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Gihon Spring
[Bible]The Gihon Spring is a spring in the Kidron Valley on the east side of the City of David in Jerusalem. Solomon was anointed king there, and Hezekiah brought its water into the city.
Qumran Community
[History]The Qumran community was a Jewish sectarian group that lived at Qumran, northwest of the Dead Sea, from about the second century BC to the middle of the first century AD. Scholars commonly associate it with the Essenes. It is generally regarded as the community to which the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the surrounding caves belonged.
Mass
[Worship & Rites]The Mass is the public, Eucharist-centered worship of the Catholic Church. It consists of two parts: one in which the Scriptures are read and heard, and one in which bread and wine are shared.
Joshua 14
[Bible]Joshua 14 opens the distribution of the land west of the Jordan. It sets out the principle by which Eleazar and Joshua divide the land by lot among the nine and a half tribes. It also records how Caleb, at eighty-five, claims the hill country promised to him and receives Hebron as his inheritance.
Cathars
[History]The Cathars were a dualist Christian sect that spread through southern France and northern Italy in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They are also called Albigensians, after the southern French city of Albi. The Catholic Church condemned them as heretics and suppressed them through a crusade and the Inquisition.
Ezra
[Bible]Ezra is the fifteenth book of the Old Testament, a historical book recounting how the people of Judah who returned from the Babylonian exile rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem and restored their community around the Law.
Amen
[Bible]Amen is a Hebrew word meaning "truly, it is so" or "so be it." In the Bible it serves as a response of assent to prayer, praise, and proclamation, and the church today continues to use it widely as a response in prayer and worship.
Rabbinic Judaism
[History]Rabbinic Judaism is the form of Judaism that was reconstituted after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70, centered on the study of the Law, prayer, and the synagogue in place of sacrifice. Most of contemporary Judaism derives from this tradition.
Numbers 7
[Bible]Numbers 7 records how, on the day the tabernacle was set up, the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel presented wagons and oxen and then, over twelve days, one tribe per day, brought offerings for the dedication of the altar.
1 Samuel 5
[Bible]1 Samuel 5 recounts how the ark of God (the Ark of the Covenant), captured by the Philistines, was carried to Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. During this time the image of Dagon fell before the ark, and each city was struck with a plague of tumors.
2 Kings 12
[Bible]Second Kings 12 recounts the forty-year reign of Joash, king of Judah. It records his repair of the temple with silver gathered in a collection chest, his sending of sacred treasures to Hazael king of Aram to induce him to withdraw, and his death in a conspiracy by his servants.
Hokmah
[Bible]Hokmah is the Hebrew word for "wisdom." In the Old Testament it covers a wide range of meanings, from a craftsman's skill to the wisdom of a life lived in the fear of God. It is a central concept of the wisdom literature, including Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes.
Firstfruits
[Bible]Firstfruits were an Old Testament offering to God of the first grain and produce harvested from the land each year. In the New Testament the term is used figuratively for the risen Christ and for those who were the first to believe.
Salem
[Bible]Salem is the name of the city ruled by Melchizedek in Genesis 14. The Hebrew name shares a root with the word for "peace," and Jewish and Christian tradition generally regards it as an ancient name for Jerusalem.
Leviticus 14
[Bible]Leviticus 14 sets out the ritual for cleansing a person healed of leprosy (a serious skin disease) and restoring that person to the community, along with the regulations for inspecting and dealing with a plague that appears in a house.
Numbers 26
[Bible]Numbers 26 records the second census of Israel, taken on the plains of Moab after the plague at Baal-peor. It gives the totals by tribe (601,730 in all), the principles for dividing the land, and the census of the Levites, and it notes that of the wilderness generation only Caleb and Joshua remained.
Ezra 8
[Bible]Ezra 8 records the families who returned from Babylon with Ezra, the gathering of Levites and the fast at the river of Ahava, and the entrusting of the temple offerings, which were brought safely to Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 19
[Bible]Jeremiah 19 is the chapter in which Jeremiah buys a potter's earthen bottle and breaks it in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, proclaiming that Jerusalem will be destroyed beyond repair because of its idolatry and child sacrifice.
Amos 8
[Bible]Amos 8 announces the "end" of the northern kingdom of Israel through the vision of a basket of summer fruit, indicts those who cheat the poor, and foretells a day of judgment when the sun goes down at noon, along with a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
Maher-shalal-hash-baz
[People]Maher-shalal-hash-baz was a son of the prophet Isaiah and appears in Isaiah 8. His name, meaning "plunder comes swiftly, spoil comes speedily," served as a sign that Aram and the northern kingdom of Israel, which were threatening Judah, would fall to Assyria.