Search the encyclopedia
1000 articles found for “A nobleman”
Talmud
[History]The Talmud is a body of Jewish literature that combines the Mishnah, a compilation of the oral law of Judaism, with its commentary, the Gemara. Compiled between the third and sixth centuries, it continues to serve as a standard for Jewish faith and life today.
Hegesippus
[People]Hegesippus was a second-century Christian writer who compiled the Memoirs, a collection of early church traditions. The original work is lost and survives only in fragments quoted in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History.
Riblah
[Bible]Riblah was a town in the land of Hamath in Syria. The kings of Egypt and Babylon used it as a military base, and the Bible records it as the place where Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, interrogated and punished Zedekiah, king of Judah.
Cyrene
[Bible]Cyrene was a Greek city on the northeastern coast of present-day Libya in North Africa. In the New Testament it appears as the hometown of Simon, who carried the cross for Jesus, and as the place of origin of early Christian evangelists who preached the gospel to Gentiles in Antioch.
Elihu
[People]Elihu is a young man in Job 32–37 who steps forward after the debate between Job and his three friends has ended and delivers a lengthy discourse. He is introduced as the son of Barachel the Buzite.
Dan
[Bible]Dan was a city at the northern extremity of the land of Israel. The tribe of Dan captured Laish and gave it this name, and it was there that Jeroboam, king of the northern kingdom of Israel, set up one of his golden calves.
Pur
[Bible]Pur is a word meaning "lot." In the Book of Esther it refers to the lot that Haman cast to fix the day for destroying the Jews, and the Jewish festival of Purim takes its name from it.
Veronica
[People]Veronica is a woman known only from church tradition; her name does not appear in the Bible. Tradition holds that she wiped the face of Jesus with a cloth as he carried the cross, and it identifies her with the woman with the issue of blood in the Gospels.
Irenaeus
[People]Irenaeus was a Church Father who served as bishop of Lyon in Gaul in the late second century. In *Against Heresies* he refuted Gnosticism and emphasized the four Gospels and the rule of faith, profoundly influencing the formation of orthodox theology in the early church.
Abishag
[People]Abishag was a young woman from Shunem who attended King David in his final years. After David's death, Adonijah's request to marry her led Solomon to have Adonijah executed.
Chaldea
[Bible]Chaldea is a biblical term for a region in southern Mesopotamia and for the people who lived there. Scripture uses it for Abraham's homeland, "Ur of the Chaldees"; for the Babylonian Empire that destroyed Judah; and for a class of learned men and astrologers in the book of Daniel.
Pekah
[People]Pekah, the son of Remaliah, became king of the northern kingdom of Israel through a coup. His alliance with Rezin king of Aram against Judah forms the background of the Immanuel prophecy in Isaiah 7.
Mount Tabor
[Bible]Mount Tabor is a mountain in the Galilee region of northern Israel, rising northeast of the Jezreel Valley. In the Old Testament it appears as the battleground of Deborah and Barak, and church tradition has long identified it as the Mount of Transfiguration.
Ezion-geber
[Bible]Ezion-geber was a biblical port city near the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, the eastern arm of the Red Sea. It appears as a campsite on Israel's wilderness journey and as the place where Solomon and Jehoshaphat built ships.
Bethuel
[People]Bethuel is a figure in the Book of Genesis. He was the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother, and Nahor's wife Milcah, and the father of Laban and of Rebekah, the wife of Isaac.
Rephidim
[Bible]Rephidim was a wilderness encampment where the Israelites stopped after the Exodus, just before reaching the wilderness of Sinai. It was the site of the water from the rock and of the battle with Amalek.
Rabbi
[Bible]Rabbi is a Hebrew and Aramaic title of respect meaning "my teacher." In the New Testament Gospels, disciples and others use it to address Jesus and John the Baptist.
Chorazin
[Bible]Chorazin was a town north of the Sea of Galilee. Together with Bethsaida, it received Jesus' pronouncement of "Woe" because its people did not repent even though he had done many mighty works there.
Lachish
[Bible]Lachish was a city in the lowland of Judah, southwest of Jerusalem. It appears in the accounts of Joshua's conquest of Canaan, the Assyrian king Sennacherib's invasion of Judah, and the final Babylonian assault.
Asaph
[People]Asaph was a Levite musician in the time of David and a leader of the singers who led praise in the temple. Psalm 50 and Psalms 73–83 have come down as "Psalms of Asaph," and his descendants continued the ministry of praise after the return from exile.