Search the encyclopedia
1000 articles found for “Asa; 2 Chronicles”
Asherah
[Bible]Asherah is the name of a Canaanite goddess mentioned in the Old Testament. The word also refers to the wooden pole or carved image used in her worship. It often serves as a representative term for Israel's idolatry.
Idolatry
[Bible]Idolatry is the worship of gods other than God or of images made by human hands. Scripture forbids it in the Ten Commandments and treats it as a fundamental sin that breaks the covenant.
Sinai Covenant
[Bible]The Sinai Covenant is the covenant God made at Mount Sinai with the people of Israel after the Exodus, with Moses serving as mediator. Centered on the Ten Commandments and the law, it established Israel as "a kingdom of priests."
Shechem
[Bible]Shechem was an ancient Canaanite city in the hill country of Ephraim, situated between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. In Scripture it appears as a major setting for covenant and political events from the patriarchal period through the division of the kingdom.
Jerome
[People]Jerome (c. 347–420) was a biblical scholar and Church Father of the ancient Western church. He translated the Latin Bible known as the Vulgate.
Son of David
[Bible]A term meaning a descendant of King David. In the New Testament it is applied to Jesus as a messianic title for the king who, in keeping with the Old Testament promise, was to come from the house of David.
Ruler of the Synagogue
[Bible]The ruler of the synagogue was the official who led worship and assemblies in Jewish synagogues during the New Testament period. Jairus in the Gospels and Crispus and Sosthenes in the Acts of the Apostles are identified as rulers of the synagogue.
Pillar of Cloud and Pillar of Fire
[Bible]The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire were a miracle of the Exodus in which God led the Israelites by going before them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They first appear in Exodus 13.
Nimrod
[People]Nimrod is a son of Cush and grandson of Ham who appears in Genesis 10. The Bible describes him as one who "began to be a mighty one in the earth" and as "a mighty hunter before the LORD," and it associates him with cities such as Babel and Nineveh.
Decapolis
[Bible]The Decapolis (Greek for "ten cities") was a region of Hellenistic cities located mainly east of the Jordan River. It appears three times in the Gospels as a place of Jesus' ministry.
Vineyard
[Bible]A vineyard is a plot of land where grapevines are planted and cultivated. In the Bible it is part of agricultural life, and it frequently serves as a symbol of the people (Israel) whom God tends and from whom He expects fruit.
Teraphim
[Bible]Teraphim are household idols mentioned in the Old Testament, generally thought to have been venerated in the home or used for divination. They appear in the accounts of Rachel and Michal and are condemned as a form of idolatry in the prophetic and legal traditions.
Ziklag
[Bible]Ziklag was a town in the Negev region of southern Judah. Achish king of Gath gave it to David, who used it as his base while taking refuge in Philistine territory from Saul. It is known as the town raided by the Amalekites.
Sidon
[Bible]Sidon was a Phoenician port city on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, corresponding to present-day Saida in Lebanon. In the Old Testament it appears as a neighbor to the north of Israel, and in the New Testament it stands for Gentile territory.
Mount Hermon
[Bible]Mount Hermon is a high mountain north of the upper Jordan River, at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon range. In the Old Testament it appears as the northern boundary of the land Israel possessed, and it is well known from "the dew of Hermon" in Psalm 133.
Cornerstone
[Bible]A cornerstone is an important stone set at the corner of a building to align its walls and stabilize its structure. It appears in Psalm 118 and Isaiah 28, and the New Testament takes up the image as a reference to Jesus Christ.
Tablets of the Testimony
[Bible]The tablets of the testimony are the two stone tablets, inscribed with the Ten Commandments, that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. They were kept inside the Ark of the Covenant as a witness to the covenant between God and Israel.
Tarshish
[Bible]Tarshish is an Old Testament place name for a distant land across the sea. Scripture portrays it as a center of trade in metals such as silver and tin, and it is best known as the destination to which Jonah tried to flee from God.
Feast of Trumpets
[Bible]The Feast of Trumpets was an Old Testament festival observed on the first day of the seventh month of Israel's religious calendar. It was marked by the blowing of trumpets and a holy convocation, as prescribed in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29.
Primeval History
[Bible]Primeval history is a scholarly term for Genesis 1–11, the part of Genesis that precedes Abraham and recounts the beginnings of the world and of humanity as a whole rather than of a particular people.