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Virgin Birth
[Doctrine & Theology]The virgin birth is the Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, without the involvement of a man, and was born of the Virgin Mary. It is confessed in the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed.
Milcah
[People]Milcah is a woman in the Book of Genesis, the daughter of Haran and the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother. She was the mother of Bethuel and the grandmother of Rebekah, the wife of Isaac.
Dathan and Abiram
[People]Dathan and Abiram were brothers of the tribe of Reuben, sons of Eliab, who joined Korah in rebelling against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness after the Exodus. They are known for the incident in which the earth opened and swallowed them and their households.
Eliab
[People]Eliab was the firstborn son of Jesse of Bethlehem and the eldest brother of David. He is best known from the account in which Samuel, judging by his appearance, assumed he was the one chosen to be king, but God rejected him, declaring that the LORD "looketh on the heart."
Captain of Thousands
[Bible]A captain of thousands is the biblical term for a leader who governed or commanded a unit of one thousand. In the Old Testament it denotes a judicial and military office within Israel; in the New Testament it refers chiefly to a commander in the Roman army.
Wilderness of Judea
[Bible]The Wilderness of Judea is the arid land that descends east of Jerusalem and the hill country of Judah toward the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. Scripture presents it as the place where David hid from Saul and where John the Baptist preached repentance.
Gedaliah
[People]Gedaliah was the man Babylon appointed to govern the people left in the land of Judah after the destruction of Jerusalem. He ruled from Mizpah until he was assassinated by Ishmael.
Rameses
[Bible]Rameses was the name of a region and a city in the eastern Nile Delta of ancient Egypt. The children of Israel built it as a store city while in bondage, and it was the starting point of their march at the Exodus.
Zilpah
[People]Zilpah was the maidservant whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah as her handmaid. Through Leah she became a wife of Jacob and bore Gad and Asher, making her the mother of two of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Constantine I
[People]Constantine I (c. 272–337) was the Roman emperor who legalized Christianity and convened the Council of Nicaea. During his reign the church changed from a persecuted minority into a religion enjoying imperial protection.
Hophni and Phinehas
[People]Hophni and Phinehas were the two sons of Eli who served as priests at Shiloh at the close of the period of the judges. They sinned in several ways, including treating the sacrifices with contempt, and both died when the Ark of the Covenant was captured in battle against the Philistines.
Søren Kierkegaard
[People]Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a Danish philosopher and Christian thinker. He regarded faith as a decision the individual makes before God, and he criticized the formalized state church. He is often called a forerunner of existentialism.
Missio Dei
[Doctrine & Theology]Missio Dei (Latin for "the mission of God") is a concept in the theology of mission holding that the agent of mission is not the church but the triune God, and that the church is a community sent to participate in that mission.
Elah (King of Israel)
[People]Elah was a king of the northern kingdom of Israel and the son of Baasha. According to 1 Kings 16, he reigned for two years and was killed by his servant Zimri while drunk. His death brought the dynasty of Baasha to an end.
Haggai (Prophet)
[People]Haggai was a prophet active after the return from the Babylonian exile, during the reign of the Persian king Darius. He urged the people to resume the stalled rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. The Old Testament Book of Haggai bears his name.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
[People]Antiochus IV Epiphanes was king of the Seleucid Empire from 175 to 164 BC. He defiled the Jerusalem temple and persecuted Judaism, provoking the Maccabean Revolt, and he is frequently discussed in the interpretation of the Book of Daniel.
Cainan
[People]Cainan is a name that appears twice in the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3. One Cainan is an antediluvian figure corresponding to Kenan in Genesis; the other is a son of Arphaxad who does not appear in the Hebrew text of Genesis.
Abihu
[People]Abihu, the second son of the high priest Aaron in the Old Testament, was consecrated as a priest along with his older brother Nadab. He died by fire that came out from before the LORD after offering incense with "strange fire," which the LORD had not commanded.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
[People]Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was a German philosopher and mathematician. A Lutheran lay scholar, he wrote the *Theodicy*, a treatment of the problem of evil and suffering, and thereby popularized the term "theodicy."
Azariah (Son of Oded)
[People]Azariah, the son of Oded, was a prophet during the reign of King Asa of Judah. In 2 Chronicles 15 he urged Asa to seek the LORD, prompting the removal of idols and a renewal of the covenant.