation myth, the primal couple are Rangi and Papa, depicted holding each other in a tight embrace
There are two types of world parent myths, both describing a separation or splitting of a primeval entity, the world parent or parents. One form describes the primeval state as an eternal union of two parents, and the creation takes place when the two are pulled apart. The two parents are commonly identified as Sky (usually male) and Earth (usually female) who in the primeval state were so tightly bound to each other that no offspring could emerge. These myths often depict creation as the result of a sexual union, and serve as genealogical record of the deities born from it.[27]
In the second form of world parent myth, creation itself springs from dismembered parts of the body of the primeval being. Often in these stories the limbs, hair, blood, bones or organs of the primeval being are somehow severed or sacrificed to transform into sky, earth, animal or plant life, and other worldly features. These myths tend to emphasize creative forces as animistic in nature rather than sexual, and depict the sacred as the elemental and integral component of the natural world.[28]
Emergence
In emergence myths humanity emerges from another world into the one they currently inhabit. The previous world is often considered the womb of the earth mother, and the process of emergence is likened to the act of giving birth. The role of midwife is usually played by a female deity, like the spider woman of Native American mythology. Male characters rarely figure into these stories, and scholars often consider them in counterpoint to male oriented creation myths, like those of the ex nihilo variety.[20]
In the kiva of both ancient and present-day Pueblo peoples, the sipapu is a small round hole in the floor that represents the portal through which the ancestors first emerged (the larger hole is a fire pit, here in a ruin from the Mesa Verde National Park)
Emergence myths commonly describe the creation of people and/or supernatural beings as a staged ascent or metamorphosis from nascent forms through a series of subterranean worlds to arrive at their current place and form. Often the passage from one world or stage to the next is impelled by inner forces, a process of germination or gestation from earlier, embryonic forms.[29][30] The genre is most commonly found in Native American cultures where the myths frequently link the final emergence of people from a hole opening to the underworld to stories about their subsequent migrations and eventual settlement in their current homelands.[31]
Earth-diver
The earth-diver is a common character in various traditional creation myths. In these stories a supreme being usually sends an animal into the primal waters to find bits of sand or mud with which to build habitable land. Some scholars interpret these myths psychologically while others interpret them cosmogonically. In both cases emphasis is placed on beginnings emanating from the depths.[32] Earth-diver myths are common in Native American folklore but can be found among the Chukchi and Yukaghir, the Tatars and many Finno-Ugrian traditions. The pattern of distribution of these stories suggest they have a common origin in the eastern Asiatic coastal region, spreading as peoples migrated west into Siberia and east to the North American continent.[33]
Characteristic of many Native American myths, earth-diver creation stories begin as beings and potential forms linger asleep or suspended in the primordial realm. The earth-diver is among the first of them to awaken and lay the necessary groundwork by building suitable lands where the coming creation will be able to live. In many cases, these stories will describe a series of failed attempts to make land before the solution is found.[34]
See also
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Chinese creation myth
Cosmogony
Creationism
Evolutionary origin of religions
Myth of origins
Origin-of-death myth
World egg
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 13:22:59 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 13:22:59 GMT -5
The Rapture is a term in Christian eschatology which refers to the "being caught up" discussed in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be "caught up in the clouds" to meet "the Lord in the air".[1]
The term "Rapture" is used in at least two senses. In the pre-tribulation view, a group of people will be left behind on earth after another group literally leaves "to meet the Lord in the air." This is now the most common use of the term, especially among fundamentalist Christians and in the United States.[2] The other, older use of the term "Rapture" is simply as a synonym for the final resurrection generally, without a belief that a group of people is left behind on earth for an extended Tribulation period after the events of 1 Thessalonians 4:17.[3][4][5] This distinction is important as some types of Christianity never refer to "the Rapture" in religious education, but might use the older and more general sense of the word "rapture" in referring to what happens during the final resurrection.[6]
There are many views among Christians regarding the timing of Christ's return (including whether it will occur in one event or two), and various views regarding the destination of the aerial gathering described in 1 Thessalonians 4. Denominations such as Roman Catholics,[7] Orthodox Christians,[8] Lutheran Christians,[9] and Reformed Christians[10] believe in a rapture only in the sense of a general final resurrection, when Christ returns a single time. They do not believe that a group of people is left behind on earth for an extended Tribulation period after the events of 1 Thessalonians 4:17.[11]
Pre-tribulation rapture theology was developed in the 1830s by John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren,[12] and popularized in the United States in the early 20th century by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible.[13]
Contents
1 Etymology
1.1 Greek
1.2 Latin
1.3 English Bible versions
2 Doctrinal history
3 Views
3.1 One event or two
3.2 Destination
4 Timing
4.1 Pre-tribulation
4.2 Mid-tribulation
4.3 Prewrath
4.4 Partial
4.5 Post-tribulation
5 Date
5.1 Predictions
6 Cultural references
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
Etymology
"Rapture" is derived from Middle French rapture, via the Medieval Latin raptura ("seizure, rape, kidnapping"), which derives from the Latin raptus ("a carrying off").[14]
Greek
The Koine Greek of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 uses the verb form ἁρπαγησόμεθα (harpagisometha), which means "we shall be caught up" or "taken away", with the connotation that this is a sudden event. The dictionary form of this Greek verb is harpazō (ἁρπάζω).[15] This use is also seen in such texts as Acts 8:39, 2Corinthians 12:2-4 and Revelation 12:5.
Latin
The Latin Vulgate translates the Greek ἁρπαγησόμεθα as rapiemur,[16] from the verb rapio meaning "to catch up" or "take away".[17]
English Bible versions
English versions of the Bible have translated rapiemur in various ways:
The Wycliffe Bible (1395), translated from the Latin Vulgate, uses "rushed".[18]
The Tyndale New Testament (1525), the Bishop's Bible (1568), the Geneva Bible (1587) and the King James Version (1611) use "caught up".[19]
The New English Bible, translated from the Greek,[20] uses "suddenly caught up" with this footnote: "Or “snatched up.” The Greek verb ἁρπάζω implies that the action is quick or forceful, so the translation supplied the adverb “suddenly” to make this implicit notion clear."
Doctrinal history
The concept of the rapture, in connection with premillennialism, was expressed by the 17th-century American Puritan father and son Increase and Cotton Mather. They held to the idea that believers would be caught up in the air, followed by judgments on the Earth, and then the millennium.[21][22] The term rapture was used by Philip Doddridge[23] and John Gill[24] in their New Testament commentaries, with the idea that believers would be caught up prior to judgment on the Earth and Jesus' second coming.
There exists at least one 18th century and two 19th century pre-tribulation references: in an essay published in 1788 in Philadelphia by the Baptist Morgan Edwards which articulated the concept of a pre-tribulation rapture,[25] in the writings of Catholic priest Emmanuel Lacunza in 1812,[26] and by John Nelson Darby in 1827.[27] However, both the book published in 1788 and the writings of Lacunza have opposing views regarding their interpretations.[citation needed] Emmanuel Lacunza (1731–1801), a Jesuit priest, (under the pseudonym Juan Josafat Ben Ezra) wrote an apocalyptic work entitled La venida del Mesías en gloria y majestad (The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty). The book appeared first in 1811, 10 years after his death. In 1827, it was translated into English by the Scottish minister Edward Irving.[citation needed]
Dr. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (1813-1875), a prominent English theologian and biblical scholar, wrote a pamphlet in 1866 tracing the concept of the rapture through the works of John Darby back to Edward Irving.[28]
Although not using the term "rapture", the idea was more fully developed by Edward Irving (1792–1834). In ? (first volume published in 1706) Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry's commentary on the whole Bible : Complete and unabridged in one volume. Peabody: Hendrickson. Matthew Henry used the term in his commentary of 1 Thessalonians 4.[29][full citation needed] Irving directed his attention to the study of prophecy and eventually accepted the one-man Antichrist idea of James Henthorn Todd, Samuel Roffey Maitland, Robert Bellarmine, and Francisco Ribera, yet he went a step further. Irving began to teach the idea of a two-phase return of Christ, the first phase being a secret rapture prior to the rise of the Antichrist. According to Irving, “There are three gatherings: – First, of the first-fruits of the harvest, the wise virgins who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth; next, the abundant harvest gathered afterwards by God; and lastly, the assembling of the wicked for punishment.”[30]
John Nelson Darby first proposed and popularized the pre-tribulation rapture in 1827.[31] This view was accepted among many other Plymouth Brethren movements in England. Darby and other prominent Brethren were part of the Brethren Movement which impacted American Christianity, especially with movements and teachings associated with Christian eschatology and fundamentalism, primarily through their writings. Influences included the Bible Conference Movement, starting in 1878 with the Niagara Bible Conference. These conferences, which were initially inclusive of historicist and futurist premillennialism, led to an increasing acceptance of futurist premillennial views and the pre-tribulation rapture especially among Presbyterian, Baptist and Congregational members.[32] Popular books also contributed to acceptance of the pre-tribulation rapture, including William Eugene Blackstone's book Jesus is Coming published in 1878[33] and which sold more than 1.3 million copies and the Scofield Reference Bible, published in 1909 and 1919 and revised in 1967.[full citation needed]
The early original Christian church,[34] as well as the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox churches,[35] the Anglican Communion and many Protestant Calvinist denominations, have no tradition of a preliminary return of Christ and reject the doctrine. The Orthodox Church, for example, rejects it because the Protestant doctrine of the rapture depends on a millennial interpretation of prophetic scriptures, rather than an amillennial or postmillennial fashion.[36]
Some proponents of a preliminary rapture believe the doctrine of amillennialism originated with Alexandrian scholars such as Clement and Origen[37] and later became Catholic dogma through Augustine.[38] Thus[citation needed] the church until then held to premillennial views, which see an impending apocalypse from which the church will be rescued after being raptured by the Lord. This is even extrapolated by some[which?] to mean that the early church espoused pre-tribulationism.[citation needed]
Some[who?] pre-tribulation proponents maintain that the earliest known extra-Biblical reference to the pre-tribulation rapture is from a 7th-century tract known as the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ephraem the Syrian, which says, "For all the saints and Elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins."[39]"[40] However, the interpretation of this writing as supporting a pre-tribulation rapture is debated.[41][42]
The rise in belief in the pre-tribulation rapture is often wrongly attributed to a 15-year old Scottish-Irish girl named Margaret McDonald (a follower of Edward Irving), who in 1830 had a vision of the end times which describes a post-tribulation view of the rapture that was first published in 1840. It was published again in 1861, but two important passages demonstrating a post-tribulation view were removed to encourage confusion concerning the timing of the rapture. The two removed segments were, "This is the fiery trial which is to try us. - It will be for the purging and purifying of the real members of the body of Jesus" and "The trial of the Church is from Antichrist. It is by being filled with the Spirit that we shall be kept".[43]
In 1957, John Walvoord, a theologian at Dallas Theological Seminary, authored a book, The Rapture Question,[full citation needed] that gave theological support to the pre-tribulation rapture; this book eventually sold over 65,000 copies. In 1958, J. Dwight Pentecost authored another book supporting the pre-tribulation rapture, Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology[full citation needed], which sold 215,000 copies.
During the 1970s, belief in the rapture became popular in wider circles, in part due to the books of Hal Lindsey, including The Late Great Planet Earth, which has reportedly sold between 15 million and 35 million copies, and the movie A Thief in the Night, which based its title on the scriptural reference 1 Thessalonians 5:2.[44] Lindsey proclaimed that the rapture was imminent, based on world conditions at the time. The Cold War figured prominently in his predictions of impending Armageddon. Other aspects of 1970s global politics were seen as having been predicted in the Bible. Lindsey suggested, for example, that the seven-headed beast with ten horns, cited in the Book of Revelation, was the European Economic Community, a forebear of the European Union, which between 1981 and 1986 had ten member states; it now has 27 member states.
In 1995, the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture was further popularized by Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series of books, which sold tens of millions of copies and were made into several movies.
The doctrine of the rapture continues to be an important component of American evangelical Christian eschatology.[citation needed]
Views
One event or two
Some dispensationalist premillennialists (including many Evangelicals) hold the return of Christ to be two distinct events, or one second coming in two stages. 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 is seen to be a description of a preliminary event to the return described in Matthew 24:29–31. Although both describe a return of Jesus, these are seen to be separated in time by more than a brief period. The first event may or may not be seen (which is not a primary issue), and is called the rapture, when the saved are to be 'caught up,' whence the term "rapture" is taken. The "second coming" is a public event, wherein Christ's presence is prophesied to be clearly seen by all, as he returns to end a battle staged at Armageddon, though possibly fought at the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The majority of dispensationalists hold that the first event precedes the period of tribulation, even if not immediately (see chart for additional dispensationalist timing views);
Amillennialists deny the interpretation of a literal 1,000-year rule of Christ, and as such amillennialism does not necessarily imply much difference between itself and other forms of millennialism besides that denial. However, there is considerable overlap in the beliefs of Amillenialists (including most Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and Lutherans), postmillennialists (including Presbyterians), and historic premillennialists (including some Calvinistic Baptists, among others) with those who hold that the return of Christ will be a single, public event. Those who identify the rapture with the second coming are likely to emphasize mutual similarities between passages of scripture where clouds, trumpets, angels or the archangel, resurrection, and gathering are mentioned. Although some (particularly some amillennialists) may take the rapture to be figurative, rather than literal, these three groups are likely to maintain that the passages regarding the return of Christ describe a single event.
Some[who?] also claim that the "word of the Lord" cited by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 is the Olivet Discourse which Matthew separately describes in Matthew 24:29-31. Although the doctrinal relationship between the rapture and the second coming is the same in these three groups, Historic premillennialists are more likely to use the term "rapture" to clarify their position in distinction from dispensationalists.
Destination
Dispensationalists see the immediate destination of the raptured Christians as being Heaven, with an eventual return to Earth. Roman Catholic commentators, such as Walter Drum (1912), identify the destination of the 1 Thessalonians 4:17 gathering as Heaven.[45]
While Anglicans have many views, some Anglican commentators, such as N. T. Wright, identify the destination as a specific place on Earth.[46][47] Often the destination identified is Jerusalem.[48][not in citation given] This interpretation may sometimes be connected to Christian environmentalist concerns.[49]
Timing
Comparison of Christian tribulation views
In the amillennial and postmillennial views, as well as in the post-tribulation premillennial position, there are no distinctions in the timing of the rapture. These views regard the rapture, as it is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, as being either identical to the second coming of Jesus as described in Matthew 24:29-31, or as a meeting in the air with Jesus that immediately precedes his return to the Earth. Within premillennialism, the pre-tribulation position is the predominant view that distinguishes between the rapture and second coming as two events. There are also two minor positions within premillennialism that differ with regard to the timing of the rapture, the mid-tribulation view and the partial-rapture view.[50]
Pre-tribulation
The pre-tribulation position advocates that the rapture will occur before the beginning of the seven-year tribulation period, while the second coming will occur at the end of the seven-year tribulation period. Pre-tribulationists often describe the rapture as Jesus coming for the church and the second coming as Jesus coming with the church. Pre-tribulation educators and preachers include Jimmy Swaggart, J. Dwight Pentecost, Tim LaHaye, J. Vernon McGee, Perry Stone, Chuck Smith, Hal Lindsey, Chuck Missler, Jack Van Impe, Grant Jeffrey, Thomas Ice, David Reagan, David Jeremiah, and John Hagee.[51] While many pre-tribulationists are also dispensationalists, not all pre-tribulationists are dispensationalists.[52]
Mid-tribulation
The mid-tribulation position espouses that the rapture will occur at some point in the middle of what is popularly called the tribulation period, or during Daniel's 70th Week. However, since the Bible only uses "tribulation" to refer to the second half of Daniel's 70th week, from a mid-tribulationist's point of view he is a pre-tribulationist. The tribulation is typically divided into two periods of 3.5 years each. Mid-tribulationists hold that the saints will go through the first period (Beginning of Travail, which is not "the tribulation"), but will be raptured into Heaven before the severe outpouring of God's wrath in the second half of what is popularly called the tribulation. Mid-tribulationists appeal to Daniel 7:25 which says the saints will be given over to tribulation for "time, times, and half a time," - interpreted to mean 3.5 years. At the halfway point of the tribulation, the Antichrist will commit the "abomination of desolation" by desecrating the Jerusalem temple (to be built on what is now called the Temple Mount, see Third Temple). Mid-tribulationist teachers include Harold Ockenga, James O. Buswell (a reformed, Calvinistic Presbyterian), and Norman Harrison.[53] This position is a minority view among premillennialists.[54]
Prewrath
Main article: Prewrath
The prewrath rapture view also places the rapture at some point during the tribulation period before the second coming. This view holds that the tribulation of the church begins toward the latter part of the seven-year period, being Daniel's 70th week, when the Antichrist is revealed in the temple. This latter half of the seven-year period [ie 3 1/2 years] is defined as the great tribulation, although the exact duration is not known. References from Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 are used as evidence that this tribulation will be cut short by the coming of Christ to deliver the righteous by means of the rapture, which will occur after specific events in Revelation, in particular after the sixth seal is opened and the sun is darkened and the moon is turned to blood.[55] However, by this point many Christians will have been slaughtered as martyrs by the Antichrist. After the rapture will come God's seventh-seal wrath of trumpets and bowls (a.k.a. "the Day of the Lord"). The Day of the Lord's wrath against the ungodly will follow for the remainder of the seven years.[56] Marvin Rosenthal, author of The Prewrath Rapture of the Church, is a primary proponent for the prewrath rapture view.[citation needed] His belief is founded on the work of Robert D. Van Kampen (1938–1999); his books "The Sign", "The Rapture Question Answered" and "The Fourth Reich" detail his pre-wrath rapture doctrine.
Partial
The partial rapture theory holds that true Christians will be raptured before, in the midst of, or after the tribulation depending on one's genuine conversion to the faith.[57][58] Therefore, the rapture of a believer is determined by the timing of his conversion during the tribulation. The proponents of this theory hold that only those who are faithful in the church will be raptured or translated and the rest will either be raptured sometime during the tribulation or at its end. As stated by Ira David (a proponent of this view): “The saints will be raptured in groups during the tribulation as they are prepared to go.”[59]
Post-tribulation
Main article: Post Tribulation Rapture
The post-tribulation position places the rapture at the end of the tribulation period. Post-tribulation writers define the tribulation period in a generic sense as the entire present age, or in a specific sense of a period of time preceding the second coming of Christ.[60] The emphasis in this view is that the church will undergo the tribulation — even though the church will be spared the wrath of God.[61] Matthew 24:29–31 - "Immediately after the Tribulation of those days...they shall gather together his elect..." - is cited as a foundational scripture for this view. Post-tribulationists perceive the rapture as occurring simultaneously with the second coming of Christ. Upon Jesus' return, believers will meet him in the air and will then accompany him in his return to the Earth. In the Epistles of Paul, most notably in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, a trumpet is described as blowing at the end of the tribulation to herald the return of Christ; Revelation 11:15 further supports this view.
Authors and teachers who support the post-tribulational view include Pat Robertson, Walter R. Martin, John Piper, George E. Ladd,[62] Robert H. Gundry,[63] and Douglas Moo.
Date
Since the origin of the concept, many believers in the rapture have made predictions regarding the date of the event. The primary scriptural reference cited against this position is Matthew 24:36, where Jesus is quoted as saying; "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only" (RSV). Another potential problem for those attempting to set a date for the rapture arises from Matthew 24:34, where Jesus is quoted as saying "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (KJV).
Any individual or religious group that has dogmatically predicted the day of the rapture, a practise referred to as "date setting", has been thoroughly embarrassed and discredited, as the predicted date of fulfillment has invariably come and gone without event.[64][65] Some of these individuals and groups have offered "correct" target dates, while others have offered excuses and have tried to "correct" their target dates, while simply releasing a reinterpretation of the meaning of the scripture to fit their current predicament, and then explain that although the prediction appeared to have not come true, in reality it had been completely accurate and fulfilled, albeit in a different way than many had expected.
Conversely, many of those who believe that the precise date of the rapture cannot be known, do affirm that the specific time frame that immediately precedes the rapture event can be known. This time frame is often referred to as "the season". The primary section of scripture cited for this position is Matthew 24:32-35; where Jesus is quoted teaching the parable of the fig tree, which is proposed as the key that unlocks the understanding of the general timing of the rapture, as well as the surrounding prophecies listed in the sections of scripture that precede and follow this parable.
Predictions
Some notable predictions of the date of the rapture include the following:
1844 – William Miller predicted that Christ would return between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844, then revised his prediction, claiming to have miscalculated Scripture, to October 22, 1844. The realization that the predictions were incorrect resulted in a Great Disappointment. Miller's theology gave rise to the Advent movement. The Baha'is believe that Christ did return as Miller predicted in 1844, with the advent of the Báb, and numerous Miller-like prophetic predictions from many religions are given in William Sears' book, Thief in The Night.[66]
1914,[67] 1918,[68] 1925,[69] – Various dates predicted for the rapture by the Jehovah's Witnesses.
1981 – Chuck Smith predicted that Jesus would probably return by 1981.[70]
1988 – Publication of 88 Reasons why the Rapture is in 1988, by Edgar C. Whisenant.
1989 – Publication of The final shout: Rapture report 1989, by Edgar Whisenant. This author made further predictions of the rapture for 1992, 1995, and other years.
1992 - A Korean group, the Mission for the Coming Days, predicted that the rapture would occur on October 28, 1992.[71]
1993 – Multiple predictions were given for 1993, seven years before the year 2000; the rapture would have to start to allow for seven years of the tribulation before the return in 2000.
