Ancient of Days

A name for God in Aramaic: Atik Yomin; in the Greek Septuagint: Palaios Hemeron; and in the Vulgate: Antiquus Dierum commonly known as "The Ancient of Days".

The title "Ancient of Days" has been used as a source of inspiration in art and music, denoting the creator's aspects of eternity combined with perfection. William Blake's watercolour relief etching entitled "The Ancient of Days" is one such example.

Judaism
There are several biblical references for this term, including:

⁹ "As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. 10 A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.
—Daniel 7:8-10 ESV)

This term appears three times in the book of Daniel (7:9, 13, 22), and is used in the sense of God being eternal.

The most powerful effect of this particular Name of God stems from the Jewish mystical book the Zohar, the seminal document of Kabbalah that stems from 13th century Spain. In the Kaballah there is mention of the Ancient of Ancients, also interpreted as En Sof or the unmanifested God. The Ancient of Days is the maifestation of the Ancient of Ancients in space and time. The Kaballah goes into great detail describing the White Head of God and ultimately the emanation of its personality or attributes.

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Lucifer

In modern and late Medieval Christian thought, Lucifer (Hebrew: הילל heylel – Lucifer, "light-bearer" shining one, morning star, 'Helel' describing the king of Babylon) from (Hebrew: הָלַל halal "to shine," "to flash forth light," "to be boastful") is a fallen angel commonly associated with Satan, the embodiment of evil and enemy of God. Lucifer is generally considered, based on the influence of Christian literature and legend, to have been a prominent archangel in heaven (although some contexts say he was a cherub or a seraph), prior to having been motivated by pride to rebel against God. When the rebellion failed, Lucifer was cast out of heaven, along with a third of the heavenly host, and came to reside on the world.

Lucifer was originally a Latin word meaning "light-bearer" (from lux, "light", and ferre, "to bear, bring"), a Roman astrological term for the "Morning Star", the planet Venus.

"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
—Genesis 3:15 ESV

According to David J. Stewart

The reason Lucifer has been understood to be a proper name of the Devil has to do with the Latin translation of the Hebrew term Helel. This word was understood, by some, to be a proper name for the king of Babylon. It means "light bearer," or Lucifero in Latin. The Latin title became a popular name for this evil figure. When the King James translators rendered the Hebrew term into English, they kept the popular term "Lucifer" for the Devil.

The word Lucifer was the direct translation of the Greek eosphorus ("dawn-bearer"; cf. Greek phosphorus, "light-bearer") used by Jerome in the Vulgate. In that passage, Isaiah 14:12, it referred to one of the popular honorific titles of a Babylonian king; however, later interpretations of the text, and the influence of embellishments in works such as Dante's The Divine Comedy and John Milton's Paradise Lost, led to the common idea that Lucifer was a poetic appellation of Satan.

A 2nd-century sculpture of the moon goddess Selene accompanied by Hesperus and Phosphorus (pictured left): the Morning star was later Latinized as "Lucifer". Lucifer is a poetic name for the "morning star", a close translation of the Greek eosphoros, the "dawn-bringer", which appears in the Odyssey and in Hesiod's Theogony.

A classic Roman use of "Lucifer" appears in Virgil's Georgics (III, 324-5):

"Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent"

"Let us hasten, when first the Morning Star appears, To the cool pastures, while the day is new, while the grass is dewy"

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Jerusalem

The holiest city of Judaism (since the 10th century BCE) and some denominations of Christianity (since the 5th century CE) is the city of Jerusalem.

A heterogeneous city, Jerusalem represents a wide range of national, religious, and socioeconomic groups. The section called the "Old City" is surrounded by walls and consists of four quarters: Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim.

³⁷ "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. ³⁸ Look, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
—Matthew 23:37-39

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Jerusalem has long been embedded into the religious consciousness of the Jewish people. Jews have always studied and personalized the struggle by King David to capture Jerusalem and his desire to build the Jewish temple there, as described in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Psalms. Many of King David's yearnings about Jerusalem have been adapted into popular prayers and songs.

יְהוֹשׁוּעַ Yĕhowshuwa` Joshua or Jehoshua = "Jehovah is salvation" (A Hebrew name for Jesus, contracted in Aramaic to Yeshua. Variant spellings יהושוע and יהושע
—Matthew 23:37-39

The status of the united Jerusalem as Israel's capital is not widely recognized by the international community, and Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem is particularly controversial.

Only two countries have embassies in Jerusalem — Costa Rica and El Salvador. Of the 184 nations with which America has diplomatic relations, Israel is the only one where the United States does not recognize the capital or have its embassy located in that city. The U.S. embassy, like most others, is in Tel Aviv, 40 miles from Jerusalem. The United States maintains a consulate in east Jerusalem that deals with Palestinians in the territories and works independently of the embassy, reporting directly to Washington. While Congress has voted to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, successive Presidents, the final arbiters of the nation's foreign policy, have refused to do so.[1]

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Bartholomew

Often often identified with the Nathanael, Bartholomew was born in Cana of Galilee (John 21:2).

⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth" Philip said to him, "Come and see."
—John 1:45-46

"Bartholomew" (Greek: Βαρθολομαῖος Bartholomaios "son of Tolmai" or "from Ptolemais" (of Aramaic origin: בַּר bar (Aramaic) son + תַּלְמַי Talmai = "furrowed") from תֶּלֶם telem = "furrow," from an unused root word meaining "to accumulate," often identified with the Nathanael (Greek Ναθαναήλ Nathanaēl of Hebrew origin נְתַנְאֵל Nĕthane'l "given of God") of John 1:45-1:51.

He was listed as one of The Twelve Apostles (Matthew 10:2-4; Acts 1:13).

He was honest

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!"
—John 1:47

and he was faithful (John 1:49).

Jesus told him "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
—John 1:50:51

He was a witness of the miracle catch of fish and ate with Jesus after his resurrection.

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Witchcraft

Witchcraft (from Old English wiccecræft "sorcery , necromancy"), in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or magical powers.

All forms of the occult – astrology, divination, fortune-telling, hypnotism, magic, necromancy and so forth – are prohibited by God.

10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you.
—Deuteronomy 18:10-12

26 "You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes. 27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. 28You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD.
—Leviticus 19:26-28, 31; 20:6, 27
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A witch (from Old English masculine wicca, feminine wicce, is a practitioner of witchcraft. The Online Etymology Dictionary states a "possible connection to Gothic weihs "holy" and Ger. weihan "consecrate," and writes, "the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents." While mythological witches are often supernatural creatures, historically many people have been accused of witchcraft, or have claimed to be witches. In "Some Reflections on the Relationship Magic-Religion", author H. S. Versnel writes: "Anthropologists in particular have argued that no meaningful contrast between religion and magic can be gained from this approach and that our notion 'magic' is a modern-western biased construct which does not fit representations of other cultures." Witchcraft still exists in a number of belief systems, and indeed there are many today who self-identify with the term "witch."

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Joseph

In the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), Joseph appears in the Book of Genesis (Hebrew: יוסף Yowceph means "The Lord increases", or "Jehovah has added") later called Zaphnathpaaneah by Pharaoh (Hebrew: פנת פענח Tsophnath Pa`neach Gen 41:45 "treasury of the glorious rest" of Egyptian origin), the eleventh son of Jacob, born of Rachel.

Joseph is one of the best-known figures in the Hebrew Bible, famous for his coat of many colours and his God-given ability to interpret dreams. Owing to jealousy from his brothers, he was sold as a slave, eventually working under the Egyptian Potiphar (Hebrew: פוטיפר Powtiyphar "belonging to the sun," of Egyptian derivation), but was later freed, and became the chief adviser (vizier) to the Egyptian Pharaoh around 1600 BC.

According to Genesis, Joseph was the elder of the two sons of Jacob by Rachel (Gen. 30:23, 24), who, on the occasion of his birth, said, "The Lord shall add [Heb. yoseph] to me another son" (Gen. 30:24). He was born in Padan-Aram when Jacob was about ninety years old. He was probably six years old when his father returned from Haran to Canaan and took up his residence in the town of Hebron.

Joseph was a favorite son of his father's, who made him a multi-colored coat, and was envied by his half-brothers, who saw the special coat as indicating that Joseph would assume family leadership. Their suspicion grew when Joseph told them of his two dreams (Gen. 37:11) in which all the brothers bowed down to him.

The narrative tells that his brothers plotted against him one day when he was seventeen, and would have killed him had not Reuben interposed. He persuaded them to instead throw Joseph into a pit and secretly planned to rescue him later. However, while Reuben was absent, the others planned to sell him to a company of Ishmaelites, also merchants.

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Joseph — Full Movie

The Gospel of John

The opening words of the Gospel of John,
in syriac, a dialect of Eastern Aramaic

 Literally, According to John; Greek, Κατά Ιωαννην, Kata Iōannēn of Hebrew origin יוֹחָנָן Yowchanan, The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the biblical canon of the New Testament, traditionally ascribed to John the Apostle. Like the three synoptic gospels, it contains an account of some of the actions and sayings of Jesus, but differs from them in ethos and theological emphases. The purpose is expressed in the conclusion, 20:30-31:

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

According to Trinitarianism, of the four gospels, John presents the highest christology, implicitly declaring Jesus to be God.

Compared to the synoptics, John focuses on Jesus' cosmic mission to redeem humanity. Only in John does Jesus talk at length about himself, and John includes a substantial amount of material that Jesus shared with the disciples only. Certain elements of the synoptics (such as the parables of Jesus, exorcisms, and the Second Coming of Christ) are not found in John.

Since the "higher criticism" of the 19th century, historians have largely rejected the gospel of John as a reliable source of information about the historical Jesus. Some commentators regard the work as anonymous.

After the prologue (John 1:1-5), the narrative of the gospel begins with verse 6, and consists of two parts. The first part (John 1:6-chapter 12) relates Jesus' public ministry from the time of his baptism by John the Baptist to its close.

