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Cleromancy
Cleromancy is a form of sortition (casting of lots) in which an outcome is determined by means that normally would be considered random, such as the rolling of dice ( astragalomancy), but that are sometimes believed to reveal the will of a deity. In classical civilization In ancient Rome fortunes were told through the casting of lots or '' sortes''. In Judaic and Christian tradition Casting of lots (, ) is mentioned 47 times in the Bible. Some examples in the Hebrew Bible of the casting of lots as a means of determining God's will: * In the Book of Leviticus , God commanded Moses, "And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the , and the other lot for the scapegoat." One goat will be sacrificed as a sin offering, while the scapegoat is loaded up with the sins of the people and sent into the wilderness. * According to Numbers , Moses allocated territory to the tribes of Israel according to each tribe's male population and by lot. * IJoshua 7:14 a guilty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sortes (ancient Rome)
Sortes (Latin singular: ''sors'') were a frequent method of divination among the ancient Romans. The method involved the drawing of lots (''sortes'') to obtain knowledge of future events: in many of the ancient Italian temples, the will of the gods was consulted in this way, as at Praeneste and Caere. These ''sortes'' or lots were usually little tablets or counters made of wood or other materials and were commonly thrown into a sitella or urn, filled with water. The lots were sometimes thrown like dice. The name of "sortes" was in fact given to anything used to determine chances, and was also applied to any verbal response of an oracle. Various things were written upon the lots according to circumstances, as for instance the names of the persons using them. It seems to have been a favorite practice in later times to write the verses of illustrious poets upon little tablets and to draw them out of the urn like other lots; the verses which a person thus obtained being supposed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Random
In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of definite pattern or predictability in information. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Individual random events are, by definition, unpredictable, but if there is a known probability distribution, the frequency of different outcomes over repeated events (or "trials") is predictable.Strictly speaking, the frequency of an outcome will converge almost surely to a predictable value as the number of trials becomes arbitrarily large. Non-convergence or convergence to a different value is possible, but has probability zero. Consistent non-convergence is thus evidence of the lack of a fixed probability distribution, as in many evolutionary processes. For example, when throwing two dice, the outcome of any particular roll is unpredictable, but a sum of 7 will tend to occur twice as often as 4. In this view, randomness is not haphaza ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scapegoat
In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designated to be cast into the desert to carry away the sins of the community. Practices with some similarities to the scapegoat ritual also appear in Ancient Greece and Ebla. Origins Some scholars have argued that the scapegoat ritual can be traced back to Ebla around 2400 BC, whence it spread throughout the ancient Near East. Etymology The word "scapegoat" is an English translation of the Hebrew (), which occurs in Leviticus 16:8: The Brown–Driver–Briggs Hebrew Lexicon gives () as a reduplicative intensive of the stem , "remove", hence , "for entire removal". This reading is supported by the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament translation as "the sender away (of sins)". The lexicographer Wilhelm Gesenius, Gesenius takes to mean "averter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonah
Jonah the son of Amittai or Jonas ( , ) is a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor prophets, which details his reluctance in delivering the judgment of God to the city of Nineveh (near present-day Mosul) in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. After he is swallowed by a large sea creature () and then released, he returns to the divine mission. In Judaism, the story of Jonah represents the teaching of repentance in Judaism, the ability to repent to God for forgiveness. In the New Testament of Christianity, Jesus calls himself "greater than Jonah" and promises the Pharisees "the sign of Jonah" when referring to his resurrection. Early Christian interpreters viewed Jonah as a ''type'' of Jesus. Jonah in Islam is regarded as a prophet and the narrative of Jonah appears in a surah of the Quran named after him, Yūnus. Many modern Bibl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Jonah
The Book of Jonah is one of the twelve minor prophets of the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Hebrew Bible, and an individual book in the Christian Old Testament where it has four chapters. The book tells of a Hebrew prophet named Jonah, son of Amittai, who is sent by God to prophesy the destruction of Nineveh, but attempts to escape his divine mission. The story has a long interpretive history and has become well known through popular children's stories. In Judaism, it is the Haftarah portion read during the afternoon of Yom Kippur to instill reflection on God's willingness to forgive those who repent, and it remains a popular story among Christians. The story is also retold in the Quran. Mainstream Biblical criticism, Bible scholars generally regard the story of the Book of Jonah as fictional, and often at least partially satirical. Most scholars consider the Book of Jonah to have been composed long after the events it describes due to its use of words and motifs exclusive to poste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Book Of Samuel