1994 – Pastor John Hinkle of Christ Church in Los Angeles predicted that the rapture would occur on June 9, 1994. Radio evangelist Harold Camping predicted September 6, 1994.[72]
2011 – Harold Camping's revised prediction had May 21, 2011 as the date of the rapture.[73][74] After this prediction proved inaccurate, he claimed that a non-visible "spiritual judgement" had taken place, and that the physical rapture would occur on October 21, 2011. The physical rapture prediction also proved inaccurate.[75]
Cultural references
In "Thank God, It's Doomsday", episode 354 of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson predicts the rapture to occur within the week. Homer gets the date wrong and ends up being the only person taken up. Everything is then reversed after Homer vandalizes Heaven. In the American Dad episode "Rapture's Delight", the rapture occurs and Stan Smith helps Christ with his final battle with the Antichrist. In the Supernatural episode "The Rapture", the angel Castiel is taken back to Heaven by his fellow angels to be "reeducated", leaving his vessel Jimmy and the Winchester brothers behind.
The first feature-length cinematic treatment of the rapture was the 1972 film A Thief in the Night. That film was followed by three sequels and a novel, and set up the genre of the rapture film. With only a few exceptions, the genre died out by the end of the 1970s, only to resurface again in the 1990s with such films as Apocalypse, Revelation, The Rapture, Left Behind: The Movie, and The Omega Code. Cloud Ten Pictures specializes in making end-time films. The 2009 film Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage, has thematic elements that parallel the rapture, although the term "Rapture" is not used.
In 1950, the novel Raptured by Ernest Angley was published, based on the accounts in the books of Daniel and Revelation. The novel focuses on a man whose mother is raptured along with other Christians, while he is left behind in the tribulation period.[76]
Robert Heinlein's 1984 book Job: A Comedy of Justice describes the troubles of a Christian man called Alex, who is moved from parallel world to parallel world, accompanied by his lover Margrethe. Halfway through the book, the rapture occurs and Alex is taken up, but Margrethe is left behind because she is a pagan. The rest of the book describes Alex's attempts to bypass the rules and save his true love.
In 1995, Left Behind was published. The rapture is a major component of the premise of the book and its various spin-offs. The plot of the book was used as a basis for a movie series and a video game series.
At the height of the Jesus Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the rapture figured prominently in popular songs by secular artists, such as "Are You Ready?" by Pacific Gas & Electric (#14 in August 1970). Also at that time, the song "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" was written and performed by Larry Norman, one of the founders of the nascent "Jesus Rock" movement in the early 1970s. Other examples of apocalyptic themes like the rapture, the Antichrist, Armageddon and the Second coming of Christ in Larry Norman's writing are "U.F.O." from the 1976 album In Another Land, "Six Sixty Six" from the same album and "Messiah" from Stop This Flight.
Examples of apocalyptic themes in Bob Dylan's writing are "When He Returns", from the 1979 album Slow Train Coming and — quoting 1 Corinthians 15:49–55 —Ye Shall Be Changed, released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.
Other songs about the Christian end times include "Goin' by the Book," "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash, from the album American IV: The Man Comes Around, released in 2002, and "Tribulation" by Charlie Daniels. Noel Gallagher refers to the rapture twice on the Oasis album Dig Out Your Soul, first in "The Turning" ("Then come on, when the Rapture takes me, Will you be by my side?") and also on the following track "Waiting For The Rapture."
FFH's popular song "Fly Away" asks what it will be like when the rapture occurs.
Crystal Lewis' song "People Get Ready Jesus Is Coming."
Sonic Youth's song "Do You Believe in Rapture?", on their album Rather Ripped
Siouxsie And The Banshees' song "The Rapture", from their 1995 album of the same name, lyrically describes the supposed experience of being raptured.
In the song "Rapture" by Antony and the Johnsons on the album Antony and the Johnsons (album) released in 2000.
Hurt's 2006 debut song "Rapture" references the rapture directly at the end with "...Rest in peace, until the rapture comes to meet us."
On August 2, 2001, humorist Elroy Willis posted a Usenet article titled "Mistaken Rapture Kills Arkansas Woman". This fictional, satirical story about a woman who causes a traffic accident and is killed when she believes the rapture has started, circulated widely on the Internet and was believed by many people to be a description of an actual incident. Elements of the story appeared in an episode of the HBO television drama Six Feet Under, and a slightly modified version of the story was reprinted in the US tabloid newspaper Weekly World News. The story continues to circulate by electronic mail as a chain letter.[77]
The 2007 video game BioShock is set in the destroyed utopian underwater city of Rapture. The city was to house the best and brightest people on Earth in a completely free society. The city was named Rapture because those chosen by the city's founder disappeared to live in his utopia, mirroring God calling the faithful to Heaven.
The Left Behind series of games takes place after the rapture.
See also
Portal icon Christianity portal
Armageddon
Bible Prophecy
Covenantalism
End Times
Eschatology of Jehovah's Witnesses
Number of the Beast
Post-Tribulation Rapture
Prophecy
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Summary of Christian eschatological differences
Unfulfilled historical predictions by Christians
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 13:24:15 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 13:24:15 GMT -5
End time (also called end times, end of time, end of days, last days, final days, or eschaton) is a time period described in the eschatologies of the dominant world religions, both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic.
The Abrahamic faiths maintain a linear cosmology, with end time scenarios containing themes of transformation and redemption. In Judaism, the term "end of days" is a reference to the Messianic Age, and includes an in-gathering of the exiled diaspora, the coming of the mashiach, olam haba, and resurrection of the Tsadikim. In Christianity, end time is depicted as a time of tribulation that precedes the second coming of Christ, who will face the emergence of the Antichrist and usher in the Kingdom of God. In Islam, the Yawm al-Qiyāmah or Yawm ad-Din, the Day of Judgement, is preceded by the appearance of al-Mahdi atop a white stallion. With the help of Isa, Mahdi will then triumph over Masih ad-Dajjal.
The non-Abrahamic faiths have more cyclical eschatologies regarding end time, characterized by decay, redemption and rebirth. In Hinduism, end time is foretold as when Kalki, the final incarnation of Vishnu, descends atop a white horse and bring an end to the current Kali Yuga. In Buddhism, the Buddha predicted that his teachings would be forgotten after 5,000 years, followed by turmoil. A bodhisattva named Maitreya will appear and rediscover the teaching of dharma. The ultimate destruction of the world will then come through seven suns.
Since the discovery of deep time and the age of the Earth, scientific discourse about end time has centered around the ultimate fate of the universe. Theories have included the Big Rip, Big Crunch, Big Bounce, and Big Freeze.
Contents
1 Linear cosmology
1.1 Zoroastrianism
1.2 Judaism
1.2.1 Tribulation and the Messianic Age
1.3 Christianity
1.3.1 Catholicism
1.3.2 Protestantism
1.3.2.1 Preterism
1.3.2.2 Dispensationalist prophecies
1.3.2.3 Post-tribulation pre-millennialists
1.3.2.4 Specific prophetic movements
1.3.3 Restorationism (Christian primitivism)
1.3.3.1 Jehovah's Witnesses
1.3.3.2 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
1.4 Islam
1.4.1 Major signs
2 Cyclic cosmology
2.1 Norse religion
2.2 Hinduism
2.2.1 Brahma Kumaris
2.3 Buddhism
2.3.1 Maitreya
2.3.2 Sermon of the Seven Suns
3 Fulfillment
3.1 Rastafari movement
3.2 Bahá'í Faith
3.3 Ahmadiyya
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Linear cosmology
Zoroastrianism
Main article: Frashokereti
Zoroastrian eschatology is the oldest in recorded history, with beliefs paralleling and predating the framework of the major Abrahamic faiths.[1][2][3] By the year 500 BC, a fully developed concept of the end of the world was established in Zoroastrianism. The Bahman Yasht describes:
At the end of thy tenth hundredth winter, the sun is more unseen and more spotted; the year, month, and day are shorter; and the earth is more barren; and the crop will not yield the seed. And men become more deceitful and more given to vile practices. They will have no gratitude. Honorable wealth will proceed to those of perverted faith. And a dark cloud makes the whole sky night, and it will rain more noxious creatures than water.
A Manichaean battle between the righteous and wicked will be followed by the Frashokereti. On earth, the Saoshyant will arrive as the final savior of mankind, and bring about the resurrection of the dead. The yazatas Airyaman and Atar will melt the metal in the hills and mountains, which will flow as lava across the earth and all mankind, both the living and resurrected, will be required to wade through it. Ashavan will pass through the molten river as if it were warm milk, but the sinful will burn. It will then flow down to hell, where it will annihilate Angra Mainyu and the last vestiges of wickedness.
The righteous will partake of the parahaoma, which will confer immortality upon them. Humanity will become like the Amesha Spentas, living without food, hunger, thirst, weapons or injury. Bodies will become so light as to cast no shadow. All humanity will speak a single language, and belong to a single nation with no borders. All will share a single purpose and goal, joining with Ahura Mazda for a perpetual and divine exaltation.[4][5]
Judaism
Main article: Jewish eschatology
In Judaism, the main textual source for the belief in the end of days and accompanying events is the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. The Five Books of Moses describe a time when the Jewish people will not be able to keep the Laws of Moses in the Land of Israel, and will be exiled but ultimately redeemed. The main sources are the book of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The books of the Hebrew Prophets also elaborate about the end of days.[6]
In rabbinic literature, rabbis elaborated and explained the prophecies that were found in the Hebrew Bible, along with oral law and rabbinic traditions about its significance.
The main tenets of Jewish eschatology are the following, in no particular order:[6]
God will redeem Israel from the captivity that began during the Babylonian Exile in a new Exodus
God will return the Jewish people to the Land of Israel
God will restore the House of David and the Temple in Jerusalem
God will create a regent from the House of David, the Jewish Messiah, to lead the Jewish people and the world and usher in an age of justice and peace
Nations will recognize that the God of Israel is the only true god
God will resurrect the dead
God will create a new heaven and earth
It is also believed that history will complete itself, and the ultimate destination will be reached as all mankind returns to the Garden of Eden.[7]
Tribulation and the Messianic Age
Main article: Messianic Age
Most of tenets of Jewish eschatology are in the Nevi'im, primarily in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Moses foretells the end of days in Deuteronomy, describing a time of apostasy, in which people of Israel become "settled upon their lees". They do not keep the Laws of Moses and resort to idolatry.[6]
[They] would corrupt themselves, and make a graven image; this was the sin that would most easily beset them. Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire? As the seas turn black and feel like mud, and all will know the wrath and atonement of their sins? You shall utterly be destroyed, scattered among the nations, And your sin shall be made your punishment. There shall you serve gods, the work of men's hands, be compelled to serve them, whether you will or no, or, through your own sottishness and stupidity, you will find no better succours to apply yourselves in your captivity.
—Deuteronomy 4:26–28
The Book of Isaiah also describes a time of judgment in Isaiah 2:4: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people."
The Messianic Age will follow, and will be an era of global peace, free of strife, and conducive to knowledge of the creator. This is described in a famous scriptural passage from the Book of Isaiah,
They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift sword against nation and they will no longer study warfare".
—Isaiah 2:4[6]
Maimonides further describes the Messianic Era in the Mishneh Torah:
And at that time there will be no hunger or war, no jealousy or rivalry. For the good will be plentiful, and all delicacies available as dust. The entire occupation of the world will be only to know God... the people Israel will be of great wisdom; they will perceive the esoteric truths and comprehend their Creator's wisdom as is the capacity of man. As it is written (Isaiah 11:9): "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea.
—Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 12:5
In the Talmud,[8] the Midrash,[9] and the medieval kabbalistic work, the Zohar,[10] the messiah must arrive before the year 6000 from the time of creation, or before the year 2240 AD. The Midrash comments, "Six eons for going in and coming out, for war and peace. The seventh eon is entirely Shabbat and rest for life everlasting."[9]
The Zohar[11] maintains that the seven days of the week, based on the seven days of creation, correspond to the seven millennia of creation. The seventh day of the week, the Shabbat day of rest, corresponds to the seventh millennium, the age of universal rest, or the Messianic Era. The seventh millennium begins with the year 6000 AM, and is the latest time the Messiah can come. There are a number of early and late Jewish scholars that have written in support of this, including the Ramban,[12] Isaac Abrabanel,[13] Abraham Ibn Ezra,[14] Rabbeinu Bachya,[15] the Vilna Gaon,[16] the Lubavitcher Rebbe,[17] the Ramchal,[18] Aryeh Kaplan[19] and Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis.[20]
Christianity
Christian eschatology
Eschatology views
[show]Contrasting beliefs
[show]The Millennium
[show]Biblical texts
[show]Key terms
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Main articles: Second Coming of Christ, Christian eschatology, and Last Judgment
Date
Some first century Christians believed Jesus would return during their lifetime. When the converts of Paul in Thessalonica were persecuted by the Roman Empire, they believed the end of days to be imminent.[21]
While some who believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible insist that the prediction of dates or times is futile, others believe Jesus foretold signs of the end of days. The precise time, however, will come like a "thief in the night" (1 Thess. 5:2). They may also refer to Matthew 24:36 in which Jesus is quoted as saying:
"But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."
Great Tribulation
Main articles: Abomination of Desolation and Great Tribulation
The prophetic theme of Tribulation in the New Testament mirrors the Old Testament.[citation needed] In the New Testament, Jesus refers to this as the "Great Tribulation", "Affliction", and "days of vengeance."[citation needed]
The Book of Matthew describes the devastation:
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand). Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down...Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes, and woe unto them that are with child...For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
—Matthew 24:15–22
The resulting chaos will affect pregnancies, newborns, and a scourge will spread throughout the flesh, save for the elect. The vivid imagery of this section is repeated closely in Mark 13:14–20.
The Gospel of Luke describes a complete unraveling of the social fabric, with widespread calamity and war:
Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.
“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
—Luke 21:10–33
Catholicism
Catholic beliefs concerning the End time are addressed in the Profession of Faith.[22] Catholicism adheres to the amillennial school of thought, promoted by Augustine of Hippo in his work "The City of God". Augustine claimed a non-literal fulfillment of prophecy.[citation needed]
Protestantism
The Antichrist, by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1521) Here the Antichrist is shown wearing the triple crown of the Roman papacy.
Protestants are divided between Millennialists and Amillennialists. Millennialists concentrate on the issue of whether the true believers will see the tribulation or be removed from it by what is referred to as a Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Amillennialists believe that the end times encompass the time from Christ's ascension to the Last day, and maintain that the mention of the "thousand years" in the Book of Revelation is meant to be taken metaphorically (i.e., not literally, or 'spiritually'), a view which continues to cause divisions within evangelical Christianity.
There is a range of eschatological belief in Protestant Christianity. Christian premillennialists who believe that the End Times are occurring now, are usually specific about timelines that climax in the end of the world. For some, Israel, the European Union, or the United Nations are seen as major players whose roles were foretold in scripture. Within dispensational premillennialist writing, there is the belief that Christians will be summoned to Heaven by Christ at the Rapture, occurring before a "Great Tribulation" prophesied in Matthew 24–25; Mark 13 and Luke 21. The Tribulation is described in the book of Revelation.
'End times' may also refer to the passing of an age or long period in the relationship between man and God. Adherents to this view cite St. Paul's second letter to Timothy, and draw analogies to the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Post-Exilic Hebrew books of prophecy such as Daniel and Ezekiel are given new interpretations in this tradition, while in apocalyptic forecasts appear in the Judeo-Christian Sibylline Oracles which include the Book of Revelation ascribed to John, the apocryphal Apocalypse of Peter, and the Second Book Of Esdras.
Most fundamentalist Christians anticipate biblical prophecy to be literally fulfilled. They see current wars, natural disaster and famine as the birth pangs which Jesus described in Matthew 24:7–8 and Mark 13:8. They believe that mankind began in the garden of Eden, and point to Megiddo as the place the current world system will finish, after which the Messiah will rule for 1,000 years.
Contemporary use of the term End Times has evolved from literal belief in Christian millennialism. In this tradition, Biblical apocalypse is believed to be imminent, with various current events as omens of impending Armageddon. These beliefs have put forward by the Adventist movement (Millerites), Jehovah's Witnesses, and dispensational premillennialists. In 1918 a group of eight well known preachers produced the London Manifesto, warning of an imminent second coming of Christ shortly after the 1917 liberation of Jerusalem by the British.
Icon of the Second Coming. Greek, ca. 1700 A.D.
Religious movements which expect that the second coming of Christ as a cataclysmic event are generally called adventism. These have arisen throughout the Christian era, but were particularly common after the Protestant Reformation. Emanuel Swedenborg of the Shakers considered the second coming to be symbolic, and to have occurred in 1757. Along with others, he developed a religious systems around the second coming of Christ, disclosed by new prophecy or special revelation. The Millerites are diverse religious groups which similarly rely upon a special gift of interpretation for predicting the second coming.
The difference between the 19th century Millerite and Adventist movements and contemporary prophecy is that William Miller and his followers, based on Biblical interpretation, predicted the time of the Second Coming in 1844. Contempary writing of end time has suggested that the timetable will be triggered by future wars and moral catastrophe, and that this time of tribulation is close at hand.
Seventh-day Adventists believe Biblical prophecy to foretell an end time scenario in which the United States works in conjunction with the Catholic Church to mandate worship on a day other than the true Sabbath, Saturday, as prescribed in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8–11). This will bring about a situation where one must choose for or against the Bible as the will of God.[23]
Preterism
Main article: Preterism
Another view of the 'end times' known as preterism differentiates between the concept of 'time of the end' and 'end of time', and promotes a different understanding of these prophecies. The belief system suggests that the time of the end took place in the 1st century, more specifically AD 70, when the Jewish Temple was destroyed and animal sacrifices were stopped. In this view, the 'time of the end' refers to the end of the covenant between God and Israel, rather than the end of time or human life.
Preterists believe that prophecies such as the Second Coming, the defiling of the Temple, the destruction of Jerusalem, the Antichrist, the Great Tribulation, the advent of The Day of the Lord and the Final Judgment were fulfilled at or about the year AD 70 when the Roman general and future Emperor Titus sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, and put a stop to its daily animal sacrifices.
Proponents of full preterism do not believe in a bodily resurrection of the dead and place this event as well as the Second Coming in AD 70. Advocates of partial preterism, in distinction, do believe in a coming resurrection. Full preterists contend that those who consider themselves to be partial preterists are actually just futurists, since they believe the Second Coming, Resurrection, Rapture and Judgment are still to come.
Many preterists believe the 1st-century living Christians experienced the rapture to rejoin Christ. Preterists also believe the term 'Last Days' or 'Time of the End' refers not to the last days of planet Earth, or last days of mankind, but to the last days of the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant which God had exclusively with Israel until the year AD 70. In this belief, many 'time passages' in the New Testament are interpreted to foretell the Second Coming of Christ and Last Days to take place in the lifetimes of the disciples of Christ: Matt. 10:23, Matt. 16:28, Matt. 24:34, Matt. 26:64, Rom. 13:11–12, 1 Cor. 7:29–31, 1 Cor. 10:11, Phil. 4:5, James 5:8–9, 1 Pet. 4:7, 1 Jn. 2:18.
Dispensationalist prophecies
Main articles: Dispensationalism and Christian Zionism
A celebratory crowd gathered in Tel Aviv to hear the Declaration of Independence. The reestablishment of Israel provided impetus to dispensationalism.
Dispensationalism is an evangelica futurist Bibilical interpretation that foresees a series of dispensations, or periods, in which God relates to human beings under different Biblical covenants. The belief system is primarily rooted in the writings of John Nelson Darby and premillenial in content. The reestablishment of Israel in 1948 provided a major impetus to the dispensationalist belief system. The wars of Israel after 1948 with its Arab neighbors provided further support, according to John F. Walvoord.[24] After the Six Day War in 1967, and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, it seemed plausible to many Fundamentalist Christians in the 1970s that Middle East turmoil may well be leading up to the fulfillment of various Bible prophecies and to the Battle of Armageddon.
Members of the dispensationalist movement such as Hal Lindsey, J. Dwight Pentecost, John Walvoord, all of whom have Dallas Theological Seminary backgrounds, and some other writers, claimed further that the European Economic Community founded on the Treaty of Rome was a revived Roman Empire, and would become the kingdom of the coming Antichrist and the Beast. The Roman Empire also figured into the New Testament writers' vision of the future. The fact that in the early 1970s, there were (erroneously thought to be) seven nations in the European Economic Community was held to be significant; this aligned the Community with a seven-headed beast mentioned in Revelation. This specific prophecy has required revision, but the idea of a revived Roman Empire remains.
The separate destinies of the Church and Israel, a belief which is inherent in dispensationalism is a particular concern to some Jews and evangelical Christians. Evangelicals who reject dispensationalism, such as those who hold to a Post Tribulation Rapture, (or more accurately a Post Tribulation Resurrection-Rapture), see both the Church and Israel entering the crucible of the End Time together."The Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism". Riah Abu El-Assal, Swerios Malki Mourad, His Beatitude Michel Sabbah, Bishop Dr. Munib Younan.
Dispensationalism, in contrast to the Millerite Adventist movement, had its beginning in the 19th century, when John Nelson Darby, founder of the Plymouth Brethren religious denomination, incorporated into his system of Biblical interpretation a system of organizing Biblical time into a number of discrete dispensations, each of which marks a separate covenant with God. Darby's beliefs were widely publicized in Cyrus I. Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible, an annotated Bible that became popular in the United States of America.
Since the majority of the Biblical prophets were writing at a time when the Temple in Jerusalem was still functioning, they wrote as if it would still be standing during the prophesied events. According to preterism, this was a fulfillment of the prophecies. However, according to Futurists, their destruction in AD 70 put the prophetic timetable on hold. Many such believers therefore anticipated the return of Jews to Israel and the reconstruction of the Temple before the Second Coming could occur. [25][26]
Post-tribulation pre-millennialists
A view of the Second Coming of Christ as held by post-tribulational pre-millennialists is unique, though not widely held in the Protestant Church because of its connotations, in particular that the Church of Christ will have to undergo great persecution.