In this first part, John emphasizes seven of Jesus' miracles, always calling them "signs." The second part (John 13-21) presents Jesus in dialogue with his immediate followers (John 13-17) and gives an account of his passion and crucifixion and of his appearances to the disciples after his resurrection (John 18-20). Raymond E. Brown, a scholar of the Johannine community, labelled the first and second parts the "Book of Signs" and the "Book of Glory," respectively. In Chapter 21, the "appendix", Jesus restores Simon Peter after his denial, predicts Peter's death, and discusses the death of the "beloved disciple".

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David

Symbolic model of King David's
harp (or lyre) displayed in the
City of David, Jerusalem, Israel

David (Standard Hebrew דוד, David "Beloved", Arabic Da'ud) was the second king of the united kingdom of Israel , youngest son of Jesse, (c. 1005 BC – 965 BC) and successor to King Saul. His life and rule are recorded in the Hebrew Bible's books of First Samuel (from chapter 16 onwards), Second Samuel, First Kings and Second Kings (to verse 4). First Chronicles gives further stories of David, mingled with lists and genealogies.

He is depicted as the most righteous of all the ancient kings of Israel - although not without fault - as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet (he is traditionally credited with the authorship of many of the Psalms). 2 Samuel 7:12-16 states:

12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.'"

Jews therefore believe that the Jewish Messiah will be a direct descendant of King David, and Christians trace the lineage of Jesus back to him through both Mary and Joseph.

The nature of his reign and even his existence have been questioned and debated, rejected and defended by modern biblical scholars, but the account given in the Hebrew Bible remains widely accepted by the majority of ordinary Jews and Christians and his story has been of central importance to Western culture.

This section summarizes major episodes from David's life as recorded in the Hebrew Bible, blending historical and mythic elements.

God has withdrawn His favour from king Saul and sends the prophet Samuel to Jesse of Bethlehem,

13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. 1 Samuel 16:13

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The Communist Manifesto

Manifesto of the Communist Party (German: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), often referred to as The Communist Manifesto, was first published on February 21, 1848, and is one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the Communist League and written by communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, it laid out the League's purposes and program. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the problems of capitalism, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms.

Authorship
Although the names of both Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx appear on the title page alongside the "persistent assumption of joint-authorship", Engels, in the preface introduction to the 1883 German edition of the Manifesto, said that the Manifesto was "essentially Marx's work" and that "the basic thought... belongs solely and exclusively to Marx."

There is evidence to suggest that Engels composed an earlier draft statement for a manifesto, which was then used as the basis for this later published document, the direct authorship of which can be attributed primarily to Marx. It is claimed in the text itself to have been sketched by a group of Communists from various countries that gathered together in London.

The Communist Manifesto was first published (in German) in London by a group of German political refugees in 1848. It was also serialised at around the same time in a German-language London newspaper, the Deutsche Londoner Zeitung. The first English translation was produced by Helen Macfarlane in 1850. The Manifesto went through a number of editions from 1872 to 1890; notable new prefaces were written by Marx and Engels for the 1872 German edition, the 1882 Russian edition, the 1883 French edition, and the 1888 English edition. This edition, translated by Samuel Moore with the assistance of Engels, has been the most commonly used English text since.

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Christian Worldview

Christian worldview refers to a collection of distinctively Christian philosophical and religious beliefs. The term is typically used in one of three ways:

1. A set of worldviews voiced by those identifying themselves as Christian;
2. Common elements of worldviews predominant among those identifying themselves as Christian;
3. The concept of a single "Christian worldview" on a range of issues.

There are some rather startling statistics, based upon the following definition of "worldview," including a firm belief in six specific religious views.

1. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life;
2. God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and He stills rules it today;
3. salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned;
4. Satan is real;
5. a Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people; and
6. the Bible is accurate in all of its teachings.

Based upon the above definition, Barna and other polling organizations have observered a decline in Christian beliefs. A recent study indicates that only 4% of American adults have a biblical worldview as the basis of their decision-making -- while at the same time "spirituality" has been on the rise. This most recent study revealed the following percentages of church goers who adhere to a biblical worldview.

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Israelite

An Israelite is a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of the Biblical patriarch Jacob who was renamed Israel (ישראל Yisra'el) by God in the book of Genesis, 32:28. The Israelites were a group of Hebrews, as described in the Hebrew Bible.

Israel's twelve male children were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Gad, Naphtali, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin. The twelve Tribes of Israel are listed in the Tanakh – the name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible.

In Biblical Israel, the tribes were collectively Hebrews and organized into a northern and a southern kingdoms. In 722 BC the Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel and sent it into exile. Many Israelites from the northern Kingdom of Israel fled to the southern Kingdom of Judah, and likewise portions of Judah went with Israel.

In 586 BC the nation of Judah was conquered by Babylon. About 50 years later, in 539 BC, the Persians (who had recently conquered Babylon) allowed Jews to move back to Jerusalem. By the end of this era, members of the tribes seem to have abandoned their individual identities.

