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List Of Converts To Judaism
This article lists nations, groups or tribes, as well as notable individuals, who have converted to Judaism. This article does not differentiate between the different branches of Judaism. See also Who is a Jew? on issues related to the acceptance of conversions throughout the Jewish community. Converts are called gerey tzedek ( righteous proselytes). A number of prominent celebrities, such as Madonna, Demi Moore, and Ariana Grande, have become followers of a "new age" version of Kabbalah (see Kabbalah Centre), derived from the body of Jewish mystical teaching also called Kabbalah, but do not consider themselves – and are not considered – Jewish. Converted nations, groups or tribes Converted nations, groups or tribes from non-Abrahamic religions * Conversions throughout the Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Empire periods (actual numbers and extent of proselytization disputed) See the article on '' proselyte'': a term which initially referred to Hellenistic c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conversion To Judaism
Conversion to Judaism ( or ) is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. "Thus, by converting to Judaism, the religion, a gentile becomes not only a Judahist—one who practices Judaism—but a Jew. Such a one is then part of the Jewish community as much as of the community of Judaism" The procedure and requirements for conversion depend on the sponsoring denomination. Furthermore, a conversion done in accordance with one Jewish denomination is not a guarantee of recognition by another denomination. Normally, though not always, the conversions performed by more stringent denominations are recognized by less stringent ones, but not the other way around. A formal conversion is also sometimes undertaken by individuals who are raised Jewish or have Jewish ancestry but who may not be considered Jewish according to stringent interpret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire following the War of Actium. During this period, Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean world. Roman society at the time was primarily a cultural mix of Latins (Italic tribe), Latin and Etruscan civilization, Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is especially visible in the Ancient Roman religion and List of Roman deities, its pantheon. Its political organisation developed at around the same time as direct democracy in Ancient Greece, with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by Roman Senate, a senate. There were annual elections, but the republican system was an elective olig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Izates Bar Monobaz
Izates II ( Greek: Ἰζάτης, ; – 54) was king of the Parthian client kingdom of Adiabene from approximately 30 to 54. He is notable for converting to Judaism. He was the son of Queen Helena of Adiabene and Monobaz I of Adiabene. Queen Helena was also said to be the wife of King Abgarus of Edessa and thus the queen of Edessa too. During his youth Izates was sent by his father to the court of King Abinergaos I of Characene in Charax Spasinu. While in Charax Izates became acquainted with a Jewish merchant named Ananias, who familiarized him with the tenets of the Jewish religion, in which he became deeply interested. Izates married King Abinergaos' daughter Symacho who had been converted to Judaism through the efforts of Ananias. His mother had been previously won over to Judaism without his knowledge. On returning home and ascending the throne on the death of his father (c. 31 CE), Izates discovered the conversion of his mother; and he himself intended to adopt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Religion In Ancient Greece
Religious practices in ancient Greece encompassed a collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology, in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. The application of the modern concept of "religion" to ancient cultures has been questioned as anachronistic. The ancient Greeks did not have a word for 'religion' in the modern sense. Likewise, no Greek writer is known to have classified either the gods or the cult practices into separate 'religions'. Instead, for example, Herodotus speaks of the Hellenes as having "common shrines of the gods and sacrifices, and the same kinds of customs". Most ancient Greeks recognized the twelve major Olympian gods and goddesses—Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus—although philosophies such as Stoicism and some forms of Platonism used language that seems to assume a single transcendent deity. The worship of these deities, and several othe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helena Of Adiabene
Helena of Adiabene ( ''Hellēnī''; died c. 50–56 CE) was a queen mother of Adiabene, a vassal state of the Parthian Empire. With her husband-brother Monobaz I, she was the mother of Izates II and Monobaz II. Helena became a convert to Judaism about the year 30 CE. According to Josephus, Helena was the daughter of King Izates. Moses of Chorene makes her the chief wife of Abgar V, king of Edessa. Sources of information What is known of Helena is based on the writings of Josephus, Movses Khorenatsi, Kirakos Gandzaketsi, and the Talmud. Josephus, although younger, was almost contemporary with Helena, living in Jerusalem at the time when she lived and was buried there, and he wrote substantial parts of his work from first-hand knowledge. The earliest parts of the Talmud, while based on older sources, were compiled and redacted from around 200 onward. Biography Helena of Adiabene was noted for her generosity; during a famine at Jerusalem in 45–46 CE, she sent to Alexandri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adiabene
Adiabene ( Greek: Αδιαβηνή, ) was an ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, corresponding to the northwestern part of ancient Assyria. The size of the kingdom varied over time; initially encompassing an area between the Zab Rivers, it eventually gained control of Nineveh and starting at least with the rule of Monobazos I (late 1st-century BCE), Gordyene became an Adiabenian dependency. It reached its zenith under Izates II, who was granted the district of Nisibis by the Parthian king Artabanus II () as a reward for helping him regain his throne. Adiabene's eastern borders stopped at the Zagros Mountains, adjacent to the region of Media. Arbela served as the capital of Adiabene. The formation of the kingdom is obscure. The first instance of a recorded Adiabenian ruler is in 69 BCE, when an unnamed king of Adiabene participated in the battle of Tigranocerta as an ally of the Armenian king Tigranes the Great (E). However, coinage implies the establishment of a ki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aristobulus I