Specific prophetic movements
Main article: Great Disappointment
William Miller predicted the end of the world in 1843, known as the Great Disappointment
In 1843, William Miller made the first of several predictions that the world would end in only a few months. As his predictions did not come true (referred to as the Great Disappointment), followers of Miller went on to found separate groups, the most successful of which is the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Members of the Bahá'í Faith believe that Miller's interpretation of signs and dates of the coming of Jesus were, for the most part, correct.[27] They believe that the fulfillment of biblical prophecies of the coming of Christ came through a forerunner of their own religion, the Báb. According to the Báb's words, 4 April 1844 was "the first day that the Spirit descended" into his heart.[28] His subsequent declaration to Mullá Husayn-i Bushru'i that he was the "Promised One"—an event now commemorated by Bahá'ís as a major holy day—took place on 23 May 1844. It was in October of that year that the Báb embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he openly declared his claims to the Sharif of Mecca.[29][30] The first news coverage of these events in the West was in 1845 by The Times,[31] followed by others in 1850 in the United States.[32] The first Bahá'í to come to America was in 1892.[29] Several Bahá'í books and pamphlets make mention of the Millerites, the prophecies used by Miller and the Great Disappointment, most notably William Sears's Thief in the Night.[33][34][35]
Restorationism (Christian primitivism)
End times theology is also significant to restorationist Christian religions, which consider themselves distinct from both Catholicism and Protestantism.
Jehovah's Witnesses
Main article: Eschatology of Jehovah's Witnesses
Current Watch Tower headquarters in Brooklyn. The society made a number of emphatic claims of impending last days and ensuing chaos between 1879–1924.
The eschatology of Jehovah's Witnesses is central to their religious beliefs. They believe that Jesus Christ has been ruling in heaven as king since 1914 (a date they believe was prophesied in Scripture), and that after that time a period of cleansing occurred, resulting in God's selection of the Bible Students associated with Charles Taze Russell to be his people in 1919. They also believe the destruction of those who reject their message[36] and thus willfully refuse to obey God[37][38] will shortly take place at Armageddon, ensuring that the beginning of the new earthly society will be composed of willing subjects of that kingdom.
The religion's doctrines surrounding 1914 are the legacy of a series of emphatic claims regarding the years 1799,[39] 1874,[39] 1878,[40] 1914,[41] 1918[42] and 1925[43] made in the Watch Tower Society's publications between 1879 and 1924. Claims about the significance of those years, including the presence of Jesus Christ, the beginning of the "last days", the destruction of worldly governments and the earthly resurrection of Jewish patriarchs, were successively abandoned.[44] In 1922 the society's principal journal, The Watchtower, described its chronology as "no stronger than its weakest link", but also claimed the chronological relationships to be "of divine origin and divinely corroborated...in a class by itself, absolutely and unqualifiedly correct"[45] and "indisputable facts",[39] while repudiation of Russell's teachings was described as "equivalent to a repudiation of the Lord".[46]
The Watch Tower Society has admitted its early leaders promoted "incomplete, even inaccurate concepts".[47] The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses says that, unlike Old Testament prophets, its interpretations of the Bible are not inspired or infallible.[48][49][50] Witness publications say that Bible prophecies can be fully understood only after their fulfillment, citing examples of biblical figures who did not understand the meaning of prophecies they received. Watch Tower publications often cite Proverbs 4:18, "The path of the righteous ones is like the bright light that is getting lighter and lighter until the day is firmly established" (NWT) to support their view that there would be an increase in knowledge during "the time of the end", as mentioned in Daniel 12:4. Jehovah's Witnesses state that this increase in knowledge needs adjustments. Watch Tower publications also say that unfulfilled expectations are partly due to eagerness for God's Kingdom and that they do not call their core beliefs into question.[51][52][53]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Main article: Second Coming (LDS Church)
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that there will be a Second Coming of Jesus to the earth sometime in the future. The LDS Church and its leaders do not make any predictions of the actual date of the Second Coming.
According to church teaching, the true gospel will be taught in all parts of the world prior to the Second Coming.[54] They also believe that there will be increasing war, earthquakes, hurricanes, and man-made disasters prior to the Second Coming.[55]
Islam
Main article: Islamic eschatology
There are three periods before the Day of Judgment, also known as ahsratu's-sa'ah or alamatu qiyami's-sa'ah, with some debate as to whether the periods could overlap.[56][57][58]
The first period began with the death of Muhammad. The second began with the passing of all his Companions, and ended a thousand years later. Another event of the second period was the Tartar invasion, occurring 650 years after Muhammad. The Mongols, led by Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, attacked Baghdad in 1258 AD and brought the Abbasid caliphate to an end. They massacred millions of Muslims, and the water of the river Tigris turned red with blood. The Qur'an also predicted a fire at Madinah in the Hijaz near Busra in Syria, which Islamic scholars believe occurred in 654 AH.[56] Following the second, the third and final period will be heralded by the appearance of the Mahdi.[56]
Major signs
There are twelve major signs of Qiyamah, known as amaratu's-sa'ah al- kubra. The first sign will be the appearance of the twelfth imam, Mahdi, whose appearance is awaited by the angel Israfil, so that he may sound the horn signalling the end of days. The natural order will become reversed, including the sun, mountains and sea.[59]
The twelve signs are as follows:
Appearance of the Mahdi atop a white horse[57][59]
The false messiah, Masih ad-Dajjal, shall appear as a great beast-like creature with one eye good and the other blind, and the mark of Kafir. He will claim to hold keys to heaven and hell and lead many astray, although believers will not be deceived.[58][60]
Isa, or Jesus, shall return from the seventh sky to assist the Mahdi against Dajjal[61]
Ya'jooj and Ma'jooj, two tribes of vicious beings which had been imprisoned will escape. They will ravage the earth, drink all its water, and destroy all life. Allah will then send worms and insects to destroy them.[58][62][63]
Medina will be deserted, with true believers going to follow Mahdi and sinners following Dajjal
A short legged and thin ruler of Ethiopia will attack Mecca and destroy the Kaaba
The Beast of the Last Days, or Dabbat al-ard, will populate the entire planet[64]
A pleasant breeze will blow from Yemen that will cause all believers to die peacefully
The sun will rise from the west[65][66][67]
The Qur'an will be taken to heaven and even the huffaz will not recall its verses
A first trumpet will sound, and all remaining humanity will die, followed by a period of forty years, at the end of which smoke will envelope the world for forty days
A second trumpet will sound, the dead will return to life, and a fire will start from Hadramawt in Yemen that shall gather all people of the world in Mahshar for the Last Judgment
The dead will then stand in a grand assembly, awaiting a scroll detailing their righteous deeds, sinful acts and ultimate judgment.[68][69] Muhammad will be the first to be resurrected.[70] Punishments will include adhab, or severe pain and embarrassment, and khizy or shame.[71] There will also be a punishment of the grave between death and the resurrection.[72]
Cyclic cosmology
Norse religion
Main article: Ragnarök
Odin fighting his old nemesis Fenrir
In Norse mythology, the end of days is described as Ragnarök, which is Norse for 'twilight of the Gods'. It will be heralded by a devastation known as Fimbulwinter which will seize Midgard in cold and darkness. The sun and moon will disappear from the sky, and poison will fill the air. Dead will rise from the ground and there will be widespread despair.
This will be followed by a battle between the Gods with the Æsir, Vaner and Einherjar, led by Odin, and forces of Chaos, including the fire giants and jötunn, led by Loki. Odin will be swallowed whole while fighting his old nemesis Fenrir.[73] The god Freyr fights Surtr but loses. Víðarr, son of Odin, will then avenge his father by ripping Fenrir's jaws apart and stabbing the wolf in the heart with his spear. The serpent Jörmungandr will open its gaping maw and be met in combat by Thor. Thor, also a son of Odin, will defeat the serpent, only to take nine steps after before collapsing to his own death.[74]
After this, people will flee their homes as the sun blackens and the earth sinks into the sea. The stars will vanish, steam will rise, and flames will touch the heavens. This conflict will result in the deaths of most of the major Gods and forces of Chaos. Finally, Surtr will fling fire across the nine worlds. Midgard will then be completely submerged beneath the ocean.[75]
After the cataclysm, the world will resurface new and fertile, and the surviving Gods will meet. This new earth will then be repopulated by the two human survivors, Lif and Lifthrasir.[76]
Ragnarök after Surtr has engulfed the world with fire
Hinduism
Main articles: Hindu eschatology and Kalki
In Hindu eschatology, time is cyclic and consists of kalpas. Each lasts 4.1 – 8.2 billion years, which is a period of one full day and night for Brahma, who will be alive for 311 trillion, 40 billion years. Within a kalpa there are periods of creation, preservation and decline. After this larger cycle, all of creation will contract to a singularity and then again will expand from that single point, as the ages continue in a religious fractal pattern.[58]
Within the current kalpa, there are four epochs that encompass the cycle. They progress from a beginning of complete purity to a descent into total corruption. The last of the four ages is Kali Yuga, our current time, during which will be characterized by impiety, violence and decay. The four pillars of dharma will be reduced to one, with charity being all that remains.[77] As written in the Gita:
Yadaa Yadaa hi Dharmasya Glaanir bhavati Bhaarata
Abhyuthaanam Adharmasya Tadaatmaanam Srjaamy Aham
Whenever there is decay of righteousness O! Bharatha
And a rise of unrighteousness then I manifest Myself![78]
At this time of chaos, the final avatar, Kalki, will appear on a white horse. The eight Adityas, or solar deities, will shine together in the sky. Kalki will amass an army to "establish righteousness upon the earth" and leave "the minds of the people as pure as crystal."
At the completion of Kali Yuga, the next cycle will begin with a new Satya Yuga, in which all will once again be righteous with the reestablishment of dharma. This, in turn, will be followed by epochs of Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga and again another Kali Yuga. This cycle will then repeat till the larger cycle of existence under Brahma returns to the singularity, and a new universe is born.[79]
Brahma Kumaris
Kalki with his white horse
Within Hinduism, there are more distinguishing scenarios in certain sects. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi of the Brahma Kumari has written that their prediction of the imminent end of the world is hidden from non-members.[80] Within their tradition, the majority of the planet is predicted to become submerged beneath the ocean, similar to the Ragnarök of Nordic mythology.[81]
Buddhism
Main articles: Buddhist eschatology and Maitreya
There are two major points of Buddhist eschatology, the appearance of Maitreya, followed by the Sermon of the Seven Suns.
Maitreya
Buddha described his teachings disappearing five thousand years from when he preached them, corresponding approximately to the year 2300. At this time, knowledge of dharma will be lost as well. The last of his relics will be gathered in Bodh Gaya and cremated.[citation needed] There will be a new era in which the next Buddha Maitreya will appear, but it will be preceded by the degeneration of human society. This will be a period of greed, lust, poverty, ill will, violence, murder, impiety, physical weakness, sexual depravity and societal collapse, and even the Buddha himself will be forgotten.[58]
This will be followed by the coming of Maitreya when the teachings of dharma are forgotten. Maitreya was the first bhoddisatva around whom a cult developed, in approximately the 3rd century CE.[82]
The earliest mention of Maitreya is in the Cakavatti, or Sihanada Sutta in Digha Nikaya 26 of the Pali Canon. In it, Gautama Buddha predicted that his teachings of dharma would be forgotten after 5,000 years.
“At that period, brethren, there will arise in the world an Exalted One named Maitreya, Fully Awakened, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy, with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to mortals willing to be led, a teacher for gods and men, an Exalted One, a Buddha, even as I am now. He, by himself, will thoroughly know and see, as it were face to face, this universe, with Its worlds of the spirits, Its Brahmas and Its Maras, and Its world of recluses and Brahmins, of princes and peoples, even as I now, by myself, thoroughly know and see them”
—Digha Nikaya, 26
Maitreya Buddha is then foretold to be born in the city of Ketumatī in present-day Benares, whose king will be the Cakkavattī Sankha. Sankha will live in the former palace of King Mahāpanadā, and will become a renunciate who follows Maitreya.[83][84]
In Mahayana Bhuddism, Maitreya will attain bodhi in seven days, the minimum period, by virtue of his many lifetimes of preparation. Once Buddha, he will rule over the Ketumati Pure Land, an earthly paradise sometimes associated with the Indian city of Varanasi or Benares in Uttar Pradesh. In Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha presides over a land of purity. For example, Amitabha presides over Sukhavati, more popularly known as the 'Western Paradise'.[85]
Bodhisattva Maitreya from the 2nd Century Gandharan Art Period
A notable teaching he will rediscover is that of the ten non-virtuous deeds—killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, abusive speech, idle speech, covetousness, harmful intent and wrong views. These will be replaced by the ten virtuous deeds, which are the abandonment of each of these practices. He is described by Conze in his Buddhist Scriptures:
The Lord replied, 'Maitreya, the best of men, will then leave the Tuṣita heavens, and go for his last rebirth. As soon as he is born he will walk seven steps forward, and where he puts down his feet a jewel or a lotus will spring up. He will raise his eyes to the ten directions, and will speak these words: "This is my last birth. There will be no rebirth after this one. Never will I come back here, but, all pure, I shall win Nirvana."
—Buddhist Scriptures [86]
He currently resides in Tushita, but will come to Jambudvipa when needed most as successor to the historic Śākyamuni Buddha. Maitreya will achieve complete enlightenment during his lifetime, and following this reawakening, he will bring back the timeless teaching of dharma to this plane and rediscover enlightenment.[87] The Arya Maitreya Mandala, founded by Lama Anagarika Govinda is based on the idea of Maitreya.
Maitreya eschatology forms the central canon of the White Lotus Society, a revolutionary movement during British colonial rule. It later branched into the Chinese underground criminal organization known as the Triad, which exists today as an international underground criminal network.
It is of note that description of Maitreya occurs in no other sutta in the canon, casting doubt as to authenticity of the scripture. In addition, sermons of the Buddha normally are in response to a question, or in an specific context, but this sutta has a beginning and an ending, and its content is quite different from the others. This has led some to conclude that the whole sutta is apocryphal, or tampered with.[87]
Sermon of the Seven Suns
In his "Sermon of the Seven Suns" in the Pali Canon, the Buddha describes the ultimate fate of the world in an apocalypse that will be characterized by the consequent appearance of seven suns in the sky, each causing progressive ruin till the Earth is destroyed:
All things are impermanent, all aspects of existence are unstable and non-eternal. Beings will become so weary and disgusted with the constituent things that they will seek emancipation from them more quickly. There will come a season, O monks when, after hundreds of thousands of years, rains will cease. All seedlings, all vegetation, all plants, grasses and trees will dry up and cease to be...There comes another season after a great lapse of time when a second sun will appear. Now all brooks and ponds will dry up, vanish, cease to be.
—Aňguttara-Nikăya, VII, 6.2 Pali Canon[58]
The canon goes on to describe the progressive destruction of each sun. A third sun will dry the mighty Ganges and other great rivers. A fourth will cause the great lakes to evaporate, and a fifth will dry the oceans. Finally:
Again after a vast period of time a sixth sun will appear, and it will bake the Earth even as a pot is baked by a potter. All the mountains will reek and send up clouds of smoke. After another great interval a seventh sun will appear and the Earth will blaze with fire until it becomes one mass of flame. The mountains will be consumed, a spark will be carried on the wind and go to the worlds of God....Thus, monks, all things will burn, perish and exist no more except those who have seen the path.
The sermon completes with the planet engulfed by a vast inferno. The Pali Canon does not indicate when this will happen relative to Maitreya.[58]
Fulfillment
While most religious traditions await end time, some believe the events have been fulfilled, and that their respective founders represent the coming of the messiah or promised one that had been foretold. In turn, they believe that the spread of their teachings will ultimately bring about a time of redemption and peace.
Rastafari movement
Main article: Rastafari movement
Haile Selassie I is viewed as god incarnate in Rastafarianism
Rastafarians have a unique interpretation of end times, based on the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation. They believe Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I to be God incarnate, the King of kings and Lord of lords mentioned in Revelation 5:5. They saw the crowning of Selassie as the second coming, and the Second Italo-Ethiopian War as fulfillment of Revelation. There is also the expectation that Selassie will return for a day of judgment and bring home the lost children of Israel, which in Rastafarianism refer to those taken from Africa through the slave trade. There will then be an era of peace and harmony at Mount Zion in Africa.[79]
Bahá'í Faith
The founder of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh claimed that he was the return of Christ as well as prophetic expectations of other religions.[88] The inception of the Bahá'í Faith coincides with Millerite prophesy, pointing to the year 1844. They also believe the Battle of Armageddon has passed and that the mass martyrdom anticipated during the End Times had already passed within the historical context of the Bahá'í Faith.[89][90] Bahá'ís expect their faith to be eventually embraced by the masses of the world, ushering in a golden age.
Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya is considered distinct from mainstream Islam. In its writing, the present age has been witness to the evil of man and wrath of God, with war and natural disaster.[91] Ghulam Ahmad is seen as the promised Messiah and the Mahdi, fulfilling Islamic and Biblical prophecies, as well as scriptures of other religions such as Hinduism. His teaching will establish spiritual reform and establish an age of peace. This will continue for a thousand years, and will unify mankind under one faith.[92]
See also
Apocalypticism
End of the world (disambiguation)
Endtime Ministries
Katechon
Mysticism
Number of the Beast
Prophecy of Seventy Weeks
Book of Revelation
Summary of Christian eschatological differences
The Two Witnesses
Unfulfilled religious prophecies
Whore of Babylon
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 13:25:07 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 13:25:07 GMT -5
Apocalypticism is the religious belief that there will be an apocalypse, a term which originally referred to a revelation of God's will, but now usually refers to belief that the world will come to an end time very soon, even within one's own lifetime. This belief is usually accompanied by the idea that civilization will soon come to a tumultuous end due to some sort of catastrophic global event.
Apocalypticism is often conjoined with esoteric knowledge that will likely be revealed in a major confrontation between good and evil forces, destined to change the course of history. Apocalypses can be viewed as good, evil, ambiguous or neutral, depending on the particular religion or belief system promoting them. They can appear as a personal or group tendency, an outlook or a perceptual frame of reference, or merely as expressions in a speaker's rhetorical style.
Part of a series on
Eschatology
Buddhist eschatology[show]
Christian eschatology[show]
Hindu eschatology[show]
Islamic eschatology[show]
Jewish eschatology[show]
Zoroastrian eschatology[show]
Inter-religious[show]
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Contents
1 Jewish apocalypticism
2 Christian apocalypticism
2.1 Jesus' apocalypticism
2.2 Year 1000
2.3 Domesday Book
2.4 Fifth Monarchy Men
2.5 Isaac Newton and the end of the world in 2060
2.6 Millerites and Seventh-day Adventists
3 Apocalypticism in Islam
4 Apocalypticism in contemporary culture
4.1 Abrahamic religious themes
4.1.1 Harold Camping and his 2011 end times prediction
4.2 Secular apocalypticism
4.2.1 UFO Religions
4.2.2 Y2K
4.2.3 Mayan calendar 2012
5 See also
5.1 General
5.2 Christian premillennial apocalyptic writers
5.3 Apocalyptic movements
5.4 Millenarian cults
6 Further reading (chronological)
7 References
Jewish apocalypticism
Main article: Jewish Messiah claimants
Jewish apocalypticism holds a doctrine that there are two eras of history: the present era, which is ruled over by evil, and a coming era to be ruled over by God. At the time of the coming era, there will be a messiah who will deliver the faithful into the new era. Due to incidents arising very early on in Jewish history, predictions about the time of the coming of the Jewish messiah were highly discouraged, lest people lose faith when the predictions did not come true during the lifespan of the believer.
Moses of Crete, a rabbi in the 5th century, claimed to be the messiah and promised to lead the people, like the ancient Moses, through a parted sea back to Palestine. His followers left their possessions and waited for the promised day, when, at his command, many cast themselves into the sea, some finding death, others being rescued by sailors.[1]
Christian apocalypticism
Christian apocalypticism is based on Jewish apocalypticism, and therefore holds consistent with the doctrine of two eras. John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, and the Apostles were all apocalypticists who are believed by some to have preached to their followers that the world would end within their own lifetimes. The apocalyptic preaching of John the Baptist and the Apostles is well known and accepted as historical by religious and secular scholars due to extensive extra-biblical historical accounts of their lives. However, the apocalyptic message of Jesus as expressed in the synoptic gospels is much less well known. Jesus' apocalyptic teachings are usually not emphasized in Christian religious education. However, some secular scholars believe that Jesus' apocalyptic teachings were the central message Jesus intended to impart, more central even than his messianism.[2]
Various Christian eschatological systems have developed, providing different frameworks for understanding the timing and nature of apocalyptic predictions. Some like dispensational premillennialism tend more toward an apocalyptic vision, while others like postmillennialism and amillennialism, while teaching that the end of the world could come at any moment, tend to focus on the present life and contend that one should not attempt to predict when the end should come, though there have been exceptions such as postmillennialist Jonathan Edwards, who attempted to calculate the precise timing of the end times.
Jesus' apocalypticism
Main article: Historical Jesus
The gospels portray Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet, described by himself and by others as the Son of Man – translated as the Son of Humanity – and hailing the restoration of Israel.[3] Jesus himself, as the Son of God, a description also used by himself and others for him, was to rule this kingdom as lord of the Twelve Apostles, the judges of the twelve tribes.[4]
Albert Schweitzer emphasized that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet, preparing his fellow Jews for the imminent end of the world. In fact, Schweitzer saw Jesus as a failed, would-be Messiah whose ethic was suitable only for the short interim before the apocalypse.[citation needed] Many historians concur that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet, most notably Paula Fredriksen, Bart Ehrman, and John P. Meier. E. P. Sanders portrays Jesus as expecting to assume the "viceroy" position in God's kingdom, above the Twelve Disciples, who would judge the twelve tribes, but below God.[4] He concludes, however, that Jesus seems to have rejected the title Messiah, and he contends that the evidence is uncertain to whether Jesus meant himself when he referred to the Son of Man coming on the clouds as a divine judge (see also Daniel's Vision of Chapter 7), and further states that biblical references to the Son of Man as a suffering figure are not genuine.[4]
However, the prevailing popular exegesis is not that Jesus was a failed would-be Messiah, nor an apocalypicist. One interpretation is that he didn't expect a world-ending apocalypse within his own lifetime, but rather a "personal apocalypse", i.e., the end of his own life.[citation needed] The 'personal apocalypse' theory caveat could be interpreted as a rebuttal in that Jesus never predicted an actual apocalypse at all. Jesus' cryptic style of presentation called for the listener to interpret the words he spoke in different ways.
