High Place
High places (, singular ''bamā'') are simple hilltop installations with instruments of religion: platforms, altars, standing stones, and cairns are common. Along with open courtyard shrines and sacred trees or groves, they were some of the most often-seen public places of piety in the ancient Near East. They appear in the early Bronze Age at the latest. Hebrew Bible From the Hebrew Bible and from existing remains a good idea may be formed of the appearance of such a place of worship. It was often on the hill above the town, as at Ramah (); there was a stele ('' matzevah''), the seat of the deity, and a Asherah pole (named after the goddess Asherah), which marked the place as sacred and was itself an object of worship; there was a stone altar ( ''mizbeḥ'' "slaughter place"), often of considerable size and hewn out of the solid rock or built of unhewn stones (), on which offerings were burnt; a cistern for water, and perhaps low stone tables for dressing the victims; s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sacred Tree
A sacred tree or holy tree is a tree which is considered to be sacred, or worthy of spiritual respect or reverence. Such trees appear throughout world history in various cultures including the ancient Hindu mythology, Greek, Celtic and Germanic mythologies and is central to the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They also continue to hold profound meaning in contemporary culture in places like Japan (''shinboku''), Korea (''dangsan namu''), India (bodhi tree), and the Philippines, among others. Tree worship is core part of religions which include aspects of animism as core elements of their belief, which is the belief that trees, forests, rivers, mountains, etc. have a life force ('anime', i.e., ''alive''). An example of the continued importance of sacred trees in contemporary urban culture is the 700-year old camphor growing in the middle of Kayashima Station. Locals protested against moving the tree when the railway station had to be expanded, so the s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Land Of Israel
The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in the Hebrew Bible, with specific mentions in , , and . Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the settled land is referred as " from Dan to Beersheba", and three times it is referred as "from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt" (, and ). These biblical limits for the land differ from the borders of established historical Israelite and later Jewish kingdoms, including the United Kingdom of Israel, the two kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah, the Hasmonean kingdom, and the Herodian kingdom. At their heights, these realms ruled lands with similar but not identical boundaries. Jewish religious belief defines the land as where Jewish religious law prevailed and ex ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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El (deity)
El is a Northwest Semitic word meaning 'god' or 'deity', or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, ''ila'', represents the predicate form in the Old Akkadian and Amorite languages. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-. Originally a Canaanite deity known as ''El'', ''Al'' or ''Il'' the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia. Among the Hittites, El was known as Elkunirša ( ). Although El gained different appearances and meanings in different languages over time, it continues to exist as ''El-'', ''-il'' or ''-el'' in compound proper noun phrases such as Elizabeth, Ishmael, Israel, Samuel, Daniel, Michael, Gabriel (Arabic: Jibra'il), and Bethel. Linguistic forms and meanings Cognate forms of El are found throughout the Semitic languages. They include Ugaritic , pl. ; Phoenician pl. ; Hebrew , pl. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yahweh
Yahweh was an Ancient Semitic religion, ancient Semitic deity of Weather god, weather and List of war deities, war in the History of the ancient Levant, ancient Levant, the national god of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Judah, Judah and Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Israel, and the king of the gods, head of the Pantheon (religion), pantheon of the Polytheism, polytheistic Yahwism, Israelite religion. Although there is no clear consensus regarding the geographical origins of the deity, scholars generally hold that Yahweh was associated with Mount Seir, Seir, Edom, Desert of Paran, Paran, and Teman (Edom), Teman, and later with Canaan. The worship of the deity reaches back to at least the early Iron Age, and likely to the late Bronze Age, if not somewhat earlier. In the oldest Bible, biblical texts, Yahweh possesses attributes that were typically ascribed to deities of weather and war, fructifying the Land of Israel and leading a Heavenly host#Hebrew Bible, heavenly army against the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stefan Paas
Stefan Paas (born 17 September 17 1969) is a Dutch theologian and missiologist. He is Director of the Centre for Church and Mission in the West, Professor of Missiology at Theological University Kampen, and J. H. Bavinck Professor of Missiology and Intercultural Theology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He specialises in church planting in a post-Christian context. Stefan Paas is the son of missionary-theologian Steven Paas. Stefan dates the moment of his conversion to age 18. He obtained a PhD in Old Testament from Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ... in 1998. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Paas, Stefan 1969 births Living people Dutch Calvinist and Reformed theologians Missiologists Utrecht University alumni Academic staff of Vrije Universit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shasu