The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological history of the Israelites and that aim to explain God's law for Israel under the guidance of the prophets. According to Jewish tradition, the book was written by Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, who together are three prophets who had appeared within 1 Chronicles in its account of David's reign. Modern scholarly thinking posits that the entire Deuteronomistic history was composed by combining a number of independent texts of various ages. The book begins with Samuel's birth and Yahweh's call to him as a boy. The story of the Ark of the Covenant follows. It tells of Israel's oppression by the Philistines, which brought about Samuel's anointing of Saul as Israel's first king. But Saul proved unworthy, and God's cho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Land Lottery
A land lottery or land ballot is a method of allocating land ownership or the right to occupy land by lot. Some examples are: * Moses' allocation of Promised Land territory to the Israelite tribes by lot, as mandated in Numbers 26:55 and 33:54 and effected by his successor Joshua in Joshua 13:6. * The Georgia Land Lotteries held between 1805 and 1833 * The allocation of land in the former Kiowa-Comanche and Apache reservation in Oklahoma Territory on August 6, 1901. * The allocation of reclaimed land at Tule Lake, California, to returning veteran homesteaders after World War II. It is reported that prospective settlers' names were drawn from a pickle jar because the number of applicants was greater than the number of homesteads available. Israelite land lottery combines allocation of land by lot with a distribution system allocating territory according to each tribe's adult male population size. The '' Pulpit Commentary'' suggests that the community "probably employed stones, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achan (biblical Figure)
Achan (; ), the son of Carmi, a descendant of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, is a figure who appears in the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible in connection with the fall of Jericho and conquest of Ai. His name is given as Achar (עָכָר֙ ''‘Āḵār'') in . Account in the Book of Joshua According to the narrative of Joshua chapter 7, Achan pillaged an ingot of gold, a quantity of silver, and a "beautiful Babylonian garment" from Jericho, in contravention of Joshua's directive that "all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord" (). The Book of Joshua claims that this act resulted in the Israelites being collectively punished by God, in that they failed in their first attempt to capture Ai, with about 36 Israelites lost (). The Israelites used cleromancy (the sacred Lots Urim and Thummim) to decide who was to blame, and having identified Achan, they stoned him to de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile. It tells of the campaigns of the Israelites in central, southern and northern Canaan, the destruction of their enemies, and the division of the land among the Twelve Tribes of Israel, Twelve Tribes, framed by two set-piece speeches, the first by God commanding the conquest of the land, and, at the end, the second by Joshua warning of the need for faithful observance of the Law (''torah'') revealed to Moses. The scholarly consensus is that the Book of Joshua is not a reliable historical account, with Archaeology, archaeological evidence contradicting its claims of a swift, violent conquest of Canaan. The earliest parts of the book are possibly chapters 2–11, the story of the conquest; these chapters were later incorporated into an early form of Joshua li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sortition
In governance, sortition is the selection of public officer, officials or jurors at random, i.e. by Lottery (probability), lottery, in order to obtain a representative sample. In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the traditional and primary method for appointing political officials, and its use was regarded as a principal characteristic of democracy. Sortition is often classified as a method for both direct democracy and deliberative democracy. Today sortition is commonly used to select prospective jurors in common law (legal system), common-law systems. What has changed in recent years is the increased number of citizens' assembly, citizen groups with political advisory power, along with calls for making sortition more consequential than elections, as it was in Athenian democracy, Athens, Republic of Venice, Venice, and Republic of Florence, Florence. History Ancient Athens Athenian democracy developed in the 6th century BC out of what was then called isonomia (equal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan (1 Samuel)
Jonathan (Hebrew: ''Yəhōnāṯān'' or ''Yōnāṯān''; "YHWH has gifted") is a figure in the Book of Samuel of the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical narrative, he is the eldest son of King Saul of the Kingdom of Israel, and a close friend of David. He is described as having great strength and swiftness2 Samuel 1:23 and excelling in archery (2 Samuel 1:22 and slinging. Conflicts with Saul Jonathan first appears in the biblical narrative as the victor of Geba, a Philistine stronghold ( 1 Samuel 13), while in the following chapter he carries out a lone and secret attack on another Philistine garrison, demonstrating his "prowess and courage as a warrior."T. H. Jones, "Jonathan," in J. D. Douglas, (ed.), ''New Bible Dictionary'' (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 654. However, he eats honey without knowing that his father had said, "Cursed be any man who eats food before evening comes" (1 Samuel 14:24). When he learns of his father's oath, Jonathan disagrees with the wisdom of it, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saul
Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh century BCE, according to the Bible, marked the transition of the Israelites from a scattered tribal society ruled by various judges to organized statehood. The historicity of Saul and the United Kingdom of Israel is not universally accepted, as what is known of both comes exclusively from the Hebrew Bible. According to the text, he was anointed as king of the Israelites by Samuel, and reigned from Gibeah. Saul is said to have committed suicide when he fell on his sword during a battle with the Philistines at Mount Gilboa, in which three of his sons were also killed. Saul's son Ish-bosheth succeeded him to the throne, reigning for only two years before being murdered by his own military leaders. Saul's son-in-law David then beca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