'Personal apocalypse' could refer to the metaphorical apocalypse of the Book of Revelation in that the battle between good and evil wages daily within the hearts and souls of those who believe and will only end the day that individual's life comes to an end. Most Christian believers and theologians, however, interpret the Book of Revelation, which was written by John of Patmos and not Jesus Christ himself, to mean an actual, literal apocalypse with very little backing to support that claim other than biblical references.
One account supporting the interpretation of Jesus' apocalypticism is at the crucifixion. After there is no apocalypse upon his crucifixion as he believed there would be, he asks on the Cross, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" The disciples then have to change their interpretation of Jesus' message as portrayed in Acts of the Apostles[2]
The preaching of John was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mat. 3:2), and Jesus also taught this same message (Mat 4:17; Mark 1:15). Additionally, Jesus spoke of the signs of "the close of the age" in the Olivet Discourse in Mat 24 (and parallels), near the end of which he said, "[T]his generation will not pass away until all these things take place" (v. 34). Interpreters have understood this phrase in a variety of ways, some saying that most of what he described was in fact fulfilled in the destruction of the Temple in the Roman Siege of Jerusalem (see Preterism), and some that "generation" should be understood instead to mean "race" (see NIV marginal note on Mat 24:34) among other explanations.
Year 1000
There are a few recorded instances of apocalypticism leading up to the year 1000. However they mostly rely on one source, Rodulfus Glaber.
Domesday Book
Main article: Domesday Book
When William the Conqueror, initiated a census of his conquered land, the "Domesday Book", as it was called, was interpreted by many of the English as being the "Book of Life" written of in Revelation. The belief was that when the book was completed, the end of the world would come.[citation needed]
Fifth Monarchy Men
Main article: Fifth Monarchists
The Fifth Monarchy Men were active from 1649 to 1661 during the Interregnum, following the English Civil Wars of the 17th century. They took their name from a belief in a world-ruling kingdom to be established by a returning Jesus in which prominently figures the year 1666 and its numerical relationship to a passage in the Biblical Book of Revelation indicating the end of earthly rule by carnal human beings.
Around 1649, there was great social unrest in England and many people turned to Oliver Cromwell as England's new leader. The Parliamentary victors of the First English Civil War failed to negotiate a constitutional settlement with the defeated King Charles I. Members of Parliament and the Grandees in the New Model Army, when faced with Charles's perceived duplicity, reluctantly tried and executed him.
Isaac Newton and the end of the world in 2060
Main article: Isaac Newton's occult studies
Isaac Newton proposed that the world would not end until the year 2060, based largely on his own study and deciphering of Bible codes.
Millerites and Seventh-day Adventists
Main articles: Millerites and Seventh-day Adventist Church
Preacher William Miller, who led his followers to the Great Disappointment of 1844.
The Millerites were the followers of the teachings of William Miller who, in 1833, first shared publicly his belief in the coming Second Advent of Jesus Christ in roughly the year 1843.
The ideological descendants of the Millerites are the Seventh-day Adventists, who are distinguished among Christian denominations for their emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ. One notable example was the following of Margaret Rowen, a member of the Los Angeles Seventh-Day Adventists, who believed the second coming of Jesus was to strike on February 6, 1925.
Apocalypticism in Islam
Prophet Muhammad prophesied of an Islamic leader, see Islamic eschatology for further details.
Apocalypticism in contemporary culture
Main article: Apocalypse (disambiguation)
Apocalypticism is a frequent theme of literature, film and television.
Abrahamic religious themes
Harold Camping and his 2011 end times prediction
Main article: 2011 end times prediction
The 2011 end times prediction made by American Christian radio host Harold Camping stated that the Rapture and Judgment Day would take place on May 21, 2011,[5][6][7] and that the end of the world would take place five months later on October 21, 2011.[citation needed]
Secular apocalypticism
UFO Religions
A UFO Religion sometimes features an anticipated end-time in which extraterrestrial beings will bring about a radical change on Earth or lift the religious believers to a higher plane of existence. One such religious group's failed expectations of such an event served as the basis for the classic social psychology study When Prophecy Fails.
Y2K
Apocalypticism was especially evident with the approach of the millennial year 2000, in which simultaneous computer crashes caused by uncorrected instances of the Y2k bug were expected to throw global commerce and financial systems into chaos. Massive although often ill-directed software updates and replacement ensured that the remaining software bugs had minimal effect.[citation needed] Piggy-backing on these issues, and probably driven by the "interesting date" unsupported allegations of an apocalypse were common.
Mayan calendar 2012
Main article: 2012 apocalypticism
The 2012 doomsday prediction was a contemporary cultural meme proposing that cataclysmic and apocalyptic events would occur on December 21, 2012. This idea has been disseminated by numerous books, Internet sites and by TV documentaries with increasing frequency since the late 1990s. This date is derived from the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar which completes 12 baktuns or 1 Great cycle equaling 5,125 years on December 21 or 23, 2012. There is also a movie called 2012 made in 2009 inspired from this theory. The prediction given by the Mayans about what would happen at the end of this Great Cycle is described as a rebirth of this world and the beginning of an age of enlightenment. There are also other interpretations of assorted legends, scriptures, numerological constructions and prophecies encircling this date.
See also
This article contains embedded lists that may be poorly defined, unverified or indiscriminate. Please help to clean it up to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Where appropriate, incorporate items into the main body of the article. (March 2009)
General
The book "1975 in Prophecy!"
2012 phenomenon
3rd millennium
Amillennialism
Antichrist
Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius
Apocalyptic literature
Armageddon
Bible code
Big crunch
Book of Revelation
Buddhist eschatology
Center for Millennial Studies
Christian eschatology
Dajjal
Dispensationalism
End time
Eschatology
Great Apostasy
Great Disappointment
Hindu eschatology
Islamic eschatology
Jerusalem syndrome
Jewish eschatology
Kali Yug
Messiah
Millenarianism
Millennialism
Number of the Beast
Postmillennialism
Premillennialism
Preterism
Rapture
Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth
Satan
Second Coming
Singularitarianism
Summary of Christian eschatological differences
The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin
The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
Tribulation
Ultimate fate of the Universe
Unfulfilled religious predictions
Utopianism
Christian premillennial apocalyptic writers
Tim LaHaye
Hal Lindsey
James Redfield
Apocalyptic movements
Essenes
Millerites
Seventh-day Adventist Church
Jehovah's Witnesses
The Brethren (Jim Roberts group) (also known as The Body of Christ)
Branch Davidians
Millenarian cults
Aum Shinrikyo
Heaven's Gate
Order of the Solar Temple
Peoples Temple
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 23:29:52 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 23:29:52 GMT -5
Christianity From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Part of a series on Christianity Jesus depicted as the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ [hide] Jesus in Christianity Virgin birth Ministry Crucifixion Resurrection Bible Foundations [hide] Old Testament New Testament Gospel Canon Books Church Creed New Covenant Theology[hide] God Father Son Holy Spirit Apologetics Baptism Catholicism Christology History of theology Mission Salvation Trinity History Tradition [hide] Mary Apostles Peter Paul Fathers Early Christianity Constantine Councils Augustine East–West Schism Crusades Aquinas Reformation Luther Related topics[hide] Art Criticism Ecumenism Liturgy Music Other religions Prayer Sermon Symbolism Denominations Groups [show] Portal icon Christianity portal v t e Christianity (from the Greek: Χριστιανός Christianos[1] and the Latin suffix -itas) is a monotheistic[2] and Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings. Most adherents of the Christian faith, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Son of God, fully divine and fully human and the savior of humanity prophesied in the Old Testament. Consequentially, Christians commonly refer to Jesus as Christ or Messiah. The foundation of Christian theology is expressed in the early ecumenical creeds which contain claims predominantly accepted by followers of the Christian faith. These professions state that Jesus suffered, died, was buried, and was subsequently resurrected from the dead in order to grant eternal life to those who believe in him and trust him for the remission of their sins. They further maintain that Jesus bodily ascended into heaven where he rules and reigns with God the Father. Most denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge all humans, living and dead, and grant eternal life to his followers. He is considered the model of a virtuous life, and his ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning "Good News" (from the Greek: εὐαγγέλιον euangélion). Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the mid-1st century.[3][4] Originating in the Levant region of the Middle East, it quickly spread to Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and Egypt. It grew in size and influence over a few centuries, and by the end of the 4th century had become the official state church of the Roman Empire, replacing other forms of religion practiced under Roman rule.[5] During the Middle Ages, most of the remainder of Europe was Christianized, with Christians also being a sometimes large religious minority in the Middle East, North Africa, Ethiopia and parts of India.[6][7] Following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization.[8][9][10] Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization.[11][12][13][14][15] Worldwide, the three largest groups of Christianity are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the various denominations of Protestantism. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox patriarchates split from one another in the schism of the 11th century, and Protestantism came into existence during the Reformation of the 16th century, splitting from the Roman Catholic Church.[16] As of the early 21st century, Christianity is the world's largest religion,[17][18] with approximately 2.2 billion adherents.[19][20][21][22] Contents 1 Beliefs 1.1 Creeds 1.1.1 Ten Commandments 1.2 Jesus Christ 1.3 Death and resurrection of Jesus 1.4 Salvation 1.5 Trinity 1.5.1 Trinitarians 1.5.2 Nontrinitarians 1.6 Scriptures 1.6.1 Catholic and Orthodox interpretations 1.6.2 Protestant interpretation 1.7 Eschaton 1.7.1 Death and afterlife 2 Worship 2.1 Sacraments 2.2 Liturgical calendar 2.3 Symbols 2.4 Baptism 2.5 Prayer 3 History 3.1 Early Church and Christological Councils 3.2 Early Middle Ages 3.3 High and Late Middle Ages 3.4 Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation 3.5 Post-Enlightenment 4 Demographics 5 Major denominations within Christianity 5.1 Catholic 5.2 Orthodox 5.3 Protestant 5.4 Restorationists and others 6 Christian culture 7 Ecumenism 8 Criticism and apologetics 9 See also 10 References 10.1 Bibliography 11 External links Beliefs The Sermon On the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch, Danish painter, d. 1890. Though there are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible on which Christianity is based, Christians share a set of beliefs that they hold as essential to their faith.[23] Creeds Main article: Creeds Wikisource has original text related to this article: Apostles' Creed Wikisource has original text related to this article: Nicene Creed Creeds (from Latin credo meaning "I believe") are concise doctrinal statements or confessions, usually of religious beliefs. They began as baptismal formulae and were later expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even while agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal "in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another."[24] .111 Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada and the Churches of Christ.[25][26]:14–15[27]:123 An Eastern Christian Icon depicting Emperor Constantine and the Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea (325) as holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. The Apostles' Creed remains the most popular statement of the articles of Christian faith that are generally acceptable to most Christian denominations that are creedal. It is widely used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical Churches of Western Christian tradition, including the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Western Orthodoxy. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists. This particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator. Each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was apparently used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome.[28] Its main points: belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Holy Spirit the death, descent into hell, resurrection, and ascension of Christ the holiness of the Church and the communion of saints Christ's second coming, the Day of Judgement and salvation of the faithful. The Nicene Creed, largely a response to Arianism, was formulated at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in 325 and 381 respectively[29][30] and ratified as the universal creed of Christendom by the First Council of Ephesus in 431.[31] The Chalcedonian Creed, developed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451,[32] though rejected by the Oriental Orthodox Churches,[33] taught Christ "to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably": one divine and one human, and that both natures are perfect but are nevertheless perfectly united into one person.[34] The Athanasian Creed, received in the Western Church as having the same status as the Nicene and Chalcedonian, says: "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance."[35] Most Christians (Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Rite and Protestants alike) accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the creeds mentioned above.[36] Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments, are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, theft, and adultery. Different groups follow slightly different traditions for interpreting and numbering them. According to the synoptic gospels, Christ generalised the law into two underlying principles; The first is Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. While the second is You shall love your neighbor as yourself.[Matthew 22:34-40][Mark 12:28-33] These are in fact quotes from Deuteronomy 6:4 and Leviticus 19:18. Barnes' Notes on the New Testament comments on these verses saying: "These comprehend the substance of what Moses in the law, and what the prophets have spoken. What they have said has been to endeavour (sic) to win men to the love of God and each other. Love to God and man comprehends the whole [of] religion; and to produce this has been the design of Moses, the prophets, the Saviour, and the apostles."[37] Jesus Christ Main articles: Christian views of Jesus, Christology, and Jesus Christ in comparative mythology A depiction of Jesus as a child with his mother, Mary, the Theotokos of Vladimir. 12th century, Russia. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah (Christ). Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus' coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept. The core Christian belief is that through belief in and acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus, sinful humans can be reconciled to God and thereby are offered salvation and the promise of eternal life.[38] While there have been many theological disputes over the nature of Jesus over the earliest centuries of Christian history, Christians generally believe that Jesus is God incarnate and "true God and true man" (or both fully divine and fully human). Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin. As fully God, he rose to life again. According to the Bible, "God raised him from the dead",[39] he ascended to heaven, is "seated at the right hand of the Father"[40] and will ultimately return[Acts 1:9–11] to fulfill the rest of Messianic prophecy such as the Resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and final establishment of the Kingdom of God. According to the canonical gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary. Little of Jesus' childhood is recorded in the canonical Gospels, however infancy Gospels were popular in antiquity. In comparison, his adulthood, especially the week before his death, is well documented in the Gospels contained within the New Testament. The Biblical accounts of Jesus' ministry include: his baptism, miracles, preaching, teaching, and deeds. Death and resurrection of Jesus Main articles: Crucifixion of Jesus and Resurrection of Jesus Crucifixion, representing the death of Jesus on the Cross, painting by D. Velázquez, 17th century Resurrection of Christ by Noel Coypel, 1700, using a hovering depiction of Jesus. Christians consider the resurrection of Jesus to be the cornerstone of their faith (see 1 Corinthians 15) and the most important event in human history.[41] Among Christian beliefs, the death and resurrection of Jesus are two core events on which much of Christian doctrine and theology is based.[42][43] According to the New Testament Jesus was crucified, died a physical death, was buried within a tomb, and rose from the dead three days later.[Jn. 19:30–31] [Mk. 16:1] [16:6] The New Testament mentions several resurrection appearances of Jesus on different occasions to his twelve apostles and disciples, including "more than five hundred brethren at once",[1Cor 15:6] before Jesus' Ascension to heaven. Jesus' death and resurrection are commemorated by Christians in all worship services, with special emphasis during Holy Week which includes Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The death and resurrection of Jesus are usually considered the most important events in Christian theology, partly because they demonstrate that Jesus has power over life and death and therefore has the authority and power to give people eternal life.[44] Christian churches accept and teach the New Testament account of the resurrection of Jesus with very few exceptions.[45] Some modern scholars use the belief of Jesus' followers in the resurrection as a point of departure for establishing the continuity of the historical Jesus and the proclamation of the early church.[46] Some liberal Christians do not accept a literal bodily resurrection,[47][48] seeing the story as richly symbolic and spiritually nourishing myth. Arguments over death and resurrection claims occur at many religious debates and interfaith dialogues.[49] Paul the Apostle, an early Christian convert and missionary, wrote, "If Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless."[1Cor 15:14] [50] Salvation Main article: Salvation Paul of Tarsus, like Jews and Roman pagans of his time, believed that sacrifice can bring about new kinship ties, purity, and eternal life.[51] For Paul the necessary sacrifice was the death of Jesus: Gentiles who are "Christ's" are, like Israel, descendants of Abraham and "heirs according to the promise".[Gal. 3:29] [52] The God who raised Jesus from the dead would also give new life to the "mortal bodies" of Gentile Christians, who had become with Israel the "children of God" and were therefore no longer "in the flesh".[Rom. 8:9,11,16] [51] Modern Christian churches tend to be much more concerned with how humanity can be saved from a universal condition of sin and death than the question of how both Jews and Gentiles can be in God's family. According to both Catholic and Protestant doctrine, salvation comes by Jesus' substitutionary death and resurrection. The Catholic Church teaches that salvation does not occur without faithfulness on the part of Christians; converts must live in accordance with principles of love and ordinarily must be baptized.[53][54] Martin Luther taught that baptism was necessary for salvation, but modern Lutherans and other Protestants tend to teach that salvation is a gift that comes to an individual by God's grace, sometimes defined as "unmerited favor", even apart from baptism. Christians differ in their views on the extent to which individuals' salvation is pre-ordained by God. Reformed theology places distinctive emphasis on grace by teaching that individuals are completely incapable of self-redemption, but that sanctifying grace is irresistible.[55] In contrast Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Arminian Protestants believe that the exercise of free will is necessary to have faith in Jesus.[56] Trinity Main article: Trinity Three angels hosted by Abraham by Ludovico Carracci: The three angels represent the three persons of God. Trinity refers to the teaching that the one God comprises three distinct, eternally co-existing persons; the Father, the Son (incarnate in Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. Together, these three persons are sometimes called the Godhead,[57][58][59] although there is no single term in use in Scripture to denote the unified Godhead.[60] In the words of the Athanasian Creed, an early statement of Christian belief, "the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God".[61] They are distinct from another: the Father has no source, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father. Though distinct, the three persons cannot be divided from one another in being or in operation.[62] The Trinity is an essential doctrine of mainstream Christianity. "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" represents both the immanence and transcendence of God. God is believed to be infinite and God's presence may be perceived through the actions of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.[63] According to this doctrine, God is not divided in the sense that each person has a third of the whole; rather, each person is considered to be fully God (see Perichoresis). The distinction lies in their relations, the Father being unbegotten; the Son being begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and (in Western Christian theology) from the Son. Regardless of this apparent difference, the three 'persons' are each eternal and omnipotent. The word trias, from which trinity is derived, is first seen in the works of Theophilus of Antioch. He wrote of "the Trinity of God (the Father), His Word (the Son) and His Wisdom (Holy Spirit)".[64] The term may have been in use before this time. Afterwards it appears in Tertullian.[65][66] In the following century the word was in general use. It is found in many passages of Origen.[67] Trinitarians Main article: Trinitarianism Trinitarianism denotes those Christians who believe in the concept of the Trinity. Almost all Christian denominations and Churches hold Trinitarian beliefs. Although the words "Trinity" and "Triune" do not appear in the Bible, theologians beginning in the 3rd century developed the term and concept to facilitate comprehension of the New Testament teachings of God as Father, God as Jesus the Son, and God as the Holy Spirit. Since that time, Christian theologians have been careful to emphasize that Trinity does not imply three gods, nor that each member of the Trinity is one-third of an infinite God; Trinity is defined as one God in three Persons.[68] Nontrinitarians Main article: Nontrinitarianism Nontrinitarianism refers to theology that rejects the doctrine of the Trinity. Various nontrinitarian views, such as adoptionism or modalism, existed in early Christianity, leading to the disputes about Christology.[69] Nontrinitarianism later appeared again in the Gnosticism of the Cathars in the 11th through 13th centuries, in the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, and in some groups arising during the Second Great Awakening of the 19th century. Scriptures Main articles: Bible and Development of the Christian Biblical canon Christianity, like other religions, has adherents whose beliefs and biblical interpretations vary. Christianity regards the Biblical canon, the Old Testament and New Testament, as the inspired word of God. The traditional view of inspiration is that God worked through human authors so that, what they produced was what God wished to communicate. The Greek word referring to inspiration in 2 Timothy 3:16 is Theopneustos, which literally means "God-breathed".[70] Some believe that divine inspiration makes our present Bibles "inerrant". Others claim inerrancy for the Bible in its original manuscripts, though none of those are extant. Still others maintain that only a particular translation is inerrant, such as the King James Version.[71][72][73] Another view closely related is Biblical infallibility or Limited inerrancy, which affirms that the Bible is free of error as a guide to salvation, but may include errors on matters such as history, geography, or science. The Gutenberg Bible, the first printed Bible The Books of the Bible, considered to be inspired, among Judaism, and the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches vary, thus each define the canon differently, although there is substantial overlap. These variations are a reflection of the range of traditions and councils that have convened on the subject. Every version of the Bible always includes books of the Tanakh, the canon of the Hebrew Bible. This makes up what Christians regard as the Old Testament. The Catholic and Orthodox canons, in addition to the Tanakh, also include the Deuterocanonical Books, as part of the Old Testament. These Books appear in the Septuagint, but are regarded by Protestants to be apocryphal. However, they are considered to be important historical documents which help to inform the understanding of words, grammar and syntax used in the historical period of their conception. Some versions of the Bible include a separate Apocrypha section between the Old Testament and the New Testament.[74] The New Testament, originally written in Koine Greek, contains 27 books which are agreed upon by all churches. Modern scholarship has raised many issues with the Bible. While the Authorized King James Version is held to by many because of its striking english prose, in fact it was translated from the Erasmus Greek Bible which in turn "was based on a single 12th Century manuscript that is one of the worst manuscripts we have available to us".[75] Much scholarship in the past several hundred years has gone into comparing different manuscripts in order to reconstruct the original text. Another issue is that several books are considered to be forgeries. The injunction that women "be silent and submissive" in 1 Timothy 12[76] is thought by many to be a forgery by a follower of Paul, a similar phrase in 1 Corinthians 14,[77] which is thought to be by Paul, appears in different places in different manuscripts and is thought to originally be a margin note by a copyist.[78] Other verses in 1 Corinthians contradict this verse such as 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 where women are instructed to wear a covering over their hair "when they pray or prophesies".[79] Clearly when they are not silent! A final issue with the Bible is the selection of which books were included in the New Testament. Other texts have been recovered, such as the Gnostic Gospels of Nag Hammadi. While some of these texts are quite different to what modern Christians are used to, it should be understood that they existed simultaneously in early Christianity with those later selected as canon. The Gospel of Thomas contains much that is familiar with existing Gospels, while it has a gnostic twist so that rather than being completely different there is an element of overlap. The Gospel of John, described as the "gnostic Gospel", is believed to have been a response to the Gospel of Thomas which makes it closer to the original events. And while the Gospel of Thomas verse 113 states: "the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it"[80] the same verse can be found in Luke 17:20-21.[81][82] Catholic and Orthodox interpretations St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, the largest church in the world and a symbol of the Catholic Church. In antiquity, two schools of exegesis developed in Alexandria and Antioch. Alexandrine interpretation, exemplified by Origen, tended to read Scripture allegorically, while Antiochene interpretation adhered to the literal sense, holding that other meanings (called theoria) could only be accepted if based on the literal meaning.[83] Catholic theology distinguishes two senses of scripture: the literal and the spiritual.[84] The literal sense of understanding scripture is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture. The spiritual sense is further subdivided into: the allegorical sense, which includes typology. An example would be the parting of the Red Sea being understood as a "type" (sign) of baptism.[1Cor 10:2] the moral sense, which understands the scripture to contain some ethical teaching. the anagogical sense, which applies to eschatology, eternity and the consummation of the world Regarding exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation, Catholic theology holds: the injunction that all other senses of sacred scripture are based on the literal[85][86] that the historicity of the Gospels must be absolutely and constantly held[87] that scripture must be read within the "living Tradition of the whole Church"[88] and that "the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome".[89] Protestant interpretation Clarity of Scripture Protestant Christians believe that the Bible is a self-sufficient revelation, the final authority on all Christian doctrine, and revealed all truth necessary for salvation. This concept is known as sola scriptura.[90] Protestants characteristically believe that ordinary believers may reach an adequate understanding of Scripture because Scripture itself is clear (or "perspicuous"), because of the help of the Holy Spirit, or both. Martin Luther believed that without God's help Scripture would be "enveloped in darkness".[91] He advocated "one definite and simple understanding of Scripture".[91] John Calvin wrote, "all who ... follow the Holy Spirit as their guide, find in the Scripture a clear light."[92] The Second Helvetic Confession, composed by the pastor of the Reformed church in Zurich (successor to Protestant reformer Zwingli) was adopted as a declaration of doctrine by most European Reformed churches.[93] Original intended meaning of Scripture Protestants stress the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture, the historical-grammatical method.[94] The historical-grammatical method or grammatico-historical method is an effort in Biblical hermeneutics to find the intended original meaning in the text.[95] This original intended meaning of the text is drawn out through examination of the passage in light of the grammatical and syntactical aspects, the historical background, the literary genre as well as theological (canonical) considerations.[96] The historical-grammatical method distinguishes between the one original meaning and the significance of the text. The significance of the text includes the ensuing use of the text or application. The original passage is seen as having only a single meaning or sense. As Milton S. Terry said: "A fundamental principle in grammatico-historical exposition is that the words and sentences can have but one significance in one and the same connection. The moment we neglect this principle we drift out upon a sea of uncertainty and conjecture."[97] Technically speaking, the grammatical-historical method of interpretation is distinct from the determination of the passage's significance in light of that interpretation. Taken together, both define the term (Biblical) hermeneutics.[98] Some Protestant interpreters make use of typology.[99] Eschaton Main article: Christian eschatology The end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world, broadly speaking is Christian eschatology; the study of the destiny of humans as it is revealed in the Bible. The major issues in Christian eschatology are the Tribulation, death and the afterlife, the Rapture, the Second Coming of Jesus, Resurrection of the Dead, Heaven and Hell, Millennialism, the Last Judgment, the end of the world, and the New Heavens and New Earth. Christians believe that the second coming of Christ will occur at the end of time after a period of severe persecution (the Great Tribulation). All who have died will be resurrected bodily from the dead for the Last Judgment. Jesus will fully establish the Kingdom of God in fulfillment of scriptural prophecies.[100][101] Death and afterlife Most Christians believe that human beings experience divine judgment and are rewarded either with eternal life or eternal damnation. This includes the general judgement at the resurrection of the dead as well as the belief (held by Roman Catholics,[102][103] Orthodox[104][105] and most Protestants) in a judgment particular to the individual soul upon physical death. In Roman Catholicism, those who die in a state of grace, i.e., without any mortal sin separating them from God, but are still imperfectly purified from the effects of sin, undergo purification through the intermediate state of purgatory to achieve the holiness necessary for entrance into God's presence.[106] Those who have attained this goal are called saints (Latin sanctus, "holy").[107] Some Christian groups, such as Seventh-day Adventists, hold to mortalism, the belief that the human soul is not naturally immortal, and is unconscious during the intermediate state between bodily death and resurrection. These Christians also hold to Annihilationism, the belief that subsequent to the final judgement, the wicked will cease to exist rather than suffer everlasting torment. Jehovah's Witnesses hold to a similar view.[108] Worship Main article: Christian worship Samples of Catholic religious objects—The Holy Bible, a Crucifix, and a Rosary. Justin Martyr described 2nd-century Christian liturgy in his First Apology (c. 150) to Emperor Antoninus Pius, and his description remains relevant to the basic structure of Christian liturgical worship: And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. —Justin Martyr[109] Thus, as Justin described, Christians assemble for communal worship on Sunday, the day of the resurrection, though other liturgical practices often occur outside this setting. Scripture readings are drawn from the Old and New Testaments, but especially the gospel accounts. Often these are arranged on an annual cycle, using a book called a lectionary. Instruction is given based on these readings, called a sermon, or homily. There are a variety of congregational prayers, including thanksgiving, confession, and intercession, which occur throughout the service and take a variety of forms including recited, responsive, silent, or sung. The Lord's Prayer, or Our Father, is regularly prayed. The Eucharist is the part of liturgical worship that consists of a consecrated meal, usually bread and wine. Some Christian denominations practice closed communion. They offer communion to those who are already united in that denomination or sometimes individual church. Catholics restrict participation to their members who are not in a state of mortal sin. Most other churches practice open communion since they view communion as a means to unity, rather than an end, and invite all believing Christians to participate. A modern Protestant worship band leading a contemporary worship session. Some groups depart from this traditional liturgical structure. A division is often made between "High" church services, characterized by greater solemnity and ritual, and "Low" services, but even within these two categories there is great diversity in forms of worship. Seventh-day Adventists meet on Saturday, while others do not meet on a weekly basis. Charismatic or Pentecostal congregations may spontaneously feel led by the Holy Spirit to action rather than follow a formal order of service, including spontaneous prayer. Quakers sit quietly until moved by the Holy Spirit to speak. Some Evangelical services resemble concerts with rock and pop music, dancing, and use of multimedia. For groups which do not recognize a priesthood distinct from ordinary believers the services are generally led by a minister, preacher, or pastor. Still others may lack any formal leaders, either in principle or by local necessity. Some churches use only a cappella music, either on principle (for example, many Churches of Christ object to the use of instruments in worship) or by tradition (as in Orthodoxy). Worship can be varied for special events like baptisms or weddings in the service or significant feast days. In the early church, Christians and those yet to complete initiation would separate for the Eucharistic part of the worship. In many churches today, adults and children will separate for all or some of the service to receive age-appropriate teaching. Such children's worship is often called Sunday school or Sabbath school (Sunday schools are often held before rather than during services). Sacraments Main article: Sacrament See also: Sacraments of the Catholic Church, Anglican sacraments, and Lutheran sacraments In Christian belief and practice, a sacrament is a rite, instituted by Christ, that mediates grace, constituting a sacred mystery. The term is derived from the Latin word sacramentum, which was used to translate the Greek word for mystery. Views concerning both what rites are sacramental, and what it means for an act to be a sacrament vary among Christian denominations and traditions.[110] |
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 23:30:08 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 23:30:08 GMT -5
The Book of Genesis (from the Latin Vulgate, in turn borrowed or transliterated from Greek γένεσις, meaning "origin"; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית, Bərēšīṯ, "In [the] beginning"), is the first book of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) and the Christian Old Testament.[1] The basic narrative expresses the central theme: God creates the world and appoints man as his regent, but man proves disobedient and God destroys his world through the Flood but preserves a righteous man, Noah, and his family. The new post-Flood world is equally corrupt, but God does not destroy it, instead calling one man, Abraham, to be the seed of its salvation. At God's command Abraham descends from his home into the land of Canaan, given to him by God, where he dwells as a sojourner, as does his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and through the agency of his son Joseph, the children of Israel descend into Egypt, 70 people in all with their households, and God promises them a future of greatness. Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus. The narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, successively narrowing in scope from all mankind (the covenant with Noah) to a special relationship with one people alone (Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob).[2] Tradition credits Moses as the author of Genesis, but the book is in fact anonymous;[3] current thinking places the first draft of Genesis either just before or during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BCE, and the final edition in the late Exilic period or soon after.[4] The author or authors appear to have structured it around ten "toledot" sections (the "these are the generations of..." phrases), but many modern commentators see it in terms of a "primeval history" (chapters 1–11) followed by the cycle of Patriarchal stories (chapters 12–50).[5] For Jews and Christians alike, the theological importance of Genesis centers on the covenants linking God to his Chosen People and the people to the Promised Land. Christianity has interpreted Genesis as the prefiguration of certain cardinal Christian beliefs, primarily the need for salvation (the hope or assurance of all Christians) and the redemptive act of Christ on the Cross as the fulfillment of covenant promises as the Son of God. Contents 1 Structure 2 Summary 3 Composition 3.1 Origins 3.2 Genre 4 Themes 4.1 Promises to the ancestors 4.2 God's chosen people 5 Judaism's weekly Torah portions 6 See also 7 References 8 Bibliography 8.1 Commentaries on Genesis 8.2 General 9 External links Structure Genesis appears to be structured around the recurring phrase elleh toledot, meaning "these are the generations," with the first use of the phrase referring to the "generations of heaven and earth" and the remainder marking individuals—Noah, the "sons of Noah", Shem, etc., down to Jacob.[6] It is not clear, however, what this meant to the original authors, and most modern commentators divide it into two parts based on subject matter, a "primeval history" (chapters 1–11) and a "patriarchal history" (chapters 12–50).[7] While the first is far shorter than the second, it sets out the basic themes and provides an interpretive key for understanding the entire book.[8] The "primeval history" has a symmetrical structure hinged around chapter 6–9, the flood story, with the events before the flood mirrored by the events after.[9] The "patriarchal history" recounts the events of the major patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom God reveals himself and to whom the promise of descendants and land is made, while the story of Joseph serves to take the Israelites into Egypt in preparation for the next book, Exodus. Summary God creates the world in six days and consecrates the seventh after giving mankind his first commandment: "be fruitful and multiply". God pronounces the world "very good", but it becomes corrupted by the sin of man and God sends a deluge (a great flood) to destroy it, saving only the righteous (Noah) and his family, from whose seed the world is repopulated. Man sins again, but God has promised that he will not destroy the world a second time with water. God instructs Abram (the future Abraham) to travel from his home in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) to the land of Canaan. There God makes a covenant with Abram promising that his descendants shall be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, but that they shall suffer oppression in a foreign land for four hundred years, after which they shall inherit the land "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates." Abram's name is changed to Abraham and that of his wife Sarai to Sarah, and circumcision of all males is instituted as the sign of the covenant. Sarah is barren, and tells Abraham to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as a concubine. Through Hagar, Abraham becomes the father of Ishmael. Abraham asks God that Ishmael "might live in Thy sight," (that is, be favored), but God replies that Sarah will bear a son, who will be named Isaac, through whom the covenant will be established. At Sarah's insistence Ishmael and his mother Hagar are driven out into the wilderness, but God saves them and promises to make Ishmael a great nation. God resolves to destroy the city of Sodom for the sins of its people. Abraham protests that it is not just "to slay the righteous with the wicked," and asks if the whole city can be spared if even ten righteous men are found there. God replies: "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it." Abraham's nephew Lot is saved from the destruction of Sodom, and through incest with his daughters becomes the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. God tests Abraham by demanding that he sacrifice Isaac. As Abraham is about to lay the knife upon his son, God restrains him, promising him numberless descendants. On the death of Sarah, Abraham purchases Machpelah (modern Hebron) for a family tomb and sends his servant to Mesopotamia to find among his relations a wife for Isaac, and Rebekah is chosen. Other children are born to Abraham by another wife, Keturah, among whose descendants are the Midianites, and he dies in a prosperous old age and is buried in his tomb at Hebron. Isaac's wife Rebekah is barren, but Isaac prays to God and she gives birth to the twins Esau, father of the Edomites, and Jacob. Through deception, Jacob becomes the heir instead of Esau and gains his father's blessing. He flees to his uncle where he prospers and earns his two wives. Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and by his wives Rachel and Leah and their handmaidens he has twelve sons, the ancestors of the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel, and a daughter, Dinah. Joseph, Jacob's favourite son, is sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers. But Joseph prospers, and when famine comes he brings his father and his brothers and their households, seventy persons in all, to Egypt, where Pharaoh assigns to them the land of Goshen. Jacob calls his sons to his bedside and reveals their future to them before he dies and is interred in the family tomb at Machpelah. Joseph lives to see his great-grandchildren, and on his death-bed he exhorts his brethren, if God should remember them and lead them out of the country, to take his bones with them. The book ends with Joseph's remains being "put in a coffin in Egypt." Composition Abram's Journey from Ur to Canaan (József Molnár, 1850) Origins Main article: Documentary hypothesis For much of the 20th century most scholars agreed that the five books of the Pentateuch—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—came from four sources, the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomist and the Priestly source, each telling the same basic story, and joined together by various editors.[10] Since the 1970s there has been a revolution in scholarship: the Elohist source is now widely regarded as no more than a variation on the Yahwist, while the Priestly source is increasingly seen not as a document but as a body of revisions and expansions to the Yahwist (or "non-Priestly") material. (The Deuteronomistic source does not appear in Genesis).[11] In composing the Patriarchal history the Yahwist drew on four separate blocks of traditional stories about Abraham, Jacob, Judah and Joseph, combining them with genealogies, itineraries and the "promise" theme to create a unified whole.[12] Similarly, when composing the "primeval history" he drew on Greek and Mesopotamian sources, editing and adding to them to create a unified work that fit his theological agenda.[13] The Yahwistic work was then revised and expanded into the final edition by the authors of the Priestly source.[14] This leaves the question of when these works were created. Scholars in the first half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that the Yahwist was produced in the monarchic period, specifically at the court of Solomon, and the Priestly work in the middle of the 5th century BC (the author was even identified as Ezra), but more recent thinking is that the Yahwist was written either just before or during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century, and the Priestly final edition was made late in the Exilic period or soon after.[4] As for why the book was created, a theory which has gained considerable interest, although still controversial is "Persian imperial authorisation". This proposes that the Persians, after their conquest of Babylon in 538 BC, agreed to grant Jerusalem a large measure of local autonomy within the empire, but required the local authorities to produce a single law code accepted by the entire community. The two powerful groups making up the community—the priestly families who controlled the Temple and who traced their origin to Moses and the wilderness wanderings, and the major landowning families who made up the "elders" and who traced their own origins to Abraham, who had "given" them the land—were in conflict over many issues, and each had its own "history of origins", but the Persian promise of greatly increased local autonomy for all provided a powerful incentive to cooperate in producing a single text.[15] Genre Genesis is perhaps best seen as an example of "antiquarian history", a type of literature telling of the first appearance of humans, the stories of ancestors and heroes, and the origins of culture, cities and so forth.[16] The most notable examples are found in the work of Greek historians of the 6th century BC: their intention was to connect notable families of their own day to a distant and heroic past, and in doing so they did not distinguish between myth, legend, and facts.[17] Professor Jean-Louis Ska of the Pontifical Biblical Institute calls the basic rule of the antiquarian historian the "law of conservation": everything old is valuable, nothing is eliminated.[18] Ska also points out the purpose behind such antiquarian histories: antiquity is needed to prove the worth of Israel's traditions to the nations (the neighbours of the Jews in early Persian Palestine), and to reconcile and unite the various factions within Israel itself.[18] Themes Joseph recognized by his brothers (Léon Pierre Urbain Bourgeois, 1863) Promises to the ancestors In 1978 David Clines published his influential The Theme of the Pentateuch – influential because he was one of the first to take up the question of the theme of the entire five books. Clines' conclusion was that the overall theme is "the partial fulfillment – which implies also the partial nonfulfillment – of the promise to or blessing of the Patriarchs." (By calling the fulfillment "partial" Clines was drawing attention to the fact that at the end of Deuteronomy the people are still outside Canaan).[19] The patriarchs, or ancestors, are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with their wives (Joseph is normally excluded).[20] Through the patriarchs God announces the election of Israel, meaning that he has chosen Israel to be his special people and committed himself to their future.[21] God tells the patriarchs that he will be faithful to their descendants (i.e. to Israel), and Israel is expected to have faith in God and his promise. ("Faith" in the context of Genesis and the Hebrew bible means agreement to the promissory relationship, not a body of belief).[22] The promise itself has three parts: offspring, blessings, and land.[23] The fulfilment of the promise to each patriarch depends on having a male heir, and the story is constantly complicated by the fact that each prospective mother – Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel – is barren. The ancestors, however, retain their faith in God and God in each case gives a son – in Jacob's case, twelve sons, the foundation of the chosen Israelites. All three promises are more richly fulfilled in each succeeding generation, until through Joseph "all the world" is saved from famine,[24] and by bringing the children of Israel down to Egypt he becomes the means through which the promise can be fulfilled.[20] God's chosen people Scholars generally agree that the theme of divine promise unites the patriarchal cycles, but many would dispute the idea that a single theme (or theology) runs through Genesis – a theology of the Abraham cycle or the Jacob cycle or the Joseph cycle might be possible, or a theology of the Yahwist or the Priestly source, but not a single theology or overarching theme for all of Genesis.[25] The problem lies in finding a way to unite the patriarchal theme of divine promise to the primeval history, with its theme of God's continuing mercy in the face of man's sinful nature.[26] One solution is to see the patriarchal stories as resulting from God's decision not to remain alienated from mankind:[26] God creates the world and mankind, mankind rebels, and God "elects" (chooses) Abraham.[2] To this basic plot (which comes from the Yahwist) the Priestly source has added a series of covenants dividing history into stages, each with its own distinctive "sign". The first covenant is between God and all living creatures, and is marked by the sign of the rainbow; the second is with the descendants of Abraham (Ishmaelites and others as well as Israelites), and its sign is circumcision; and the last, which doesn't appear until the book of Exodus, is with Israel alone, and its sign is Sabbath. Each covenant is mediated by a great leader (Noah, Abraham, Moses), and at each stage God progressively reveals himself by his name (Elohim with Noah, El Shaddai with Abraham, Yahweh with Moses).[2] Judaism's weekly Torah portions Main article: Weekly Torah portion First Day of Creation (from the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle) Bereishit, on Genesis 1–6: Creation, Eden, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Lamech, wickedness Noach, on Genesis 6–11: Noah's Ark, the Flood, Noah's drunkenness, the Tower of Babel Lech-Lecha, on Genesis 12–17: Abraham, Sarah, Lot, covenant, Hagar and Ishmael, circumcision Vayeira, on Genesis 18–22: Abraham's visitors, Sodomites, Lot's visitors and flight, Hagar expelled, binding of Isaac Chayei Sarah, on Genesis 23–25: Sarah buried, Rebekah for Isaac Toledot, on Genesis 25–28: Esau and Jacob, Esau's birthright, Isaac's blessing Vayetze, on Genesis 28–32: Jacob flees, Rachel, Leah, Laban, Jacob's children and departure Vayishlach, on Genesis 32–36: Jacob's reunion with Esau, the rape of Dinah Vayeshev, on Genesis 37–40: Joseph's dreams, coat, and slavery, Judah with Tamar, Joseph and Potiphar Miketz, on Genesis 41–44: Pharaoh's dream, Joseph's in government, Joseph's brothers visit Egypt Vayigash, on Genesis 44–47: Joseph reveals himself, Jacob moves to Egypt Vayechi, on Genesis 47–50: Jacob's blessings, death of Jacob and of Joseph |
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 23:30:24 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 23:30:24 GMT -5
The Garden of Eden (Hebrew גַּן עֵדֶן, Gan ʿEdhen) is the biblical "garden of God", described most notably in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 2-3), but also mentioned, directly or indirectly, in Ezekiel, Isaiah and elsewhere in the Old Testament.[1] In the past, the favoured derivation of the name "Eden" was from the Akkadian edinnu, itself derived from a Sumerian word meaning "plain" or "steppe", but it is now believed to be more closely related to an Aramaic root meaning "fruitful, well-watered."[1] The Eden of Genesis has been variously located at the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates in northern Iraq, in Africa, and in the Persian Gulf. The Eden in Ezekiel, however, is unequivocally located in Lebanon. For many medieval writers, the image of the Garden of Eden also creates a location for human love and sexuality, often associated with the classic and medieval trope of the locus amoenus.[2] Contents 1 Summary 1.1 Genesis 2:4-3:24 1.2 Ezekiel and elsewhere 2 Assyrian-Babylonian and Sumerian parallels 3 Location 3.1 Lebanon 3.2 Iran (Tabriz) 3.3 Jackson County, Missouri, North America 3.4 Sri Lanka 4 From Eden to Paradise 5 Jewish eschatology 6 Art 7 See also 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 External links Summary Genesis 2:4-3:24 "Expulsion from Paradise", marble bas-relief by Lorenzo Maitani on the Orvieto Cathedral, Italy The second part of the Genesis creation narrative opens with God creating the first human, whom he places in a garden "in the east, in Eden". God tasks the man to tend the garden, but forbids him to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God then forms a woman from a rib of the man to be a companion to the man. The first man and woman break God's command and eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, and God expels them from the garden to prevent them from eating of a second tree, the tree of life, and living forever. God then placed cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth on the east side of the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life. Ezekiel and elsewhere Main article: Ezekiel's cherub in Eden In Ezekiel 28:12-19 the prophet Ezekiel (the "son of man") sets down God's word against the king of Tyre: the king was the "seal of perfection", adorned with precious stones from the day of his creation, placed by God in the garden of Eden on the holy mountain as a guardian cherub. But the king sinned through wickedness and violence, and so he was driven out of the garden and thrown to the earth, where now he is consumed by God's fire: "All the nations who knew you are appalled at you, you have come to a horrible end and will be no more." The "garden of God" is mentioned in Genesis 14, and the trees of the garden are mentioned in Ezekiel 31, and scattered passages from Ezekiel, Zechariah and the Psalms refer to trees and water in relation to the Temple without explicitly mentioning Eden.[3] Assyrian-Babylonian and Sumerian parallels Map showing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers Sumerian mythology had a parallel to the Eden garden in Dilmun, the dwelling-place of the immortals where sickness and death were unknown.[4] Location Spanish-Arabic world map from 1109 AD with Eden in east (at top) Genesis 2-3 locates the garden with reference to four rivers and the regions they flow through: "A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates." —Genesis 2:10-14 "Kush" is often incorrectly translated as Ethiopia, which was also known as Cush, but in this case thought to be referring to Cossaea, a Greek name for the Kassite lands north of Elam, immediately to the east of ancient Babylon, which, unlike Ethiopia, does lie within the region being described.[5] In Antiquities of the Jews by the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, he identifies the Pishon as what "the Greeks called Ganges," and the Geon as the Nile.[6] Lebanon Ezekiel 31 appears to identify Eden with Lebanon.[7] " t appears that the Lebanon is an alternative placement in Phoenician myth (as in Ez 28,13, III.48) of the Garden of Eden",[8] and there are connections between paradise, the garden of Eden and the forests of Lebanon (possibly used symbolically) within prophetic writings.[9] Edward Lipinski and Peter Kyle McCarter have suggested that the Garden of the gods (Sumerian paradise), the oldest Sumerian version of the Garden of Eden, relates to a mountain sanctuary in the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges.[10]
Iran (Tabriz)
David M. Rohl (British Egyptologist and former director of the Institute for the Study of Interdisciplinary Sciences) posits a location for the legendary Garden of Eden in Iranian Azerbaijan, in the vicinity of Tabriz upon which the Genesis tradition was based. According to Rohl, the Garden of Eden was then located in a long valley to the north of Sahand volcano, near Tabriz. He cites several geographical similarities and toponyms which he believes match the biblical description. These similarities include the nearby headwaters of the four rivers of Edin, the Tigris (Heb. Hiddekel, Akk. Idiqlat), Euphrates (Heb. Perath, Akk. Purattu), Gaihun-Aras (Heb., Gihon), and Uizun (Heb. Pishon)[11]
Jackson County, Missouri, North America
See also: Adam and Eve (LDS Church)
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormons or Latter-day Saints) believe that the Garden of Eden was located in present-day Jackson County, Missouri.[12]
Sri Lanka
Sri Pada is named after a footprint-like formation found near the summit of a conical mountain in Sri Lanka. The Buddhist tradition deems it to be the footprint of the Buddha, the Hindu tradition considers it that of Shiva, and in Muslim and Christian tradition the footprint is that of Adam. Moreover, there are four rivers starting from this mountain.