The Shasu (, possibly pronounced ''šaswə'') were Semitic-speaking pastoral nomads in the Southern Levant from the late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age or the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt. They were tent dwellers, organized in clans ruled by a tribal chieftain and were described as brigands active from the Jezreel Valley to Ashkelon, in the Transjordan and in the Sinai. Some of them also worked as mercenaries for Asiatic and Egyptian armies. Etymology The name's etymon may be Egyptian ''šꜣsw'', which originally meant "those who move on foot". Levy, Adams, and Muniz report similar possibilities: the Egyptian word šꜣs that means "to wander", and an alternative Semitic triliteral root, , with the meaning "to plunder". Land Though their homeland seems to be in the Transjordan, the Shasu also appear in Canaan, Syria and Egypt. History Late Bronze The earliest known reference to the Shasu occurs in a 16th-century BCE list of peoples in the Transjordan reg ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Moab
Moab () was an ancient Levant, Levantine kingdom whose territory is today located in southern Jordan. The land is mountainous and lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by numerous archaeological findings, most notably the Mesha Stele, which describes the Moabite victory over an unnamed son of Kings of Israel and Judah, King Omri of Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Israel, an episode also noted in Books of Kings, 2 Kings 3. The Moabite capital was Dibon. According to the Hebrew Bible, Moab was often in conflict with its Israelites, Israelite neighbours to the west. Etymology The etymology of the word Moab is uncertain. The earliest Biblical gloss, gloss is found in the Koine Greek Septuagint () which explains the name, in obvious allusion to the account of Moab's parentage, as ἐκ τοῦ πατρός μου ("from my father"). Other etymologies which have been proposed regard it as a corruption of "seed of a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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]   |
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Ammon
Ammon (; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; '; ) was an ancient Semitic languages, Semitic-speaking kingdom occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Wadi Mujib, Arnon and Jabbok, in present-day Jordan. The chief city of the country was ''Rabbah'' or ''Rabbat Ammon'', site of the modern city of Amman, Jordan's capital. Milcom and Moloch, Molech are named in the Hebrew Bible as the gods of Ammon. The people of this kingdom are called Children of Ammon or Ammonites. History The Ammonites occupied the northern Central Trans-Jordanian Plateau from the latter part of the second millennium BC to at least the second century AD. Ammon maintained its independence from the Neo-Assyrian Empire (10th to 7th centuries BC) by paying tribute to the Assyrian kings at a time when that Empire raided or conquered nearby kingdoms. The Kurkh Monolith lists the Ammonite king Baasha ben Ruhubi's army as fighting alongside Ahab of Kingdom of Israe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Exodus
The Exodus (Hebrew language, Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yəṣīʾat Mīṣrayīm'': ) is the Origin myth#Founding myth, founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four of the five books of the Torah, Pentateuch (specifically, Book of Exodus, Exodus, Book of Leviticus, Leviticus, Book of Numbers, Numbers, and Book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy). The narrative of the Exodus describes a history of Egyptian bondage of the Israelites followed by their exodus from Egypt through a Crossing the Red Sea, passage in the Red Sea, in pursuit of the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses. The story of the Exodus is central in Judaism. It is recounted daily in List of Jewish prayers and blessings, Jewish prayers and celebrated in festivals such as Passover. Early Christians saw the Exodus as a typology (theology), typological prefiguration of Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection and Salvation in Christianity, salvation by Jesus. The Exodus is also recounted in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ethnogenesis
Ethnogenesis (; ) is the formation and development of an ethnic group. This can originate by group self-identification or by outside identification. The term ''ethnogenesis'' was originally a mid-19th-century neologism that was later introduced into 20th-century academic anthropology. In that context, it refers to the observable phenomenon of the emergence of new social groups that are identified as having a cohesive identity, i.e., an "ethnic group" in anthropological terms. Relevant social sciences not only observe this phenomenon but also search for explanations for its causes. The term ''ethnogeny'' is also used as a variant of ''ethnogenesis''. Passive or active ethnogenesis Ethnogenesis can occur passively or actively. A passive ethnogenesis is an unintended outcome, which involves the spontaneous emergence of various markers of group identity through processes such as the group's interaction with unique elements of their physical environment, cultural divisions (such as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |