Geneza 11
1 Tot pământul avea o singură limbă şi aceleaşi cuvinte.
2 Pornind ei înspre răsărit, au dat peste o câmpie în ţara Şinear; şi au descălecat acolo.
3 Şi au zis unul către altul: ,,Haidem! să facem cărămizi, şi să le ardem bine în foc.`` Şi cărămida le-a ţinut loc de piatră, iar smoala le-a ţinut loc de var.
4 Si au mai zis: ,,Haidem! să ne zidim o cetate şi un turn al cărui vârf să atingă cerul, şi să ne facem un nume, ca să nu fim împrăştiaţi pe toată faţa pământului.``
5 Domnul S-a pogorât să vadă cetatea şi turnul, pe care-l zideau fiii oamenilor.
6 Şi Domnul a zis: ,,Iată, ei sânt un singur popor, şi toţi au aceeaş limbă; şi iacă de ce s-au apucat; acum nimic nu i-ar împedeca să facă tot ce şi-au pus în gând.
7 Haidem! să Ne pogorâm şi să le încurcăm acolo limba, ca să nu-şi mai înţeleagă vorba unii altora.``
8 Şi Domnul i-a împrăştiat de acolo pe toată faţa pământului; aşa că au încetat să zidească cetatea.
9 De aceea cetatea a fost numită Babel, căci acolo a încurcat Domnul limba întregului pământ, şi de acolo i-a împrăştiat Domnul pe toată faţa pământului.
10 Iată spiţa neamului lui Sem. La vârsta de o sută de ani, Sem a născut pe Arpacşad, la doi ani după potop.
11 După naşterea lui Arpacşad, Sem a trăit cincisute de ani; şi a născut fii şi fiice.
12 La vrâsta de treizeci şi cinci de ani, Arpacşad a născut pe Şelah.
13 După naşterea lui Şelah, Arpacşad a mai trăit patrusute trei ani; şi a născut fii şi fiice.
14 La vrâsta de treizeci de ani, Şelah a născut pe Eber.
15 După naşterea lui Eber, Şelah a mai trăit patrusute trei ani; şi a născut fii şi fiice.
16 La vârsta de treizeci şi patru de ani, Eber a născut pe Peleg.
17 După naşterea lui Peleg, Eber a mai trăit patrusute treizeci de ani; şi a născut fii şi fiice.
18 La vârsta de treizeci de ani, Peleg a născut pe Reu.
19 După naşterea lui Reu, Peleg a mai trăit douăsute nouă ani; şi a născut fii şi fiice.
20 La vârsta de treizeci şi doi de ani, Reu a născut pe Serug.
21 După naşterea lui Serug, Reu a mai trăit douăsute şapte ani; şi a născut fii şi fiice.
22 La vârsta de treizeci de ani, Serug a născut pe Nahor.
23 După naşterea lui Nahor, Serug a mai trăit două sute de ani; şi a născut fii şi fiice.
24 La vârsta de douăzeci şi nouă de ani, Nahor a născut pe Terah.
25 După naşterea lui Terah, Nahor a mai trăit o sută nouăsprezece ani; şi a născut fii şi fiice.
26 La vârsta de şaptezeci de ani, Terah a născut pe Avram, pe Nahor şi pe Haran.
27 Iată spiţa neamului lui Terah. Terah a născut pe Avram, pe Nahor şi pe Haran. -Haran a născut pe Lot.
28 Şi Haran a murit în faţa tatălui său Terah, în ţara în care se născuse, în Ur în Haldea. -
29 Avram şi Nahor şi-au luat neveste. Numele nevestei lui Avram era Sarai, şi numele nevestei lui Nahor era Milca, fiica lui Haran, tatăl Milcăi şi Iscăi.
30 Sarai era stearpă: n-avea copii deloc.
31 Terah a luat pe fiul său Avram, şi pe Lot, fiul lui Haran, fiul fiului său, şi pe Sarai, noru-sa, nevasta fiului său Avram. Au ieşit împreună din Ur din Haldea, ca să meargă în ţara Canaan. Au venit pânăla Haran, şi s-au aşezat acolo.
32 Zilele lui Terah au fost de două sute cinci ani; şi Terah a murit în Haran.
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Even though Babylon was ruled by many kingdoms throughout the centuries, the city remained a cultural and religious figurehead.<\/p>\n<p>Sumerian Civilization (3200–2000 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The first great civilization to flourish in Babylonia was Sumer, centered south of Babylon. The Sumerians invented cuneiform writing, which was used by Mesopotamian cultures for three thousand years.<\/p>\n<p>The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>To the north of Babylon, Akkadian king Sargon I (2339–2279 <span>BC<\/span>) founded the capital city of Akkad and gained political and cultural supremacy over Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire lasted for nearly two centuries.<\/p>\n<p>First Babylonian Kingdom (1900–1600 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>During the period of the Akkadian Empire, Semitic-speaking nomads from Syria called Amurru (“Amorites”), regarded as barbarians by the urbane Babylonians, began migrating into Babylonia, where they eventually established a new Babylonian kingdom under Amorite control. The sixth king of that dynasty was Hammurabi (1792–1750 <span>BC<\/span>), who enlarged the kingdom significantly. Babylon’s glory, however, was short-lived; the kingdom shriveled under Hammurabi’s son and lasted only another century.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian Domination (900–614 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>In 851 <span>BC<\/span> Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858–824 <span>BC<\/span>) entered Babylon but treated the ancient city with respect and left its king on his throne as a vassal. A century and a half later (around 705 <span>BC<\/span>), a Babylonian vassal-king named Merodach-baladan organized a revolution, and he sent ambassadors to King Hezekiah of Judah for support (see 2 Kgs 20:12-19; Isa 39). Assyria quickly crushed Merodach-baladan’s revolution, and Assyria’s domination continued for another century.<\/p>\n<p>Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The Chaldean prince Nabopolassar seized the throne of Babylon (625–605 <span>BC<\/span>) and put an end to the Assyrian Empire. Under his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 <span>BC<\/span>), Babylon was master of the Near East, a city of splendor (see Dan 1–4).<\/p>\n<p>Nebuchadnezzar was eventually succeeded by a high diplomatic official named Nabonidus (555–539 <span>BC<\/span>), who neglected Babylon and lost its support. When Cyrus II of Persia (559–530 <span>BC<\/span>) attacked the city in October 539 <span>BC<\/span> (see Dan 5:30-31 and study note on Dan 5:31), the city gave itself up without a battle. That surrender marked the end of independent Babylon.<\/p>\n<p>The Symbolic Enemy of God’s People<\/p>\n<p>In 1 Peter and Revelation, Rome is personified as “Babylon the Great, Mother of all Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World” (Rev 17:5)—a dreadfully immoral center of wealth and commerce, ruling over the kings of the earth and persecuting God’s people. The kings and merchants of the earth will mourn her demise (Rev 18:9-19), but God’s people will rejoice that their oppression has ended and will worship God freely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 10:8-9; 11:1-9; 2 Kgs 20:12-19; 24:1–25:30; Isa 39; Dan 1–5; 1 Pet 5:13; Rev 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2-21; 19:2<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babylon<\/h3>\n<p>Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride.<\/p>\n<p>Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own identity apart from the Creator. It was this proud civilization that Abraham and his family left when they traveled out of Ur of the Chaldeans around 2000 <span>BC<\/span>. Even though Babylon was ruled by many kingdoms throughout the centuries, the city remained a cultural and religious figurehead.<\/p>\n<p>Sumerian Civilization (3200–2000 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The first great civilization to flourish in Babylonia was Sumer, centered south of Babylon. The Sumerians invented cuneiform writing, which was used by Mesopotamian cultures for three thousand years.<\/p>\n<p>The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>To the north of Babylon, Akkadian king Sargon I (2339–2279 <span>BC<\/span>) founded the capital city of Akkad and gained political and cultural supremacy over Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire lasted for nearly two centuries.<\/p>\n<p>First Babylonian Kingdom (1900–1600 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>During the period of the Akkadian Empire, Semitic-speaking nomads from Syria called Amurru (“Amorites”), regarded as barbarians by the urbane Babylonians, began migrating into Babylonia, where they eventually established a new Babylonian kingdom under Amorite control. The sixth king of that dynasty was Hammurabi (1792–1750 <span>BC<\/span>), who enlarged the kingdom significantly. Babylon’s glory, however, was short-lived; the kingdom shriveled under Hammurabi’s son and lasted only another century.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian Domination (900–614 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>In 851 <span>BC<\/span> Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858–824 <span>BC<\/span>) entered Babylon but treated the ancient city with respect and left its king on his throne as a vassal. A century and a half later (around 705 <span>BC<\/span>), a Babylonian vassal-king named Merodach-baladan organized a revolution, and he sent ambassadors to King Hezekiah of Judah for support (see 2 Kgs 20:12-19; Isa 39). Assyria quickly crushed Merodach-baladan’s revolution, and Assyria’s domination continued for another century.<\/p>\n<p>Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The Chaldean prince Nabopolassar seized the throne of Babylon (625–605 <span>BC<\/span>) and put an end to the Assyrian Empire. Under his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 <span>BC<\/span>), Babylon was master of the Near East, a city of splendor (see Dan 1–4).<\/p>\n<p>Nebuchadnezzar was eventually succeeded by a high diplomatic official named Nabonidus (555–539 <span>BC<\/span>), who neglected Babylon and lost its support. When Cyrus II of Persia (559–530 <span>BC<\/span>) attacked the city in October 539 <span>BC<\/span> (see Dan 5:30-31 and study note on Dan 5:31), the city gave itself up without a battle. That surrender marked the end of independent Babylon.<\/p>\n<p>The Symbolic Enemy of God’s People<\/p>\n<p>In 1 Peter and Revelation, Rome is personified as “Babylon the Great, Mother of all Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World” (Rev 17:5)—a dreadfully immoral center of wealth and commerce, ruling over the kings of the earth and persecuting God’s people. The kings and merchants of the earth will mourn her demise (Rev 18:9-19), but God’s people will rejoice that their oppression has ended and will worship God freely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 10:8-9; 11:1-9; 2 Kgs 20:12-19; 24:1–25:30; Isa 39; Dan 1–5; 1 Pet 5:13; Rev 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2-21; 19:2<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babylon Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride. Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own iden...","summary_en":"Babylon Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride. Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. 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It was this proud civilization that Abraham and his family left when they traveled out of Ur of the Chaldeans around 2000 <span>BC<\/span>. Even though Babylon was ruled by many kingdoms throughout the centuries, the city remained a cultural and religious figurehead.<\/p>\n<p>Sumerian Civilization (3200–2000 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The first great civilization to flourish in Babylonia was Sumer, centered south of Babylon. The Sumerians invented cuneiform writing, which was used by Mesopotamian cultures for three thousand years.<\/p>\n<p>The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>To the north of Babylon, Akkadian king Sargon I (2339–2279 <span>BC<\/span>) founded the capital city of Akkad and gained political and cultural supremacy over Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire lasted for nearly two centuries.<\/p>\n<p>First Babylonian Kingdom (1900–1600 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>During the period of the Akkadian Empire, Semitic-speaking nomads from Syria called Amurru (“Amorites”), regarded as barbarians by the urbane Babylonians, began migrating into Babylonia, where they eventually established a new Babylonian kingdom under Amorite control. The sixth king of that dynasty was Hammurabi (1792–1750 <span>BC<\/span>), who enlarged the kingdom significantly. Babylon’s glory, however, was short-lived; the kingdom shriveled under Hammurabi’s son and lasted only another century.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian Domination (900–614 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>In 851 <span>BC<\/span> Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858–824 <span>BC<\/span>) entered Babylon but treated the ancient city with respect and left its king on his throne as a vassal. A century and a half later (around 705 <span>BC<\/span>), a Babylonian vassal-king named Merodach-baladan organized a revolution, and he sent ambassadors to King Hezekiah of Judah for support (see 2 Kgs 20:12-19; Isa 39). Assyria quickly crushed Merodach-baladan’s revolution, and Assyria’s domination continued for another century.<\/p>\n<p>Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The Chaldean prince Nabopolassar seized the throne of Babylon (625–605 <span>BC<\/span>) and put an end to the Assyrian Empire. Under his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 <span>BC<\/span>), Babylon was master of the Near East, a city of splendor (see Dan 1–4).<\/p>\n<p>Nebuchadnezzar was eventually succeeded by a high diplomatic official named Nabonidus (555–539 <span>BC<\/span>), who neglected Babylon and lost its support. When Cyrus II of Persia (559–530 <span>BC<\/span>) attacked the city in October 539 <span>BC<\/span> (see Dan 5:30-31 and study note on Dan 5:31), the city gave itself up without a battle. That surrender marked the end of independent Babylon.<\/p>\n<p>The Symbolic Enemy of God’s People<\/p>\n<p>In 1 Peter and Revelation, Rome is personified as “Babylon the Great, Mother of all Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World” (Rev 17:5)—a dreadfully immoral center of wealth and commerce, ruling over the kings of the earth and persecuting God’s people. The kings and merchants of the earth will mourn her demise (Rev 18:9-19), but God’s people will rejoice that their oppression has ended and will worship God freely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 10:8-9; 11:1-9; 2 Kgs 20:12-19; 24:1–25:30; Isa 39; Dan 1–5; 1 Pet 5:13; Rev 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2-21; 19:2<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babylon<\/h3>\n<p>Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride.<\/p>\n<p>Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own identity apart from the Creator. It was this proud civilization that Abraham and his family left when they traveled out of Ur of the Chaldeans around 2000 <span>BC<\/span>. Even though Babylon was ruled by many kingdoms throughout the centuries, the city remained a cultural and religious figurehead.<\/p>\n<p>Sumerian Civilization (3200–2000 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The first great civilization to flourish in Babylonia was Sumer, centered south of Babylon. The Sumerians invented cuneiform writing, which was used by Mesopotamian cultures for three thousand years.<\/p>\n<p>The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>To the north of Babylon, Akkadian king Sargon I (2339–2279 <span>BC<\/span>) founded the capital city of Akkad and gained political and cultural supremacy over Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire lasted for nearly two centuries.<\/p>\n<p>First Babylonian Kingdom (1900–1600 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>During the period of the Akkadian Empire, Semitic-speaking nomads from Syria called Amurru (“Amorites”), regarded as barbarians by the urbane Babylonians, began migrating into Babylonia, where they eventually established a new Babylonian kingdom under Amorite control. The sixth king of that dynasty was Hammurabi (1792–1750 <span>BC<\/span>), who enlarged the kingdom significantly. Babylon’s glory, however, was short-lived; the kingdom shriveled under Hammurabi’s son and lasted only another century.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian Domination (900–614 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>In 851 <span>BC<\/span> Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858–824 <span>BC<\/span>) entered Babylon but treated the ancient city with respect and left its king on his throne as a vassal. A century and a half later (around 705 <span>BC<\/span>), a Babylonian vassal-king named Merodach-baladan organized a revolution, and he sent ambassadors to King Hezekiah of Judah for support (see 2 Kgs 20:12-19; Isa 39). Assyria quickly crushed Merodach-baladan’s revolution, and Assyria’s domination continued for another century.<\/p>\n<p>Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The Chaldean prince Nabopolassar seized the throne of Babylon (625–605 <span>BC<\/span>) and put an end to the Assyrian Empire. Under his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 <span>BC<\/span>), Babylon was master of the Near East, a city of splendor (see Dan 1–4).<\/p>\n<p>Nebuchadnezzar was eventually succeeded by a high diplomatic official named Nabonidus (555–539 <span>BC<\/span>), who neglected Babylon and lost its support. When Cyrus II of Persia (559–530 <span>BC<\/span>) attacked the city in October 539 <span>BC<\/span> (see Dan 5:30-31 and study note on Dan 5:31), the city gave itself up without a battle. That surrender marked the end of independent Babylon.<\/p>\n<p>The Symbolic Enemy of God’s People<\/p>\n<p>In 1 Peter and Revelation, Rome is personified as “Babylon the Great, Mother of all Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World” (Rev 17:5)—a dreadfully immoral center of wealth and commerce, ruling over the kings of the earth and persecuting God’s people. The kings and merchants of the earth will mourn her demise (Rev 18:9-19), but God’s people will rejoice that their oppression has ended and will worship God freely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 10:8-9; 11:1-9; 2 Kgs 20:12-19; 24:1–25:30; Isa 39; Dan 1–5; 1 Pet 5:13; Rev 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2-21; 19:2<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babylon Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride. Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own iden...","summary_en":"Babylon Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride. Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own iden...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":96943,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Babylon","title_en":"Babylon","content_ro":"<h3>Babylon<\/h3>\n<p>Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride.<\/p>\n<p>Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own identity apart from the Creator. It was this proud civilization that Abraham and his family left when they traveled out of Ur of the Chaldeans around 2000 <span>BC<\/span>. Even though Babylon was ruled by many kingdoms throughout the centuries, the city remained a cultural and religious figurehead.<\/p>\n<p>Sumerian Civilization (3200–2000 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The first great civilization to flourish in Babylonia was Sumer, centered south of Babylon. The Sumerians invented cuneiform writing, which was used by Mesopotamian cultures for three thousand years.<\/p>\n<p>The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>To the north of Babylon, Akkadian king Sargon I (2339–2279 <span>BC<\/span>) founded the capital city of Akkad and gained political and cultural supremacy over Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire lasted for nearly two centuries.<\/p>\n<p>First Babylonian Kingdom (1900–1600 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>During the period of the Akkadian Empire, Semitic-speaking nomads from Syria called Amurru (“Amorites”), regarded as barbarians by the urbane Babylonians, began migrating into Babylonia, where they eventually established a new Babylonian kingdom under Amorite control. The sixth king of that dynasty was Hammurabi (1792–1750 <span>BC<\/span>), who enlarged the kingdom significantly. Babylon’s glory, however, was short-lived; the kingdom shriveled under Hammurabi’s son and lasted only another century.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian Domination (900–614 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>In 851 <span>BC<\/span> Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858–824 <span>BC<\/span>) entered Babylon but treated the ancient city with respect and left its king on his throne as a vassal. A century and a half later (around 705 <span>BC<\/span>), a Babylonian vassal-king named Merodach-baladan organized a revolution, and he sent ambassadors to King Hezekiah of Judah for support (see 2 Kgs 20:12-19; Isa 39). Assyria quickly crushed Merodach-baladan’s revolution, and Assyria’s domination continued for another century.<\/p>\n<p>Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The Chaldean prince Nabopolassar seized the throne of Babylon (625–605 <span>BC<\/span>) and put an end to the Assyrian Empire. Under his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 <span>BC<\/span>), Babylon was master of the Near East, a city of splendor (see Dan 1–4).<\/p>\n<p>Nebuchadnezzar was eventually succeeded by a high diplomatic official named Nabonidus (555–539 <span>BC<\/span>), who neglected Babylon and lost its support. When Cyrus II of Persia (559–530 <span>BC<\/span>) attacked the city in October 539 <span>BC<\/span> (see Dan 5:30-31 and study note on Dan 5:31), the city gave itself up without a battle. That surrender marked the end of independent Babylon.<\/p>\n<p>The Symbolic Enemy of God’s People<\/p>\n<p>In 1 Peter and Revelation, Rome is personified as “Babylon the Great, Mother of all Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World” (Rev 17:5)—a dreadfully immoral center of wealth and commerce, ruling over the kings of the earth and persecuting God’s people. The kings and merchants of the earth will mourn her demise (Rev 18:9-19), but God’s people will rejoice that their oppression has ended and will worship God freely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 10:8-9; 11:1-9; 2 Kgs 20:12-19; 24:1–25:30; Isa 39; Dan 1–5; 1 Pet 5:13; Rev 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2-21; 19:2<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babylon<\/h3>\n<p>Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride.<\/p>\n<p>Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own identity apart from the Creator. It was this proud civilization that Abraham and his family left when they traveled out of Ur of the Chaldeans around 2000 <span>BC<\/span>. Even though Babylon was ruled by many kingdoms throughout the centuries, the city remained a cultural and religious figurehead.<\/p>\n<p>Sumerian Civilization (3200–2000 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The first great civilization to flourish in Babylonia was Sumer, centered south of Babylon. The Sumerians invented cuneiform writing, which was used by Mesopotamian cultures for three thousand years.<\/p>\n<p>The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>To the north of Babylon, Akkadian king Sargon I (2339–2279 <span>BC<\/span>) founded the capital city of Akkad and gained political and cultural supremacy over Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire lasted for nearly two centuries.<\/p>\n<p>First Babylonian Kingdom (1900–1600 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>During the period of the Akkadian Empire, Semitic-speaking nomads from Syria called Amurru (“Amorites”), regarded as barbarians by the urbane Babylonians, began migrating into Babylonia, where they eventually established a new Babylonian kingdom under Amorite control. The sixth king of that dynasty was Hammurabi (1792–1750 <span>BC<\/span>), who enlarged the kingdom significantly. Babylon’s glory, however, was short-lived; the kingdom shriveled under Hammurabi’s son and lasted only another century.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian Domination (900–614 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>In 851 <span>BC<\/span> Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858–824 <span>BC<\/span>) entered Babylon but treated the ancient city with respect and left its king on his throne as a vassal. A century and a half later (around 705 <span>BC<\/span>), a Babylonian vassal-king named Merodach-baladan organized a revolution, and he sent ambassadors to King Hezekiah of Judah for support (see 2 Kgs 20:12-19; Isa 39). Assyria quickly crushed Merodach-baladan’s revolution, and Assyria’s domination continued for another century.<\/p>\n<p>Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The Chaldean prince Nabopolassar seized the throne of Babylon (625–605 <span>BC<\/span>) and put an end to the Assyrian Empire. Under his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 <span>BC<\/span>), Babylon was master of the Near East, a city of splendor (see Dan 1–4).<\/p>\n<p>Nebuchadnezzar was eventually succeeded by a high diplomatic official named Nabonidus (555–539 <span>BC<\/span>), who neglected Babylon and lost its support. When Cyrus II of Persia (559–530 <span>BC<\/span>) attacked the city in October 539 <span>BC<\/span> (see Dan 5:30-31 and study note on Dan 5:31), the city gave itself up without a battle. That surrender marked the end of independent Babylon.<\/p>\n<p>The Symbolic Enemy of God’s People<\/p>\n<p>In 1 Peter and Revelation, Rome is personified as “Babylon the Great, Mother of all Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World” (Rev 17:5)—a dreadfully immoral center of wealth and commerce, ruling over the kings of the earth and persecuting God’s people. The kings and merchants of the earth will mourn her demise (Rev 18:9-19), but God’s people will rejoice that their oppression has ended and will worship God freely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 10:8-9; 11:1-9; 2 Kgs 20:12-19; 24:1–25:30; Isa 39; Dan 1–5; 1 Pet 5:13; Rev 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2-21; 19:2<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babylon Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride. Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own iden...","summary_en":"Babylon Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride. Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own iden...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":124569,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Babylon","title_en":"Babylon","content_ro":"<h3>Babylon<\/h3>\n<p>Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride.<\/p>\n<p>Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own identity apart from the Creator. It was this proud civilization that Abraham and his family left when they traveled out of Ur of the Chaldeans around 2000 <span>BC<\/span>. Even though Babylon was ruled by many kingdoms throughout the centuries, the city remained a cultural and religious figurehead.<\/p>\n<p>Sumerian Civilization (3200–2000 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The first great civilization to flourish in Babylonia was Sumer, centered south of Babylon. The Sumerians invented cuneiform writing, which was used by Mesopotamian cultures for three thousand years.<\/p>\n<p>The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>To the north of Babylon, Akkadian king Sargon I (2339–2279 <span>BC<\/span>) founded the capital city of Akkad and gained political and cultural supremacy over Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire lasted for nearly two centuries.<\/p>\n<p>First Babylonian Kingdom (1900–1600 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>During the period of the Akkadian Empire, Semitic-speaking nomads from Syria called Amurru (“Amorites”), regarded as barbarians by the urbane Babylonians, began migrating into Babylonia, where they eventually established a new Babylonian kingdom under Amorite control. The sixth king of that dynasty was Hammurabi (1792–1750 <span>BC<\/span>), who enlarged the kingdom significantly. Babylon’s glory, however, was short-lived; the kingdom shriveled under Hammurabi’s son and lasted only another century.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian Domination (900–614 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>In 851 <span>BC<\/span> Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858–824 <span>BC<\/span>) entered Babylon but treated the ancient city with respect and left its king on his throne as a vassal. A century and a half later (around 705 <span>BC<\/span>), a Babylonian vassal-king named Merodach-baladan organized a revolution, and he sent ambassadors to King Hezekiah of Judah for support (see 2 Kgs 20:12-19; Isa 39). Assyria quickly crushed Merodach-baladan’s revolution, and Assyria’s domination continued for another century.<\/p>\n<p>Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The Chaldean prince Nabopolassar seized the throne of Babylon (625–605 <span>BC<\/span>) and put an end to the Assyrian Empire. Under his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 <span>BC<\/span>), Babylon was master of the Near East, a city of splendor (see Dan 1–4).<\/p>\n<p>Nebuchadnezzar was eventually succeeded by a high diplomatic official named Nabonidus (555–539 <span>BC<\/span>), who neglected Babylon and lost its support. When Cyrus II of Persia (559–530 <span>BC<\/span>) attacked the city in October 539 <span>BC<\/span> (see Dan 5:30-31 and study note on Dan 5:31), the city gave itself up without a battle. That surrender marked the end of independent Babylon.<\/p>\n<p>The Symbolic Enemy of God’s People<\/p>\n<p>In 1 Peter and Revelation, Rome is personified as “Babylon the Great, Mother of all Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World” (Rev 17:5)—a dreadfully immoral center of wealth and commerce, ruling over the kings of the earth and persecuting God’s people. The kings and merchants of the earth will mourn her demise (Rev 18:9-19), but God’s people will rejoice that their oppression has ended and will worship God freely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 10:8-9; 11:1-9; 2 Kgs 20:12-19; 24:1–25:30; Isa 39; Dan 1–5; 1 Pet 5:13; Rev 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2-21; 19:2<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babylon<\/h3>\n<p>Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride.<\/p>\n<p>Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own identity apart from the Creator. It was this proud civilization that Abraham and his family left when they traveled out of Ur of the Chaldeans around 2000 <span>BC<\/span>. Even though Babylon was ruled by many kingdoms throughout the centuries, the city remained a cultural and religious figurehead.<\/p>\n<p>Sumerian Civilization (3200–2000 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The first great civilization to flourish in Babylonia was Sumer, centered south of Babylon. The Sumerians invented cuneiform writing, which was used by Mesopotamian cultures for three thousand years.<\/p>\n<p>The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>To the north of Babylon, Akkadian king Sargon I (2339–2279 <span>BC<\/span>) founded the capital city of Akkad and gained political and cultural supremacy over Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire lasted for nearly two centuries.<\/p>\n<p>First Babylonian Kingdom (1900–1600 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>During the period of the Akkadian Empire, Semitic-speaking nomads from Syria called Amurru (“Amorites”), regarded as barbarians by the urbane Babylonians, began migrating into Babylonia, where they eventually established a new Babylonian kingdom under Amorite control. The sixth king of that dynasty was Hammurabi (1792–1750 <span>BC<\/span>), who enlarged the kingdom significantly. Babylon’s glory, however, was short-lived; the kingdom shriveled under Hammurabi’s son and lasted only another century.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian Domination (900–614 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>In 851 <span>BC<\/span> Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858–824 <span>BC<\/span>) entered Babylon but treated the ancient city with respect and left its king on his throne as a vassal. A century and a half later (around 705 <span>BC<\/span>), a Babylonian vassal-king named Merodach-baladan organized a revolution, and he sent ambassadors to King Hezekiah of Judah for support (see 2 Kgs 20:12-19; Isa 39). Assyria quickly crushed Merodach-baladan’s revolution, and Assyria’s domination continued for another century.<\/p>\n<p>Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 <span>BC<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>The Chaldean prince Nabopolassar seized the throne of Babylon (625–605 <span>BC<\/span>) and put an end to the Assyrian Empire. Under his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 <span>BC<\/span>), Babylon was master of the Near East, a city of splendor (see Dan 1–4).<\/p>\n<p>Nebuchadnezzar was eventually succeeded by a high diplomatic official named Nabonidus (555–539 <span>BC<\/span>), who neglected Babylon and lost its support. When Cyrus II of Persia (559–530 <span>BC<\/span>) attacked the city in October 539 <span>BC<\/span> (see Dan 5:30-31 and study note on Dan 5:31), the city gave itself up without a battle. That surrender marked the end of independent Babylon.<\/p>\n<p>The Symbolic Enemy of God’s People<\/p>\n<p>In 1 Peter and Revelation, Rome is personified as “Babylon the Great, Mother of all Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World” (Rev 17:5)—a dreadfully immoral center of wealth and commerce, ruling over the kings of the earth and persecuting God’s people. The kings and merchants of the earth will mourn her demise (Rev 18:9-19), but God’s people will rejoice that their oppression has ended and will worship God freely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 10:8-9; 11:1-9; 2 Kgs 20:12-19; 24:1–25:30; Isa 39; Dan 1–5; 1 Pet 5:13; Rev 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2-21; 19:2<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babylon Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride. Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own iden...","summary_en":"Babylon Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of the Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride. Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means “gate of god” in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), an early attempt by humanity to construct their own iden...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":271,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>ABRAHAM<\/h3>\n<p>One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut separation from pagan roots. The new name, interpreted by the biblical text as meaning “father of a multitude,” was also a statement of God’s promise to Abraham that he would have many descendants, as well as a significant test of his faith in God—since he was 99 years old at the time and his childless wife was 90 (Gn 11:30; 17:1-4, 17).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"AbrahamsLife\">Abraham’s Life<\/p>\n<p>The story of Abram begins in Genesis 11, where his family relationships are recorded (Gn 11:26-32). Terah, Abram’s father, was named after the moon deity worshiped at Ur. Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran, the father of Lot, died before the family left Ur. Terah took Lot, Abram, and Abram’s wife, Sarai, from Ur to go to Canaan but settled at the city of Haran (v 31). It is stated in Acts 7:2-4 that Abraham heard the call of God to leave for a new land while he was still in Ur.<\/p>\n<p>A note of major importance to the course of Abram’s life is found in Genesis 11:30: “Sarai was not able to have any children” (<span>nlt<\/span>). The problem of Sarai’s barrenness provided the basis for great crises of faith, promise, and fulfillment in the lives of Abram and Sarai.<\/p>\n\n<p>After Terah’s death, God told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.” This command was the basis of a “covenant,” in which God promised to make Abram the founder of a new nation in that new land (Gn 12:1-3, <span>nlt<\/span>). Abram, trusting God’s promise, left Haran at the age of 74. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, an important Canaanite royal city between Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal. Near the oak of Moreh, a Canaanite shrine, God appeared to him (12:7). Abram built an altar at Shechem, then moved to the vicinity of Bethel and again built an altar to the Lord (12:8). The expression “to call on the name of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (<span>rsv<\/span>) means more than just to pray. Rather, Abram made a proclamation, declaring the reality of God to the Canaanites in their centers of false worship. Later Abram moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, where again he built an altar to worship God. Another blessing given in a vision (15:1) led Abram to exclaim that he was still childless and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). Discovery of the Nuzi documents has helped to clarify that otherwise obscure statement. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of station and substance would adopt an heir. Often a slave, the heir would be responsible for the burial and mourning of his adoptive parents. If a son should be born after the adoption of a slave-heir, the natural son would of course supplant him. Thus God’s response to Abram’s question is directly to the point: “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own to inherit everything I am giving you” (Gn 15:4, <span>nlt<\/span>). God then made a covenant with Abram insuring an heir, a nation, and the land.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. When Abram was 99, the Lord appeared to the aged patriarch and again reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and blessing (Gn 17). Circumcision was added as the seal of covenantal relationship (17:9-14), and at that point the names Abram and Sarai were changed to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham’s response to the promise of another son was to laugh: “Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. ‘How could I become a father at the age of one hundred?’ he wondered. ‘Besides, Sarah is ninety; how could she have a baby?’ ” (Gn 17:17, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 18 and 19 recount the total destruction of two cities of the Jordan plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. Chapter 18 begins with three individuals seeking comfort in the heat of the day. Abraham offered refreshment and a meal to his guests. They turned out to be no ordinary travelers, however, but the Angel of the Lord along with two other angels (18:1-2; 19:1). There is reason to believe that the Angel of the Lord was God himself (18:17, 33). Another announcement of a promised son made Sarah laugh in unbelief and then deny having laughed (18:12-15).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 21 to 23 form the climax of the story of Abraham. At long last, when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife 90, “the <span>Lord<\/span> did exactly what he had promised” (Gn 21:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). The joy of the aged couple on the birth of their long-promised son could not be contained. Both Abraham and Sarah had laughed in unbelief in the days of promise; now they laughed in joy as God had “the last laugh.” The baby, born at the time God promised, was named Isaac (“he laughs!”). Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me” (Gn 21:6, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The laughter over Isaac’s birth subsided entirely in the test of Abraham’s faith described in chapter 22, God’s command to sacrifice Isaac. Only when one has experienced vicariously with Abraham the long 25 years of God’s promise of a son can one imagine the trauma of such a supreme test. Just as the knife was about to fall, and only then, did the angel of God break the silence of heaven with the call, “Abraham!” (22:11). The name of promise, “father of a multitude,” took on its most significant meaning when Abraham’s son was spared and the test was explained: “I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me” (Gn 22:12, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Those words were coupled with a promise implicit in the discovery of a ram caught in the thicket. The Lord provided an alternative sacrifice, a substitute. The place was named “the Lord will provide.” Christian believers generally see the whole episode as looking ahead to God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Covenant; Patriarchs, Period of the; Israel, History of; “Abraham’s Bosom”; Sarah #1.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>ABRAHAM<\/h3>\n<p>One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut separation from pagan roots. The new name, interpreted by the biblical text as meaning “father of a multitude,” was also a statement of God’s promise to Abraham that he would have many descendants, as well as a significant test of his faith in God—since he was 99 years old at the time and his childless wife was 90 (Gn 11:30; 17:1-4, 17).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"AbrahamsLife\">Abraham’s Life<\/p>\n<p>The story of Abram begins in Genesis 11, where his family relationships are recorded (Gn 11:26-32). Terah, Abram’s father, was named after the moon deity worshiped at Ur. Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran, the father of Lot, died before the family left Ur. Terah took Lot, Abram, and Abram’s wife, Sarai, from Ur to go to Canaan but settled at the city of Haran (v 31). It is stated in Acts 7:2-4 that Abraham heard the call of God to leave for a new land while he was still in Ur.<\/p>\n<p>A note of major importance to the course of Abram’s life is found in Genesis 11:30: “Sarai was not able to have any children” (<span>nlt<\/span>). The problem of Sarai’s barrenness provided the basis for great crises of faith, promise, and fulfillment in the lives of Abram and Sarai.<\/p>\n\n<p>After Terah’s death, God told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.” This command was the basis of a “covenant,” in which God promised to make Abram the founder of a new nation in that new land (Gn 12:1-3, <span>nlt<\/span>). Abram, trusting God’s promise, left Haran at the age of 74. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, an important Canaanite royal city between Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal. Near the oak of Moreh, a Canaanite shrine, God appeared to him (12:7). Abram built an altar at Shechem, then moved to the vicinity of Bethel and again built an altar to the Lord (12:8). The expression “to call on the name of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (<span>rsv<\/span>) means more than just to pray. Rather, Abram made a proclamation, declaring the reality of God to the Canaanites in their centers of false worship. Later Abram moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, where again he built an altar to worship God. Another blessing given in a vision (15:1) led Abram to exclaim that he was still childless and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). Discovery of the Nuzi documents has helped to clarify that otherwise obscure statement. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of station and substance would adopt an heir. Often a slave, the heir would be responsible for the burial and mourning of his adoptive parents. If a son should be born after the adoption of a slave-heir, the natural son would of course supplant him. Thus God’s response to Abram’s question is directly to the point: “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own to inherit everything I am giving you” (Gn 15:4, <span>nlt<\/span>). God then made a covenant with Abram insuring an heir, a nation, and the land.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. When Abram was 99, the Lord appeared to the aged patriarch and again reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and blessing (Gn 17). Circumcision was added as the seal of covenantal relationship (17:9-14), and at that point the names Abram and Sarai were changed to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham’s response to the promise of another son was to laugh: “Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. ‘How could I become a father at the age of one hundred?’ he wondered. ‘Besides, Sarah is ninety; how could she have a baby?’ ” (Gn 17:17, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 18 and 19 recount the total destruction of two cities of the Jordan plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. Chapter 18 begins with three individuals seeking comfort in the heat of the day. Abraham offered refreshment and a meal to his guests. They turned out to be no ordinary travelers, however, but the Angel of the Lord along with two other angels (18:1-2; 19:1). There is reason to believe that the Angel of the Lord was God himself (18:17, 33). Another announcement of a promised son made Sarah laugh in unbelief and then deny having laughed (18:12-15).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 21 to 23 form the climax of the story of Abraham. At long last, when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife 90, “the <span>Lord<\/span> did exactly what he had promised” (Gn 21:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). The joy of the aged couple on the birth of their long-promised son could not be contained. Both Abraham and Sarah had laughed in unbelief in the days of promise; now they laughed in joy as God had “the last laugh.” The baby, born at the time God promised, was named Isaac (“he laughs!”). Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me” (Gn 21:6, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The laughter over Isaac’s birth subsided entirely in the test of Abraham’s faith described in chapter 22, God’s command to sacrifice Isaac. Only when one has experienced vicariously with Abraham the long 25 years of God’s promise of a son can one imagine the trauma of such a supreme test. Just as the knife was about to fall, and only then, did the angel of God break the silence of heaven with the call, “Abraham!” (22:11). The name of promise, “father of a multitude,” took on its most significant meaning when Abraham’s son was spared and the test was explained: “I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me” (Gn 22:12, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Those words were coupled with a promise implicit in the discovery of a ram caught in the thicket. The Lord provided an alternative sacrifice, a substitute. The place was named “the Lord will provide.” Christian believers generally see the whole episode as looking ahead to God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Covenant; Patriarchs, Period of the; Israel, History of; “Abraham’s Bosom”; Sarah #1.<\/p>","summary_ro":"ABRAHAM One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people. Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut s...","summary_en":"ABRAHAM One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people. Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut s...","source":"Articles\/A.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":2601,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Architecture","title_en":"Architecture","content_ro":"<h3>ARCHITECTURE<\/h3>\n<p>Science, art, or profession of designing and constructing buildings, bridges, etc. Architecture is the practice of combining construction and art in order to produce “beauty with purpose.” The architect’s synthesis of creative imagination and technical skill produces structures of interest, unity, power, and convenience. When we look at a building, monument, or tomb, we are examining its art as well as its structure.<\/p>\n<p>Special types of architecture are mentioned in Scripture, including houses, structures in particular cities, and, of course, the temples. All were influenced by the empires that dominated Israel at the time. It is therefore important to examine the architecture of empires associated with Bible history to understand the architecture of Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Sumerian Architecture<\/p>\n<p>• Egyptian Architecture<\/p>\n<p>• Assyrian and Hittite Architecture<\/p>\n<p>• Greek Architecture<\/p>\n<p>• Roman Architecture<\/p>\n<p>• Palestinian Architecture<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"SumerianArchitecture\">Sumerian Architecture<\/p>\n<p>Architecture was first developed by the Sumerians, a people of non-Semitic origin. They may have settled on the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf a thousand years before moving northward to the mainland. From the beginning of their culture the Sumerians regarded architecture as an important artistic endeavor. It found its fullest expression in the building of temples. The Sumerian ziggurat, or staged tower, became Mesopotamia’s most distinctive contribution to architecture, both secular and sacred. The ziggurat has often been likened to a medieval European cathedral, the highest point of which might appear to be reaching upward to God as an expression of human religious aspirations. That, however, was not the concept the Sumerians held in building their shrines. For them, the ziggurat, standing on its mound or platform, represented a concentration of natural, life-giving forces. The god had already come down to his house, and it was the worshiper’s duty to commune with him there.<\/p>\n<p>By 2000 <span>BC<\/span> a Mesopotamian temple area commonly housed the ziggurat, several storehouses, shrines, workshops, and living quarters for priests. The ziggurat usually consisted of three stages: the inner walls of sun-dried mud brick, the outer walls of baked brick set in bitumen. The upper levels were reached by flights of stairs or ramps, and sometimes a small shrine to a local deity topped off the uppermost stage. In addition to devising decorated walls and columns, Sumerian architects discovered how to employ arches, domes, and vaults to give the impression of grandeur and space.<\/p>\n<p>Sumerian domestic architecture was quite mixed in style. Most city houses were two-story dwellings built on three sides of a square, with the opening facing away from the narrow streets. Homes of the wealthy might contain 20 rooms; some included servants’ quarters. Indoor bathroom facilities were connected by means of drainpipes to an underground cesspool. Many houses had a family burial vault in the basement. There seems little doubt that the Akkadians, Hittites, Egyptians, and Greeks all benefited in various ways from the architectural innovations of Sumer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"EgyptianArchitecture\">Egyptian Architecture<\/p>\n<p>The Egyptians achieved the most lasting architectural forms ever attempted by any civilization, and much of their architecture has been preserved. Such forms included temples, tombs, and pyramids. Huge stones to build those structures had to be brought from distant quarries. The Egyptians made use of slave labor and built their structures in honor of their rulers.<\/p>\n<p>The outstanding examples of Egyptian architecture are the pyramids, virtually all of which were constructed in the Old Kingdom period (c. 2700–2200 <span>BC<\/span>). The Sumerian principle of the recessed niche was employed to accommodate the enormous stresses of stone masonry. Without that technique it would have been impossible to construct such a huge edifice as the Great Pyramid, the estimated weight of which is almost six million tons (5,448,000 metric tons). The Great Pyramid is one of the most perfectly oriented buildings on earth, being just a few seconds of one degree short of true north-south orientation. Many of the huge blocks of stone were cut and fitted together so accurately that it is impossible to insert the edge of a sheet of paper between them. The pyramids were meant to serve as tombs for the remains of the persons who ordered them constructed, but the structures themselves have become monuments to human creativity.<\/p>\n<p>The major architectural style of the Egyptians was “post and lintel,” with horizontal crosspieces resting on columns. As a result, buildings of any size became a forest of columns. Wall surfaces were covered with carvings, paintings, and hieroglyphics. Temples were planned on a long axis with almost perfect symmetry. The structures seem designed for imperial pageants and other ceremonies staged to impress the people with the power and authority of their rulers.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"AssyrianandHittiteArchitecture\">Assyrian and Hittite Architecture<\/p>\n<p>The Assyrians followed the Sumerian pattern of temple construction but enlarged the ziggurats and added more stories. The great ziggurat at Borsippa was an outstanding example of seven-story temple construction. The foundation was about 272 feet (83 meters) square, and the building stood about 160 feet (49 meters) high. Each story was set back from the level beneath it in a terraced effect and painted with a different color of wash. Each story was intended to represent one of the planets. In accordance with later Sumerian practice the uppermost level had a small shrine built on its roof, where the god Nebo was thought to have taken up his residence. Many believe that the Tower of Babel, which God destroyed, was a ziggurat tower (Gn 11).<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian royal palaces of the eighth and seventh centuries <span>BC<\/span> were large and elegant, decorated with enormous bas-reliefs depicting the king busily occupied with a variety of activities. Assyrian art was at its height in that period, and meticulous attention to detail brought a virile character to Assyrian architecture. Large stone sculptures of protective animals were stationed at entrances to public buildings. Similar statues were a feature of Hittite architecture in Anatolia, the eastern part of Asia Minor.<\/p>\n<p>Hittite buildings excavated at Boghazkôy and elsewhere easily matched those of the Assyrians in extent and grandeur. Towering columns, long halls, and expansive rooms were typical of Hittite palace construction in the Bronze Age.<\/p>\n<p>Hittite temple design followed what was common in Babylonia, with several buildings grouped around an open court. One difference was that the main sanctuary was approached through a series of entrances or porches extending beyond the length of adjacent buildings. The design enabled small windows to be placed at the top of the projection in order to give additional light in the sanctuary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"GreekArchitecture\">Greek Architecture<\/p>\n\n<p>Architecture rose to great achievements in the Greek world. Many factors combined to produce architectural beauty that has lasted for centuries. Those factors included the climate, setting, government, and people. Perhaps the most important factor was the people, who seemed free to imagine and develop designs and structures that have continued to excite our imaginations to this day.<\/p>\n<p>The Greeks strove to attain beauty in their architecture. This worthy motive found its highest expression in the fifth century <span>BC<\/span>. In the time of Pericles (461–429 <span>BC<\/span>) the Parthenon and Propylea on the Acropolis were remodeled from earlier originals, and the Erechtheum was also built there. Subsequent temples in Athens included that of Hephaestus, which was a less graceful version of the Parthenon, and the shrine of Ares. Phidias, the sculptor who designed the Parthenon, was also responsible, with his students, for much of the fifth-century <span>BC<\/span> statuary. Although the Sumerians had been the first to execute rather stereotyped freestanding stone statues, they had done so largely with theological considerations in mind. For the Sumerian sculptors, the statue had represented an individual standing before a god, ready to be judged. For the Greeks, however, the objective of good statuary was the most realistic and accurate reproduction of human anatomy possible, and like the Assyrians’, their sculptors studied anatomy. Eventually the Greeks became the world’s most proficient sculptors.<\/p>\n<p>Many Greek buildings featured appropriate combinations of structure and setting. For example, theaters were built on hills so that the structure could have tiers of seats and still have a beautiful background. Marble was used extensively. Buildings were placed so that shadows added to their beauty. All that structural beauty was seen by the apostle Paul when he visited the city of Athens, but “he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city” (Acts 17:16, <span>nlt<\/span>). Many of the most beautiful buildings, such as the Parthenon, were built in honor of pagan Greek gods. In response, Paul preached his famous sermon on the Areopagus (Mars Hill), a hill that overlooked the temples of Athens.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"RomanArchitecture\">Roman Architecture<\/p>\n<p>The Romans were great builders who left their mark on the architecture of the world. Several factors influenced Roman architectural styles. First was the fact that the Romans took over earlier empires and earlier forms of architecture. Some Egyptian influence was seen, but the Greek eye for beauty and use of marble was more important. Another factor was the Roman discovery of cement made from volcanic earth which, when mixed with lime, formed a mortar of great cohesion. Cement enabled the Romans to build masonry arches without supporting columns. The effect was a sense of pomp and majesty. The use of cement also allowed the Romans to build structures of more than one story, such as the Colosseum.<\/p>\n<p>Roman architects used central squares or public forums in the center of their cities. Around these were built public buildings, temples, shops, and porticoes. The central square contained arches and monuments commemorating victorious emperors. The Roman concept of municipal planning was copied throughout the Roman Empire, including Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>The shortage of water in a number of countries over which the Romans ruled compelled them to devise means of transporting it overland. This led to the development of the aqueduct. Roman architects were faced with the problem of maintaining a sufficient degree of slope to enable water to flow by gravity. Cemented channels supported by stone arches provided much of the solution to the problem. The architectural design of aqueduct systems remained the same throughout the imperial period. Foundation piers were spanned by round arches. A stone channel was built on top of the archway, lined with cement, and frequently covered by a curved roof.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PalestinianArchitecture\">Palestinian Architecture<\/p>\n<p>For a generation the Israelites had been tent dwellers, living only semisedentary lives at best, without need of permanent structures of any kind. When the time came for them to settle down, they were handicapped by their lack of construction skills. Archaeological excavation at such sites as Shiloh, Bethel, and Debir have uncovered Israelite attempts to rebuild on earlier Canaanite foundations. Their standard of workmanship was noticeably inferior to that of the Canaanite builders, as exhibited especially in Canaanite royal cities. Until the fifth century <span>BC<\/span>, Israelite buildings tended to be small and narrow, partly because the architects had not devised any means of roofing a dwelling other than by laying beams across its width and placing a flat covering on top. The first vaulted arch in Palestine was built in the Persian period, but it was so innovative that the conservative Judeans refused to adopt it as an architectural style. Only in the Roman period did the arch and vault gain acceptance, due largely to the influence of Herod the Great.<\/p>\n<h5>Old Testament Architecture<\/h5>\n<h6>Cities<\/h6>\n<p>In the OT era, cities were built on hills or mounds and surrounded with a wall for protection. Generally houses were placed in a random fashion with winding paths or alleys connecting them. People unable to afford city life lived in villages that surrounded the city. They would work the nearby fields and in time of danger flee to the city for protection.<\/p>\n<p>Most essential to any city was an adequate water supply. For that reason cities were built on or near underground springs. Some cities used plastered cisterns and catch basins to collect rainwater to supplement the regular water supply. Underground springs were protected by stepped tunnels for access when the city was besieged.<\/p>\n<h6>Fortifications<\/h6>\n<p>During much of OT times the Israelites used the techniques of the middle Bronze Age to defend their cities. The central feature was a wall made of stone or brick, 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 meters) high. The wall was sometimes made with an artificial slope and a ditch at the bottom to fortify it against enemy battering rams.<\/p>\n<p>During the Israelite monarchy, casemate walls were also built. These consisted of two parallel walls connected by a series of cross walls. The resulting rooms were then filled with dirt to give added protection against enemy battering rams (Ez 26:9). Sometimes walls 20 feet (6 meters) thick were built with overhangs so attackers could be subdued. The apostle Paul was let down off the wall of Damascus in a basket from a room in such a wall (Acts 9:25; 2 Cor 11:33).<\/p>\n<h6>Gates<\/h6>\n<p>Most city walls had two gates. One of these was for camel caravans, chariots, and larger vehicles; the other, on the opposite side of the city, was used for pedestrians, donkeys, and small animals. Many gates consisted of double doors (Is 45:1; Neh 6:1) made of wood and overlaid with bronze plating (Is 45:2). The doors were secured with horizontal bars of wood, bronze (1 Kgs 4:13), or iron (Ps 107:16) that fit into openings in the gateposts (Jgs 16:3).<\/p>\n<p>The location of the gates was important to the defense of the city. Often the road leading to the gate was laid out so that attackers, who carried their shields in their left hands, would have to face the wall of the city and its defenders on their right side. Sometimes the gate was part of a large tower (2 Chr 26:9). Occasionally, steps were constructed on the inside of the tower, so that sentinels could reach the top to stand watch (2 Kgs 9:17). At other times the gate was so positioned that it turned 90 degrees between the portals, in order to prevent enemy archers from making a straight shot through the gate.<\/p>\n<h6>Houses<\/h6>\n<p>An above-average Israelite house consisted of several rooms facing an open courtyard (2 Sm 17:18). The largest room was for the family, another was for the family’s cattle, and another was used as a general storeroom. Sometimes the walls were made of stones, with the joints filled with mud. Sometimes the inside walls were plastered with mud, although more prosperous homes had cypress or cedarwood. Floors were made of clay or polished plaster stones. The flat roofs were supported by beams and made watertight with wood or brushwood. An outside stairway gave access to the roof, and some people built roof chambers that in effect made a two-story house (1 Kgs 17:19). The flat roofs of houses provided additional sleeping and recreational space for crowded households. The Mosaic law required these roofs to be surrounded by a protective parapet to prevent people falling to their deaths (Dt 22:8).<\/p>\n<h6>Solomon’s Temple<\/h6>\n<p>Probably the most important piece of Israelite architecture was King Solomon’s temple. The building was located on the site where Abraham was supposed to have offered his son Isaac (Gn 22). It took seven and a half years to build and was notable for its beauty as well as its purpose. The plan of the temple was similar to that of the tabernacle, except that the dimensions were doubled and the height was tripled. The walls were made of stone overlaid with gold (1 Kgs 6:22), with gold also covering the ceilings and floor. The partition between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place was made of gold-covered cedarwood. The entrance to the Holy of Holies consisted of a double door made of carved olive wood overlaid with gold. The doorway stood open but was veiled. Outside the temple were two courts, an inner court for the priests and an outer court for the people.<\/p>\n<p>Lack of constructional expertise in Israel compelled Solomon to hire Phoenician workmen. The result was a typically Phoenician structure, the ground plan of which closely resembled that of an eighth-century <span>BC<\/span> Canaanite chapel excavated at Tell Tainat in Syria. Columns and porticoes were doubtless a feature of the temple of Solomon, though the precise function of the freestanding pillars named Jachin and Boaz is still far from certain. Carefully dressed masonry seems to have appeared in Israel initially in Solomon’s time; excellent specimens of hewn and squared stone have been recovered from Samaria. The Samaritan site, along with Megiddo, has also furnished interesting examples of a decorated pilaster capital that derived its design from Canaanite artistic representations.<\/p>\n<p>When Babylon overthrew Jerusalem and leveled the city in 586 <span>BC<\/span>, the temple was plundered of its wealth and burned to the ground. After Israel returned from captivity, the temple was rebuilt, with the foundation being laid in 525 <span>BC<\/span>. However, that second temple was far less magnificent than Solomon’s and was in great need of repair by the time of King Herod of Judea (37–4 <span>BC<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Although OT tradition gives considerable prominence to the Solomonic temple and lauds its grandeur, the building was actually an adjunct to the royal palace, serving as a chapel. Only in the postexilic period was the temple freed from royal associations to become an independent shrine where people could observe the prescribed rituals. Both pre- and postexilic temples were quite small and narrow in their dimensions, their width being limited by the length of the wooden beams available for roofing purposes. The only way such a building could be enlarged was in the usual Near Eastern manner of attaching additional rooms to the exterior.<\/p>\n<h5>New Testament Architecture<\/h5>\n<p>The architecture of NT times consisted of Greek and Roman structures, since those rulers had most recently dominated Israel. The Greek cities were architectural models, containing planned streets, arches, theaters, public baths, temples, and a central marketplace called the <span class=\"greek\" lang=\"el\">agora<\/span><em>.<\/em> Jewish homes, however, continued to remain small, with flat roofs over rooms facing a courtyard.<\/p>\n<p>During Roman domination Herod the Great (37–4 <span>BC<\/span>) built some remarkable structures, including aqueducts, cisterns, dungeons, palaces, and whole cities (e.g., Caesarea). His greatest work was the rebuilding of the temple, a remarkable structure that took 83 years to complete. It lasted in its completed state only six years before it was destroyed by Titus in <span>AD<\/span> 70.<\/p>\n<p>Herod’s temple managed to blend the old with the new. Though it appeared to embody the latest Hellenistic architectural fashions in its colonnades, marble columns, and facades, it was still firmly rooted in the traditions of Phoenicia. The Herodian structure was an enlargement, and to some extent a rebuilding, of the sixth-century <span>BC<\/span> temple. A series of courts and porticoes surrounded the reconstructed shrine, which was given an illusion of grandeur by means of an enlarged entrance. In the middle of that porch stood an enormous doorway that gave access to the much smaller inner door of the shrine itself. Unfortunately, nothing of the building itself survived the destruction of <span>AD<\/span> 70, leaving us almost completely dependent upon Josephus’s account. <em>See<\/em> City; Homes and Dwellings; Temple.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>ARCHITECTURE<\/h3>\n<p>Science, art, or profession of designing and constructing buildings, bridges, etc. Architecture is the practice of combining construction and art in order to produce “beauty with purpose.” The architect’s synthesis of creative imagination and technical skill produces structures of interest, unity, power, and convenience. When we look at a building, monument, or tomb, we are examining its art as well as its structure.<\/p>\n<p>Special types of architecture are mentioned in Scripture, including houses, structures in particular cities, and, of course, the temples. All were influenced by the empires that dominated Israel at the time. It is therefore important to examine the architecture of empires associated with Bible history to understand the architecture of Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Sumerian Architecture<\/p>\n<p>• Egyptian Architecture<\/p>\n<p>• Assyrian and Hittite Architecture<\/p>\n<p>• Greek Architecture<\/p>\n<p>• Roman Architecture<\/p>\n<p>• Palestinian Architecture<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"SumerianArchitecture\">Sumerian Architecture<\/p>\n<p>Architecture was first developed by the Sumerians, a people of non-Semitic origin. They may have settled on the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf a thousand years before moving northward to the mainland. From the beginning of their culture the Sumerians regarded architecture as an important artistic endeavor. It found its fullest expression in the building of temples. The Sumerian ziggurat, or staged tower, became Mesopotamia’s most distinctive contribution to architecture, both secular and sacred. The ziggurat has often been likened to a medieval European cathedral, the highest point of which might appear to be reaching upward to God as an expression of human religious aspirations. That, however, was not the concept the Sumerians held in building their shrines. For them, the ziggurat, standing on its mound or platform, represented a concentration of natural, life-giving forces. The god had already come down to his house, and it was the worshiper’s duty to commune with him there.<\/p>\n<p>By 2000 <span>BC<\/span> a Mesopotamian temple area commonly housed the ziggurat, several storehouses, shrines, workshops, and living quarters for priests. The ziggurat usually consisted of three stages: the inner walls of sun-dried mud brick, the outer walls of baked brick set in bitumen. The upper levels were reached by flights of stairs or ramps, and sometimes a small shrine to a local deity topped off the uppermost stage. In addition to devising decorated walls and columns, Sumerian architects discovered how to employ arches, domes, and vaults to give the impression of grandeur and space.<\/p>\n<p>Sumerian domestic architecture was quite mixed in style. Most city houses were two-story dwellings built on three sides of a square, with the opening facing away from the narrow streets. Homes of the wealthy might contain 20 rooms; some included servants’ quarters. Indoor bathroom facilities were connected by means of drainpipes to an underground cesspool. Many houses had a family burial vault in the basement. There seems little doubt that the Akkadians, Hittites, Egyptians, and Greeks all benefited in various ways from the architectural innovations of Sumer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"EgyptianArchitecture\">Egyptian Architecture<\/p>\n<p>The Egyptians achieved the most lasting architectural forms ever attempted by any civilization, and much of their architecture has been preserved. Such forms included temples, tombs, and pyramids. Huge stones to build those structures had to be brought from distant quarries. The Egyptians made use of slave labor and built their structures in honor of their rulers.<\/p>\n<p>The outstanding examples of Egyptian architecture are the pyramids, virtually all of which were constructed in the Old Kingdom period (c. 2700–2200 <span>BC<\/span>). The Sumerian principle of the recessed niche was employed to accommodate the enormous stresses of stone masonry. Without that technique it would have been impossible to construct such a huge edifice as the Great Pyramid, the estimated weight of which is almost six million tons (5,448,000 metric tons). The Great Pyramid is one of the most perfectly oriented buildings on earth, being just a few seconds of one degree short of true north-south orientation. Many of the huge blocks of stone were cut and fitted together so accurately that it is impossible to insert the edge of a sheet of paper between them. The pyramids were meant to serve as tombs for the remains of the persons who ordered them constructed, but the structures themselves have become monuments to human creativity.<\/p>\n<p>The major architectural style of the Egyptians was “post and lintel,” with horizontal crosspieces resting on columns. As a result, buildings of any size became a forest of columns. Wall surfaces were covered with carvings, paintings, and hieroglyphics. Temples were planned on a long axis with almost perfect symmetry. The structures seem designed for imperial pageants and other ceremonies staged to impress the people with the power and authority of their rulers.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"AssyrianandHittiteArchitecture\">Assyrian and Hittite Architecture<\/p>\n<p>The Assyrians followed the Sumerian pattern of temple construction but enlarged the ziggurats and added more stories. The great ziggurat at Borsippa was an outstanding example of seven-story temple construction. The foundation was about 272 feet (83 meters) square, and the building stood about 160 feet (49 meters) high. Each story was set back from the level beneath it in a terraced effect and painted with a different color of wash. Each story was intended to represent one of the planets. In accordance with later Sumerian practice the uppermost level had a small shrine built on its roof, where the god Nebo was thought to have taken up his residence. Many believe that the Tower of Babel, which God destroyed, was a ziggurat tower (Gn 11).<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian royal palaces of the eighth and seventh centuries <span>BC<\/span> were large and elegant, decorated with enormous bas-reliefs depicting the king busily occupied with a variety of activities. Assyrian art was at its height in that period, and meticulous attention to detail brought a virile character to Assyrian architecture. Large stone sculptures of protective animals were stationed at entrances to public buildings. Similar statues were a feature of Hittite architecture in Anatolia, the eastern part of Asia Minor.<\/p>\n<p>Hittite buildings excavated at Boghazkôy and elsewhere easily matched those of the Assyrians in extent and grandeur. Towering columns, long halls, and expansive rooms were typical of Hittite palace construction in the Bronze Age.<\/p>\n<p>Hittite temple design followed what was common in Babylonia, with several buildings grouped around an open court. One difference was that the main sanctuary was approached through a series of entrances or porches extending beyond the length of adjacent buildings. The design enabled small windows to be placed at the top of the projection in order to give additional light in the sanctuary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"GreekArchitecture\">Greek Architecture<\/p>\n\n<p>Architecture rose to great achievements in the Greek world. Many factors combined to produce architectural beauty that has lasted for centuries. Those factors included the climate, setting, government, and people. Perhaps the most important factor was the people, who seemed free to imagine and develop designs and structures that have continued to excite our imaginations to this day.