Judah Aristobulus I, or Aristobulus I (; ), was the High Priest of Israel and the first Hasmonean king of Judaea, reigning from 104 BCE until his death the following year. He was the eldest of the five sons of John Hyrcanus, the previous leader. The Roman-Jewish historian Josephus states that he was the first Jew in "four hundred and eighty-three years and three months" to have established a monarchy since the return from the Babylonian captivity. Aristobulus was the first Hebrew king to claim both the high priesthood and the kingship. The Sadducees and the Essenes were not concerned about Aristobulus taking the title of king, but the Pharisees, believing that the kingship could only be held by the descendants of the Davidic line, strongly opposed this. They launched a massive rebellion, but Aristobulus died before any attempt to depose him could be made. The major sources on Aristobulus's life from antiquity are Josephus's '' The Jewish War'' and ''Antiquities of the Jews''. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed Hasmonean royal ancestry. He initially fought against the Roman Empire during the First Jewish–Roman War as general of the Jewish forces in Galilee, until surrendering in AD 67 to the Roman army led by military commander Vespasian after the six-week siege of Yodfat. Josephus claimed the Jewish messianic prophecies that initiated the First Jewish–Roman War made reference to Vespasian becoming Roman emperor. In response, Vespasian decided to keep him as a slave and presumably interpreter. After Vespasian became emperor in AD 69, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the Emperor's family name of '' Flavius''. Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ituraeans
Iturea or Ituraea (, ''Itouraía'') is the Greek name of a Levantine region north of Galilee during the Late Hellenistic and early Roman periods. It extended from Mount Lebanon across the plain of Marsyas to the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Syria, with its centre in Chalcis ad Libanum. Itureans The Itureans (Greek: ) were a semi-nomadic tribe who became sedentarized in the Hellenistic period. The exact origin of the Itureans is disputed. Most scholars identified them as Arabs, while some believed that they were Aramaean people. They first rose to power in the aftermath of the decline of the Seleucids in the 2nd century BC. Then, from their base around Mount Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley, they expanded into the northern Golan and Mount Hermon, as part of the settlement shift that occurred as a result of the collapse of the Seleucid empire, though no evidence of Iturean settlement or "phase" of settlement appears in the Galilee, including Upper Galilee. Etymology Several etymolog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hyrcanus
John Hyrcanus (; ; ) was a Hasmonean (Maccabee, Maccabean) leader and Jewish High Priest of Israel of the 2nd century BCE (born 164 BCE, reigned from 134 BCE until he died in 104 BCE). In rabbinic literature he is often referred to as ''Yoḥanan Cohen Gadol'' (), "John the High Priest". Name Josephus explains in ''The Jewish War'' that John was also known as "Hyrcanus" but does not explain the reason behind this name. The only other primary sources—the Books of the Maccabees—never used this name for John. The single occurrence of the name ''Hyrcanus'' in 2 Maccabees 3:11 refers to a man to whom some of the money in the Temple belonged during the c. 178 BCE visit of Heliodorus (minister), Heliodorus. The reason for the name is disputed amongst biblical scholars, with a variety of reasons proposed: * Familial origin in the region of Hyrcania on the Caspian Sea * A Greek regnal name, which would have represented closer ties with the Hellenistic period, Hellenistic culture agai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edom
Edom (; Edomite language, Edomite: ; , lit.: "red"; Akkadian language, Akkadian: , ; Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom that stretched across areas in the south of present-day Jordan and Israel. Edom and the Edomites appear in several written sources relating to the late Bronze Age and to the Iron Age in the History of the ancient Levant, Levant, including the list of the New Kingdom of Egypt, Egyptian pharaoh Seti I from c. 1215 BC as well as in the chronicle of a campaign by Ramesses III (r. 1186–1155 BC), and the Tanakh. Archaeological investigation has shown that the nation flourished between the 13th and the 8th centuries BC and was destroyed after a period of decline in the 6th century BC by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, Babylonians. After the fall of the kingdom of Edom, the Edomites were pushed westward towards southern Kingdom of Judah, Judah by nomadic tribes coming from the east; among them were the Nabataeans, who first appeared in the h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idumeans
Edom (; Edomite: ; , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom that stretched across areas in the south of present-day Jordan and Israel. Edom and the Edomites appear in several written sources relating to the late Bronze Age and to the Iron Age in the Levant, including the list of the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I from c. 1215 BC as well as in the chronicle of a campaign by Ramesses III (r. 1186–1155 BC), and the Tanakh. Archaeological investigation has shown that the nation flourished between the 13th and the 8th centuries BC and was destroyed after a period of decline in the 6th century BC by the Babylonians. After the fall of the kingdom of Edom, the Edomites were pushed westward towards southern Judah by nomadic tribes coming from the east; among them were the Nabataeans, who first appeared in the historical annals of the 4th century BC and had already established their own kingdom in what used to be Edom by the first half of the 2nd century B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