Today's Jews are mostly descended from the Hebrews of the Kingdom of Judah. Note that over time people joined the Jews via conversion, and married with the descendants of the Judaic Hebrews. The number of converts is unknown, but not so large as to swamp out the original Jewish people. It is thus fair to say that Jews today are descendants of those Hebrews who lived in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, along with some converts who joined Judaism.

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Auschwitz

Zyklon B gas canisters
Auschwitz Museum

Konzentrationslager Auschwitz was the largest of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camps. Located in southern Poland, it took its name from the nearby town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz in German), situated about 50 kilometers west of Kraków and 286 kilometers from Warsaw. Following the German occupation of Poland in September 1939, Oświęcim was incorporated into Germany and renamed Auschwitz.

The complex consisted of three main camps:

1. Auschwitz I, the administrative center;
2. Auschwitz II (Birkenau), an extermination camp or Vernichtungslager; and
3. Auschwitz III (Monowitz), a work camp.
The first two of them have been on the World Heritage List since 1979. There were also around 40 satellite camps, some of them tens of kilometers from the main camps, with prisoner populations ranging from several dozen to several thousand.

The camp commandant, Rudolf Höss, testifed at the Nuremberg Trials that 3 million people had died at Auschwitz during his stay as a commandant. Later he decreased his estimate to about 1.1 million. The death toll given by the Soviets and accepted by many was 4,000,000 people. This number was written on the plaques in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The Museum revised this figure in 1990, and new calculations by Dr. Franciszek Piper now place the figure at 1.1 million about 90 percent of them Jews from almost every country in Europe. Most of the dead were killed in gas chambers using Zyklon B; other deaths were caused by systematic starvation, forced labor, lack of disease control, individual executions, and so-called medical experiments.

Beginning in 1940, Nazi Germany built several concentration camps and an extermination camp in the area, which at the time was under German occupation. The Auschwitz camps were a major element in the perpetration of the Holocaust; about 1.1 million people were killed there, of whom over 90% were Jews.

The three main camps were:

1. Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp which served as the administrative center for the whole complex, and was the site of the deaths of roughly 70,000 people, mostly Poles and Soviet prisoners of war.
2. Auschwitz II (Birkenau), an extermination camp, where at least 1.1 million Jews, 75,000 Poles, and some 19,000 Roma (Gypsies) were killed.
3. Auschwitz III (Monowitz), which served as a labor camp for the Buna-Werke factory of the I.G. Farben concern.

Like all German concentration camps, the Auschwitz camps were operated by Heinrich Himmler's SS. The commandants of the camp were the SS-Obersturmbannführers Rudolf Höß (often written "Hoess") until the summer of 1943, and later Arthur Liebehenschel and Richard Baer. Höß provided a detailed description of the camp's workings during his interrogations after the war and also in his autobiography. He was hanged in 1947 in front of the entrance to the crematorium of Auschwitz I. Command of the women's camp, which was separated from the men's area by the incoming railway line was held in turn by Johanna Langefeld, Maria Mandel, and Elisabeth Volkenrath.

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Heresy

according to the Oxford English dictionary, is a "theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the 'Catholic' or Orthodox doctrine of the Christian church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. by extension, [heresy is an] opinion or doctrine in philosophy, politics, science, art, etc., at variance with those generally accepted as authoritative."

Urgent concerns with the uniformity of belief and practice have characterized Christianity from the outset.

The process of establishing orthodox Christianity was set in full swing when Paul wrote the epistles that comprise a large part of the New Testament.

On many occasions in Paul's epistles, he defends his own apostleship, and urges Christians in various places to beware of false teachers, or of anything contrary to what was handed to them by him. The epistles of John and Jude also warn of false teachers or prophets, as does:

• Matthew (Matt 7:15;24:11;24:24),
• Mark (Mark 13:22),
• Luke (Luke 6:26),
• 1 John (1 John 4:1),
• 1 Timothy (1 Tim 1:3-4),
• 2 Peter (2 Pet 2:1)
• and Revelation (Rev 16:13;19:20;20:10)

In the middle of the 2nd century, three unorthodox groups of Christians adhered to a range of doctrines that divided the Christian communities of Rome: the teacher Marcion, the pentecostal outpourings of ecstatic Christian prophets of a continuing revelation, in a movement that was called "Montanism" because it had been initiated by Montanus and his female disciples, and the Gnostic teachings of Valentinus.

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Angel of the LORD

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Hillsong → Angel Of The Lord

or the Angel of God is one of many terms in the Hebrew Bible used for an angel. The Biblical name for angel (מלאך mal'ak) which translates as "seraph, cherub, messenger or representative, or the theophanic angel" obtained the further signification of "angel" only through the addition of God's name, as ("angel of the Lord," or "angel of God" מלאך יהוה mal'ak Yĕhovah.

⁸ On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. (Zech. 12:8)

Other appellations for angels are Benei Elohim, "Sons of God," Gen. 6:4; Job 1:6; and k'doshim, "the Holy Ones".