<\/p>\n<p>The Greeks strove to attain beauty in their architecture. This worthy motive found its highest expression in the fifth century <span>BC<\/span>. In the time of Pericles (461–429 <span>BC<\/span>) the Parthenon and Propylea on the Acropolis were remodeled from earlier originals, and the Erechtheum was also built there. Subsequent temples in Athens included that of Hephaestus, which was a less graceful version of the Parthenon, and the shrine of Ares. Phidias, the sculptor who designed the Parthenon, was also responsible, with his students, for much of the fifth-century <span>BC<\/span> statuary. Although the Sumerians had been the first to execute rather stereotyped freestanding stone statues, they had done so largely with theological considerations in mind. For the Sumerian sculptors, the statue had represented an individual standing before a god, ready to be judged. For the Greeks, however, the objective of good statuary was the most realistic and accurate reproduction of human anatomy possible, and like the Assyrians’, their sculptors studied anatomy. Eventually the Greeks became the world’s most proficient sculptors.<\/p>\n<p>Many Greek buildings featured appropriate combinations of structure and setting. For example, theaters were built on hills so that the structure could have tiers of seats and still have a beautiful background. Marble was used extensively. Buildings were placed so that shadows added to their beauty. All that structural beauty was seen by the apostle Paul when he visited the city of Athens, but “he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city” (Acts 17:16, <span>nlt<\/span>). Many of the most beautiful buildings, such as the Parthenon, were built in honor of pagan Greek gods. In response, Paul preached his famous sermon on the Areopagus (Mars Hill), a hill that overlooked the temples of Athens.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"RomanArchitecture\">Roman Architecture<\/p>\n<p>The Romans were great builders who left their mark on the architecture of the world. Several factors influenced Roman architectural styles. First was the fact that the Romans took over earlier empires and earlier forms of architecture. Some Egyptian influence was seen, but the Greek eye for beauty and use of marble was more important. Another factor was the Roman discovery of cement made from volcanic earth which, when mixed with lime, formed a mortar of great cohesion. Cement enabled the Romans to build masonry arches without supporting columns. The effect was a sense of pomp and majesty. The use of cement also allowed the Romans to build structures of more than one story, such as the Colosseum.<\/p>\n<p>Roman architects used central squares or public forums in the center of their cities. Around these were built public buildings, temples, shops, and porticoes. The central square contained arches and monuments commemorating victorious emperors. The Roman concept of municipal planning was copied throughout the Roman Empire, including Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>The shortage of water in a number of countries over which the Romans ruled compelled them to devise means of transporting it overland. This led to the development of the aqueduct. Roman architects were faced with the problem of maintaining a sufficient degree of slope to enable water to flow by gravity. Cemented channels supported by stone arches provided much of the solution to the problem. The architectural design of aqueduct systems remained the same throughout the imperial period. Foundation piers were spanned by round arches. A stone channel was built on top of the archway, lined with cement, and frequently covered by a curved roof.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PalestinianArchitecture\">Palestinian Architecture<\/p>\n<p>For a generation the Israelites had been tent dwellers, living only semisedentary lives at best, without need of permanent structures of any kind. When the time came for them to settle down, they were handicapped by their lack of construction skills. Archaeological excavation at such sites as Shiloh, Bethel, and Debir have uncovered Israelite attempts to rebuild on earlier Canaanite foundations. Their standard of workmanship was noticeably inferior to that of the Canaanite builders, as exhibited especially in Canaanite royal cities. Until the fifth century <span>BC<\/span>, Israelite buildings tended to be small and narrow, partly because the architects had not devised any means of roofing a dwelling other than by laying beams across its width and placing a flat covering on top. The first vaulted arch in Palestine was built in the Persian period, but it was so innovative that the conservative Judeans refused to adopt it as an architectural style. Only in the Roman period did the arch and vault gain acceptance, due largely to the influence of Herod the Great.<\/p>\n<h5>Old Testament Architecture<\/h5>\n<h6>Cities<\/h6>\n<p>In the OT era, cities were built on hills or mounds and surrounded with a wall for protection. Generally houses were placed in a random fashion with winding paths or alleys connecting them. People unable to afford city life lived in villages that surrounded the city. They would work the nearby fields and in time of danger flee to the city for protection.<\/p>\n<p>Most essential to any city was an adequate water supply. For that reason cities were built on or near underground springs. Some cities used plastered cisterns and catch basins to collect rainwater to supplement the regular water supply. Underground springs were protected by stepped tunnels for access when the city was besieged.<\/p>\n<h6>Fortifications<\/h6>\n<p>During much of OT times the Israelites used the techniques of the middle Bronze Age to defend their cities. The central feature was a wall made of stone or brick, 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 meters) high. The wall was sometimes made with an artificial slope and a ditch at the bottom to fortify it against enemy battering rams.<\/p>\n<p>During the Israelite monarchy, casemate walls were also built. These consisted of two parallel walls connected by a series of cross walls. The resulting rooms were then filled with dirt to give added protection against enemy battering rams (Ez 26:9). Sometimes walls 20 feet (6 meters) thick were built with overhangs so attackers could be subdued. The apostle Paul was let down off the wall of Damascus in a basket from a room in such a wall (Acts 9:25; 2 Cor 11:33).<\/p>\n<h6>Gates<\/h6>\n<p>Most city walls had two gates. One of these was for camel caravans, chariots, and larger vehicles; the other, on the opposite side of the city, was used for pedestrians, donkeys, and small animals. Many gates consisted of double doors (Is 45:1; Neh 6:1) made of wood and overlaid with bronze plating (Is 45:2). The doors were secured with horizontal bars of wood, bronze (1 Kgs 4:13), or iron (Ps 107:16) that fit into openings in the gateposts (Jgs 16:3).<\/p>\n<p>The location of the gates was important to the defense of the city. Often the road leading to the gate was laid out so that attackers, who carried their shields in their left hands, would have to face the wall of the city and its defenders on their right side. Sometimes the gate was part of a large tower (2 Chr 26:9). Occasionally, steps were constructed on the inside of the tower, so that sentinels could reach the top to stand watch (2 Kgs 9:17). At other times the gate was so positioned that it turned 90 degrees between the portals, in order to prevent enemy archers from making a straight shot through the gate.<\/p>\n<h6>Houses<\/h6>\n<p>An above-average Israelite house consisted of several rooms facing an open courtyard (2 Sm 17:18). The largest room was for the family, another was for the family’s cattle, and another was used as a general storeroom. Sometimes the walls were made of stones, with the joints filled with mud. Sometimes the inside walls were plastered with mud, although more prosperous homes had cypress or cedarwood. Floors were made of clay or polished plaster stones. The flat roofs were supported by beams and made watertight with wood or brushwood. An outside stairway gave access to the roof, and some people built roof chambers that in effect made a two-story house (1 Kgs 17:19). The flat roofs of houses provided additional sleeping and recreational space for crowded households. The Mosaic law required these roofs to be surrounded by a protective parapet to prevent people falling to their deaths (Dt 22:8).<\/p>\n<h6>Solomon’s Temple<\/h6>\n<p>Probably the most important piece of Israelite architecture was King Solomon’s temple. The building was located on the site where Abraham was supposed to have offered his son Isaac (Gn 22). It took seven and a half years to build and was notable for its beauty as well as its purpose. The plan of the temple was similar to that of the tabernacle, except that the dimensions were doubled and the height was tripled. The walls were made of stone overlaid with gold (1 Kgs 6:22), with gold also covering the ceilings and floor. The partition between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place was made of gold-covered cedarwood. The entrance to the Holy of Holies consisted of a double door made of carved olive wood overlaid with gold. The doorway stood open but was veiled. Outside the temple were two courts, an inner court for the priests and an outer court for the people.<\/p>\n<p>Lack of constructional expertise in Israel compelled Solomon to hire Phoenician workmen. The result was a typically Phoenician structure, the ground plan of which closely resembled that of an eighth-century <span>BC<\/span> Canaanite chapel excavated at Tell Tainat in Syria. Columns and porticoes were doubtless a feature of the temple of Solomon, though the precise function of the freestanding pillars named Jachin and Boaz is still far from certain. Carefully dressed masonry seems to have appeared in Israel initially in Solomon’s time; excellent specimens of hewn and squared stone have been recovered from Samaria. The Samaritan site, along with Megiddo, has also furnished interesting examples of a decorated pilaster capital that derived its design from Canaanite artistic representations.<\/p>\n<p>When Babylon overthrew Jerusalem and leveled the city in 586 <span>BC<\/span>, the temple was plundered of its wealth and burned to the ground. After Israel returned from captivity, the temple was rebuilt, with the foundation being laid in 525 <span>BC<\/span>. However, that second temple was far less magnificent than Solomon’s and was in great need of repair by the time of King Herod of Judea (37–4 <span>BC<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Although OT tradition gives considerable prominence to the Solomonic temple and lauds its grandeur, the building was actually an adjunct to the royal palace, serving as a chapel. Only in the postexilic period was the temple freed from royal associations to become an independent shrine where people could observe the prescribed rituals. Both pre- and postexilic temples were quite small and narrow in their dimensions, their width being limited by the length of the wooden beams available for roofing purposes. The only way such a building could be enlarged was in the usual Near Eastern manner of attaching additional rooms to the exterior.<\/p>\n<h5>New Testament Architecture<\/h5>\n<p>The architecture of NT times consisted of Greek and Roman structures, since those rulers had most recently dominated Israel. The Greek cities were architectural models, containing planned streets, arches, theaters, public baths, temples, and a central marketplace called the <span class=\"greek\" lang=\"el\">agora<\/span><em>.<\/em> Jewish homes, however, continued to remain small, with flat roofs over rooms facing a courtyard.<\/p>\n<p>During Roman domination Herod the Great (37–4 <span>BC<\/span>) built some remarkable structures, including aqueducts, cisterns, dungeons, palaces, and whole cities (e.g., Caesarea). His greatest work was the rebuilding of the temple, a remarkable structure that took 83 years to complete. It lasted in its completed state only six years before it was destroyed by Titus in <span>AD<\/span> 70.<\/p>\n<p>Herod’s temple managed to blend the old with the new. Though it appeared to embody the latest Hellenistic architectural fashions in its colonnades, marble columns, and facades, it was still firmly rooted in the traditions of Phoenicia. The Herodian structure was an enlargement, and to some extent a rebuilding, of the sixth-century <span>BC<\/span> temple. A series of courts and porticoes surrounded the reconstructed shrine, which was given an illusion of grandeur by means of an enlarged entrance. In the middle of that porch stood an enormous doorway that gave access to the much smaller inner door of the shrine itself. Unfortunately, nothing of the building itself survived the destruction of <span>AD<\/span> 70, leaving us almost completely dependent upon Josephus’s account. <em>See<\/em> City; Homes and Dwellings; Temple.<\/p>","summary_ro":"ARCHITECTURE Science, art, or profession of designing and constructing buildings, bridges, etc. Architecture is the practice of combining construction and art in order to produce “beauty with purpose.” The architect’s synthesis of creative imagination and technical skill produces structures of interest, unity, power, and convenience. When we look at a building, monument, or tomb, we are examining its art as well as its structure. Special types of architecture are mentioned in Scripture, inclu...","summary_en":"ARCHITECTURE Science, art, or profession of designing and constructing buildings, bridges, etc. Architecture is the practice of combining construction and art in order to produce “beauty with purpose.” The architect’s synthesis of creative imagination and technical skill produces structures of interest, unity, power, and convenience. When we look at a building, monument, or tomb, we are examining its art as well as its structure. Special types of architecture are mentioned in Scripture, inclu...","source":"Articles\/A.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":3444,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Babel","title_en":"Babel","content_ro":"<h3>BABEL<\/h3>\n<p>Translation of a Hebrew word in Genesis 10:10 and 11:9. Elsewhere it is translated “Babylonia” or “Babylon” (see 2 Kgs 17:24). The rendering “Babel” in the Genesis passages is intended to relate the name to the early cultural setting reflected by Genesis 11:1-9, especially to the attempt to build a “tower.” The translation “Babel” is also intended to associate the Tower of Babel incident with the popular understanding that Babel is derived from a root meaning “to confuse” (v 9).<\/p>\n<p>Archaeological excavations have provided information about the building of towers for temples called ziggurats. The excavation of a number of such towers has made it clear they were structures consisting of several platforms, each of lesser dimensions than the one immediately below it. The top platform served as the location for a small temple dedicated to the particular deity of the builder or of the city in which it was built.<\/p>\n<p>The first ziggurat at Babylon was built by Shar-kali-sharri, king of Akkad in the latter part of the 23d century <span>BC<\/span>. Archaeologists understand that this ziggurat was destroyed and rebuilt several times across the centuries. It apparently lay in ruins from sometime around 2000 <span>BC<\/span> to around 1830 <span>BC<\/span>, at which time a forebear of Hammurabi (1728–1636 <span>BC<\/span>) founded or rebuilt the city named Bab-ilu, or Babel.<\/p>\n<p>The Babylonian Creation Epic gives details concerning the construction of a “celestial city” as the proper abode of Marduk. It was with this theological understanding that the name Babel, “gate of god,” was a significant term. Other terminology associated with the temple built for Marduk and with the ziggurat suggests that Babel, for the early Babylonians, was the on-earth entrance into the heavenly or celestial realm.<\/p>\n<p>Jewish and Arab traditions associate the Tower of Babel of Genesis with a large temple ruin dedicated originally to Nabu in the city of Borsippa, or Birs-Nimrod.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Babylon, Babylonia.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>BABEL<\/h3>\n<p>Translation of a Hebrew word in Genesis 10:10 and 11:9. Elsewhere it is translated “Babylonia” or “Babylon” (see 2 Kgs 17:24). The rendering “Babel” in the Genesis passages is intended to relate the name to the early cultural setting reflected by Genesis 11:1-9, especially to the attempt to build a “tower.” The translation “Babel” is also intended to associate the Tower of Babel incident with the popular understanding that Babel is derived from a root meaning “to confuse” (v 9).<\/p>\n<p>Archaeological excavations have provided information about the building of towers for temples called ziggurats. The excavation of a number of such towers has made it clear they were structures consisting of several platforms, each of lesser dimensions than the one immediately below it. The top platform served as the location for a small temple dedicated to the particular deity of the builder or of the city in which it was built.<\/p>\n<p>The first ziggurat at Babylon was built by Shar-kali-sharri, king of Akkad in the latter part of the 23d century <span>BC<\/span>. Archaeologists understand that this ziggurat was destroyed and rebuilt several times across the centuries. It apparently lay in ruins from sometime around 2000 <span>BC<\/span> to around 1830 <span>BC<\/span>, at which time a forebear of Hammurabi (1728–1636 <span>BC<\/span>) founded or rebuilt the city named Bab-ilu, or Babel.<\/p>\n<p>The Babylonian Creation Epic gives details concerning the construction of a “celestial city” as the proper abode of Marduk. It was with this theological understanding that the name Babel, “gate of god,” was a significant term. Other terminology associated with the temple built for Marduk and with the ziggurat suggests that Babel, for the early Babylonians, was the on-earth entrance into the heavenly or celestial realm.<\/p>\n<p>Jewish and Arab traditions associate the Tower of Babel of Genesis with a large temple ruin dedicated originally to Nabu in the city of Borsippa, or Birs-Nimrod.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Babylon, Babylonia.<\/p>","summary_ro":"BABEL Translation of a Hebrew word in Genesis 10:10 and 11:9. Elsewhere it is translated “Babylonia” or “Babylon” (see 2 Kgs 17:24). The rendering “Babel” in the Genesis passages is intended to relate the name to the early cultural setting reflected by Genesis 11:1-9, especially to the attempt to build a “tower.” The translation “Babel” is also intended to associate the Tower of Babel incident with the popular understanding that Babel is derived from a root meaning “to confuse” (v 9). Archaeo...","summary_en":"BABEL Translation of a Hebrew word in Genesis 10:10 and 11:9. Elsewhere it is translated “Babylonia” or “Babylon” (see 2 Kgs 17:24). The rendering “Babel” in the Genesis passages is intended to relate the name to the early cultural setting reflected by Genesis 11:1-9, especially to the attempt to build a “tower.” The translation “Babel” is also intended to associate the Tower of Babel incident with the popular understanding that Babel is derived from a root meaning “to confuse” (v 9). Archaeo...","source":"Articles\/B.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":6418,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"of the Bible* (Old Testament), Chronology","title_en":"of the Bible* (Old Testament), Chronology","content_ro":"<h3>CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament)<\/h3>\n<p>Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper historical background of the biblical texts. In general, the chronology of the OT is understood well enough to vindicate the basic accuracy and sequential order of Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>Both biblical and nonbiblical materials are utilized by students of OT chronology. Biblical data include (1) genealogies showing personal and tribal affiliations among various peoples; (2) specific numbers given by biblical authors to indicate a person’s longevity, a king’s reign, or the duration of a specific event; (3) synchronizing statements that date an event in a specific year of a king’s reign or relate it to a natural phenomenon assumed to be common knowledge at the time of writing (e.g., Am 1:1; Zec 14:5).<\/p>\n<p>From the abundance of such chronological passages in the OT, one might conclude that establishment of OT dates and sequences would be a simple procedure. Each of the three kinds of biblical materials, however, exhibits special problems that must be solved first.<\/p>\n<p>Nonbiblical materials that shed light on OT chronology are quite numerous, and more are discovered year by year. They include (1) official records of important affairs such as military campaigns from countries like Egypt or Babylonia; (2) official inscriptions that are dedicatory or commemorate a great victory; (3) annals listing major accomplishments of a ruler year by year; (4) ostraca (inscribed pieces of pottery) containing letters, tax transactions and economic records, military dispatches between field leaders and command headquarters, or other information. Ostraca may be dated archaeologically and are often used to supplement the biblical record.<\/p>\n<p>The chronologist tries to examine the pertinent biblical and nonbiblical information, notes areas of correlation among all the data, and finally establishes a working system into which the most facts can be fitted. New evidence uncovered at any time may necessitate shifts in the present working system. Although the basic structure of biblical chronology seems reasonably firm, many details will no doubt be subject to change as new evidence is discovered.<\/p>\n<p>As a general rule, the earlier the period, the less certain one can be of one’s dating. In the second millennium <span>BC<\/span>, for example, many dates can be assigned within a range of about 100 years. By the time of David and Solomon (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>), the margin of error over which scholars debate is a decade or less. The range narrows as one comes toward the present, so that, with the exception of one or two problem eras, dates accurate to within one or two years are possible by roughly the middle of the ninth century <span>BC<\/span>. Such limitations must be kept in mind in any examination of the major periods of OT history.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<p>• From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<p>• Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>• The Monarchy<\/p>\n<p>• Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>• Beyond 587 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrepatriarchalPeriod\">Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<h5>Biblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>In the first 11 chapters of Genesis are found accounts of the Creation (chs 1–2), the fall (ch 3), Cain and Abel (ch 4), the Flood (chs 6–9), and the Tower of Babel (ch 11). Those events are set within a certain chronological framework.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 5, a period of 10 generations elapsed between the Creation and the Flood. Although the individuals listed enjoyed a total life span of a hefty 847 years plus, the total time elapsing between Adam and the Flood was only 1,656 years.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 11, another 10 generations elapsed from the time of the Flood until the time of Abraham (at least in the Septuagint, the third-century <span>BC<\/span> Greek translation of the OT; the Hebrew Masoretic text has 9). In that period the average age attained by individuals in the list is 346 years (using a figure of 460 for Arphaxad’s son Cainan, who is included in v 13 of the LXX; cf. Lk 3:36); the total elapsed time from the Flood to Abraham is only 520 years. Taken literally, that would mean that all of Abraham’s ancestors as far back as Noah’s son Shem were still alive at Abraham’s birth, and that a total of only 2,176 years elapsed from the time of Creation to Abraham.<\/p>\n<h5>Interpretation of the Biblical Data<\/h5>\n<p>A literalistic or slavishly mathematical interpretation of the figures, as has appeared in the margin of many <span>kjv<\/span> Bibles, requires a number of assumptions: that no names are omitted from the genealogies, that all the numbers given are consecutive, and especially that numbers used in an ancient biblical source carry the same meaning as that associated with them in the modern Western mind. Each assumption needs serious examination in the light of other established facts.<\/p>\n<p>A cursory reading of other biblical genealogies, for example, reveals that not all the names of a given family were always included. Even Matthew recorded a total of 28 generations (two sets of 14 each) between David and Jesus, and comparison with OT genealogies reveals that Matthew omitted several names. Luke listed a total of 42 generations for the same interval. Omissions are also obvious when one compares the genealogical lists given in 1 Chronicles 1–8 with those recorded earlier in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings.<\/p>\n<p>Further, ancient peoples thought of numbers in a schematic or stylized way. Use of numbers among the ancient Near Eastern nations differed sharply from current Western practice. Examples of that practice are known from both biblical and nonbiblical sources. For example, a list of eight Sumerian kings who ruled in the city of Shurruppak before the “great flood” of the Jemdet Nar era (c. 3000 <span>BC<\/span>) assigns each man an average reign of more than 30,000 years. Berossus, a Babylonian priest of Marduk living in the third century <span>BC<\/span>, added two names to the eight found in that earlier list of kings and assigned an average of 43,200 years to each king. Such extraordinarily high numbers provide a perspective for considering the numbers of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, although one can assume that the numbers assigned to the ages of the patriarchs preceding Abraham in Genesis had real meaning for those responsible for their preservation, they should not be employed in a purely literal sense to compute the length of the various generations mentioned in the text. Further, the numbers given in the Septuagint and in the Samaritan Pentateuch, another early version of the Pentateuch, diverge in many details from those of the Hebrew Masoretic Text. That means, among other things, that the Genesis numbers caused problems for even the earliest scholars of Scripture.<\/p>\n<h5>Nonbiblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>Archaeology provides no evidence that may be used to date either the Creation or any other account preserved in Genesis 1–11. The Flood is an example that illustrates some of the difficulties. Many claims have been made by persons from a wide variety of backgrounds (scientists, explorers, theologians, and others) to the effect that archaeology has proven the Genesis Flood narrative to be true. Yet no city so far excavated in Palestine and Syria (including some of the oldest towns in the world) shows archaeological evidence of the Flood.<\/p>\n<p>Although several cities in Mesopotamia do exhibit evidence of a flood, three factors make it difficult to link that evidence with Genesis 6–9. Each of the flood levels so far discovered dates from a different period. Further, since nearby sites show no evidence of flooding, all of the Mesopotamian flood evidence points to relatively small local floods. Finally, the evidence indicates no great cultural discontinuities of the sort that would result from destruction of an entire population. Thus, it seems that the ancient Mesopotamian floods discovered through archaeological research are of the same kind as the floods that still occur in the Euphrates River valley.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, certain questions one might ask of the Genesis narratives simply cannot be answered. Many who regard the Bible as the Word of God have concluded that the dating of events found in Genesis 1–11 must be less important than the theological truths of salvation, faith, and obedience that these accounts present.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"FromAbrahamtoMoses\">From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<h5>The Patriarchal Age<\/h5>\n<p>The date of Abraham is still a lively topic among biblical scholars who agree that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were indeed historical persons. Opinions range from an early-date view that estimates that the patriarchal age extended from 2086 to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>, to a late-date view placing Abraham at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>. Since each position claims to fit the biblical data, a closer look at the two points of view is in order.<\/p>\n<p>Many OT passages seem to support the view that puts Abraham at a comparatively early date. First Kings 6:1 computes 480 years back from the founding of the temple in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign (961 <span>BC<\/span>, according to the early-date view) to the exodus from Egypt, which would then be dated 1441 <span>BC<\/span>. Counting 430 years as the period of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt (see Gn 15:13; Ex 12:40) takes the date back to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>. To that date are added the 215 years demanded by the total of (1) Abraham’s age upon entering Canaan (75 years according to Gn 12:4); (2) 25 additional years before the birth of Isaac (Gn 21:5); (3) 60 more years to the birth of Jacob (Gn 25:26); and (4) the appearance of Jacob before the pharaoh at age 130 (Gn 47:9). Those 215 years added to the previous total give a date of 2086 <span>BC<\/span> for the entrance of Abraham into Canaan and a date of 2161 <span>BC<\/span> for his birth.<\/p>\n<p>Such a calculation does not use all of the chronological evidence presented in the OT; consequently, the date for Abraham is open to challenge. For example, the 480 years between the exodus and Solomon’s fourth regnal year represent a period of time into which the wilderness wanderings, the career of Joshua and his immediate successors, the period of the judges, Samuel, Saul, and David must all be placed. Although the OT does not specifically say how long were the careers of Joshua, Samuel, or Saul, even a modest reckoning pushes the total years required by all the biblical data together to approximately 600.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the length of time to be assigned to the Egyptian sojourn is problematic. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint both view the number 430 (in Ex 12:40) as applicable not only to the years in Egypt but to the years of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Canaan as well. Evidently Paul followed the Septuagint tradition when he dated the giving of the law 430 years later than the time of God’s promise to Abraham (see Gal 3:15-18). That means the Septuagint figure cannot be dismissed lightly.<\/p>\n<p>The late dating of Abraham (c. 1400 <span>BC<\/span>) is based on two propositions: (1) The picture of patriarchal society portrayed in Genesis most closely parallels that reflected in the cuneiform tablets recovered from Nuzi, a town in northeastern Mesopotamia about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of Baghdad. (2) Because those tablets must be dated in the 15th and 14th centuries <span>BC<\/span>, the parallel patriarchal age must have fallen within the same general time period.<\/p>\n<p>Those who hold the late-date view are aware that their date for Abraham cannot be equated with the set of numbers on which the early-date view depends. They point to other data, also from the OT. Joseph, who was already a highly placed Egyptian official when Jacob moved to Egypt, lived to be 110 years old (Gn 50:26). Moses was a great-grandson of Levi, Joseph’s older brother. Since Joseph lived to see his own greatgrandchildren born (who would probably be younger than Moses since their great-grandfather was younger than his), the late-date view concludes that Joseph could have been alive when Moses was born. The four-generation genealogy of Moses (Levi-Kohath-Amram-Moses, in Ex 6:16-20; Nm 3:17-19; 26:58-59; 1 Chr 6:1-3) was evidently thought to be complete according to Genesis 15:16, which predicted that Abraham’s descendants would be freed from Egyptian bondage “in the fourth generation.”<\/p>\n<p>However, a date of around 1400 <span>BC<\/span> for Abraham cannot be aligned with certain other biblical data, including the long Egyptian sojourn demanded by Genesis 15:13 and Exodus 12:40 and a 40-year (or “one-generation”) wilderness existence. Some normally moderate scholars are forced to reduce the wilderness time to two years in order to maintain their late date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>In short, the late-date theory is consistent with part of the biblical evidence (the genealogies of Moses), but the early-date theory conforms to another part (the actual year figures listed in scattered verses from Genesis and Exodus). The late-date theory holds that the genealogies represent more reliable information in Semitic societies generally, whereas the early-date theory computes years given in the biblical account literally throughout its scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Because of problems attached to both positions, a large group of scholars take a middle ground in dating the patriarchal age. Archaeologically, they say, Abraham and his life and times fit perfectly within the early second millennium, but imperfectly within any later period. By placing Abraham roughly between 1800 and 1600 <span>BC<\/span>, they provide enough latitude for a merging of all the available evidence, biblical and nonbiblical, into a workable chronological scheme. Archaeology provides four major bits of evidence for an early second-millennium patriarchal era.<\/p>\n<p>1. Though the Nuzi tablets furnish a clear parallel to patriarchal social life, other tablets from other towns and an earlier era reflect many of the same customs common to Nuzi and Genesis. Since the Nuzians were Hurrians who came to northeastern Mesopotamia from elsewhere (perhaps Armenia), their social customs originated no doubt much earlier than the time of their tablets now in our possession. Accordingly, the 15th-century <span>BC<\/span> date of the Nuzi tablets does not preclude an earlier date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<li>2. The names of several of Abraham’s ancestors listed in Genesis 11 can now be identified with towns in the northern area of Mesopotamia around Haran, the city from which Abraham migrated to Canaan (Gn 11:31–12:3). Significantly, Haran flourished in the 19th and 18th centuries <span>BC<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>3. Shortly after 2000 <span>BC<\/span> Semitic nomads from the desert invaded the civilized communities of the Fertile Crescent. Those invaders, called Amorites in the OT, established themselves in several cities in northern Syria and Mesopotamia. One of the Amorite cities was Babylon, ruled by Hammurabi sometime around the beginning of the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. Although the King Amraphel of Genesis 14:1 is not linguistically identifiable with the Babylonian king Hammurabi, as earlier scholars believed, the picture of the times following the Amorite invasion still accords well with the Genesis narratives generally.<\/li>\n<li>4. Mari, another Amorite town, is now well known because of more than 20,000 tablets recovered from its royal palace and archives. Geographically, Mari is located in the general area of Haran. Chronologically, the tablets recovered come from the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. One 18th-century king of Mari, Zimri Lim, carried on extensive correspondence with Hammurabi of Babylon. The tablets from Mari also furnish valuable information about tribal and ethnic groups and their movements in the general region. Of basic importance for dating the Genesis materials are certain documents from Mari that include personal names very similar to Abraham (Abi-ram), Jacob, Laban, and several other West Semitic names.<\/li>\n<p>Archaeological evidence neither proves nor disproves the actual existence of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. That is admitted on all sides. What archaeology has done is to provide a framework of probabilities within which the biblical patriarchal narratives appear more and more to be at home.<\/p>\n<h5>Date of the Exodus<\/h5>\n<p>The problem of dating the patriarchal age is closely related to the problem of assigning a date to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Since the evidence does not permit a precise date for Abraham, a precise date for the entry of Joseph or Jacob into Egypt is likewise unobtainable. Further, the biblical evidence does not yield an exact figure for the length of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>For many years biblical scholars viewed 1 Kings 6:1 as a foundation upon which to build an unshakable date for the exodus. Because Solomon’s fourth year could be unquestionably fixed to within at least a 10-year span (967–958 <span>BC<\/span>), the exodus too could be dated with the same precision simply by adding 480 years. But other biblical data raise serious questions about that simple procedure. When the Bible deals with all the events between the time of the exodus and the founding of Solomon’s temple, that is, from Numbers to 1 Kings 5:18, the precise numbers given total not 480 but closer to 600 years.<\/p>\n<p>Because the evidence is insufficient to allow a precise date for the exodus, scholarly opinion remains divided between two possibilities. A 15th-century exodus is supported by several pieces of evidence. The chronology in 1 Kings 6:1 appears to be independently corroborated by a passage in Judges 11:26. It claims that Israel had occupied the area around Heshbon for 300 years preceding Jephthah’s own day. If Jephthah is dated at roughly 1100 <span>BC<\/span>, one is obviously led back to an exodus in the middle of the 15th century. Also, three successive generations of pharaohs who ruled in the 16th and 15th centuries produced no male offspring, making it more likely that Moses would have become the foster son of a royal princess during that time; all of the 19th-dynasty kings (1306–1200 <span>BC<\/span>) had legitimate male heirs.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, a 15th-century date makes possible a connection between the Habiru invasion of Canaan (1400–1350 <span>BC<\/span>)—described in the Amarna letters found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt—and the invasion of Canaan by the Hebrews described in the OT book of Joshua. Related to that is a reference to “Israel” in the Merneptah Stele, a stone pillar inscribed with the deeds of the Egyptian king, Merneptah, of about 1220 <span>BC<\/span>. It implies that the people referred to, met by Merneptah in the course of a Canaanite military campaign, had been in existence for some time. Finally, an excavator of Jericho, John Garstang, placed the destruction of that city at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Other evidence, however, strongly implies not a 15th- but a 13th-century date for the exodus. Many scholars assign a date between 1290 and 1275 <span>BC<\/span> on the basis of that evidence. First, the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 discussed above may be interpreted as schematically representing 12 generations, as indicated by 1 Chronicles 6:3-8. Thus if 12 generations averaged 25 years instead of 40 years, the reduction of 480 schematized years to 300 actual years would point to an exodus date of around 1266 <span>BC<\/span>. Second, archaeological evidence exists that dates destruction at the assumed sites of several cities conquered by Joshua (Lachish, Debir, Bethel, and Hazor) to the late 13th century. Third, there is no biblical mention of Egyptian military campaigns (such as Merneptah’s 1220 <span>BC<\/span> incursion); Israelites living in Canaan before the time of the militarily active pharaohs Seti I (1319–1301 <span>BC<\/span>) and Ramses II (1301–1234 <span>BC<\/span>) would certainly have been affected by such activity. Fourth, Exodus 1:11 mentions the city of Rameses, the capital built by Ramses II, according to his own inscriptions. A fifth line of argument comes from archaeological conclusions that Transjordan and the Negev Desert were not occupied by sedentary people between 1900 and 1300 <span>BC<\/span>, whereas the Bible states clearly that the Israelites encountered stiff opposition from groups in that same region. Thus, it is argued, the Israelites must have entered that region after 1300 <span>BC<\/span>. Sixth, connecting the Habiru with the Israelites of the Conquest lacks weight because many texts besides the Amarna tablets attest to the existence of Habiru groups virtually all over the ancient Near East. “Habiru” seems to be a much broader term, possibly meaning “trespasser,” and is probably unrelated etymologically or semantically to “Hebrew.” Seventh, and finally, Garstang’s work at Jericho has now been revised by archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who showed that the fallen walls that Garstang had dated about 1400 <span>BC<\/span> in reality were destroyed in 1800 <span>BC<\/span> or earlier.<\/p>\n<p>So far, it has been impossible to decide with precision between the two centuries proposed for the exodus. The majority opinion among OT scholars generally, including a growing number of moderate or conservative scholars, is in favor of the 13th-century option. On the other hand, many other conservative scholars continue to favor the 15th-century date. Dogmatism is unwarranted since problems remain unresolved with either option.<\/p>\n<p>In accordance with the majority opinion, however, a date of about 1290 <span>BC<\/span> for the exodus will be used in dealing with subsequent problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"ConquestandConsolidation\">Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>The chronological task for the period of conquest and consolidation is to fit all the events narrated by the OT, chiefly in Joshua and Judges, between the exodus (c. 1290 <span>BC<\/span>) and the times of David (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>) and Solomon (d. 930 <span>BC<\/span>). In other words, one must fit roughly 550 years of biblical events between Moses and David into a 290-year span.<\/p>\n<p>Although assigning an early date for the exodus (c. 1447 <span>BC<\/span>) would make the task somewhat easier, the mere addition of about 157 years does not by itself solve all the problems. Neither date allows enough time for all the OT events from Joshua to David to take place singly and consecutively. Accordingly, advocates of both dates assume that some of the judges ruled simultaneously rather than consecutively. The difference is one of degree only.<\/p>\n<p>The book of Joshua furnishes most of the OT evidence regarding the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. Unfortunately, the book of Joshua has no chronological notes that specify the amount of time elapsing during Joshua’s career. Further, there are no biblical references to major contemporary events in other parts of the ancient world, the dates of which could be used to fix the chronology. Rather, in what is obviously a telescoped account, the book of Joshua records the fall of Jericho and Ai, followed closely by a southern and then a northern campaign. After those victories, covering much of the total territory of Canaan, various parcels of land were distributed to the tribal groups of Israel; the tribes were expected to complete the task of destroying whatever Canaanite inhabitants remained in their particular region. One seeks in vain, however, for any statements indicating how long those events took.<\/p>\n<p>In the book of Judges a slightly different circumstance prevails. There the OT furnishes a rather complete list of figures to indicate the duration of periods of foreign oppression, judgeships, and ensuing peace. The total number of years described for that period is 410, but that total does not include any time for the many “minor” judges. It seems obvious, therefore, that most if not all of the judges were simply local chieftains whose activity was simultaneous with that of other judges, at least for part of their reign. Unfortunately, the book of Judges provides no cross-reference system to indicate which judges were contemporaries of which others. Perhaps the best one can do is to assume general guidelines for the chronology of that period between Moses and David.<\/p>\n<p>Two significant facts should be kept in mind. First, archaeological information seems to demand a Conquest date beginning about 1250 <span>BC<\/span> rather than 200 years earlier. Assuming concurrent careers for the judges allows one to compress the literal OT figures into the general scheme demanded by other evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Second, the ancient scribes evidently related the chronology of the period to a 40-year or generation-based schema, a practice that lasted until the time of the divided kingdom, when a regular dynastic chronology was introduced. In the face of so many careers being assigned exactly 40 years, the fact remains that the literal totals of such numbers cannot be harmonized with either the biblical or the archaeological evidence for the period. Accordingly, most scholars doubt that the number 40 was ever intended to be an exact mathematical calculation. That view permits enough leeway for cautious fitting of biblical and other evidence into a general timetable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheMonarchy\">The Monarchy<\/p>\n<h5>Types of Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>For the period of the Israelite monarchy, chronological evidence is abundant.<\/p>\n<p>The OT itself strives to provide all the information necessary for the chronology of the period, including (1) a complete list of all the kings in Israel and in Judah both before and after the division of the kingdom; (2) the age of each king (except Saul) at his accession; (3) synchronisms of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah showing in what year of his contemporary in the other kingdom each king came to the throne; and (4) precise calculations of the length of each king’s reign. In addition some important events are dated by reference to another event; others are coordinated with concurrent events in secular history.<\/p>\n<p>Outside the OT an abundance of material provides evidence for a chronology of the period. By far the most important single source is a collection of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists. In Assyria a record of each king’s reign was kept on a particular kind of annal. Each year of reign was named after an individual of high rank in the court; the first year was named after the king himself, the second after the next highest-ranking official (though that name appears to have been selected by lot originally), and so on, down until the death of the king. The word <em>limmu<\/em> was used to introduce the name of the official after whom the current year was to be named, hence the designation <em>“limmu<\/em> lists.”<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists are tied precisely to the solar year, making the documents highly reliable. Further, in addition to many events in Assyrian history, notable natural phenomena were dated on the basis of the <em>limmu<\/em> in which they occurred. For example, a solar eclipse dated by the Assyrian scribes in the <em>limmu<\/em> year of Bur-Sagale has been computed astronomically as June 15, 763 <span>BC<\/span>. Beginning with the year 763, then, and working both backward and forward, a complete list of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> officials has been obtained for the period between 891 and 648 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>With the accuracy of the Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists corroborated by a number of sources, they can be used with confidence in reconstructing the chronology of the corresponding period of biblical history. That is especially true where a biblical writer related an Israelite or a Judahite event to a particular year in the reign of an Assyrian king whose <em>limmu<\/em> list indicates the precise years of his reign.<\/p>\n<p>There are also records from Chaldean (Babylonian) king lists and from later Greek historians. Ptolemy, in the second century <span>AD<\/span>, for example, gave dates for Babylonian kings from 747 <span>BC<\/span> and continued with dates for Persian, Greek, and Roman rulers down to <span>AD<\/span> 161. Finally, useful information is found in inscriptions from monuments, stelae, and other artifacts from Assyria and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<h5>Monarchical Chronology<\/h5>\n<p>The <em>limmu<\/em> list of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III provides a basis for the first comparison of dates among Assyria, Israel, and Judah. In the <em>limmu<\/em> of Daian-Assur, Shalmaneser’s sixth year on the throne, Ahab of Israel was listed as one of the kings who fought against the Assyrians in the battle of Qarqar. Thus the date for that battle may be placed confidently in 853 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian records also indicate that Shalmaneser III came into contact with an Israelite king 12 years later, in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. That king was Jehu. Thus two fixed points are available for correlating the biblical information. Following the death of Ahab, which is not dated exactly by reference to the Assyrian records, two of his sons came to power. The first, Ahaziah, reigned two years (1 Kgs 22:51); the second, Joram (also called Jehoram), reigned a total of 12 years (2 Kgs 3:1). Recognizing a nonaccession-year reckoning by the Israelites in that era, the apparent total of 14 years may be reduced to an actual total of 12. Thus it seems evident that Ahab not only fought Shalmaneser III in 853 <span>BC<\/span> but also died in that year. Ahab was then followed by his two sons for a total of 12 years before the accession of Jehu in time to account for his contact with Shalmaneser II in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. Further, because Jehu murdered both the king of Israel (Jehoram) and the king of Judah (Ahaziah) at the same time (2 Kgs 9:24-27), a fixed synchronism is provided between the two kingdoms for the year 841 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>The first nine kings of Israel ruled an apparent total of 98 years or an actual total (taking into account Israel’s nonaccession-year policy) of 90 years. Zimri, who ruled only seven days (1 Kgs 16:15-18), counts as one of the nine but does not insert an extra year in either the actual or apparent totals. The accession of Jeroboam I thus occurred in 930 <span>BC<\/span> (adding 90 years to 841 <span>BC<\/span>), and Rehoboam of Judah began to rule in that same year as well. Allowing Solomon the 40-year reign indicated in 1 Kings 11:42 points to the year 970 <span>BC<\/span> for his accession. The death of David would also be pinpointed in that period, although allowance must be made for the possibility of a short co-regency of David and Solomon before David’s death. The reign of Saul then falls approximately in the late 11th century <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In Judah the period between the death of Solomon in 930 <span>BC<\/span> and the murder of Ahaziah by Jehu in 841 <span>BC<\/span> was occupied by the kingships of six men whose time on the throne totals 95 biblical years. Computation of that era in Judah is not as simple as for the Israelite kings for several reasons. Problems include a change from accession- to nonaccession-year reckoning sometime around 850 <span>BC<\/span>, at least two co-regencies (Jehoshaphat with Asa and then Jehoram with Jehoshaphat), and the calendar differences between the two kingdoms. It is clear that the 95 apparent years must be reduced, on the basis of the differences in computation and calendar, to 90 actual years in order to bring the Judahite figures into line with the established Assyrian and Israelite synchronisms.<\/p>\n<p>After the year 841, the next biblical event to be certified by nonbiblical materials is the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>. That date is furnished by the annals of Sargon II of Assyria (722–705 <span>BC<\/span>), successor to Shalmaneser V (727–722 <span>BC<\/span>). Although that date comes just 120 years after the fixed point of 841 <span>BC<\/span> in Israelite history, the chronological materials for that period are quite difficult to interpret accurately. In the past, scholars resorted to assumptions of extensive co-regencies, to presumed confusion on the part of certain scribes over methods to be followed in computations, or to other theories in attempting to understand the period. In spite of the many difficulties, however, all the biblical and Assyrian dates for the period of the divided monarchy have been harmonized—with the exception of four figures related to the closing years of the Israelite kingdom, all connected in some way with the problematic reign of Hoshea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"JudahaftertheFallofIsrael\">Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>Following the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>, OT chronology is concerned only with the southern kingdom of Judah until its destruction some 135 years later. Two events in the biblical record important for establishing a chronology for that period are the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib of Assyria in the late eighth century and the eventual fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in the early sixth century.<\/p>\n<h5>Sennacherib’s Invasion of Judah<\/h5>\n<p>The Assyrian invasion (704–681 <span>BC<\/span>) is recorded in 2 Kings 18:13-16, where verse 13 dates the event to the 14th year of King Hezekiah. Sennacherib’s own inscriptions include a lengthier version of the affair. From them the date of 701 <span>BC<\/span> is established, placing the accession of Hezekiah in 715 <span>BC<\/span>. That much is simple, but problems still arise. For example, 2 Kings 19:9 reports that Sennacherib was in contact with an Ethiopian king, Tirhakah (c. 690–664 <span>BC<\/span>), during the course of his campaign, which included a siege of Jerusalem. Obviously, contact with a ruler who came to power in 690 <span>BC<\/span> at the earliest could not refer to events in 701 <span>BC<\/span>. It is possible, however, that Sennacherib actually made two invasions of Judah, the first in 701 and the second sometime later. The date of that supposed second invasion is not assured, although 2 Kings 19:35-37 may imply that Sennacherib was murdered only shortly after his withdrawal from Jerusalem. Since Sennacherib was succeeded by his son Esarhaddon in the year 681, the presumed second invasion of Judah would have occurred somewhere in the last half of the same decade.<\/p>\n<p>A number of scholars oppose the assumption of a second invasion of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. They suggest the possibility that Tirhakah, though king only from 690 <span>BC<\/span>, may have led troops against Sennacherib as early as 701, before acceding to the throne. The reference to King Tirhakah in 2 Kings 19:9 would then be understood as use of his eventual title in an effort to identify him to a later generation of readers.<\/p>\n<p>However the question of the number of invasions is decided, it is certain that Sennacherib invaded Judah in 701 <span>BC<\/span>, the 14th regnal year of Hezekiah. Such a synchronism establishes Hezekiah’s accession year as 715 <span>BC<\/span>, but that date raises another problem. The fall of Samaria, now established at 722, is dated by 2 Kings 18:10 in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign. The most likely solution is that Hezekiah began a co-regency with his father, Ahaz, six years before Samaria fell. The possibility for confusion arises from the fact that one verse (2 Kgs 18:13; repeated in Is 36:1) synchronizes Sennacherib’s 701 <span>BC<\/span> invasion with the 14th year of Hezekiah’s independent reign; another verse (2 Kgs 18:10) correlates the fall of Samaria with the beginning of Hezekiah’s co-regency. Thus from about 728 to 715 <span>BC<\/span> Hezekiah was co-regent with Ahaz. From 715 to 697 he reigned alone. From 696 to 686 his son Manasseh was co-ruler with him.<\/p>\n<p>According to the chronological information given by a number of verses in 2 Kings, a total of 128 years and six months elapsed between the time of Hezekiah’s accession in 715 and the capture of King Jehoiachin in 597, a date to be discussed below. Thus another problem is to explain the more than 10-year excess apparently demanded by the biblical totals. The best solution appears to lie in the assumption that Manasseh first came to power in 697 as co-regent with his father, Hezekiah. Manasseh died in 642, following what 2 Kings 21:1 states was a 55-year reign. Hezekiah, who came to the throne in 715, is said to have reigned 29 years (2 Kgs 18:2), which would mean that he was king until 686, roughly 11 years after the time when Manasseh must have come to the throne in order to have completed a 55-year reign by 642.<\/p>\n<h5>Fall of Jerusalem<\/h5>\n<p>Contemporary Babylonian records are available to shed valuable light on the last few years of Judah’s existence. For the years 626–623, 618–595, and 556 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonian Chronicle, a formal record of Babylonian affairs of state, has been recovered. From information contained in that chronicle and other cuneiform documents of the period, three dates in Judah’s history may be fixed firmly. The first is the death of Josiah in 609; the second is the battle of Carchemish in 605; the third is the end of the reign of Jehoiachin, which is dated by the Babylonian Chronicle to the second month of Adar in the ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, or March 16, 597.<\/p>\n<p>After Jehoiachin’s capture, Zedekiah became puppet king of Judah for 11 years (2 Kgs 24:18). On the tenth day of the tenth month during Zedekiah’s ninth regnal year (2 Kgs 25:1), the final siege of Jerusalem was begun by the Babylonian army. That day was January 15, 588. On the ninth day of the fourth month during the 11th regnal year of Zedekiah, after a siege of almost 18 months, the wall of Jerusalem was broken through (2 Kgs 25:3-4). The temple was burned on day seven of the following (fifth) month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Beyond587bc\">Beyond 586 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Following the tragedy of 586 <span>BC<\/span>, several further developments are given chronological notice in the OT. Jeremiah 52:30 records a third deportation of Jews to Babylonia in the 23d year of King Nebuchadnezzar (582 or 581 <span>BC<\/span>). Both 2 Kings 25:27 and Jeremiah 52:31 give evidence of the release of King Jehoiachin from prison; the Babylonian Chronicle dates that event at 27 Adar, or March 21, 561 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In 539 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonians themselves were destined to learn the meaning of defeat. In that year a Persian ruler, Cyrus the Great, launched a successful campaign against Babylon and its king, Nabonidus. Inheriting control over the exiled Jews and many other groups of people conquered earlier by Babylonia, Cyrus moved quickly to initiate a policy of tolerance toward his new subjects. In the first year of his rule Cyrus issued an edict making it possible for Jews to return to their former land (Ezr 1:1). On the first day of the following year, 1 Tishri (Ezr 3:6), an altar was set up in Jerusalem. In Iyyar of the following year (April\/May 536) work was begun on the temple itself (Ezr 3:8).<\/p>\n<p>After a period of frustrating work stoppages of varying lengths, the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah spurred on the Jews to complete the temple. Work resumed in 520 (Ezr 4:24; Hg 1:1, 15) and was finally completed on 3 Adar, or March 12, 515 (Ezr 6:15). The final stages of OT chronology pertain to the careers of Ezra and Nehemiah. The traditional view of their era places Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I (458 <span>BC<\/span>) and Nehemiah in the 20th (445 <span>BC<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> “Date” under each OT book; Conquest and Allotment of the Land; Diaspora of the Jews; Exodus, The; Israel, History of; Patriarchs, Period of the; Postexilic Period; Wilderness Wanderings.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament)<\/h3>\n<p>Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper historical background of the biblical texts. In general, the chronology of the OT is understood well enough to vindicate the basic accuracy and sequential order of Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>Both biblical and nonbiblical materials are utilized by students of OT chronology. Biblical data include (1) genealogies showing personal and tribal affiliations among various peoples; (2) specific numbers given by biblical authors to indicate a person’s longevity, a king’s reign, or the duration of a specific event; (3) synchronizing statements that date an event in a specific year of a king’s reign or relate it to a natural phenomenon assumed to be common knowledge at the time of writing (e.g., Am 1:1; Zec 14:5).<\/p>\n<p>From the abundance of such chronological passages in the OT, one might conclude that establishment of OT dates and sequences would be a simple procedure. Each of the three kinds of biblical materials, however, exhibits special problems that must be solved first.<\/p>\n<p>Nonbiblical materials that shed light on OT chronology are quite numerous, and more are discovered year by year. They include (1) official records of important affairs such as military campaigns from countries like Egypt or Babylonia; (2) official inscriptions that are dedicatory or commemorate a great victory; (3) annals listing major accomplishments of a ruler year by year; (4) ostraca (inscribed pieces of pottery) containing letters, tax transactions and economic records, military dispatches between field leaders and command headquarters, or other information. Ostraca may be dated archaeologically and are often used to supplement the biblical record.<\/p>\n<p>The chronologist tries to examine the pertinent biblical and nonbiblical information, notes areas of correlation among all the data, and finally establishes a working system into which the most facts can be fitted. New evidence uncovered at any time may necessitate shifts in the present working system. Although the basic structure of biblical chronology seems reasonably firm, many details will no doubt be subject to change as new evidence is discovered.<\/p>\n<p>As a general rule, the earlier the period, the less certain one can be of one’s dating. In the second millennium <span>BC<\/span>, for example, many dates can be assigned within a range of about 100 years. By the time of David and Solomon (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>), the margin of error over which scholars debate is a decade or less. The range narrows as one comes toward the present, so that, with the exception of one or two problem eras, dates accurate to within one or two years are possible by roughly the middle of the ninth century <span>BC<\/span>. Such limitations must be kept in mind in any examination of the major periods of OT history.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<p>• From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<p>• Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>• The Monarchy<\/p>\n<p>• Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>• Beyond 587 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrepatriarchalPeriod\">Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<h5>Biblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>In the first 11 chapters of Genesis are found accounts of the Creation (chs 1–2), the fall (ch 3), Cain and Abel (ch 4), the Flood (chs 6–9), and the Tower of Babel (ch 11). Those events are set within a certain chronological framework.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 5, a period of 10 generations elapsed between the Creation and the Flood. Although the individuals listed enjoyed a total life span of a hefty 847 years plus, the total time elapsing between Adam and the Flood was only 1,656 years.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 11, another 10 generations elapsed from the time of the Flood until the time of Abraham (at least in the Septuagint, the third-century <span>BC<\/span> Greek translation of the OT; the Hebrew Masoretic text has 9). In that period the average age attained by individuals in the list is 346 years (using a figure of 460 for Arphaxad’s son Cainan, who is included in v 13 of the LXX; cf. Lk 3:36); the total elapsed time from the Flood to Abraham is only 520 years. Taken literally, that would mean that all of Abraham’s ancestors as far back as Noah’s son Shem were still alive at Abraham’s birth, and that a total of only 2,176 years elapsed from the time of Creation to Abraham.<\/p>\n<h5>Interpretation of the Biblical Data<\/h5>\n<p>A literalistic or slavishly mathematical interpretation of the figures, as has appeared in the margin of many <span>kjv<\/span> Bibles, requires a number of assumptions: that no names are omitted from the genealogies, that all the numbers given are consecutive, and especially that numbers used in an ancient biblical source carry the same meaning as that associated with them in the modern Western mind. Each assumption needs serious examination in the light of other established facts.<\/p>\n<p>A cursory reading of other biblical genealogies, for example, reveals that not all the names of a given family were always included. Even Matthew recorded a total of 28 generations (two sets of 14 each) between David and Jesus, and comparison with OT genealogies reveals that Matthew omitted several names. Luke listed a total of 42 generations for the same interval. Omissions are also obvious when one compares the genealogical lists given in 1 Chronicles 1–8 with those recorded earlier in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings.<\/p>\n<p>Further, ancient peoples thought of numbers in a schematic or stylized way. Use of numbers among the ancient Near Eastern nations differed sharply from current Western practice. Examples of that practice are known from both biblical and nonbiblical sources. For example, a list of eight Sumerian kings who ruled in the city of Shurruppak before the “great flood” of the Jemdet Nar era (c. 3000 <span>BC<\/span>) assigns each man an average reign of more than 30,000 years. Berossus, a Babylonian priest of Marduk living in the third century <span>BC<\/span>, added two names to the eight found in that earlier list of kings and assigned an average of 43,200 years to each king. Such extraordinarily high numbers provide a perspective for considering the numbers of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, although one can assume that the numbers assigned to the ages of the patriarchs preceding Abraham in Genesis had real meaning for those responsible for their preservation, they should not be employed in a purely literal sense to compute the length of the various generations mentioned in the text. Further, the numbers given in the Septuagint and in the Samaritan Pentateuch, another early version of the Pentateuch, diverge in many details from those of the Hebrew Masoretic Text. That means, among other things, that the Genesis numbers caused problems for even the earliest scholars of Scripture.<\/p>\n<h5>Nonbiblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>Archaeology provides no evidence that may be used to date either the Creation or any other account preserved in Genesis 1–11. The Flood is an example that illustrates some of the difficulties. Many claims have been made by persons from a wide variety of backgrounds (scientists, explorers, theologians, and others) to the effect that archaeology has proven the Genesis Flood narrative to be true. Yet no city so far excavated in Palestine and Syria (including some of the oldest towns in the world) shows archaeological evidence of the Flood.<\/p>\n<p>Although several cities in Mesopotamia do exhibit evidence of a flood, three factors make it difficult to link that evidence with Genesis 6–9. Each of the flood levels so far discovered dates from a different period. Further, since nearby sites show no evidence of flooding, all of the Mesopotamian flood evidence points to relatively small local floods. Finally, the evidence indicates no great cultural discontinuities of the sort that would result from destruction of an entire population. Thus, it seems that the ancient Mesopotamian floods discovered through archaeological research are of the same kind as the floods that still occur in the Euphrates River valley.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, certain questions one might ask of the Genesis narratives simply cannot be answered. Many who regard the Bible as the Word of God have concluded that the dating of events found in Genesis 1–11 must be less important than the theological truths of salvation, faith, and obedience that these accounts present.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"FromAbrahamtoMoses\">From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<h5>The Patriarchal Age<\/h5>\n<p>The date of Abraham is still a lively topic among biblical scholars who agree that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were indeed historical persons. Opinions range from an early-date view that estimates that the patriarchal age extended from 2086 to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>, to a late-date view placing Abraham at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>. Since each position claims to fit the biblical data, a closer look at the two points of view is in order.<\/p>\n<p>Many OT passages seem to support the view that puts Abraham at a comparatively early date. First Kings 6:1 computes 480 years back from the founding of the temple in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign (961 <span>BC<\/span>, according to the early-date view) to the exodus from Egypt, which would then be dated 1441 <span>BC<\/span>. Counting 430 years as the period of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt (see Gn 15:13; Ex 12:40) takes the date back to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>. To that date are added the 215 years demanded by the total of (1) Abraham’s age upon entering Canaan (75 years according to Gn 12:4); (2) 25 additional years before the birth of Isaac (Gn 21:5); (3) 60 more years to the birth of Jacob (Gn 25:26); and (4) the appearance of Jacob before the pharaoh at age 130 (Gn 47:9). Those 215 years added to the previous total give a date of 2086 <span>BC<\/span> for the entrance of Abraham into Canaan and a date of 2161 <span>BC<\/span> for his birth.<\/p>\n<p>Such a calculation does not use all of the chronological evidence presented in the OT; consequently, the date for Abraham is open to challenge. For example, the 480 years between the exodus and Solomon’s fourth regnal year represent a period of time into which the wilderness wanderings, the career of Joshua and his immediate successors, the period of the judges, Samuel, Saul, and David must all be placed. Although the OT does not specifically say how long were the careers of Joshua, Samuel, or Saul, even a modest reckoning pushes the total years required by all the biblical data together to approximately 600.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the length of time to be assigned to the Egyptian sojourn is problematic. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint both view the number 430 (in Ex 12:40) as applicable not only to the years in Egypt but to the years of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Canaan as well. Evidently Paul followed the Septuagint tradition when he dated the giving of the law 430 years later than the time of God’s promise to Abraham (see Gal 3:15-18). That means the Septuagint figure cannot be dismissed lightly.<\/p>\n<p>The late dating of Abraham (c. 1400 <span>BC<\/span>) is based on two propositions: (1) The picture of patriarchal society portrayed in Genesis most closely parallels that reflected in the cuneiform tablets recovered from Nuzi, a town in northeastern Mesopotamia about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of Baghdad. (2) Because those tablets must be dated in the 15th and 14th centuries <span>BC<\/span>, the parallel patriarchal age must have fallen within the same general time period.<\/p>\n<p>Those who hold the late-date view are aware that their date for Abraham cannot be equated with the set of numbers on which the early-date view depends. They point to other data, also from the OT. Joseph, who was already a highly placed Egyptian official when Jacob moved to Egypt, lived to be 110 years old (Gn 50:26). Moses was a great-grandson of Levi, Joseph’s older brother. Since Joseph lived to see his own greatgrandchildren born (who would probably be younger than Moses since their great-grandfather was younger than his), the late-date view concludes that Joseph could have been alive when Moses was born. The four-generation genealogy of Moses (Levi-Kohath-Amram-Moses, in Ex 6:16-20; Nm 3:17-19; 26:58-59; 1 Chr 6:1-3) was evidently thought to be complete according to Genesis 15:16, which predicted that Abraham’s descendants would be freed from Egyptian bondage “in the fourth generation.”<\/p>\n<p>However, a date of around 1400 <span>BC<\/span> for Abraham cannot be aligned with certain other biblical data, including the long Egyptian sojourn demanded by Genesis 15:13 and Exodus 12:40 and a 40-year (or “one-generation”) wilderness existence. Some normally moderate scholars are forced to reduce the wilderness time to two years in order to maintain their late date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>In short, the late-date theory is consistent with part of the biblical evidence (the genealogies of Moses), but the early-date theory conforms to another part (the actual year figures listed in scattered verses from Genesis and Exodus). The late-date theory holds that the genealogies represent more reliable information in Semitic societies generally, whereas the early-date theory computes years given in the biblical account literally throughout its scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Because of problems attached to both positions, a large group of scholars take a middle ground in dating the patriarchal age. Archaeologically, they say, Abraham and his life and times fit perfectly within the early second millennium, but imperfectly within any later period. By placing Abraham roughly between 1800 and 1600 <span>BC<\/span>, they provide enough latitude for a merging of all the available evidence, biblical and nonbiblical, into a workable chronological scheme. Archaeology provides four major bits of evidence for an early second-millennium patriarchal era.<\/p>\n<p>1. Though the Nuzi tablets furnish a clear parallel to patriarchal social life, other tablets from other towns and an earlier era reflect many of the same customs common to Nuzi and Genesis. Since the Nuzians were Hurrians who came to northeastern Mesopotamia from elsewhere (perhaps Armenia), their social customs originated no doubt much earlier than the time of their tablets now in our possession. Accordingly, the 15th-century <span>BC<\/span> date of the Nuzi tablets does not preclude an earlier date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<li>2. The names of several of Abraham’s ancestors listed in Genesis 11 can now be identified with towns in the northern area of Mesopotamia around Haran, the city from which Abraham migrated to Canaan (Gn 11:31–12:3). Significantly, Haran flourished in the 19th and 18th centuries <span>BC<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>3. Shortly after 2000 <span>BC<\/span> Semitic nomads from the desert invaded the civilized communities of the Fertile Crescent. Those invaders, called Amorites in the OT, established themselves in several cities in northern Syria and Mesopotamia. One of the Amorite cities was Babylon, ruled by Hammurabi sometime around the beginning of the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. Although the King Amraphel of Genesis 14:1 is not linguistically identifiable with the Babylonian king Hammurabi, as earlier scholars believed, the picture of the times following the Amorite invasion still accords well with the Genesis narratives generally.