Search the encyclopedia
1000 articles found for “the great whore”
Seleucid Dynasty
[History]The Seleucid dynasty was a Hellenistic dynasty founded after the death of Alexander the Great by Seleucus I, one of his generals. It ruled Syria and Mesopotamia from about 312 BC to 64 BC and governed Judea during the intertestamental period.
Ptolemaic Dynasty
[History]The Ptolemaic dynasty was a Greek dynasty (c. 305–30 BC) founded in Egypt by Ptolemy I, one of Alexander the Great's generals, after Alexander's death. It ruled Judea for a time and is known as the setting for the translation of the Septuagint.
Maccabean Revolt
[History]The Maccabean Revolt was a Jewish uprising begun in 167 BC by the priest Mattathias and his sons after Antiochus IV of the Seleucid dynasty outlawed the practice of Judaism. It led to the rededication of the Jerusalem temple and the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty.
Antonia Fortress
[Bible]The Antonia Fortress was a stronghold built by Herod the Great at the northwest corner of the Temple in Jerusalem. It is generally identified with the "castle" into which the Roman chief captain brought Paul in Acts 21–23.
2 Chronicles 35
[Bible]2 Chronicles 35 records the great Passover that Josiah, king of Judah, kept in the eighteenth year of his reign, his death at Megiddo in battle against Necho, king of Egypt, and the mourning for him.
Noah
[People]Noah is a figure in the Old Testament Book of Genesis who, at God's command, built an ark and survived the Great Flood with his family and the animals. After the Flood he received the covenant of the rainbow.
Philip (Husband of Herodias)
[People]Philip was a son of Herod the Great and the first husband of Herodias. Herodias left him to marry his brother Herod Antipas, and this marriage formed the background to the imprisonment of John the Baptist (Matthew 14:3; Mark 6:17).
Revelation 18:20–21
[Bible Verses]This passage calls on heaven and the saints to rejoice over the fall of Babylon the great and records a mighty angel casting a stone like a great millstone into the sea, declaring that the city shall be found no more at all. Discussion centers mainly on what Babylon signifies and how to understand the call to rejoice over its destruction.
Koine Greek
[Bible]Koine Greek was the common form of Greek widely used throughout the Mediterranean world after the conquests of Alexander the Great. All twenty-seven books of the New Testament, as well as the Septuagint, were written in this language.
Destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70)
[History]The destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70) was the capture of Jerusalem and the burning of the Second Temple by the Roman army under Titus during the First Jewish–Roman War. The event profoundly changed both Judaism and early Christianity.
Imperial Cult
[History]The imperial cult was the practice in the ancient Roman Empire of honoring the emperor, living or deceased, as a god and offering sacrifices to him. Early Christians who refused to take part were persecuted.
Amarna Letters
[History]The Amarna Letters are a collection of clay-tablet correspondence discovered in 1887 at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt. Written in cuneiform, they were exchanged in the mid-fourteenth century BC between the Egyptian royal court and both the great powers of the ancient Near East and the rulers of the city-states of Canaan.
Thirty Years' War
[History]The Thirty Years' War was a conflict fought from 1618 to 1648, centered on the Holy Roman Empire. The struggle between Catholics and Protestants was intertwined with rivalry for power among the great European states, and the war ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
Simon Magus
[People]Simon Magus is a sorcerer in Samaria who appears in Acts 8. After being baptized, he tried to buy the power to impart the Holy Spirit and was rebuked by Peter. The term "simony," meaning the buying and selling of church offices, is derived from his name.
Revelation 12:9
[Bible Verses]Revelation 12:9 belongs to the vision of war in heaven in Revelation 12. In it the great dragon is cast down to the earth and identified as "that old serpent," the Devil, and Satan. The verse is frequently cited in discussions of the Devil's identity and origin and of when Satan was cast out.
Jonah 2
[Bible]Jonah 2 is the chapter containing the prayer Jonah offered to the LORD from the belly of the great fish. Jonah thanks God for delivering him from the depths of the sea and promises to pay what he has vowed; at the end of the chapter, the fish vomits Jonah out upon dry land.
Nero
[People]Nero (37–68) was the fifth emperor of the Roman Empire, reigning from 54 to 68. He is known as the first Roman emperor to persecute Christians, which he did after the Great Fire of Rome in 64.
Mehujael
[People]Mehujael is a figure in the genealogy of Cain in Genesis 4. He was Cain's great-grandson, the son of Irad, and the father of Methusael. Scripture records only his name, and only once.
Job 41
[Bible]Job 41 is the chapter in which God, speaking out of the whirlwind, describes Leviathan, a great sea creature that no human can tame, showing Job the created order and God's sovereignty.
Jonah 4
[Bible]Jonah 4 is the final chapter of the Book of Jonah. When Jonah becomes angry that Nineveh has been spared, God teaches him through a gourd vine, and the book closes with God's question about why He should spare the great city.