In the Hebrew Bible angelic messengers often appear to people in the shape of human beings of extraordinary beauty, and are not at once recognized as angels (Gen. 18:2, 14:5; Judges, 6:17, 8:6; II Sam. 24:9). Some angels are said to fly through the air; they become invisible; sacrifices touched by them are consumed by fire; they disappear in sacrificial fire, like Elijah, who rode to heaven in a fiery chariot; and they appear in the flames of the thornbush (Gen. 16:13; Judges, 6:21, 22; II Kings, 2:11; Ex.3:2).

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Sumer

or Shumer, Egyptian Sangar, [biblical שנער Shin`ar Shinar "country of two rivers"] – pr. n. of the region around Babylon , from the time of the earliest records in the mid 4th millennium BC until the rise of Babylonia in the late 3rd millennium BC. The term "Sumerian" applies to all speakers of the Sumerian language. Sumer is considered the first settled society in the world to have manifested all the features needed to qualify fully as a "civilization."

¹ Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ² And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

³ And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." ⁵ And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. ⁶ And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech." ⁸ So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth. –Genesis 11:1-9 ESV

Background
The term "Sumerian" is an exonym first applied by the Akkadians. The Sumerians called themselves "the black-headed people" (sag-gi-ga) and their land "land of the civilized lords" (ki-en-gir). The Akkadian word Shumer possibly represents this name in dialect. The Sumerians were a non-Semitic people and were at one time believed to have been invaders, as a number of linguists believed they could detect a substrate language beneath Sumerian. However, the archaeological record shows clear uninterrupted cultural continuity from the time of the Early Ubaid period (5200-4500 BC C-14, 6090-5429 calBC) settlements in southern Mesopotamia. The Sumerian people who settled here farmed the lands in this region that were made fertile by silt deposited by the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.

The challenge for any population attempting to dwell in Iraq's arid southern floodplain, where rainfall is currently less than 5 inches a year, was to manage the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to supply year-round water for farming and drinking. The Sumerian language has many terms for canals, dikes, and reservoirs, and this indicates that Sumerian speakers were possibly farmers who moved down from the north after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. The Ubaid pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via Choga Mami Transitional ware to the pottery of the Samarra period culture (c. 5700-4900 BC C-14, 6640-5816 BC calBC) in the north, who were the first to practice a primitive form of irrigation agriculture along the middle Tigris River and its tributaries. The connection is most clearly seen at Tell Awayli (Oueilli, Oueili) near Larsa, excavated by the French in the 1980s, where 8 levels yielded pre-Ubaid pottery resembling Samarran ware. Sumerian speakers spread down into southern Mesopotamia perhaps because they had developed a social organization and a technology that enabled them, through their control of the water, to survive and prosper in a difficult environment then occupied by the fisher-hunter-gatherer population using a pre-pottery Arabian bifacial toolkit in the marshlands near the Persian Gulf and proto-Akkadian nomadic pastoralists.

Ancient name for Akkad (or ACCAD, "which see"), one of the chief cities of Babylonia (Gen 10:10), and the capital city of Sargon, who lived and ruled in Babylonia circa 3500 BC. Together with Shunir it formed part of one of the royal titles: "kings of Shunir (Sumer) and Accad."

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Etruscan civilization

is the name given today to the culture and way of life of a people historically thought to be of ancient Italy, whom ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci, ancient Greeks called Tyrrhenoi or Tyrrsenoi, and who called themselves Rasenna, syncopated to Rasna or Raśna. As distinguished by its own language, the civilization endured from an unknown prehistoric time prior to the foundation of Rome until its complete assimilation to Italic Rome in the Roman Republic; numerous vestiges of Etruscan culture do survive the Roman conquest. At its maximum extent during the foundation period of Rome and the Roman kingdom, it flourished in three confederacies: of Etruria, of the Po valley and Latium and of Campania. Rome was sited in Etruscan territory. There is considerable evidence that early Rome was dominated by Etruscans until the Romans sacked Veii in 396 BC.

There is also evidence of different origins than prviously believed, which seem to corroborate what Herodotus said ("The History of Herodotus" parallel English/Greek, tr. G. C. Macaulay, [1890]). Dr Phil Perkins of The Open University tells us about his research into the Etruscans, and some recent scientific contributions to the debate about Etruscan origins.

Culture that is identifiably and certainly Etruscan developed in Italy after about 800 BC approximately over the range of the preceding Iron Age Villanovan culture.

The latter gave way in the 7th century to an increasingly orientalizing culture that was influenced by Greek traders and Greek neighbors in Magna Graecia, the Hellenic civilization of southern Italy. Of the various theories about the ethnic origins of the people who were culturally Villanovan, the non-committal expression "Proto-Etruscan" is preferred: if the Etruscans were not already on the Villanovan range, they would have had to enter Italy in numbers from the sea, have fought a major war to displace the indigenes, and to have developed into three confederacies of 36 cities, all within 100 years and without leaving any legends or other evidence.

"Pyrgi tablets"

The Etruscans are generally believed to have spoken a non-Indo-European language. After generations of speculation, secure knowledge of the Etruscan language only began with the discovery of the bilingual Phoenician-Etruscan Pyrgi Tablets found at the port of Caere in 1964, and this knowledge is still incomplete.