<\/li>\n<li>4. Mari, another Amorite town, is now well known because of more than 20,000 tablets recovered from its royal palace and archives. Geographically, Mari is located in the general area of Haran. Chronologically, the tablets recovered come from the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. One 18th-century king of Mari, Zimri Lim, carried on extensive correspondence with Hammurabi of Babylon. The tablets from Mari also furnish valuable information about tribal and ethnic groups and their movements in the general region. Of basic importance for dating the Genesis materials are certain documents from Mari that include personal names very similar to Abraham (Abi-ram), Jacob, Laban, and several other West Semitic names.<\/li>\n<p>Archaeological evidence neither proves nor disproves the actual existence of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. That is admitted on all sides. What archaeology has done is to provide a framework of probabilities within which the biblical patriarchal narratives appear more and more to be at home.<\/p>\n<h5>Date of the Exodus<\/h5>\n<p>The problem of dating the patriarchal age is closely related to the problem of assigning a date to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Since the evidence does not permit a precise date for Abraham, a precise date for the entry of Joseph or Jacob into Egypt is likewise unobtainable. Further, the biblical evidence does not yield an exact figure for the length of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>For many years biblical scholars viewed 1 Kings 6:1 as a foundation upon which to build an unshakable date for the exodus. Because Solomon’s fourth year could be unquestionably fixed to within at least a 10-year span (967–958 <span>BC<\/span>), the exodus too could be dated with the same precision simply by adding 480 years. But other biblical data raise serious questions about that simple procedure. When the Bible deals with all the events between the time of the exodus and the founding of Solomon’s temple, that is, from Numbers to 1 Kings 5:18, the precise numbers given total not 480 but closer to 600 years.<\/p>\n<p>Because the evidence is insufficient to allow a precise date for the exodus, scholarly opinion remains divided between two possibilities. A 15th-century exodus is supported by several pieces of evidence. The chronology in 1 Kings 6:1 appears to be independently corroborated by a passage in Judges 11:26. It claims that Israel had occupied the area around Heshbon for 300 years preceding Jephthah’s own day. If Jephthah is dated at roughly 1100 <span>BC<\/span>, one is obviously led back to an exodus in the middle of the 15th century. Also, three successive generations of pharaohs who ruled in the 16th and 15th centuries produced no male offspring, making it more likely that Moses would have become the foster son of a royal princess during that time; all of the 19th-dynasty kings (1306–1200 <span>BC<\/span>) had legitimate male heirs.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, a 15th-century date makes possible a connection between the Habiru invasion of Canaan (1400–1350 <span>BC<\/span>)—described in the Amarna letters found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt—and the invasion of Canaan by the Hebrews described in the OT book of Joshua. Related to that is a reference to “Israel” in the Merneptah Stele, a stone pillar inscribed with the deeds of the Egyptian king, Merneptah, of about 1220 <span>BC<\/span>. It implies that the people referred to, met by Merneptah in the course of a Canaanite military campaign, had been in existence for some time. Finally, an excavator of Jericho, John Garstang, placed the destruction of that city at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Other evidence, however, strongly implies not a 15th- but a 13th-century date for the exodus. Many scholars assign a date between 1290 and 1275 <span>BC<\/span> on the basis of that evidence. First, the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 discussed above may be interpreted as schematically representing 12 generations, as indicated by 1 Chronicles 6:3-8. Thus if 12 generations averaged 25 years instead of 40 years, the reduction of 480 schematized years to 300 actual years would point to an exodus date of around 1266 <span>BC<\/span>. Second, archaeological evidence exists that dates destruction at the assumed sites of several cities conquered by Joshua (Lachish, Debir, Bethel, and Hazor) to the late 13th century. Third, there is no biblical mention of Egyptian military campaigns (such as Merneptah’s 1220 <span>BC<\/span> incursion); Israelites living in Canaan before the time of the militarily active pharaohs Seti I (1319–1301 <span>BC<\/span>) and Ramses II (1301–1234 <span>BC<\/span>) would certainly have been affected by such activity. Fourth, Exodus 1:11 mentions the city of Rameses, the capital built by Ramses II, according to his own inscriptions. A fifth line of argument comes from archaeological conclusions that Transjordan and the Negev Desert were not occupied by sedentary people between 1900 and 1300 <span>BC<\/span>, whereas the Bible states clearly that the Israelites encountered stiff opposition from groups in that same region. Thus, it is argued, the Israelites must have entered that region after 1300 <span>BC<\/span>. Sixth, connecting the Habiru with the Israelites of the Conquest lacks weight because many texts besides the Amarna tablets attest to the existence of Habiru groups virtually all over the ancient Near East. “Habiru” seems to be a much broader term, possibly meaning “trespasser,” and is probably unrelated etymologically or semantically to “Hebrew.” Seventh, and finally, Garstang’s work at Jericho has now been revised by archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who showed that the fallen walls that Garstang had dated about 1400 <span>BC<\/span> in reality were destroyed in 1800 <span>BC<\/span> or earlier.<\/p>\n<p>So far, it has been impossible to decide with precision between the two centuries proposed for the exodus. The majority opinion among OT scholars generally, including a growing number of moderate or conservative scholars, is in favor of the 13th-century option. On the other hand, many other conservative scholars continue to favor the 15th-century date. Dogmatism is unwarranted since problems remain unresolved with either option.<\/p>\n<p>In accordance with the majority opinion, however, a date of about 1290 <span>BC<\/span> for the exodus will be used in dealing with subsequent problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"ConquestandConsolidation\">Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>The chronological task for the period of conquest and consolidation is to fit all the events narrated by the OT, chiefly in Joshua and Judges, between the exodus (c. 1290 <span>BC<\/span>) and the times of David (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>) and Solomon (d. 930 <span>BC<\/span>). In other words, one must fit roughly 550 years of biblical events between Moses and David into a 290-year span.<\/p>\n<p>Although assigning an early date for the exodus (c. 1447 <span>BC<\/span>) would make the task somewhat easier, the mere addition of about 157 years does not by itself solve all the problems. Neither date allows enough time for all the OT events from Joshua to David to take place singly and consecutively. Accordingly, advocates of both dates assume that some of the judges ruled simultaneously rather than consecutively. The difference is one of degree only.<\/p>\n<p>The book of Joshua furnishes most of the OT evidence regarding the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. Unfortunately, the book of Joshua has no chronological notes that specify the amount of time elapsing during Joshua’s career. Further, there are no biblical references to major contemporary events in other parts of the ancient world, the dates of which could be used to fix the chronology. Rather, in what is obviously a telescoped account, the book of Joshua records the fall of Jericho and Ai, followed closely by a southern and then a northern campaign. After those victories, covering much of the total territory of Canaan, various parcels of land were distributed to the tribal groups of Israel; the tribes were expected to complete the task of destroying whatever Canaanite inhabitants remained in their particular region. One seeks in vain, however, for any statements indicating how long those events took.<\/p>\n<p>In the book of Judges a slightly different circumstance prevails. There the OT furnishes a rather complete list of figures to indicate the duration of periods of foreign oppression, judgeships, and ensuing peace. The total number of years described for that period is 410, but that total does not include any time for the many “minor” judges. It seems obvious, therefore, that most if not all of the judges were simply local chieftains whose activity was simultaneous with that of other judges, at least for part of their reign. Unfortunately, the book of Judges provides no cross-reference system to indicate which judges were contemporaries of which others. Perhaps the best one can do is to assume general guidelines for the chronology of that period between Moses and David.<\/p>\n<p>Two significant facts should be kept in mind. First, archaeological information seems to demand a Conquest date beginning about 1250 <span>BC<\/span> rather than 200 years earlier. Assuming concurrent careers for the judges allows one to compress the literal OT figures into the general scheme demanded by other evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Second, the ancient scribes evidently related the chronology of the period to a 40-year or generation-based schema, a practice that lasted until the time of the divided kingdom, when a regular dynastic chronology was introduced. In the face of so many careers being assigned exactly 40 years, the fact remains that the literal totals of such numbers cannot be harmonized with either the biblical or the archaeological evidence for the period. Accordingly, most scholars doubt that the number 40 was ever intended to be an exact mathematical calculation. That view permits enough leeway for cautious fitting of biblical and other evidence into a general timetable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheMonarchy\">The Monarchy<\/p>\n<h5>Types of Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>For the period of the Israelite monarchy, chronological evidence is abundant.<\/p>\n<p>The OT itself strives to provide all the information necessary for the chronology of the period, including (1) a complete list of all the kings in Israel and in Judah both before and after the division of the kingdom; (2) the age of each king (except Saul) at his accession; (3) synchronisms of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah showing in what year of his contemporary in the other kingdom each king came to the throne; and (4) precise calculations of the length of each king’s reign. In addition some important events are dated by reference to another event; others are coordinated with concurrent events in secular history.<\/p>\n<p>Outside the OT an abundance of material provides evidence for a chronology of the period. By far the most important single source is a collection of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists. In Assyria a record of each king’s reign was kept on a particular kind of annal. Each year of reign was named after an individual of high rank in the court; the first year was named after the king himself, the second after the next highest-ranking official (though that name appears to have been selected by lot originally), and so on, down until the death of the king. The word <em>limmu<\/em> was used to introduce the name of the official after whom the current year was to be named, hence the designation <em>“limmu<\/em> lists.”<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists are tied precisely to the solar year, making the documents highly reliable. Further, in addition to many events in Assyrian history, notable natural phenomena were dated on the basis of the <em>limmu<\/em> in which they occurred. For example, a solar eclipse dated by the Assyrian scribes in the <em>limmu<\/em> year of Bur-Sagale has been computed astronomically as June 15, 763 <span>BC<\/span>. Beginning with the year 763, then, and working both backward and forward, a complete list of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> officials has been obtained for the period between 891 and 648 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>With the accuracy of the Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists corroborated by a number of sources, they can be used with confidence in reconstructing the chronology of the corresponding period of biblical history. That is especially true where a biblical writer related an Israelite or a Judahite event to a particular year in the reign of an Assyrian king whose <em>limmu<\/em> list indicates the precise years of his reign.<\/p>\n<p>There are also records from Chaldean (Babylonian) king lists and from later Greek historians. Ptolemy, in the second century <span>AD<\/span>, for example, gave dates for Babylonian kings from 747 <span>BC<\/span> and continued with dates for Persian, Greek, and Roman rulers down to <span>AD<\/span> 161. Finally, useful information is found in inscriptions from monuments, stelae, and other artifacts from Assyria and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<h5>Monarchical Chronology<\/h5>\n<p>The <em>limmu<\/em> list of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III provides a basis for the first comparison of dates among Assyria, Israel, and Judah. In the <em>limmu<\/em> of Daian-Assur, Shalmaneser’s sixth year on the throne, Ahab of Israel was listed as one of the kings who fought against the Assyrians in the battle of Qarqar. Thus the date for that battle may be placed confidently in 853 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian records also indicate that Shalmaneser III came into contact with an Israelite king 12 years later, in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. That king was Jehu. Thus two fixed points are available for correlating the biblical information. Following the death of Ahab, which is not dated exactly by reference to the Assyrian records, two of his sons came to power. The first, Ahaziah, reigned two years (1 Kgs 22:51); the second, Joram (also called Jehoram), reigned a total of 12 years (2 Kgs 3:1). Recognizing a nonaccession-year reckoning by the Israelites in that era, the apparent total of 14 years may be reduced to an actual total of 12. Thus it seems evident that Ahab not only fought Shalmaneser III in 853 <span>BC<\/span> but also died in that year. Ahab was then followed by his two sons for a total of 12 years before the accession of Jehu in time to account for his contact with Shalmaneser II in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. Further, because Jehu murdered both the king of Israel (Jehoram) and the king of Judah (Ahaziah) at the same time (2 Kgs 9:24-27), a fixed synchronism is provided between the two kingdoms for the year 841 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>The first nine kings of Israel ruled an apparent total of 98 years or an actual total (taking into account Israel’s nonaccession-year policy) of 90 years. Zimri, who ruled only seven days (1 Kgs 16:15-18), counts as one of the nine but does not insert an extra year in either the actual or apparent totals. The accession of Jeroboam I thus occurred in 930 <span>BC<\/span> (adding 90 years to 841 <span>BC<\/span>), and Rehoboam of Judah began to rule in that same year as well. Allowing Solomon the 40-year reign indicated in 1 Kings 11:42 points to the year 970 <span>BC<\/span> for his accession. The death of David would also be pinpointed in that period, although allowance must be made for the possibility of a short co-regency of David and Solomon before David’s death. The reign of Saul then falls approximately in the late 11th century <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In Judah the period between the death of Solomon in 930 <span>BC<\/span> and the murder of Ahaziah by Jehu in 841 <span>BC<\/span> was occupied by the kingships of six men whose time on the throne totals 95 biblical years. Computation of that era in Judah is not as simple as for the Israelite kings for several reasons. Problems include a change from accession- to nonaccession-year reckoning sometime around 850 <span>BC<\/span>, at least two co-regencies (Jehoshaphat with Asa and then Jehoram with Jehoshaphat), and the calendar differences between the two kingdoms. It is clear that the 95 apparent years must be reduced, on the basis of the differences in computation and calendar, to 90 actual years in order to bring the Judahite figures into line with the established Assyrian and Israelite synchronisms.<\/p>\n<p>After the year 841, the next biblical event to be certified by nonbiblical materials is the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>. That date is furnished by the annals of Sargon II of Assyria (722–705 <span>BC<\/span>), successor to Shalmaneser V (727–722 <span>BC<\/span>). Although that date comes just 120 years after the fixed point of 841 <span>BC<\/span> in Israelite history, the chronological materials for that period are quite difficult to interpret accurately. In the past, scholars resorted to assumptions of extensive co-regencies, to presumed confusion on the part of certain scribes over methods to be followed in computations, or to other theories in attempting to understand the period. In spite of the many difficulties, however, all the biblical and Assyrian dates for the period of the divided monarchy have been harmonized—with the exception of four figures related to the closing years of the Israelite kingdom, all connected in some way with the problematic reign of Hoshea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"JudahaftertheFallofIsrael\">Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>Following the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>, OT chronology is concerned only with the southern kingdom of Judah until its destruction some 135 years later. Two events in the biblical record important for establishing a chronology for that period are the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib of Assyria in the late eighth century and the eventual fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in the early sixth century.<\/p>\n<h5>Sennacherib’s Invasion of Judah<\/h5>\n<p>The Assyrian invasion (704–681 <span>BC<\/span>) is recorded in 2 Kings 18:13-16, where verse 13 dates the event to the 14th year of King Hezekiah. Sennacherib’s own inscriptions include a lengthier version of the affair. From them the date of 701 <span>BC<\/span> is established, placing the accession of Hezekiah in 715 <span>BC<\/span>. That much is simple, but problems still arise. For example, 2 Kings 19:9 reports that Sennacherib was in contact with an Ethiopian king, Tirhakah (c. 690–664 <span>BC<\/span>), during the course of his campaign, which included a siege of Jerusalem. Obviously, contact with a ruler who came to power in 690 <span>BC<\/span> at the earliest could not refer to events in 701 <span>BC<\/span>. It is possible, however, that Sennacherib actually made two invasions of Judah, the first in 701 and the second sometime later. The date of that supposed second invasion is not assured, although 2 Kings 19:35-37 may imply that Sennacherib was murdered only shortly after his withdrawal from Jerusalem. Since Sennacherib was succeeded by his son Esarhaddon in the year 681, the presumed second invasion of Judah would have occurred somewhere in the last half of the same decade.<\/p>\n<p>A number of scholars oppose the assumption of a second invasion of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. They suggest the possibility that Tirhakah, though king only from 690 <span>BC<\/span>, may have led troops against Sennacherib as early as 701, before acceding to the throne. The reference to King Tirhakah in 2 Kings 19:9 would then be understood as use of his eventual title in an effort to identify him to a later generation of readers.<\/p>\n<p>However the question of the number of invasions is decided, it is certain that Sennacherib invaded Judah in 701 <span>BC<\/span>, the 14th regnal year of Hezekiah. Such a synchronism establishes Hezekiah’s accession year as 715 <span>BC<\/span>, but that date raises another problem. The fall of Samaria, now established at 722, is dated by 2 Kings 18:10 in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign. The most likely solution is that Hezekiah began a co-regency with his father, Ahaz, six years before Samaria fell. The possibility for confusion arises from the fact that one verse (2 Kgs 18:13; repeated in Is 36:1) synchronizes Sennacherib’s 701 <span>BC<\/span> invasion with the 14th year of Hezekiah’s independent reign; another verse (2 Kgs 18:10) correlates the fall of Samaria with the beginning of Hezekiah’s co-regency. Thus from about 728 to 715 <span>BC<\/span> Hezekiah was co-regent with Ahaz. From 715 to 697 he reigned alone. From 696 to 686 his son Manasseh was co-ruler with him.<\/p>\n<p>According to the chronological information given by a number of verses in 2 Kings, a total of 128 years and six months elapsed between the time of Hezekiah’s accession in 715 and the capture of King Jehoiachin in 597, a date to be discussed below. Thus another problem is to explain the more than 10-year excess apparently demanded by the biblical totals. The best solution appears to lie in the assumption that Manasseh first came to power in 697 as co-regent with his father, Hezekiah. Manasseh died in 642, following what 2 Kings 21:1 states was a 55-year reign. Hezekiah, who came to the throne in 715, is said to have reigned 29 years (2 Kgs 18:2), which would mean that he was king until 686, roughly 11 years after the time when Manasseh must have come to the throne in order to have completed a 55-year reign by 642.<\/p>\n<h5>Fall of Jerusalem<\/h5>\n<p>Contemporary Babylonian records are available to shed valuable light on the last few years of Judah’s existence. For the years 626–623, 618–595, and 556 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonian Chronicle, a formal record of Babylonian affairs of state, has been recovered. From information contained in that chronicle and other cuneiform documents of the period, three dates in Judah’s history may be fixed firmly. The first is the death of Josiah in 609; the second is the battle of Carchemish in 605; the third is the end of the reign of Jehoiachin, which is dated by the Babylonian Chronicle to the second month of Adar in the ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, or March 16, 597.<\/p>\n<p>After Jehoiachin’s capture, Zedekiah became puppet king of Judah for 11 years (2 Kgs 24:18). On the tenth day of the tenth month during Zedekiah’s ninth regnal year (2 Kgs 25:1), the final siege of Jerusalem was begun by the Babylonian army. That day was January 15, 588. On the ninth day of the fourth month during the 11th regnal year of Zedekiah, after a siege of almost 18 months, the wall of Jerusalem was broken through (2 Kgs 25:3-4). The temple was burned on day seven of the following (fifth) month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Beyond587bc\">Beyond 586 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Following the tragedy of 586 <span>BC<\/span>, several further developments are given chronological notice in the OT. Jeremiah 52:30 records a third deportation of Jews to Babylonia in the 23d year of King Nebuchadnezzar (582 or 581 <span>BC<\/span>). Both 2 Kings 25:27 and Jeremiah 52:31 give evidence of the release of King Jehoiachin from prison; the Babylonian Chronicle dates that event at 27 Adar, or March 21, 561 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In 539 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonians themselves were destined to learn the meaning of defeat. In that year a Persian ruler, Cyrus the Great, launched a successful campaign against Babylon and its king, Nabonidus. Inheriting control over the exiled Jews and many other groups of people conquered earlier by Babylonia, Cyrus moved quickly to initiate a policy of tolerance toward his new subjects. In the first year of his rule Cyrus issued an edict making it possible for Jews to return to their former land (Ezr 1:1). On the first day of the following year, 1 Tishri (Ezr 3:6), an altar was set up in Jerusalem. In Iyyar of the following year (April\/May 536) work was begun on the temple itself (Ezr 3:8).<\/p>\n<p>After a period of frustrating work stoppages of varying lengths, the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah spurred on the Jews to complete the temple. Work resumed in 520 (Ezr 4:24; Hg 1:1, 15) and was finally completed on 3 Adar, or March 12, 515 (Ezr 6:15). The final stages of OT chronology pertain to the careers of Ezra and Nehemiah. The traditional view of their era places Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I (458 <span>BC<\/span>) and Nehemiah in the 20th (445 <span>BC<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> “Date” under each OT book; Conquest and Allotment of the Land; Diaspora of the Jews; Exodus, The; Israel, History of; Patriarchs, Period of the; Postexilic Period; Wilderness Wanderings.<\/p>","summary_ro":"CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament) Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper his...","summary_en":"CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament) Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper his...","source":"Articles\/C.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":10012,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Tablets*, Ebla","title_en":"Tablets*, Ebla","content_ro":"<h3>EBLA TABLETS*<\/h3>\n<p>Tablets, dating c. 2220–2240 <span>BC<\/span>, discovered in the ancient Syrian city-state of Ebla, now identified with the site of Tell Mardikh.<\/p>\n<p>Ebla was a commercial center, manufacturing items of textiles, wood, ceramics, gold, silver, and other metals. A large number of the clay tablets unearthed are economic documents, recording transactions with many other cities, stretching from Asia Minor to Egypt and from Cyprus to Iran (Persia). Thousands of cities are named in these documents. Included are many familiar biblical names, such as Hazor, Megiddo, Dor, Joppa, Gaza, and Uru-salim (Jerusalem, or possibly “city of Salem”). In one text we also see Sodom, Gomorrah, and Zoar. Zoar is described as “in the territory of Bela” (cf. Gn 14:2). According to the biblical account, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed in the days of Abraham (Gn 19:24-29); hence, the details recorded in Genesis 14 and 19 could not have been reconstructed at a later date unless there was a living tradition recording the events.<\/p>\n<p>Many personal names appear in the tablets from Tell Mardikh that have biblical equivalents, e.g., Abram <em>(ab-ra-mu),<\/em> Israel <em>(ish-ra-ilu),<\/em> Saul <em>(sha-u-lu),<\/em> and David <em>(da-u-du).<\/em> To some, this fact raises questions, while others find it to be a confirmation of the biblical record. For example, it might be asked how the name “Israel” could be found four or more centuries before God gave the name to Jacob. The Bible does not suggest that the name was new. Names in those days were often composed of the name of a deity plus a verbal form (e.g., Isaiah = “Yah is salvation”). It is entirely conceivable that parents named their children <em>ish-ra-ilu,<\/em> “El [God] has prevailed,” before the days of Jacob. What was new in the biblical experience was the personal encounter with God and the blessing that it brought on Jacob.<\/p>\n<p>A number of the names from Ebla seem to appear in two forms, one compounded with <em>-ilu<\/em> (El), the other with <em>-ya<\/em> (Yah). Thus the names <em>mi-ka-ya<\/em> (Micaiah, Micah) and <em>mi-ka-il<\/em> (Michael) are reported by Pettinato, along with other theophoric (God-bearing) names. The appearance of the ending <em>-ya,<\/em> if it has been properly interpreted as a divine name (Yah, the Lord), raises an important question. According to Exodus 6:3, God told Moses that he appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, “but by my name Yahweh I did not make myself known to them.” This seems to say that the name Yahweh was not known prior to the revelation to Moses at Sinai. On the other hand, the name Yahweh is found many times in Genesis, not only in narrative portions (where a later author or editor might have inserted a name, such as was done with certain place-names), but also in oaths taken in the name of Yahweh and in quotations that imply that the name of Yahweh was actually in use. This problem has long been recognized, and biblical scholars have divided into two groups: those who held that the name was <em>not<\/em> known prior to the time of Moses, and those who held that the name <em>was<\/em> known but that it took on a new meaning in the light of the Sinai-exodus event. If the interpretation of the Eblean materials proves to be correct—namely, that <em>-ya<\/em> is a divine-name element in personal names—then we shall have to conclude that the name Yah(weh) was known in patriarchal times but that its true significance, that Yahweh is the ever-living and life-giving God, only began to be fully revealed in his deliverance of his people from Egyptian bondage.<\/p>\n<p>The Eblean materials have certainly opened a new door to a rich storehouse of knowledge. It will be many years before all the implications of this discovery are fully realized. But certain facts are already clear, and among these is this very important truth: the patriarchal stories in Genesis 11–35 can no longer be ascribed to authors of the eighth or seventh centuries <span>BC<\/span>. To assume that such an author could have included hundreds of names of places and persons, items of trade, and the many details that are found in these chapters, and then to suggest that it is mere coincidence that has brought to light the same names, places, trade relationships, and countless other details through modern archaeological discoveries, is simply unreasonable. Ebla has delivered the coup de grâce to such theories.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Inscriptions.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>EBLA TABLETS*<\/h3>\n<p>Tablets, dating c. 2220–2240 <span>BC<\/span>, discovered in the ancient Syrian city-state of Ebla, now identified with the site of Tell Mardikh.<\/p>\n<p>Ebla was a commercial center, manufacturing items of textiles, wood, ceramics, gold, silver, and other metals. A large number of the clay tablets unearthed are economic documents, recording transactions with many other cities, stretching from Asia Minor to Egypt and from Cyprus to Iran (Persia). Thousands of cities are named in these documents. Included are many familiar biblical names, such as Hazor, Megiddo, Dor, Joppa, Gaza, and Uru-salim (Jerusalem, or possibly “city of Salem”). In one text we also see Sodom, Gomorrah, and Zoar. Zoar is described as “in the territory of Bela” (cf. Gn 14:2). According to the biblical account, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed in the days of Abraham (Gn 19:24-29); hence, the details recorded in Genesis 14 and 19 could not have been reconstructed at a later date unless there was a living tradition recording the events.<\/p>\n<p>Many personal names appear in the tablets from Tell Mardikh that have biblical equivalents, e.g., Abram <em>(ab-ra-mu),<\/em> Israel <em>(ish-ra-ilu),<\/em> Saul <em>(sha-u-lu),<\/em> and David <em>(da-u-du).<\/em> To some, this fact raises questions, while others find it to be a confirmation of the biblical record. For example, it might be asked how the name “Israel” could be found four or more centuries before God gave the name to Jacob. The Bible does not suggest that the name was new. Names in those days were often composed of the name of a deity plus a verbal form (e.g., Isaiah = “Yah is salvation”). It is entirely conceivable that parents named their children <em>ish-ra-ilu,<\/em> “El [God] has prevailed,” before the days of Jacob. What was new in the biblical experience was the personal encounter with God and the blessing that it brought on Jacob.<\/p>\n<p>A number of the names from Ebla seem to appear in two forms, one compounded with <em>-ilu<\/em> (El), the other with <em>-ya<\/em> (Yah). Thus the names <em>mi-ka-ya<\/em> (Micaiah, Micah) and <em>mi-ka-il<\/em> (Michael) are reported by Pettinato, along with other theophoric (God-bearing) names. The appearance of the ending <em>-ya,<\/em> if it has been properly interpreted as a divine name (Yah, the Lord), raises an important question. According to Exodus 6:3, God told Moses that he appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, “but by my name Yahweh I did not make myself known to them.” This seems to say that the name Yahweh was not known prior to the revelation to Moses at Sinai. On the other hand, the name Yahweh is found many times in Genesis, not only in narrative portions (where a later author or editor might have inserted a name, such as was done with certain place-names), but also in oaths taken in the name of Yahweh and in quotations that imply that the name of Yahweh was actually in use. This problem has long been recognized, and biblical scholars have divided into two groups: those who held that the name was <em>not<\/em> known prior to the time of Moses, and those who held that the name <em>was<\/em> known but that it took on a new meaning in the light of the Sinai-exodus event. If the interpretation of the Eblean materials proves to be correct—namely, that <em>-ya<\/em> is a divine-name element in personal names—then we shall have to conclude that the name Yah(weh) was known in patriarchal times but that its true significance, that Yahweh is the ever-living and life-giving God, only began to be fully revealed in his deliverance of his people from Egyptian bondage.<\/p>\n<p>The Eblean materials have certainly opened a new door to a rich storehouse of knowledge. It will be many years before all the implications of this discovery are fully realized. But certain facts are already clear, and among these is this very important truth: the patriarchal stories in Genesis 11–35 can no longer be ascribed to authors of the eighth or seventh centuries <span>BC<\/span>. To assume that such an author could have included hundreds of names of places and persons, items of trade, and the many details that are found in these chapters, and then to suggest that it is mere coincidence that has brought to light the same names, places, trade relationships, and countless other details through modern archaeological discoveries, is simply unreasonable. Ebla has delivered the coup de grâce to such theories.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Inscriptions.<\/p>","summary_ro":"EBLA TABLETS* Tablets, dating c. 2220–2240 BC, discovered in the ancient Syrian city-state of Ebla, now identified with the site of Tell Mardikh. Ebla was a commercial center, manufacturing items of textiles, wood, ceramics, gold, silver, and other metals. A large number of the clay tablets unearthed are economic documents, recording transactions with many other cities, stretching from Asia Minor to Egypt and from Cyprus to Iran (Persia). Thousands of cities are named in these documents. Incl...","summary_en":"EBLA TABLETS* Tablets, dating c. 2220–2240 BC, discovered in the ancient Syrian city-state of Ebla, now identified with the site of Tell Mardikh. Ebla was a commercial center, manufacturing items of textiles, wood, ceramics, gold, silver, and other metals. A large number of the clay tablets unearthed are economic documents, recording transactions with many other cities, stretching from Asia Minor to Egypt and from Cyprus to Iran (Persia). Thousands of cities are named in these documents. Incl...","source":"Articles\/E.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":13553,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Book of Genesis","title_en":"Book of Genesis","content_ro":"<h3>GENESIS, Book of<\/h3>\n<p>First book of the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Name<\/p>\n<p>• Author<\/p>\n<p>• Date<\/p>\n<p>• Purpose<\/p>\n<p>• Structure<\/p>\n<p>• Content<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Name\">Name<\/p>\n<p>The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">bere’shith<\/span><em>,<\/em> “in the beginning.”<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Author\">Author<\/p>\n<p>The authorship of Genesis is closely related to the authorship of the entire Pentateuch (lit. “five-volumed,” the first five books of the Bible, which in Hebrew are called the Torah). It is clear that the Bible regards the human author of these books as Moses. On several occasions the Lord commanded Moses to write down various things: “in a book” (Ex 17:14) “write these words” (34:27). The Pentateuch reports that “Moses wrote all the words of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (24:4); he wrote the itinerary of the exodus wanderings (Nm 33:2); “Moses wrote this law” (Dt 31:9). (Here it is not certain that all five books are meant, but it must refer to at least the greater part of Deuteronomy.) In Exodus 24:7 it is said that Moses read the Book of the Covenant, which he must have just completed.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the OT bears witness to the writing of the Pentateuch by Moses. David referred to “the law of Moses” (1 Kgs 2:3). In the time of Josiah, there was found in the temple the “Book of the Law of the <span>Lord<\/span> . . . given through Moses” (2 Chr 34:14, <span>nlt<\/span>). Day by day Ezra read from “the Book of the Law of God” (Neh 8:18, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>In the NT, Jesus refers to “the book of Moses” (Mk 12:26; Lk 20:37) and otherwise mentions the commands or statements of Moses (Mt 8:4; 19:8; Mk 7:10; cf. Lk 16:31; 24:44). The Jews also quoted from the Torah as coming from Moses, and Jesus did not contradict them.<\/p>\n<p>Of Genesis in particular, it may be said that Moses had the opportunity and ability to write the book. He could have written it during his years in Egypt or while exiled with the Kenites. As the recognized leader of the Israelites, he would have had access to, or perhaps even custody of, the records that Jacob brought from Canaan. He was “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22) and probably could have written in several languages and in several scripts (hieroglyphic, cuneiform, Old Hebrew). Although Moses was admirably fitted for the task of writing, one must remember that he was not putting together a human composition but was writing under the inspiration of God (2 Pt 1:21). We may with confidence conclude that Moses was the human author of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>The liberal view of the authorship of Genesis is that the book is an editorial composite—a view first put forward by a French physician, Jean Astruc, who suggested that the different names for God indicated different documents or sources for the writing of the book. The German higher critics expanded the view of the use of documents in the writing of Genesis and developed it into the Graf-Wellhausen-Kuenen, or Documentary, Hypothesis, which may also be called the JEDP theory of the authorship of the book. This view holds that there were four basic documents: (1) J, which uses the name YHWH (Jehovah or Yahweh) for God, dates from about the ninth century <span>BC<\/span> and comes from Judah; (2) E uses the name Elohim, dates from the eighth century, and comes from the northern kingdom; (3) D is Deuteronomy and is supposed to come from the time of Josiah, about 621 <span>BC<\/span>; and (4) P is the priestly element, which deals with matters of the priesthood and ritual, dating to the fifth century <span>BC<\/span> or later. Some may date portions of Genesis as late as the Hellenistic period. According to this theory, the various documents were blended together by editors, so that there was a JE, JED, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>The science of archaeology discredited many of the extreme postulations of these critics, and the work of W. F. Albright and his followers did much to restore confidence in the historicity of Genesis. Within the last several decades, the patriarchal narratives and the account of Joseph have again come under strong attack, but these views are extreme, and much of the evidence adduced by Albright and earlier scholars like R. D. Wilson, W. H. Green, and others still has validity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Date\">Date<\/p>\n<p>The date of the book is also a matter of debate. Even among those who accept Mosaic authorship there is debate as to when Moses lived. Based on the biblical data, Moses should have lived in the 15th century <span>BC<\/span> (cf. Jgs 11:26; 1 Kgs 6:1), but many scholars incline toward a 13th-century date. As outlined above, the liberal view of the date of Genesis would be from the ninth to the fifth centuries <span>BC<\/span>, with the final editing coming around the fifth century or perhaps even later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Purpose\">Purpose<\/p>\n<p>Genesis sketches the origin of many things: the universe, the earth, plants, animals, and mankind. It gives the beginnings of human institutions, professions, and crafts. It describes the origin of sin and death, and illustrates the insidious working of Satan in human life. Above all, Genesis relates the beginning of the history of redemption with the announcement of a Redeemer who was to come (Gn 3:15). It names the early progenitors in the lineage of the Messiah and the beginning of the Hebrew people through whom the Bible and the Savior came. Genesis also gives a selective history of people and events as viewed from the perspective of the purposes of God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Structure\">Structure<\/p>\n<p>The book is divided into 11 parts of uneven length, each set off by the expression “these are the generations [descendants, history] of” (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1; 37:2). Only three times does the formula coincide with the first verse of a chapter. Usually called a heading or superscription, the expression serves as a kind of link between what precedes and what follows.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Content\">Content<\/p>\n<h5>The Creation (1:1–2:25)<\/h5>\n<p>These two chapters have been a scientific-theological battleground for many years, as researchers and students have tried to probe the origins of the universe and of life. Much of the evidence is not subject to scientific scrutiny, for science by definition requires that the evidence must be reproducible by experiment.<\/p>\n<p>The statement of Genesis 1:1 remains the grandest, most precise, and most accurate statement of origins: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He did this <em>ex nihilo<\/em> (“out of nothing”) by his word (Heb 11:3); he spoke the word of command and it was done (Gn 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20; Ps 33:6, 9).<\/p>\n<p>The date of the beginning is unknown. Uniformitarian cosmogonists (students of the origins of the universe who believe that natural events have always followed a uniform pattern; cf. 2 Pt 3:3-7) have speculated that the beginning of the universe was billions of years ago. But some creationists posit a world thousands of years old.<\/p>\n<p>To accommodate geological ages and the existence of extinct animals, some interpreters have proposed a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, with Genesis 1:2–2:3 representing a second or new creation. But this is conjecture. So is the idea that each day represents a geological age.<\/p>\n<p>As the text stands, there is a correlation between the first three days and the second three days. Day one saw the creation of light; day four, the light bearers. Day two was the time of the creation of the firmament (better, “expanse”), which divided the waters; day five, birds and swarming water creatures. On day three, God made the dry land and plants; on day six he created the land animals and man. He made man in the image of God (Gn 1:26), “a little less than God” (Ps 8:5), and gave him dominion over the earth. He made everything “according to their kinds,” so that each kind is distinct and unique. The perfection of his work is affirmed in that “God saw that it was good” (Gn 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21; “very good,” v 31). The seventh day was a time of cessation from the activity of creating and served as a type for mankind’s day of rest (2:1-3).<\/p>\n<p>Critical scholarship eyes 2:4-25 as a doublet in conflict with Genesis 1:1–2:3. To conservative scholars, the second chapter is the same account from a different perspective. Chapter 1 gives the Creation from the standpoint of sequence; chapter 2 shows it in view of the centrality of mankind in God’s creative work.<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 2 gives details of the creation of man of “dust from the ground” (v 7) and woman from a rib of the man (vv 21-22). She was created to be “a companion who will help him” (vv 18-20). They were created as mature adults, with the gift of speech and with great intelligence. Adam had imagination and vocabulary sufficient for naming all of the animal species (v 19).<\/p>\n<p>The location of the Garden of Eden is given (vv 10-14). Two of the four rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, can be identified with certainty. So man lived in this beautiful garden in the bliss of innocence.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Humankind from Eden to Babel (3:1–11:26)<\/h5>\n<h6>The Fall<\/h6>\n<p>The loss of Eden and the break in fellowship with God is the saddest chapter in human history. The serpent, the devil, approached Eve with the same philosophy he always uses: doubt of God’s word (Gn 3:1), denial of death (v 4), and the suggestion of equality with God (v 5). He gained access to her will by deceiving her with the promise that the fruit would make her as wise as God is (Gn 3:5; cf. 1 Jn 2:16). Eve was deceived, but when she offered the fruit to Adam, he took it willingly, knowing what he was doing (Gn 3:6; cf. 1 Tm 2:14). Later, he tried to blame God for giving him the wife who gave him the fruit (Gn 3:12). Fellowship with God was broken (v 8), yet God came seeking Adam and found him.<\/p>\n<p>With sin came judgment, and the Lord pronounced righteous judgment on the serpent, the woman, and the man. The earth was also “subjected to frustration” and now groans as it awaits renewal (Rom 8:21-22). God gave hope to man and a promise of a Redeemer (Gn 3:15), who was to bruise the serpent’s head. Adam and Eve were forced out of the Garden, and it was made inaccessible to them.<\/p>\n<p>The impatience of humankind is shown in Eve’s expectation that her son Cain was the promised Deliverer. Instead, he developed a wrong-hearted attitude toward God and became so jealous of his younger brother that he murdered him. Apprehended by God and confronted with his crime, Cain showed only self-pity and went east from Eden, where he built a city (4:1-16). Chapter 4 closes with another contrast: the brazen Lamech, who called for vengeance, while others began to call upon the name of the Lord.<\/p>\n<h6>The Generations of Adam<\/h6>\n<p>This genealogical table (5:1-32) brings humankind to the time of Noah and the Flood. The longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs seems very striking to us, but one must remember that the earth had not yet been subjected to pollution and that the effects of sin on the human race were still nominal. The refrain “and he died” reminds us of man’s mortality. For Enoch, however, there was something better: “He enjoyed a close relationship with God throughout his life. Then, suddenly, he disappeared because God took him” (5:24, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<h6>The Flood<\/h6>\n<p>With increased population came an eruption of sin (6:1-5). As men multiplied, so did their corruption. The universal condemnation of verse 5 shows a world ripe for judgment. Noah, however, “found favor with the <span>Lord<\/span>,” for he was a righteous and blameless man who walked with God (6:8-9).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord planned to annihilate the human race, but he determined to save Noah and his family. Intending to flood the earth, God instructed Noah to build an ark. Noah was directed to take animals aboard the ark, two by two, male and female, for the preservation of each species. When all was in readiness, the Flood came: “the underground waters burst forth on the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky” (7:11, <span>nlt<\/span>). It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The highest mountains were covered, and life outside the ark perished. “But God remembered Noah” and sent a wind to evaporate the waters (8:1). Eventually the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (v 4). Noah made a sacrifice to the Lord, and the Lord determined that he would never again bring such destruction upon the earth.<\/p>\n<p>The Flood is another of God’s acts that has been much debated. Many have argued for a local flood, which affected only part of Mesopotamia. Archaeologists have pointed to various flood strata in the excavation of Mesopotamian city-mounds as evidence for the account of the flood and have cited the various flood stories from that area as the source of the Genesis record. The epic of Gilgamesh gives an interesting tale of this hero, who went on a mission to visit Utnapishtim, the cuneiform Noah, in quest of eternal life. The flood story told by Utnapishtim has many parallels to Genesis, but there are greater contrasts, which demonstrate that the Bible preserves the true account.<\/p>\n<p>Both the Genesis account and the references to it in the NT (cf. 2 Pt 3:6) favor the view that the deluge was not a minor episode in the Tigris-Euphrates area but was an unprecedented worldwide catastrophe. Christian geologists affirm that the Flood had far-reaching effects on the earth itself. Flood stories are almost universally known, lending support to the conclusion that the Flood covered the whole earth. Following the Flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. God made a covenant with Noah, promising that he would never again send a worldwide flood. As a sign of this, he established the rainbow.<\/p>\n<p>Noah was the first tiller of the soil, and he planted a vineyard (9:20). Noah became drunk from wine he made and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham saw him and reported this to his brothers, who discreetly covered him. Ham and his son Canaan were cursed; Shem and Japheth were blessed.<\/p>\n<h6>The History of the Nations<\/h6>\n<p>“This is the history of the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah. Many children were born to them after the Flood” (10:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). This chapter lists the descendants of Noah’s three sons, in the order of Japheth (vv 2-5), Ham (vv 6-20), and Shem (vv 21-31). Many of the names of their descendants are preserved in tribes and nations of the world.<\/p>\n<h6>The Tower of Babel<\/h6>\n<p>The building of the Tower of Babel (“Gate of God”) illustrates man’s perversity and his tendency to want independence from God. The desire of man to displace God follows the fateful example of Lucifer and is a basic tenet of many cults. God thwarted the designs of the builders of Babel by confusing their languages, so that the project came to a halt (11:1-9). The site of this tower is not known with certainty. Some associate it with Birs Nimrud, not far from the ruins of the city of Babylon. Genesis 11:10-25 picks up the line of Shem and carries it down to Terah, the father of Abram.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Abraham (11:27–25:10) and Isaac (21:1–28:5)<\/h5>\n<p>Abram came from Ur of the Chaldees, a prosperous city. The city had an imposing ziggurat (temple-tower), with many temples, storehouses, and residences. Abram and Sarai, his half sister and wife, went with his father to Haran in Syria, which like Ur was a center of the worship of the moon god, Sin (or Annar).<\/p>\n<h6>Abram’s Call<\/h6>\n<p>The call of God came to Abram directing him to leave his relatives and move to a land that the Lord would show him (12:1; cf. Acts 7:2-3). Abram obeyed. At the age of 75, he, Sarai, and his nephew Lot left Haran and went to Shechem, where the Lord appeared to him and promised that land to his descendants.<\/p>\n<p>Famine drove Abram down to Egypt (Gn 12:10-20). Because of Sarai’s beauty, he feared that someone might kill him to get her, so he passed her off as his sister. She was taken into the pharaoh’s harem. When the Lord plagued Pharaoh because of this, Abram’s lie was discovered and Sarai was returned to him.<\/p>\n<h6>Abram and Lot<\/h6>\n<p>Abram and Lot returned to Canaan, where strife broke out between Abram’s herdsmen and those of Lot. Abram suggested that they should separate, and he gave Lot the choice of territory. Lot chose the well-watered Jordan Valley and the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah (ch 13).<\/p>\n<h6>The Invasion of the Four Kings from the East<\/h6>\n<p>The four kings who invaded along the King’s Highway in Transjordan cannot be identified with certainty. Those kings were successful in their attack against the five cities of the plain, and they moved off with much booty and many captives, including Lot. Abram took 318 retainers, born in his household, and set off after them. By surprise attack, Abram recovered both Lot and the loot. On his return he was met by Melchizedek, king of Jerusalem, to whom Abram paid tithes (ch 14).<\/p>\n<h6>The Covenant<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord promised Abram a son as heir, and in an impressive nighttime ceremony, God made a covenant with Abram and promised him the land from the River of Egypt (Wadi el Arish) to the Euphrates (ch 15). Because of her own barrenness, Sarai gave her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to Abram. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arab peoples. When trouble arose between the women, Sarai sent Hagar away, which was her right according to Near Eastern customs (as illustrated by the Nuzi tablets). God showed mercy to Hagar and promised that she would have a great posterity (ch 16).<\/p>\n<p>God repeated his promise to Abram concerning his descendants and changed the names of Abram (“exalted father”) and Sarai to Abraham (“father of many”) and Sarah (“princess”). A covenant sign of circumcision was given to Abraham (ch 17). This operation had already been practiced among the Egyptians for several centuries.<\/p>\n<h6>The Destruction of the Cities of the Plain<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord and two angels appeared to Abraham and announced the birth of the promised heir within a year, as well as proclaimed the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, concerning which Abraham bargained with God (18:22-33). Lot and his immediate family were rescued from Sodom, and the cities were destroyed by God with brimstone and fire (19:24-25). Lot’s two daughters, wishing to preserve their family line, got their father drunk and had sexual relations with him. Moab and Ammon, enemies of Israel in later times, were the result.<\/p>\n<p>In Genesis 20:1-18, Abraham again represented Sarah as his sister and got into trouble with Abimelech, king of Gerar.<\/p>\n<h6>Isaac<\/h6>\n<p>When Isaac was born (21:1-3), trouble again broke out between Sarah and Hagar. Hagar was driven out a second time, and once more was befriended by the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>A disagreement arose between Abraham and Abimelech concerning a well, but they made a covenant of peace at Beersheba (21:25-34).<\/p>\n<p>God tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice Isaac on Mt Moriah, which probably is the same site David later bought from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Sm 24:16-25), the place where the temple was to stand. As Abraham was about to use the knife, God called to him and showed him a ram caught in a thicket. Isaac was freed and the animal was sacrificed in his stead.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at Hebron, and Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite (ch 23), in a transaction typical of Near Eastern business dealings. To find a wife for Isaac, Abraham sent his servant Eliezer back to the area of Haran, and the Lord directed Eliezer to Rebekah (ch 24).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 25 records the marriage of Abraham to Keturah, who bore him a number of children. Abraham died at the age of 175 years and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Jacob and Esau (25:19–37:1)<\/h5>\n<p>Rebekah gave birth to twin sons, Esau and Jacob. When the boys were grown, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a meal of red pottage (25:27-34).<\/p>\n<p>When famine came to the land, Isaac went to Gerar, as his father had done (ch 20), and repeated his father’s lie by calling his wife his sister (26:1-11). Trouble arose with the Philistines over wells, but Isaac was a peaceable man and preferred digging new wells rather than fighting over old ones (vv 17-33).<\/p>\n<p>In Isaac’s old age, when his sight had failed, Rebekah connived with Jacob to trick Isaac into giving to Jacob the blessing of the firstborn, which was rightfully Esau’s. This oral blessing had legal validity and was irrevocable, according to the ancient Nuzi tablets. Fearing for Jacob’s life at the hands of Esau, Rebekah arranged to send Jacob to Haran to find a wife from among her own people. At Bethel, God appeared to Jacob in a dream of a ladder leading up to heaven; God renewed with Jacob the promise made to Abraham and Isaac (28:10-22).<\/p>\n<p>Jacob reached Haran, found his uncle Laban, and was employed by him (ch 29). His wages for seven years of labor were to be Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel, as his wife. But Laban substituted Leah, so that Jacob had to work another seven years for Rachel. The Lord prospered Jacob, but he continually had difficulties with Laban. The Lord directed Jacob back to Canaan (31:3), so he left secretly with his wives, children, and property. Laban pursued them because his household gods were missing (possession of these “gods” made the holder heir to the owner’s estate, according to Nuzi custom). Rachel had taken them but successfully concealed them from her father, and Laban went back to Haran.<\/p>\n<p>Fearing a meeting with Esau as they passed through Edom, Jacob sent gifts to his brother and divided his own party into two camps for security. On this return journey, Jacob had an unexpected wrestling bout with the Angel of the Lord, and he was left with a limp and a new name, Israel (ch 32).<\/p>\n<p>The meeting with Esau was friendly, and Jacob went on to Shechem (ch 33), where his sons killed the male Shechemites because of the rape of their sister Dinah (ch 34). God told Jacob to go to Bethel and build an altar to the Lord. All idols of foreign gods were buried (35:1-4). At Bethel, God reaffirmed his promise of a posterity and the land (vv 9-15). Rachel died on the way to Bethlehem, while giving birth to Benjamin, Jacob’s 12th and last son. Isaac died at Hebron at age 180 and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by Esau and Jacob.<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 36 records “the generations of Esau” (v 1). Here Esau is also named Edom (“Red”; cf. 25:30).<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Joseph (37:2–50:26)<\/h5>\n<p>Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son and thus incurred the jealousy of his brothers. This was heightened by Joseph’s dreams of lordship over them. Their resentment of Joseph came to a climax when Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful coat. The brothers determined to kill Joseph, but they compromised by selling him to a caravan of merchants, who took him to Egypt and sold him as a slave to Potiphar, an Egyptian captain of the guard (37:36; 39:1).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 38 relates a historic case of levirate marriage. Judah failed to give his widowed daughter-in-law to his third son. She deceived him into fathering twin sons and forced him to acknowledge his faults. The elder son, Perez, is named in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Lk 3:33).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord blessed Joseph, who soon was put in charge of Potiphar’s household (Gn 39). The young man attracted the attention of Potiphar’s wife, who, after many attempts to seduce him, at last accused him of attempted rape. Sentenced on this charge, Joseph met with favor in prison, where he had opportunity to interpret dreams for two of the pharaoh’s servants (ch 40). When the king had dreams that his magicians and wise men could not interpret, Joseph was summoned from jail. Joseph told Pharaoh that the dreams meant seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Joseph was then exalted to the office of vizier, or prime minister, second only to the king, and put in charge of the administration of the land (41:37-44).<\/p>\n<p>When the famine came to Palestine, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to purchase grain. Joseph recognized his brothers but did not reveal his identity to them. Joseph put them to the test by accusing them of being spies (42:9), by keeping one of the brothers (Simeon) hostage (v 19), and by demanding that if they came to Egypt again, they must bring their youngest brother with them (42:20; 43:3). The famine became so severe in Canaan (43:1) that Jacob at last allowed Benjamin to go with his brothers to Egypt. The brothers were again set up by Joseph, who had his silver cup put into Benjamin’s grain sack and then had him apprehended as a thief (ch 44).<\/p>\n<p>At this point Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers (45:4-15) and there was much rejoicing. Joseph pointed out that it was God who had sent him to Egypt (vv 7-8), in order to preserve the lives of all the family. Jacob was then sent for (46:1), and Joseph met him in the land of Goshen (46:28-29). The Israelites were assigned land in the region of Goshen, where they prospered (47:27).<\/p>\n<p>In Jacob’s final illness, Joseph brought his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to his father for his blessing. Jacob gave the primary blessing to the second-born, Ephraim (48:13-20). Jacob blessed each of his own sons and then died at the age of at least 130 years. Joseph arranged for Jacob’s body to be prepared for burial according to Egyptian custom (50:2-3). After the burial of their father in the cave of Machpelah at Hebron, Joseph’s brothers worried about vengeance, but Joseph declared, “As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people” (v 20, <span>nlt<\/span>). Joseph died at age 110 with the prophetic request that when the Israelites went up from Egypt they would take his bones with them (50:25; cf. Ex 13:19; Jos 24:32).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Adam (Person); Covenant; Creation; Eve; Fall of Man; Flood, The; Isaac; Jacob #1; Joseph #1; Nations; Noah #1; Patriarchs, Period of the.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>GENESIS, Book of<\/h3>\n<p>First book of the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Name<\/p>\n<p>• Author<\/p>\n<p>• Date<\/p>\n<p>• Purpose<\/p>\n<p>• Structure<\/p>\n<p>• Content<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Name\">Name<\/p>\n<p>The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">bere’shith<\/span><em>,<\/em> “in the beginning.”<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Author\">Author<\/p>\n<p>The authorship of Genesis is closely related to the authorship of the entire Pentateuch (lit. “five-volumed,” the first five books of the Bible, which in Hebrew are called the Torah). It is clear that the Bible regards the human author of these books as Moses. On several occasions the Lord commanded Moses to write down various things: “in a book” (Ex 17:14) “write these words” (34:27). The Pentateuch reports that “Moses wrote all the words of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (24:4); he wrote the itinerary of the exodus wanderings (Nm 33:2); “Moses wrote this law” (Dt 31:9). (Here it is not certain that all five books are meant, but it must refer to at least the greater part of Deuteronomy.) In Exodus 24:7 it is said that Moses read the Book of the Covenant, which he must have just completed.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the OT bears witness to the writing of the Pentateuch by Moses. David referred to “the law of Moses” (1 Kgs 2:3). In the time of Josiah, there was found in the temple the “Book of the Law of the <span>Lord<\/span> . . . given through Moses” (2 Chr 34:14, <span>nlt<\/span>). Day by day Ezra read from “the Book of the Law of God” (Neh 8:18, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>In the NT, Jesus refers to “the book of Moses” (Mk 12:26; Lk 20:37) and otherwise mentions the commands or statements of Moses (Mt 8:4; 19:8; Mk 7:10; cf. Lk 16:31; 24:44). The Jews also quoted from the Torah as coming from Moses, and Jesus did not contradict them.<\/p>\n<p>Of Genesis in particular, it may be said that Moses had the opportunity and ability to write the book. He could have written it during his years in Egypt or while exiled with the Kenites. As the recognized leader of the Israelites, he would have had access to, or perhaps even custody of, the records that Jacob brought from Canaan. He was “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22) and probably could have written in several languages and in several scripts (hieroglyphic, cuneiform, Old Hebrew). Although Moses was admirably fitted for the task of writing, one must remember that he was not putting together a human composition but was writing under the inspiration of God (2 Pt 1:21). We may with confidence conclude that Moses was the human author of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>The liberal view of the authorship of Genesis is that the book is an editorial composite—a view first put forward by a French physician, Jean Astruc, who suggested that the different names for God indicated different documents or sources for the writing of the book. The German higher critics expanded the view of the use of documents in the writing of Genesis and developed it into the Graf-Wellhausen-Kuenen, or Documentary, Hypothesis, which may also be called the JEDP theory of the authorship of the book. This view holds that there were four basic documents: (1) J, which uses the name YHWH (Jehovah or Yahweh) for God, dates from about the ninth century <span>BC<\/span> and comes from Judah; (2) E uses the name Elohim, dates from the eighth century, and comes from the northern kingdom; (3) D is Deuteronomy and is supposed to come from the time of Josiah, about 621 <span>BC<\/span>; and (4) P is the priestly element, which deals with matters of the priesthood and ritual, dating to the fifth century <span>BC<\/span> or later. Some may date portions of Genesis as late as the Hellenistic period. According to this theory, the various documents were blended together by editors, so that there was a JE, JED, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>The science of archaeology discredited many of the extreme postulations of these critics, and the work of W. F. Albright and his followers did much to restore confidence in the historicity of Genesis. Within the last several decades, the patriarchal narratives and the account of Joseph have again come under strong attack, but these views are extreme, and much of the evidence adduced by Albright and earlier scholars like R. D. Wilson, W. H. Green, and others still has validity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Date\">Date<\/p>\n<p>The date of the book is also a matter of debate. Even among those who accept Mosaic authorship there is debate as to when Moses lived. Based on the biblical data, Moses should have lived in the 15th century <span>BC<\/span> (cf. Jgs 11:26; 1 Kgs 6:1), but many scholars incline toward a 13th-century date. As outlined above, the liberal view of the date of Genesis would be from the ninth to the fifth centuries <span>BC<\/span>, with the final editing coming around the fifth century or perhaps even later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Purpose\">Purpose<\/p>\n<p>Genesis sketches the origin of many things: the universe, the earth, plants, animals, and mankind. It gives the beginnings of human institutions, professions, and crafts. It describes the origin of sin and death, and illustrates the insidious working of Satan in human life. Above all, Genesis relates the beginning of the history of redemption with the announcement of a Redeemer who was to come (Gn 3:15). It names the early progenitors in the lineage of the Messiah and the beginning of the Hebrew people through whom the Bible and the Savior came. Genesis also gives a selective history of people and events as viewed from the perspective of the purposes of God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Structure\">Structure<\/p>\n<p>The book is divided into 11 parts of uneven length, each set off by the expression “these are the generations [descendants, history] of” (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1; 37:2). Only three times does the formula coincide with the first verse of a chapter. Usually called a heading or superscription, the expression serves as a kind of link between what precedes and what follows.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Content\">Content<\/p>\n<h5>The Creation (1:1–2:25)<\/h5>\n<p>These two chapters have been a scientific-theological battleground for many years, as researchers and students have tried to probe the origins of the universe and of life. Much of the evidence is not subject to scientific scrutiny, for science by definition requires that the evidence must be reproducible by experiment.<\/p>\n<p>The statement of Genesis 1:1 remains the grandest, most precise, and most accurate statement of origins: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He did this <em>ex nihilo<\/em> (“out of nothing”) by his word (Heb 11:3); he spoke the word of command and it was done (Gn 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20; Ps 33:6, 9).<\/p>\n<p>The date of the beginning is unknown. Uniformitarian cosmogonists (students of the origins of the universe who believe that natural events have always followed a uniform pattern; cf. 2 Pt 3:3-7) have speculated that the beginning of the universe was billions of years ago. But some creationists posit a world thousands of years old.<\/p>\n<p>To accommodate geological ages and the existence of extinct animals, some interpreters have proposed a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, with Genesis 1:2–2:3 representing a second or new creation. But this is conjecture. So is the idea that each day represents a geological age.<\/p>\n<p>As the text stands, there is a correlation between the first three days and the second three days. Day one saw the creation of light; day four, the light bearers. Day two was the time of the creation of the firmament (better, “expanse”), which divided the waters; day five, birds and swarming water creatures. On day three, God made the dry land and plants; on day six he created the land animals and man. He made man in the image of God (Gn 1:26), “a little less than God” (Ps 8:5), and gave him dominion over the earth. He made everything “according to their kinds,” so that each kind is distinct and unique. The perfection of his work is affirmed in that “God saw that it was good” (Gn 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21; “very good,” v 31). The seventh day was a time of cessation from the activity of creating and served as a type for mankind’s day of rest (2:1-3).<\/p>\n<p>Critical scholarship eyes 2:4-25 as a doublet in conflict with Genesis 1:1–2:3. To conservative scholars, the second chapter is the same account from a different perspective. Chapter 1 gives the Creation from the standpoint of sequence; chapter 2 shows it in view of the centrality of mankind in God’s creative work.<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 2 gives details of the creation of man of “dust from the ground” (v 7) and woman from a rib of the man (vv 21-22). She was created to be “a companion who will help him” (vv 18-20). They were created as mature adults, with the gift of speech and with great intelligence. Adam had imagination and vocabulary sufficient for naming all of the animal species (v 19).<\/p>\n<p>The location of the Garden of Eden is given (vv 10-14). Two of the four rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, can be identified with certainty. So man lived in this beautiful garden in the bliss of innocence.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Humankind from Eden to Babel (3:1–11:26)<\/h5>\n<h6>The Fall<\/h6>\n<p>The loss of Eden and the break in fellowship with God is the saddest chapter in human history. The serpent, the devil, approached Eve with the same philosophy he always uses: doubt of God’s word (Gn 3:1), denial of death (v 4), and the suggestion of equality with God (v 5). He gained access to her will by deceiving her with the promise that the fruit would make her as wise as God is (Gn 3:5; cf. 1 Jn 2:16). Eve was deceived, but when she offered the fruit to Adam, he took it willingly, knowing what he was doing (Gn 3:6; cf. 1 Tm 2:14). Later, he tried to blame God for giving him the wife who gave him the fruit (Gn 3:12). Fellowship with God was broken (v 8), yet God came seeking Adam and found him.<\/p>\n<p>With sin came judgment, and the Lord pronounced righteous judgment on the serpent, the woman, and the man. The earth was also “subjected to frustration” and now groans as it awaits renewal (Rom 8:21-22). God gave hope to man and a promise of a Redeemer (Gn 3:15), who was to bruise the serpent’s head. Adam and Eve were forced out of the Garden, and it was made inaccessible to them.<\/p>\n<p>The impatience of humankind is shown in Eve’s expectation that her son Cain was the promised Deliverer. Instead, he developed a wrong-hearted attitude toward God and became so jealous of his younger brother that he murdered him. Apprehended by God and confronted with his crime, Cain showed only self-pity and went east from Eden, where he built a city (4:1-16). Chapter 4 closes with another contrast: the brazen Lamech, who called for vengeance, while others began to call upon the name of the Lord.<\/p>\n<h6>The Generations of Adam<\/h6>\n<p>This genealogical table (5:1-32) brings humankind to the time of Noah and the Flood. The longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs seems very striking to us, but one must remember that the earth had not yet been subjected to pollution and that the effects of sin on the human race were still nominal. The refrain “and he died” reminds us of man’s mortality. For Enoch, however, there was something better: “He enjoyed a close relationship with God throughout his life. Then, suddenly, he disappeared because God took him” (5:24, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<h6>The Flood<\/h6>\n<p>With increased population came an eruption of sin (6:1-5). As men multiplied, so did their corruption. The universal condemnation of verse 5 shows a world ripe for judgment. Noah, however, “found favor with the <span>Lord<\/span>,” for he was a righteous and blameless man who walked with God (6:8-9).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord planned to annihilate the human race, but he determined to save Noah and his family. Intending to flood the earth, God instructed Noah to build an ark. Noah was directed to take animals aboard the ark, two by two, male and female, for the preservation of each species. When all was in readiness, the Flood came: “the underground waters burst forth on the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky” (7:11, <span>nlt<\/span>). It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The highest mountains were covered, and life outside the ark perished. “But God remembered Noah” and sent a wind to evaporate the waters (8:1). Eventually the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (v 4). Noah made a sacrifice to the Lord, and the Lord determined that he would never again bring such destruction upon the earth.<\/p>\n<p>The Flood is another of God’s acts that has been much debated. Many have argued for a local flood, which affected only part of Mesopotamia. Archaeologists have pointed to various flood strata in the excavation of Mesopotamian city-mounds as evidence for the account of the flood and have cited the various flood stories from that area as the source of the Genesis record. The epic of Gilgamesh gives an interesting tale of this hero, who went on a mission to visit Utnapishtim, the cuneiform Noah, in quest of eternal life. The flood story told by Utnapishtim has many parallels to Genesis, but there are greater contrasts, which demonstrate that the Bible preserves the true account.<\/p>\n<p>Both the Genesis account and the references to it in the NT (cf. 2 Pt 3:6) favor the view that the deluge was not a minor episode in the Tigris-Euphrates area but was an unprecedented worldwide catastrophe. Christian geologists affirm that the Flood had far-reaching effects on the earth itself. Flood stories are almost universally known, lending support to the conclusion that the Flood covered the whole earth. Following the Flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. God made a covenant with Noah, promising that he would never again send a worldwide flood. As a sign of this, he established the rainbow.<\/p>\n<p>Noah was the first tiller of the soil, and he planted a vineyard (9:20). Noah became drunk from wine he made and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham saw him and reported this to his brothers, who discreetly covered him. Ham and his son Canaan were cursed; Shem and Japheth were blessed.<\/p>\n<h6>The History of the Nations<\/h6>\n<p>“This is the history of the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah. Many children were born to them after the Flood” (10:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). This chapter lists the descendants of Noah’s three sons, in the order of Japheth (vv 2-5), Ham (vv 6-20), and Shem (vv 21-31). Many of the names of their descendants are preserved in tribes and nations of the world.<\/p>\n<h6>The Tower of Babel<\/h6>\n<p>The building of the Tower of Babel (“Gate of God”) illustrates man’s perversity and his tendency to want independence from God. The desire of man to displace God follows the fateful example of Lucifer and is a basic tenet of many cults. God thwarted the designs of the builders of Babel by confusing their languages, so that the project came to a halt (11:1-9). The site of this tower is not known with certainty. Some associate it with Birs Nimrud, not far from the ruins of the city of Babylon. Genesis 11:10-25 picks up the line of Shem and carries it down to Terah, the father of Abram.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Abraham (11:27–25:10) and Isaac (21:1–28:5)<\/h5>\n<p>Abram came from Ur of the Chaldees, a prosperous city. The city had an imposing ziggurat (temple-tower), with many temples, storehouses, and residences. Abram and Sarai, his half sister and wife, went with his father to Haran in Syria, which like Ur was a center of the worship of the moon god, Sin (or Annar).<\/p>\n<h6>Abram’s Call<\/h6>\n<p>The call of God came to Abram directing him to leave his relatives and move to a land that the Lord would show him (12:1; cf. Acts 7:2-3). Abram obeyed. At the age of 75, he, Sarai, and his nephew Lot left Haran and went to Shechem, where the Lord appeared to him and promised that land to his descendants.<\/p>\n<p>Famine drove Abram down to Egypt (Gn 12:10-20). Because of Sarai’s beauty, he feared that someone might kill him to get her, so he passed her off as his sister. She was taken into the pharaoh’s harem. When the Lord plagued Pharaoh because of this, Abram’s lie was discovered and Sarai was returned to him.<\/p>\n<h6>Abram and Lot<\/h6>\n<p>Abram and Lot returned to Canaan, where strife broke out between Abram’s herdsmen and those of Lot. Abram suggested that they should separate, and he gave Lot the choice of territory. Lot chose the well-watered Jordan Valley and the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah (ch 13).<\/p>\n<h6>The Invasion of the Four Kings from the East<\/h6>\n<p>The four kings who invaded along the King’s Highway in Transjordan cannot be identified with certainty. Those kings were successful in their attack against the five cities of the plain, and they moved off with much booty and many captives, including Lot. Abram took 318 retainers, born in his household, and set off after them. By surprise attack, Abram recovered both Lot and the loot. On his return he was met by Melchizedek, king of Jerusalem, to whom Abram paid tithes (ch 14).<\/p>\n<h6>The Covenant<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord promised Abram a son as heir, and in an impressive nighttime ceremony, God made a covenant with Abram and promised him the land from the River of Egypt (Wadi el Arish) to the Euphrates (ch 15). Because of her own barrenness, Sarai gave her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to Abram. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arab peoples. When trouble arose between the women, Sarai sent Hagar away, which was her right according to Near Eastern customs (as illustrated by the Nuzi tablets). God showed mercy to Hagar and promised that she would have a great posterity (ch 16).<\/p>\n<p>God repeated his promise to Abram concerning his descendants and changed the names of Abram (“exalted father”) and Sarai to Abraham (“father of many”) and Sarah (“princess”). A covenant sign of circumcision was given to Abraham (ch 17). This operation had already been practiced among the Egyptians for several centuries.<\/p>\n<h6>The Destruction of the Cities of the Plain<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord and two angels appeared to Abraham and announced the birth of the promised heir within a year, as well as proclaimed the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, concerning which Abraham bargained with God (18:22-33). Lot and his immediate family were rescued from Sodom, and the cities were destroyed by God with brimstone and fire (19:24-25). Lot’s two daughters, wishing to preserve their family line, got their father drunk and had sexual relations with him. Moab and Ammon, enemies of Israel in later times, were the result.<\/p>\n<p>In Genesis 20:1-18, Abraham again represented Sarah as his sister and got into trouble with Abimelech, king of Gerar.<\/p>\n<h6>Isaac<\/h6>\n<p>When Isaac was born (21:1-3), trouble again broke out between Sarah and Hagar. Hagar was driven out a second time, and once more was befriended by the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>A disagreement arose between Abraham and Abimelech concerning a well, but they made a covenant of peace at Beersheba (21:25-34).<\/p>\n<p>God tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice Isaac on Mt Moriah, which probably is the same site David later bought from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Sm 24:16-25), the place where the temple was to stand. As Abraham was about to use the knife, God called to him and showed him a ram caught in a thicket. Isaac was freed and the animal was sacrificed in his stead.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at Hebron, and Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite (ch 23), in a transaction typical of Near Eastern business dealings. To find a wife for Isaac, Abraham sent his servant Eliezer back to the area of Haran, and the Lord directed Eliezer to Rebekah (ch 24).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 25 records the marriage of Abraham to Keturah, who bore him a number of children. Abraham died at the age of 175 years and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Jacob and Esau (25:19–37:1)<\/h5>\n<p>Rebekah gave birth to twin sons, Esau and Jacob. When the boys were grown, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a meal of red pottage (25:27-34).<\/p>\n<p>When famine came to the land, Isaac went to Gerar, as his father had done (ch 20), and repeated his father’s lie by calling his wife his sister (26:1-11). Trouble arose with the Philistines over wells, but Isaac was a peaceable man and preferred digging new wells rather than fighting over old ones (vv 17-33).<\/p>\n<p>In Isaac’s old age, when his sight had failed, Rebekah connived with Jacob to trick Isaac into giving to Jacob the blessing of the firstborn, which was rightfully Esau’s. This oral blessing had legal validity and was irrevocable, according to the ancient Nuzi tablets. Fearing for Jacob’s life at the hands of Esau, Rebekah arranged to send Jacob to Haran to find a wife from among her own people. At Bethel, God appeared to Jacob in a dream of a ladder leading up to heaven; God renewed with Jacob the promise made to Abraham and Isaac (28:10-22).<\/p>\n<p>Jacob reached Haran, found his uncle Laban, and was employed by him (ch 29). His wages for seven years of labor were to be Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel, as his wife. But Laban substituted Leah, so that Jacob had to work another seven years for Rachel. The Lord prospered Jacob, but he continually had difficulties with Laban. The Lord directed Jacob back to Canaan (31:3), so he left secretly with his wives, children, and property. Laban pursued them because his household gods were missing (possession of these “gods” made the holder heir to the owner’s estate, according to Nuzi custom). Rachel had taken them but successfully concealed them from her father, and Laban went back to Haran.<\/p>\n<p>Fearing a meeting with Esau as they passed through Edom, Jacob sent gifts to his brother and divided his own party into two camps for security. On this return journey, Jacob had an unexpected wrestling bout with the Angel of the Lord, and he was left with a limp and a new name, Israel (ch 32).<\/p>\n<p>The meeting with Esau was friendly, and Jacob went on to Shechem (ch 33), where his sons killed the male Shechemites because of the rape of their sister Dinah (ch 34). God told Jacob to go to Bethel and build an altar to the Lord. All idols of foreign gods were buried (35:1-4). At Bethel, God reaffirmed his promise of a posterity and the land (vv 9-15). Rachel died on the way to Bethlehem, while giving birth to Benjamin, Jacob’s 12th and last son. Isaac died at Hebron at age 180 and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by Esau and Jacob.<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 36 records “the generations of Esau” (v 1). Here Esau is also named Edom (“Red”; cf. 25:30).<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Joseph (37:2–50:26)<\/h5>\n<p>Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son and thus incurred the jealousy of his brothers. This was heightened by Joseph’s dreams of lordship over them. Their resentment of Joseph came to a climax when Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful coat. The brothers determined to kill Joseph, but they compromised by selling him to a caravan of merchants, who took him to Egypt and sold him as a slave to Potiphar, an Egyptian captain of the guard (37:36; 39:1).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 38 relates a historic case of levirate marriage. Judah failed to give his widowed daughter-in-law to his third son. She deceived him into fathering twin sons and forced him to acknowledge his faults. The elder son, Perez, is named in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Lk 3:33).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord blessed Joseph, who soon was put in charge of Potiphar’s household (Gn 39). The young man attracted the attention of Potiphar’s wife, who, after many attempts to seduce him, at last accused him of attempted rape. Sentenced on this charge, Joseph met with favor in prison, where he had opportunity to interpret dreams for two of the pharaoh’s servants (ch 40). When the king had dreams that his magicians and wise men could not interpret, Joseph was summoned from jail. Joseph told Pharaoh that the dreams meant seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Joseph was then exalted to the office of vizier, or prime minister, second only to the king, and put in charge of the administration of the land (41:37-44).<\/p>\n<p>When the famine came to Palestine, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to purchase grain. Joseph recognized his brothers but did not reveal his identity to them. Joseph put them to the test by accusing them of being spies (42:9), by keeping one of the brothers (Simeon) hostage (v 19), and by demanding that if they came to Egypt again, they must bring their youngest brother with them (42:20; 43:3). The famine became so severe in Canaan (43:1) that Jacob at last allowed Benjamin to go with his brothers to Egypt. The brothers were again set up by Joseph, who had his silver cup put into Benjamin’s grain sack and then had him apprehended as a thief (ch 44).<\/p>\n<p>At this point Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers (45:4-15) and there was much rejoicing. Joseph pointed out that it was God who had sent him to Egypt (vv 7-8), in order to preserve the lives of all the family. Jacob was then sent for (46:1), and Joseph met him in the land of Goshen (46:28-29). The Israelites were assigned land in the region of Goshen, where they prospered (47:27).<\/p>\n<p>In Jacob’s final illness, Joseph brought his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to his father for his blessing. Jacob gave the primary blessing to the second-born, Ephraim (48:13-20). Jacob blessed each of his own sons and then died at the age of at least 130 years. Joseph arranged for Jacob’s body to be prepared for burial according to Egyptian custom (50:2-3). After the burial of their father in the cave of Machpelah at Hebron, Joseph’s brothers worried about vengeance, but Joseph declared, “As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people” (v 20, <span>nlt<\/span>). Joseph died at age 110 with the prophetic request that when the Israelites went up from Egypt they would take his bones with them (50:25; cf. Ex 13:19; Jos 24:32).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Adam (Person); Covenant; Creation; Eve; Fall of Man; Flood, The; Isaac; Jacob #1; Joseph #1; Nations; Noah #1; Patriarchs, Period of the.<\/p>","summary_ro":"GENESIS, Book of First book of the Bible. Preview • Name • Author • Date • Purpose • Structure • Content Name The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, bere’shith, “in the beginning.” Author The authorship of Gene...","summary_en":"GENESIS, Book of First book of the Bible. Preview • Name • Author • Date • Purpose • Structure • Content Name The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, bere’shith, “in the beginning.” Author The authorship of Gene...","source":"Articles\/G.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":22667,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Biblical Concept of Law","title_en":"Biblical Concept of Law","content_ro":"<h3>LAW, Biblical Concept of<\/h3>\n<p>God’s means of consecrating his people to himself. The nature and content of “law” may change, but the goal remains the same: maturity and conformity to the image of God.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Historical Context<\/p>\n<p>• Law in the Old Testament<\/p>\n<p>• Israelite Law and the Ancient Near East<\/p>\n<p>• Old Testament Laws<\/p>\n<p>• Purposes of the Law<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"HistoricalContext\">Historical Context<\/p>\n<p>When man was created in God’s image, he received glory, rule, and provision for his daily sustenance from the Creator-King (Gn 1:27-30). However, in his exalted status as ruler over God’s creation on earth, man had to prove his loyalty to the Lord. For this purpose God set up a simple test: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man was prohibited from eating the fruit of that tree (2:17). His disobedience marked him as unfit for fellowship with the great King. He was rebellious and by nature full of treachery, as the subsequent accounts of Cain (4:1-16), the generation of the Flood (6:1-13), Ham and Canaan (9:18-26; 10:6-20), and the Tower of Babel (11:1-9) demonstrate.<\/p>\n<p>Yet in the midst of all this the Lord graciously called Abraham. He promised to bless him, his seed, and the families of the earth that would join in a common expression of faith (Gn 12:2-3; 17:4-7). Abraham responded to God in faith (15:6), willingly observed the ritual of circumcision as a sign of the covenant (17:10; cf. 21:4), and walked before God with integrity of heart (17:1). Abraham subsequently learned that God had sovereignly and graciously chosen him with the purpose that Abraham’s family might distinguish itself from the nations “by doing righteousness and justice” (18:19). The Lord was pleased with his servant Abraham, who, though he had not received detailed laws, was a man of integrity. His heart was right with God, so that he willingly did what God commanded.<\/p>\n<p>The father of faith was the father of the faithful; the Lord testified that Abraham “obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws” (Gn 26:5, <span>niv<\/span>). His faith resulted in the fruits of righteousness (Jas 2:21-24).<\/p>\n<p>However, Israel, blessed by the Lord in the increase of descendants, the exodus, the crossing of the Red Sea, and his presence, did not respond to him in faith. They murmured and complained at Mt Sinai, at Kadesh-barnea, and in the plains of Moab. They proved themselves to be a rebellious and stiff-necked people (Ex 32:9; 33:3, 5; 34:9; Dt 9:6, 13). Though they had shown their character, the Lord was faithful to Abraham by covenanting himself to them. Israel became his people, his royal priesthood, his holy nation (Ex 19:5-6; Dt 26:18-19). He gave Israel the Ten Commandments, the law, and the covenant, symbolized by the two tablets of the testimony (Ex 32:15-16). Even after Moses had broken them in anger because of the people’s idolatrous worship of the golden calf, the Lord renewed his covenant by writing again the words of the covenant (34:28). On one hand, the context in which the law was given reflects God’s grace and forbearance with Israel’s sins (vv 6-7) and his determination to use Israel in the unfolding of his plan of redemption for the world. On the other hand, the context reflects Israel’s immaturity and stubbornness. Therefore, the law in the OT has positive and negative purposes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"LawintheOldTestament\">Law in the Old Testament<\/p>\n<p>The OT has many words for God’s law. The most general word is <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">Torah<\/span><em>,<\/em> which signifies instruction of any kind: religious and secular, written and oral, divine and human. Law in Israel was God’s law, mediated through Moses (Ex 20:19; Dt 5:23-27). Because Israel rejected the direct revelation of God’s oracles, the law was mediated through Moses the servant of God (Jn 1:17).<\/p>\n<p>Synonyms for law are, in various translations, word (cf. Ex 24:3; 34:27), judgment (cf. Ex 24:3), decree (cf. Nm 30:16; Dt 4:1), ordinance (cf. Nm 9:12, 14; Dt 6:2), command(ment) (cf. Dt 6:1, 25), statutes (Lv 3:17; 10:11), precepts (a Hebrew word used only in Psalms; cf. 119:4, 15, 27, 40, 45, 56, 63, 69, 78, 87, 93, 94, 100, 104, 110, 128, 134, 141, 159, 168, 173), stipulations, requirements, testimonies (cf. Dt 4:45; 6:20; 1 Kgs 2:3), precept (a Hebrew term not in the Pentateuch; cf. Ps 119:15), or simply the “way(s)” (cf. 1 Kgs 2:3; Pss 18:21; 25:9; 37:34).<\/p>\n<p>These words form a semantic field, and it is far from easy to distinguish clearly among the various forms of laws. Generally “the words” pertain to the duties of man toward God, especially the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:1; 34:27). The “judgments” contain civil regulations and duties to one’s fellows and to the social environment (21:1–23:9); these are often in the form of “if . . . then. . . .” In Leviticus and in cultic formulations the word “ordinances” has the technical sense of cultic regulations—the ceremonial laws. However, in other contexts, especially in a series of synonyms for law, it signifies any expectation or regulation. The “commandments” are those regulations given by a higher authority. Though the OT has many words for law, the connotation of one word is often indistinguishable from that of other words, especially in series such as “the decrees and laws” (Dt 4:1, 5; 5:1), “the commands, decrees and laws” (6:1), “walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses” (1 Kgs 2:3, <span>niv<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The motivation for keeping the divine law lies in the acts and presence of the Lord. The prologue to the Decalogue reminds us of God’s mighty acts: “I am the <span>Lord<\/span> your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Ex 20:2, <span>rsv<\/span>). In the historic acts of Israel’s redemption, revelation at Mt Sinai, and consecration of Israel to be his people, he involved himself with Israel as a “father.” He adopted Israel to sonship and consecrated them; that is, he declared them holy (Ex 19:6; 31:13; Lv 20:8; 22:32; cf. Rom 9:4). Sometimes the two concepts of redemption and consecration are placed together, but whether they are or not, they are inseparable: “I am the <span>Lord<\/span>, who makes you holy” (Lv 22:32b, <span>niv<\/span>). The ground of obedience can be stated simply by an appeal to God’s name: “I am Yahweh” (cf. Lv 18:6, 21, 30; 19:10, 14, 16, 18, 28, 30-31, 34, 36-37). The requisite of practical holiness is also based on the experience of God’s presence. The Lord commanded Israel to be holy because he is holy (Lv 11:44-45; 19:2). The “holy one of Israel” dwelt in the midst of his people (Ex 25:8; 29:45; Nm 5:3; 35:34).<\/p>\n<p>How could rebellious Israel grasp what God required, if it were not by precise moral, social, civil, and cultic regulations? The Lord had observed that they did not have “the heart” to serve him as a covenant-loyal people (Dt 5:29). By Israel’s very nature, it could not develop an adequate moral and cultic system to please God. Because of the people’s hardness of heart, God had to reveal (i.e., “spell out”) his will.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"IsraeliteLawandtheAncientNearEast\">Israelite Law and the Ancient Near East<\/p>\n<p>Israel’s law reflected the practices of its ancient Near Eastern context. Ancient Babylonian law codes (Eshnunna, Hammurabi) show similarities with the biblical codes. The similarities go beyond similarity of cases and include legal formulations (casuistic law). Israelite law is distinct in that it is divine law. Moses is the mediator and not the promulgator of the law, as was the practice of a king who, like Hammurabi, put into force a legal code. The Lord himself gave Israel its laws (cf. Dt 4:5-8). The laws in the ancient Near East dealt with the ordering of society. But Israel’s laws were given to regulate every aspect of life: personal, familial, social, and cultic. The laws were to teach Israel to distinguish between holy and profane, between clean and unclean, and between just and unjust.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"OldTestamentLaws\">Old Testament Laws<\/p>\n<p>The legal corpus of the OT is not given in one book or in one section. Moreover, the laws reflect the development from the desert context (Exodus) to the context of the land (Deuteronomy). The OT legal material is complex, full of variations and duplications. It is found in Exodus (chs 20–24; 25–31), Leviticus, Numbers (chs 3–6; 8–10; 15; 18; 19; 28–30), and Deuteronomy (chs 5–26).<\/p>\n<h5>The Ten Commandments<\/h5>\n<p>The commandments are simply designated as “the words” of God (Ex 20:1). They appear in Exodus 20:1-17 and in Deuteronomy 5:6-21, but minor variations and individual commandments occur in other contexts (e.g., Ex 34:14, 17, 21; Lv 19:1-8; Dt 27:15-16). As a part of the covenant, the commandments were first addressed to Israel; they now form the basis of morality in Christianity. The abiding relevance of the moral law is clear from the NT. Our Lord established his authority as interpreter of all the commandments (Mt 5:17-48; 12:1-14; 23:23-24). He summarized the law in terms of love for God and man (cf. Mt 22:37-40; Mk 12:28-34; Lk 10:27; cf. Rom 13:8-9; Gal 5:14). Since he is also the Lord of the Sabbath, the Sabbath cannot be divorced from the other commandments (Mt 12:8). The apostle Paul also upheld the law, as his “ethics of the Spirit” reflects an internalization of the law of God in the hearts of believers (cf. Rom 8:1-17; 12:1–15:13; 1 Cor 2:6-16; 5:1-8; 10:23–11:1; Gal 5:13–6:10; Eph 4:17–6:9; Phil 2:1-18; Col 3:1–4:6; 1 Thes 4:1-12; 5:12-24; 2 Thes 3:6-15; 1 Tm 6:3-10; Ti 3:1-11).<\/p>\n<p>The commandments were written on both sides of the two tablets by the Lord (Ex 32:15-16). It is unclear whether the tablets were duplicate copies, how the commandments were divided, and how the commandments were numbered. They were kept in the ark of the covenant as a testimony to the covenant (40:20).<\/p>\n<h5>The Book of the Covenant (Ex 20:23–23:19)<\/h5>\n<p>The purpose of the covenant code was to exemplify and to set into motion the legal machinery by which Israel as a nation could reflect God’s concern for justice, love, peace, and the value of life. The laws in the Book of the Covenant are mainly of the casuistic type. They regulate life in an agricultural society with servants, donkeys, bulls, oxen, sheep, and fields of grain. The regulations pertain to relations with women (including widows), aliens, orphans; to legal concerns (liability, damages, ownership); as well as to religious obligations (altar, Sabbath). Often the law requires restitution, but restitution is not the rule when human life is involved (Ex 21:12-29; 22:2-3), especially when it involves one’s family (21:15-17, 22-25). The penal code attached to the case laws makes clear the value of human life, which is protected by the <em>lex talionis<\/em> (“law of retaliation”). The <em>lex talionis<\/em> does not point to a lack of forgiveness under the OT but rather was intended to be a legal principle giving coherence and justice to a society. The Book of the Covenant explicates by means of principles and cases how Israel must live together as a nation embracing the law of God and applying it <em>justly<\/em> (without discrimination or twisting of rights), <em>lovingly<\/em> (with a concern for the parties involved), and <em>peaceably.<\/em><\/p>\n<h5>The Priestly Law<\/h5>\n<p>God’s concern for holiness and purity comes to expression in the priestly laws (Ex 25–31; 35–40; Lv 1–27; Nm 4–10). The regulations pertain to the construction of the tabernacle, the consecration and ordination of priests, the offerings and sacrifices, rules of purity, the holy days, and vows.<\/p>\n<p>The tabernacle was set in the middle of Israel’s camp in the wilderness. It symbolized the presence of God with his people. The priests and Levites were encamped around the tabernacle to serve and protect God’s holiness. All the tribes were situated around the tabernacle, and though the members of the tribes did not have access to all parts of the tabernacle, they had to be ritually clean to live in the camp. Anyone who was ritually defiled (Lv 13:46; Nm 5:1-3) or had sinned grievously was put outside the camp (Lv 24:10-23; Nm 15:32-36). This regulation even included objects that had become defiled (Lv 8:17; 9:11).<\/p>\n<p>By means of prescribed offerings and sacrifices (Lv 1–7; 16; Nm 15:1-31; 28), God assured Israel, individually and corporately, of forgiveness when it had unwittingly sinned. The offerings and sacrifices concretely embodied the purpose of the offerer, whether forgiveness, dedication, or fellowship.<\/p>\n<p>The priests and Levites taught the law of God (Dt 31:9-13), applied its regulations, and served in courts (17:8-13).<\/p>\n<h5>The Holiness Code (Lv 17–26)<\/h5>\n<p>The holiness code forms a significant part of the book of Leviticus. Here Moses addressed all of Israel (cf. Lv 17:2; 18:2; 19:2; 20:2; 21:24; 23:2; 24:2; 25:2; 26:46; 27:2).<\/p>\n<p>The laws are in the form of prohibitions and direct commands. They pertain to the place of sacrifice and the prohibition of eating meat with blood in it (ch 17); the prohibition of sexual relations with specified family members (ch 18); and regulations promoting godliness, holiness, justice, and love in society (ch 19). The penal code applies penalties to those who sin against the regulations (ch 20; 24:10-23). Chapters 21–24 apply the cultic regulations to the priests and to all Israelites. The institutions of the sabbatical year and the Year of Jubilee regulate the remission of debts, freedom of people, and restitution of land (ch 25).<\/p>\n<p>The holiness code spells out the qualities required of a holy people: devotion to God (offerings, sacrifices, priests) and love for man (Lv 19:18b) demonstrated in concern for justice, peace, freedom, the value of human life, and a concern for the family. Many of the laws reflect the spirit of the Decalogue (ch 19).<\/p>\n<p>Both promises and curses are attached to the holiness code (ch 26). The curses predict exile as a consequence of breaking the laws. But always underlying the laws and penalties is the grace of the Lord, who promises freely to forgive the people’s sins and to renew the broken covenant (26:44-45).<\/p>\n<h5>Laws of Deuteronomy<\/h5>\n<p>The Deuteronomic laws are explications and new applications of the Book of the Covenant in view of Israel’s new historical situation. Israel was about to enter the Promised Land when Moses outlined to them the law of God (Dt 1:5). The impersonal element of the Book of the Covenant is here transformed by personal appeal. Moses strongly appeals to Israel to be loyal to the Lord, the covenant, and the covenantal stipulations. The Deuteronomic laws envision the people in the land of promise, with a central sanctuary (12:5, 11-18; 14:23; 15:20; 16:5-7, 16, 21; 17:8; 18:6; 26:2; 31:11) and with a king (17:14-20). The blessings and the curses motivate covenant loyalty (ch 28). However, Israel is also here assured that even if it breaks God’s law, the Lord remains gracious and forgiving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PurposesoftheLaw\">Purposes of the Law<\/p>\n<p>The law revealed at Mt Sinai was intended to lead Israel closer to God. Rebellious though they were, God used the law as his righteous instrument to teach, in a very specific way, what sin is (cf. Rom 5:20; 7:7-8) and how they should walk on a path that kept them undefiled by sin and holy to the Lord. The law was the teacher and the keeper of Israel (Gal 3:24). The detailed explications of the laws in all areas of life (work, society, family, cult, and nation) had an important place in God’s dealings with Israel. Israel was a nation in a special land, with a theocratic government, and was in need of a legislative corpus. Moreover, Israel’s condition at Mt Sinai was such that it could not receive direct revelation. The revelation had to be mediated through Moses. It had to be set forth in detail because Israel had no intuitive grasp of what the revelation of God’s holiness, justice, righteousness, love, and forebearance required of them. They had adopted Egyptian ways and had to learn the divine will by revelation. However, Moses and the prophets emphasize that the purpose of the law is not strict adherence to the law for its own sake (legalism) or for a reward (Pharisaism). Keeping the law is an act of devotion to God, for the sake of God. Our Lord confirmed the purpose of the law: to establish a dynamic way of life in which one continually seeks God’s kingdom and his righteousness (Mt 6:33).<\/p>\n<p>The law of God is his means of sanctification. He consecrated Israel by an act of grace, and he required Israel to remain holy. Jesus confirmed those uses of the law whereby one may know his sinfulness and by which he may be driven to Christ. On the cross our Lord carried the penalties of the law, fulfilled in a greater way the tabernacle\/temple presence of God, fulfilled the Father’s expectations of atonement, and demonstrated the love of the Father. He, the Son and greater than Moses, gave the essence of the law in the summary of God’s requirements: love of God and love of neighbor (Mt 23:23-24; Lk 11:42-44). Jesus taught that the purpose of obedience is not primarily to receive a reward but to serve as salt (Mt 5:13) and light (Mt 5:14-16; cf. Eph 4:17–5:20), and to bear fruit (Jn 15:1-17). The purpose of the law of God is the gradual transformation of the children of God to reflect the image of the Son (Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18; Col 3:10), to be an imitation of the Father (Eph 5:1-2), and to be filled with the Spirit of God (Gal 5:18, 22-24). For this purpose Jesus gave us the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, which summarize the intent of the teaching of Moses and the prophets (Mt 5–7).<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of the law is to transform regenerated believers into maturity. Spiritual maturity is not a privilege that was reserved for believers after Christ; OT saints also walked with God (Enoch, Gn 5:22-24; Noah, 6:9; Abraham, 17:1). These were mature men who lived with integrity in the presence of God (cf. Gn 17:1; Dt 18:13; Pss 15:1-2; 18:26; 101:2, 6; 119:80; Prv 11:5).<\/p>\n<p>Maturity, or integrity, is that response to God whereby the believer no longer needs to live by individual stipulations or in fear of mistakes and sins of omission, but delights in doing the Lord’s will (Pss 1:2; 112:1). Since the coming of Christ and Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has been poured out on every believer. He has come not only to internalize the law of God (Jer 31:33) but also to help us develop Christian maturity by giving the fruits of godliness in greater fullness (Gal 5:22-24). Whereas maturity and freedom were experienced by some OT saints, it is God’s gift to all his children in Christ (Acts 2:39; 1 Cor 12:13). The purpose is still the same, “so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped [mature] for every good work” (2 Tm 3:17, <span>niv<\/span>), but the means to accomplish this and the status of the child of God is so much better since Pentecost.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Civil Law and Justice; Cleanness and Uncleanness, Regulations Concerning; Criminal Law and Punishment; Galatians, Letter to the; Hammurabi, Law Code of; Justification; Romans, Letter to the; Commandments, The Ten; Torah; Tradition.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>LAW, Biblical Concept of<\/h3>\n<p>God’s means of consecrating his people to himself. The nature and content of “law” may change, but the goal remains the same: maturity and conformity to the image of God.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Historical Context<\/p>\n<p>• Law in the Old Testament<\/p>\n<p>• Israelite Law and the Ancient Near East<\/p>\n<p>• Old Testament Laws<\/p>\n<p>• Purposes of the Law<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"HistoricalContext\">Historical Context<\/p>\n<p>When man was created in God’s image, he received glory, rule, and provision for his daily sustenance from the Creator-King (Gn 1:27-30). However, in his exalted status as ruler over God’s creation on earth, man had to prove his loyalty to the Lord. For this purpose God set up a simple test: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man was prohibited from eating the fruit of that tree (2:17). His disobedience marked him as unfit for fellowship with the great King. He was rebellious and by nature full of treachery, as the subsequent accounts of Cain (4:1-16), the generation of the Flood (6:1-13), Ham and Canaan (9:18-26; 10:6-20), and the Tower of Babel (11:1-9) demonstrate.<\/p>\n<p>Yet in the midst of all this the Lord graciously called Abraham. He promised to bless him, his seed, and the families of the earth that would join in a common expression of faith (Gn 12:2-3; 17:4-7). Abraham responded to God in faith (15:6), willingly observed the ritual of circumcision as a sign of the covenant (17:10; cf. 21:4), and walked before God with integrity of heart (17:1). Abraham subsequently learned that God had sovereignly and graciously chosen him with the purpose that Abraham’s family might distinguish itself from the nations “by doing righteousness and justice” (18:19). The Lord was pleased with his servant Abraham, who, though he had not received detailed laws, was a man of integrity. His heart was right with God, so that he willingly did what God commanded.<\/p>\n<p>The father of faith was the father of the faithful; the Lord testified that Abraham “obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws” (Gn 26:5, <span>niv<\/span>). His faith resulted in the fruits of righteousness (Jas 2:21-24).<\/p>\n<p>However, Israel, blessed by the Lord in the increase of descendants, the exodus, the crossing of the Red Sea, and his presence, did not respond to him in faith. They murmured and complained at Mt Sinai, at Kadesh-barnea, and in the plains of Moab. They proved themselves to be a rebellious and stiff-necked people (Ex 32:9; 33:3, 5; 34:9; Dt 9:6, 13). Though they had shown their character, the Lord was faithful to Abraham by covenanting himself to them. Israel became his people, his royal priesthood, his holy nation (Ex 19:5-6; Dt 26:18-19). He gave Israel the Ten Commandments, the law, and the covenant, symbolized by the two tablets of the testimony (Ex 32:15-16). Even after Moses had broken them in anger because of the people’s idolatrous worship of the golden calf, the Lord renewed his covenant by writing again the words of the covenant (34:28). On one hand, the context in which the law was given reflects God’s grace and forbearance with Israel’s sins (vv 6-7) and his determination to use Israel in the unfolding of his plan of redemption for the world. On the other hand, the context reflects Israel’s immaturity and stubbornness. Therefore, the law in the OT has positive and negative purposes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"LawintheOldTestament\">Law in the Old Testament<\/p>\n<p>The OT has many words for God’s law. The most general word is <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">Torah<\/span><em>,<\/em> which signifies instruction of any kind: religious and secular, written and oral, divine and human. Law in Israel was God’s law, mediated through Moses (Ex 20:19; Dt 5:23-27). Because Israel rejected the direct revelation of God’s oracles, the law was mediated through Moses the servant of God (Jn 1:17).<\/p>\n<p>Synonyms for law are, in various translations, word (cf. Ex 24:3; 34:27), judgment (cf. Ex 24:3), decree (cf. Nm 30:16; Dt 4:1), ordinance (cf. Nm 9:12, 14; Dt 6:2), command(ment) (cf. Dt 6:1, 25), statutes (Lv 3:17; 10:11), precepts (a Hebrew word used only in Psalms; cf. 119:4, 15, 27, 40, 45, 56, 63, 69, 78, 87, 93, 94, 100, 104, 110, 128, 134, 141, 159, 168, 173), stipulations, requirements, testimonies (cf. Dt 4:45; 6:20; 1 Kgs 2:3), precept (a Hebrew term not in the Pentateuch; cf. Ps 119:15), or simply the “way(s)” (cf. 1 Kgs 2:3; Pss 18:21; 25:9; 37:34).<\/p>\n<p>These words form a semantic field, and it is far from easy to distinguish clearly among the various forms of laws. Generally “the words” pertain to the duties of man toward God, especially the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:1; 34:27). The “judgments” contain civil regulations and duties to one’s fellows and to the social environment (21:1–23:9); these are often in the form of “if . . . then. . . .” In Leviticus and in cultic formulations the word “ordinances” has the technical sense of cultic regulations—the ceremonial laws. However, in other contexts, especially in a series of synonyms for law, it signifies any expectation or regulation. The “commandments” are those regulations given by a higher authority. Though the OT has many words for law, the connotation of one word is often indistinguishable from that of other words, especially in series such as “the decrees and laws” (Dt 4:1, 5; 5:1), “the commands, decrees and laws” (6:1), “walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses” (1 Kgs 2:3, <span>niv<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The motivation for keeping the divine law lies in the acts and presence of the Lord. The prologue to the Decalogue reminds us of God’s mighty acts: “I am the <span>Lord<\/span> your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Ex 20:2, <span>rsv<\/span>). In the historic acts of Israel’s redemption, revelation at Mt Sinai, and consecration of Israel to be his people, he involved himself with Israel as a “father.” He adopted Israel to sonship and consecrated them; that is, he declared them holy (Ex 19:6; 31:13; Lv 20:8; 22:32; cf. Rom 9:4). Sometimes the two concepts of redemption and consecration are placed together, but whether they are or not, they are inseparable: “I am the <span>Lord<\/span>, who makes you holy” (Lv 22:32b, <span>niv<\/span>). The ground of obedience can be stated simply by an appeal to God’s name: “I am Yahweh” (cf. Lv 18:6, 21, 30; 19:10, 14, 16, 18, 28, 30-31, 34, 36-37). The requisite of practical holiness is also based on the experience of God’s presence. The Lord commanded Israel to be holy because he is holy (Lv 11:44-45; 19:2). The “holy one of Israel” dwelt in the midst of his people (Ex 25:8; 29:45; Nm 5:3; 35:34).<\/p>\n<p>How could rebellious Israel grasp what God required, if it were not by precise moral, social, civil, and cultic regulations? The Lord had observed that they did not have “the heart” to serve him as a covenant-loyal people (Dt 5:29). By Israel’s very nature, it could not develop an adequate moral and cultic system to please God. Because of the people’s hardness of heart, God had to reveal (i.e., “spell out”) his will.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"IsraeliteLawandtheAncientNearEast\">Israelite Law and the Ancient Near East<\/p>\n<p>Israel’s law reflected the practices of its ancient Near Eastern context. Ancient Babylonian law codes (Eshnunna, Hammurabi) show similarities with the biblical codes. The similarities go beyond similarity of cases and include legal formulations (casuistic law). Israelite law is distinct in that it is divine law. Moses is the mediator and not the promulgator of the law, as was the practice of a king who, like Hammurabi, put into force a legal code. The Lord himself gave Israel its laws (cf. Dt 4:5-8). The laws in the ancient Near East dealt with the ordering of society. But Israel’s laws were given to regulate every aspect of life: personal, familial, social, and cultic. The laws were to teach Israel to distinguish between holy and profane, between clean and unclean, and between just and unjust.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"OldTestamentLaws\">Old Testament Laws<\/p>\n<p>The legal corpus of the OT is not given in one book or in one section. Moreover, the laws reflect the development from the desert context (Exodus) to the context of the land (Deuteronomy). The OT legal material is complex, full of variations and duplications. It is found in Exodus (chs 20–24; 25–31), Leviticus, Numbers (chs 3–6; 8–10; 15; 18; 19; 28–30), and Deuteronomy (chs 5–26).<\/p>\n<h5>The Ten Commandments<\/h5>\n<p>The commandments are simply designated as “the words” of God (Ex 20:1). They appear in Exodus 20:1-17 and in Deuteronomy 5:6-21, but minor variations and individual commandments occur in other contexts (e.g., Ex 34:14, 17, 21; Lv 19:1-8; Dt 27:15-16). As a part of the covenant, the commandments were first addressed to Israel; they now form the basis of morality in Christianity. The abiding relevance of the moral law is clear from the NT. Our Lord established his authority as interpreter of all the commandments (Mt 5:17-48; 12:1-14; 23:23-24). He summarized the law in terms of love for God and man (cf. Mt 22:37-40; Mk 12:28-34; Lk 10:27; cf. Rom 13:8-9; Gal 5:14). Since he is also the Lord of the Sabbath, the Sabbath cannot be divorced from the other commandments (Mt 12:8). The apostle Paul also upheld the law, as his “ethics of the Spirit” reflects an internalization of the law of God in the hearts of believers (cf. Rom 8:1-17; 12:1–15:13; 1 Cor 2:6-16; 5:1-8; 10:23–11:1; Gal 5:13–6:10; Eph 4:17–6:9; Phil 2:1-18; Col 3:1–4:6; 1 Thes 4:1-12; 5:12-24; 2 Thes 3:6-15; 1 Tm 6:3-10; Ti 3:1-11).<\/p>\n<p>The commandments were written on both sides of the two tablets by the Lord (Ex 32:15-16). It is unclear whether the tablets were duplicate copies, how the commandments were divided, and how the commandments were numbered. They were kept in the ark of the covenant as a testimony to the covenant (40:20).<\/p>\n<h5>The Book of the Covenant (Ex 20:23–23:19)<\/h5>\n<p>The purpose of the covenant code was to exemplify and to set into motion the legal machinery by which Israel as a nation could reflect God’s concern for justice, love, peace, and the value of life. The laws in the Book of the Covenant are mainly of the casuistic type. They regulate life in an agricultural society with servants, donkeys, bulls, oxen, sheep, and fields of grain. The regulations pertain to relations with women (including widows), aliens, orphans; to legal concerns (liability, damages, ownership); as well as to religious obligations (altar, Sabbath). Often the law requires restitution, but restitution is not the rule when human life is involved (Ex 21:12-29; 22:2-3), especially when it involves one’s family (21:15-17, 22-25). The penal code attached to the case laws makes clear the value of human life, which is protected by the <em>lex talionis<\/em> (“law of retaliation”). The <em>lex talionis<\/em> does not point to a lack of forgiveness under the OT but rather was intended to be a legal principle giving coherence and justice to a society. The Book of the Covenant explicates by means of principles and cases how Israel must live together as a nation embracing the law of God and applying it <em>justly<\/em> (without discrimination or twisting of rights), <em>lovingly<\/em> (with a concern for the parties involved), and <em>peaceably.<\/em><\/p>\n<h5>The Priestly Law<\/h5>\n<p>God’s concern for holiness and purity comes to expression in the priestly laws (Ex 25–31; 35–40; Lv 1–27; Nm 4–10). The regulations pertain to the construction of the tabernacle, the consecration and ordination of priests, the offerings and sacrifices, rules of purity, the holy days, and vows.<\/p>\n<p>The tabernacle was set in the middle of Israel’s camp in the wilderness. It symbolized the presence of God with his people. The priests and Levites were encamped around the tabernacle to serve and protect God’s holiness. All the tribes were situated around the tabernacle, and though the members of the tribes did not have access to all parts of the tabernacle, they had to be ritually clean to live in the camp. Anyone who was ritually defiled (Lv 13:46; Nm 5:1-3) or had sinned grievously was put outside the camp (Lv 24:10-23; Nm 15:32-36). This regulation even included objects that had become defiled (Lv 8:17; 9:11).<\/p>\n<p>By means of prescribed offerings and sacrifices (Lv 1–7; 16; Nm 15:1-31; 28), God assured Israel, individually and corporately, of forgiveness when it had unwittingly sinned. The offerings and sacrifices concretely embodied the purpose of the offerer, whether forgiveness, dedication, or fellowship.<\/p>\n<p>The priests and Levites taught the law of God (Dt 31:9-13), applied its regulations, and served in courts (17:8-13).<\/p>\n<h5>The Holiness Code (Lv 17–26)<\/h5>\n<p>The holiness code forms a significant part of the book of Leviticus. Here Moses addressed all of Israel (cf. Lv 17:2; 18:2; 19:2; 20:2; 21:24; 23:2; 24:2; 25:2; 26:46; 27:2).<\/p>\n<p>The laws are in the form of prohibitions and direct commands. They pertain to the place of sacrifice and the prohibition of eating meat with blood in it (ch 17); the prohibition of sexual relations with specified family members (ch 18); and regulations promoting godliness, holiness, justice, and love in society (ch 19). The penal code applies penalties to those who sin against the regulations (ch 20; 24:10-23). Chapters 21–24 apply the cultic regulations to the priests and to all Israelites. The institutions of the sabbatical year and the Year of Jubilee regulate the remission of debts, freedom of people, and restitution of land (ch 25).<\/p>\n<p>The holiness code spells out the qualities required of a holy people: devotion to God (offerings, sacrifices, priests) and love for man (Lv 19:18b) demonstrated in concern for justice, peace, freedom, the value of human life, and a concern for the family. Many of the laws reflect the spirit of the Decalogue (ch 19).<\/p>\n<p>Both promises and curses are attached to the holiness code (ch 26). The curses predict exile as a consequence of breaking the laws. But always underlying the laws and penalties is the grace of the Lord, who promises freely to forgive the people’s sins and to renew the broken covenant (26:44-45).<\/p>\n<h5>Laws of Deuteronomy<\/h5>\n<p>The Deuteronomic laws are explications and new applications of the Book of the Covenant in view of Israel’s new historical situation. Israel was about to enter the Promised Land when Moses outlined to them the law of God (Dt 1:5). The impersonal element of the Book of the Covenant is here transformed by personal appeal. Moses strongly appeals to Israel to be loyal to the Lord, the covenant, and the covenantal stipulations. The Deuteronomic laws envision the people in the land of promise, with a central sanctuary (12:5, 11-18; 14:23; 15:20; 16:5-7, 16, 21; 17:8; 18:6; 26:2; 31:11) and with a king (17:14-20). The blessings and the curses motivate covenant loyalty (ch 28). However, Israel is also here assured that even if it breaks God’s law, the Lord remains gracious and forgiving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PurposesoftheLaw\">Purposes of the Law<\/p>\n<p>The law revealed at Mt Sinai was intended to lead Israel closer to God. Rebellious though they were, God used the law as his righteous instrument to teach, in a very specific way, what sin is (cf. Rom 5:20; 7:7-8) and how they should walk on a path that kept them undefiled by sin and holy to the Lord. The law was the teacher and the keeper of Israel (Gal 3:24). The detailed explications of the laws in all areas of life (work, society, family, cult, and nation) had an important place in God’s dealings with Israel. Israel was a nation in a special land, with a theocratic government, and was in need of a legislative corpus. Moreover, Israel’s condition at Mt Sinai was such that it could not receive direct revelation. The revelation had to be mediated through Moses. It had to be set forth in detail because Israel had no intuitive grasp of what the revelation of God’s holiness, justice, righteousness, love, and forebearance required of them. They had adopted Egyptian ways and had to learn the divine will by revelation. However, Moses and the prophets emphasize that the purpose of the law is not strict adherence to the law for its own sake (legalism) or for a reward (Pharisaism). Keeping the law is an act of devotion to God, for the sake of God. Our Lord confirmed the purpose of the law: to establish a dynamic way of life in which one continually seeks God’s kingdom and his righteousness (Mt 6:33).<\/p>\n<p>The law of God is his means of sanctification. He consecrated Israel by an act of grace, and he required Israel to remain holy. Jesus confirmed those uses of the law whereby one may know his sinfulness and by which he may be driven to Christ. On the cross our Lord carried the penalties of the law, fulfilled in a greater way the tabernacle\/temple presence of God, fulfilled the Father’s expectations of atonement, and demonstrated the love of the Father. He, the Son and greater than Moses, gave the essence of the law in the summary of God’s requirements: love of God and love of neighbor (Mt 23:23-24; Lk 11:42-44). Jesus taught that the purpose of obedience is not primarily to receive a reward but to serve as salt (Mt 5:13) and light (Mt 5:14-16; cf. Eph 4:17–5:20), and to bear fruit (Jn 15:1-17). The purpose of the law of God is the gradual transformation of the children of God to reflect the image of the Son (Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18; Col 3:10), to be an imitation of the Father (Eph 5:1-2), and to be filled with the Spirit of God (Gal 5:18, 22-24). For this purpose Jesus gave us the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, which summarize the intent of the teaching of Moses and the prophets (Mt 5–7).<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of the law is to transform regenerated believers into maturity. Spiritual maturity is not a privilege that was reserved for believers after Christ; OT saints also walked with God (Enoch, Gn 5:22-24; Noah, 6:9; Abraham, 17:1). These were mature men who lived with integrity in the presence of God (cf. Gn 17:1; Dt 18:13; Pss 15:1-2; 18:26; 101:2, 6; 119:80; Prv 11:5).<\/p>\n<p>Maturity, or integrity, is that response to God whereby the believer no longer needs to live by individual stipulations or in fear of mistakes and sins of omission, but delights in doing the Lord’s will (Pss 1:2; 112:1). Since the coming of Christ and Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has been poured out on every believer. He has come not only to internalize the law of God (Jer 31:33) but also to help us develop Christian maturity by giving the fruits of godliness in greater fullness (Gal 5:22-24). Whereas maturity and freedom were experienced by some OT saints, it is God’s gift to all his children in Christ (Acts 2:39; 1 Cor 12:13). The purpose is still the same, “so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped [mature] for every good work” (2 Tm 3:17, <span>niv<\/span>), but the means to accomplish this and the status of the child of God is so much better since Pentecost.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Civil Law and Justice; Cleanness and Uncleanness, Regulations Concerning; Criminal Law and Punishment; Galatians, Letter to the; Hammurabi, Law Code of; Justification; Romans, Letter to the; Commandments, The Ten; Torah; Tradition.<\/p>","summary_ro":"LAW, Biblical Concept of God’s means of consecrating his people to himself. The nature and content of “law” may change, but the goal remains the same: maturity and conformity to the image of God. Preview • Historical Context • Law in the Old Testament • Israelite Law and the Ancient Near East • Old Testament Laws • Purposes of the Law Historical Context When man was created in God’s image, he received glory, rule, and provision for his daily sustenance from the Creator-King (Gn 1:27-30). Howe...","summary_en":"LAW, Biblical Concept of God’s means of consecrating his people to himself. The nature and content of “law” may change, but the goal remains the same: maturity and conformity to the image of God. Preview • Historical Context • Law in the Old Testament • Israelite Law and the Ancient Near East • Old Testament Laws • Purposes of the Law Historical Context When man was created in God’s image, he received glory, rule, and provision for his daily sustenance from the Creator-King (Gn 1:27-30). Howe...","source":"Articles\/L.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":24147,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Man","title_en":"Man","content_ro":"<h3>MAN<\/h3>\n<p>Human being, whether male or female.<\/p>\n<p>The biblical teaching on man begins with a right notion concerning God. The biblical perspective of anthropology (i.e., the study of man) is centrally displayed in the context of an elevated theology (i.e., the study of God). A high and reverent view of God leads to a noble and dignified view of man, whereas a poorly developed concept of God often produces a distorted perspective on man. Hence, man may be viewed more importantly than he ought, or man may be seen less important than is biblical. Either view is subbiblical. The place to begin a study of man (which in this article is used as a generic term for both male and female human beings) is with a view of God, his Creator.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"MansOrigin\">Man’s Origin<\/p>\n<p>Against the naturalistic, materialistic theories of origins, the biblical view starts with the assertion that the eternal God has created man, the most significant of all his created works. It is not necessary for one to subscribe to a particular chronological scenario for God’s work in the creation of man. Some Christians believe the Bible teaches a closed chronology in Genesis 1 made of six literal 24-hour days (cf. Gn 1:5, 8, 13, etc.), with the stunning, sudden appearance of man coming perhaps just some 6,000 years ago (cf. the chronologies associated with but not limited to Archbishop James Ussher, <em>Annales,<\/em> 1650–58). Some who hold this general viewpoint (sometimes called creation science) extend the creation of man to about 10,000 years ago, based on a view of some elasticity in the chronologies of Genesis 5 and 11.<\/p>\n<p>Others believe the texts of Genesis 1 and 2 may be interpreted far more broadly to speak of a most remote antiquity for the creation of man (extending to millions of years). They argue that process (under God’s control and direction) may have played a significant role in God’s creative work. This viewpoint is best termed progressive creationism, and is to be contrasted with theistic evolution, in which God is usually viewed as initiating the process but having little involvement once the processes are in motion. In the former approach, the Hebrew term “day” <em>(<\/em><span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">yom<\/span><em>)<\/em> in Genesis 1 may refer to an extended period of time (e.g., the “day-age” theory); thus, the phrasing “an evening and a morning, the <em>x<\/em>th day” may be a literary device to present successive scenes in the creative works of God through the processes of time.<\/p>\n<p>Many Christians find themselves somewhere between a conservative and a broad chronology for man’s origin. Yet in spite of individual preferences, one must give assent to God’s creative work in producing man in order to think biblically about man. The essence of faith begins in the words “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”<\/p>\n<p>Man is not only God’s creation but also the pinnacle of his creative effort. Long before modern precision in such things, the ancients were aware of man’s anatomical similarities with members of the animal kingdom. Yet despite these similarities, the biblical viewpoint never places man on the same level as animals—man is distinct, the high point of God’s creative work, the apex of his handicraft. The progression of the created things in Genesis 1 is climactic; all of God’s created work culminated in his fashioning of man.<\/p>\n<p>The distinct behavioral characteristics of man include language, toolmaking, and culture. Distinct experiential characteristics include reflective awareness, ethical concern, aesthetic urges, historical awareness, and metaphysical concern. These factors individually and collectively separate man from other forms of animal life. Man is far more than the “naked ape” of some modern evolutionary theories. But sociology alone does not suffice to explain the full nature of man. That is the subject of divine revelation.<\/p>\n<p>While man bears a continuity with God’s creation (assumed in the words of Gn 2:7, being fashioned from the dust of the earth), man is also distinct from all that precedes him because God breathed into him the breath of life so that he became a living soul (2:7). Man was created by God as male and female (1:27), meaning that what is said generally of man must be said of both the male and the female, and that the truest picture of what it means to be human will be found in the context of man and woman together. The commands to multiply and exercise sovereignty over the earth were given to both sexes as shared responsibility. Similarly, it is man as male and female that rebelled against God and bears the consequences of that primeval sin in the postfall world, and it is man as male and female that Christ came to redeem (cf. Gal 3:28). At the same time, the words “male” and “female” denote true distinctions. Many perceived gender differences may be culturally conditioned, yet the prime sexual distinctions between male (Hebrew, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">zakar<\/span><em>,<\/em> “the piercer”) and female (Hebrew, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">neqeba<\/span><em>,<\/em> “the pierced”) are divinely intended. It takes both male and female to exhibit the full image of God (see Gn 1:27).<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the most stunning biblical assertion respecting man is that God made man <em>in his image.<\/em> Of no other creature, not even the angels, is such a statement found. The words “in God’s image” in Genesis 1:26-28 are the basis for the psalmist’s paraphrase in Psalm 8:5, “for you have made him to lack but little of God” (literal translation; “lower than the angels,” Septuagint translation). The meaning of the phrase “the image of God” (Latin, <em>imago Dei<\/em>) has been the subject of much debate. Some have thought the phrase to refer to a physical representation of God, but this is doubtful in that God is spirit (cf. Jn 4:24). Others think the phrase refers to man’s personhood, which corresponds to the personality of God (having intellect, sensibilities, and will). Such qualities of man may be found in God’s image; however, these varied aspects of personality are also shared by other members of the animal kingdom and are not unique to the human species.<\/p>\n<p>The basic meaning of the word “image” (Hebrew, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">tselem<\/span>) is “shadow,” “representation,” or “likeness.” The image of God in man reveals God’s perspective of man’s worth and dignity as a representation or a shadow of himself in the created world. Ancient kings of Assyria were known to have physical images of themselves placed in outlying districts as a reminder to those who might be prone to forget that these areas were a part of the empire. So God has placed in man a shadow of himself, a representation of his presence, in the world that he has made.<\/p>\n<p>This view of God’s image in man seems to be confirmed by the immediate context in Genesis 1. Man, created in God’s image, is to have dominion over all of God’s other works (Gn 1:26; see also Ps 8:5). Further, as a representative of the Creator, man is to respond to him. Jesus’ assertion of the spirituality of God results in a response of worship in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:21-24).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"MansNature\">Man’s Nature<\/p>\n<p>One may tend to think of man in parts, but the biblical emphasis is on man as a whole. Debates continue on the tripartite (threefold) nature of man (cf. 1 Thes 5:23)—spirit, soul, and body—as against a bipartite (twofold) nature of man, material and immaterial. Though the Bible does seem to support both positions, the most important issue respecting the nature of man is his unity rather than the number of his parts. Hence, a biblical view of man begins in the assertion that one is a person made up of physical and nonphysical properties. In the words of Karl Barth, the human person is “bodily soul, as he is also besouled body.” There is no person in body only, nor can one easily think of a bodiless spirit as a person, except in a temporary, transitional state. The Hebrew term <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">nephesh<\/span><em>,<\/em> often translated “soul,” is best rendered “person” in most contexts. The Hebrew word <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">ruach<\/span> (“breath,” “wind,” “spirit”) and the Greek words <span class=\"greek\" lang=\"el\">pneuma<\/span> (“spirit”) and <span class=\"greek\" lang=\"el\">psuche<\/span> (“soul”) often speak of the immaterial part of man. This is no less real than the physical. A purely material, physical view of man is frightfully deficient. At the same time, an overemphasis on the spirit and a deemphasis on the physical is neither realistic nor balanced. One may say, “I am a person whose existence is presently very dependent upon my physical body. But I am more than body, more than flesh. When my body dies, I still live. When my flesh decays, I exist. But one day I shall live in a body again. For the notion of a disembodied spirit is not the full measure of my humanity. God’s ideal for me is to live my life in my [new] body. So in hope of the eternal state, I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.”<\/p>\n<p>One cannot go far in thinking of the nature of man from the biblical vantage point without first facing the problem of the fall. Genesis 3 suggests that unfallen man was immortal, that his powers of sexual reproduction were not originally bound in the pain in childbearing, and that his work was not troubled by reversals in nature. After the fall, however, all was changed: within man himself, between the male and the female, in his interaction with nature, and in his relationship with the Creator.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of the fall, man has become profoundly fallen, a fallenness extending to every part of his person. The phrase “total depravity” need not mean that one is as evil as he or she might be, but rather that the results of sin affect one’s whole being. At the time, the image of God in man continues in some way after the fall, providing the divine rationale for salvation (cf. Rom 5). It is essentially because of God’s estimation of the intrinsic worth of man that the divine justification of salvation may be maintained.<\/p>\n<p>The old debate between the essential goodness and the evil disposition of man finds its quandary and resolution in the Genesis account: God made man to consciously reflect the dignity and nobility of the Creator, yet man, by his own deliberate rebellion, turned against his Creator and continues, except by God’s grace, in the ensuing sin that marks his life. This resultant sin is both a quality of being in the fallen person, as well as numerous, continuing acts of pride and selfishness. Though the image of God in man was marred by the fall, it may be stimulated anew by the effective work of the Spirit of God as one comes to newness of life in Christ. This gracious work of God brings personal renewal, restoration of relationships with others, and fellowship with God.<\/p>\n<p>Man, then, who was created good by God, has become evil by his own devices, yet in God’s power he may recapture the good again. The rediscovery of what it means to be fully human is found in the life of Jesus, whose human life is the new beginning for man. Hence, Jesus is the new Adam; in his model there is a new beginning that replaces the former pattern.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"MansDestiny\">Man’s Destiny<\/p>\n<p>A biblical view of man must include a balanced statement respecting his divine origin, his rebellion against the grace of God, his judgment, and his prospect for redemption in the person of the Savior Jesus with the promise of eternal life. Man has a beginning and will live forever. This assertion is in stark contrast to naturalistic theories of origins and destinies. One of the most deceptive tendencies of modern thought is the concept “coming to terms with death.” People with no thought of God and no hope for eternity are encouraging each other to accept the inevitable decline and demise of their bodies as the natural end to human life. The biblical notion is that death in man is not natural at all.<\/p>\n<p>Death is an acquired trait, not the natural destiny of man. Death may be said of the body but not of the spirit. The biblical teaching is that while the body dies and decays, the person lives on in hope of a renewed body. Those who have come to know Christ go to be with him when their bodies die (Phil 1:23) and anticipate the resurrection of the body for eternal life to come (1 Cor 15:35-49). Those who die apart from Christ do not cease to exist but rather are assigned an eternal existence of conscious knowledge that they are separated from God and have fallen short of their destiny to enjoy his presence forever. The biblical teaching on the destiny of the lost is quite unpalatable for modern man. Even Christians who have generally high views of biblical inspiration may find themselves blanching at the thought of eternal punishment of the wicked. Yet the biblical doctrine of the final judgment of the wicked is as well established as most teachings in the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most dramatic truths in Scripture respecting the nature of man is to realize that it was for man that God initiated the salvation work that led to the incarnation of the eternal son of God. After his resurrection and ascension, the Lord Jesus Christ returned to his eternal position of glory and majesty in heaven, where he forever remains the God-man. As God, he shares all the attributes of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and as man, identifies with man. He reveals himself in a physical body, albeit the resurrection body, the firstfruits of the resurrection of all who are his. The incarnation, then, brought about an eternal change in deity. Only a very high view of the worth of man could have brought God to such a fundamental change in himself. As the writer to the Hebrews states, “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form” (Heb 2:14, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The final measure of our humanity is that man was made to worship God and to enjoy him forever. Such thoughts are not attributed to any other created being. Even the angels, who have maintained their perfect state and who worship the Father in conscious bliss, do not have quite the same relationship with God as do redeemed men (Heb 2:16).<\/p>\n<p>What is man? In Christ, man is all God means him to be, in majesty and dignity, and in joy before his throne forever.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Image of God; Man, Natural; Man, Old and New.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>MAN<\/h3>\n<p>Human being, whether male or female.<\/p>\n<p>The biblical teaching on man begins with a right notion concerning God. The biblical perspective of anthropology (i.e., the study of man) is centrally displayed in the context of an elevated theology (i.e., the study of God). A high and reverent view of God leads to a noble and dignified view of man, whereas a poorly developed concept of God often produces a distorted perspective on man. Hence, man may be viewed more importantly than he ought, or man may be seen less important than is biblical. Either view is subbiblical. The place to begin a study of man (which in this article is used as a generic term for both male and female human beings) is with a view of God, his Creator.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"MansOrigin\">Man’s Origin<\/p>\n<p>Against the naturalistic, materialistic theories of origins, the biblical view starts with the assertion that the eternal God has created man, the most significant of all his created works. It is not necessary for one to subscribe to a particular chronological scenario for God’s work in the creation of man. Some Christians believe the Bible teaches a closed chronology in Genesis 1 made of six literal 24-hour days (cf. Gn 1:5, 8, 13, etc.), with the stunning, sudden appearance of man coming perhaps just some 6,000 years ago (cf. the chronologies associated with but not limited to Archbishop James Ussher, <em>Annales,<\/em> 1650–58). Some who hold this general viewpoint (sometimes called creation science) extend the creation of man to about 10,000 years ago, based on a view of some elasticity in the chronologies of Genesis 5 and 11.<\/p>\n<p>Others believe the texts of Genesis 1 and 2 may be interpreted far more broadly to speak of a most remote antiquity for the creation of man (extending to millions of years). They argue that process (under God’s control and direction) may have played a significant role in God’s creative work. This viewpoint is best termed progressive creationism, and is to be contrasted with theistic evolution, in which God is usually viewed as initiating the process but having little involvement once the processes are in motion. In the former approach, the Hebrew term “day” <em>(<\/em><span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">yom<\/span><em>)<\/em> in Genesis 1 may refer to an extended period of time (e.g., the “day-age” theory); thus, the phrasing “an evening and a morning, the <em>x<\/em>th day” may be a literary device to present successive scenes in the creative works of God through the processes of time.<\/p>\n<p>Many Christians find themselves somewhere between a conservative and a broad chronology for man’s origin. Yet in spite of individual preferences, one must give assent to God’s creative work in producing man in order to think biblically about man. The essence of faith begins in the words “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”<\/p>\n<p>Man is not only God’s creation but also the pinnacle of his creative effort. Long before modern precision in such things, the ancients were aware of man’s anatomical similarities with members of the animal kingdom. Yet despite these similarities, the biblical viewpoint never places man on the same level as animals—man is distinct, the high point of God’s creative work, the apex of his handicraft. The progression of the created things in Genesis 1 is climactic; all of God’s created work culminated in his fashioning of man.<\/p>\n<p>The distinct behavioral characteristics of man include language, toolmaking, and culture. Distinct experiential characteristics include reflective awareness, ethical concern, aesthetic urges, historical awareness, and metaphysical concern. These factors individually and collectively separate man from other forms of animal life. Man is far more than the “naked ape” of some modern evolutionary theories. But sociology alone does not suffice to explain the full nature of man. That is the subject of divine revelation.<\/p>\n<p>While man bears a continuity with God’s creation (assumed in the words of Gn 2:7, being fashioned from the dust of the earth), man is also distinct from all that precedes him because God breathed into him the breath of life so that he became a living soul (2:7). Man was created by God as male and female (1:27), meaning that what is said generally of man must be said of both the male and the female, and that the truest picture of what it means to be human will be found in the context of man and woman together. The commands to multiply and exercise sovereignty over the earth were given to both sexes as shared responsibility. Similarly, it is man as male and female that rebelled against God and bears the consequences of that primeval sin in the postfall world, and it is man as male and female that Christ came to redeem (cf. Gal 3:28). At the same time, the words “male” and “female” denote true distinctions. Many perceived gender differences may be culturally conditioned, yet the prime sexual distinctions between male (Hebrew, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">zakar<\/span><em>,<\/em> “the piercer”) and female (Hebrew, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">neqeba<\/span><em>,<\/em> “the pierced”) are divinely intended. It takes both male and female to exhibit the full image of God (see Gn 1:27).