From Eden to Paradise
"The Garden of Eden" by Thomas Cole (c.1828)
The Expulsion illustrated in the English Caedmon manuscript, c. AD 1000
The Garden of Eden as depicted in the first or left panel of Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights Triptych. The panel includes many imagined and exotic African animals.[13]
After c.500 BC the Persian term "paradise" (Hebrew פרדס, pardes), meaning a royal garden or hunting-park, gradually became a synonym for Eden. The word "pardes" occurs three times in the Old Testament, but always in contexts other than a connection with Eden: in the Song of Solomon iv. 13: "Thy plants are an orchard (pardes) of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard"; Ecclesiastes 2. 5: "I made me gardens and orchards (pardes), and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits"; and in Nehemiah ii. 8: "And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's orchard (pardes), that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city." In these examples pardes clearly means "orchard" or "park", but in the apocalyptic literature and in the Talmud, "paradise" gains its associations with the Garden of Eden and its heavenly prototype, and in the New Testament "paradise" becomes the realm of the blessed (as opposed to the realm of the cursed) among those who have already died, with literary Hellenistic influences.
The Greek Garden of the Hesperides was somewhat similar to the Christian concept of the Garden of Eden, and by the 16th century a larger intellectual association was made in the Cranach painting (see illustration at top). In this painting, only the action that takes place there identifies the setting as distinct from the Garden of the Hesperides, with its golden fruit.
Jewish eschatology
In modern Jewish eschatology, it is believed that history will complete itself and the ultimate destination will be when all mankind returns to the Garden of Eden.[14]
In the Talmud and the Jewish Kabbalah,[15] the scholars agree that there are two types of spiritual places called "Garden in Eden". The first is rather terrestrial, of abundant fertility and luxuriant vegetation, known as the "lower Gan Eden". The second is envisioned as being celestial, the habitation of righteous, Jewish and non-Jewish, immortal souls, known as the "higher Gan Eden". The Rabbanim differentiate between Gan and Eden. Adam is said to have dwelt only in the Gan, whereas Eden is said never to be witnessed by any mortal eye.[16]
According to Jewish eschatology,[17][18] the higher Gan Eden is called the "Garden of Righteousness". It has been created since the beginning of the world, and will appear gloriously at the end of time. The righteous dwelling there will enjoy the sight of the heavenly chayot carrying the throne of God. Each of the righteous will walk with God, who will lead them in a dance. Its Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants are "clothed with garments of light and eternal life, and eat of the tree of life" (Enoch 58,3) near to God and His anointed ones.[19] This Jewish rabbinical concept of a higher Gan Eden is opposed by the Hebrew terms gehinnom[20] and sheol, figurative names for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism, a place envisioned as being at the greatest possible distance from heaven.[21]
Art
Garden of Eden motifs most frequently portrayed in illuminated manuscripts and paintings are the "Sleep of Adam" ("Creation of Eve"), the "Temptation of Eve" by the Serpent, the "Fall of Man" where Adam takes the fruit, and the "Expulsion". The idyll of "Naming Day in Eden" was less often depicted. Much of Milton's Paradise Lost occurs in the Garden of Eden. Michelangelo depicted a scene at the Garden of Eden in the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
See also
Antelapsarianism
Christian naturism
Epic of Gilgamesh
Eridu
Fertile Crescent
Golden Age
Jannah
Persian gardens
Tamoanchan
The Summerland
Utopia
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Fishing
Apr 15, 2013 23:32:08 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 23:32:08 GMT -5
The Bible (from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία, tà biblía, "the books") is a canonical collection of texts considered sacred in Judaism or Christianity. Different religious groups include different books within their canons, in different orders, and sometimes divide or combine books, or incorporate additional material into canonical books. Christian Bibles range from the sixty-six books of the Protestant canon to the eighty-one books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church canon.
The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, contains twenty-four books divided into three parts; the five books of the Torah ("teaching" or "law"), the Nevi'im ("prophets"), and the Ketuvim ("writings"). The first part of Christian Bibles is the Old Testament, which contains, at minimum, the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible divided into thirty-nine books and ordered differently than the Hebrew Bible. The Catholic Church and Eastern Christian churches also hold certain deuterocanonical books and passages to be part of the Old Testament canon. The second part is the New Testament, containing twenty-seven books; the four Canonical gospels, Acts of the Apostles, twenty-one Epistles or letters and the Book of Revelation.
By the 2nd century BCE Jewish groups had called the Bible books "holy," and Christians now commonly call the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible "The Holy Bible" (τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια, tà biblía tà ágia) or "the Holy Scriptures" (η Αγία Γραφή, e Agía Graphḗ). Many Christians consider the whole canonical text of the Bible to be divinely inspired. The oldest surviving complete Christian Bibles are Greek manuscripts from the 4th century. The oldest Tanakh manuscript in Hebrew and Aramaic dates to the 10th century CE,[1] but an early 4th-century Septuagint translation is found in the Codex Vaticanus.
The Bible was divided into chapters in the 13th century by Stephen Langton and into verses in the 16th century by French printer Robert Estienne[2] and is now usually cited by book, chapter, and verse. The Bible has estimated annual sales of 25 million copies,[3][4] and has been a major influence on literature and history, especially in the West where it was the first mass printed book.
Contents
1 Etymology
2 Hebrew Bible
2.1 Torah
2.2 Nevi'im
2.2.1 Former Prophets
2.2.1.1 Joshua
2.2.1.2 Judges
2.2.1.3 Samuel
2.2.1.4 Kings
2.2.2 Latter Prophets
2.2.2.1 Isaiah
2.2.2.2 Jeremiah
2.2.2.3 Ezekiel
2.2.2.4 Twelve Minor Prophets
2.3 Ketuvim
2.3.1 The poetic books
2.3.2 The five scrolls (Hamesh Megillot)
2.3.3 Other books
2.3.4 Order of the books
2.3.5 Canonization
2.4 Original languages
3 Septuagint
3.1 Incorporations from Theodotion
3.2 Final form
4 Christian Bibles
4.1 Old Testament
4.1.1 Apocryphal or deuterocanonical books
4.1.2 Role in Christian theology
4.2 New Testament
4.2.1 Original language
4.2.2 Historic editions
4.3 Development of the Christian canons
4.3.1 Ethiopian Orthodox canon
5 Divine inspiration
6 Versions and translations
7 Biblical studies
7.1 Higher criticism
8 Archaeological and historical research
9 Criticism
10 See also
11 Endnotes
12 References and further reading
Etymology
An American family Bible dating to 1859.
The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the same word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin and ultimately from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία ta biblia "the books" (singular βιβλίον biblion).[5]
Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra "holy book", while biblia in Greek and Late Latin is neuter plural (gen. bibliorum). It gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun (biblia, gen. bibliae) in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe.[6] Latin biblia sacra "holy books" translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, "the holy books".[7]
The word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of "paper" or "scroll" and came to be used as the ordinary word for "book". It is the diminutive of βύβλος bublos, "Egyptian papyrus", possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos (also known as Gebal) from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece. The Greek ta biblia (lit. "little papyrus books")[8] was "an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books (the Septuagint).[9][10] Christian use of the term can be traced to ca. 223 CE.[5] The biblical scholar F.F. Bruce notes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer (in his Homilies on Matthew, delivered between 386 and 388) to use the Greek phrase ta biblia ("the books") to describe both the Old and New Testaments together.[11]
Hebrew Bible
Main article: Development of the Hebrew Bible canon
The Nash Papyrus (2nd century BCE) contains a portion of a pre-Masoretic Text, specifically the Ten Commandments and the Shema Yisrael prayer.
The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Hebrew Bible. While the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and accentuation.
The oldest extant manuscripts of the Masoretic Text date from approximately the 9th century CE,[12] and the Aleppo Codex (once the oldest complete copy of the Masoretic Text, but now missing its Torah section) dates from the 10th century.
Tanakh (Hebrew: תנ"ך) reflects the threefold division of the Hebrew Scriptures, Torah ("Teaching"), Nevi'im ("Prophets") and Ketuvim ("Writings").
Torah
Main article: Torah
See also: Oral Torah
The Torah (תּוֹרָה) is also known as the "Five Books of Moses" or the Pentateuch, meaning "five scroll-cases".[13] The Hebrew names of the books are derived from the first words in the respective texts.
The Torah comprises the following five books:
Genesis, Bereshith (בראשית)
Exodus, Shemot (שמות)
Leviticus, Vayikra (ויקרא)
Numbers, Bamidbar (במדבר)
Deuteronomy, Devarim (דברים)
The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of the creation (or ordering) of the world and the history of God's early relationship with humanity. The remaining thirty-nine chapters of Genesis provide an account of God's covenant with the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (also called Israel) and Jacob's children, the "Children of Israel", especially Joseph. It tells of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home in the city of Ur, eventually to settle in the land of Canaan, and how the Children of Israel later moved to Egypt. The remaining four books of the Torah tell the story of Moses, who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs. He leads the Children of Israel from slavery in Ancient Egypt to the renewal of their covenant with God at Mount Sinai and their wanderings in the desert until a new generation was ready to enter the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses.[14]
The Torah contains the commandments of God, revealed at Mount Sinai (although there is some debate among traditional scholars as to whether these were all written down at one time, or over a period of time during the 40 years of the wanderings in the desert, while several modern Jewish movements reject the idea of a literal revelation, and critical scholars believe that many of these laws developed later in Jewish history).[15][16][17][18] These commandments provide the basis for Jewish religious law. Tradition states that there are 613 commandments (taryag mitzvot).
Nevi'im
Main article: Nevi'im
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Books of Nevi'im (Hebrew Bible)
Nevi'im (Hebrew: נְבִיאִים Nəḇî'îm, "Prophets") is the second main division of the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim. It contains two sub-groups, the Former Prophets (Nevi'im Rishonim נביאים ראשונים, the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings) and the Latter Prophets (Nevi'im Aharonim נביאים אחרונים, the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the Twelve Minor Prophets).
The Nevi'im tell the story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy and its division into two kingdoms, ancient Israel and Judah, focusing on conflicts between the Israelites and other nations, and conflicts among Israelites, specifically, struggles between believers in "the LORD God"[19] and believers in foreign gods,[20][21] and the criticism of unethical and unjust behavior of Israelite elites and rulers;[22][23][24] in which prophets played a crucial and leading role. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians followed by the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Former Prophets
The Former Prophets are the books Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. They contain narratives that begin immediately after the death of Moses with the divine appointment of Joshua as his successor, who then leads the people of Israel into the Promised Land, and end with the release from imprisonment of the last king of Judah. Treating Samuel and Kings as single books, they cover:
Joshua’s conquest of the land of Canaan (in the Book of Joshua),
the struggle of the people to possess the land (in the Book of Judges),
the people's request to God to give them a king so that they can occupy the land in the face of their enemies (in the books of 1st & 2nd Samuel)
the possession of the land under the divinely appointed kings of the House of David, ending in conquest and foreign exile (1st and 2nd Kings)
Joshua
The Book of Joshua (Yehoshua יהושע) contains a history of the Israelites from the death of Moses to that of Joshua. After Moses' death, Joshua, by virtue of his previous appointment as Moses' successor, receives from God the command to cross the Jordan River.
The book consists of three parts:
the history of the conquest of the land (1-12).
allotment of the land to the different tribes, with the appointment of cities of refuge, the provision for the Levites (13-22), and the dismissal of the eastern tribes to their homes.
the farewell addresses of Joshua, with an account of his death (23, 24).
Judges
The Book of Judges (Shoftim שופטים) consists of three distinct parts:
the introduction (1:1-3:10 and 3:12) giving a summary of the book of Joshua
the main text (3:11-16:31), discussing the five Great Judges, Abimelech, and providing glosses for a few minor Judges
appendices (17:1-21:25), giving two stories set in the time of the Judges, but not discussing the Judges themselves.
Samuel
The Books of Samuel (Shmu'el שמואל) consists of five parts:
the period of God's rejection of Eli, Samuel's birth, and subsequent judgment (1 Samuel 1:1-7:17)
the life of Saul prior to meeting David (1 Samuel 8:1-15:35)
Saul's interaction with David (1 Samuel 16:1-2 Samuel 1:27)
David's reign and the rebellions he suffers (2 Samuel 2:1-20:22)
an appendix of material concerning David in no particular order, and out of sequence with the rest of the text (2 Samuel 22:1-24:25)
A conclusion of sorts appears at 1 Kings 1-2, concerning Solomon enacting a final revenge on those who did what David perceived as wrongdoing, and having a similar narrative style. While the subject matter in the Book(s) of Samuel is also covered by the narrative in Chronicles, it is noticeable that the section (2 Sam. 11:2-12:29) containing an account of the matter of Bathsheba is omitted in the corresponding passage in 1 Chr. 20.
Kings
The Books of Kings (Melakhim מלכים) contains accounts of the kings of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, and the annals of the Jewish commonwealth from the accession of Solomon until the subjugation of the kingdom by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.
Latter Prophets
The Latter Prophets are divided into two groups, the "major" prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets, collected into a single book.
Isaiah
The 66 chapters of Isaiah (Yeshayahu [ישעיהו]) consist primarily of prophecies of the judgments awaiting nations that are persecuting Judah. These nations include Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Israel (the northern kingdom), Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, and Phoenicia. The prophecies concerning them can be summarized as saying that Yahweh is the God of the whole earth, and that nations which think of themselves as secure in their own power might well be conquered by other nations, at God's command.
Chapter 6 describes Isaiah's call to be a prophet of God. Chapters 35-39 provide material about King Hezekiah. Chapters 24-34, while too complex to characterize easily, are primarily concerned with prophecies of a messiah, a person anointed or given power by God, and of the messiah's kingdom, where justice and righteousness will reign. This section is seen by Jews as describing an king, a descendant of their great king, David, who will make Judah a great kingdom and Jerusalem a truly holy city.
The prophecy continues with what can be characterized as a "book of comfort"[25] which begins in chapter 40 and completes the writing. In the first eight chapters of this book of comfort, Isaiah prophesies the deliverance of the Jews from the hands of the Babylonians and restoration of Israel as a unified nation in the land promised to them by God. Isaiah reaffirms that the Jews are indeed the chosen people of God in chapter 44 and that Yahweh is the only God for the Jews as he will show his power over the gods of Babylon in due time in chapter 46. In chapter 45:1 the Persian ruler Cyrus is named as the messiah who will overthrow the Babylonians and allow the return of Israel to their original land. The remaining chapters of the book contain prophecies of the future glory of Zion under the rule of a righteous servant (52 & 54). Chapter 53 contains a poetic prophecy about this servant which is generally considered by Christians to refer to Jesus, although Jews generally interpret it as a reference to God's people. Although there is still the mention of judgment of false worshippers and idolaters (65 & 66), the book ends with a message of hope of a righteous ruler who extends salvation to his righteous subjects living in the Lord's kingdom on earth.
Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah (Yirmiyahu [ירמיהו]) can be divided into twenty-three subsections, and its contents organized into five sub-sections:
the introduction, ch. 1
scorn for the sins of Israel, consisting of seven sections, (1.) ch. 2; (2.) ch. 3-6; (3.) ch. 7-10; (4.) ch. 11-13; (5.) ch. 14-17:18; (6.) ch. 17:19-ch. 20; (7.) ch. 21-24
a general review of all nations, foreseeing their destruction, in two sections, (1.) ch. 46-49; (2.) ch. 25; with an historical appendix of three sections, (1.) ch. 26; (2.) ch. 27; (3.) ch. 28, 29
two sections picturing the hopes of better times, (1.) ch. 30, 31; (2.) ch. 32,33; to which is added an historical appendix in three sections, (1.) ch. 34:1-7; (2.) ch. 34:8-22; (3.) ch. 35
the conclusion, in two sections, (1.) ch. 36; (2.) ch. 45.
In Egypt, after an interval, Jeremiah is supposed to have added three sections, viz., ch. 37-39; 40-43; and 44. The principal messianic prophecies are found in 23:1-8; 31:31-40; and 33:14-26.
Jeremiah's prophecies are noted for the frequent repetitions found in them of the same words, phrases, and imagery. They cover the period of about 30 years. They are not in chronological order.
Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel (Yehezq'el [יחזקאל]) contains three distinct sections.
the Judgment on Israel - Ezekiel makes a series of denunciations against his fellow Judeans ( 3:22-24), warning them of the certain destruction of Jerusalem, in opposition to the words of the false prophets (4:1-3). The symbolic acts, by which the extremities to which Jerusalem would be reduced are described in Chapters 4 and 5, show his intimate acquaintance with the levitical legislation. (See, for example, Exodus 22:30; Deuteronomy 14:21; Leviticus 5:2; 7:18,24; 17:15; 19:7; 22:8)
prophecies against various neighboring nations, the Ammonites ( Ezek. 25:1-7), the Moabites ( 25:8-11), the Edomites ( 25:12-14), the Philistines ( 25:15-17), Tyre and Sidon ( 26-28), and against Egypt (29-32)
prophecies delivered after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II: the triumphs of Israel and of the kingdom of God on earth ( Ezek. 33-39 ); Messianic times, and the establishment and prosperity of the kingdom of God ( 40-48).
Twelve Minor Prophets
The Twelve, Trei Asar (תרי עשר), also called the Twelve Minor Prophets
Hosea, Hoshea (הושע)
Joel, Yoel (יואל)
Amos, Amos (עמוס)
Obadiah, Ovadyah (עבדיה)
Jonah, Yonah (יונה)
Micah, Mikhah (מיכה)
Nahum, Nahum (נחום)
Habakkuk, Havakuk (חבקוק)
Zephaniah, Tsefanya (צפניה)
Haggai, Khagay (חגי)
Zechariah, Zekharyah (זכריה)
Malachi, Malakhi (מלאכי)
Ketuvim
Main article: Ketuvim
Books of the
Ketuvim (Hebrew Bible)
Three poetic books
Psalms
Proverbs
Job
Five Megillot
Song of Songs
Ruth
Lamentations
Ecclesiastes
Esther
Other books
Daniel
Ezra – Nehemiah
Chronicles
v
t
e
Ketuvim or Kəṯûḇîm (in Biblical Hebrew: כְּתוּבִים "writings") is the third and final section of the Tanakh. The Ketuvim are believed to have been written under the Ruach HaKodesh, but with one level less authority than that of prophecy.[26]
The poetic books
In Masoretic manuscripts (and some printed editions), Psalms, Proverbs and Job are presented in a special two-column form emphasizing the parallel stitches in the verses, which are a function of their poetry. Collectively, these three books are known as Sifrei Emet (an acronym of the titles in Hebrew, איוב, משלי, תהלים yields Emet אמ"ת, which is also the Hebrew for "truth").
These three books are also the only ones in Tanakh with a special system of cantillation notes that are designed to emphasize parallel stichs within verses. However, the beginning and end of the book of Job are in the normal prose system.
The five scrolls (Hamesh Megillot)
The five relatively short books of Song of Songs, Book of Ruth, the Book of Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Book of Esther are collectively known as the Hamesh Megillot (Five Megillot). These are the latest books collected and designated as "authoritative" in the Jewish canon even though they were not complete until the 2nd century CE.[27]
Other books
Besides the three poetic books and the five scrolls, the remaining books in Ketuvim are Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles. Although there is no formal grouping for these books in the Jewish tradition, they nevertheless share a number of distinguishing characteristics:
Their narratives all openly describe relatively late events (i.e. the Babylonian captivity and the subsequent restoration of Zion).