As distinguished by its unique language, this civilization endured from the time of the earliest Etruscan inscriptions (ca. 700 BC) until its assimilation into the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. At its maximum extent, during the foundational period of Rome and the Roman kingdom, it flourished in three confederacies of cities: of Etruria, of the Po valley with the eastern Alps, and of Latium and Campania. Rome was founded within or adjacent to Etruscan territory, and there is considerable evidence that early Rome was dominated by Etruscans until the Romans sacked Veii in 396 BC.

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Etruscans Part 1-2
Etruscan DNA? Part 1-2

Alice Bailey

known as Alice A. Bailey or AAB, was an influential writer and teacher in the fields of spiritual, occult, esoteric healing, astrological, and other themes. Alice Bailey was born as Alice LaTrobe Bateman, in Manchester, England at 7:32 am GMT. She moved to the United States in 1907, where she spent most of her life as a writer and teacher.

Her works, written between 1919 and 1949, describe a wide-ranging system of esoteric thought covering such topics as how spirituality relates to the solar system, meditation, healing, spiritual psychology, the destiny of nations, and prescriptions for society in general. She described the majority of her work as having been telepathically dictated to her by a "Master of the Wisdom", initially referred to only as "the Tibetan", or by the initials "D.K.", later identified as "Djwhal Khul." Her followers refer to her writings as The Alice A. Bailey material, or sometimes, as the AAB material.


Her writings were influenced by the works of Helena Blavatsky. Though Bailey's writings differ from the orthodox Theosophy of Madame Blavatsky, they also have much in common with it. She wrote about religious themes, including Christianity, though her writings are fundamentally different from many aspects of Christianity and of other orthodox religions. They are, in fact, satanic in nature and origin. Her vision of a unified society includes a global "spirit of religion" different from traditional religious forms and including the concept of the Age of Aquarius.

Controversy has arisen around some of Bailey's statements on nationalism, American isolationism, Soviet totalitarianism, Fascism, Zionism, Nazism, race relations, Africans, Jews, and the religions of Judaism and Christianity. Yonassan Gershom and others have claimed that her writings contain "racist" material.

According to Robert S. Ellwood, her philosophy and publications are still applied by the groups and organizations she founded, such as the Arcane School, the New Group of World Servers, and the Full Moon Meditation Groups that follow her teachings.

Today, Arcane School which Bailey founded in 1923, and The Lucis Publishing Company of New York and the Lucis Press Ltd. of London, England publish the books written by Alice A. Bailey. The Lucis Trust "World Goodwill" action at present consists of:

1. The distribution of literature all over the world in many languages.
2. The publication of the World Goodwill Newsletter and Commentary.
3. The provision of a study course on the fundamental problems of humanity.
4. Cooperation with the United Nations and its Specialised Agencies.
5. World Service Forums.

World Goodwill is recognised by the Office of Public Information at the United Nations as a Non-Governmental Organisation. It is represented at regular briefing sessions at the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

As of November, 08, 2011, the Lucis Trust descibes The Esoteric Meaning of Lucifer on their website.


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The Beast

is a figure in the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. There are two beasts described in Revelation 13; the First Beast arises out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns. The Second (Lamb-like) Beast arises out of the earth, having the appearance of a lamb while speaking like a dragon. This Beast exercises authority on behalf of the first beast, causing the Earth-dwellers to make an image of the First Beast and worship him.

It is able to give life to this image so that it could speak and kill anyone who does not worship the First Beast. This Beast is later called "The False Prophet" (Rev. 16:13; Rev. 19:20; Rev. 20:10). In Christian eschatology the Beast together with the Dragon (Satan) and the First Beast (the Antichrist) forms The Unholy Trinity.

Identity of the beast from the land
The Jewish religious system of the first century that conspired with the Roman state to suppress and persecute the early church (this is the view of several preterist interpreters).

A chief administrator of Roman rule in Ephesus and Asia Minor, i.e., the "henchman" of the Emperor. This is probably the provincial governor (or proconsul) who would have overseen the political and religious operations of the area from his capital in Ephesus.

The High Priest of the Provincial Imperial Cult, who would have been a leading citizen from one of the main cities. The imperial cult in Ephesus was set up by Domitian in 89 AD (Ephesus is the location of one of the Seven Churches on Asia to whom the Book of Revelation was addressed)

The Papacy (this is the view of some of the Protestant Reformers)

There are a number of sites online that identify the beast as being a revived Islamic Caliphate. By comparing the eschatology of the Bible and the Qu'ran, they claim to see how the eschatology in the Qu'ran fits straight into the eschatology in the Bible, if the revived Caliphate is the Beast and the Jesus in the Qu'ran is the AntiChrist of the Bible. Moreover, they claim that the historical Caliphate fits the description of the seventh empire and a revived Caliphate would fit the description of the eighth empire that is the seventh empire that was, but then did not exist, and then came back as the eighth empire, as described in the Book of Revelation.