<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the most stunning biblical assertion respecting man is that God made man <em>in his image.<\/em> Of no other creature, not even the angels, is such a statement found. The words “in God’s image” in Genesis 1:26-28 are the basis for the psalmist’s paraphrase in Psalm 8:5, “for you have made him to lack but little of God” (literal translation; “lower than the angels,” Septuagint translation). The meaning of the phrase “the image of God” (Latin, <em>imago Dei<\/em>) has been the subject of much debate. Some have thought the phrase to refer to a physical representation of God, but this is doubtful in that God is spirit (cf. Jn 4:24). Others think the phrase refers to man’s personhood, which corresponds to the personality of God (having intellect, sensibilities, and will). Such qualities of man may be found in God’s image; however, these varied aspects of personality are also shared by other members of the animal kingdom and are not unique to the human species.<\/p>\n<p>The basic meaning of the word “image” (Hebrew, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">tselem<\/span>) is “shadow,” “representation,” or “likeness.” The image of God in man reveals God’s perspective of man’s worth and dignity as a representation or a shadow of himself in the created world. Ancient kings of Assyria were known to have physical images of themselves placed in outlying districts as a reminder to those who might be prone to forget that these areas were a part of the empire. So God has placed in man a shadow of himself, a representation of his presence, in the world that he has made.<\/p>\n<p>This view of God’s image in man seems to be confirmed by the immediate context in Genesis 1. Man, created in God’s image, is to have dominion over all of God’s other works (Gn 1:26; see also Ps 8:5). Further, as a representative of the Creator, man is to respond to him. Jesus’ assertion of the spirituality of God results in a response of worship in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:21-24).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"MansNature\">Man’s Nature<\/p>\n<p>One may tend to think of man in parts, but the biblical emphasis is on man as a whole. Debates continue on the tripartite (threefold) nature of man (cf. 1 Thes 5:23)—spirit, soul, and body—as against a bipartite (twofold) nature of man, material and immaterial. Though the Bible does seem to support both positions, the most important issue respecting the nature of man is his unity rather than the number of his parts. Hence, a biblical view of man begins in the assertion that one is a person made up of physical and nonphysical properties. In the words of Karl Barth, the human person is “bodily soul, as he is also besouled body.” There is no person in body only, nor can one easily think of a bodiless spirit as a person, except in a temporary, transitional state. The Hebrew term <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">nephesh<\/span><em>,<\/em> often translated “soul,” is best rendered “person” in most contexts. The Hebrew word <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">ruach<\/span> (“breath,” “wind,” “spirit”) and the Greek words <span class=\"greek\" lang=\"el\">pneuma<\/span> (“spirit”) and <span class=\"greek\" lang=\"el\">psuche<\/span> (“soul”) often speak of the immaterial part of man. This is no less real than the physical. A purely material, physical view of man is frightfully deficient. At the same time, an overemphasis on the spirit and a deemphasis on the physical is neither realistic nor balanced. One may say, “I am a person whose existence is presently very dependent upon my physical body. But I am more than body, more than flesh. When my body dies, I still live. When my flesh decays, I exist. But one day I shall live in a body again. For the notion of a disembodied spirit is not the full measure of my humanity. God’s ideal for me is to live my life in my [new] body. So in hope of the eternal state, I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.”<\/p>\n<p>One cannot go far in thinking of the nature of man from the biblical vantage point without first facing the problem of the fall. Genesis 3 suggests that unfallen man was immortal, that his powers of sexual reproduction were not originally bound in the pain in childbearing, and that his work was not troubled by reversals in nature. After the fall, however, all was changed: within man himself, between the male and the female, in his interaction with nature, and in his relationship with the Creator.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of the fall, man has become profoundly fallen, a fallenness extending to every part of his person. The phrase “total depravity” need not mean that one is as evil as he or she might be, but rather that the results of sin affect one’s whole being. At the time, the image of God in man continues in some way after the fall, providing the divine rationale for salvation (cf. Rom 5). It is essentially because of God’s estimation of the intrinsic worth of man that the divine justification of salvation may be maintained.<\/p>\n<p>The old debate between the essential goodness and the evil disposition of man finds its quandary and resolution in the Genesis account: God made man to consciously reflect the dignity and nobility of the Creator, yet man, by his own deliberate rebellion, turned against his Creator and continues, except by God’s grace, in the ensuing sin that marks his life. This resultant sin is both a quality of being in the fallen person, as well as numerous, continuing acts of pride and selfishness. Though the image of God in man was marred by the fall, it may be stimulated anew by the effective work of the Spirit of God as one comes to newness of life in Christ. This gracious work of God brings personal renewal, restoration of relationships with others, and fellowship with God.<\/p>\n<p>Man, then, who was created good by God, has become evil by his own devices, yet in God’s power he may recapture the good again. The rediscovery of what it means to be fully human is found in the life of Jesus, whose human life is the new beginning for man. Hence, Jesus is the new Adam; in his model there is a new beginning that replaces the former pattern.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"MansDestiny\">Man’s Destiny<\/p>\n<p>A biblical view of man must include a balanced statement respecting his divine origin, his rebellion against the grace of God, his judgment, and his prospect for redemption in the person of the Savior Jesus with the promise of eternal life. Man has a beginning and will live forever. This assertion is in stark contrast to naturalistic theories of origins and destinies. One of the most deceptive tendencies of modern thought is the concept “coming to terms with death.” People with no thought of God and no hope for eternity are encouraging each other to accept the inevitable decline and demise of their bodies as the natural end to human life. The biblical notion is that death in man is not natural at all.<\/p>\n<p>Death is an acquired trait, not the natural destiny of man. Death may be said of the body but not of the spirit. The biblical teaching is that while the body dies and decays, the person lives on in hope of a renewed body. Those who have come to know Christ go to be with him when their bodies die (Phil 1:23) and anticipate the resurrection of the body for eternal life to come (1 Cor 15:35-49). Those who die apart from Christ do not cease to exist but rather are assigned an eternal existence of conscious knowledge that they are separated from God and have fallen short of their destiny to enjoy his presence forever. The biblical teaching on the destiny of the lost is quite unpalatable for modern man. Even Christians who have generally high views of biblical inspiration may find themselves blanching at the thought of eternal punishment of the wicked. Yet the biblical doctrine of the final judgment of the wicked is as well established as most teachings in the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most dramatic truths in Scripture respecting the nature of man is to realize that it was for man that God initiated the salvation work that led to the incarnation of the eternal son of God. After his resurrection and ascension, the Lord Jesus Christ returned to his eternal position of glory and majesty in heaven, where he forever remains the God-man. As God, he shares all the attributes of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and as man, identifies with man. He reveals himself in a physical body, albeit the resurrection body, the firstfruits of the resurrection of all who are his. The incarnation, then, brought about an eternal change in deity. Only a very high view of the worth of man could have brought God to such a fundamental change in himself. As the writer to the Hebrews states, “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form” (Heb 2:14, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The final measure of our humanity is that man was made to worship God and to enjoy him forever. Such thoughts are not attributed to any other created being. Even the angels, who have maintained their perfect state and who worship the Father in conscious bliss, do not have quite the same relationship with God as do redeemed men (Heb 2:16).<\/p>\n<p>What is man? In Christ, man is all God means him to be, in majesty and dignity, and in joy before his throne forever.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Image of God; Man, Natural; Man, Old and New.<\/p>","summary_ro":"MAN Human being, whether male or female. The biblical teaching on man begins with a right notion concerning God. The biblical perspective of anthropology (i.e., the study of man) is centrally displayed in the context of an elevated theology (i.e., the study of God). A high and reverent view of God leads to a noble and dignified view of man, whereas a poorly developed concept of God often produces a distorted perspective on man. Hence, man may be viewed more importantly than he ought, or man m...","summary_en":"MAN Human being, whether male or female. The biblical teaching on man begins with a right notion concerning God. The biblical perspective of anthropology (i.e., the study of man) is centrally displayed in the context of an elevated theology (i.e., the study of God). A high and reverent view of God leads to a noble and dignified view of man, whereas a poorly developed concept of God often produces a distorted perspective on man. Hence, man may be viewed more importantly than he ought, or man m...","source":"Articles\/M.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":27034,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Nations","title_en":"Nations","content_ro":"<h3>NATIONS<\/h3>\n<p>Groups formed on the basis of political or social interests or on kinship. Generally, the word “nations” implies peoples of the world other than the Hebrews, although it can also include the Jews.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Origins\">Origins<\/p>\n<p>The book of Genesis attributes to the three sons of Noah the origin of the various “families” or ethnic groups (about 70 in all) who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean regions (Gn 10). The narrative presupposes that each group has its own individual geographical location and language (vv 5, 20, 31). The story of the tower (ziggurat) of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven (ch 11), explains that ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically so that they might not collaborate on presumptuous ventures.<\/p>\n<p>Paul, in his sermon in Athens, assumes that the various nations had a common origin, just as the writer of Genesis did, and accepts as part of the design of God the fact that nations should be separated by geographical boundaries (Acts 17:26). The prophet Zephaniah looked forward to the day when God would reverse this state of affairs and cause all the nations to speak one language (Zep 3:9). The writer of Revelation, in his vision of the new heaven and the new earth, saw these natural boundaries abolished. The nations freely intermingle in the new Jerusalem (Rv 21:22-26).<\/p>\n<p>The distinction between “Israel” and “the nations” is not clear-cut. “Israel” evolved from various ethnic groups, and several of “the nations” traced their origins to prominent figures in the Israelite community. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, lived in Ur of the Chaldees in the delta region of the Tigris-Euphrates valley. With his father he migrated north to Haran, and finally southwest to the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31–12:9). Deuteronomy 26:5 (“a wandering Aramean was my father”) suggests Abraham’s residence was in the district of Mesopotamia known as Aram-naharaim. When Abraham entered into covenant with God, God gave him the token of the covenant relationship: circumcision. Foreigners purchased as slaves were circumcised, thus including them in the covenant community. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt into the wilderness, a mixed multitude also went up with them (Ex 12:38), which suggests again that people not biologically related nevertheless identified themselves with the people of Israel.<\/p>\n<p>The nation of Israel did not include all of those physically descended from Abraham. The first son of Abraham, Ishmael, had an Egyptian mother and is the ancestor of the Ishmaelites, bedouins who roamed the southern wilderness region (Gn 16). Of the twin sons born to Isaac and Rebekah, Esau, the firstborn, is the father of the Edomites living in the southeast, traditional enemies of Israel (Gn 25:23; Nm 20:21).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"GodandtheNations\">God and the Nations<\/p>\n<p>Scripture presents negative and positive attitudes toward the nations. The nations inhabiting the territory between the Tigris-Euphrates valley and the Nile River were wicked nations. Therefore, God took away their land and gave it to the descendants of Abraham (Gn 15:16-20). Incestuous relationships, adultery, homosexuality, and sexual relationships between men and animals characterized the nations and incurred God’s displeasure (Lv 18). The nations indulged in the practice of spiritism, augury, witchcraft, and necromancy, so the Hebrews were instructed to avoid such activities (19:26; 20:6). The nations worshiped many gods and included in their worship the practice of human sacrifice, often the sacrifice of children—a ritual that God abhors (Lv 20:1-5; 2 Kgs 17:29-34). The prophet Isaiah spoke scathingly of the craftsman who, taking a branch of a tree, used part of it to kindle a fire and fashioned from the remainder a graven image that he then worshiped (Is 44:12-20). The Baalim and Ashteroth, fertility gods of the Canaanites, were a constant source of temptation to the people of Israel. The message repeated throughout Scripture is that for these reasons God would drive out the nations and give their territory to Israel (Ex 34:24; Dt 12:29-31). The prophetic oracles against the nations reinforced this negative attitude (Jer 46–51; Am 1:3–2:3).<\/p>\n<p>However, the Scripture also reflects a more positive attitude toward the nations. As revealed in the book of Psalms, God is not only concerned about Israel; his eyes keep watch over the nations, and all the earth praises and worships him (Ps 66:1-8). The psalmist prays that God’s saving power may be known among all the nations. He affirms that God righteously judges the peoples and guides the nations. All the ends of the earth should fear him (67:7). The prophet Isaiah declares that the Jerusalem temple is to be a house of prayer for all peoples and that God welcomes the foreigner who comes with sacrifices and offering worship (Is 56:6-8). Isaiah’s vision of hope for the latter days pictures people of all nations pouring into Jerusalem to worship the Lord and learn his ways. Instead of nation warring against nation, all will live in peace, ruled by God (2:2-4).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheNationsintheNewTestament\">The Nations in the New Testament<\/p>\n<p>According to the Gospels, Jesus ministered not only to the Jews but also to the Gentile nations in accordance with ancient prophecy (Mt 4:15-16). Jesus taught in Galilee, a predominantly non-Jewish area, traveled to Tyre and Sidon (Mk 7:24) and through the Decapolis (v 31). He ministered to a Roman centurion (Lk 7:1-10), the widow of Nain (vv 11-17), and a Syrophoenician woman (Mk 7:26). People from Idumea came to observe his miracles (3:8).<\/p>\n<p>The teaching of Jesus was also wide in scope. The narrative of the great judgment (Mt 25:31-46) depicts all nations gathered before the Son of Man, and Jesus commissions the apostles to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19).<\/p>\n<p>Although the book of Acts does not overlook the nations’ role in the death of Jesus (Acts 4:27) and their role in opposing the ministry of Paul (26:17), it nevertheless clearly indicates that the church fulfilled its commission to present the gospel to non-Jewish peoples. Peter proclaims the message about Jesus to the household of Cornelius, a Roman soldier of the Italian Cohort (ch 10). Although the early church resisted the fact that non-Jewish peoples might freely receive the gift of the Spirit, they eventually welcomed this conclusion (11:1-8; 15:1-29). Paul traveled through Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, founding or visiting churches that were predominantly Gentile. The book of Acts ends dramatically with Paul preaching the gospel in the city of Rome, the heart of the Roman Empire.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>NATIONS<\/h3>\n<p>Groups formed on the basis of political or social interests or on kinship. Generally, the word “nations” implies peoples of the world other than the Hebrews, although it can also include the Jews.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Origins\">Origins<\/p>\n<p>The book of Genesis attributes to the three sons of Noah the origin of the various “families” or ethnic groups (about 70 in all) who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean regions (Gn 10). The narrative presupposes that each group has its own individual geographical location and language (vv 5, 20, 31). The story of the tower (ziggurat) of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven (ch 11), explains that ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically so that they might not collaborate on presumptuous ventures.<\/p>\n<p>Paul, in his sermon in Athens, assumes that the various nations had a common origin, just as the writer of Genesis did, and accepts as part of the design of God the fact that nations should be separated by geographical boundaries (Acts 17:26). The prophet Zephaniah looked forward to the day when God would reverse this state of affairs and cause all the nations to speak one language (Zep 3:9). The writer of Revelation, in his vision of the new heaven and the new earth, saw these natural boundaries abolished. The nations freely intermingle in the new Jerusalem (Rv 21:22-26).<\/p>\n<p>The distinction between “Israel” and “the nations” is not clear-cut. “Israel” evolved from various ethnic groups, and several of “the nations” traced their origins to prominent figures in the Israelite community. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, lived in Ur of the Chaldees in the delta region of the Tigris-Euphrates valley. With his father he migrated north to Haran, and finally southwest to the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31–12:9). Deuteronomy 26:5 (“a wandering Aramean was my father”) suggests Abraham’s residence was in the district of Mesopotamia known as Aram-naharaim. When Abraham entered into covenant with God, God gave him the token of the covenant relationship: circumcision. Foreigners purchased as slaves were circumcised, thus including them in the covenant community. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt into the wilderness, a mixed multitude also went up with them (Ex 12:38), which suggests again that people not biologically related nevertheless identified themselves with the people of Israel.<\/p>\n<p>The nation of Israel did not include all of those physically descended from Abraham. The first son of Abraham, Ishmael, had an Egyptian mother and is the ancestor of the Ishmaelites, bedouins who roamed the southern wilderness region (Gn 16). Of the twin sons born to Isaac and Rebekah, Esau, the firstborn, is the father of the Edomites living in the southeast, traditional enemies of Israel (Gn 25:23; Nm 20:21).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"GodandtheNations\">God and the Nations<\/p>\n<p>Scripture presents negative and positive attitudes toward the nations. The nations inhabiting the territory between the Tigris-Euphrates valley and the Nile River were wicked nations. Therefore, God took away their land and gave it to the descendants of Abraham (Gn 15:16-20). Incestuous relationships, adultery, homosexuality, and sexual relationships between men and animals characterized the nations and incurred God’s displeasure (Lv 18). The nations indulged in the practice of spiritism, augury, witchcraft, and necromancy, so the Hebrews were instructed to avoid such activities (19:26; 20:6). The nations worshiped many gods and included in their worship the practice of human sacrifice, often the sacrifice of children—a ritual that God abhors (Lv 20:1-5; 2 Kgs 17:29-34). The prophet Isaiah spoke scathingly of the craftsman who, taking a branch of a tree, used part of it to kindle a fire and fashioned from the remainder a graven image that he then worshiped (Is 44:12-20). The Baalim and Ashteroth, fertility gods of the Canaanites, were a constant source of temptation to the people of Israel. The message repeated throughout Scripture is that for these reasons God would drive out the nations and give their territory to Israel (Ex 34:24; Dt 12:29-31). The prophetic oracles against the nations reinforced this negative attitude (Jer 46–51; Am 1:3–2:3).<\/p>\n<p>However, the Scripture also reflects a more positive attitude toward the nations. As revealed in the book of Psalms, God is not only concerned about Israel; his eyes keep watch over the nations, and all the earth praises and worships him (Ps 66:1-8). The psalmist prays that God’s saving power may be known among all the nations. He affirms that God righteously judges the peoples and guides the nations. All the ends of the earth should fear him (67:7). The prophet Isaiah declares that the Jerusalem temple is to be a house of prayer for all peoples and that God welcomes the foreigner who comes with sacrifices and offering worship (Is 56:6-8). Isaiah’s vision of hope for the latter days pictures people of all nations pouring into Jerusalem to worship the Lord and learn his ways. Instead of nation warring against nation, all will live in peace, ruled by God (2:2-4).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheNationsintheNewTestament\">The Nations in the New Testament<\/p>\n<p>According to the Gospels, Jesus ministered not only to the Jews but also to the Gentile nations in accordance with ancient prophecy (Mt 4:15-16). Jesus taught in Galilee, a predominantly non-Jewish area, traveled to Tyre and Sidon (Mk 7:24) and through the Decapolis (v 31). He ministered to a Roman centurion (Lk 7:1-10), the widow of Nain (vv 11-17), and a Syrophoenician woman (Mk 7:26). People from Idumea came to observe his miracles (3:8).<\/p>\n<p>The teaching of Jesus was also wide in scope. The narrative of the great judgment (Mt 25:31-46) depicts all nations gathered before the Son of Man, and Jesus commissions the apostles to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19).<\/p>\n<p>Although the book of Acts does not overlook the nations’ role in the death of Jesus (Acts 4:27) and their role in opposing the ministry of Paul (26:17), it nevertheless clearly indicates that the church fulfilled its commission to present the gospel to non-Jewish peoples. Peter proclaims the message about Jesus to the household of Cornelius, a Roman soldier of the Italian Cohort (ch 10). Although the early church resisted the fact that non-Jewish peoples might freely receive the gift of the Spirit, they eventually welcomed this conclusion (11:1-8; 15:1-29). Paul traveled through Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, founding or visiting churches that were predominantly Gentile. The book of Acts ends dramatically with Paul preaching the gospel in the city of Rome, the heart of the Roman Empire.<\/p>","summary_ro":"NATIONS Groups formed on the basis of political or social interests or on kinship. Generally, the word “nations” implies peoples of the world other than the Hebrews, although it can also include the Jews. Origins The book of Genesis attributes to the three sons of Noah the origin of the various “families” or ethnic groups (about 70 in all) who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean regions (Gn 10). The narrative presupposes that each group has its own individual geographical location and languag...","summary_en":"NATIONS Groups formed on the basis of political or social interests or on kinship. Generally, the word “nations” implies peoples of the world other than the Hebrews, although it can also include the Jews. Origins The book of Genesis attributes to the three sons of Noah the origin of the various “families” or ethnic groups (about 70 in all) who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean regions (Gn 10). The narrative presupposes that each group has its own individual geographical location and languag...","source":"Articles\/N.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":27596,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Nimrod","title_en":"Nimrod","content_ro":"<h3>NIMROD<\/h3>\n<p>Cush’s son and grandson of Ham the son of Noah (Gn 10:8; 1 Chr 1:10). He is described as “the first man of might on earth” and “a mighty hunter” (Gn 10:8-9). Nimrod was the first to establish a great empire and was a well-known hunter. Tradition makes him ruler over Babylon and Akkad in southern Mesopotamia, and over Nineveh in Assyria. The phrase “land of Nimrod” seems to be synonymous with Assyria (Mi 5:6).<\/p>\n<p>The OT references to Nimrod indicate that in ancient tradition he was a man of indomitable personality, possessing extraordinary talents and powers. Some scholars identify him with a Mesopotamian king who united Assyria and Babylon in the 13th century <span>BC<\/span>. This conflicts with the statement connecting him with Cush the son of Ham and pointing to an association with the south of Egypt where Cush was located (Gn 10:8).<\/p>\n<p>The name and fame of Nimrod have a secure place in Talmudic Judaism and in Islamic tradition. In the former he personifies both rebellion against God and military might in the earth. In rabbinic tradition, the Tower of Babel (Gn 11:1-9) is “the house of Nimrod” where idolatry was practiced and divine homage offered to Nimrod. In Islam, Nimrod persecutes Abraham and has him thrown into a fiery furnace.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>NIMROD<\/h3>\n<p>Cush’s son and grandson of Ham the son of Noah (Gn 10:8; 1 Chr 1:10). He is described as “the first man of might on earth” and “a mighty hunter” (Gn 10:8-9). Nimrod was the first to establish a great empire and was a well-known hunter. Tradition makes him ruler over Babylon and Akkad in southern Mesopotamia, and over Nineveh in Assyria. The phrase “land of Nimrod” seems to be synonymous with Assyria (Mi 5:6).<\/p>\n<p>The OT references to Nimrod indicate that in ancient tradition he was a man of indomitable personality, possessing extraordinary talents and powers. Some scholars identify him with a Mesopotamian king who united Assyria and Babylon in the 13th century <span>BC<\/span>. This conflicts with the statement connecting him with Cush the son of Ham and pointing to an association with the south of Egypt where Cush was located (Gn 10:8).<\/p>\n<p>The name and fame of Nimrod have a secure place in Talmudic Judaism and in Islamic tradition. In the former he personifies both rebellion against God and military might in the earth. In rabbinic tradition, the Tower of Babel (Gn 11:1-9) is “the house of Nimrod” where idolatry was practiced and divine homage offered to Nimrod. In Islam, Nimrod persecutes Abraham and has him thrown into a fiery furnace.<\/p>","summary_ro":"NIMROD Cush’s son and grandson of Ham the son of Noah (Gn 10:8; 1 Chr 1:10). He is described as “the first man of might on earth” and “a mighty hunter” (Gn 10:8-9). Nimrod was the first to establish a great empire and was a well-known hunter. Tradition makes him ruler over Babylon and Akkad in southern Mesopotamia, and over Nineveh in Assyria. The phrase “land of Nimrod” seems to be synonymous with Assyria (Mi 5:6). The OT references to Nimrod indicate that in ancient tradition he was a man o...","summary_en":"NIMROD Cush’s son and grandson of Ham the son of Noah (Gn 10:8; 1 Chr 1:10). He is described as “the first man of might on earth” and “a mighty hunter” (Gn 10:8-9). Nimrod was the first to establish a great empire and was a well-known hunter. Tradition makes him ruler over Babylon and Akkad in southern Mesopotamia, and over Nineveh in Assyria. The phrase “land of Nimrod” seems to be synonymous with Assyria (Mi 5:6). The OT references to Nimrod indicate that in ancient tradition he was a man o...","source":"Articles\/N.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":29448,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Peleg","title_en":"Peleg","content_ro":"<h3>PELEG<\/h3>\n<p>Son of Eber and father of Reu (Gn 10:25; 11:16-19; 1 Chr 1:19, 25; Lk 3:35). During his lifetime, the earth was divided (Peleg means “division” or “watercourse”). Precisely what the division refers to is still debated. Suggestions include (1) the geographical and linguistic dispersion following the Tower of Babel fiasco (Gn 11:1-9); (2) dispersion of Noah’s descendants; (3) separation of the people of Arphaxad from Joktanide Arabs (Gn 10:24-29); and (4) the division of land by irrigation canals (the term is so used in Jb 29:6; 38:25; Is 30:25; 32:2). The origin of the name is usually traced to the city of Phalga, north of the junction of the Euphrates and Khabur rivers.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>PELEG<\/h3>\n<p>Son of Eber and father of Reu (Gn 10:25; 11:16-19; 1 Chr 1:19, 25; Lk 3:35). During his lifetime, the earth was divided (Peleg means “division” or “watercourse”). Precisely what the division refers to is still debated. Suggestions include (1) the geographical and linguistic dispersion following the Tower of Babel fiasco (Gn 11:1-9); (2) dispersion of Noah’s descendants; (3) separation of the people of Arphaxad from Joktanide Arabs (Gn 10:24-29); and (4) the division of land by irrigation canals (the term is so used in Jb 29:6; 38:25; Is 30:25; 32:2). The origin of the name is usually traced to the city of Phalga, north of the junction of the Euphrates and Khabur rivers.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","summary_ro":"PELEG Son of Eber and father of Reu (Gn 10:25; 11:16-19; 1 Chr 1:19, 25; Lk 3:35). During his lifetime, the earth was divided (Peleg means “division” or “watercourse”). Precisely what the division refers to is still debated. Suggestions include (1) the geographical and linguistic dispersion following the Tower of Babel fiasco (Gn 11:1-9); (2) dispersion of Noah’s descendants; (3) separation of the people of Arphaxad from Joktanide Arabs (Gn 10:24-29); and (4) the division of land by irrigatio...","summary_en":"PELEG Son of Eber and father of Reu (Gn 10:25; 11:16-19; 1 Chr 1:19, 25; Lk 3:35). During his lifetime, the earth was divided (Peleg means “division” or “watercourse”). Precisely what the division refers to is still debated. Suggestions include (1) the geographical and linguistic dispersion following the Tower of Babel fiasco (Gn 11:1-9); (2) dispersion of Noah’s descendants; (3) separation of the people of Arphaxad from Joktanide Arabs (Gn 10:24-29); and (4) the division of land by irrigatio...","source":"Articles\/P.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":39320,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Ziggurat*","title_en":"Ziggurat*","content_ro":"<h3>ZIGGURAT*<\/h3>\n<p>Term meaning “temple tower”; a ziggurat was similar in profile to the step pyramid of Egypt and was used for worship. They were frequent in the major cities of Mesopotamia. The Tower of Babel (Gn 11:1-9) is believed to have been of this construction. It was widely believed that deities dwelt above, in high places. Therefore, worship was more appropriate on hills or mountains. There are no hills in Mesopotamia, nor is there building stone. Consequently, the inhabitants built with mud brick. The ziggurats of mud brick were constructed as substitutes for hills, where the worshiper or priest could get closer to the gods. Like the pyramids of Egypt, these temple towers were square. Instead of having sloping sides, there was a succession of terraces, each smaller than the one below. Access to each level was by stairways or ramps. The shrine or altar was on top, where the priests would officiate at sacrifices, incantations, and prayers. The great seven-story ziggurat at Babylon measured nearly 300 feet (91.4 meters) on a side at the base and rose to about the same height.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>ZIGGURAT*<\/h3>\n<p>Term meaning “temple tower”; a ziggurat was similar in profile to the step pyramid of Egypt and was used for worship. They were frequent in the major cities of Mesopotamia. The Tower of Babel (Gn 11:1-9) is believed to have been of this construction. It was widely believed that deities dwelt above, in high places. Therefore, worship was more appropriate on hills or mountains. There are no hills in Mesopotamia, nor is there building stone. Consequently, the inhabitants built with mud brick. The ziggurats of mud brick were constructed as substitutes for hills, where the worshiper or priest could get closer to the gods. Like the pyramids of Egypt, these temple towers were square. Instead of having sloping sides, there was a succession of terraces, each smaller than the one below. Access to each level was by stairways or ramps. The shrine or altar was on top, where the priests would officiate at sacrifices, incantations, and prayers. The great seven-story ziggurat at Babylon measured nearly 300 feet (91.4 meters) on a side at the base and rose to about the same height.<\/p>","summary_ro":"ZIGGURAT* Term meaning “temple tower”; a ziggurat was similar in profile to the step pyramid of Egypt and was used for worship. They were frequent in the major cities of Mesopotamia. The Tower of Babel (Gn 11:1-9) is believed to have been of this construction. It was widely believed that deities dwelt above, in high places. Therefore, worship was more appropriate on hills or mountains. There are no hills in Mesopotamia, nor is there building stone. Consequently, the inhabitants built with mud...","summary_en":"ZIGGURAT* Term meaning “temple tower”; a ziggurat was similar in profile to the step pyramid of Egypt and was used for worship. They were frequent in the major cities of Mesopotamia. The Tower of Babel (Gn 11:1-9) is believed to have been of this construction. It was widely believed that deities dwelt above, in high places. Therefore, worship was more appropriate on hills or mountains. There are no hills in Mesopotamia, nor is there building stone. Consequently, the inhabitants built with mud...","source":"Articles\/Z.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":42991,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:1","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:1","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:1-9<\/strong> The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Chronologically, the story is a flashback that explains the rise of the nations during Peleg’s time (see Gen 10:25).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:1-9<\/strong> The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Chronologically, the story is a flashback that explains the rise of the nations during Peleg’s time (see Gen 10:25).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:1-9 The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Ch...","summary_en":"11:1-9 The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Ch...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":42992,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:1","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:1","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:1<\/strong> <em>At one time:<\/em> The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:1<\/strong> <em>At one time:<\/em> The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:1 At one time: The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).","summary_en":"11:1 At one time: The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70617,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:1","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:1","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:1-9<\/strong> The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Chronologically, the story is a flashback that explains the rise of the nations during Peleg’s time (see Gen 10:25).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:1-9<\/strong> The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Chronologically, the story is a flashback that explains the rise of the nations during Peleg’s time (see Gen 10:25).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:1-9 The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Ch...","summary_en":"11:1-9 The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Ch...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70618,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:1","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:1","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:1<\/strong> <em>At one time:<\/em> The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:1<\/strong> <em>At one time:<\/em> The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:1 At one time: The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).","summary_en":"11:1 At one time: The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98243,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:1","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:1","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:1-9<\/strong> The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Chronologically, the story is a flashback that explains the rise of the nations during Peleg’s time (see Gen 10:25).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:1-9<\/strong> The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Chronologically, the story is a flashback that explains the rise of the nations during Peleg’s time (see Gen 10:25).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:1-9 The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Ch...","summary_en":"11:1-9 The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Ch...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98244,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:1","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:1","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:1<\/strong> <em>At one time:<\/em> The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:1<\/strong> <em>At one time:<\/em> The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:1 At one time: The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).","summary_en":"11:1 At one time: The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125869,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:1","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:1","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:1-9<\/strong> The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Chronologically, the story is a flashback that explains the rise of the nations during Peleg’s time (see Gen 10:25).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:1-9<\/strong> The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Chronologically, the story is a flashback that explains the rise of the nations during Peleg’s time (see Gen 10:25).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:1-9 The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Ch...","summary_en":"11:1-9 The story of the unfinished tower carries forward themes of language and solidarity from the Table of Nations (ch 10). The builders’ desire for autonomy recalls the rebellion in Eden (ch 3) and establishes the need for Abram’s redemptive faith in the midst of international disorder (ch 12). The scattering of the nations anticipates the warning to Israel that idolatry would result in their being scattered and their cities devastated (see Lev 26:33; Num 10:35; Deut 4:27; 28:64; 30:3). Ch...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125870,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:1","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:1","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:1<\/strong> <em>At one time:<\/em> The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:1<\/strong> <em>At one time:<\/em> The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:1 At one time: The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).","summary_en":"11:1 At one time: The events described in 11:1-9 led to the scattering of nations that is reflected in the genealogies of 10:2-30. The reversal of order has a theological purpose (see study note on 10:1–11:9).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":59822,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":87448,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":115074,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":142700,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"2":[{"id":35151,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Shinar*","title_en":"Shinar*","content_ro":"<h3>SHINAR*<\/h3>\n<p>Name for a district of Babylonia mentioned exclusively in the Bible. The plain of Shinar comprised the region approximately from modern Baghdad to the Persian Gulf. In the ancient world this was the region of Sumer (south) and Akkad (north), which later became generally known as Babylonia (Dn 1:2, <span>nlt<\/span> mg). The renowned cities of Erech, Akkad, and Babel (Babylon) all were in Shinar as a part of the kingdom of Nimrod, son of Cush (Gn 10:10). Genesis 11:2 also mentions Shinar in connection with the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 14:1 and 9, we read about Amraphel, “king of Shinar,” who was part of an eastern league in war with Abraham and the residents of Transjordan. Shinar’s identification with a district of Babylon becomes clear in Israel’s exile. Shinar is the destination of Nebuchadnezzar’s new subjects (Dn 1:2) and the place of Israel’s later rescue (Is 11:11; cf. Zec 5:11).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Babylon, Babylonia.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>SHINAR*<\/h3>\n<p>Name for a district of Babylonia mentioned exclusively in the Bible. The plain of Shinar comprised the region approximately from modern Baghdad to the Persian Gulf. In the ancient world this was the region of Sumer (south) and Akkad (north), which later became generally known as Babylonia (Dn 1:2, <span>nlt<\/span> mg). The renowned cities of Erech, Akkad, and Babel (Babylon) all were in Shinar as a part of the kingdom of Nimrod, son of Cush (Gn 10:10). Genesis 11:2 also mentions Shinar in connection with the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 14:1 and 9, we read about Amraphel, “king of Shinar,” who was part of an eastern league in war with Abraham and the residents of Transjordan. Shinar’s identification with a district of Babylon becomes clear in Israel’s exile. Shinar is the destination of Nebuchadnezzar’s new subjects (Dn 1:2) and the place of Israel’s later rescue (Is 11:11; cf. Zec 5:11).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Babylon, Babylonia.<\/p>","summary_ro":"SHINAR* Name for a district of Babylonia mentioned exclusively in the Bible. The plain of Shinar comprised the region approximately from modern Baghdad to the Persian Gulf. In the ancient world this was the region of Sumer (south) and Akkad (north), which later became generally known as Babylonia (Dn 1:2, nlt mg). The renowned cities of Erech, Akkad, and Babel (Babylon) all were in Shinar as a part of the kingdom of Nimrod, son of Cush (Gn 10:10). Genesis 11:2 also mentions Shinar in connecti...","summary_en":"SHINAR* Name for a district of Babylonia mentioned exclusively in the Bible. The plain of Shinar comprised the region approximately from modern Baghdad to the Persian Gulf. In the ancient world this was the region of Sumer (south) and Akkad (north), which later became generally known as Babylonia (Dn 1:2, nlt mg). The renowned cities of Erech, Akkad, and Babel (Babylon) all were in Shinar as a part of the kingdom of Nimrod, son of Cush (Gn 10:10). Genesis 11:2 also mentions Shinar in connecti...","source":"Articles\/S.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":42993,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:2","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:2","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:2<\/strong> <em>migrated to the east:<\/em> See study note on 3:24. • <em>Babylonia<\/em> was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:2<\/strong> <em>migrated to the east:<\/em> See study note on 3:24. • <em>Babylonia<\/em> was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:2 migrated to the east: See study note on 3:24. • Babylonia was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).","summary_en":"11:2 migrated to the east: See study note on 3:24. • Babylonia was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70619,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:2","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:2","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:2<\/strong> <em>migrated to the east:<\/em> See study note on 3:24. • <em>Babylonia<\/em> was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:2<\/strong> <em>migrated to the east:<\/em> See study note on 3:24. • <em>Babylonia<\/em> was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:2 migrated to the east: See study note on 3:24. • Babylonia was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).","summary_en":"11:2 migrated to the east: See study note on 3:24. • Babylonia was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98245,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:2","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:2","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:2<\/strong> <em>migrated to the east:<\/em> See study note on 3:24. • <em>Babylonia<\/em> was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:2<\/strong> <em>migrated to the east:<\/em> See study note on 3:24. • <em>Babylonia<\/em> was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:2 migrated to the east: See study note on 3:24. • Babylonia was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).","summary_en":"11:2 migrated to the east: See study note on 3:24. • Babylonia was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125871,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:2","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:2","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:2<\/strong> <em>migrated to the east:<\/em> See study note on 3:24. • <em>Babylonia<\/em> was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:2<\/strong> <em>migrated to the east:<\/em> See study note on 3:24. • <em>Babylonia<\/em> was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:2 migrated to the east: See study note on 3:24. • Babylonia was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).","summary_en":"11:2 migrated to the east: See study note on 3:24. • Babylonia was located in southern Mesopotamia, the region of Nimrod’s later empire and city-building campaign (see 10:10; Isa 11:11; Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"3":[{"id":5163,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Bitumen*","title_en":"Bitumen*","content_ro":"<h3>BITUMEN*<\/h3>\n<p>Asphalt as found in its natural state; pitch, tar. “Bitumen” (<span>kjv<\/span> “slime”) was used for mortar in the Tower of Babel’s construction (Gn 11:3) and to seal the reed basket in which baby Moses was concealed (Ex 2:3). In Israel, the valley of Siddim was dotted with numerous bitumen pits into which a number of soldiers fell during Chedorlaomer’s war against Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn 14:10).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Asphalt; Minerals and Metals.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>BITUMEN*<\/h3>\n<p>Asphalt as found in its natural state; pitch, tar. “Bitumen” (<span>kjv<\/span> “slime”) was used for mortar in the Tower of Babel’s construction (Gn 11:3) and to seal the reed basket in which baby Moses was concealed (Ex 2:3). In Israel, the valley of Siddim was dotted with numerous bitumen pits into which a number of soldiers fell during Chedorlaomer’s war against Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn 14:10).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Asphalt; Minerals and Metals.<\/p>","summary_ro":"BITUMEN* Asphalt as found in its natural state; pitch, tar. “Bitumen” (kjv “slime”) was used for mortar in the Tower of Babel’s construction (Gn 11:3) and to seal the reed basket in which baby Moses was concealed (Ex 2:3). In Israel, the valley of Siddim was dotted with numerous bitumen pits into which a number of soldiers fell during Chedorlaomer’s war against Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn 14:10). See also Asphalt; Minerals and Metals.","summary_en":"BITUMEN* Asphalt as found in its natural state; pitch, tar. “Bitumen” (kjv “slime”) was used for mortar in the Tower of Babel’s construction (Gn 11:3) and to seal the reed basket in which baby Moses was concealed (Ex 2:3). In Israel, the valley of Siddim was dotted with numerous bitumen pits into which a number of soldiers fell during Chedorlaomer’s war against Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn 14:10). See also Asphalt; Minerals and Metals.","source":"Articles\/B.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":35666,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Slime*","title_en":"Slime*","content_ro":"<h3>SLIME*<\/h3>\n<p>KJV rendering of “asphalt” or “bitumen” in Genesis 11:3 and Exodus 2:3. <em>See<\/em> Asphalt; Bitumen.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>SLIME*<\/h3>\n<p>KJV rendering of “asphalt” or “bitumen” in Genesis 11:3 and Exodus 2:3. <em>See<\/em> Asphalt; Bitumen.<\/p>","summary_ro":"SLIME* KJV rendering of “asphalt” or “bitumen” in Genesis 11:3 and Exodus 2:3. See Asphalt; Bitumen.","summary_en":"SLIME* KJV rendering of “asphalt” or “bitumen” in Genesis 11:3 and Exodus 2:3. See Asphalt; Bitumen.","source":"Articles\/S.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":42994,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:3","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:3","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:3<\/strong> <em>Stone<\/em> was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • <em>Tar<\/em> was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:3<\/strong> <em>Stone<\/em> was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • <em>Tar<\/em> was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:3 Stone was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • Tar was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).","summary_en":"11:3 Stone was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • Tar was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70620,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:3","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:3","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:3<\/strong> <em>Stone<\/em> was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • <em>Tar<\/em> was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:3<\/strong> <em>Stone<\/em> was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • <em>Tar<\/em> was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:3 Stone was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • Tar was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).","summary_en":"11:3 Stone was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • Tar was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98246,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:3","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:3","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:3<\/strong> <em>Stone<\/em> was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • <em>Tar<\/em> was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:3<\/strong> <em>Stone<\/em> was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • <em>Tar<\/em> was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:3 Stone was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • Tar was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).","summary_en":"11:3 Stone was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • Tar was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125872,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:3","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:3","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:3<\/strong> <em>Stone<\/em> was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • <em>Tar<\/em> was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:3<\/strong> <em>Stone<\/em> was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • <em>Tar<\/em> was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:3 Stone was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • Tar was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).","summary_en":"11:3 Stone was plentiful in Canaan; in Mesopotamia, stone was scarce and brick technology was developed. • Tar was made from bitumen, a natural, cement-like, waterproof asphalt (see 6:14; Exod 2:3).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"4":[{"id":15560,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Head","title_en":"Head","content_ro":"<h3>HEAD<\/h3>\n<p>The uppermost portion of the body, containing the brain, major sense organs, and the mouth. It appears many times in the Bible as a physical description. The Hebrew term for <em>head<\/em> is also used figuratively in the Old Testament. Frequently, it designates prominence or authority.<\/p>\n<p>To raise one’s head was considered an act of pride (Ps 140:9) or honor (Gn 40:20; Pss 3:3; 27:6). Bowing the head signified humility (Is 58:5) or sadness (Lam 2:10). The Hebrew word is used metaphorically of mountain peaks (Gn 8:5), the tops of buildings (Gn 11:4) or trees (2 Sm 5:24), and river sources (Gn 2:10). The term was commonly used to designate positions of political, military, or familiar authority. In this sense the “head” exercised control over all those subjected to him (Jgs 10:18; 1 Sm 15:17; Ps 18:43; Is 7:8-9; Jer 31:7; Hos 1:11). David was called the “keeper of mine head” (<span>kjv<\/span>) when he served as the bodyguard of Achish (1 Sm 28:2; cf. Jgs 9:53; Ps 68:21).<\/p>\n<p>Greek philosophers used the image of the body to represent the universe. The head of this body—called Zeus or Reason—was considered responsible for the creation and sustenance of the remaining members (celestial beings, humans, animals, plants, and inanimate objects). The universe, or “body,” owed its existence to the “head.”<\/p>\n<p>Between 460 <span>BC<\/span> (the date usually ascribed to the first writings of Hippocrates) and <span>AD<\/span> 200 (the death of Galen, who developed Hippocrates’ findings), Greek medical science came to understand the head as the seat of intelligence. The body was able to operate efficiently only because the brain was capable of interpreting data received from the body (eyes, ears, skin, and so on), and because it was able to send out appropriate impulses to the various members of the body, based upon the data received. The ability of the brain to interpret and direct made the existence of the body completely dependent upon it.<\/p>\n<p>In the NT, the term refers to the actual human head (Mt 5:36; 6:17; 14:8; 26:7; Mk 6:27; 14:3; Lk 7:46; Jn 13:9; 20:7), to apocalyptic beings (Rv 1:14; 4:4; 12:1), and to animals (Rv 9:7, 17, 19; 12:3). Furthermore, it appears in such expressions as “to heap coals of fire upon the head,” meaning to return good for evil (Rom 12:20; cf. Mt 5:44); to “shear” or “anoint the head” expressing a vow (Acts 21:24); and “to lay down the head,” meaning to sleep (Mt 8:20; Lk 9:58).<\/p>\n<p>The apostle Paul drew from the OT metaphorical understanding of the term to express the headship of God over Christ, Christ over man, and man over woman (1 Cor 11:3-16; cf. Eph 5:23). In the light of these relationships, Paul encouraged women at Corinth to wear veils in worship. The veil gave a woman the authority to worship as an equal with men before God. The term is used again with the meaning “authority” to express the lordship of Christ over the universe (Eph 1:21-22; Col 2:10).<\/p>\n<p>Paul used the image of the head and body to express the relationship between Christ and his church (Eph 4:15; 5:23; cf. 1 Cor 12:12-27). In addition to the OT sense, the contributions of medical science in Paul’s day may provide insight into this image, for Christ is not only the dominant ruler over the church but also the dynamic force that provides its direction and unity. The ability of the church to exist and the focal point of its activity are rooted in the work of its “head,” Jesus Christ. In this light, various modern exegetes have argued that headship does not mean “authority” as much as it means “source,” as in the term “fountainhead.” Thus, he who is the head is the source, the supplier. These interpreters see God as being Christ’s supplier, and Christ being the church’s supplier, and man being woman’s supplier.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>HEAD<\/h3>\n<p>The uppermost portion of the body, containing the brain, major sense organs, and the mouth. It appears many times in the Bible as a physical description. The Hebrew term for <em>head<\/em> is also used figuratively in the Old Testament. Frequently, it designates prominence or authority.<\/p>\n<p>To raise one’s head was considered an act of pride (Ps 140:9) or honor (Gn 40:20; Pss 3:3; 27:6). Bowing the head signified humility (Is 58:5) or sadness (Lam 2:10). The Hebrew word is used metaphorically of mountain peaks (Gn 8:5), the tops of buildings (Gn 11:4) or trees (2 Sm 5:24), and river sources (Gn 2:10). The term was commonly used to designate positions of political, military, or familiar authority. In this sense the “head” exercised control over all those subjected to him (Jgs 10:18; 1 Sm 15:17; Ps 18:43; Is 7:8-9; Jer 31:7; Hos 1:11). David was called the “keeper of mine head” (<span>kjv<\/span>) when he served as the bodyguard of Achish (1 Sm 28:2; cf. Jgs 9:53; Ps 68:21).<\/p>\n<p>Greek philosophers used the image of the body to represent the universe. The head of this body—called Zeus or Reason—was considered responsible for the creation and sustenance of the remaining members (celestial beings, humans, animals, plants, and inanimate objects). The universe, or “body,” owed its existence to the “head.”<\/p>\n<p>Between 460 <span>BC<\/span> (the date usually ascribed to the first writings of Hippocrates) and <span>AD<\/span> 200 (the death of Galen, who developed Hippocrates’ findings), Greek medical science came to understand the head as the seat of intelligence. The body was able to operate efficiently only because the brain was capable of interpreting data received from the body (eyes, ears, skin, and so on), and because it was able to send out appropriate impulses to the various members of the body, based upon the data received. The ability of the brain to interpret and direct made the existence of the body completely dependent upon it.<\/p>\n<p>In the NT, the term refers to the actual human head (Mt 5:36; 6:17; 14:8; 26:7; Mk 6:27; 14:3; Lk 7:46; Jn 13:9; 20:7), to apocalyptic beings (Rv 1:14; 4:4; 12:1), and to animals (Rv 9:7, 17, 19; 12:3). Furthermore, it appears in such expressions as “to heap coals of fire upon the head,” meaning to return good for evil (Rom 12:20; cf. Mt 5:44); to “shear” or “anoint the head” expressing a vow (Acts 21:24); and “to lay down the head,” meaning to sleep (Mt 8:20; Lk 9:58).<\/p>\n<p>The apostle Paul drew from the OT metaphorical understanding of the term to express the headship of God over Christ, Christ over man, and man over woman (1 Cor 11:3-16; cf. Eph 5:23). In the light of these relationships, Paul encouraged women at Corinth to wear veils in worship. The veil gave a woman the authority to worship as an equal with men before God. The term is used again with the meaning “authority” to express the lordship of Christ over the universe (Eph 1:21-22; Col 2:10).<\/p>\n<p>Paul used the image of the head and body to express the relationship between Christ and his church (Eph 4:15; 5:23; cf. 1 Cor 12:12-27). In addition to the OT sense, the contributions of medical science in Paul’s day may provide insight into this image, for Christ is not only the dominant ruler over the church but also the dynamic force that provides its direction and unity. The ability of the church to exist and the focal point of its activity are rooted in the work of its “head,” Jesus Christ. In this light, various modern exegetes have argued that headship does not mean “authority” as much as it means “source,” as in the term “fountainhead.” Thus, he who is the head is the source, the supplier. These interpreters see God as being Christ’s supplier, and Christ being the church’s supplier, and man being woman’s supplier.<\/p>","summary_ro":"HEAD The uppermost portion of the body, containing the brain, major sense organs, and the mouth. It appears many times in the Bible as a physical description. The Hebrew term for head is also used figuratively in the Old Testament. Frequently, it designates prominence or authority. To raise one’s head was considered an act of pride (Ps 140:9) or honor (Gn 40:20; Pss 3:3; 27:6). Bowing the head signified humility (Is 58:5) or sadness (Lam 2:10). The Hebrew word is used metaphorically of mounta...","summary_en":"HEAD The uppermost portion of the body, containing the brain, major sense organs, and the mouth. It appears many times in the Bible as a physical description. The Hebrew term for head is also used figuratively in the Old Testament. Frequently, it designates prominence or authority. To raise one’s head was considered an act of pride (Ps 140:9) or honor (Gn 40:20; Pss 3:3; 27:6). Bowing the head signified humility (Is 58:5) or sadness (Lam 2:10). The Hebrew word is used metaphorically of mounta...","source":"Articles\/H.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":42995,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:4","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:4","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:4<\/strong> Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • <em>a tower that reaches into the sky:<\/em> This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • <em>This will make us famous<\/em> (literally <em>let us make a name for ourselves<\/em>): The tower builders sought fame through idolatrous ambition. God promised to give Abram a famous name because of his humble obedience (12:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:4<\/strong> Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • <em>a tower that reaches into the sky:<\/em> This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • <em>This will make us famous<\/em> (literally <em>let us make a name for ourselves<\/em>): The tower builders sought fame through idolatrous ambition. God promised to give Abram a famous name because of his humble obedience (12:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:4 Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • a tower that reaches into the sky: This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • This will mak...","summary_en":"11:4 Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • a tower that reaches into the sky: This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • This will mak...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70621,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:4","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:4","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:4<\/strong> Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • <em>a tower that reaches into the sky:<\/em> This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • <em>This will make us famous<\/em> (literally <em>let us make a name for ourselves<\/em>): The tower builders sought fame through idolatrous ambition. God promised to give Abram a famous name because of his humble obedience (12:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:4<\/strong> Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • <em>a tower that reaches into the sky:<\/em> This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • <em>This will make us famous<\/em> (literally <em>let us make a name for ourselves<\/em>): The tower builders sought fame through idolatrous ambition. God promised to give Abram a famous name because of his humble obedience (12:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:4 Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • a tower that reaches into the sky: This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • This will mak...","summary_en":"11:4 Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • a tower that reaches into the sky: This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • This will mak...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98247,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:4","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:4","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:4<\/strong> Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • <em>a tower that reaches into the sky:<\/em> This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • <em>This will make us famous<\/em> (literally <em>let us make a name for ourselves<\/em>): The tower builders sought fame through idolatrous ambition. God promised to give Abram a famous name because of his humble obedience (12:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:4<\/strong> Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • <em>a tower that reaches into the sky:<\/em> This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • <em>This will make us famous<\/em> (literally <em>let us make a name for ourselves<\/em>): The tower builders sought fame through idolatrous ambition. God promised to give Abram a famous name because of his humble obedience (12:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:4 Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • a tower that reaches into the sky: This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • This will mak...","summary_en":"11:4 Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • a tower that reaches into the sky: This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • This will mak...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125873,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:4","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:4","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:4<\/strong> Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • <em>a tower that reaches into the sky:<\/em> This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • <em>This will make us famous<\/em> (literally <em>let us make a name for ourselves<\/em>): The tower builders sought fame through idolatrous ambition. God promised to give Abram a famous name because of his humble obedience (12:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:4<\/strong> Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • <em>a tower that reaches into the sky:<\/em> This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • <em>This will make us famous<\/em> (literally <em>let us make a name for ourselves<\/em>): The tower builders sought fame through idolatrous ambition. God promised to give Abram a famous name because of his humble obedience (12:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:4 Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • a tower that reaches into the sky: This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • This will mak...","summary_en":"11:4 Far from the original garden (2:15), the first cities of Genesis represent arrogance (4:17), tyranny (10:8-12), and wickedness (18:20-21). The city on the Babylonian plain was a magnet for human pride and idolatry. • a tower that reaches into the sky: This was probably a temple-tower (a ziggurat). Common in ancient Babylonian urban culture, ziggurats were regarded as sacred mountains by which deities descended to earth (Jacob’s dream in 28:12 possibly reflects this idea). • This will mak...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":59813,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":87439,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":115065,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":142691,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"5":[{"id":42996,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:5","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:5","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:5<\/strong> <em>came down:<\/em> The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:5<\/strong> <em>came down:<\/em> The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:5 came down: The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.","summary_en":"11:5 came down: The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70622,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:5","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:5","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:5<\/strong> <em>came down:<\/em> The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:5<\/strong> <em>came down:<\/em> The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:5 came down: The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.","summary_en":"11:5 came down: The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98248,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:5","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:5","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:5<\/strong> <em>came down:<\/em> The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:5<\/strong> <em>came down:<\/em> The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:5 came down: The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.","summary_en":"11:5 came down: The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125874,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:5","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:5","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:5<\/strong> <em>came down:<\/em> The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:5<\/strong> <em>came down:<\/em> The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:5 came down: The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.","summary_en":"11:5 came down: The tower was a human attempt to ascend to God’s realm (see Deut 26:15; Pss 2:4; 103:19; 115:16). The folly of that attempt was exposed by God’s “coming down” to see their feeble efforts.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"6":[{"id":42997,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:6","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:6","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:6<\/strong> If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:6<\/strong> If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:6 If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.","summary_en":"11:6 If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70623,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:6","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:6","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:6<\/strong> If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:6<\/strong> If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:6 If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.","summary_en":"11:6 If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98249,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:6","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:6","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:6<\/strong> If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:6<\/strong> If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:6 If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.","summary_en":"11:6 If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125875,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:6","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:6","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:6<\/strong> If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:6<\/strong> If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:6 If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.","summary_en":"11:6 If left unchecked, the tower builders’ solidarity and ambition would allow human wickedness to flourish in unimaginable ways.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"7":[{"id":42998,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:7","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:7","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:7<\/strong> <em>Come, let’s go down:<\/em> God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • <em>won’t be able to understand each other:<\/em> Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:7<\/strong> <em>Come, let’s go down:<\/em> God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • <em>won’t be able to understand each other:<\/em> Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:7 Come, let’s go down: God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • won’t be able to understand each other: Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).","summary_en":"11:7 Come, let’s go down: God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • won’t be able to understand each other: Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70624,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:7","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:7","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:7<\/strong> <em>Come, let’s go down:<\/em> God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • <em>won’t be able to understand each other:<\/em> Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:7<\/strong> <em>Come, let’s go down:<\/em> God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • <em>won’t be able to understand each other:<\/em> Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:7 Come, let’s go down: God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • won’t be able to understand each other: Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).","summary_en":"11:7 Come, let’s go down: God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • won’t be able to understand each other: Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98250,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:7","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:7","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:7<\/strong> <em>Come, let’s go down:<\/em> God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • <em>won’t be able to understand each other:<\/em> Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:7<\/strong> <em>Come, let’s go down:<\/em> God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • <em>won’t be able to understand each other:<\/em> Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:7 Come, let’s go down: God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • won’t be able to understand each other: Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).","summary_en":"11:7 Come, let’s go down: God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • won’t be able to understand each other: Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125876,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:7","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:7","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:7<\/strong> <em>Come, let’s go down:<\/em> God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • <em>won’t be able to understand each other:<\/em> Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:7<\/strong> <em>Come, let’s go down:<\/em> God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • <em>won’t be able to understand each other:<\/em> Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:7 Come, let’s go down: God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • won’t be able to understand each other: Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).","summary_en":"11:7 Come, let’s go down: God addresses his angelic court (see 1:26; 3:22; and study notes). • won’t be able to understand each other: Their inability to communicate would curtail their unified sinful ambition. The God-honoring unity of language on the day of Pentecost was a symbolic reversal of the Babel dispersion (Acts 2:5-13; see Zeph 3:9).