The Talmudic tradition ascribes late authorship to all of them.
Two of them (Daniel and Ezra) are the only books in Tanakh with significant portions in Aramaic.
Order of the books
The following list presents the books of Ketuvim in the order they appear in most printed editions. It also divides them into three subgroups based on the distinctiveness of Sifrei Emet and Hamesh Megillot.
The Three Poetic Books (Sifrei Emet)
Tehillim (Psalms) תְהִלִּים
Mishlei (Book of Proverbs) מִשְלֵי
Iyyôbh (Book of Job) אִיּוֹב
The Five Megillot (Hamesh Megillot)
Shīr Hashshīrīm (Song of Songs) or (Song of Solomon) שִׁיר הַשׁשִׁירִים (Passover)
Rūth (Book of Ruth) רוּת (Shābhû‘ôth)
Eikhah (Lamentations) איכה (Ninth of Av) [Also called Kinnot in Hebrew.]
Qōheleth (Ecclesiastes) קהלת (Sukkôth)
Estēr (Book of Esther) אֶסְתֵר (Pûrîm)
Other books
Dānî’ēl (Book of Daniel) דָּנִיֵּאל
‘Ezrā (Book of Ezra-Book of Nehemiah) עזרא
Divrei ha-Yamim (Chronicles) דברי הימים
The Jewish textual tradition never finalized the order of the books in Ketuvim. The Babylonian Talmud (Bava Batra 14b-15a) gives their order as Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Daniel, Scroll of Esther, Ezra, Chronicles.[28]
In Tiberian Masoretic codices, including the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, and often in old Spanish manuscripts as well, the order is Chronicles, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Esther, Daniel, Ezra.[29]
Canonization
The Ketuvim is the last of the three portions of the Tanakh to have been accepted as biblical canon. While the Torah may have been considered canon by Israel as early as the 5th century BCE and the Former and Latter Prophets were canonized by the 2nd century BCE, the Ketuvim was not a fixed canon until the 2nd century of the Common Era.[30]
Evidence suggests, however, that the people of Israel were adding what would become the Ketuvim to their holy literature shortly after the canonization of the prophets. As early as 132 BCE references suggest that the Ketuvim was starting to take shape, although it lacked a formal title.[31] References in the four Gospels as well as other books of the New Testament that many of these texts were both commonly known and counted as having some degree of religious authority early in the 1st century CE.
Many scholars believe that the limits of the Ketuvim as canonized scripture were determined by the Council of Jamnia c. 90 CE. Against Apion, the writing of Josephus in 95 CE, treated the text of the Hebrew Bible as a closed canon to which "... no one has ventured either to add, or to remove, or to alter a syllable..."[32] For a long time following this date the divine inspiration of Esther, the Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes was often under scrutiny.[33]
Original languages
The Tanakh was mainly written in biblical Hebrew, with some portions (Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26, Jeremiah 10:11, Daniel 2:4–7:28) in biblical Aramaic, a sister language which became the lingua franca of the Semitic world.[34]
Septuagint
Main article: Septuagint
The Septuagint, or LXX, is a translation of the Hebrew scriptures and some related texts into Koine Greek, begun in the late 3rd century BCE and completed by 132 BCE,[35][36][37] initially in Alexandria, but in time elsewhere as well.[38] It is not altogether clear which was translated when, or where; some may even have been translated twice, into different versions, and then revised.[39]
As the work of translation progressed the canon of the Greek Bible expanded. The Torah always maintained its pre-eminence as the basis of the canon but the collection of prophetic writings, based on the Nevi'im, had various hagiographical works incorporated into it. In addition, some newer books were included in the Septuagint, among these are the Maccabees and the Wisdom of Ben Sira. The Septuagint version of some Biblical books, like Daniel and Esther, are longer than those in the Jewish canon.[40] Some of these apocryphal books (e.g. the Wisdom of Solomon, and the second book of Maccabees) were not translated, but composed directly in Greek.[citation needed]
Since Late Antiquity, once attributed to a hypothetical late 1st-century Council of Jamnia, mainstream Rabbinic Judaism rejected the Septuagint as valid Jewish scriptural texts. Several reasons have been given for this. First, some mistranslations were claimed. Second, the Hebrew source texts used for the Septuagint differed from the Masoretic tradition of Hebrew texts, which was chosen as canonical by the Jewish rabbis.[41] Third, the rabbis wanted to distinguish their tradition from the newly emerging tradition of Christianity.[37][42] Finally, the rabbis claimed for the Hebrew language a divine authority, in contrast to Aramaic or Greek - even though these languages were the lingua franca of Jews during this period (and Aramaic would eventually be given the same holy language status as Hebrew).[43]
The Septuagint is the basis for the Old Latin, Slavonic, Syriac, Old Armenian, Old Georgian and Coptic versions of the Christian Old Testament.[44] The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches use most of the books of the Septuagint, while Protestant churches usually do not. After the Protestant Reformation, many Protestant Bibles began to follow the Jewish canon and exclude the additional texts, which came to be called Biblical apocrypha. The Apocrypha are included under a separate heading in the King James Version of the Bible, the basis for the Revised Standard Version.[45]
Incorporations from Theodotion
In most ancient copies of the Bible which contain the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, the Book of Daniel is not the original Septuagint version, but instead is a copy of Theodotion's translation from the Hebrew, which more closely resembles the Masoretic text. The Septuagint version was discarded in favour of Theodotion's version in the 2nd to 3rd centuries CE. In Greek-speaking areas, this happened near the end of the 2nd century, and in Latin-speaking areas (at least in North Africa), it occurred in the middle of the 3rd century. History does not record the reason for this, and St. Jerome reports, in the preface to the Vulgate version of Daniel, "This thing 'just' happened."[46] One of two Old Greek texts of the Book of Daniel has been recently rediscovered and work is ongoing in reconstructing the original form of the book.[47]
The canonical Ezra-Nehemiah is known in the Septuagint as "Esdras B", and 1 Esdras is "Esdras A". 1 Esdras is a very similar text to the books of Ezra-Nehemiah, and the two are widely thought by scholars to be derived from the same original text. It has been proposed, and is thought highly likely by scholars, that "Esdras B" – the canonical Ezra-Nehemiah – is Theodotion's version of this material, and "Esdras A" is the version which was previously in the Septuagint on its own.[46]
Final form
Some texts are found in the Septuagint but are not present in the Hebrew. These additional books are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah (which later became chapter 6 of Baruch in the Vulgate), additions to Daniel (The Prayer of Azarias, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna and Bel and the Dragon), additions to Esther, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Odes, including the Prayer of Manasseh, the Psalms of Solomon, and Psalm 151.
Some books that are set apart in the Masoretic text are grouped together. For example the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings are in the LXX one book in four parts called Βασιλειῶν ("Of Reigns"). In LXX, the Books of Chronicles supplement Reigns and it is called Paralipomenon (Παραλειπομένων—things left out). The Septuagint organizes the minor prophets as twelve parts of one Book of Twelve.[47]
The Orthodox
Old Testament [38][48][49] Greek-based
name Conventional
English name
Law
Γένεσις Génesis Genesis
Ἔξοδος Éxodos Exodus
Λευϊτικόν Leuitikón Leviticus
Ἀριθμοί Arithmoí Numbers
Δευτερονόμιον Deuteronómion Deuteronomy
History
Ἰησοῦς Nαυῆ Iêsous Nauê Joshua
Κριταί Kritaí Judges
Ῥούθ Roúth Ruth
Βασιλειῶν Αʹ[50] I Reigns I Samuel
Βασιλειῶν Βʹ II Reigns II Samuel
Βασιλειῶν Γʹ III Reigns I Kings
Βασιλειῶν Δʹ IV Reigns II Kings
Παραλειπομένων Αʹ I Paralipomenon[51] I Chronicles
Παραλειπομένων Βʹ II Paralipomenon II Chronicles
Ἔσδρας Αʹ I Esdras 1 Esdras;
Ἔσδρας Βʹ II Esdras Ezra-Nehemiah
Τωβίτ[52] Tobit Tobit or Tobias
Ἰουδίθ Ioudith Judith
Ἐσθήρ Esther Esther with additions
Μακκαβαίων Αʹ I Makkabees 1 Maccabees
Μακκαβαίων Βʹ II Makkabees 2 Maccabees
Μακκαβαίων Γʹ III Makkabees 3 Maccabees
Wisdom
Ψαλμοί Psalms Psalms
Ψαλμός ΡΝΑʹ Psalm 151 Psalm 151
Προσευχὴ Μανάσση Prayer of Manasseh Prayer of Manasseh
Ἰώβ Iōb Job
Παροιμίαι Proverbs Proverbs
Ἐκκλησιαστής Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes
Ἆσμα Ἀσμάτων Song of Songs Song of Solomon or Canticles
Σοφία Σαλoμῶντος Wisdom of Solomon Wisdom
Σοφία Ἰησοῦ Σειράχ Wisdom of Jesus the son of Seirach Sirach or Ecclesiasticus
Ψαλμοί Σαλoμῶντος Psalms of Solomon Psalms of Solomon[53]
Prophets
Δώδεκα The Twelve Minor Prophets
Ὡσηέ Αʹ I. Osëe Hosea
Ἀμώς Βʹ II. Ämōs Amos
Μιχαίας Γʹ III. Michaias Micah
Ἰωήλ Δʹ IV. Ioel Joel
Ὀβδίου Εʹ[54] V. Obdias Obadiah
Ἰωνᾶς Ϛ' VI. Ionas Jonah
Ναούμ Ζʹ VII. Naoum Nahum
Ἀμβακούμ Ηʹ VIII. Ambakum Habakkuk
Σοφονίας Θʹ IX. Sophonias Zephaniah
Ἀγγαῖος Ιʹ X. Ängaios Haggai
Ζαχαρίας ΙΑʹ XI. Zacharias Zachariah
Ἄγγελος ΙΒʹ XII. Messenger Malachi
Ἠσαΐας Hesaias Isaiah
Ἱερεμίας Hieremias Jeremiah
Βαρούχ Baruch Baruch
Θρῆνοι Lamentations Lamentations
Ἐπιστολή Ιερεμίου Epistle of Jeremiah Letter of Jeremiah
Ἰεζεκιήλ Iezekiêl Ezekiel
Δανιήλ Daniêl Daniel with additions
Appendix
Μακκαβαίων Δ' Παράρτημα IV Makkabees 4 Maccabees[55]
Christian Bibles
Main articles: Christian biblical canons and List of English Bible translations
A Christian Bible is a set of books that a Christian denomination regards as divinely inspired and thus constituting scripture. Although the Early Church primarily used the Septuagint or the Targums among Aramaic speakers, the apostles did not leave a defined set of new scriptures; instead the canon of the New Testament developed over time. Groups within Christianity include differing books as part of their sacred writings, most prominent among which are the biblical apocrypha or deuterocanonical books.
Significant versions of the English Christian Bible include the Douay-Rheims Bible, the Revised Standard Version, the Authorized King James Version, the American Standard Version, the English Standard Version, the New King James Version, and the New International Version.
Old Testament
Main article: Old Testament
The books which make up the Christian Old Testament differ between the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestants churches, with the Protestant movement accepting only those books contained in the Hebrew Bible, while Catholics and Orthodox have wider canons. A few groups consider particular translations to be divinely inspired, notably the Greek Septuagint, the Aramaic Peshitta, and the English King James Version.[citation needed]
Apocryphal or deuterocanonical books
In Eastern Christianity, translations based on the Septuagint still prevail. The Septuagint was generally abandoned in favour of the 10th-century Masoretic Text as the basis for translations of the Old Testament into Western languages.[citation needed] Some modern Western translations since the 14th century make use of the Septuagint to clarify passages in the Masoretic Text, where the Septuagint may preserve a variant reading of the Hebrew text.[citation needed] They also sometimes adopt variants that appear in other texts e.g. those discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls.[56][57]
A number of books which are part of the Peshitta or Greek Septuagint but are not found in the Hebrew (Rabbinic) Bible (i.e., among the protocanonical books) are often referred to as deuterocanonical books by Roman Catholics referring to a later secondary (i.e. deutero) canon, that canon as fixed definitively by the Council of Trent 1545-1563.[58][59] It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if Jeremiah and Lamentations are counted as one) and 27 for the New.[60]
Most Protestants term these books as apocrypha. Modern Protestant traditions do not accept the deuterocanonical books as canonical, although Protestant Bibles included them in Apocrypha sections until the 1820s. However, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches include these books as part of their Old Testament.
The Roman Catholic Church recognizes:[61]
Tobit
Judith
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
Wisdom
Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus)
Baruch
The Letter of Jeremiah (Baruch Chapter 6)
Greek Additions to Esther (Book of Esther, chapters 10:4 – 12:6)
The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children verses 1–68 (Book of Daniel, chapter 3, verses 24–90)
Susanna (Book of Daniel, chapter 13)
Bel and the Dragon (Book of Daniel, chapter 14)
In addition to those, the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches recognize the following:[citation needed]
3 Maccabees
1 Esdras
Prayer of Manasseh
Psalm 151
Russian and Georgian Orthodox Churches include:[citation needed]
2 Esdras i.e., Latin Esdras in the Russian and Georgian Bibles
There is also 4 Maccabees which is only accepted as canonical in the Georgian Church, but was included by St. Jerome in an appendix to the Vulgate, and is an appendix to the Greek Orthodox Bible, and it is therefore sometimes included in collections of the Apocrypha.[citation needed]
The Syriac Orthodox tradition includes:[citation needed]
Psalms 151–155
The Apocalypse of Baruch
The Letter of Baruch
The Ethiopian Biblical canon includes:[citation needed]
Jubilees
Enoch
1–3 Meqabyan
and some other books.
The Anglican Church uses some of the Apocryphal books liturgically. Therefore, editions of the Bible intended for use in the Anglican Church include the Deuterocanonical books accepted by the Catholic Church, plus 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh, which were in the Vulgate appendix.[citation needed]
Role in Christian theology
Further information: Sola scriptura and Christian theology
The Old Testament has always been central to the life of the Christian church. Bible scholar N.T. Wright says "Jesus himself was profoundly shaped by the scriptures."[62] He adds that the earliest Christians also searched those same scriptures in their effort to understand the earthly life of Jesus. They regarded the ancient Israelites' scriptures as having reached a climactic fulfillment in Jesus himself, generating the "new covenant" prophesied by Jeremiah.[63]
New Testament
Main article: Development of the New Testament canon
The New Testament is a collection of 27 books[64] of 4 different genres of Christian literature (Gospels, one account of the Acts of the Apostles, Epistles and an Apocalypse). Jesus is its central figure. The New Testament presupposes the inspiration of the Old Testament[65] (2 Timothy 3:16). Nearly all Christians recognize the New Testament as canonical scripture. These books can be grouped into:
The Gospels
Synoptic Gospels
Gospel According to Matthew
Gospel According to Mark
Gospel According to Luke
Gospel According to John
Acts of the Apostles
Pauline Epistles
Epistle to the Romans
First Epistle to the Corinthians
Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Epistle to the Galatians
Epistle to the Ephesians
Epistle to the Philippians
Epistle to the Colossians
First Epistle to the Thessalonians
Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
Pastoral epistles
First Epistle to Timothy
Second Epistle to Timothy
Epistle to Titus
Epistle to Philemon
Epistle to the Hebrews
General epistles, also called Catholic epistles
Epistle of James
First Epistle of Peter
Second Epistle of Peter
First Epistle of John
Second Epistle of John
Third Epistle of John
Epistle of Jude
Revelation, or the Apocalypse
The New Testament books are ordered differently in the Catholic/Protestant tradition, the Slavonic tradition, the Syriac tradition and the Ethiopian tradition.
Original language
See also: Language of the New Testament
The mainstream consensus is that the New Testament was written in a form of Koine Greek,[66][67] which was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean[68][69][70][71] from the Conquests of Alexander the Great (335–323 BC) until the evolution of Byzantine Greek (c. 600).
Historic editions
The Codex Gigas from the 13th century, held at the Royal Library in Sweden.
See also: Biblical manuscript and Textual criticism
The autographs, the Greek manuscripts written by the original authors, have not survived.[72] When ancient scribes copied earlier books, they wrote notes on the margins of the page (marginal glosses) to correct their text—especially if a scribe accidentally omitted a word or line—and to comment about the text. When later scribes were copying the copy, they were sometimes uncertain if a note was intended to be included as part of the text. Over time, different regions evolved different versions, each with its own assemblage of omissions and additions.[73]
The three main textual traditions of the Greek New Testament are sometimes called the Alexandrian text-type (generally minimalist), the Byzantine text-type (generally maximalist), and the Western text-type (occasionally wild). Together they comprise most of the ancient manuscripts.
Development of the Christian canons
Main articles: Development of the Old Testament canon and Development of the New Testament canon
The Old Testament canon entered into Christian use in the Greek Septuagint translations and original books, and their differing lists of texts. In addition to the Septuagint, Christianity subsequently added various writings that would become the New Testament. Somewhat different lists of accepted works continued to develop in antiquity. In the 4th century a series of synods produced a list of texts equal to the 39, 46(51),54, or 57 book canon of the Old Testament and to the 27-book canon of the New Testament that would be subsequently used to today, most notably the Synod of Hippo in AD 393. Also c. 400, Jerome produced a definitive Latin edition of the Bible (see Vulgate), the canon of which, at the insistence of the Pope, was in accord with the earlier Synods. With the benefit of hindsight it can be said that this process effectively set the New Testament canon, although there are examples of other canonical lists in use after this time. A definitive list did not come from an Ecumenical Council until the Council of Trent (1545–63).[74]
During the Protestant Reformation, certain reformers proposed different canonical lists to those currently in use. Though not without debate, see Antilegomena, the list of New Testament books would come to remain the same; however, the Old Testament texts present in the Septuagint but not included in the Jewish canon fell out of favor. In time they would come to be removed from most Protestant canons. Hence, in a Catholic context, these texts are referred to as deuterocanonical books, whereas in a Protestant context they are referred to as the Apocrypha, which means "hidden", the label applied to all texts excluded from the biblical canon but which were in the Septuagint. It should also be noted that Catholics and Protestants both describe certain other books, such as the Acts of Peter, as apocryphal.[citation needed]
Thus, the Protestant Old Testament of today has a 39-book canon—the number of books (though not the content) varies from the Jewish Tanakh only because of a different method of division—while the Roman Catholic Church recognizes 46 books (51 books with some books combined into 46 books) as the canonical Old Testament. The Eastern Orthodox Churches recognise 3 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151 in addition to the Catholic canon. Some include 2 Esdras. The Anglican Church also recognises a longer canon. The term "Hebrew Scriptures" is often used as being synonymous with the Protestant Old Testament, since the surviving scriptures in Hebrew include only those books, while Catholics and Orthodox include additional texts that have not survived in Hebrew. Both Catholics and Protestants have the same 27-book New Testament Canon.[75]
The New Testament writers assumed the inspiration of the Old Testament, probably earliest stated in 2 Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God".[8]
Ethiopian Orthodox canon
Main article: Ethiopian Biblical canon
The Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is wider than the canons used by most other Christian churches. There are 81 books in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible.[76] The Ethiopian Old Testament Canon includes the books found in the Septuagint accepted by other Orthodox Christians, in addition to Enoch and Jubilees which are ancient Jewish books that only survived in Ge'ez but are quoted in the New Testament,[citation needed] also Greek Ezra First and the Apocalypse of Ezra, 3 books of Meqabyan, and Psalm 151 at the end of the Psalter. The three books of Meqabyan are not to be confused with the books of Maccabees. The order of the other books is somewhat different from other groups', as well. The Old Testament follows the Septuagint order for the Minor Prophets rather than the Jewish order.[citation needed]
Divine inspiration
Main articles: Biblical inspiration, Biblical literalism, Biblical infallibility, and Biblical inerrancy
The Second Epistle to Timothy says that, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God." (2 Timothy 3:16-3:17)[77] Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, that God, through the Holy Spirit, intervened and influenced the words, message, and collation of the Bible. For many Christians the Bible is also infallible, and is incapable of error in matters of faith and practice, but not necessarily in historic or scientific matters. A related, but distinguishable belief is that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, without error in any aspect, spoken by God and written down in its perfect form by humans. Within these broad beliefs there are many schools of hermeneutics. "Bible scholars claim that discussions about the Bible must be put into its context within church history and then into the context of contemporary culture."[63] Fundamentalist Christians are associated with the doctrine of biblical literalism, where the Bible is not only inerrant, but the meaning of the text is clear to the average reader.[78]
Belief in sacred texts is attested to in Jewish antiquity,[79][80] and this belief can also be seen in the earliest of Christian writings. Various texts of the Bible mention divine agency in relation to its writings.[81] In their book A General Introduction to the Bible, Norman Geisler and William Nix wrote: "The process of inspiration is a mystery of the providence of God, but the result of this process is a verbal, plenary, inerrant, and authoritative record."[82] Most evangelical biblical scholars[83][84][85] associate inspiration with only the original text; for example some American Protestants adhere to the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy which asserted that inspiration applied only to the autographic text of Scripture.[86] Among adherents of Biblical literalism, a minority, such as the King-James-Only Movement, extend the claim of inerrancy only to a particular translation.[citation needed]
Versions and translations
Further information: Bible translations and List of Bible translations by language
A Bible handwritten in Latin, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. This Bible was transcribed in Belgium in 1407 for reading aloud in a monastery.