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Walid Shoebat on the Mark of the Beast
Chuck Missler on the Mark of the Beast

The Book of Daniel

Written in Hebrew and Aramaic, the Book of Daniel is a book in both the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Christian Old Testament. The book is set during the Babylonian Captivity, a period when Jews were deported and exiled to Babylon. The book revolves around the figure of Daniel, an Israelite who becomes an adviser to Nebuchadnezzar II, the ruler of Babylon from 605 BC - 562 BC.

The book has two distinct parts: a series of narratives and four apocalyptic visions. Three of the narratives involve Daniel, who is depicted as having a gift for interpreting the meaning of dreams and divine omens. Two other narratives feature Israelites who have been condemned for their piety being miraculously saved from execution. In the second part of the book, the author depicts Daniel as revealing and partially interpreting a set of visions which are described in the first person.

The dating and authorship of Daniel has been a matter of great debate among Jews and Christians. The traditional view holds that the work was written by a prophet named Daniel who lived during the sixth century BC, whereas most modern Biblical scholars maintain that the book was written or redacted in the mid-second century BC and that most of the predictions of the book refer to events that had already occurred.

A third viewpoint, based on comparison of the Hebrew and Aramaic found in Daniel to that found in more firmly dated texts, places the final editorial work in the fourth century BC.

William H. Shea Ph.D. (Archeology) in "The Prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27", shows that the book of Daniel was composed as a double chiasm, a literary structure of Hebrew poetry. Parts labeled A, A', A" and A"' are parallel, dealing with a similar theme — Kingdom Prophecies. Parts B, B', B" and B"' are parallel sections that come under the topic of trials of "God's people." The parallel C, C', C" and C"' concern the dealings of kings. It is claimed, although not proven, that the design of the literary structure itself focuses attention on the lone topic (D) — "an anointed (one)" which is translated in some common versions of the Bible as "the Anointed One" or "the Messiah."

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Daniel's 70 weeks by Chuck Missler

Jeremiah

or Yermiyahu (יִרְמְיָהוּ). His writings are collected in the book of Jeremiah, and the Book of Lamentations. Jeremiah is considered by some modern scholars (as well as some Ancient Rabbis) to have written, or redacted much of the Old Testament, as we have it today. His language in "Jeremiah" and "Lamentations" is quite similar to that in Deuteronomy and the "Deuteronomic history" of Joshua, Judges, the Books of Samuel, and the Books of Kings. Jeremiah is also famous as "the broken-hearted prophet" (who wrote or dictated a "broken book", which has been difficult for scholars to put into chronological order), whose heart-rending life, and true prophecies of dire warning went largely-unheeded by the people of Judah. YHWH told Jeremiah, "You will go to them; but for their part, they will not listen to you".

According to the Book of Jeremiah, he was called to the prophetical office when still young; in the thirteenth year of Josiah (628 BC). He left his native place, Anatoth, (where Jeremiah was perhaps a member of the priesthood) and went to reside in Jerusalem; where he assisted Josiah in his work of reformation.

Comments by Leonard Bernstein regarding his "Symphony No. 1, Jeremiah"

"Jeremiah is dedicated to [my father] after all, that was our great reconciliation piece. When he walked into that hall and he saw an audience rise to its feet and acclaim a symphony I had written and shout and cry and throng back stage and then it won the Music Critic’s Prize. I mean he saw that this had something to do with what could be called ‘practical living.’That was only moments after he had seen the debut in which I had taken over from Bruno Walter that was the first time he had ever realized completely that I could do music and support a family and he came back in tears, backstage, there was an enormous reconciliation. It was very moving and in that moment I dedicated my Jeremiah Symphony to him which was performed a few months later."
—Bernstein on Bernstein -- "Jeremiah"

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Cradle of Humanity

The evangelical Protestants of the 19th century, considered the inventors of the term "Cradle of Humanity," made claims that the term originated in Mesopotamia in the 2nd century, and that it was used by early non-Christian Arabs, to refer to a geographic area that falls within a 1,000 mile radius of the spot they believed to be the birthplace of humankind. No documentation of such a historical use has been forthcoming. Nevertheless, the term has been used not only in religious, but also in secular contexts, and may therefore refer to different locations, depending on the views of the user.

Jewish, Christian and Muslim creationists believe that man was created by God in a place called Eden and then placed in a garden located east of Eden. In the Christian Bible, Genesis 2:10-14 indicates the Garden of Eden was supplied by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Some early Christians (A.D second century) used the term to refer to a geographic area falling within a 1,000 mile radius of that location as the birthplace of mankind.

Evolutionary View
The consensus among some biologists and paleoanthropologists is that mankind evolved through natural processes, and when journalists and popularizers currently use the term "Cradle of Humanity", it refers to Great Rift Valley sites in Eastern Africa, where the oldest hominid fossils were found in 1974.

There is a growing list of scientists, alive today, who accept the biblical account of Creation.