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":59814,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":87440,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":115066,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":142692,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"8":[{"id":42999,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:8","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:8","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:8<\/strong> <em>the<\/em> <span>Lord<\/span><em> scattered them:<\/em> Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:8<\/strong> <em>the<\/em> <span>Lord<\/span><em> scattered them:<\/em> Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:8 the Lord scattered them: Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).","summary_en":"11:8 the Lord scattered them: Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70625,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:8","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:8","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:8<\/strong> <em>the<\/em> <span>Lord<\/span><em> scattered them:<\/em> Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:8<\/strong> <em>the<\/em> <span>Lord<\/span><em> scattered them:<\/em> Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:8 the Lord scattered them: Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).","summary_en":"11:8 the Lord scattered them: Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98251,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:8","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:8","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:8<\/strong> <em>the<\/em> <span>Lord<\/span><em> scattered them:<\/em> Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:8<\/strong> <em>the<\/em> <span>Lord<\/span><em> scattered them:<\/em> Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:8 the Lord scattered them: Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).","summary_en":"11:8 the Lord scattered them: Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125877,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:8","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:8","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:8<\/strong> <em>the<\/em> <span>Lord<\/span><em> scattered them:<\/em> Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:8<\/strong> <em>the<\/em> <span>Lord<\/span><em> scattered them:<\/em> Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:8 the Lord scattered them: Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).","summary_en":"11:8 the Lord scattered them: Similarly, Adam and Eve’s punishment for grasping at autonomy and Cain’s punishment for murder involved banishment and dispersion (3:23; 4:12, 14; 9:19; 10:5, 25, 32).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"9":[{"id":3442,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Babel","title_en":"Babel","content_ro":"<h3>BABEL<\/h3>\n<p>Translation of a Hebrew word in Genesis 10:10 and 11:9. Elsewhere it is translated “Babylonia” or “Babylon” (see 2 Kgs 17:24). The rendering “Babel” in the Genesis passages is intended to relate the name to the early cultural setting reflected by Genesis 11:1-9, especially to the attempt to build a “tower.” The translation “Babel” is also intended to associate the Tower of Babel incident with the popular understanding that Babel is derived from a root meaning “to confuse” (v 9).<\/p>\n<p>Archaeological excavations have provided information about the building of towers for temples called ziggurats. The excavation of a number of such towers has made it clear they were structures consisting of several platforms, each of lesser dimensions than the one immediately below it. The top platform served as the location for a small temple dedicated to the particular deity of the builder or of the city in which it was built.<\/p>\n<p>The first ziggurat at Babylon was built by Shar-kali-sharri, king of Akkad in the latter part of the 23d century <span>BC<\/span>. Archaeologists understand that this ziggurat was destroyed and rebuilt several times across the centuries. It apparently lay in ruins from sometime around 2000 <span>BC<\/span> to around 1830 <span>BC<\/span>, at which time a forebear of Hammurabi (1728–1636 <span>BC<\/span>) founded or rebuilt the city named Bab-ilu, or Babel.<\/p>\n<p>The Babylonian Creation Epic gives details concerning the construction of a “celestial city” as the proper abode of Marduk. It was with this theological understanding that the name Babel, “gate of god,” was a significant term. Other terminology associated with the temple built for Marduk and with the ziggurat suggests that Babel, for the early Babylonians, was the on-earth entrance into the heavenly or celestial realm.<\/p>\n<p>Jewish and Arab traditions associate the Tower of Babel of Genesis with a large temple ruin dedicated originally to Nabu in the city of Borsippa, or Birs-Nimrod.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Babylon, Babylonia.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>BABEL<\/h3>\n<p>Translation of a Hebrew word in Genesis 10:10 and 11:9. Elsewhere it is translated “Babylonia” or “Babylon” (see 2 Kgs 17:24). The rendering “Babel” in the Genesis passages is intended to relate the name to the early cultural setting reflected by Genesis 11:1-9, especially to the attempt to build a “tower.” The translation “Babel” is also intended to associate the Tower of Babel incident with the popular understanding that Babel is derived from a root meaning “to confuse” (v 9).<\/p>\n<p>Archaeological excavations have provided information about the building of towers for temples called ziggurats. The excavation of a number of such towers has made it clear they were structures consisting of several platforms, each of lesser dimensions than the one immediately below it. The top platform served as the location for a small temple dedicated to the particular deity of the builder or of the city in which it was built.<\/p>\n<p>The first ziggurat at Babylon was built by Shar-kali-sharri, king of Akkad in the latter part of the 23d century <span>BC<\/span>. Archaeologists understand that this ziggurat was destroyed and rebuilt several times across the centuries. It apparently lay in ruins from sometime around 2000 <span>BC<\/span> to around 1830 <span>BC<\/span>, at which time a forebear of Hammurabi (1728–1636 <span>BC<\/span>) founded or rebuilt the city named Bab-ilu, or Babel.<\/p>\n<p>The Babylonian Creation Epic gives details concerning the construction of a “celestial city” as the proper abode of Marduk. It was with this theological understanding that the name Babel, “gate of god,” was a significant term. Other terminology associated with the temple built for Marduk and with the ziggurat suggests that Babel, for the early Babylonians, was the on-earth entrance into the heavenly or celestial realm.<\/p>\n<p>Jewish and Arab traditions associate the Tower of Babel of Genesis with a large temple ruin dedicated originally to Nabu in the city of Borsippa, or Birs-Nimrod.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Babylon, Babylonia.<\/p>","summary_ro":"BABEL Translation of a Hebrew word in Genesis 10:10 and 11:9. Elsewhere it is translated “Babylonia” or “Babylon” (see 2 Kgs 17:24). The rendering “Babel” in the Genesis passages is intended to relate the name to the early cultural setting reflected by Genesis 11:1-9, especially to the attempt to build a “tower.” The translation “Babel” is also intended to associate the Tower of Babel incident with the popular understanding that Babel is derived from a root meaning “to confuse” (v 9). Archaeo...","summary_en":"BABEL Translation of a Hebrew word in Genesis 10:10 and 11:9. Elsewhere it is translated “Babylonia” or “Babylon” (see 2 Kgs 17:24). The rendering “Babel” in the Genesis passages is intended to relate the name to the early cultural setting reflected by Genesis 11:1-9, especially to the attempt to build a “tower.” The translation “Babel” is also intended to associate the Tower of Babel incident with the popular understanding that Babel is derived from a root meaning “to confuse” (v 9). Archaeo...","source":"Articles\/B.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":22497,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Land","title_en":"Land","content_ro":"<h3>LAND<\/h3>\n<p>The relationship of humans to the land is a prominent theme in the OT. In Genesis the earth with its dry land was created as a place for humans to dwell in fellowship with God. Humans were given the task of subduing the earth and ruling over the animal creation to satisfy their own needs and to bring glory to the Creator. Subsequent to humanity’s fall into sin they suffered alienation not only from God and their fellow human beings but also from the land on which they lived. They were driven from the Garden of Eden, and the earth became cursed. They were forced to toil and sweat in order to subdue the earth and provide for their own subsistence because the harvest was choked by thorns and thistles.<\/p>\n<p>After murdering his brother, Cain receives an individual intensification of the land curse as punishment. He is told that the earth will not yield its produce for him even with hard labor, forcing him to wander from one place to another. With no permanent homeland, Cain is denied the enjoyment of rest and prosperity. Because of sin, the important human aspiration for a sense of place is refused to Cain (Gn 4:12).<\/p>\n<p>After the Flood, which was God’s judgment on an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again provoked God’s wrath; the construction of the Tower of Babel exalts human might apart from God. God intervenes to confuse the people’s language and “scatter them abroad upon the face of the earth” (11:9). Genesis 1–11 is thus characterized by a sequence of narratives describing land loss with its attendant deprivations as a consequence of sin and rebellion against God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"LandandtheAbrahamicCovenant\">Land and the Abrahamic Covenant<\/p>\n<p>In the time of Abraham, God intervened in human affairs to provide a special homeland for a select group of people who are set apart unto himself. It is here that the Promised Land theme is introduced in Scripture. God said to Abraham, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will cause you to become the father of a great nation” (Gn 12:1-2, <span>nlt<\/span>). This promise to Abraham is enlarged upon in Genesis 12:7; 13:14-18; 15:7-21; 17:7-8. Abraham is told that the land of Canaan is to be the “everlasting possession” of his descendants (17:8).<\/p>\n<p>The OT narrative then traces Abraham’s line of descent through Isaac and Jacob, and tells of the migration of Jacob’s family to Egypt, where during approximately four centuries they became a great and numerous people. During this period, the promise of possession of the land of Canaan is reiterated (Gn 28:15; 35:11-12; 46:3-4; 50:24) and held before Abraham’s descendants as an integral feature of God’s covenantal promises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"LandandtheMosaicCovenant\">Land and the Mosaic Covenant<\/p>\n<p>When God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he associated Moses’ task with the fulfillment of the promises to the patriarchs: “I have remembered my covenant with them. . . . I will make you my own special people, and I will be your God. . . . I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It will be your very own property” (Ex 6:5-8, <span>nlt<\/span>). Israel is to be delivered from Egypt for two reasons: first, in order to be established as God’s covenant people at Mt Sinai, and second, in order to possess the land promised to their fathers. It is of utmost significance, however, that with the establishment of the Mosaic covenant the continued possession of the land is made dependent on obedience. Should Israel violate the covenantal obligations, it will bring upon itself the covenant curses, the most severe of which is banishment from the Promised Land (Lv 26:32-33). This does not mean that God will abandon his people and the land totally or forever, because God also promises that when the people repent, “then I will remember my covenant with Jacob . . . and I will remember the land” (Lv 26:42, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>During the reign of King David, the promise of land received at least a provisional fulfillment. Although it is true that initial fulfillment occurred when Joshua entered the land, at that time the territory did not extend to the borders promised Abraham (Gn 15:18) and much of the land that was occupied still contained pockets of resistance by the former inhabitants (Jos 13:1-6; Jgs 1). It was not until the time of David that the land was fully possessed as originally promised (2 Sm 8; 1 Kgs 4:21, 24).<\/p>\n<p>The responsibility of the king to observe the law, and the connection between covenantal obedience and possession of the land is again made clear when Solomon dedicates the temple (1 Kgs 9:4-9). Disobedience will bring not only expulsion from the land but also the destruction of the temple.<\/p>\n<p>The subsequent history of the divided-kingdom era is for the most part a history of covenant abrogation, by the people as well as the kings. The Lord sent repeated warnings through the prophets that such disobedience could only lead to expulsion from the land. But their message fell on deaf ears (Is 6:11-12; Am 5:27; 7:17; Hos 9:17). The kings repeatedly proved themselves to be unworthy of the office.<\/p>\n<p>As the people persisted in their evil way, Jeremiah announced that Nebuchadnezzar was to be the Lord’s agent to drive them from the land (Jer 21:2; 22:25; 25:8-9; 27:6; 28:14; 29:21). However, Jeremiah and other prophets also looked beyond the exile to a future restoration and return to the land (Jer 32:6-25). Historically, this was accomplished under the rule of Cyrus the Great of Persia (538 <span>BC<\/span>) and is described in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.<\/p>\n<p>A difficulty of interpretation arises in finding an adequate fulfillment of certain prophecies of the return (cf. Ez 37; Am 9:14-15), which envision great prosperity and permanent possession of the land under the rule of a Davidic king. The intertestamental period does not seem to be a suitable fulfillment for these predictions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"LandandtheNewCovenant\">Land and the New Covenant<\/p>\n<p>In the NT the land theme is much less prominent and seems mostly to be given a spiritual symbolism. The writer of Hebrews suggests that Abraham understood the land promise as something that pointed beyond a merely geographical fulfillment to a higher and far more satisfying heavenly home. Realizing the imperfection and transitory nature of all that this world offers, Abraham looked beyond the temporal fulfillment of the land promise for a city whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11:10), and he sought a “better country, that is, a heavenly one” (v 16). In the NT it appears that Israel’s land promise and entrance into Canaan is to be understood as typifying something of the future heavenly rest awaiting God’s people (Heb 3–4). Perhaps this explains the OT stress on the connection between Israel’s living in obedience to God’s law and their possession of the land. When the Israelites do not typify a condition of holiness, they disqualify themselves from typifying a condition of blessedness, and thus are either denied access to or driven from the land. The NT indicates that it is God’s purpose to prepare an eternal homeland for his people where the rule of the divine King is direct and just, where all things are subject to his will, where death and sin are abolished, and where the needs of his people are completely satisfied (Heb 11:13-16; Rv 21).<\/p>\n<p>The OT land promises have been viewed by some as having only typical significance. In the light of Christ’s incarnation any statement of Scripture concerning a future for the land is to be interpreted as fulfilled in a spiritual sense in the church. The church is now the new Israel and heir of the OT promises. Because God’s kingdom is now a spiritual reality, it is considered a misunderstanding of the OT to expect yet future fulfillments of the OT prophecies of Israel’s return to the land and an establishment of a period of peace and prosperity under the rule of Christ, the Son of David (cf. Is 2:1-5; 11:6-11; Ez 37; Am 9:14-15). To abide in Christ is considered an adequate fulfillment of the physical and geographical promises of the OT economy.<\/p>\n<p>Others, while not denying typical significance for these OT realities, would suggest that the land promises are still operative in the physical and geographical categories in which they were given. It is pointed out that Paul argues in Romans 9–11 that there is yet a future for national Israel. In spite of Israel’s history of disobedience, climaxing in the rejection of the Messiah, the election and calling of God is irrevocable, and Israel is yet to be reingrafted in the olive tree from which it had previously been cut off. Luke says that Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (Lk 21:24), indicating that there is to be a future time when Jerusalem will again be possessed by the Jewish nation. This does not necessarily mean that one must view the present state of Israel as the direct fulfillment of the OT promises of return to the land. The OT indicates that the return will be occasioned by belief (Dt 30:1-16). The present return is in unbelief. At the same time, the remarkable preservation of the Jewish people over the centuries and the recent reestablishment of the nation are perhaps to be understood as anticipations or signs of a future and more complete realization of the OT land promises.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>LAND<\/h3>\n<p>The relationship of humans to the land is a prominent theme in the OT. In Genesis the earth with its dry land was created as a place for humans to dwell in fellowship with God. Humans were given the task of subduing the earth and ruling over the animal creation to satisfy their own needs and to bring glory to the Creator. Subsequent to humanity’s fall into sin they suffered alienation not only from God and their fellow human beings but also from the land on which they lived. They were driven from the Garden of Eden, and the earth became cursed. They were forced to toil and sweat in order to subdue the earth and provide for their own subsistence because the harvest was choked by thorns and thistles.<\/p>\n<p>After murdering his brother, Cain receives an individual intensification of the land curse as punishment. He is told that the earth will not yield its produce for him even with hard labor, forcing him to wander from one place to another. With no permanent homeland, Cain is denied the enjoyment of rest and prosperity. Because of sin, the important human aspiration for a sense of place is refused to Cain (Gn 4:12).<\/p>\n<p>After the Flood, which was God’s judgment on an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again provoked God’s wrath; the construction of the Tower of Babel exalts human might apart from God. God intervenes to confuse the people’s language and “scatter them abroad upon the face of the earth” (11:9). Genesis 1–11 is thus characterized by a sequence of narratives describing land loss with its attendant deprivations as a consequence of sin and rebellion against God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"LandandtheAbrahamicCovenant\">Land and the Abrahamic Covenant<\/p>\n<p>In the time of Abraham, God intervened in human affairs to provide a special homeland for a select group of people who are set apart unto himself. It is here that the Promised Land theme is introduced in Scripture. God said to Abraham, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will cause you to become the father of a great nation” (Gn 12:1-2, <span>nlt<\/span>). This promise to Abraham is enlarged upon in Genesis 12:7; 13:14-18; 15:7-21; 17:7-8. Abraham is told that the land of Canaan is to be the “everlasting possession” of his descendants (17:8).<\/p>\n<p>The OT narrative then traces Abraham’s line of descent through Isaac and Jacob, and tells of the migration of Jacob’s family to Egypt, where during approximately four centuries they became a great and numerous people. During this period, the promise of possession of the land of Canaan is reiterated (Gn 28:15; 35:11-12; 46:3-4; 50:24) and held before Abraham’s descendants as an integral feature of God’s covenantal promises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"LandandtheMosaicCovenant\">Land and the Mosaic Covenant<\/p>\n<p>When God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he associated Moses’ task with the fulfillment of the promises to the patriarchs: “I have remembered my covenant with them. . . . I will make you my own special people, and I will be your God. . . . I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It will be your very own property” (Ex 6:5-8, <span>nlt<\/span>). Israel is to be delivered from Egypt for two reasons: first, in order to be established as God’s covenant people at Mt Sinai, and second, in order to possess the land promised to their fathers. It is of utmost significance, however, that with the establishment of the Mosaic covenant the continued possession of the land is made dependent on obedience. Should Israel violate the covenantal obligations, it will bring upon itself the covenant curses, the most severe of which is banishment from the Promised Land (Lv 26:32-33). This does not mean that God will abandon his people and the land totally or forever, because God also promises that when the people repent, “then I will remember my covenant with Jacob . . . and I will remember the land” (Lv 26:42, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>During the reign of King David, the promise of land received at least a provisional fulfillment. Although it is true that initial fulfillment occurred when Joshua entered the land, at that time the territory did not extend to the borders promised Abraham (Gn 15:18) and much of the land that was occupied still contained pockets of resistance by the former inhabitants (Jos 13:1-6; Jgs 1). It was not until the time of David that the land was fully possessed as originally promised (2 Sm 8; 1 Kgs 4:21, 24).<\/p>\n<p>The responsibility of the king to observe the law, and the connection between covenantal obedience and possession of the land is again made clear when Solomon dedicates the temple (1 Kgs 9:4-9). Disobedience will bring not only expulsion from the land but also the destruction of the temple.<\/p>\n<p>The subsequent history of the divided-kingdom era is for the most part a history of covenant abrogation, by the people as well as the kings. The Lord sent repeated warnings through the prophets that such disobedience could only lead to expulsion from the land. But their message fell on deaf ears (Is 6:11-12; Am 5:27; 7:17; Hos 9:17). The kings repeatedly proved themselves to be unworthy of the office.<\/p>\n<p>As the people persisted in their evil way, Jeremiah announced that Nebuchadnezzar was to be the Lord’s agent to drive them from the land (Jer 21:2; 22:25; 25:8-9; 27:6; 28:14; 29:21). However, Jeremiah and other prophets also looked beyond the exile to a future restoration and return to the land (Jer 32:6-25). Historically, this was accomplished under the rule of Cyrus the Great of Persia (538 <span>BC<\/span>) and is described in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.<\/p>\n<p>A difficulty of interpretation arises in finding an adequate fulfillment of certain prophecies of the return (cf. Ez 37; Am 9:14-15), which envision great prosperity and permanent possession of the land under the rule of a Davidic king. The intertestamental period does not seem to be a suitable fulfillment for these predictions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"LandandtheNewCovenant\">Land and the New Covenant<\/p>\n<p>In the NT the land theme is much less prominent and seems mostly to be given a spiritual symbolism. The writer of Hebrews suggests that Abraham understood the land promise as something that pointed beyond a merely geographical fulfillment to a higher and far more satisfying heavenly home. Realizing the imperfection and transitory nature of all that this world offers, Abraham looked beyond the temporal fulfillment of the land promise for a city whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11:10), and he sought a “better country, that is, a heavenly one” (v 16). In the NT it appears that Israel’s land promise and entrance into Canaan is to be understood as typifying something of the future heavenly rest awaiting God’s people (Heb 3–4). Perhaps this explains the OT stress on the connection between Israel’s living in obedience to God’s law and their possession of the land. When the Israelites do not typify a condition of holiness, they disqualify themselves from typifying a condition of blessedness, and thus are either denied access to or driven from the land. The NT indicates that it is God’s purpose to prepare an eternal homeland for his people where the rule of the divine King is direct and just, where all things are subject to his will, where death and sin are abolished, and where the needs of his people are completely satisfied (Heb 11:13-16; Rv 21).<\/p>\n<p>The OT land promises have been viewed by some as having only typical significance. In the light of Christ’s incarnation any statement of Scripture concerning a future for the land is to be interpreted as fulfilled in a spiritual sense in the church. The church is now the new Israel and heir of the OT promises. Because God’s kingdom is now a spiritual reality, it is considered a misunderstanding of the OT to expect yet future fulfillments of the OT prophecies of Israel’s return to the land and an establishment of a period of peace and prosperity under the rule of Christ, the Son of David (cf. Is 2:1-5; 11:6-11; Ez 37; Am 9:14-15). To abide in Christ is considered an adequate fulfillment of the physical and geographical promises of the OT economy.<\/p>\n<p>Others, while not denying typical significance for these OT realities, would suggest that the land promises are still operative in the physical and geographical categories in which they were given. It is pointed out that Paul argues in Romans 9–11 that there is yet a future for national Israel. In spite of Israel’s history of disobedience, climaxing in the rejection of the Messiah, the election and calling of God is irrevocable, and Israel is yet to be reingrafted in the olive tree from which it had previously been cut off. Luke says that Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (Lk 21:24), indicating that there is to be a future time when Jerusalem will again be possessed by the Jewish nation. This does not necessarily mean that one must view the present state of Israel as the direct fulfillment of the OT promises of return to the land. The OT indicates that the return will be occasioned by belief (Dt 30:1-16). The present return is in unbelief. At the same time, the remarkable preservation of the Jewish people over the centuries and the recent reestablishment of the nation are perhaps to be understood as anticipations or signs of a future and more complete realization of the OT land promises.<\/p>","summary_ro":"LAND The relationship of humans to the land is a prominent theme in the OT. In Genesis the earth with its dry land was created as a place for humans to dwell in fellowship with God. Humans were given the task of subduing the earth and ruling over the animal creation to satisfy their own needs and to bring glory to the Creator. Subsequent to humanity’s fall into sin they suffered alienation not only from God and their fellow human beings but also from the land on which they lived. They were dr...","summary_en":"LAND The relationship of humans to the land is a prominent theme in the OT. In Genesis the earth with its dry land was created as a place for humans to dwell in fellowship with God. Humans were given the task of subduing the earth and ruling over the animal creation to satisfy their own needs and to bring glory to the Creator. Subsequent to humanity’s fall into sin they suffered alienation not only from God and their fellow human beings but also from the land on which they lived. They were dr...","source":"Articles\/L.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":43000,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:9","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:9","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:9<\/strong> <em>Babel:<\/em> The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s realm (Gen 11:3-4). God descended and <em>scattered them all over the world<\/em> to frustrate their idolatrous ambition.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:9<\/strong> <em>Babel:<\/em> The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s realm (Gen 11:3-4). God descended and <em>scattered them all over the world<\/em> to frustrate their idolatrous ambition.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:9 Babel: The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s real...","summary_en":"11:9 Babel: The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s real...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70626,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:9","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:9","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:9<\/strong> <em>Babel:<\/em> The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s realm (Gen 11:3-4). God descended and <em>scattered them all over the world<\/em> to frustrate their idolatrous ambition.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:9<\/strong> <em>Babel:<\/em> The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s realm (Gen 11:3-4). God descended and <em>scattered them all over the world<\/em> to frustrate their idolatrous ambition.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:9 Babel: The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s real...","summary_en":"11:9 Babel: The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s real...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98252,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:9","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:9","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:9<\/strong> <em>Babel:<\/em> The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s realm (Gen 11:3-4). God descended and <em>scattered them all over the world<\/em> to frustrate their idolatrous ambition.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:9<\/strong> <em>Babel:<\/em> The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s realm (Gen 11:3-4). God descended and <em>scattered them all over the world<\/em> to frustrate their idolatrous ambition.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:9 Babel: The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s real...","summary_en":"11:9 Babel: The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s real...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125878,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:9","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:9","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:9<\/strong> <em>Babel:<\/em> The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s realm (Gen 11:3-4). God descended and <em>scattered them all over the world<\/em> to frustrate their idolatrous ambition.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:9<\/strong> <em>Babel:<\/em> The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s realm (Gen 11:3-4). God descended and <em>scattered them all over the world<\/em> to frustrate their idolatrous ambition.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:9 Babel: The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s real...","summary_en":"11:9 Babel: The Babylonians viewed their city as the residence or gateway of the gods. The pun that concludes this account accurately reveals Babylon’s spiritual confusion. Babylon achieved prominence under Nimrod (10:10) and in later biblical history (see 2 Kgs 25:1-30). Its role as an epicenter of arrogance and idolatry make it a fitting image for the anti-God forces associated with the end of time (e.g., Rev 14:8; 16:19; 18:2). • The tower builders had centralized to ascend into God’s real...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":59815,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":87441,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":115067,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":142693,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","title_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations","content_ro":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Babel: The Dispersion of Nations<\/h3>\n<p>The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord. God saw the danger that this posed: Their independence and arrogance would set them right back into a whirlpool of wickedness and, ultimately, destruction. So God intervened to “confuse the people with different languages” (11:7) and “[scatter] them all over the world” (11:9). Babel thus begins the history of differences and misunderstandings between peoples and nations who cannot understand one another’s languages and cultures—a separation that only begins to be reversed with the coming of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2).<\/p>\n<p>After the dispersion of the nations at Babel, God renewed his relationship with humanity in Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-9). In contrast with the people at Babel, Abraham was righteous because he “believed the <span>Lord<\/span>” and lived by faith in God rather than pride in his accomplishments (15:6; 17:1; 18:19; 26:5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:1-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","summary_en":"Babel: The Dispersion of Nations The story of the tower of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven, explains how nations and ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically. After the Flood, when God had judged an exceedingly wicked human race, humans again rebelled against their Creator by constructing a tower “that reaches into the sky” (Gen 11:4). Instead of worshiping the Lord, their intention was to exalt themselves and unify themselves apart from the Lord...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"10":[{"id":2785,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Arphaxad","title_en":"Arphaxad","content_ro":"<h3>ARPHAXAD<\/h3>\n<p>Shem’s son and Noah’s grandson, born two years after the Flood. Arphaxad’s descendants were probably the Chaldeans (Gn 10:22-24; 11:10-13; 1 Chr 1:17-18, 24; Lk 3:36). Arphaxad was born two years after the Flood when his father was one hundred years old (Gn 11:10) and was the grandfather of Eber, whom some believe was ancestor of the Hebrews (1 Chr 1:17-25; Lk 3:35-36).<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>ARPHAXAD<\/h3>\n<p>Shem’s son and Noah’s grandson, born two years after the Flood. Arphaxad’s descendants were probably the Chaldeans (Gn 10:22-24; 11:10-13; 1 Chr 1:17-18, 24; Lk 3:36). Arphaxad was born two years after the Flood when his father was one hundred years old (Gn 11:10) and was the grandfather of Eber, whom some believe was ancestor of the Hebrews (1 Chr 1:17-25; Lk 3:35-36).<\/p>","summary_ro":"ARPHAXAD Shem’s son and Noah’s grandson, born two years after the Flood. Arphaxad’s descendants were probably the Chaldeans (Gn 10:22-24; 11:10-13; 1 Chr 1:17-18, 24; Lk 3:36). Arphaxad was born two years after the Flood when his father was one hundred years old (Gn 11:10) and was the grandfather of Eber, whom some believe was ancestor of the Hebrews (1 Chr 1:17-25; Lk 3:35-36).","summary_en":"ARPHAXAD Shem’s son and Noah’s grandson, born two years after the Flood. Arphaxad’s descendants were probably the Chaldeans (Gn 10:22-24; 11:10-13; 1 Chr 1:17-18, 24; Lk 3:36). Arphaxad was born two years after the Flood when his father was one hundred years old (Gn 11:10) and was the grandfather of Eber, whom some believe was ancestor of the Hebrews (1 Chr 1:17-25; Lk 3:35-36).","source":"Articles\/A.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":12447,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"the Flood","title_en":"the Flood","content_ro":"<h3>FLOOD, The<\/h3>\n<p>Rising and overflowing of water to cover the land, specifically the flood of Noah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"BiblicalAccount\">Biblical Account<\/p>\n<p>The narrative of Noah’s flood, found in Genesis 6–9, is referred to frequently elsewhere in the Bible, in each case being mentioned as a historical event (Gn 10:1, 32; 11:10; Mt 24:38-39; Lk 17:27; 2 Pt 2:5). According to the biblical account, God brought about the Flood because of human society’s increasing deterioration, which finally reached a point where “the wickedness of man was great in the earth” (Gn 6:5, <span>rsv<\/span>). God determined to destroy the race and to begin again with a new people who would obey him (cf. Gn 1:26-28). Of all the people on earth, only Noah, his sons, and their wives remained faithful to the Lord. They became God’s means of repopulating the earth following its watery destruction. After a period of 120 years’ preparation, during which Noah built a great ship and preached God’s coming judgment (Gn 6:3; cf. Heb 11:7; 1 Pt 3:20; 2 Pt 2:5), the Flood came in the form of heavy rain, giving rise to subterranean waters (Gn 7:11). Only the selected pairs of land animals brought aboard the vessel were saved from the onslaught. For more than a year the waters prevailed, until finally the waters receded and the earth was dry and habitable again (Gn 7:6-12, 24; 8:3-6, 10-14). When Noah and his family left the ark, they offered sacrifices to God in thanksgiving. God then promised that he would never again destroy the earth by a flood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"ExtentoftheFlood\">Extent of the Flood<\/p>\n<p>Scholars who view the flood account as history are divided as to its geographical extent. An objective reading of the story would seem to indicate that the whole earth was flooded, even to the height of the highest mountains (Gn 7:17-20; 8:4). Some have argued that waters high enough to cover “all the high mountains under the whole heaven” (7:19, <span>rsv<\/span>) would extend over the entire earth. Some advocates of a local flood respond that the narrative uses the language of appearance (that is, to Noah it <em>appeared<\/em> that all the earth was flooded). Thus a universal flood was unnecessary, for God wished to destroy only the human race, which at that time may have lived only in Mesopotamia. Others point out translation difficulties in the use of the word “earth.” In Genesis 1:1, it is part of an ancient idiomatic expression denoting totality (“heaven and earth” means “cosmos”). Sometimes “earth” describes a person’s country (Gn 47:13), the soil itself (23:15), and so on. Thus, one should not necessarily assume that the use of the word in the Genesis flood story implies the complete inundation of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Some advocates of a universal flood use the presence of marine fossils on the tops of the world’s highest mountains in support of their arguments. But others disagree, saying that since all the mountains originally emerged from the seas, they would be expected to preserve traces of their marine ancestry on their summits. One’s view on the matter must be determined in the final analysis on theological considerations as well as interpretive factors. <em>See<\/em> “Scientific Evidence for the Flood?”.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Gilgamesh Epic; Noah #1.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>FLOOD, The<\/h3>\n<p>Rising and overflowing of water to cover the land, specifically the flood of Noah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"BiblicalAccount\">Biblical Account<\/p>\n<p>The narrative of Noah’s flood, found in Genesis 6–9, is referred to frequently elsewhere in the Bible, in each case being mentioned as a historical event (Gn 10:1, 32; 11:10; Mt 24:38-39; Lk 17:27; 2 Pt 2:5). According to the biblical account, God brought about the Flood because of human society’s increasing deterioration, which finally reached a point where “the wickedness of man was great in the earth” (Gn 6:5, <span>rsv<\/span>). God determined to destroy the race and to begin again with a new people who would obey him (cf. Gn 1:26-28). Of all the people on earth, only Noah, his sons, and their wives remained faithful to the Lord. They became God’s means of repopulating the earth following its watery destruction. After a period of 120 years’ preparation, during which Noah built a great ship and preached God’s coming judgment (Gn 6:3; cf. Heb 11:7; 1 Pt 3:20; 2 Pt 2:5), the Flood came in the form of heavy rain, giving rise to subterranean waters (Gn 7:11). Only the selected pairs of land animals brought aboard the vessel were saved from the onslaught. For more than a year the waters prevailed, until finally the waters receded and the earth was dry and habitable again (Gn 7:6-12, 24; 8:3-6, 10-14). When Noah and his family left the ark, they offered sacrifices to God in thanksgiving. God then promised that he would never again destroy the earth by a flood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"ExtentoftheFlood\">Extent of the Flood<\/p>\n<p>Scholars who view the flood account as history are divided as to its geographical extent. An objective reading of the story would seem to indicate that the whole earth was flooded, even to the height of the highest mountains (Gn 7:17-20; 8:4). Some have argued that waters high enough to cover “all the high mountains under the whole heaven” (7:19, <span>rsv<\/span>) would extend over the entire earth. Some advocates of a local flood respond that the narrative uses the language of appearance (that is, to Noah it <em>appeared<\/em> that all the earth was flooded). Thus a universal flood was unnecessary, for God wished to destroy only the human race, which at that time may have lived only in Mesopotamia. Others point out translation difficulties in the use of the word “earth.” In Genesis 1:1, it is part of an ancient idiomatic expression denoting totality (“heaven and earth” means “cosmos”). Sometimes “earth” describes a person’s country (Gn 47:13), the soil itself (23:15), and so on. Thus, one should not necessarily assume that the use of the word in the Genesis flood story implies the complete inundation of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Some advocates of a universal flood use the presence of marine fossils on the tops of the world’s highest mountains in support of their arguments. But others disagree, saying that since all the mountains originally emerged from the seas, they would be expected to preserve traces of their marine ancestry on their summits. One’s view on the matter must be determined in the final analysis on theological considerations as well as interpretive factors. <em>See<\/em> “Scientific Evidence for the Flood?”.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Gilgamesh Epic; Noah #1.<\/p>","summary_ro":"FLOOD, The Rising and overflowing of water to cover the land, specifically the flood of Noah. Biblical Account The narrative of Noah’s flood, found in Genesis 6–9, is referred to frequently elsewhere in the Bible, in each case being mentioned as a historical event (Gn 10:1, 32; 11:10; Mt 24:38-39; Lk 17:27; 2 Pt 2:5). According to the biblical account, God brought about the Flood because of human society’s increasing deterioration, which finally reached a point where “the wickedness of man wa...","summary_en":"FLOOD, The Rising and overflowing of water to cover the land, specifically the flood of Noah. Biblical Account The narrative of Noah’s flood, found in Genesis 6–9, is referred to frequently elsewhere in the Bible, in each case being mentioned as a historical event (Gn 10:1, 32; 11:10; Mt 24:38-39; Lk 17:27; 2 Pt 2:5). According to the biblical account, God brought about the Flood because of human society’s increasing deterioration, which finally reached a point where “the wickedness of man wa...","source":"Articles\/F.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":13411,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Genealogy","title_en":"Genealogy","content_ro":"<h3>GENEALOGY<\/h3>\n<p>Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium <span>BC<\/span> contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 <span>BC<\/span>) referred to his “father,” Sesostris III, who lived some 1,200 years before him. Greeks and Romans also kept genealogical records. However, the biblical genealogies, especially those in Genesis and 1 Chronicles 1–9, are unique in the literature of the ancient Near East. Only at the beginning of the Islamic age are such broad genealogical records found. Even today among tribal Semites, such as Arab nomads, there is an intense interest in genealogy, and it is not unusual for an Arab to be able to recite accurately the names of his ancestors for 10 or 15 generations back, covering a period of several hundred years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TermsUsed\">Terms Used<\/p>\n<p>The word “genealogy” occurs only once as a noun in the Hebrew OT (Neh 7:5), where it refers to a register of those who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel at the end of the exile. The verbal form of the same word is found a total of 20 times in 1—2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The terms “generations” and “book of the generations,” used in Genesis and elsewhere in the OT, convey the same idea. The equivalent NT terms are found in 1 Timothy 1:4 and Titus 3:9 (“genealogies”) and Matthew 1:1, which refers to the “book of the genealogy” of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PurposeofGenealogicalRecords\">Purpose of Genealogical Records<\/p>\n<p>The keeping of genealogical records in ancient Israel was an important activity and served a number of useful purposes. God’s promise of a land to Abraham and his descendants made such records necessary to establish and preserve the allotment of the land; a genealogical record served as evidence of a legitimate title to the ancestral property. Genealogies were essential for the preservation of the exclusive priesthood that had been established by the Mosaic law. In the time of Josephus every priest was supposed to be able to prove his descent.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most important reasons for keeping genealogical records was to establish and maintain the right of royal succession in Judah through the family of David. The belief that the Messiah would come from the Davidic house made such records even more important.<\/p>\n<p>Other purposes served by these family records included the imposition of military duty according to families (Nm 1:2-3). Position in camp and on the march from Egypt was determined by tribes and families (2:2, 17; 10:11-28). Also, God’s blessings were passed from one member of the family to his descendants (Gn 27). The stress placed on the purity of the congregation (Dt 7:1-4; 23:1-8) required complete family records, particularly in the postexilic period. With the insistence of Ezra and Nehemiah upon racial purity, and with the purging of foreign elements from among the people (Ezr 2:59-63; 10:9-44; Neh 13:23-28), written evidence of purity of descent became essential; interest in the compilation of genealogies became intense after the exile.<\/p>\n<p>Lineage was ordinarily traced through the male members of the family, with females being mentioned only rarely (e.g., Gn 11:29, Sarah and Milcah; 22:23, Rebekah; and Nm 26:33–27:11, where the property inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad was involved). Matthew mentions three women: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth; and in the second group alludes to Bathsheba (see discussion below).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrincipalGenealogicalListsintheBible\">Principal Genealogical Lists in the Bible<\/p>\n<p>The principal sources of genealogical material in the OT are found in Genesis, Numbers, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1—2 Chronicles (which contain the greatest amount of genealogical material in the Bible), Ezra, and Nehemiah. The genealogies of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 are the only NT records. Together they contain a genealogical record from Adam to Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Grouped together by historical periods, the following are the principal genealogical lists found in the Bible:<\/p>\n<h5>Before the Flood<\/h5>\n<p>Three lists are from this period. The first, found in Genesis 4:17-22, traces the descendants of Cain through seven generations and explains the hereditary origin of certain occupations and crafts. The second, Genesis 4:25-26, begins the account of the descendants of Seth, the posterity of Adam whose faithfulness to God is contrasted with the ungodly posterity of Cain. The third list, Genesis 5:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:1-4), traces the descendants of Adam through Seth down to Noah and his sons at the time of the Flood.<\/p>\n<h5>From Noah to Abraham<\/h5>\n<p>Genesis 10:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:4-23), frequently called the “table of nations,” contains a list of the nations descended from the sons of Noah (Shem, Ham, and Japheth). Genesis 11:10-26 (cf. 1 Chr 1:24-27) traces the descendants of Shem to the time of Abraham, and Genesis 11:27-30 (see also Gn 22:20-24) lists the descendants of Nahor, Abraham’s brother.<\/p>\n<h5>From Abraham to the Descent into Egypt<\/h5>\n<p>The descendants of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah are found in Genesis 16:15, 21:1-3, and 25:1-4 (introducing the Arabs as descendants of Abraham; cf. 1 Chr 1:28-34). Genesis 19:37-38 links the Moabites and Ammonites to Abraham through his nephew Lot. A very important genealogical list during this period is that of the descendants of Jacob, giving the account of the parentage, birth, and naming of the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel (Gn 29:31–30:24; 35:16-26). Esau is acknowledged as the ancestor of the Edomites; his Edomite descendants are traced through his three wives (Gn 26:34; 36:1-43; 1 Chr 1:35-54). The list of Jacob’s family at the time he entered Egypt, numbering 70, is found in Genesis 46:1-27 (cf. Ex 6:14-16; Nm 26:1-51; 1 Chr 2–8). A partial list of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi is found in Exodus 6:14-25; the chief purpose of this genealogy is to establish Aaron and Moses as members of Levi’s tribe.<\/p>\n<h5>From the Exodus to the Conquest of Canaan<\/h5>\n<p>While the tribes were still in the desert after leaving Egypt, a census was taken to determine the total number of Israelites (Nm 1:4-54; 2:2-33). During this same period, a genealogy of the family of Aaron was compiled, and a separate census was taken of the Levites (3:1-39). A list of the 12 spies who searched out the land and the tribes they represented is given in Numbers 13:4-16; the most important names on this list are Caleb and Joshua. Near the end of the wilderness wanderings, another census of the people was ordered; the total number was approximately the same as that of the first census almost 40 years earlier (26:4-51, 57-62). As the tribes neared the Promised Land, a list was prepared of the tribal representatives who would take part in the division of the land (34:16-29).<\/p>\n<h5>Period of the Kings<\/h5>\n<p>During the entire period of the monarchy, over 400 years, the only genealogical records of any consequence are those that pertain to David. His descendants are traced through 20 rulers who sat upon the throne of Judah until the nation fell to the Babylonians in 586 <span>BC<\/span> (1—2 Kgs; cf. 1 Chr 11:1—2 Chr 36:21). A list of David’s children is found in 2 Samuel 3:2-5 and 5:14-16 (cf. 1 Chr 3:1-9; 14:4-7). His mighty men, an elite group of soldiers, are named in 2 Samuel 23:8-39 (cf. 1 Chr 11:10-47). His recruits at Ziklag are recorded in 1 Chronicles 12:1-22. Those who were his musicians and doorkeepers when the ark was brought to Jerusalem are named in 1 Chronicles 15:1-24 (cf. 1 Chr 16:5-6, 37-43). David’s political and religious organization of the kingdom—including the Levites, priests, singers, porters and other administrative officials, and military officers—is found in 1 Chronicles 23–27. In spite of the literary activity associated with the reign of Solomon, the only genealogical record preserved from this period is that of Solomon’s princes and 12 officers (1 Kgs 4:1-19). The genealogy of one prophet is traced back four generations (Zep 1:1).<\/p>\n<h5>The Postexilic Period<\/h5>\n<p>During the postexilic period, the keeping of genealogical records probably received its greatest impetus through the activity of Ezra and Nehemiah, primarily because of their insistence upon racial purity and the purging of foreign elements from the community. A list of the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel is found in Ezra 2:1-70 (cf. Neh 7:6-73, where the same list is found). A list of those who returned with Ezra is included in 8:1-20. Ezra’s own genealogy is also recorded (Ezr 7:5). There is a list of the Jews who married foreign women that included priests, Levites, singers, porters, and other Israelites (Ezr 10:18-44). Nehemiah 8:4-7 names the Levites and others who assisted Ezra when he read the law publicly. Nehemiah also contains a list of those who participated in the ceremony of sealing the covenant (Neh 10:1-27) and a list of those who lived in Jerusalem and other cities (11:3-36). His interest in the priesthood is reflected in the list of priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel (12:1-9), of the high priests from Jeshua to Jaddua (vv 10-11), of the heads of the priestly families (vv 12-21), of the Levites and porters who served under the high priest (vv 22-26), and of the princes and priests who were present at the dedication of the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem (vv 31-42).<\/p>\n<p>The final genealogical record that must be mentioned is the genealogy from Adam to Saul (1 Chr 1–8), the longest section of genealogical material in the Bible. It is properly included with the genealogies compiled during the postexilic period, as the unknown chronicler (some think he was Ezra) prepared this list around 400 <span>BC<\/span> from extant records and documents available to him. His purpose seems to have been to conserve the purity of blood in the restored nation and to insist that the nation’s well-being depended on its faithfulness to God’s law.<\/p>\n<h5>The New Testament Period<\/h5>\n<p>The only genealogies of consequence in the NT are those concerning Jesus Christ in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38. <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>GENEALOGY<\/h3>\n<p>Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium <span>BC<\/span> contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 <span>BC<\/span>) referred to his “father,” Sesostris III, who lived some 1,200 years before him. Greeks and Romans also kept genealogical records. However, the biblical genealogies, especially those in Genesis and 1 Chronicles 1–9, are unique in the literature of the ancient Near East. Only at the beginning of the Islamic age are such broad genealogical records found. Even today among tribal Semites, such as Arab nomads, there is an intense interest in genealogy, and it is not unusual for an Arab to be able to recite accurately the names of his ancestors for 10 or 15 generations back, covering a period of several hundred years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TermsUsed\">Terms Used<\/p>\n<p>The word “genealogy” occurs only once as a noun in the Hebrew OT (Neh 7:5), where it refers to a register of those who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel at the end of the exile. The verbal form of the same word is found a total of 20 times in 1—2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The terms “generations” and “book of the generations,” used in Genesis and elsewhere in the OT, convey the same idea. The equivalent NT terms are found in 1 Timothy 1:4 and Titus 3:9 (“genealogies”) and Matthew 1:1, which refers to the “book of the genealogy” of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PurposeofGenealogicalRecords\">Purpose of Genealogical Records<\/p>\n<p>The keeping of genealogical records in ancient Israel was an important activity and served a number of useful purposes. God’s promise of a land to Abraham and his descendants made such records necessary to establish and preserve the allotment of the land; a genealogical record served as evidence of a legitimate title to the ancestral property. Genealogies were essential for the preservation of the exclusive priesthood that had been established by the Mosaic law. In the time of Josephus every priest was supposed to be able to prove his descent.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most important reasons for keeping genealogical records was to establish and maintain the right of royal succession in Judah through the family of David. The belief that the Messiah would come from the Davidic house made such records even more important.<\/p>\n<p>Other purposes served by these family records included the imposition of military duty according to families (Nm 1:2-3). Position in camp and on the march from Egypt was determined by tribes and families (2:2, 17; 10:11-28). Also, God’s blessings were passed from one member of the family to his descendants (Gn 27). The stress placed on the purity of the congregation (Dt 7:1-4; 23:1-8) required complete family records, particularly in the postexilic period. With the insistence of Ezra and Nehemiah upon racial purity, and with the purging of foreign elements from among the people (Ezr 2:59-63; 10:9-44; Neh 13:23-28), written evidence of purity of descent became essential; interest in the compilation of genealogies became intense after the exile.<\/p>\n<p>Lineage was ordinarily traced through the male members of the family, with females being mentioned only rarely (e.g., Gn 11:29, Sarah and Milcah; 22:23, Rebekah; and Nm 26:33–27:11, where the property inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad was involved). Matthew mentions three women: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth; and in the second group alludes to Bathsheba (see discussion below).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrincipalGenealogicalListsintheBible\">Principal Genealogical Lists in the Bible<\/p>\n<p>The principal sources of genealogical material in the OT are found in Genesis, Numbers, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1—2 Chronicles (which contain the greatest amount of genealogical material in the Bible), Ezra, and Nehemiah. The genealogies of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 are the only NT records. Together they contain a genealogical record from Adam to Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Grouped together by historical periods, the following are the principal genealogical lists found in the Bible:<\/p>\n<h5>Before the Flood<\/h5>\n<p>Three lists are from this period. The first, found in Genesis 4:17-22, traces the descendants of Cain through seven generations and explains the hereditary origin of certain occupations and crafts. The second, Genesis 4:25-26, begins the account of the descendants of Seth, the posterity of Adam whose faithfulness to God is contrasted with the ungodly posterity of Cain. The third list, Genesis 5:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:1-4), traces the descendants of Adam through Seth down to Noah and his sons at the time of the Flood.<\/p>\n<h5>From Noah to Abraham<\/h5>\n<p>Genesis 10:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:4-23), frequently called the “table of nations,” contains a list of the nations descended from the sons of Noah (Shem, Ham, and Japheth). Genesis 11:10-26 (cf. 1 Chr 1:24-27) traces the descendants of Shem to the time of Abraham, and Genesis 11:27-30 (see also Gn 22:20-24) lists the descendants of Nahor, Abraham’s brother.<\/p>\n<h5>From Abraham to the Descent into Egypt<\/h5>\n<p>The descendants of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah are found in Genesis 16:15, 21:1-3, and 25:1-4 (introducing the Arabs as descendants of Abraham; cf. 1 Chr 1:28-34). Genesis 19:37-38 links the Moabites and Ammonites to Abraham through his nephew Lot. A very important genealogical list during this period is that of the descendants of Jacob, giving the account of the parentage, birth, and naming of the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel (Gn 29:31–30:24; 35:16-26). Esau is acknowledged as the ancestor of the Edomites; his Edomite descendants are traced through his three wives (Gn 26:34; 36:1-43; 1 Chr 1:35-54). The list of Jacob’s family at the time he entered Egypt, numbering 70, is found in Genesis 46:1-27 (cf. Ex 6:14-16; Nm 26:1-51; 1 Chr 2–8). A partial list of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi is found in Exodus 6:14-25; the chief purpose of this genealogy is to establish Aaron and Moses as members of Levi’s tribe.<\/p>\n<h5>From the Exodus to the Conquest of Canaan<\/h5>\n<p>While the tribes were still in the desert after leaving Egypt, a census was taken to determine the total number of Israelites (Nm 1:4-54; 2:2-33). During this same period, a genealogy of the family of Aaron was compiled, and a separate census was taken of the Levites (3:1-39). A list of the 12 spies who searched out the land and the tribes they represented is given in Numbers 13:4-16; the most important names on this list are Caleb and Joshua. Near the end of the wilderness wanderings, another census of the people was ordered; the total number was approximately the same as that of the first census almost 40 years earlier (26:4-51, 57-62). As the tribes neared the Promised Land, a list was prepared of the tribal representatives who would take part in the division of the land (34:16-29).<\/p>\n<h5>Period of the Kings<\/h5>\n<p>During the entire period of the monarchy, over 400 years, the only genealogical records of any consequence are those that pertain to David. His descendants are traced through 20 rulers who sat upon the throne of Judah until the nation fell to the Babylonians in 586 <span>BC<\/span> (1—2 Kgs; cf. 1 Chr 11:1—2 Chr 36:21). A list of David’s children is found in 2 Samuel 3:2-5 and 5:14-16 (cf. 1 Chr 3:1-9; 14:4-7). His mighty men, an elite group of soldiers, are named in 2 Samuel 23:8-39 (cf. 1 Chr 11:10-47). His recruits at Ziklag are recorded in 1 Chronicles 12:1-22. Those who were his musicians and doorkeepers when the ark was brought to Jerusalem are named in 1 Chronicles 15:1-24 (cf. 1 Chr 16:5-6, 37-43). David’s political and religious organization of the kingdom—including the Levites, priests, singers, porters and other administrative officials, and military officers—is found in 1 Chronicles 23–27. In spite of the literary activity associated with the reign of Solomon, the only genealogical record preserved from this period is that of Solomon’s princes and 12 officers (1 Kgs 4:1-19). The genealogy of one prophet is traced back four generations (Zep 1:1).<\/p>\n<h5>The Postexilic Period<\/h5>\n<p>During the postexilic period, the keeping of genealogical records probably received its greatest impetus through the activity of Ezra and Nehemiah, primarily because of their insistence upon racial purity and the purging of foreign elements from the community. A list of the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel is found in Ezra 2:1-70 (cf. Neh 7:6-73, where the same list is found). A list of those who returned with Ezra is included in 8:1-20. Ezra’s own genealogy is also recorded (Ezr 7:5). There is a list of the Jews who married foreign women that included priests, Levites, singers, porters, and other Israelites (Ezr 10:18-44). Nehemiah 8:4-7 names the Levites and others who assisted Ezra when he read the law publicly. Nehemiah also contains a list of those who participated in the ceremony of sealing the covenant (Neh 10:1-27) and a list of those who lived in Jerusalem and other cities (11:3-36). His interest in the priesthood is reflected in the list of priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel (12:1-9), of the high priests from Jeshua to Jaddua (vv 10-11), of the heads of the priestly families (vv 12-21), of the Levites and porters who served under the high priest (vv 22-26), and of the princes and priests who were present at the dedication of the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem (vv 31-42).<\/p>\n<p>The final genealogical record that must be mentioned is the genealogy from Adam to Saul (1 Chr 1–8), the longest section of genealogical material in the Bible. It is properly included with the genealogies compiled during the postexilic period, as the unknown chronicler (some think he was Ezra) prepared this list around 400 <span>BC<\/span> from extant records and documents available to him. His purpose seems to have been to conserve the purity of blood in the restored nation and to insist that the nation’s well-being depended on its faithfulness to God’s law.<\/p>\n<h5>The New Testament Period<\/h5>\n<p>The only genealogies of consequence in the NT are those concerning Jesus Christ in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38. <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","summary_ro":"GENEALOGY Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium BC contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 BC) referred to his “f...","summary_en":"GENEALOGY Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium BC contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 BC) referred to his “f...","source":"Articles\/G.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":13511,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Book of Genesis","title_en":"Book of Genesis","content_ro":"<h3>GENESIS, Book of<\/h3>\n<p>First book of the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Name<\/p>\n<p>• Author<\/p>\n<p>• Date<\/p>\n<p>• Purpose<\/p>\n<p>• Structure<\/p>\n<p>• Content<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Name\">Name<\/p>\n<p>The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">bere’shith<\/span><em>,<\/em> “in the beginning.”<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Author\">Author<\/p>\n<p>The authorship of Genesis is closely related to the authorship of the entire Pentateuch (lit. “five-volumed,” the first five books of the Bible, which in Hebrew are called the Torah). It is clear that the Bible regards the human author of these books as Moses. On several occasions the Lord commanded Moses to write down various things: “in a book” (Ex 17:14) “write these words” (34:27). The Pentateuch reports that “Moses wrote all the words of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (24:4); he wrote the itinerary of the exodus wanderings (Nm 33:2); “Moses wrote this law” (Dt 31:9). (Here it is not certain that all five books are meant, but it must refer to at least the greater part of Deuteronomy.) In Exodus 24:7 it is said that Moses read the Book of the Covenant, which he must have just completed.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the OT bears witness to the writing of the Pentateuch by Moses. David referred to “the law of Moses” (1 Kgs 2:3). In the time of Josiah, there was found in the temple the “Book of the Law of the <span>Lord<\/span> . . . given through Moses” (2 Chr 34:14, <span>nlt<\/span>). Day by day Ezra read from “the Book of the Law of God” (Neh 8:18, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>In the NT, Jesus refers to “the book of Moses” (Mk 12:26; Lk 20:37) and otherwise mentions the commands or statements of Moses (Mt 8:4; 19:8; Mk 7:10; cf. Lk 16:31; 24:44). The Jews also quoted from the Torah as coming from Moses, and Jesus did not contradict them.<\/p>\n<p>Of Genesis in particular, it may be said that Moses had the opportunity and ability to write the book. He could have written it during his years in Egypt or while exiled with the Kenites. As the recognized leader of the Israelites, he would have had access to, or perhaps even custody of, the records that Jacob brought from Canaan. He was “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22) and probably could have written in several languages and in several scripts (hieroglyphic, cuneiform, Old Hebrew). Although Moses was admirably fitted for the task of writing, one must remember that he was not putting together a human composition but was writing under the inspiration of God (2 Pt 1:21). We may with confidence conclude that Moses was the human author of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>The liberal view of the authorship of Genesis is that the book is an editorial composite—a view first put forward by a French physician, Jean Astruc, who suggested that the different names for God indicated different documents or sources for the writing of the book. The German higher critics expanded the view of the use of documents in the writing of Genesis and developed it into the Graf-Wellhausen-Kuenen, or Documentary, Hypothesis, which may also be called the JEDP theory of the authorship of the book. This view holds that there were four basic documents: (1) J, which uses the name YHWH (Jehovah or Yahweh) for God, dates from about the ninth century <span>BC<\/span> and comes from Judah; (2) E uses the name Elohim, dates from the eighth century, and comes from the northern kingdom; (3) D is Deuteronomy and is supposed to come from the time of Josiah, about 621 <span>BC<\/span>; and (4) P is the priestly element, which deals with matters of the priesthood and ritual, dating to the fifth century <span>BC<\/span> or later. Some may date portions of Genesis as late as the Hellenistic period. According to this theory, the various documents were blended together by editors, so that there was a JE, JED, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>The science of archaeology discredited many of the extreme postulations of these critics, and the work of W. F. Albright and his followers did much to restore confidence in the historicity of Genesis. Within the last several decades, the patriarchal narratives and the account of Joseph have again come under strong attack, but these views are extreme, and much of the evidence adduced by Albright and earlier scholars like R. D. Wilson, W. H. Green, and others still has validity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Date\">Date<\/p>\n<p>The date of the book is also a matter of debate. Even among those who accept Mosaic authorship there is debate as to when Moses lived. Based on the biblical data, Moses should have lived in the 15th century <span>BC<\/span> (cf. Jgs 11:26; 1 Kgs 6:1), but many scholars incline toward a 13th-century date. As outlined above, the liberal view of the date of Genesis would be from the ninth to the fifth centuries <span>BC<\/span>, with the final editing coming around the fifth century or perhaps even later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Purpose\">Purpose<\/p>\n<p>Genesis sketches the origin of many things: the universe, the earth, plants, animals, and mankind. It gives the beginnings of human institutions, professions, and crafts. It describes the origin of sin and death, and illustrates the insidious working of Satan in human life. Above all, Genesis relates the beginning of the history of redemption with the announcement of a Redeemer who was to come (Gn 3:15). It names the early progenitors in the lineage of the Messiah and the beginning of the Hebrew people through whom the Bible and the Savior came. Genesis also gives a selective history of people and events as viewed from the perspective of the purposes of God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Structure\">Structure<\/p>\n<p>The book is divided into 11 parts of uneven length, each set off by the expression “these are the generations [descendants, history] of” (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1; 37:2). Only three times does the formula coincide with the first verse of a chapter. Usually called a heading or superscription, the expression serves as a kind of link between what precedes and what follows.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Content\">Content<\/p>\n<h5>The Creation (1:1–2:25)<\/h5>\n<p>These two chapters have been a scientific-theological battleground for many years, as researchers and students have tried to probe the origins of the universe and of life. Much of the evidence is not subject to scientific scrutiny, for science by definition requires that the evidence must be reproducible by experiment.<\/p>\n<p>The statement of Genesis 1:1 remains the grandest, most precise, and most accurate statement of origins: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He did this <em>ex nihilo<\/em> (“out of nothing”) by his word (Heb 11:3); he spoke the word of command and it was done (Gn 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20; Ps 33:6, 9).<\/p>\n<p>The date of the beginning is unknown. Uniformitarian cosmogonists (students of the origins of the universe who believe that natural events have always followed a uniform pattern; cf. 2 Pt 3:3-7) have speculated that the beginning of the universe was billions of years ago. But some creationists posit a world thousands of years old.<\/p>\n<p>To accommodate geological ages and the existence of extinct animals, some interpreters have proposed a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, with Genesis 1:2–2:3 representing a second or new creation. But this is conjecture. So is the idea that each day represents a geological age.<\/p>\n<p>As the text stands, there is a correlation between the first three days and the second three days. Day one saw the creation of light; day four, the light bearers. Day two was the time of the creation of the firmament (better, “expanse”), which divided the waters; day five, birds and swarming water creatures. On day three, God made the dry land and plants; on day six he created the land animals and man. He made man in the image of God (Gn 1:26), “a little less than God” (Ps 8:5), and gave him dominion over the earth. He made everything “according to their kinds,” so that each kind is distinct and unique. The perfection of his work is affirmed in that “God saw that it was good” (Gn 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21; “very good,” v 31). The seventh day was a time of cessation from the activity of creating and served as a type for mankind’s day of rest (2:1-3).<\/p>\n<p>Critical scholarship eyes 2:4-25 as a doublet in conflict with Genesis 1:1–2:3. To conservative scholars, the second chapter is the same account from a different perspective. Chapter 1 gives the Creation from the standpoint of sequence; chapter 2 shows it in view of the centrality of mankind in God’s creative work.