The original texts of the Tanakh were mainly in Hebrew, with some portions in Aramaic. In addition to the authoritative Masoretic Text, Jews still refer to the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and the Targum Onkelos, an Aramaic version of the Bible. There are several different ancient versions of the Tanakh in Hebrew, mostly differing by spelling, and the traditional Jewish version is based on the version known as Aleppo Codex. Even in this version there are words which are traditionally read differently from written, because the oral tradition is considered more fundamental than the written one, and presumably mistakes had been made in copying the text over the generations.[citation needed]
The primary biblical text for early Christians was the Septuagint. In addition, they translated the Hebrew Bible into several other languages. Translations were made into Syriac, Coptic, Ge'ez and Latin, among other languages. The Latin translations were historically the most important for the Church in the West, while the Greek-speaking East continued to use the Septuagint translations of the Old Testament and had no need to translate the New Testament.[citation needed]
The earliest Latin translation was the Old Latin text, or Vetus Latina, which, from internal evidence, seems to have been made by several authors over a period of time. It was based on the Septuagint, and thus included books not in the Hebrew Bible.[citation needed]
Pope Damasus I assembled the first list of books of the Bible at the Council of Rome in AD 382. He commissioned Saint Jerome to produce a reliable and consistent text by translating the original Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin. This translation became known as the Latin Vulgate Bible and in 1546 at the Council of Trent was declared by the Roman Catholic Church to be the only authentic and official Bible in the Latin Rite.[citation needed]
Since the Protestant Reformation, Bible translations for many languages have been made. The Bible continues to be translated to new languages, largely by Christian organisations such as Wycliffe Bible Translators, New Tribes Mission and the Bible society.[citation needed]
Bible translations, worldwide (as of 2011)[87] Number Statistic
6,800 Approximate number of languages spoken in the world today
1,500 Number of translations into new languages currently in progress
1,223 Number of languages with a translation of the New Testament
471 Number of languages with a translation of the Bible (Protestant Canon)
Biblical studies
Main articles: Biblical studies and Biblical criticism
Biblical criticism refers to the investigation of the Bible as a text, and addresses questions such as authorship, dates of composition, and authorial intention. It is not the same as criticism of the Bible, which is an assertion against the Bible being a source of information or ethical guidance, or observations that the Bible may have translation errors.[88]
Higher criticism
Main articles: Higher criticism and Lower criticism
In the 17th century Thomas Hobbes collected the current evidence to conclude outright that Moses could not have written the bulk of the Torah. Shortly afterwards the philosopher Baruch Spinoza published a unified critical analysis, arguing that the problematic passages were not isolated cases that could be explained away one by one, but pervasive throughout the five books, concluding that it was "clearer than the sun at noon that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses . . ."[89][90] Despite determined opposition from Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, the views of Hobbes and Spinoza gained increasing acceptance amongst scholars.
Archaeological and historical research
Main articles: Biblical archaeology school and The Bible and history
Biblical archaeology is the archaeology that relates to and sheds light upon the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Greek Scriptures (or "New Testament"). It is used to help determine the lifestyle and practices of people living in biblical times. There are a wide range of interpretations in the field of biblical archaeology. One broad division includes biblical maximalism which generally takes the view that most of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible is based on history although it is presented through the religious viewpoint of its time. It is considered the opposite of biblical minimalism which considers the Bible a purely post-exilic (5th century BCE and later) composition. Even among those scholars who adhere to biblical minimalism, the Bible is a historical document containing first-hand information on the Hellenistic and Roman eras, and there is universal scholarly consensus that the events of the 6th century BCE Babylonian captivity have a basis in history.
The historicity of the biblical account of the history of ancient Israel and Judah of the 10th to 7th-centuries BCE is disputed in scholarship. The biblical account of the 8th to 7th centuries BCE is widely, but not universally, accepted as historical, while the verdict on the earliest period of the United Monarchy (10th-century BCE) and the historicity of David is unclear. Archaeological evidence providing information on this period, such as the Tel Dan Stele, can potentially be decisive. The biblical account of events of the Exodus from Egypt in the Torah, and the migration to the Promised Land and the period of Judges are not considered historical in scholarship.[91][92] Regarding the New Testament, the setting being the Roman Empire in the 1st century CE, the historical context is well established. There has been some debate on the historicity of Jesus, but the mainstream opinion is that Jesus was one of several known historical itinerant preachers in 1st-century Roman Judea, teaching in the context of the religious upheavals and sectarianism of Second Temple Judaism.[citation needed]
Criticism
Main article: Criticism of the Bible
In modern times, the view that the Bible should be accepted as historically accurate and as a reliable guide to morality has been questioned by many mainstream academics in the field of biblical criticism. Most Christian groups claim that the Bible is inspired by God, and some oppose interpretations of the Bible that are not traditional or "plain reading". Some groups within the most conservative Protestant circles believe that the Authorized King James Version is the only accurate English translation of the Bible, and accept it as infallible. They are generally referred to as "King James Only". Many within Christian fundamentalism—as well as much of Orthodox Judaism—strongly support the idea that the Bible is a historically accurate record of actual events and a primary source of moral guidance.
In addition to concerns about morality, inerrancy, or historicity, there remain some questions of which books should be included in the Bible (see canon of scripture). Jews discount the New Testament, most Christians deny the legitimacy of the New Testament apocrypha, and a view sometimes referred to as Jesusism does not affirm the scriptural authority of any biblical text other than the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels.
See also
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Apr 15, 2013 23:33:14 GMT -5
Post by Tina on Apr 15, 2013 23:33:14 GMT -5
The Old Testament is a Christian term for a collection of religious writings of ancient Israel[1] that form the first section of Christian Bibles, in contrast to the Christian New Testament. The books included in the Old Testament (the Old Testament canon) varies markedly between Christian denominations; Protestants accept only the Hebrew Bible's canon but divide it into 39 books, while Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, Coptic and Ethiopian churches recognise a considerably larger collection.[2]
The books can be broadly divided into the Pentateuch, which tells how God selected Israel to be his chosen people; the history books telling the history of the Israelites from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon; the poetic and "Wisdom" books dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world; and the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God. For the Israelites who were its original authors and readers these books told of their own unique relationship with God and their relationship with proselytes, but the overarching messianic nature of Christianity has led Christians from the very beginning of the faith to see the Old Testament as a preparation for the New Covenant and New Testament.
Contents
1 Content
1.1 Table
2 Composition
3 Themes
4 From scripture to canon: formation of the Old Testament
4.1 Greek, Latin and Protestant Old Testaments
4.2 Other versions
5 Christian theology and the Old Testament
6 See also
7 References
8 Bibliography
9 Further reading
10 External links
Content
Main articles: Biblical canon and Development of the Old Testament canon
The Old Testament contains 39 (Protestant) or 46 (Catholic) or more (Orthodox and other) books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch (meaning "five books"), the historical books, the "wisdom" books and the prophets.[3]
Table
The table uses the spellings and names present in modern editions of the Bible, such as the New American Bible Revised Edition, Revised Standard Version and English Standard Version. The spelling and names in both the 1609–1610 Douay Old Testament (and in the 1582 Rheims New Testament) and the 1749 revision by Bishop Challoner (the edition currently in print used by many Catholics, and the source of traditional Catholic spellings in English) and in the Septuagint differ from those spellings and names used in modern editions which are derived from the Hebrew Masoretic text.[4]
For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. For the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the traditional spelling when referring to them in the New Testament, such as "Esaias" (for Isaiah). In the spirit of ecumenism more recent Catholic translations (e.g. the New American Bible, Jerusalem Bible, and ecumenical translations used by Catholics, such as the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition) use the same "standardized" (King James Version) spellings and names as Protestant Bibles (e.g. 1 Chronicles as opposed to the Douaic 1 Paralipomenon, 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings instead of 1-4 Kings) in those books which are universally considered canonical, the protocanonicals. The Talmud in Bava Batra 14b gives a different order for the books in Nevi'im and Ketuvim. This order is also cited in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7:15. The order of the books of the Torah are universal through all denominations of Judaism and Christianity.
The disputed books, included in one canon but not in others, are often called the Biblical apocrypha, a term that is sometimes used specifically to describe the books in the Catholic and Orthodox canons that are absent from the Jewish Masoretic Text and most modern Protestant Bibles. Catholics, following the Canon of Trent (1546), describe these books as deuterocanonical, while Greek Orthodox Christians, following the Synod of Jerusalem (1672), use the traditional name of anagignoskomena, meaning "that which is to be read." They are present in a few historic Protestant versions; the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version.[5]
Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon.
Tanakh
(Jewish Bible)
(24 books)[6]
Books in bold are part of the Ketuvim Protestant
Old Testament
(39 books) Catholic
Old Testament
(46 books) Eastern Orthodox
Old Testament
(51 books) Original language
Torah
Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses
Bereishit Genesis Genesis Genesis Hebrew
Shemot Exodus Exodus Exodus Hebrew
Vayikra Leviticus Leviticus Leviticus Hebrew
Bamidbar Numbers Numbers Numbers Hebrew
Devarim Deuteronomy Deuteronomy Deuteronomy Hebrew
Nevi'im (Prophets)
Historical books
Yehoshua Joshua Joshua (Josue) Joshua (Iesous) Hebrew
Shofetim Judges Judges Judges Hebrew
Rut (Ruth)[7] Ruth Ruth Ruth Hebrew
Shemuel 1 Samuel 1 Samuel (1 Kings)[8] 1 Samuel (1 Kingdoms)[9] Hebrew
2 Samuel 2 Samuel (2 Kings)[8] 2 Samuel (2 Kingdoms)[9] Hebrew
Melakhim 1 Kings 1 Kings (3 Kings)[8] 1 Kings (3 Kingdoms)[9] Hebrew
2 Kings 2 Kings (4 Kings)[8] 2 Kings (4 Kingdoms)[9] Hebrew
Divrei Hayamim (Chronicles)[7] 1 Chronicles 1 Chronicles (1 Paralipomenon) 1 Chronicles (1 Paralipomenon) Hebrew
2 Chronicles 2 Chronicles (2 Paralipomenon) 2 Chronicles (2 Paralipomenon) Hebrew
1 Esdras Hebrew
Ezra-Nehemiah[7] Ezra Ezra (1 Esdras) Ezra (2 Esdras)[9][10] Hebrew and Aramaic
Nehemiah Nehemiah (2 Esdras) Nehemiah (2 Esdras)[9][10] Hebrew
Tobit (Tobias) Tobit (Tobias) Aramaic (and Hebrew?)
Judith Judith Hebrew
Esther[7] Esther Esther[11] Esther[11] Hebrew
1 Maccabees (1 Machabees)[12] 1 Maccabees Hebrew
2 Maccabees (2 Machabees)[12] 2 Maccabees Greek
3 Maccabees Greek
4 Maccabees[13] Greek
Ketuvim (Writings) Wisdom books
Iyov (Job)[7] Job Job Job Hebrew
Tehillim (Psalms)[7] Psalms Psalms Psalms[14] Hebrew
Prayer of Manasseh Greek
Mishlei (Proverbs)[7] Proverbs Proverbs Proverbs Hebrew
Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes)[7] Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes Hebrew
Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs)[7] Song of Solomon Song of Songs (Canticle of Canticles) Song of Songs (Aisma Aismaton) Hebrew
Wisdom Wisdom Greek
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) Sirach Hebrew
Nevi'im (Latter Prophets) Major prophets
Yeshayahu Isaiah Isaiah (Isaias) Isaiah Hebrew
Yirmeyahu Jeremiah Jeremiah (Jeremias) Jeremiah Hebrew and Aramaic
Eikhah (Lamentations)[7] Lamentations Lamentations Lamentations Hebrew
Baruch[15] Baruch[15] Hebrew[16]
Letter of Jeremiah[17] Greek (majority view)[18]
Yekhezqel Ezekiel Ezekiel (Ezechiel) Ezekiel Hebrew
Daniel[7] Daniel Daniel[19] Daniel[19] Hebrew and Aramaic
Twelve Minor Prophets
The Twelve
or
Trei Asar Hosea Hosea (Osee) Hosea Hebrew
Joel Joel Joel Hebrew
Amos Amos Amos Hebrew
Obadiah Obadiah (Abdias) Obadiah Hebrew
Jonah Jonah (Jonas) Jonah Hebrew
Micah Micah (Micheas) Micah Hebrew
Nahum Nahum Nahum Hebrew
Habakkuk Habakkuk (Habacuc) Habakkuk Hebrew
Zephaniah Zephaniah (Sophonias) Zephaniah Hebrew
Haggai Haggai (Aggeus) Haggai Hebrew
Zechariah Zechariah (Zacharias) Zechariah Hebrew
Malachi Malachi (Malachias) Malachi Hebrew
Several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the Latin Vulgate, formerly the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.
Books in the Appendix to the Vulgate Bible
Name in Vulgate
Name in Eastern Orthodox use
3 Esdras 1 Esdras
4 Esdras
Prayer of Manasseh Prayer of Manasseh
Psalm of David when he slew Goliath (Psalm 151) Psalm 151
Composition
The first five books - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, book of Numbers and Deuteronomy - comprise the Torah, the story of Israel from the Genesis creation narrative to the death of Moses. Few scholars today doubt that it reached its present form in the Persian period (538-332 BC), and that its authors were the elite of exilic returnees who controlled the Temple at that time.[20] The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings follow, forming a history of Israel from the Conquest of Canaan to the Siege of Jerusalem c.587 BC: there is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work (the so-called "Deuteronomistic history") during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC.[21] The two Books of Chronicles cover much the same material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC.[22] Chronicles links with the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which were probably finished during the 3rd century BC.[23] Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two (Catholic Old Testament) to four (Orthodox) Books of Maccabees, written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.
The history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament. Of the remainder, the books of the various prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the twelve "minor prophets" - were written between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, with the exceptions of Jonah and Daniel, which were written much later.[24] The "wisdom" and other books - Job, Proverbs and so on - date from between the 5th century BC and the 2nd or 1st BC, with the exception of some of the Psalms.[25]
Themes
God is consistently depicted as the one who created the world and guides its history. He is not, however, consistently presented as the only god who exists. Nevertheless, he is always depicted as the only god whom Israel is to worship, and both Jews and Christians have always interpreted the bible as an affirmation of the oneness of God.[26]
The Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel, but includes instructions for proselytes as well. This relationship is expressed in the biblical covenant (contract) between the two, received by Moses. The law codes in books such as Exodus and especially Deuteronomy are the terms of the contract: Israel swears faithfulness to Yahweh, and God swears to be Israel's special protector and supporter.[26]
Further themes in the Old Testament include salvation, redemption, judgement, obedience and disobedience, faith and faithfulness, among others. Throughout there is a strong emphasis on ethics and ritual purity, both of which God demands, although some of the prophets and wisdom writers seem to question this, arguing that God demands social justice above purity, and perhaps does not even care about purity at all. The Old Testament's moral code enjoins fairness, intervention on behalf of the vulnerable, and the duty of those in power to administer justice righteously. It forbids murder, bribery and corruption, deceitful trading, and many sexual misdemeanors. All morality is traced back to God, who is the source of all goodness.[27]
The problem of evil plays a large part in the Old Testament. The problem the Old Testament authors faced was that a good God must have had just reason for bringing disaster (meaning notably, but not only, the Babylonian exile) upon his people. The theme is played out, with many variations, in books as different as the histories of Kings and Chronicles, the prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and in the wisdom books like Job and Ecclesiastes.[27]
From scripture to canon: formation of the Old Testament
Main articles: Books of the Bible and Biblical canon
The interrelationship between various significant ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament, according to the Encyclopaedia Biblica (1903) Some manuscripts are identified by their siglum. LXX here denotes the original Septuagint.
Greek, Latin and Protestant Old Testaments
See also: Development of the Hebrew Bible canon, Development of the Old Testament canon, Septuagint, and Books of the Latin Vulgate
The process by which scriptures became canons and Bibles was a long one, and its complexities account for the many different Old Testaments which exist today. By about the 5th century BC Jews saw the five books of the Torah (the Old Testament Pentateuch) as having authoritative status; by the 2nd century BC the Prophets had a similar status, although without quite the same level of respect as the Torah; beyond that, the Jewish scriptures were fluid, with different groups seeing authority in different books.[28]
The scriptures were first translated into Greek in Alexandria between about 280–130 BC.[29] These early Greek translations – supposedly commissioned by Ptolemy Philadelphus – were called the Septuagint (Latin: "Seventy") from the supposed number of translators involved (hence its abbreviation "LXX"). This Septuagint remains the basis of the Old Testament in the Eastern Orthodox Church,[30] but it varies in many places from the Masoretic Text and includes numerous books no longer considered canonical in other traditions: 1st & 2nd Esdras, Judith, Tobit, 3rd & 4th Maccabees, the Book of Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch.[31] Early modern Biblical criticism typically explained these variations as intentional or ignorant corruptions by the Alexandrian scholars, but most recent scholarship holds it is simply based on early source texts differing from those later used by the Masoretes in their work.
The Septuagint was originally used by Jews so thoroughly Hellenized that their knowledge of Greek was better than their Hebrew. The ever-increasing number of gentile converts to Christianity created a growing need for translations of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek and Latin. The three most acclaimed early interpreters were Aquila of Sinope, Symmachus the Ebionite, and Theodotion; in his Hexapla, Origen placed his edition of the Hebrew text beside its transcription in Greek letters and four parallel translations: Aquila's, Symmachus's, the Septuagint's, and Theodotion's. The so-called "fifth" and "sixth editions" were two other Greek translations supposedly miraculously discovered by students outside the towns of Jericho and Nicopolis: these were added to Origen's Octapla.[32]
In 331, Constantine I commissioned Eusebius to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople. Athanasius[33] recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles for Constans. Little else is known, though there is plenty of speculation. For example, it is speculated that this may have provided motivation for canon lists, and that Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus are examples of these Bibles. Together with the Peshitta and Codex Alexandrinus, these are the earliest extant Christian Bibles.[34] There is no evidence among the canons of the First Council of Nicaea of any determination on the canon, however, Jerome (347-420), in his Prologue to Judith, makes the claim that the Book of Judith was "found by the Nicene Council to have been counted among the number of the Sacred Scriptures".[35]
In Western Christianity or Christianity in the Western half of the Roman Empire, Latin had displaced Greek as the common language of the early Christians, and about 400 AD Pope Damasus I commissioned Jerome, the leading scholar of the day, to produce an updated Latin bible to replace the Vetus Latina. Sometime in the centuries after the Septuagint (exactly when is disputed) the Rabbis (Jewish religious scholars and teachers) defined the Jewish canon, which is a much shorter canon of only 24 books, and Jerome used it (commonly called the Hebrew Bible) instead of the Greek Old Testament as the basis for his translation, citing "Hebraica Veritas" (Latin: Truth of the Hebrew). His Vulgate (i.e. common language) Old Testament became the standard bible used in the Western Church, specifically as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, while the Churches in the East continued, and still continue, to use the Septuagint.[36]
Jerome had wanted to drop all the books that did not appear in the Hebrew Bible, but St Augustine, a bishop and another great scholar of the day, opposed him and won the argument, notably at the Council of Carthage on 28 August 397. In the 16th century the Protestant reformers reopened the debate, and sided with Jerome, but only for their own congregations: yet although Protestant Bibles now have only those books that appear in the Jewish Bible, they have them in the order of the Greek Bible.[37] The Catholic Church, largely in reaction to this attack on tradition, officially adopted a canon, the Canon of Trent, which can be seen as following Augustine's Carthaginian Councils or the Council of Rome,[38] and includes most, but not all, of the Septuagint (3 Ezra and 3 and 4 Maccabees are excluded);[39] the Anglicans after the English Civil War adopted a compromise position, restoring the 39 Articles and keeping the extra books that were excluded by the Westminster Confession of Faith, but only for private study and for reading in churches, while Lutherans kept them for private study, gathered in an appendix as Biblical Apocrypha.[37]
Other versions
While the Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Hebrew Bible are the best known Old Testaments, there were others. At much the same time as the Septuagint was being produced, translations were being made into Aramaic, the language of Jews living in Palestine and the Near East and likely the language of Jesus: these are called the Aramaic Targums, from a word meaning "translation", and were used to help Jewish congregations understand their scriptures. For Aramaic Christians there was a Syriac translation of the Hebrew Bible called the Peshitta, as well as versions in Coptic (the everyday language of Egypt in the first Christian centuries, descended from ancient Egyptian), Ethiopic (for use in the Ethiopian church, one of the oldest Christian churches), Armenian (Armenia was the first to adopt Christianity as its official religion), and Arabic.[40]
Christian theology and the Old Testament
Main article: Christian views on the old covenant
Christianity is based on the claim that the historical Jesus was also the supernatural Christ, the Saviour. This claim is in turn based on Jewish understandings of the meaning of the Hebrew term messiah, which, like the Greek "Christ", means "anointed". In the Hebrew Scriptures it describes a king anointed with oil on his accession to the throne: he becomes "The LORD's anointed" or Yahweh's Anointed. By the time of Jesus, some Jews expected that a flesh and blood descendant of David (the "Son of David") would come to establish a real Jewish kingdom in Jerusalem, instead of the Roman province; others stressed the Son of Man, a distinctly other-worldly figure who would appear as a judge at the end of time; and some harmonised the two by expecting a this-worldly messianic kingdom which would last for a set period and be followed by the other-worldly age or World to Come. Some thought the Messiah was already present, but unrecognised due to Israel's sins; some thought that the Messiah would be announced by a fore-runner, probably Elijah (as promised by the prophet Malachi, whose book now ends the Old Testament and precedes Mark's account of John the Baptist). None predicted a Messiah who suffers and dies for the sins of all the people.[41] The story of Jesus' death therefore involved a profound shift in meaning from the tradition of the Old Testament.[42]
The name "Old Testament" reflects Christianity's understanding of itself as the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophesy of a New Covenant (which is similar to "testament" and often conflated) to replace the existing covenant between God and Israel (Jeremiah 31:31).[1] The emphasis, however, has shifted from Judaism's understanding of the covenant as an eternal contract between God and Israel to one between God and those who are "in Christ".[43]
See also
Abrogation of Old Covenant laws
Book of Job in Byzantine illuminated manuscripts
Books of the Bible
Covenant (biblical)
Expounding of the Law
Hebrew Bible: Timeline
Law and Gospel
List of ancient legal codes
List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts
Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible
Quotations from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament
Supersessionism
Biblical narratives and the Quran
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.111 Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada and the Churches of Christ.[25][26]:14–15[27]:123