As the evolutionist apriorism continues, the earliest hominids evolved from apes about 5 million years ago, but modern humans (homo sapien sapiens) didn't emerge until 150,000-200,000 years ago, in eastern Africa. Since 2002, however, several groups of prominent paleontologists have begun to challenge East Africa's position as the evolutionary "cradle of humanity", most notably because of the fossil hominid partial skull found in Chad in July 2002; recent research in connection with earliest hominids outside Africa focuses on the Liujiang hominid of China, the Dmanisi fossils of Georgia and the Mungo Man fossils in Australia.

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Hammurabi

(Akkadian, meaning "the kinsman is a healer," ca. 1810 BC – 1750 BC), was the sixth king of Babylon. He became the first king of the Babylonian Empire, extending Babylon's control over Mesopotamia by winning a series of wars against neighboring kingdoms.

Hammurabi is known for the set of laws called Hammurabi's Code, one of the first written codes of law in recorded history. Owing to his reputation in modern times as an ancient law-giver, Hammurabi's portrait is in many government buildings throughout the world. Although his empire controlled all of Mesopotamia by the time of his death, his successors were unable to maintain his empire.

Hammurabi was one of the first dynasty kings of the city-state of Babylon, and inherited the throne from his father, Sin-muballit, in 1792 BC.

Babylon was one of the many ancient city-states that dotted the Mesopotamian plain and waged war on each other for control of fertile agricultural land. Though many cultures co-existed in Mesopotamia, Babylonian culture gained a degree of prominence among the literate classes throughout the Middle East The kings who came before Hammurabi had begun to consolidate rule of central Mesopotamia under Babylonian hegemony and, by the time of his reign, had conquered the city-states of Borsippa, Kish, and Sippar. Thus Hammurabi ascended to the throne as the king of a minor kingdom in the midst of a complex geopolitical situation, surrounded by the more powerful kingdoms of Shamshi-Adad, Larsa, Eshnunna, and Elam.

The first few decades of Hammurabi's reign were relatively peaceful, although the death of Shamshi-Adad I led to the fragmentation of his northern Semitic empire, and Babylon became comparatively stronger as a result. Hammurabi used this time to undertake a series of public works, including heightening the city walls for defensive purposes, and expanding the temples.

In 1766 BC, the powerful kingdom of Elam, which straddled important trade routes across the Zagros Mountains, invaded the Mesopotamian plain. With allies among the plain states, Elam attacked and destroyed the empire of Eshnunna, destroying a number of cities and imposing its rule on portions of the plain for the first time. In order to consolidate its position, Elam tried to start a war between Hammurabi's Babylonian kingdom and the kingdom of Larsa. Hammurabi and the king of Larsa made an alliance when they discovered this duplicity and were able to crush the Elamites, although Larsa did not contribute greatly to the military effort. Angered by Larsa's failure to come to his aid, Hammurabi turned on that southern power, thus gaining control of the entirety of the lower Mesopotamian plain by 1699 BC.

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Christology

The part of Christian theology that studies and defines who Jesus the Christ is, was, and will be is known as Christology. It is generally less concerned with the minor details of his life; rather, it deals with who he was, the incarnation, and the major events of his life (his birth, crucifixion, and resurrection.

Important issues in Christology include:

• His human nature
• His divine nature

The interrelationship between these two natures; how they interacted and affected each other Christology may also cover questions concerning the nature of God like the Trinity, Unitarianism or Binitarianism, and what, if anything, Christ accomplished for the rest of humanity.

There are almost as many Christological views as there are variants of Christianity. The different Christological views of various Christian sects have led to accusations of heresy, and, infrequently, subsequent religious persecution. In many cases, a sect's unique Christology is its chief distinctive feature; in these cases it is common for the sect to be known by the name given to its Christology.

A major component of the Christology of the Apostolic Age was that of Paul the Apostle whose central themes were the notion of the pre-existence of Christ and the worship of Christ as Kyrios (cf. Rom 1:3) κύριος (Owner, Master, Lord). Following the Apostolic Age, there was fierce and often politicized debate in the early churches on many interrelated issues. Christology was a major focus of these debates, and was addressed at every one of the early ecumenical councils, with the Council of Chalcedon in 451 reaching a consensus that is still widely held today and referred to as Chalcedonian Christianity. Due to politically charged differences in the 4th century, schisms among denominations developed.

Controversies
Following the time of the Apostolic Fathers, from the 2nd century onwards, a number of controversies developed about how the human and divine are related within the person of Jesus. As of the 2nd century, a number of different and opposing approaches developed among various groups. For example, Arianism did not endorse divinity, Ebionism argued that Jesus was an ordinary mortal, while Gnosticism held docetic views which argued that Christ was a spiritual being that only appeared to have a physical body. The resulting tensions lead to schisms within the church in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and ecumenical councils were convened in the 4th and 5th centuries to deal with the issues. Eventually in 451 the Hypostatic union was decreed, namely that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human, making this part of the creed of Orthodox Christianity. Although some of the debates seemed to be over a theological iota, they took place in controversial political circumstances and resulted in a schism that formed the Church of the East.

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Dr. Darrell Bock Disagreements over Jesus and Christology in the early church.