<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 2 gives details of the creation of man of “dust from the ground” (v 7) and woman from a rib of the man (vv 21-22). She was created to be “a companion who will help him” (vv 18-20). They were created as mature adults, with the gift of speech and with great intelligence. Adam had imagination and vocabulary sufficient for naming all of the animal species (v 19).<\/p>\n<p>The location of the Garden of Eden is given (vv 10-14). Two of the four rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, can be identified with certainty. So man lived in this beautiful garden in the bliss of innocence.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Humankind from Eden to Babel (3:1–11:26)<\/h5>\n<h6>The Fall<\/h6>\n<p>The loss of Eden and the break in fellowship with God is the saddest chapter in human history. The serpent, the devil, approached Eve with the same philosophy he always uses: doubt of God’s word (Gn 3:1), denial of death (v 4), and the suggestion of equality with God (v 5). He gained access to her will by deceiving her with the promise that the fruit would make her as wise as God is (Gn 3:5; cf. 1 Jn 2:16). Eve was deceived, but when she offered the fruit to Adam, he took it willingly, knowing what he was doing (Gn 3:6; cf. 1 Tm 2:14). Later, he tried to blame God for giving him the wife who gave him the fruit (Gn 3:12). Fellowship with God was broken (v 8), yet God came seeking Adam and found him.<\/p>\n<p>With sin came judgment, and the Lord pronounced righteous judgment on the serpent, the woman, and the man. The earth was also “subjected to frustration” and now groans as it awaits renewal (Rom 8:21-22). God gave hope to man and a promise of a Redeemer (Gn 3:15), who was to bruise the serpent’s head. Adam and Eve were forced out of the Garden, and it was made inaccessible to them.<\/p>\n<p>The impatience of humankind is shown in Eve’s expectation that her son Cain was the promised Deliverer. Instead, he developed a wrong-hearted attitude toward God and became so jealous of his younger brother that he murdered him. Apprehended by God and confronted with his crime, Cain showed only self-pity and went east from Eden, where he built a city (4:1-16). Chapter 4 closes with another contrast: the brazen Lamech, who called for vengeance, while others began to call upon the name of the Lord.<\/p>\n<h6>The Generations of Adam<\/h6>\n<p>This genealogical table (5:1-32) brings humankind to the time of Noah and the Flood. The longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs seems very striking to us, but one must remember that the earth had not yet been subjected to pollution and that the effects of sin on the human race were still nominal. The refrain “and he died” reminds us of man’s mortality. For Enoch, however, there was something better: “He enjoyed a close relationship with God throughout his life. Then, suddenly, he disappeared because God took him” (5:24, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<h6>The Flood<\/h6>\n<p>With increased population came an eruption of sin (6:1-5). As men multiplied, so did their corruption. The universal condemnation of verse 5 shows a world ripe for judgment. Noah, however, “found favor with the <span>Lord<\/span>,” for he was a righteous and blameless man who walked with God (6:8-9).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord planned to annihilate the human race, but he determined to save Noah and his family. Intending to flood the earth, God instructed Noah to build an ark. Noah was directed to take animals aboard the ark, two by two, male and female, for the preservation of each species. When all was in readiness, the Flood came: “the underground waters burst forth on the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky” (7:11, <span>nlt<\/span>). It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The highest mountains were covered, and life outside the ark perished. “But God remembered Noah” and sent a wind to evaporate the waters (8:1). Eventually the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (v 4). Noah made a sacrifice to the Lord, and the Lord determined that he would never again bring such destruction upon the earth.<\/p>\n<p>The Flood is another of God’s acts that has been much debated. Many have argued for a local flood, which affected only part of Mesopotamia. Archaeologists have pointed to various flood strata in the excavation of Mesopotamian city-mounds as evidence for the account of the flood and have cited the various flood stories from that area as the source of the Genesis record. The epic of Gilgamesh gives an interesting tale of this hero, who went on a mission to visit Utnapishtim, the cuneiform Noah, in quest of eternal life. The flood story told by Utnapishtim has many parallels to Genesis, but there are greater contrasts, which demonstrate that the Bible preserves the true account.<\/p>\n<p>Both the Genesis account and the references to it in the NT (cf. 2 Pt 3:6) favor the view that the deluge was not a minor episode in the Tigris-Euphrates area but was an unprecedented worldwide catastrophe. Christian geologists affirm that the Flood had far-reaching effects on the earth itself. Flood stories are almost universally known, lending support to the conclusion that the Flood covered the whole earth. Following the Flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. God made a covenant with Noah, promising that he would never again send a worldwide flood. As a sign of this, he established the rainbow.<\/p>\n<p>Noah was the first tiller of the soil, and he planted a vineyard (9:20). Noah became drunk from wine he made and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham saw him and reported this to his brothers, who discreetly covered him. Ham and his son Canaan were cursed; Shem and Japheth were blessed.<\/p>\n<h6>The History of the Nations<\/h6>\n<p>“This is the history of the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah. Many children were born to them after the Flood” (10:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). This chapter lists the descendants of Noah’s three sons, in the order of Japheth (vv 2-5), Ham (vv 6-20), and Shem (vv 21-31). Many of the names of their descendants are preserved in tribes and nations of the world.<\/p>\n<h6>The Tower of Babel<\/h6>\n<p>The building of the Tower of Babel (“Gate of God”) illustrates man’s perversity and his tendency to want independence from God. The desire of man to displace God follows the fateful example of Lucifer and is a basic tenet of many cults. God thwarted the designs of the builders of Babel by confusing their languages, so that the project came to a halt (11:1-9). The site of this tower is not known with certainty. Some associate it with Birs Nimrud, not far from the ruins of the city of Babylon. Genesis 11:10-25 picks up the line of Shem and carries it down to Terah, the father of Abram.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Abraham (11:27–25:10) and Isaac (21:1–28:5)<\/h5>\n<p>Abram came from Ur of the Chaldees, a prosperous city. The city had an imposing ziggurat (temple-tower), with many temples, storehouses, and residences. Abram and Sarai, his half sister and wife, went with his father to Haran in Syria, which like Ur was a center of the worship of the moon god, Sin (or Annar).<\/p>\n<h6>Abram’s Call<\/h6>\n<p>The call of God came to Abram directing him to leave his relatives and move to a land that the Lord would show him (12:1; cf. Acts 7:2-3). Abram obeyed. At the age of 75, he, Sarai, and his nephew Lot left Haran and went to Shechem, where the Lord appeared to him and promised that land to his descendants.<\/p>\n<p>Famine drove Abram down to Egypt (Gn 12:10-20). Because of Sarai’s beauty, he feared that someone might kill him to get her, so he passed her off as his sister. She was taken into the pharaoh’s harem. When the Lord plagued Pharaoh because of this, Abram’s lie was discovered and Sarai was returned to him.<\/p>\n<h6>Abram and Lot<\/h6>\n<p>Abram and Lot returned to Canaan, where strife broke out between Abram’s herdsmen and those of Lot. Abram suggested that they should separate, and he gave Lot the choice of territory. Lot chose the well-watered Jordan Valley and the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah (ch 13).<\/p>\n<h6>The Invasion of the Four Kings from the East<\/h6>\n<p>The four kings who invaded along the King’s Highway in Transjordan cannot be identified with certainty. Those kings were successful in their attack against the five cities of the plain, and they moved off with much booty and many captives, including Lot. Abram took 318 retainers, born in his household, and set off after them. By surprise attack, Abram recovered both Lot and the loot. On his return he was met by Melchizedek, king of Jerusalem, to whom Abram paid tithes (ch 14).<\/p>\n<h6>The Covenant<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord promised Abram a son as heir, and in an impressive nighttime ceremony, God made a covenant with Abram and promised him the land from the River of Egypt (Wadi el Arish) to the Euphrates (ch 15). Because of her own barrenness, Sarai gave her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to Abram. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arab peoples. When trouble arose between the women, Sarai sent Hagar away, which was her right according to Near Eastern customs (as illustrated by the Nuzi tablets). God showed mercy to Hagar and promised that she would have a great posterity (ch 16).<\/p>\n<p>God repeated his promise to Abram concerning his descendants and changed the names of Abram (“exalted father”) and Sarai to Abraham (“father of many”) and Sarah (“princess”). A covenant sign of circumcision was given to Abraham (ch 17). This operation had already been practiced among the Egyptians for several centuries.<\/p>\n<h6>The Destruction of the Cities of the Plain<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord and two angels appeared to Abraham and announced the birth of the promised heir within a year, as well as proclaimed the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, concerning which Abraham bargained with God (18:22-33). Lot and his immediate family were rescued from Sodom, and the cities were destroyed by God with brimstone and fire (19:24-25). Lot’s two daughters, wishing to preserve their family line, got their father drunk and had sexual relations with him. Moab and Ammon, enemies of Israel in later times, were the result.<\/p>\n<p>In Genesis 20:1-18, Abraham again represented Sarah as his sister and got into trouble with Abimelech, king of Gerar.<\/p>\n<h6>Isaac<\/h6>\n<p>When Isaac was born (21:1-3), trouble again broke out between Sarah and Hagar. Hagar was driven out a second time, and once more was befriended by the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>A disagreement arose between Abraham and Abimelech concerning a well, but they made a covenant of peace at Beersheba (21:25-34).<\/p>\n<p>God tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice Isaac on Mt Moriah, which probably is the same site David later bought from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Sm 24:16-25), the place where the temple was to stand. As Abraham was about to use the knife, God called to him and showed him a ram caught in a thicket. Isaac was freed and the animal was sacrificed in his stead.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at Hebron, and Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite (ch 23), in a transaction typical of Near Eastern business dealings. To find a wife for Isaac, Abraham sent his servant Eliezer back to the area of Haran, and the Lord directed Eliezer to Rebekah (ch 24).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 25 records the marriage of Abraham to Keturah, who bore him a number of children. Abraham died at the age of 175 years and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Jacob and Esau (25:19–37:1)<\/h5>\n<p>Rebekah gave birth to twin sons, Esau and Jacob. When the boys were grown, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a meal of red pottage (25:27-34).<\/p>\n<p>When famine came to the land, Isaac went to Gerar, as his father had done (ch 20), and repeated his father’s lie by calling his wife his sister (26:1-11). Trouble arose with the Philistines over wells, but Isaac was a peaceable man and preferred digging new wells rather than fighting over old ones (vv 17-33).<\/p>\n<p>In Isaac’s old age, when his sight had failed, Rebekah connived with Jacob to trick Isaac into giving to Jacob the blessing of the firstborn, which was rightfully Esau’s. This oral blessing had legal validity and was irrevocable, according to the ancient Nuzi tablets. Fearing for Jacob’s life at the hands of Esau, Rebekah arranged to send Jacob to Haran to find a wife from among her own people. At Bethel, God appeared to Jacob in a dream of a ladder leading up to heaven; God renewed with Jacob the promise made to Abraham and Isaac (28:10-22).<\/p>\n<p>Jacob reached Haran, found his uncle Laban, and was employed by him (ch 29). His wages for seven years of labor were to be Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel, as his wife. But Laban substituted Leah, so that Jacob had to work another seven years for Rachel. The Lord prospered Jacob, but he continually had difficulties with Laban. The Lord directed Jacob back to Canaan (31:3), so he left secretly with his wives, children, and property. Laban pursued them because his household gods were missing (possession of these “gods” made the holder heir to the owner’s estate, according to Nuzi custom). Rachel had taken them but successfully concealed them from her father, and Laban went back to Haran.<\/p>\n<p>Fearing a meeting with Esau as they passed through Edom, Jacob sent gifts to his brother and divided his own party into two camps for security. On this return journey, Jacob had an unexpected wrestling bout with the Angel of the Lord, and he was left with a limp and a new name, Israel (ch 32).<\/p>\n<p>The meeting with Esau was friendly, and Jacob went on to Shechem (ch 33), where his sons killed the male Shechemites because of the rape of their sister Dinah (ch 34). God told Jacob to go to Bethel and build an altar to the Lord. All idols of foreign gods were buried (35:1-4). At Bethel, God reaffirmed his promise of a posterity and the land (vv 9-15). Rachel died on the way to Bethlehem, while giving birth to Benjamin, Jacob’s 12th and last son. Isaac died at Hebron at age 180 and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by Esau and Jacob.<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 36 records “the generations of Esau” (v 1). Here Esau is also named Edom (“Red”; cf. 25:30).<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Joseph (37:2–50:26)<\/h5>\n<p>Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son and thus incurred the jealousy of his brothers. This was heightened by Joseph’s dreams of lordship over them. Their resentment of Joseph came to a climax when Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful coat. The brothers determined to kill Joseph, but they compromised by selling him to a caravan of merchants, who took him to Egypt and sold him as a slave to Potiphar, an Egyptian captain of the guard (37:36; 39:1).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 38 relates a historic case of levirate marriage. Judah failed to give his widowed daughter-in-law to his third son. She deceived him into fathering twin sons and forced him to acknowledge his faults. The elder son, Perez, is named in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Lk 3:33).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord blessed Joseph, who soon was put in charge of Potiphar’s household (Gn 39). The young man attracted the attention of Potiphar’s wife, who, after many attempts to seduce him, at last accused him of attempted rape. Sentenced on this charge, Joseph met with favor in prison, where he had opportunity to interpret dreams for two of the pharaoh’s servants (ch 40). When the king had dreams that his magicians and wise men could not interpret, Joseph was summoned from jail. Joseph told Pharaoh that the dreams meant seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Joseph was then exalted to the office of vizier, or prime minister, second only to the king, and put in charge of the administration of the land (41:37-44).<\/p>\n<p>When the famine came to Palestine, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to purchase grain. Joseph recognized his brothers but did not reveal his identity to them. Joseph put them to the test by accusing them of being spies (42:9), by keeping one of the brothers (Simeon) hostage (v 19), and by demanding that if they came to Egypt again, they must bring their youngest brother with them (42:20; 43:3). The famine became so severe in Canaan (43:1) that Jacob at last allowed Benjamin to go with his brothers to Egypt. The brothers were again set up by Joseph, who had his silver cup put into Benjamin’s grain sack and then had him apprehended as a thief (ch 44).<\/p>\n<p>At this point Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers (45:4-15) and there was much rejoicing. Joseph pointed out that it was God who had sent him to Egypt (vv 7-8), in order to preserve the lives of all the family. Jacob was then sent for (46:1), and Joseph met him in the land of Goshen (46:28-29). The Israelites were assigned land in the region of Goshen, where they prospered (47:27).<\/p>\n<p>In Jacob’s final illness, Joseph brought his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to his father for his blessing. Jacob gave the primary blessing to the second-born, Ephraim (48:13-20). Jacob blessed each of his own sons and then died at the age of at least 130 years. Joseph arranged for Jacob’s body to be prepared for burial according to Egyptian custom (50:2-3). After the burial of their father in the cave of Machpelah at Hebron, Joseph’s brothers worried about vengeance, but Joseph declared, “As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people” (v 20, <span>nlt<\/span>). Joseph died at age 110 with the prophetic request that when the Israelites went up from Egypt they would take his bones with them (50:25; cf. Ex 13:19; Jos 24:32).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Adam (Person); Covenant; Creation; Eve; Fall of Man; Flood, The; Isaac; Jacob #1; Joseph #1; Nations; Noah #1; Patriarchs, Period of the.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>GENESIS, Book of<\/h3>\n<p>First book of the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Name<\/p>\n<p>• Author<\/p>\n<p>• Date<\/p>\n<p>• Purpose<\/p>\n<p>• Structure<\/p>\n<p>• Content<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Name\">Name<\/p>\n<p>The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">bere’shith<\/span><em>,<\/em> “in the beginning.”<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Author\">Author<\/p>\n<p>The authorship of Genesis is closely related to the authorship of the entire Pentateuch (lit. “five-volumed,” the first five books of the Bible, which in Hebrew are called the Torah). It is clear that the Bible regards the human author of these books as Moses. On several occasions the Lord commanded Moses to write down various things: “in a book” (Ex 17:14) “write these words” (34:27). The Pentateuch reports that “Moses wrote all the words of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (24:4); he wrote the itinerary of the exodus wanderings (Nm 33:2); “Moses wrote this law” (Dt 31:9). (Here it is not certain that all five books are meant, but it must refer to at least the greater part of Deuteronomy.) In Exodus 24:7 it is said that Moses read the Book of the Covenant, which he must have just completed.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the OT bears witness to the writing of the Pentateuch by Moses. David referred to “the law of Moses” (1 Kgs 2:3). In the time of Josiah, there was found in the temple the “Book of the Law of the <span>Lord<\/span> . . . given through Moses” (2 Chr 34:14, <span>nlt<\/span>). Day by day Ezra read from “the Book of the Law of God” (Neh 8:18, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>In the NT, Jesus refers to “the book of Moses” (Mk 12:26; Lk 20:37) and otherwise mentions the commands or statements of Moses (Mt 8:4; 19:8; Mk 7:10; cf. Lk 16:31; 24:44). The Jews also quoted from the Torah as coming from Moses, and Jesus did not contradict them.<\/p>\n<p>Of Genesis in particular, it may be said that Moses had the opportunity and ability to write the book. He could have written it during his years in Egypt or while exiled with the Kenites. As the recognized leader of the Israelites, he would have had access to, or perhaps even custody of, the records that Jacob brought from Canaan. He was “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22) and probably could have written in several languages and in several scripts (hieroglyphic, cuneiform, Old Hebrew). Although Moses was admirably fitted for the task of writing, one must remember that he was not putting together a human composition but was writing under the inspiration of God (2 Pt 1:21). We may with confidence conclude that Moses was the human author of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>The liberal view of the authorship of Genesis is that the book is an editorial composite—a view first put forward by a French physician, Jean Astruc, who suggested that the different names for God indicated different documents or sources for the writing of the book. The German higher critics expanded the view of the use of documents in the writing of Genesis and developed it into the Graf-Wellhausen-Kuenen, or Documentary, Hypothesis, which may also be called the JEDP theory of the authorship of the book. This view holds that there were four basic documents: (1) J, which uses the name YHWH (Jehovah or Yahweh) for God, dates from about the ninth century <span>BC<\/span> and comes from Judah; (2) E uses the name Elohim, dates from the eighth century, and comes from the northern kingdom; (3) D is Deuteronomy and is supposed to come from the time of Josiah, about 621 <span>BC<\/span>; and (4) P is the priestly element, which deals with matters of the priesthood and ritual, dating to the fifth century <span>BC<\/span> or later. Some may date portions of Genesis as late as the Hellenistic period. According to this theory, the various documents were blended together by editors, so that there was a JE, JED, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>The science of archaeology discredited many of the extreme postulations of these critics, and the work of W. F. Albright and his followers did much to restore confidence in the historicity of Genesis. Within the last several decades, the patriarchal narratives and the account of Joseph have again come under strong attack, but these views are extreme, and much of the evidence adduced by Albright and earlier scholars like R. D. Wilson, W. H. Green, and others still has validity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Date\">Date<\/p>\n<p>The date of the book is also a matter of debate. Even among those who accept Mosaic authorship there is debate as to when Moses lived. Based on the biblical data, Moses should have lived in the 15th century <span>BC<\/span> (cf. Jgs 11:26; 1 Kgs 6:1), but many scholars incline toward a 13th-century date. As outlined above, the liberal view of the date of Genesis would be from the ninth to the fifth centuries <span>BC<\/span>, with the final editing coming around the fifth century or perhaps even later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Purpose\">Purpose<\/p>\n<p>Genesis sketches the origin of many things: the universe, the earth, plants, animals, and mankind. It gives the beginnings of human institutions, professions, and crafts. It describes the origin of sin and death, and illustrates the insidious working of Satan in human life. Above all, Genesis relates the beginning of the history of redemption with the announcement of a Redeemer who was to come (Gn 3:15). It names the early progenitors in the lineage of the Messiah and the beginning of the Hebrew people through whom the Bible and the Savior came. Genesis also gives a selective history of people and events as viewed from the perspective of the purposes of God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Structure\">Structure<\/p>\n<p>The book is divided into 11 parts of uneven length, each set off by the expression “these are the generations [descendants, history] of” (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1; 37:2). Only three times does the formula coincide with the first verse of a chapter. Usually called a heading or superscription, the expression serves as a kind of link between what precedes and what follows.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Content\">Content<\/p>\n<h5>The Creation (1:1–2:25)<\/h5>\n<p>These two chapters have been a scientific-theological battleground for many years, as researchers and students have tried to probe the origins of the universe and of life. Much of the evidence is not subject to scientific scrutiny, for science by definition requires that the evidence must be reproducible by experiment.<\/p>\n<p>The statement of Genesis 1:1 remains the grandest, most precise, and most accurate statement of origins: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He did this <em>ex nihilo<\/em> (“out of nothing”) by his word (Heb 11:3); he spoke the word of command and it was done (Gn 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20; Ps 33:6, 9).<\/p>\n<p>The date of the beginning is unknown. Uniformitarian cosmogonists (students of the origins of the universe who believe that natural events have always followed a uniform pattern; cf. 2 Pt 3:3-7) have speculated that the beginning of the universe was billions of years ago. But some creationists posit a world thousands of years old.<\/p>\n<p>To accommodate geological ages and the existence of extinct animals, some interpreters have proposed a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, with Genesis 1:2–2:3 representing a second or new creation. But this is conjecture. So is the idea that each day represents a geological age.<\/p>\n<p>As the text stands, there is a correlation between the first three days and the second three days. Day one saw the creation of light; day four, the light bearers. Day two was the time of the creation of the firmament (better, “expanse”), which divided the waters; day five, birds and swarming water creatures. On day three, God made the dry land and plants; on day six he created the land animals and man. He made man in the image of God (Gn 1:26), “a little less than God” (Ps 8:5), and gave him dominion over the earth. He made everything “according to their kinds,” so that each kind is distinct and unique. The perfection of his work is affirmed in that “God saw that it was good” (Gn 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21; “very good,” v 31). The seventh day was a time of cessation from the activity of creating and served as a type for mankind’s day of rest (2:1-3).<\/p>\n<p>Critical scholarship eyes 2:4-25 as a doublet in conflict with Genesis 1:1–2:3. To conservative scholars, the second chapter is the same account from a different perspective. Chapter 1 gives the Creation from the standpoint of sequence; chapter 2 shows it in view of the centrality of mankind in God’s creative work.<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 2 gives details of the creation of man of “dust from the ground” (v 7) and woman from a rib of the man (vv 21-22). She was created to be “a companion who will help him” (vv 18-20). They were created as mature adults, with the gift of speech and with great intelligence. Adam had imagination and vocabulary sufficient for naming all of the animal species (v 19).<\/p>\n<p>The location of the Garden of Eden is given (vv 10-14). Two of the four rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, can be identified with certainty. So man lived in this beautiful garden in the bliss of innocence.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Humankind from Eden to Babel (3:1–11:26)<\/h5>\n<h6>The Fall<\/h6>\n<p>The loss of Eden and the break in fellowship with God is the saddest chapter in human history. The serpent, the devil, approached Eve with the same philosophy he always uses: doubt of God’s word (Gn 3:1), denial of death (v 4), and the suggestion of equality with God (v 5). He gained access to her will by deceiving her with the promise that the fruit would make her as wise as God is (Gn 3:5; cf. 1 Jn 2:16). Eve was deceived, but when she offered the fruit to Adam, he took it willingly, knowing what he was doing (Gn 3:6; cf. 1 Tm 2:14). Later, he tried to blame God for giving him the wife who gave him the fruit (Gn 3:12). Fellowship with God was broken (v 8), yet God came seeking Adam and found him.<\/p>\n<p>With sin came judgment, and the Lord pronounced righteous judgment on the serpent, the woman, and the man. The earth was also “subjected to frustration” and now groans as it awaits renewal (Rom 8:21-22). God gave hope to man and a promise of a Redeemer (Gn 3:15), who was to bruise the serpent’s head. Adam and Eve were forced out of the Garden, and it was made inaccessible to them.<\/p>\n<p>The impatience of humankind is shown in Eve’s expectation that her son Cain was the promised Deliverer. Instead, he developed a wrong-hearted attitude toward God and became so jealous of his younger brother that he murdered him. Apprehended by God and confronted with his crime, Cain showed only self-pity and went east from Eden, where he built a city (4:1-16). Chapter 4 closes with another contrast: the brazen Lamech, who called for vengeance, while others began to call upon the name of the Lord.<\/p>\n<h6>The Generations of Adam<\/h6>\n<p>This genealogical table (5:1-32) brings humankind to the time of Noah and the Flood. The longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs seems very striking to us, but one must remember that the earth had not yet been subjected to pollution and that the effects of sin on the human race were still nominal. The refrain “and he died” reminds us of man’s mortality. For Enoch, however, there was something better: “He enjoyed a close relationship with God throughout his life. Then, suddenly, he disappeared because God took him” (5:24, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<h6>The Flood<\/h6>\n<p>With increased population came an eruption of sin (6:1-5). As men multiplied, so did their corruption. The universal condemnation of verse 5 shows a world ripe for judgment. Noah, however, “found favor with the <span>Lord<\/span>,” for he was a righteous and blameless man who walked with God (6:8-9).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord planned to annihilate the human race, but he determined to save Noah and his family. Intending to flood the earth, God instructed Noah to build an ark. Noah was directed to take animals aboard the ark, two by two, male and female, for the preservation of each species. When all was in readiness, the Flood came: “the underground waters burst forth on the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky” (7:11, <span>nlt<\/span>). It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The highest mountains were covered, and life outside the ark perished. “But God remembered Noah” and sent a wind to evaporate the waters (8:1). Eventually the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (v 4). Noah made a sacrifice to the Lord, and the Lord determined that he would never again bring such destruction upon the earth.<\/p>\n<p>The Flood is another of God’s acts that has been much debated. Many have argued for a local flood, which affected only part of Mesopotamia. Archaeologists have pointed to various flood strata in the excavation of Mesopotamian city-mounds as evidence for the account of the flood and have cited the various flood stories from that area as the source of the Genesis record. The epic of Gilgamesh gives an interesting tale of this hero, who went on a mission to visit Utnapishtim, the cuneiform Noah, in quest of eternal life. The flood story told by Utnapishtim has many parallels to Genesis, but there are greater contrasts, which demonstrate that the Bible preserves the true account.<\/p>\n<p>Both the Genesis account and the references to it in the NT (cf. 2 Pt 3:6) favor the view that the deluge was not a minor episode in the Tigris-Euphrates area but was an unprecedented worldwide catastrophe. Christian geologists affirm that the Flood had far-reaching effects on the earth itself. Flood stories are almost universally known, lending support to the conclusion that the Flood covered the whole earth. Following the Flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. God made a covenant with Noah, promising that he would never again send a worldwide flood. As a sign of this, he established the rainbow.<\/p>\n<p>Noah was the first tiller of the soil, and he planted a vineyard (9:20). Noah became drunk from wine he made and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham saw him and reported this to his brothers, who discreetly covered him. Ham and his son Canaan were cursed; Shem and Japheth were blessed.<\/p>\n<h6>The History of the Nations<\/h6>\n<p>“This is the history of the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah. Many children were born to them after the Flood” (10:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). This chapter lists the descendants of Noah’s three sons, in the order of Japheth (vv 2-5), Ham (vv 6-20), and Shem (vv 21-31). Many of the names of their descendants are preserved in tribes and nations of the world.<\/p>\n<h6>The Tower of Babel<\/h6>\n<p>The building of the Tower of Babel (“Gate of God”) illustrates man’s perversity and his tendency to want independence from God. The desire of man to displace God follows the fateful example of Lucifer and is a basic tenet of many cults. God thwarted the designs of the builders of Babel by confusing their languages, so that the project came to a halt (11:1-9). The site of this tower is not known with certainty. Some associate it with Birs Nimrud, not far from the ruins of the city of Babylon. Genesis 11:10-25 picks up the line of Shem and carries it down to Terah, the father of Abram.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Abraham (11:27–25:10) and Isaac (21:1–28:5)<\/h5>\n<p>Abram came from Ur of the Chaldees, a prosperous city. The city had an imposing ziggurat (temple-tower), with many temples, storehouses, and residences. Abram and Sarai, his half sister and wife, went with his father to Haran in Syria, which like Ur was a center of the worship of the moon god, Sin (or Annar).<\/p>\n<h6>Abram’s Call<\/h6>\n<p>The call of God came to Abram directing him to leave his relatives and move to a land that the Lord would show him (12:1; cf. Acts 7:2-3). Abram obeyed. At the age of 75, he, Sarai, and his nephew Lot left Haran and went to Shechem, where the Lord appeared to him and promised that land to his descendants.<\/p>\n<p>Famine drove Abram down to Egypt (Gn 12:10-20). Because of Sarai’s beauty, he feared that someone might kill him to get her, so he passed her off as his sister. She was taken into the pharaoh’s harem. When the Lord plagued Pharaoh because of this, Abram’s lie was discovered and Sarai was returned to him.<\/p>\n<h6>Abram and Lot<\/h6>\n<p>Abram and Lot returned to Canaan, where strife broke out between Abram’s herdsmen and those of Lot. Abram suggested that they should separate, and he gave Lot the choice of territory. Lot chose the well-watered Jordan Valley and the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah (ch 13).<\/p>\n<h6>The Invasion of the Four Kings from the East<\/h6>\n<p>The four kings who invaded along the King’s Highway in Transjordan cannot be identified with certainty. Those kings were successful in their attack against the five cities of the plain, and they moved off with much booty and many captives, including Lot. Abram took 318 retainers, born in his household, and set off after them. By surprise attack, Abram recovered both Lot and the loot. On his return he was met by Melchizedek, king of Jerusalem, to whom Abram paid tithes (ch 14).<\/p>\n<h6>The Covenant<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord promised Abram a son as heir, and in an impressive nighttime ceremony, God made a covenant with Abram and promised him the land from the River of Egypt (Wadi el Arish) to the Euphrates (ch 15). Because of her own barrenness, Sarai gave her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to Abram. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arab peoples. When trouble arose between the women, Sarai sent Hagar away, which was her right according to Near Eastern customs (as illustrated by the Nuzi tablets). God showed mercy to Hagar and promised that she would have a great posterity (ch 16).<\/p>\n<p>God repeated his promise to Abram concerning his descendants and changed the names of Abram (“exalted father”) and Sarai to Abraham (“father of many”) and Sarah (“princess”). A covenant sign of circumcision was given to Abraham (ch 17). This operation had already been practiced among the Egyptians for several centuries.<\/p>\n<h6>The Destruction of the Cities of the Plain<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord and two angels appeared to Abraham and announced the birth of the promised heir within a year, as well as proclaimed the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, concerning which Abraham bargained with God (18:22-33). Lot and his immediate family were rescued from Sodom, and the cities were destroyed by God with brimstone and fire (19:24-25). Lot’s two daughters, wishing to preserve their family line, got their father drunk and had sexual relations with him. Moab and Ammon, enemies of Israel in later times, were the result.<\/p>\n<p>In Genesis 20:1-18, Abraham again represented Sarah as his sister and got into trouble with Abimelech, king of Gerar.<\/p>\n<h6>Isaac<\/h6>\n<p>When Isaac was born (21:1-3), trouble again broke out between Sarah and Hagar. Hagar was driven out a second time, and once more was befriended by the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>A disagreement arose between Abraham and Abimelech concerning a well, but they made a covenant of peace at Beersheba (21:25-34).<\/p>\n<p>God tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice Isaac on Mt Moriah, which probably is the same site David later bought from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Sm 24:16-25), the place where the temple was to stand. As Abraham was about to use the knife, God called to him and showed him a ram caught in a thicket. Isaac was freed and the animal was sacrificed in his stead.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at Hebron, and Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite (ch 23), in a transaction typical of Near Eastern business dealings. To find a wife for Isaac, Abraham sent his servant Eliezer back to the area of Haran, and the Lord directed Eliezer to Rebekah (ch 24).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 25 records the marriage of Abraham to Keturah, who bore him a number of children. Abraham died at the age of 175 years and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Jacob and Esau (25:19–37:1)<\/h5>\n<p>Rebekah gave birth to twin sons, Esau and Jacob. When the boys were grown, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a meal of red pottage (25:27-34).<\/p>\n<p>When famine came to the land, Isaac went to Gerar, as his father had done (ch 20), and repeated his father’s lie by calling his wife his sister (26:1-11). Trouble arose with the Philistines over wells, but Isaac was a peaceable man and preferred digging new wells rather than fighting over old ones (vv 17-33).<\/p>\n<p>In Isaac’s old age, when his sight had failed, Rebekah connived with Jacob to trick Isaac into giving to Jacob the blessing of the firstborn, which was rightfully Esau’s. This oral blessing had legal validity and was irrevocable, according to the ancient Nuzi tablets. Fearing for Jacob’s life at the hands of Esau, Rebekah arranged to send Jacob to Haran to find a wife from among her own people. At Bethel, God appeared to Jacob in a dream of a ladder leading up to heaven; God renewed with Jacob the promise made to Abraham and Isaac (28:10-22).<\/p>\n<p>Jacob reached Haran, found his uncle Laban, and was employed by him (ch 29). His wages for seven years of labor were to be Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel, as his wife. But Laban substituted Leah, so that Jacob had to work another seven years for Rachel. The Lord prospered Jacob, but he continually had difficulties with Laban. The Lord directed Jacob back to Canaan (31:3), so he left secretly with his wives, children, and property. Laban pursued them because his household gods were missing (possession of these “gods” made the holder heir to the owner’s estate, according to Nuzi custom). Rachel had taken them but successfully concealed them from her father, and Laban went back to Haran.<\/p>\n<p>Fearing a meeting with Esau as they passed through Edom, Jacob sent gifts to his brother and divided his own party into two camps for security. On this return journey, Jacob had an unexpected wrestling bout with the Angel of the Lord, and he was left with a limp and a new name, Israel (ch 32).<\/p>\n<p>The meeting with Esau was friendly, and Jacob went on to Shechem (ch 33), where his sons killed the male Shechemites because of the rape of their sister Dinah (ch 34). God told Jacob to go to Bethel and build an altar to the Lord. All idols of foreign gods were buried (35:1-4). At Bethel, God reaffirmed his promise of a posterity and the land (vv 9-15). Rachel died on the way to Bethlehem, while giving birth to Benjamin, Jacob’s 12th and last son. Isaac died at Hebron at age 180 and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by Esau and Jacob.<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 36 records “the generations of Esau” (v 1). Here Esau is also named Edom (“Red”; cf. 25:30).<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Joseph (37:2–50:26)<\/h5>\n<p>Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son and thus incurred the jealousy of his brothers. This was heightened by Joseph’s dreams of lordship over them. Their resentment of Joseph came to a climax when Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful coat. The brothers determined to kill Joseph, but they compromised by selling him to a caravan of merchants, who took him to Egypt and sold him as a slave to Potiphar, an Egyptian captain of the guard (37:36; 39:1).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 38 relates a historic case of levirate marriage. Judah failed to give his widowed daughter-in-law to his third son. She deceived him into fathering twin sons and forced him to acknowledge his faults. The elder son, Perez, is named in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Lk 3:33).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord blessed Joseph, who soon was put in charge of Potiphar’s household (Gn 39). The young man attracted the attention of Potiphar’s wife, who, after many attempts to seduce him, at last accused him of attempted rape. Sentenced on this charge, Joseph met with favor in prison, where he had opportunity to interpret dreams for two of the pharaoh’s servants (ch 40). When the king had dreams that his magicians and wise men could not interpret, Joseph was summoned from jail. Joseph told Pharaoh that the dreams meant seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Joseph was then exalted to the office of vizier, or prime minister, second only to the king, and put in charge of the administration of the land (41:37-44).<\/p>\n<p>When the famine came to Palestine, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to purchase grain. Joseph recognized his brothers but did not reveal his identity to them. Joseph put them to the test by accusing them of being spies (42:9), by keeping one of the brothers (Simeon) hostage (v 19), and by demanding that if they came to Egypt again, they must bring their youngest brother with them (42:20; 43:3). The famine became so severe in Canaan (43:1) that Jacob at last allowed Benjamin to go with his brothers to Egypt. The brothers were again set up by Joseph, who had his silver cup put into Benjamin’s grain sack and then had him apprehended as a thief (ch 44).<\/p>\n<p>At this point Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers (45:4-15) and there was much rejoicing. Joseph pointed out that it was God who had sent him to Egypt (vv 7-8), in order to preserve the lives of all the family. Jacob was then sent for (46:1), and Joseph met him in the land of Goshen (46:28-29). The Israelites were assigned land in the region of Goshen, where they prospered (47:27).<\/p>\n<p>In Jacob’s final illness, Joseph brought his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to his father for his blessing. Jacob gave the primary blessing to the second-born, Ephraim (48:13-20). Jacob blessed each of his own sons and then died at the age of at least 130 years. Joseph arranged for Jacob’s body to be prepared for burial according to Egyptian custom (50:2-3). After the burial of their father in the cave of Machpelah at Hebron, Joseph’s brothers worried about vengeance, but Joseph declared, “As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people” (v 20, <span>nlt<\/span>). Joseph died at age 110 with the prophetic request that when the Israelites went up from Egypt they would take his bones with them (50:25; cf. Ex 13:19; Jos 24:32).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Adam (Person); Covenant; Creation; Eve; Fall of Man; Flood, The; Isaac; Jacob #1; Joseph #1; Nations; Noah #1; Patriarchs, Period of the.<\/p>","summary_ro":"GENESIS, Book of First book of the Bible. Preview • Name • Author • Date • Purpose • Structure • Content Name The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, bere’shith, “in the beginning.” Author The authorship of Gene...","summary_en":"GENESIS, Book of First book of the Bible. Preview • Name • Author • Date • Purpose • Structure • Content Name The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, bere’shith, “in the beginning.” Author The authorship of Gene...","source":"Articles\/G.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":34859,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Shem","title_en":"Shem","content_ro":"<h3>SHEM<\/h3>\n<p>Eldest son of Noah (Gn 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18, 23, 26-27; 11:10; 1 Chr 1:4, 17-27; Lk 3:36) and the ancestor of the Semitic peoples (Gn 10:1, 21-31). Shem lived 600 years (11:10-11). In Hebrew, Shem means “name,” perhaps implying that Noah expected this son’s name to become great.<\/p>\n<p>After their deliverance from the great Flood, Shem and Japheth acted with respect and dignity toward their drunken father Noah on an occasion when their brother Ham dishonored him (Gn 9:20-29). Because of this act, Noah later pronounced a curse on Canaan, the son of Ham, and a blessing on both Shem and Japheth.<\/p>\n<p>In Genesis 11:10-27, the line of descent for the promised seed, which was to crush Satan (Gn 3:15; 5:1-32), is traced through Shem to Abraham, and ultimately through Judah and David to Christ (cf. Lk 3:36). The blessing of Noah on Shem is thus to be taken as an indication that the line of Shem will be the line through which the seed of Genesis 3:15 will come. This is the first time in the Bible that God is called the God of some particular individual or group of people. The statement that Canaan would be a servant to Shem was fulfilled centuries later when the Israelites, who descended from Shem, entered the land of Canaan and subdued the inhabitants of the land (cf. 1 Kgs 9:20-21).<\/p>\n<p>Noah also said that Japheth would be enlarged and dwell in the tents of Shem (Gn 9:27), the latter of which would seem to imply sustenance and protection. After Japheth would be greatly increased in numbers, the Japhethites would be brought into contact with Shem and would share in the blessings and promises of the Semitic faith. Many scholars see fulfillment of this prophecy in the opening of the gospel to the Gentiles during the NT era of the establishment of the church.<\/p>\n<p>In the “table of nations” recorded in Genesis 10, five descendants of Shem are mentioned (Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram). Receiving particular emphasis among these descendants is Eber from the line of Arphaxad, whose line is traced to Abraham in Genesis 11:16-27.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Genealogy of Jesus Christ; Nations; Noah #1.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>SHEM<\/h3>\n<p>Eldest son of Noah (Gn 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18, 23, 26-27; 11:10; 1 Chr 1:4, 17-27; Lk 3:36) and the ancestor of the Semitic peoples (Gn 10:1, 21-31). Shem lived 600 years (11:10-11). In Hebrew, Shem means “name,” perhaps implying that Noah expected this son’s name to become great.<\/p>\n<p>After their deliverance from the great Flood, Shem and Japheth acted with respect and dignity toward their drunken father Noah on an occasion when their brother Ham dishonored him (Gn 9:20-29). Because of this act, Noah later pronounced a curse on Canaan, the son of Ham, and a blessing on both Shem and Japheth.<\/p>\n<p>In Genesis 11:10-27, the line of descent for the promised seed, which was to crush Satan (Gn 3:15; 5:1-32), is traced through Shem to Abraham, and ultimately through Judah and David to Christ (cf. Lk 3:36). The blessing of Noah on Shem is thus to be taken as an indication that the line of Shem will be the line through which the seed of Genesis 3:15 will come. This is the first time in the Bible that God is called the God of some particular individual or group of people. The statement that Canaan would be a servant to Shem was fulfilled centuries later when the Israelites, who descended from Shem, entered the land of Canaan and subdued the inhabitants of the land (cf. 1 Kgs 9:20-21).<\/p>\n<p>Noah also said that Japheth would be enlarged and dwell in the tents of Shem (Gn 9:27), the latter of which would seem to imply sustenance and protection. After Japheth would be greatly increased in numbers, the Japhethites would be brought into contact with Shem and would share in the blessings and promises of the Semitic faith. Many scholars see fulfillment of this prophecy in the opening of the gospel to the Gentiles during the NT era of the establishment of the church.<\/p>\n<p>In the “table of nations” recorded in Genesis 10, five descendants of Shem are mentioned (Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram). Receiving particular emphasis among these descendants is Eber from the line of Arphaxad, whose line is traced to Abraham in Genesis 11:16-27.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Genealogy of Jesus Christ; Nations; Noah #1.<\/p>","summary_ro":"SHEM Eldest son of Noah (Gn 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18, 23, 26-27; 11:10; 1 Chr 1:4, 17-27; Lk 3:36) and the ancestor of the Semitic peoples (Gn 10:1, 21-31). Shem lived 600 years (11:10-11). In Hebrew, Shem means “name,” perhaps implying that Noah expected this son’s name to become great. After their deliverance from the great Flood, Shem and Japheth acted with respect and dignity toward their drunken father Noah on an occasion when their brother Ham dishonored him (Gn 9:20-29). Because of this ...","summary_en":"SHEM Eldest son of Noah (Gn 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18, 23, 26-27; 11:10; 1 Chr 1:4, 17-27; Lk 3:36) and the ancestor of the Semitic peoples (Gn 10:1, 21-31). Shem lived 600 years (11:10-11). In Hebrew, Shem means “name,” perhaps implying that Noah expected this son’s name to become great. After their deliverance from the great Flood, Shem and Japheth acted with respect and dignity toward their drunken father Noah on an occasion when their brother Ham dishonored him (Gn 9:20-29). Because of this ...","source":"Articles\/S.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":43001,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:10","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:10","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:10<\/strong> This <em>account of Shem’s family<\/em> resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begins in ch 12. Abram is the remnant from Babel’s confused world. God called him as an act of grace whereby the fractured world of Babel would be blessed (12:3). • <em>the father of:<\/em> Or <em>the ancestor of;<\/em> Hebrew genealogies do not necessarily list every single generation.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:10<\/strong> This <em>account of Shem’s family<\/em> resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begins in ch 12. Abram is the remnant from Babel’s confused world. God called him as an act of grace whereby the fractured world of Babel would be blessed (12:3). • <em>the father of:<\/em> Or <em>the ancestor of;<\/em> Hebrew genealogies do not necessarily list every single generation.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:10 This account of Shem’s family resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begin...","summary_en":"11:10 This account of Shem’s family resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begin...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70627,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:10","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:10","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:10<\/strong> This <em>account of Shem’s family<\/em> resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begins in ch 12. Abram is the remnant from Babel’s confused world. God called him as an act of grace whereby the fractured world of Babel would be blessed (12:3). • <em>the father of:<\/em> Or <em>the ancestor of;<\/em> Hebrew genealogies do not necessarily list every single generation.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:10<\/strong> This <em>account of Shem’s family<\/em> resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begins in ch 12. Abram is the remnant from Babel’s confused world. God called him as an act of grace whereby the fractured world of Babel would be blessed (12:3). • <em>the father of:<\/em> Or <em>the ancestor of;<\/em> Hebrew genealogies do not necessarily list every single generation.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:10 This account of Shem’s family resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begin...","summary_en":"11:10 This account of Shem’s family resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begin...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98253,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:10","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:10","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:10<\/strong> This <em>account of Shem’s family<\/em> resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begins in ch 12. Abram is the remnant from Babel’s confused world. God called him as an act of grace whereby the fractured world of Babel would be blessed (12:3). • <em>the father of:<\/em> Or <em>the ancestor of;<\/em> Hebrew genealogies do not necessarily list every single generation.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:10<\/strong> This <em>account of Shem’s family<\/em> resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begins in ch 12. Abram is the remnant from Babel’s confused world. God called him as an act of grace whereby the fractured world of Babel would be blessed (12:3). • <em>the father of:<\/em> Or <em>the ancestor of;<\/em> Hebrew genealogies do not necessarily list every single generation.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:10 This account of Shem’s family resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begin...","summary_en":"11:10 This account of Shem’s family resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begin...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125879,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:10","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:10","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:10<\/strong> This <em>account of Shem’s family<\/em> resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begins in ch 12. Abram is the remnant from Babel’s confused world. God called him as an act of grace whereby the fractured world of Babel would be blessed (12:3). • <em>the father of:<\/em> Or <em>the ancestor of;<\/em> Hebrew genealogies do not necessarily list every single generation.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:10<\/strong> This <em>account of Shem’s family<\/em> resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begins in ch 12. Abram is the remnant from Babel’s confused world. God called him as an act of grace whereby the fractured world of Babel would be blessed (12:3). • <em>the father of:<\/em> Or <em>the ancestor of;<\/em> Hebrew genealogies do not necessarily list every single generation.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:10 This account of Shem’s family resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begin...","summary_en":"11:10 This account of Shem’s family resumes the line of Shem from 10:21-32, now with special focus on the line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel are heirs to Shem’s God (see 9:26-27; Deut 32:8-9). The Babel story vividly repudiates the culture that Abram was called to abandon (Gen 12:1; 24:6-7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27-32), this second account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chs 1–11 to the national history of Israel that begin...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"12":[{"id":3066,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Asshur","title_en":"Asshur","content_ro":"<h3>ASSHUR<\/h3>\n<p> Uncertain translation of a Hebrew word, appearing in English translations of the Bible as Assyria, Assyrian, Assyrians, or merely “Asshur.” These variants come from the Assyrian word <em>asshur.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>1. KJV translation of the word for Assyria in Genesis 10:11. It is improperly translated as a person and should be understood as in the <span>nlt<\/span>: “He [Nimrod] extended his reign to Assyria.” In that country, east of the Tigris River, Nimrod built four cities: Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, and Resen.<\/p>\n<li>2. Shem’s son (Gn 10:22; 1 Chr 1:17). The reference may be merely a personification of the whole Assyrian people; however, since other names in the account (e.g., Arpachshad, Gn 10:24; 11:12) seem to indicate individual persons, perhaps Asshur should be taken in the same way. If so, this individual may have been the founder of the city Asshur to which he gave his name, the names of a god and nation being further derived from the city. <em>See<\/em> Asshur (Place).<\/li>\n<li>3. Patron god of the city of Asshur.<\/li>","content_en":"<h3>ASSHUR<\/h3>\n<p> Uncertain translation of a Hebrew word, appearing in English translations of the Bible as Assyria, Assyrian, Assyrians, or merely “Asshur.” These variants come from the Assyrian word <em>asshur.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>1. KJV translation of the word for Assyria in Genesis 10:11. It is improperly translated as a person and should be understood as in the <span>nlt<\/span>: “He [Nimrod] extended his reign to Assyria.” In that country, east of the Tigris River, Nimrod built four cities: Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, and Resen.<\/p>\n<li>2. Shem’s son (Gn 10:22; 1 Chr 1:17). The reference may be merely a personification of the whole Assyrian people; however, since other names in the account (e.g., Arpachshad, Gn 10:24; 11:12) seem to indicate individual persons, perhaps Asshur should be taken in the same way. If so, this individual may have been the founder of the city Asshur to which he gave his name, the names of a god and nation being further derived from the city. <em>See<\/em> Asshur (Place).<\/li>\n<li>3. Patron god of the city of Asshur.<\/li>","summary_ro":"ASSHUR Uncertain translation of a Hebrew word, appearing in English translations of the Bible as Assyria, Assyrian, Assyrians, or merely “Asshur.” These variants come from the Assyrian word asshur. 1. KJV translation of the word for Assyria in Genesis 10:11. It is improperly translated as a person and should be understood as in the nlt: “He [Nimrod] extended his reign to Assyria.” In that country, east of the Tigris River, Nimrod built four cities: Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, and Resen. 2. S...","summary_en":"ASSHUR Uncertain translation of a Hebrew word, appearing in English translations of the Bible as Assyria, Assyrian, Assyrians, or merely “Asshur.” These variants come from the Assyrian word asshur. 1. KJV translation of the word for Assyria in Genesis 10:11. It is improperly translated as a person and should be understood as in the nlt: “He [Nimrod] extended his reign to Assyria.” In that country, east of the Tigris River, Nimrod built four cities: Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, and Resen. 2. S...","source":"Articles\/A.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":5942,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Cainan","title_en":"Cainan","content_ro":"<h3>CAINAN<\/h3>\n<li>1. A son of Arphaxad (Lk 3:36; Gn 10:24, LXX; 11:12-13).<\/li>\n<li>2. Adam’s great-grandson, also called Kenan (Gn 5:9-14; 1 Chr 1:2; Lk 3:37). <em>See<\/em> Kenan.<\/li>","content_en":"<h3>CAINAN<\/h3>\n<li>1. A son of Arphaxad (Lk 3:36; Gn 10:24, LXX; 11:12-13).<\/li>\n<li>2. Adam’s great-grandson, also called Kenan (Gn 5:9-14; 1 Chr 1:2; Lk 3:37). <em>See<\/em> Kenan.<\/li>","summary_ro":"CAINAN 1. A son of Arphaxad (Lk 3:36; Gn 10:24, LXX; 11:12-13). 2. Adam’s great-grandson, also called Kenan (Gn 5:9-14; 1 Chr 1:2; Lk 3:37). See Kenan.","summary_en":"CAINAN 1. A son of Arphaxad (Lk 3:36; Gn 10:24, LXX; 11:12-13). 2. Adam’s great-grandson, also called Kenan (Gn 5:9-14; 1 Chr 1:2; Lk 3:37). See Kenan.","source":"Articles\/C.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":13477,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Genealogy of Jesus Christ","title_en":"Genealogy of Jesus Christ","content_ro":"<h3>GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST<\/h3>\n<p>Account of Jesus’ human descent. The NT records Jesus’ genealogy twice in great detail: in Matthew 1:1-17 and in Luke 3:23-38.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Matthew’s Genealogy<\/p>\n<p>• Luke’s Genealogy<\/p>\n<p>• The Relationship between the Two Records<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"MatthewsGenealogy\">Matthew’s Genealogy (1:1-17)<\/p>\n<p>Matthew 1:1 presents Jesus Christ as “the son of David, the son of Abraham.” By those two names, Matthew highlights Jesus’ earthly relationship to the Abrahamic (Gn 17:1-8) and Davidic (2 Sm 7:12-16) covenants of promise. Then beginning with the patriarch Abraham, Matthew traces Jesus’ human ancestry through King David to Joseph, “the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (Mt 1:16). Matthew summarizes his account: “So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations” (v 17, <span>rsv<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>An examination of Matthew’s handling of this genealogical material discloses several interesting peculiarities:<\/p>\n\n<p>1. The arrangement of the names into three groups of 14 seems to be an artificial device.<\/p>\n<li>2. To have 14 names in the second group, Matthew omits three kings—Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah—between Joram and Uzziah (v 8), and one, Jehoiakim, between Josiah and Jeconiah (v 11).<\/li>\n<li>3. In the first group Matthew mentions three women—Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth; and in the second group, he alludes to Bathsheba. This is an uncommon practice in genealogies, and all the more strange when it is noted that these four represent what could be regarded as moral blemishes in the history of the Davidic dynasty— Tamar, a victim of incest; Rahab, a prostitute; Ruth, a Moabitess; and Bathsheba, an adulteress.<\/li>\n<li>4. In the first group Matthew mentions Judah’s brothers and Zerah, Perez’s brother. In the second group he refers to Jeconiah’s brothers.<\/li>\n<li>5. In verse 6 David is called “the king.”<\/li>\n<p>From these data, it is obvious that Matthew does not intend to present a strict genealogy; the arrangement is contrived, and extraneous material is included, probably for some other purpose than merely to present Jesus’ forebears. Matthew’s arrangement of the names into groups of 14, probably guided by an interest in portraying Jesus to Jews as the promised king of Israel and rightful heir to the Davidic throne, gives a definite historical movement to the genealogy by dividing it into three periods of time. These respectively highlight the origin, rise to power, and decay of the Davidic house, the last point represented by the lowly birth of the promised heir to a carpenter of Nazareth.<\/p>\n<p>The 14 names in each group may be an effort to call attention to the thrice-royal character of Mary’s son by focusing on the numerical value 14 of the Hebrew letters in David’s name (d=4, v=6, d=4). This number also happens to be twice the sacred number seven, so that the whole list is composed of three sets of two sevens each. It may be, however, that the contrived groupings were merely intended to aid in memorization.<\/p>\n<p>With respect to the second peculiarity—the “missing name” in the third group—one must conclude that either David or Jeconiah is to be counted twice, these being the pivotal names separating the three groups, or that a name was mistakenly dropped out in a copy of Matthew’s original Gospel.<\/p>\n<p>The third peculiarity presents no difficulty at all. Numerous genealogies in Scripture omit some names. Ancient Near Eastern writers often used the phrase “the son of,” or the word “begat,” quite flexibly, relating grandsons or great-grandsons, for instance, to earlier forebears without indicating every intervening ancestor. The modern mind should not require a precision in ancient records that ancient writers themselves did not insist on.<\/p>\n<p>The women listed in the genealogy—the fourth peculiarity—may have been intended to disarm Jewish criticism about Jesus’ birth (1:18-25) by showing that irregular unions were not disqualifications for the Messiah’s legal ancestry.<\/p>\n<p>The reason for including several brothers in the genealogy at three points—the fifth peculiarity—is not readily discernible. The mention of “Judah and his brothers” (1:2) may simply be following an established practice of speaking of the 12 patriarchs together.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, David’s description as “the king” (1:6) underscores the Davidic or royal character of the list.<\/p>\n<p>The sources employed in compiling the first group in the genealogy drew upon records preserved in 1 Chronicles 1:27–2:15 and in Ruth 4:18-22. The second group followed the records found in 1—2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. The third group relied mainly on public or private records from the intertestamental period; the nine names from Abiud to Jacob are not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>On the basis of this genealogy, if there had been a Davidic throne in Joseph’s day, the lowly carpenter would have been the legal heir to it, and Jesus stood after him as the next in line to inherit the royal seat.<\/p>\n<p>It has been argued against this understanding of Matthew’s genealogy that the presence of Jeconiah in the list (Mt 1:11) jeopardizes, if not completely negates, the legal claim to the Davidic throne of everyone descending directly from him. That is because the Lord declared of him: “Write this man down as childless, . . . for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David, and ruling again in Judah” (Jer 22:30, <span>rsv<\/span>). Therefore, it is said, it could not have been Matthew’s intention to represent the men from Shealtiel to Joseph as legal heirs to the throne.<\/p>\n<p>This is a point that admittedly could dispose of the view that the list presents David’s descendants if it were not for the fact that Shealtiel, who in Matthew’s record is represented as the son of Jeconiah, appears also in Luke’s genealogy as the son of Neri (Lk 3:27). Neri’s name is unique to Luke’s Gospel, so it is impossible to check its use elsewhere to discover the actual parentage of Shealtiel. But it is not surprising in the light of Jeremiah 22:30 to find him listed in both accounts with different parents. Neri most likely was Shealtiel’s real father, and while it is impossible to determine Neri’s precise relationship to Jeconiah, it may be that those responsible for determining and keeping the record of the legal heirs to the Davidic throne looked to the collateral line of Neri and selected Shealtiel as the man to be legally adopted into the line and the one through whom the line would continue. Shealtiel may well have died without a male descendant, which made it necessary to look to Zerubbabel, the son of Pedaiah, Shealtiel’s brother by adoption, as the legal heir to the Davidic throne. By this pair of adoptions, the curse upon Jeconiah was fulfilled while an actual grandson of Jeconiah continued the line, inasmuch as the grandson was legally the son of Shealtiel, who in turn was the actual son of Neri. Jeconiah’s presence in the genealogy is a strength, rather than a weakness, for the interpretation that Matthew’s Gospel intended to present the legal heirs of the Davidic throne, since only a writer conscious of the problems surrounding Jeconiah’s lineage, but also aware of an explanation, would present such an ancestry to a Jewish audience he was seeking to convince that Jesus was indeed the royal Messiah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"LukesGenealogy\">Luke’s Genealogy (3:23-38)<\/p>\n<p>Luke’s genealogy also has peculiarities.<\/p>\n<p>1. Some expositors have thought it significant that Luke’s genealogy appears not at the beginning of the Gospel but at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.<\/p>\n<li>2. Luke’s account, in contrast to Matthew’s, begins with Jesus and traces his lineage back through OT history. This seems irregular, for most genealogies follow the order of succession.<\/li>\n<li>3. Luke’s account, furthermore, does not end with Abraham but goes all the way back to “Adam, the son of God” (Lk 3:38).<\/li>\n<p>Some have seen the first peculiarity as a result of Luke’s desire to bring a period of sacred history to its close, and to signal the beginning of another with the person and especially the ministry of Jesus. The genealogy, located as it is, sets off the work of Christ from the accounts of his birth and preparation.<\/p>\n<p>Many have suggested that the regressive order in the genealogy is probably Luke’s instrument to focus attention on Jesus. The fact that Luke traced Jesus’ ancestry back to Adam, “the son of God,” was probably due to the fact that he wrote for Romans and Greeks. By tracing Jesus’ ancestry back to Adam, he shows Jesus to be related to the whole human race. In Luke’s genealogy Jesus and Adam are both “sons of God”; Jesus, of course, is the son of God by nature; Adam, the son of God by having been created in God’s image.<\/p>\n<p>As to his sources, it is rather certain that Luke used the Septuagint version (ancient Greek version of the OT) of Genesis 11:12, which inserts the name Cainan between Shelah and Arphaxad (Lk 3:36), and the records of 1 Chronicles 1–3 for the history down to David. For the period from David to Jesus, most expositors agree that Luke relied upon information probably received directly from Mary or from persons close to her. It was a common practice among the Jewish people for genealogical records to be maintained both publicly and privately. There was special concern in families of Davidic descent to preserve their ancestral records because of OT prophecies that Messiah would be born in the house of David.<\/p>\n<p>Luke no doubt intended to accomplish more by his list than merely a presentation of a number of Jesus’ ancestors. Since Luke did not highlight David in his list, it may be assumed that he was not zealous to present a list of legal heirs to the Davidic throne—not that the issue is of no concern to him (cf. Lk 1:27, 32, 69; 2:4, 11). Rather, a concern throughout Luke’s Gospel is this emphasis—that of portraying the Christ as the Savior of Romans and Greeks—indeed, of the world. Therefore, though Luke traced Jesus’ ancestry through Joseph’s ancestral line to David, he continued beyond David to Adam. Jesus is a member of the race to which all people belong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheRelationshipbetweentheTwoRecords\">The Relationship between the Two Records<\/p>\n<p>Even a cursory examination of the two genealogies of Jesus will show several differences. For example, Matthew’s genealogy comprises 41 generations, while Luke lists 76. Luke includes the period between Adam and Abraham; Matthew does not. While the two lists are practically identical from Abraham to David, they diverge for the period from David to Jesus, Matthew tracing Jesus’ lineage from David through Solomon in 27 generations, whereas Luke traces Jesus’ lineage from David through Nathan, another son, in 42 generations. Furthermore, at only one point do the lines converge during this period: at the names of Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, who are doubtless the same men in both lists. Finally, Matthew represents Joseph as the son of Jacob (Mt 1:16), whereas in Luke’s account he is the son of Heli (Lk 3:23).<\/p>\n<p>How are these differences to be explained? The differences between these lists stem from the purposes for which they were compiled and the meanings they were intended to convey.<\/p>\n<p>A widely held explanation is that Matthew gives Jesus’ ancestry through Joseph and that Luke gives his ancestry through Mary. On this interpretation Jacob was Joseph’s real father, and Heli (probably Mary’s father) became Joseph’s foster father, that is, Joseph was Heli’s “son,” or heir, by his marriage to Mary, assuming that Heli had no sons (cf. Nm 27:1-11; 36:1-12). This view is certainly a possibility and should not be rejected out of hand. If Mary was a direct descendant of David, it could be literally said of any son of hers, “He is the seed of David.”<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, many scholars prefer to regard Luke’s genealogy as that of Joseph rather than Mary, since it is to Joseph’s ancestry that Luke calls the reader’s attention (Lk 1:27; 2:4). Furthermore, nowhere in Scripture is Mary said to be of Davidic descent. If the fact that Joseph was not the actual father of Jesus nullifies any value that Joseph’s lineage might otherwise possess for a real son, why does Luke point to Joseph’s lineage twice, and to Mary’s not at all?<\/p>\n<p>A major difficulty for the view that regards both genealogies as Joseph’s is related to Joseph’s two fathers. One solution is that Matthew gives the legal descendants of David but Luke gives the actual descendants of David in the line to which Joseph belonged. This would mean that Heli was Joseph’s real father and that Jacob was his legal foster father. How this could be is readily explainable. Assuming that Jacob’s father, Matthan (Mt 1:15), and Heli’s father, Matthat (Lk 3:24), are the same person, then Jacob (the elder) may have died without a male descendant so that his nephew, the son of his brother Heli, would have become his heir.<\/p>\n<p>If Matthan and Matthat are not the same person, one might postulate that Jacob, the legal heir to the throne, died without a descendant and that Joseph, son of Heli, became the legal heir immediately upon the death of Heli and was counted as Jacob’s son in a list of legal heirs to the throne. Possibly Heli, a relative, married Jacob’s widow, thereby making Joseph, the son of that union, Heli’s son and Jacob’s son by levirate marriage. In other words, there are a number of possible explanations of this divergence.<\/p>\n<p>One other major objection to the view that regards both genealogies as Joseph’s is that, because of the virgin birth of Jesus, one may in no sense speak of Jesus as being literally the seed of David—a proposition that Scripture seems to insist upon. This objection has been adequately countered: (1) because of the realistic manner in which the Jews looked upon adoptive fatherhood; and (2) because the relationship in which Jesus stood to Joseph was much closer than a case of ordinary adoption, there being no earthly father to dispute Joseph’s paternal relation to Jesus. Jesus could and would have been regarded as Joseph’s son and heir with complete propriety, satisfying every scriptural demand that he be the “seed of David.” The question, therefore, whether Mary as well as Joseph was a descendant of David does not need to be answered one way or the other by one who desires to defend Jesus’ Davidic descent.<\/p>\n<p>It is beyond human reach to discover for certain the full solution to the divergences between the two genealogies of Jesus, or the actual relationship of Jesus to them. Enough has been said to demonstrate that they are reconcilable, and the purposes of each, suggested here, indicate that either of the ways outlined above does full justice to the Davidic descent of Jesus, as rightful heir to his ancestor’s covenanted throne, and also to his virgin birth by Mary.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Genealogy; Incarnation; Jesus Christ, Life and Teachings of; Virgin Birth of Jesus.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST<\/h3>\n<p>Account of Jesus’ human descent. The NT records Jesus’ genealogy twice in great detail: in Matthew 1:1-17 and in Luke 3:23-38.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Matthew’s Genealogy<\/p>\n<p>• Luke’s Genealogy<\/p>\n<p>• The Relationship between the Two Records<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"MatthewsGenealogy\">Matthew’s Genealogy (1:1-17)<\/p>\n<p>Matthew 1:1 presents Jesus Christ as “the son of David, the son of Abraham.” By those two names, Matthew highlights Jesus’ earthly relationship to the Abrahamic (Gn 17:1-8) and Davidic (2 Sm 7:12-16) covenants of promise. Then beginning with the patriarch Abraham, Matthew traces Jesus’ human ancestry through King David to Joseph, “the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (Mt 1:16). Matthew summarizes his account: “So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations” (v 17, <span>rsv<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>An examination of Matthew’s handling of this genealogical material discloses several interesting peculiarities:<\/p>\n\n<p>1. The arrangement of the names into three groups of 14 seems to be an artificial device.<\/p>\n<li>2. To have 14 names in the second group, Matthew omits three kings—Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah—between Joram and Uzziah (v 8), and one, Jehoiakim, between Josiah and Jeconiah (v 11).<\/li>\n<li>3. In the first group Matthew mentions three women—Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth; and in the second group, he alludes to Bathsheba. This is an uncommon practice in genealogies, and all the more strange when it is noted that these four represent what could be regarded as moral blemishes in the history of the Davidic dynasty— Tamar, a victim of incest; Rahab, a prostitute; Ruth, a Moabitess; and Bathsheba, an adulteress.<\/li>\n<li>4. In the first group Matthew mentions Judah’s brothers and Zerah, Perez’s brother. In the second group he refers to Jeconiah’s brothers.<\/li>\n<li>5. In verse 6 David is called “the king.”<\/li>\n<p>From these data, it is obvious that Matthew does not intend to present a strict genealogy; the arrangement is contrived, and extraneous material is included, probably for some other purpose than merely to present Jesus’ forebears. Matthew’s arrangement of the names into groups of 14, probably guided by an interest in portraying Jesus to Jews as the promised king of Israel and rightful heir to the Davidic throne, gives a definite historical movement to the genealogy by dividing it into three periods of time. These respectively highlight the origin, rise to power, and decay of the Davidic house, the last point represented by the lowly birth of the promised heir to a carpenter of Nazareth.<\/p>\n<p>The 14 names in each group may be an effort to call attention to the thrice-royal character of Mary’s son by focusing on the numerical value 14 of the Hebrew letters in David’s name (d=4, v=6, d=4). This number also happens to be twice the sacred number seven, so that the whole list is composed of three sets of two sevens each. It may be, however, that the contrived groupings were merely intended to aid in memorization.<\/p>\n<p>With respect to the second peculiarity—the “missing name” in the third group—one must conclude that either David or Jeconiah is to be counted twice, these being the pivotal names separating the three groups, or that a name was mistakenly dropped out in a copy of Matthew’s original Gospel.<\/p>\n<p>The third peculiarity presents no difficulty at all. Numerous genealogies in Scripture omit some names. Ancient Near Eastern writers often used the phrase “the son of,” or the word “begat,” quite flexibly, relating grandsons or great-grandsons, for instance, to earlier forebears without indicating every intervening ancestor. The modern mind should not require a precision in ancient records that ancient writers themselves did not insist on.<\/p>\n<p>The women listed in the genealogy—the fourth peculiarity—may have been intended to disarm Jewish criticism about Jesus’ birth (1:18-25) by showing that irregular unions were not disqualifications for the Messiah’s legal ancestry.<\/p>\n<p>The reason for including several brothers in the genealogy at three points—the fifth peculiarity—is not readily discernible. The mention of “Judah and his brothers” (1:2) may simply be following an established practice of speaking of the 12 patriarchs together.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, David’s description as “the king” (1:6) underscores the Davidic or royal character of the list.<\/p>\n<p>The sources employed in compiling the first group in the genealogy drew upon records preserved in 1 Chronicles 1:27–2:15 and in Ruth 4:18-22. The second group followed the records found in 1—2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. The third group relied mainly on public or private records from the intertestamental period; the nine names from Abiud to Jacob are not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>On the basis of this genealogy, if there had been a Davidic throne in Joseph’s day, the lowly carpenter would have been the legal heir to it, and Jesus stood after him as the next in line to inherit the royal seat.<\/p>\n<p>It has been argued against this understanding of Matthew’s genealogy that the presence of Jeconiah in the list (Mt 1:11) jeopardizes, if not completely negates, the legal claim to the Davidic throne of everyone descending directly from him. That is because the Lord declared of him: “Write this man down as childless, . . . for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David, and ruling again in Judah” (Jer 22:30, <span>rsv<\/span>). Therefore, it is said, it could not have been Matthew’s intention to represent the men from Shealtiel to Joseph as legal heirs to the throne.<\/p>\n<p>This is a point that admittedly could dispose of the view that the list presents David’s descendants if it were not for the fact that Shealtiel, who in Matthew’s record is represented as the son of Jeconiah, appears also in Luke’s genealogy as the son of Neri (Lk 3:27). Neri’s name is unique to Luke’s Gospel, so it is impossible to check its use elsewhere to discover the actual parentage of Shealtiel. But it is not surprising in the light of Jeremiah 22:30 to find him listed in both accounts with different parents. Neri most likely was Shealtiel’s real father, and while it is impossible to determine Neri’s precise relationship to Jeconiah, it may be that those responsible for determining and keeping the record of the legal heirs to the Davidic throne looked to the collateral line of Neri and selected Shealtiel as the man to be legally adopted into the line and the one through whom the line would continue. Shealtiel may well have died without a male descendant, which made it necessary to look to Zerubbabel, the son of Pedaiah, Shealtiel’s brother by adoption, as the legal heir to the Davidic throne. By this pair of adoptions, the curse upon Jeconiah was fulfilled while an actual grandson of Jeconiah continued the line, inasmuch as the grandson was legally the son of Shealtiel, who in turn was the actual son of Neri. Jeconiah’s presence in the genealogy is a strength, rather than a weakness, for the interpretation that Matthew’s Gospel intended to present the legal heirs of the Davidic throne, since only a writer conscious of the problems surrounding Jeconiah’s lineage, but also aware of an explanation, would present such an ancestry to a Jewish audience he was seeking to convince that Jesus was indeed the royal Messiah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"LukesGenealogy\">Luke’s Genealogy (3:23-38)<\/p>\n<p>Luke’s genealogy also has peculiarities.<\/p>\n<p>1. Some expositors have thought it significant that Luke’s genealogy appears not at the beginning of the Gospel but at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.<\/p>\n<li>2. Luke’s account, in contrast to Matthew’s, begins with Jesus and traces his lineage back through OT history. This seems irregular, for most genealogies follow the order of succession.<\/li>\n<li>3. Luke’s account, furthermore, does not end with Abraham but goes all the way back to “Adam, the son of God” (Lk 3:38).<\/li>\n<p>Some have seen the first peculiarity as a result of Luke’s desire to bring a period of sacred history to its close, and to signal the beginning of another with the person and especially the ministry of Jesus. The genealogy, located as it is, sets off the work of Christ from the accounts of his birth and preparation.<\/p>\n<p>Many have suggested that the regressive order in the genealogy is probably Luke’s instrument to focus attention on Jesus. The fact that Luke traced Jesus’ ancestry back to Adam, “the son of God,” was probably due to the fact that he wrote for Romans and Greeks. By tracing Jesus’ ancestry back to Adam, he shows Jesus to be related to the whole human race. In Luke’s genealogy Jesus and Adam are both “sons of God”; Jesus, of course, is the son of God by nature; Adam, the son of God by having been created in God’s image.<\/p>\n<p>As to his sources, it is rather certain that Luke used the Septuagint version (ancient Greek version of the OT) of Genesis 11:12, which inserts the name Cainan between Shelah and Arphaxad (Lk 3:36), and the records of 1 Chronicles 1–3 for the history down to David. For the period from David to Jesus, most expositors agree that Luke relied upon information probably received directly from Mary or from persons close to her. It was a common practice among the Jewish people for genealogical records to be maintained both publicly and privately. There was special concern in families of Davidic descent to preserve their ancestral records because of OT prophecies that Messiah would be born in the house of David.<\/p>\n<p>Luke no doubt intended to accomplish more by his list than merely a presentation of a number of Jesus’ ancestors. Since Luke did not highlight David in his list, it may be assumed that he was not zealous to present a list of legal heirs to the Davidic throne—not that the issue is of no concern to him (cf. Lk 1:27, 32, 69; 2:4, 11). Rather, a concern throughout Luke’s Gospel is this emphasis—that of portraying the Christ as the Savior of Romans and Greeks—indeed, of the world. Therefore, though Luke traced Jesus’ ancestry through Joseph’s ancestral line to David, he continued beyond David to Adam. Jesus is a member of the race to which all people belong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheRelationshipbetweentheTwoRecords\">The Relationship between the Two Records<\/p>\n<p>Even a cursory examination of the two genealogies of Jesus will show several differences. For example, Matthew’s genealogy comprises 41 generations, while Luke lists 76. Luke includes the period between Adam and Abraham; Matthew does not. While the two lists are practically identical from Abraham to David, they diverge for the period from David to Jesus, Matthew tracing Jesus’ lineage from David through Solomon in 27 generations, whereas Luke traces Jesus’ lineage from David through Nathan, another son, in 42 generations. Furthermore, at only one point do the lines converge during this period: at the names of Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, who are doubtless the same men in both lists. Finally, Matthew represents Joseph as the son of Jacob (Mt 1:16), whereas in Luke’s account he is the son of Heli (Lk 3:23).<\/p>\n<p>How are these differences to be explained? The differences between these lists stem from the purposes for which they were compiled and the meanings they were intended to convey.<\/p>\n<p>A widely held explanation is that Matthew gives Jesus’ ancestry through Joseph and that Luke gives his ancestry through Mary. On this interpretation Jacob was Joseph’s real father, and Heli (probably Mary’s father) became Joseph’s foster father, that is, Joseph was Heli’s “son,” or heir, by his marriage to Mary, assuming that Heli had no sons (cf. Nm 27:1-11; 36:1-12). This view is certainly a possibility and should not be rejected out of hand. If Mary was a direct descendant of David, it could be literally said of any son of hers, “He is the seed of David.”<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, many scholars prefer to regard Luke’s genealogy as that of Joseph rather than Mary, since it is to Joseph’s ancestry that Luke calls the reader’s attention (Lk 1:27; 2:4). Furthermore, nowhere in Scripture is Mary said to be of Davidic descent. If the fact that Joseph was not the actual father of Jesus nullifies any value that Joseph’s lineage might otherwise possess for a real son, why does Luke point to Joseph’s lineage twice, and to Mary’s not at all?<\/p>\n<p>A major difficulty for the view that regards both genealogies as Joseph’s is related to Joseph’s two fathers. One solution is that Matthew gives the legal descendants of David but Luke gives the actual descendants of David in the line to which Joseph belonged. This would mean that Heli was Joseph’s real father and that Jacob was his legal foster father. How this could be is readily explainable. Assuming that Jacob’s father, Matthan (Mt 1:15), and Heli’s father, Matthat (Lk 3:24), are the same person, then Jacob (the elder) may have died without a male descendant so that his nephew, the son of his brother Heli, would have become his heir.<\/p>\n<p>If Matthan and Matthat are not the same person, one might postulate that Jacob, the legal heir to the throne, died without a descendant and that Joseph, son of Heli, became the legal heir immediately upon the death of Heli and was counted as Jacob’s son in a list of legal heirs to the throne. Possibly Heli, a relative, married Jacob’s widow, thereby making Joseph, the son of that union, Heli’s son and Jacob’s son by levirate marriage. In other words, there are a number of possible explanations of this divergence.<\/p>\n<p>One other major objection to the view that regards both genealogies as Joseph’s is that, because of the virgin birth of Jesus, one may in no sense speak of Jesus as being literally the seed of David—a proposition that Scripture seems to insist upon. This objection has been adequately countered: (1) because of the realistic manner in which the Jews looked upon adoptive fatherhood; and (2) because the relationship in which Jesus stood to Joseph was much closer than a case of ordinary adoption, there being no earthly father to dispute Joseph’s paternal relation to Jesus. Jesus could and would have been regarded as Joseph’s son and heir with complete propriety, satisfying every scriptural demand that he be the “seed of David.” The question, therefore, whether Mary as well as Joseph was a descendant of David does not need to be answered one way or the other by one who desires to defend Jesus’ Davidic descent.<\/p>\n<p>It is beyond human reach to discover for certain the full solution to the divergences between the two genealogies of Jesus, or the actual relationship of Jesus to them. Enough has been said to demonstrate that they are reconcilable, and the purposes of each, suggested here, indicate that either of the ways outlined above does full justice to the Davidic descent of Jesus, as rightful heir to his ancestor’s covenanted throne, and also to his virgin birth by Mary.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Genealogy; Incarnation; Jesus Christ, Life and Teachings of; Virgin Birth of Jesus.<\/p>","summary_ro":"GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST Account of Jesus’ human descent. The NT records Jesus’ genealogy twice in great detail: in Matthew 1:1-17 and in Luke 3:23-38. Preview • Matthew’s Genealogy • Luke’s Genealogy • The Relationship between the Two Records Matthew’s Genealogy (1:1-17) Matthew 1:1 presents Jesus Christ as “the son of David, the son of Abraham.” By those two names, Matthew highlights Jesus’ earthly relationship to the Abrahamic (Gn 17:1-8) and Davidic (2 Sm 7:12-16) covenants of promise. T...","summary_en":"GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST Account of Jesus’ human descent. The NT records Jesus’ genealogy twice in great detail: in Matthew 1:1-17 and in Luke 3:23-38. Preview • Matthew’s Genealogy • Luke’s Genealogy • The Relationship between the Two Records Matthew’s Genealogy (1:1-17) Matthew 1:1 presents Jesus Christ as “the son of David, the son of Abraham.” By those two names, Matthew highlights Jesus’ earthly relationship to the Abrahamic (Gn 17:1-8) and Davidic (2 Sm 7:12-16) covenants of promise. T...","source":"Articles\/G.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":33541,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Salah*","title_en":"Salah*","content_ro":"<h3>SALAH*<\/h3>\n<p>KJV form of Shelah, Eber’s father, in Genesis 10:24 and 11:12-15. <em>See<\/em> Shelah #1.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>SALAH*<\/h3>\n<p>KJV form of Shelah, Eber’s father, in Genesis 10:24 and 11:12-15. <em>See<\/em> Shelah #1.<\/p>","summary_ro":"SALAH* KJV form of Shelah, Eber’s father, in Genesis 10:24 and 11:12-15. See Shelah #1.","summary_en":"SALAH* KJV form of Shelah, Eber’s father, in Genesis 10:24 and 11:12-15. See Shelah #1.","source":"Articles\/S.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":34815,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Shelah","title_en":"Shelah","content_ro":"<h3>SHELAH<\/h3>\n<li>1. Arphaxad’s son and the father of Eber (Gn 10:24; 11:12-15; 1 Chr 1:18). Shelah is listed in Luke’s genealogy of Christ as the son of Cainan the son of Arphaxad (Lk 3:35). <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/li>\n<li>2. Judah’s third son by Bathshua the Canaanitess. He was born at Kezib, a small town in Judah (Gn 38:5; 1 Chr 2:3). Shelah founded the Shelanite family (Nm 26:20), which should possibly be read instead of “Shilonite” in Nehemiah 11:5; 1 Chronicles 9:5.<\/li>","content_en":"<h3>SHELAH<\/h3>\n<li>1. Arphaxad’s son and the father of Eber (Gn 10:24; 11:12-15; 1 Chr 1:18). Shelah is listed in Luke’s genealogy of Christ as the son of Cainan the son of Arphaxad (Lk 3:35). <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/li>\n<li>2. Judah’s third son by Bathshua the Canaanitess. He was born at Kezib, a small town in Judah (Gn 38:5; 1 Chr 2:3). Shelah founded the Shelanite family (Nm 26:20), which should possibly be read instead of “Shilonite” in Nehemiah 11:5; 1 Chronicles 9:5.<\/li>","summary_ro":"SHELAH 1. Arphaxad’s son and the father of Eber (Gn 10:24; 11:12-15; 1 Chr 1:18). Shelah is listed in Luke’s genealogy of Christ as the son of Cainan the son of Arphaxad (Lk 3:35). See Genealogy of Jesus Christ. 2. Judah’s third son by Bathshua the Canaanitess. He was born at Kezib, a small town in Judah (Gn 38:5; 1 Chr 2:3). Shelah founded the Shelanite family (Nm 26:20), which should possibly be read instead of “Shilonite” in Nehemiah 11:5; 1 Chronicles 9:5.","summary_en":"SHELAH 1. Arphaxad’s son and the father of Eber (Gn 10:24; 11:12-15; 1 Chr 1:18). Shelah is listed in Luke’s genealogy of Christ as the son of Cainan the son of Arphaxad (Lk 3:35). See Genealogy of Jesus Christ. 2. Judah’s third son by Bathshua the Canaanitess. He was born at Kezib, a small town in Judah (Gn 38:5; 1 Chr 2:3). Shelah founded the Shelanite family (Nm 26:20), which should possibly be read instead of “Shilonite” in Nehemiah 11:5; 1 Chronicles 9:5.","source":"Articles\/S.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"13":[{"id":6420,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"of the Bible* (Old Testament), Chronology","title_en":"of the Bible* (Old Testament), Chronology","content_ro":"<h3>CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament)<\/h3>\n<p>Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper historical background of the biblical texts. In general, the chronology of the OT is understood well enough to vindicate the basic accuracy and sequential order of Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>Both biblical and nonbiblical materials are utilized by students of OT chronology. Biblical data include (1) genealogies showing personal and tribal affiliations among various peoples; (2) specific numbers given by biblical authors to indicate a person’s longevity, a king’s reign, or the duration of a specific event; (3) synchronizing statements that date an event in a specific year of a king’s reign or relate it to a natural phenomenon assumed to be common knowledge at the time of writing (e.g., Am 1:1; Zec 14:5).<\/p>\n<p>From the abundance of such chronological passages in the OT, one might conclude that establishment of OT dates and sequences would be a simple procedure. Each of the three kinds of biblical materials, however, exhibits special problems that must be solved first.<\/p>\n<p>Nonbiblical materials that shed light on OT chronology are quite numerous, and more are discovered year by year. They include (1) official records of important affairs such as military campaigns from countries like Egypt or Babylonia; (2) official inscriptions that are dedicatory or commemorate a great victory; (3) annals listing major accomplishments of a ruler year by year; (4) ostraca (inscribed pieces of pottery) containing letters, tax transactions and economic records, military dispatches between field leaders and command headquarters, or other information. Ostraca may be dated archaeologically and are often used to supplement the biblical record.<\/p>\n<p>The chronologist tries to examine the pertinent biblical and nonbiblical information, notes areas of correlation among all the data, and finally establishes a working system into which the most facts can be fitted. New evidence uncovered at any time may necessitate shifts in the present working system. Although the basic structure of biblical chronology seems reasonably firm, many details will no doubt be subject to change as new evidence is discovered.<\/p>\n<p>As a general rule, the earlier the period, the less certain one can be of one’s dating. In the second millennium <span>BC<\/span>, for example, many dates can be assigned within a range of about 100 years. By the time of David and Solomon (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>), the margin of error over which scholars debate is a decade or less. The range narrows as one comes toward the present, so that, with the exception of one or two problem eras, dates accurate to within one or two years are possible by roughly the middle of the ninth century <span>BC<\/span>. Such limitations must be kept in mind in any examination of the major periods of OT history.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<p>• From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<p>• Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>• The Monarchy<\/p>\n<p>• Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>• Beyond 587 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrepatriarchalPeriod\">Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<h5>Biblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>In the first 11 chapters of Genesis are found accounts of the Creation (chs 1–2), the fall (ch 3), Cain and Abel (ch 4), the Flood (chs 6–9), and the Tower of Babel (ch 11). Those events are set within a certain chronological framework.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 5, a period of 10 generations elapsed between the Creation and the Flood. Although the individuals listed enjoyed a total life span of a hefty 847 years plus, the total time elapsing between Adam and the Flood was only 1,656 years.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 11, another 10 generations elapsed from the time of the Flood until the time of Abraham (at least in the Septuagint, the third-century <span>BC<\/span> Greek translation of the OT; the Hebrew Masoretic text has 9). In that period the average age attained by individuals in the list is 346 years (using a figure of 460 for Arphaxad’s son Cainan, who is included in v 13 of the LXX; cf. Lk 3:36); the total elapsed time from the Flood to Abraham is only 520 years. Taken literally, that would mean that all of Abraham’s ancestors as far back as Noah’s son Shem were still alive at Abraham’s birth, and that a total of only 2,176 years elapsed from the time of Creation to Abraham.<\/p>\n<h5>Interpretation of the Biblical Data<\/h5>\n<p>A literalistic or slavishly mathematical interpretation of the figures, as has appeared in the margin of many <span>kjv<\/span> Bibles, requires a number of assumptions: that no names are omitted from the genealogies, that all the numbers given are consecutive, and especially that numbers used in an ancient biblical source carry the same meaning as that associated with them in the modern Western mind. Each assumption needs serious examination in the light of other established facts.<\/p>\n<p>A cursory reading of other biblical genealogies, for example, reveals that not all the names of a given family were always included. Even Matthew recorded a total of 28 generations (two sets of 14 each) between David and Jesus, and comparison with OT genealogies reveals that Matthew omitted several names. Luke listed a total of 42 generations for the same interval. Omissions are also obvious when one compares the genealogical lists given in 1 Chronicles 1–8 with those recorded earlier in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings.<\/p>\n<p>Further, ancient peoples thought of numbers in a schematic or stylized way. Use of numbers among the ancient Near Eastern nations differed sharply from current Western practice. Examples of that practice are known from both biblical and nonbiblical sources. For example, a list of eight Sumerian kings who ruled in the city of Shurruppak before the “great flood” of the Jemdet Nar era (c. 3000 <span>BC<\/span>) assigns each man an average reign of more than 30,000 years. Berossus, a Babylonian priest of Marduk living in the third century <span>BC<\/span>, added two names to the eight found in that earlier list of kings and assigned an average of 43,200 years to each king. Such extraordinarily high numbers provide a perspective for considering the numbers of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, although one can assume that the numbers assigned to the ages of the patriarchs preceding Abraham in Genesis had real meaning for those responsible for their preservation, they should not be employed in a purely literal sense to compute the length of the various generations mentioned in the text. Further, the numbers given in the Septuagint and in the Samaritan Pentateuch, another early version of the Pentateuch, diverge in many details from those of the Hebrew Masoretic Text. That means, among other things, that the Genesis numbers caused problems for even the earliest scholars of Scripture.<\/p>\n<h5>Nonbiblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>Archaeology provides no evidence that may be used to date either the Creation or any other account preserved in Genesis 1–11. The Flood is an example that illustrates some of the difficulties. Many claims have been made by persons from a wide variety of backgrounds (scientists, explorers, theologians, and others) to the effect that archaeology has proven the Genesis Flood narrative to be true. Yet no city so far excavated in Palestine and Syria (including some of the oldest towns in the world) shows archaeological evidence of the Flood.<\/p>\n<p>Although several cities in Mesopotamia do exhibit evidence of a flood, three factors make it difficult to link that evidence with Genesis 6–9. Each of the flood levels so far discovered dates from a different period. Further, since nearby sites show no evidence of flooding, all of the Mesopotamian flood evidence points to relatively small local floods. Finally, the evidence indicates no great cultural discontinuities of the sort that would result from destruction of an entire population. Thus, it seems that the ancient Mesopotamian floods discovered through archaeological research are of the same kind as the floods that still occur in the Euphrates River valley.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, certain questions one might ask of the Genesis narratives simply cannot be answered. Many who regard the Bible as the Word of God have concluded that the dating of events found in Genesis 1–11 must be less important than the theological truths of salvation, faith, and obedience that these accounts present.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"FromAbrahamtoMoses\">From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<h5>The Patriarchal Age<\/h5>\n<p>The date of Abraham is still a lively topic among biblical scholars who agree that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were indeed historical persons. Opinions range from an early-date view that estimates that the patriarchal age extended from 2086 to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>, to a late-date view placing Abraham at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>. Since each position claims to fit the biblical data, a closer look at the two points of view is in order.<\/p>\n<p>Many OT passages seem to support the view that puts Abraham at a comparatively early date. First Kings 6:1 computes 480 years back from the founding of the temple in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign (961 <span>BC<\/span>, according to the early-date view) to the exodus from Egypt, which would then be dated 1441 <span>BC<\/span>. Counting 430 years as the period of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt (see Gn 15:13; Ex 12:40) takes the date back to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>. To that date are added the 215 years demanded by the total of (1) Abraham’s age upon entering Canaan (75 years according to Gn 12:4); (2) 25 additional years before the birth of Isaac (Gn 21:5); (3) 60 more years to the birth of Jacob (Gn 25:26); and (4) the appearance of Jacob before the pharaoh at age 130 (Gn 47:9). Those 215 years added to the previous total give a date of 2086 <span>BC<\/span> for the entrance of Abraham into Canaan and a date of 2161 <span>BC<\/span> for his birth.<\/p>\n<p>Such a calculation does not use all of the chronological evidence presented in the OT; consequently, the date for Abraham is open to challenge. For example, the 480 years between the exodus and Solomon’s fourth regnal year represent a period of time into which the wilderness wanderings, the career of Joshua and his immediate successors, the period of the judges, Samuel, Saul, and David must all be placed. Although the OT does not specifically say how long were the careers of Joshua, Samuel, or Saul, even a modest reckoning pushes the total years required by all the biblical data together to approximately 600.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the length of time to be assigned to the Egyptian sojourn is problematic. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint both view the number 430 (in Ex 12:40) as applicable not only to the years in Egypt but to the years of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Canaan as well. Evidently Paul followed the Septuagint tradition when he dated the giving of the law 430 years later than the time of God’s promise to Abraham (see Gal 3:15-18). That means the Septuagint figure cannot be dismissed lightly.<\/p>\n<p>The late dating of Abraham (c. 1400 <span>BC<\/span>) is based on two propositions: (1) The picture of patriarchal society portrayed in Genesis most closely parallels that reflected in the cuneiform tablets recovered from Nuzi, a town in northeastern Mesopotamia about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of Baghdad. (2) Because those tablets must be dated in the 15th and 14th centuries <span>BC<\/span>, the parallel patriarchal age must have fallen within the same general time period.<\/p>\n<p>Those who hold the late-date view are aware that their date for Abraham cannot be equated with the set of numbers on which the early-date view depends. They point to other data, also from the OT. Joseph, who was already a highly placed Egyptian official when Jacob moved to Egypt, lived to be 110 years old (Gn 50:26). Moses was a great-grandson of Levi, Joseph’s older brother. Since Joseph lived to see his own greatgrandchildren born (who would probably be younger than Moses since their great-grandfather was younger than his), the late-date view concludes that Joseph could have been alive when Moses was born. The four-generation genealogy of Moses (Levi-Kohath-Amram-Moses, in Ex 6:16-20; Nm 3:17-19; 26:58-59; 1 Chr 6:1-3) was evidently thought to be complete according to Genesis 15:16, which predicted that Abraham’s descendants would be freed from Egyptian bondage “in the fourth generation.”<\/p>\n<p>However, a date of around 1400 <span>BC<\/span> for Abraham cannot be aligned with certain other biblical data, including the long Egyptian sojourn demanded by Genesis 15:13 and Exodus 12:40 and a 40-year (or “one-generation”) wilderness existence. Some normally moderate scholars are forced to reduce the wilderness time to two years in order to maintain their late date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>In short, the late-date theory is consistent with part of the biblical evidence (the genealogies of Moses), but the early-date theory conforms to another part (the actual year figures listed in scattered verses from Genesis and Exodus). The late-date theory holds that the genealogies represent more reliable information in Semitic societies generally, whereas the early-date theory computes years given in the biblical account literally throughout its scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Because of problems attached to both positions, a large group of scholars take a middle ground in dating the patriarchal age. Archaeologically, they say, Abraham and his life and times fit perfectly within the early second millennium, but imperfectly within any later period. By placing Abraham roughly between 1800 and 1600 <span>BC<\/span>, they provide enough latitude for a merging of all the available evidence, biblical and nonbiblical, into a workable chronological scheme. Archaeology provides four major bits of evidence for an early second-millennium patriarchal era.<\/p>\n<p>1. Though the Nuzi tablets furnish a clear parallel to patriarchal social life, other tablets from other towns and an earlier era reflect many of the same customs common to Nuzi and Genesis. Since the Nuzians were Hurrians who came to northeastern Mesopotamia from elsewhere (perhaps Armenia), their social customs originated no doubt much earlier than the time of their tablets now in our possession. Accordingly, the 15th-century <span>BC<\/span> date of the Nuzi tablets does not preclude an earlier date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<li>2. The names of several of Abraham’s ancestors listed in Genesis 11 can now be identified with towns in the northern area of Mesopotamia around Haran, the city from which Abraham migrated to Canaan (Gn 11:31–12:3). Significantly, Haran flourished in the 19th and 18th centuries <span>BC<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>3. Shortly after 2000 <span>BC<\/span> Semitic nomads from the desert invaded the civilized communities of the Fertile Crescent. Those invaders, called Amorites in the OT, established themselves in several cities in northern Syria and Mesopotamia. One of the Amorite cities was Babylon, ruled by Hammurabi sometime around the beginning of the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. Although the King Amraphel of Genesis 14:1 is not linguistically identifiable with the Babylonian king Hammurabi, as earlier scholars believed, the picture of the times following the Amorite invasion still accords well with the Genesis narratives generally.<\/li>\n<li>4. Mari, another Amorite town, is now well known because of more than 20,000 tablets recovered from its royal palace and archives. Geographically, Mari is located in the general area of Haran. Chronologically, the tablets recovered come from the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. One 18th-century king of Mari, Zimri Lim, carried on extensive correspondence with Hammurabi of Babylon. The tablets from Mari also furnish valuable information about tribal and ethnic groups and their movements in the general region. Of basic importance for dating the Genesis materials are certain documents from Mari that include personal names very similar to Abraham (Abi-ram), Jacob, Laban, and several other West Semitic names.<\/li>\n<p>Archaeological evidence neither proves nor disproves the actual existence of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. That is admitted on all sides. What archaeology has done is to provide a framework of probabilities within which the biblical patriarchal narratives appear more and more to be at home.<\/p>\n<h5>Date of the Exodus<\/h5>\n<p>The problem of dating the patriarchal age is closely related to the problem of assigning a date to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Since the evidence does not permit a precise date for Abraham, a precise date for the entry of Joseph or Jacob into Egypt is likewise unobtainable. Further, the biblical evidence does not yield an exact figure for the length of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>For many years biblical scholars viewed 1 Kings 6:1 as a foundation upon which to build an unshakable date for the exodus. Because Solomon’s fourth year could be unquestionably fixed to within at least a 10-year span (967–958 <span>BC<\/span>), the exodus too could be dated with the same precision simply by adding 480 years. But other biblical data raise serious questions about that simple procedure. When the Bible deals with all the events between the time of the exodus and the founding of Solomon’s temple, that is, from Numbers to 1 Kings 5:18, the precise numbers given total not 480 but closer to 600 years.<\/p>\n<p>Because the evidence is insufficient to allow a precise date for the exodus, scholarly opinion remains divided between two possibilities. A 15th-century exodus is supported by several pieces of evidence. The chronology in 1 Kings 6:1 appears to be independently corroborated by a passage in Judges 11:26. It claims that Israel had occupied the area around Heshbon for 300 years preceding Jephthah’s own day. If Jephthah is dated at roughly 1100 <span>BC<\/span>, one is obviously led back to an exodus in the middle of the 15th century. Also, three successive generations of pharaohs who ruled in the 16th and 15th centuries produced no male offspring, making it more likely that Moses would have become the foster son of a royal princess during that time; all of the 19th-dynasty kings (1306–1200 <span>BC<\/span>) had legitimate male heirs.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, a 15th-century date makes possible a connection between the Habiru invasion of Canaan (1400–1350 <span>BC<\/span>)—described in the Amarna letters found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt—and the invasion of Canaan by the Hebrews described in the OT book of Joshua. Related to that is a reference to “Israel” in the Merneptah Stele, a stone pillar inscribed with the deeds of the Egyptian king, Merneptah, of about 1220 <span>BC<\/span>. It implies that the people referred to, met by Merneptah in the course of a Canaanite military campaign, had been in existence for some time. Finally, an excavator of Jericho, John Garstang, placed the destruction of that city at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Other evidence, however, strongly implies not a 15th- but a 13th-century date for the exodus. Many scholars assign a date between 1290 and 1275 <span>BC<\/span> on the basis of that evidence. First, the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 discussed above may be interpreted as schematically representing 12 generations, as indicated by 1 Chronicles 6:3-8. Thus if 12 generations averaged 25 years instead of 40 years, the reduction of 480 schematized years to 300 actual years would point to an exodus date of around 1266 <span>BC<\/span>. Second, archaeological evidence exists that dates destruction at the assumed sites of several cities conquered by Joshua (Lachish, Debir, Bethel, and Hazor) to the late 13th century. Third, there is no biblical mention of Egyptian military campaigns (such as Merneptah’s 1220 <span>BC<\/span> incursion); Israelites living in Canaan before the time of the militarily active pharaohs Seti I (1319–1301 <span>BC<\/span>) and Ramses II (1301–1234 <span>BC<\/span>) would certainly have been affected by such activity. Fourth, Exodus 1:11 mentions the city of Rameses, the capital built by Ramses II, according to his own inscriptions. A fifth line of argument comes from archaeological conclusions that Transjordan and the Negev Desert were not occupied by sedentary people between 1900 and 1300 <span>BC<\/span>, whereas the Bible states clearly that the Israelites encountered stiff opposition from groups in that same region. Thus, it is argued, the Israelites must have entered that region after 1300 <span>BC<\/span>. Sixth, connecting the Habiru with the Israelites of the Conquest lacks weight because many texts besides the Amarna tablets attest to the existence of Habiru groups virtually all over the ancient Near East. “Habiru” seems to be a much broader term, possibly meaning “trespasser,” and is probably unrelated etymologically or semantically to “Hebrew.” Seventh, and finally, Garstang’s work at Jericho has now been revised by archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who showed that the fallen walls that Garstang had dated about 1400 <span>BC<\/span> in reality were destroyed in 1800 <span>BC<\/span> or earlier.<\/p>\n<p>So far, it has been impossible to decide with precision between the two centuries proposed for the exodus. The majority opinion among OT scholars generally, including a growing number of moderate or conservative scholars, is in favor of the 13th-century option. On the other hand, many other conservative scholars continue to favor the 15th-century date. Dogmatism is unwarranted since problems remain unresolved with either option.<\/p>\n<p>In accordance with the majority opinion, however, a date of about 1290 <span>BC<\/span> for the exodus will be used in dealing with subsequent problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"ConquestandConsolidation\">Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>The chronological task for the period of conquest and consolidation is to fit all the events narrated by the OT, chiefly in Joshua and Judges, between the exodus (c. 1290 <span>BC<\/span>) and the times of David (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>) and Solomon (d. 930 <span>BC<\/span>). In other words, one must fit roughly 550 years of biblical events between Moses and David into a 290-year span.<\/p>\n<p>Although assigning an early date for the exodus (c. 1447 <span>BC<\/span>) would make the task somewhat easier, the mere addition of about 157 years does not by itself solve all the problems. Neither date allows enough time for all the OT events from Joshua to David to take place singly and consecutively. Accordingly, advocates of both dates assume that some of the judges ruled simultaneously rather than consecutively. The difference is one of degree only.<\/p>\n<p>The book of Joshua furnishes most of the OT evidence regarding the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. Unfortunately, the book of Joshua has no chronological notes that specify the amount of time elapsing during Joshua’s career. Further, there are no biblical references to major contemporary events in other parts of the ancient world, the dates of which could be used to fix the chronology. Rather, in what is obviously a telescoped account, the book of Joshua records the fall of Jericho and Ai, followed closely by a southern and then a northern campaign. After those victories, covering much of the total territory of Canaan, various parcels of land were distributed to the tribal groups of Israel; the tribes were expected to complete the task of destroying whatever Canaanite inhabitants remained in their particular region. One seeks in vain, however, for any statements indicating how long those events took.<\/p>\n<p>In the book of Judges a slightly different circumstance prevails. There the OT furnishes a rather complete list of figures to indicate the duration of periods of foreign oppression, judgeships, and ensuing peace. The total number of years described for that period is 410, but that total does not include any time for the many “minor” judges. It seems obvious, therefore, that most if not all of the judges were simply local chieftains whose activity was simultaneous with that of other judges, at least for part of their reign. Unfortunately, the book of Judges provides no cross-reference system to indicate which judges were contemporaries of which others. Perhaps the best one can do is to assume general guidelines for the chronology of that period between Moses and David.<\/p>\n<p>Two significant facts should be kept in mind. First, archaeological information seems to demand a Conquest date beginning about 1250 <span>BC<\/span> rather than 200 years earlier. Assuming concurrent careers for the judges allows one to compress the literal OT figures into the general scheme demanded by other evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Second, the ancient scribes evidently related the chronology of the period to a 40-year or generation-based schema, a practice that lasted until the time of the divided kingdom, when a regular dynastic chronology was introduced. In the face of so many careers being assigned exactly 40 years, the fact remains that the literal totals of such numbers cannot be harmonized with either the biblical or the archaeological evidence for the period. Accordingly, most scholars doubt that the number 40 was ever intended to be an exact mathematical calculation. That view permits enough leeway for cautious fitting of biblical and other evidence into a general timetable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheMonarchy\">The Monarchy<\/p>\n<h5>Types of Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>For the period of the Israelite monarchy, chronological evidence is abundant.<\/p>\n<p>The OT itself strives to provide all the information necessary for the chronology of the period, including (1) a complete list of all the kings in Israel and in Judah both before and after the division of the kingdom; (2) the age of each king (except Saul) at his accession; (3) synchronisms of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah showing in what year of his contemporary in the other kingdom each king came to the throne; and (4) precise calculations of the length of each king’s reign. In addition some important events are dated by reference to another event; others are coordinated with concurrent events in secular history.<\/p>\n<p>Outside the OT an abundance of material provides evidence for a chronology of the period. By far the most important single source is a collection of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists. In Assyria a record of each king’s reign was kept on a particular kind of annal. Each year of reign was named after an individual of high rank in the court; the first year was named after the king himself, the second after the next highest-ranking official (though that name appears to have been selected by lot originally), and so on, down until the death of the king. The word <em>limmu<\/em> was used to introduce the name of the official after whom the current year was to be named, hence the designation <em>“limmu<\/em> lists.”<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists are tied precisely to the solar year, making the documents highly reliable. Further, in addition to many events in Assyrian history, notable natural phenomena were dated on the basis of the <em>limmu<\/em> in which they occurred. For example, a solar eclipse dated by the Assyrian scribes in the <em>limmu<\/em> year of Bur-Sagale has been computed astronomically as June 15, 763 <span>BC<\/span>. Beginning with the year 763, then, and working both backward and forward, a complete list of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> officials has been obtained for the period between 891 and 648 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>With the accuracy of the Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists corroborated by a number of sources, they can be used with confidence in reconstructing the chronology of the corresponding period of biblical history. That is especially true where a biblical writer related an Israelite or a Judahite event to a particular year in the reign of an Assyrian king whose <em>limmu<\/em> list indicates the precise years of his reign.<\/p>\n<p>There are also records from Chaldean (Babylonian) king lists and from later Greek historians. Ptolemy, in the second century <span>AD<\/span>, for example, gave dates for Babylonian kings from 747 <span>BC<\/span> and continued with dates for Persian, Greek, and Roman rulers down to <span>AD<\/span> 161. Finally, useful information is found in inscriptions from monuments, stelae, and other artifacts from Assyria and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<h5>Monarchical Chronology<\/h5>\n<p>The <em>limmu<\/em> list of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III provides a basis for the first comparison of dates among Assyria, Israel, and Judah. In the <em>limmu<\/em> of Daian-Assur, Shalmaneser’s sixth year on the throne, Ahab of Israel was listed as one of the kings who fought against the Assyrians in the battle of Qarqar. Thus the date for that battle may be placed confidently in 853 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian records also indicate that Shalmaneser III came into contact with an Israelite king 12 years later, in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. That king was Jehu. Thus two fixed points are available for correlating the biblical information. Following the death of Ahab, which is not dated exactly by reference to the Assyrian records, two of his sons came to power. The first, Ahaziah, reigned two years (1 Kgs 22:51); the second, Joram (also called Jehoram), reigned a total of 12 years (2 Kgs 3:1). Recognizing a nonaccession-year reckoning by the Israelites in that era, the apparent total of 14 years may be reduced to an actual total of 12. Thus it seems evident that Ahab not only fought Shalmaneser III in 853 <span>BC<\/span> but also died in that year. Ahab was then followed by his two sons for a total of 12 years before the accession of Jehu in time to account for his contact with Shalmaneser II in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. Further, because Jehu murdered both the king of Israel (Jehoram) and the king of Judah (Ahaziah) at the same time (2 Kgs 9:24-27), a fixed synchronism is provided between the two kingdoms for the year 841 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>The first nine kings of Israel ruled an apparent total of 98 years or an actual total (taking into account Israel’s nonaccession-year policy) of 90 years. Zimri, who ruled only seven days (1 Kgs 16:15-18), counts as one of the nine but does not insert an extra year in either the actual or apparent totals. The accession of Jeroboam I thus occurred in 930 <span>BC<\/span> (adding 90 years to 841 <span>BC<\/span>), and Rehoboam of Judah began to rule in that same year as well. Allowing Solomon the 40-year reign indicated in 1 Kings 11:42 points to the year 970 <span>BC<\/span> for his accession. The death of David would also be pinpointed in that period, although allowance must be made for the possibility of a short co-regency of David and Solomon before David’s death. The reign of Saul then falls approximately in the late 11th century <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In Judah the period between the death of Solomon in 930 <span>BC<\/span> and the murder of Ahaziah by Jehu in 841 <span>BC<\/span> was occupied by the kingships of six men whose time on the throne totals 95 biblical years. Computation of that era in Judah is not as simple as for the Israelite kings for several reasons. Problems include a change from accession- to nonaccession-year reckoning sometime around 850 <span>BC<\/span>, at least two co-regencies (Jehoshaphat with Asa and then Jehoram with Jehoshaphat), and the calendar differences between the two kingdoms. It is clear that the 95 apparent years must be reduced, on the basis of the differences in computation and calendar, to 90 actual years in order to bring the Judahite figures into line with the established Assyrian and Israelite synchronisms.<\/p>\n<p>After the year 841, the next biblical event to be certified by nonbiblical materials is the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>. That date is furnished by the annals of Sargon II of Assyria (722–705 <span>BC<\/span>), successor to Shalmaneser V (727–722 <span>BC<\/span>). Although that date comes just 120 years after the fixed point of 841 <span>BC<\/span> in Israelite history, the chronological materials for that period are quite difficult to interpret accurately. In the past, scholars resorted to assumptions of extensive co-regencies, to presumed confusion on the part of certain scribes over methods to be followed in computations, or to other theories in attempting to understand the period. In spite of the many difficulties, however, all the biblical and Assyrian dates for the period of the divided monarchy have been harmonized—with the exception of four figures related to the closing years of the Israelite kingdom, all connected in some way with the problematic reign of Hoshea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"JudahaftertheFallofIsrael\">Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>Following the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>, OT chronology is concerned only with the southern kingdom of Judah until its destruction some 135 years later. Two events in the biblical record important for establishing a chronology for that period are the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib of Assyria in the late eighth century and the eventual fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in the early sixth century.<\/p>\n<h5>Sennacherib’s Invasion of Judah<\/h5>\n<p>The Assyrian invasion (704–681 <span>BC<\/span>) is recorded in 2 Kings 18:13-16, where verse 13 dates the event to the 14th year of King Hezekiah. Sennacherib’s own inscriptions include a lengthier version of the affair. From them the date of 701 <span>BC<\/span> is established, placing the accession of Hezekiah in 715 <span>BC<\/span>. That much is simple, but problems still arise. For example, 2 Kings 19:9 reports that Sennacherib was in contact with an Ethiopian king, Tirhakah (c. 690–664 <span>BC<\/span>), during the course of his campaign, which included a siege of Jerusalem. Obviously, contact with a ruler who came to power in 690 <span>BC<\/span> at the earliest could not refer to events in 701 <span>BC<\/span>. It is possible, however, that Sennacherib actually made two invasions of Judah, the first in 701 and the second sometime later. The date of that supposed second invasion is not assured, although 2 Kings 19:35-37 may imply that Sennacherib was murdered only shortly after his withdrawal from Jerusalem. Since Sennacherib was succeeded by his son Esarhaddon in the year 681, the presumed second invasion of Judah would have occurred somewhere in the last half of the same decade.<\/p>\n<p>A number of scholars oppose the assumption of a second invasion of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. They suggest the possibility that Tirhakah, though king only from 690 <span>BC<\/span>, may have led troops against Sennacherib as early as 701, before acceding to the throne. The reference to King Tirhakah in 2 Kings 19:9 would then be understood as use of his eventual title in an effort to identify him to a later generation of readers.<\/p>\n<p>However the question of the number of invasions is decided, it is certain that Sennacherib invaded Judah in 701 <span>BC<\/span>, the 14th regnal year of Hezekiah. Such a synchronism establishes Hezekiah’s accession year as 715 <span>BC<\/span>, but that date raises another problem. The fall of Samaria, now established at 722, is dated by 2 Kings 18:10 in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign. The most likely solution is that Hezekiah began a co-regency with his father, Ahaz, six years before Samaria fell. The possibility for confusion arises from the fact that one verse (2 Kgs 18:13; repeated in Is 36:1) synchronizes Sennacherib’s 701 <span>BC<\/span> invasion with the 14th year of Hezekiah’s independent reign; another verse (2 Kgs 18:10) correlates the fall of Samaria with the beginning of Hezekiah’s co-regency. Thus from about 728 to 715 <span>BC<\/span> Hezekiah was co-regent with Ahaz. From 715 to 697 he reigned alone. From 696 to 686 his son Manasseh was co-ruler with him.<\/p>\n<p>According to the chronological information given by a number of verses in 2 Kings, a total of 128 years and six months elapsed between the time of Hezekiah’s accession in 715 and the capture of King Jehoiachin in 597, a date to be discussed below. Thus another problem is to explain the more than 10-year excess apparently demanded by the biblical totals. The best solution appears to lie in the assumption that Manasseh first came to power in 697 as co-regent with his father, Hezekiah. Manasseh died in 642, following what 2 Kings 21:1 states was a 55-year reign. Hezekiah, who came to the throne in 715, is said to have reigned 29 years (2 Kgs 18:2), which would mean that he was king until 686, roughly 11 years after the time when Manasseh must have come to the throne in order to have completed a 55-year reign by 642.<\/p>\n<h5>Fall of Jerusalem<\/h5>\n<p>Contemporary Babylonian records are available to shed valuable light on the last few years of Judah’s existence. For the years 626–623, 618–595, and 556 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonian Chronicle, a formal record of Babylonian affairs of state, has been recovered. From information contained in that chronicle and other cuneiform documents of the period, three dates in Judah’s history may be fixed firmly. The first is the death of Josiah in 609; the second is the battle of Carchemish in 605; the third is the end of the reign of Jehoiachin, which is dated by the Babylonian Chronicle to the second month of Adar in the ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, or March 16, 597.<\/p>\n<p>After Jehoiachin’s capture, Zedekiah became puppet king of Judah for 11 years (2 Kgs 24:18). On the tenth day of the tenth month during Zedekiah’s ninth regnal year (2 Kgs 25:1), the final siege of Jerusalem was begun by the Babylonian army. That day was January 15, 588. On the ninth day of the fourth month during the 11th regnal year of Zedekiah, after a siege of almost 18 months, the wall of Jerusalem was broken through (2 Kgs 25:3-4). The temple was burned on day seven of the following (fifth) month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Beyond587bc\">Beyond 586 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Following the tragedy of 586 <span>BC<\/span>, several further developments are given chronological notice in the OT. Jeremiah 52:30 records a third deportation of Jews to Babylonia in the 23d year of King Nebuchadnezzar (582 or 581 <span>BC<\/span>). Both 2 Kings 25:27 and Jeremiah 52:31 give evidence of the release of King Jehoiachin from prison; the Babylonian Chronicle dates that event at 27 Adar, or March 21, 561 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In 539 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonians themselves were destined to learn the meaning of defeat. In that year a Persian ruler, Cyrus the Great, launched a successful campaign against Babylon and its king, Nabonidus. Inheriting control over the exiled Jews and many other groups of people conquered earlier by Babylonia, Cyrus moved quickly to initiate a policy of tolerance toward his new subjects. In the first year of his rule Cyrus issued an edict making it possible for Jews to return to their former land (Ezr 1:1). On the first day of the following year, 1 Tishri (Ezr 3:6), an altar was set up in Jerusalem. In Iyyar of the following year (April\/May 536) work was begun on the temple itself (Ezr 3:8).<\/p>\n<p>After a period of frustrating work stoppages of varying lengths, the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah spurred on the Jews to complete the temple. Work resumed in 520 (Ezr 4:24; Hg 1:1, 15) and was finally completed on 3 Adar, or March 12, 515 (Ezr 6:15). The final stages of OT chronology pertain to the careers of Ezra and Nehemiah. The traditional view of their era places Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I (458 <span>BC<\/span>) and Nehemiah in the 20th (445 <span>BC<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> “Date” under each OT book; Conquest and Allotment of the Land; Diaspora of the Jews; Exodus, The; Israel, History of; Patriarchs, Period of the; Postexilic Period; Wilderness Wanderings.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament)<\/h3>\n<p>Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper historical background of the biblical texts. In general, the chronology of the OT is understood well enough to vindicate the basic accuracy and sequential order of Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>Both biblical and nonbiblical materials are utilized by students of OT chronology. Biblical data include (1) genealogies showing personal and tribal affiliations among various peoples; (2) specific numbers given by biblical authors to indicate a person’s longevity, a king’s reign, or the duration of a specific event; (3) synchronizing statements that date an event in a specific year of a king’s reign or relate it to a natural phenomenon assumed to be common knowledge at the time of writing (e.g., Am 1:1; Zec 14:5).<\/p>\n<p>From the abundance of such chronological passages in the OT, one might conclude that establishment of OT dates and sequences would be a simple procedure. Each of the three kinds of biblical materials, however, exhibits special problems that must be solved first.<\/p>\n<p>Nonbiblical materials that shed light on OT chronology are quite numerous, and more are discovered year by year. They include (1) official records of important affairs such as military campaigns from countries like Egypt or Babylonia; (2) official inscriptions that are dedicatory or commemorate a great victory; (3) annals listing major accomplishments of a ruler year by year; (4) ostraca (inscribed pieces of pottery) containing letters, tax transactions and economic records, military dispatches between field leaders and command headquarters, or other information. Ostraca may be dated archaeologically and are often used to supplement the biblical record.<\/p>\n<p>The chronologist tries to examine the pertinent biblical and nonbiblical information, notes areas of correlation among all the data, and finally establishes a working system into which the most facts can be fitted. New evidence uncovered at any time may necessitate shifts in the present working system. Although the basic structure of biblical chronology seems reasonably firm, many details will no doubt be subject to change as new evidence is discovered.<\/p>\n<p>As a general rule, the earlier the period, the less certain one can be of one’s dating. In the second millennium <span>BC<\/span>, for example, many dates can be assigned within a range of about 100 years. By the time of David and Solomon (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>), the margin of error over which scholars debate is a decade or less. The range narrows as one comes toward the present, so that, with the exception of one or two problem eras, dates accurate to within one or two years are possible by roughly the middle of the ninth century <span>BC<\/span>. Such limitations must be kept in mind in any examination of the major periods of OT history.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<p>• From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<p>• Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>• The Monarchy<\/p>\n<p>• Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>• Beyond 587 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrepatriarchalPeriod\">Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<h5>Biblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>In the first 11 chapters of Genesis are found accounts of the Creation (chs 1–2), the fall (ch 3), Cain and Abel (ch 4), the Flood (chs 6–9), and the Tower of Babel (ch 11). Those events are set within a certain chronological framework.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 5, a period of 10 generations elapsed between the Creation and the Flood. Although the individuals listed enjoyed a total life span of a hefty 847 years plus, the total time elapsing between Adam and the Flood was only 1,656 years.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 11, another 10 generations elapsed from the time of the Flood until the time of Abraham (at least in the Septuagint, the third-century <span>BC<\/span> Greek translation of the OT; the Hebrew Masoretic text has 9). In that period the average age attained by individuals in the list is 346 years (using a figure of 460 for Arphaxad’s son Cainan, who is included in v 13 of the LXX; cf. Lk 3:36); the total elapsed time from the Flood to Abraham is only 520 years. Taken literally, that would mean that all of Abraham’s ancestors as far back as Noah’s son Shem were still alive at Abraham’s birth, and that a total of only 2,176 years elapsed from the time of Creation to Abraham.<\/p>\n<h5>Interpretation of the Biblical Data<\/h5>\n<p>A literalistic or slavishly mathematical interpretation of the figures, as has appeared in the margin of many <span>kjv<\/span> Bibles, requires a number of assumptions: that no names are omitted from the genealogies, that all the numbers given are consecutive, and especially that numbers used in an ancient biblical source carry the same meaning as that associated with them in the modern Western mind. Each assumption needs serious examination in the light of other established facts.<\/p>\n<p>A cursory reading of other biblical genealogies, for example, reveals that not all the names of a given family were always included. Even Matthew recorded a total of 28 generations (two sets of 14 each) between David and Jesus, and comparison with OT genealogies reveals that Matthew omitted several names. Luke listed a total of 42 generations for the same interval. Omissions are also obvious when one compares the genealogical lists given in 1 Chronicles 1–8 with those recorded earlier in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings.<\/p>\n<p>Further, ancient peoples thought of numbers in a schematic or stylized way. Use of numbers among the ancient Near Eastern nations differed sharply from current Western practice. Examples of that practice are known from both biblical and nonbiblical sources. For example, a list of eight Sumerian kings who ruled in the city of Shurruppak before the “great flood” of the Jemdet Nar era (c. 3000 <span>BC<\/span>) assigns each man an average reign of more than 30,000 years. Berossus, a Babylonian priest of Marduk living in the third century <span>BC<\/span>, added two names to the eight found in that earlier list of kings and assigned an average of 43,200 years to each king. Such extraordinarily high numbers provide a perspective for considering the numbers of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, although one can assume that the numbers assigned to the ages of the patriarchs preceding Abraham in Genesis had real meaning for those responsible for their preservation, they should not be employed in a purely literal sense to compute the length of the various generations mentioned in the text. Further, the numbers given in the Septuagint and in the Samaritan Pentateuch, another early version of the Pentateuch, diverge in many details from those of the Hebrew Masoretic Text. That means, among other things, that the Genesis numbers caused problems for even the earliest scholars of Scripture.<\/p>\n<h5>Nonbiblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>Archaeology provides no evidence that may be used to date either the Creation or any other account preserved in Genesis 1–11. The Flood is an example that illustrates some of the difficulties. Many claims have been made by persons from a wide variety of backgrounds (scientists, explorers, theologians, and others) to the effect that archaeology has proven the Genesis Flood narrative to be true. Yet no city so far excavated in Palestine and Syria (including some of the oldest towns in the world) shows archaeological evidence of the Flood.<\/p>\n<p>Although several cities in Mesopotamia do exhibit evidence of a flood, three factors make it difficult to link that evidence with Genesis 6–9. Each of the flood levels so far discovered dates from a different period. Further, since nearby sites show no evidence of flooding, all of the Mesopotamian flood evidence points to relatively small local floods. Finally, the evidence indicates no great cultural discontinuities of the sort that would result from destruction of an entire population. Thus, it seems that the ancient Mesopotamian floods discovered through archaeological research are of the same kind as the floods that still occur in the Euphrates River valley.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, certain questions one might ask of the Genesis narratives simply cannot be answered. Many who regard the Bible as the Word of God have concluded that the dating of events found in Genesis 1–11 must be less important than the theological truths of salvation, faith, and obedience that these accounts present.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"FromAbrahamtoMoses\">From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<h5>The Patriarchal Age<\/h5>\n<p>The date of Abraham is still a lively topic among biblical scholars who agree that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were indeed historical persons. Opinions range from an early-date view that estimates that the patriarchal age extended from 2086 to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>, to a late-date view placing Abraham at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>. Since each position claims to fit the biblical data, a closer look at the two points of view is in order.<\/p>\n<p>Many OT passages seem to support the view that puts Abraham at a comparatively early date. First Kings 6:1 computes 480 years back from the founding of the temple in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign (961 <span>BC<\/span>, according to the early-date view) to the exodus from Egypt, which would then be dated 1441 <span>BC<\/span>. Counting 430 years as the period of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt (see Gn 15:13; Ex 12:40) takes the date back to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>. To that date are added the 215 years demanded by the total of (1) Abraham’s age upon entering Canaan (75 years according to Gn 12:4); (2) 25 additional years before the birth of Isaac (Gn 21:5); (3) 60 more years to the birth of Jacob (Gn 25:26); and (4) the appearance of Jacob before the pharaoh at age 130 (Gn 47:9). Those 215 years added to the previous total give a date of 2086 <span>BC<\/span> for the entrance of Abraham into Canaan and a date of 2161 <span>BC<\/span> for his birth.<\/p>\n<p>Such a calculation does not use all of the chronological evidence presented in the OT; consequently, the date for Abraham is open to challenge. For example, the 480 years between the exodus and Solomon’s fourth regnal year represent a period of time into which the wilderness wanderings, the career of Joshua and his immediate successors, the period of the judges, Samuel, Saul, and David must all be placed. Although the OT does not specifically say how long were the careers of Joshua, Samuel, or Saul, even a modest reckoning pushes the total years required by all the biblical data together to approximately 600.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the length of time to be assigned to the Egyptian sojourn is problematic. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint both view the number 430 (in Ex 12:40) as applicable not only to the years in Egypt but to the years of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Canaan as well. Evidently Paul followed the Septuagint tradition when he dated the giving of the law 430 years later than the time of God’s promise to Abraham (see Gal 3:15-18). That means the Septuagint figure cannot be dismissed lightly.<\/p>\n<p>The late dating of Abraham (c. 1400 <span>BC<\/span>) is based on two propositions: (1) The picture of patriarchal society portrayed in Genesis most closely parallels that reflected in the cuneiform tablets recovered from Nuzi, a town in northeastern Mesopotamia about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of Baghdad. (2) Because those tablets must be dated in the 15th and 14th centuries <span>BC<\/span>, the parallel patriarchal age must have fallen within the same general time period.<\/p>\n<p>Those who hold the late-date view are aware that their date for Abraham cannot be equated with the set of numbers on which the early-date view depends. They point to other data, also from the OT. Joseph, who was already a highly placed Egyptian official when Jacob moved to Egypt, lived to be 110 years old (Gn 50:26). Moses was a great-grandson of Levi, Joseph’s older brother. Since Joseph lived to see his own greatgrandchildren born (who would probably be younger than Moses since their great-grandfather was younger than his), the late-date view concludes that Joseph could have been alive when Moses was born. The four-generation genealogy of Moses (Levi-Kohath-Amram-Moses, in Ex 6:16-20; Nm 3:17-19; 26:58-59; 1 Chr 6:1-3) was evidently thought to be complete according to Genesis 15:16, which predicted that Abraham’s descendants would be freed from Egyptian bondage “in the fourth generation.”<\/p>\n<p>However, a date of around 1400 <span>BC<\/span> for Abraham cannot be aligned with certain other biblical data, including the long Egyptian sojourn demanded by Genesis 15:13 and Exodus 12:40 and a 40-year (or “one-generation”) wilderness existence. Some normally moderate scholars are forced to reduce the wilderness time to two years in order to maintain their late date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>In short, the late-date theory is consistent with part of the biblical evidence (the genealogies of Moses), but the early-date theory conforms to another part (the actual year figures listed in scattered verses from Genesis and Exodus). The late-date theory holds that the genealogies represent more reliable information in Semitic societies generally, whereas the early-date theory computes years given in the biblical account literally throughout its scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Because of problems attached to both positions, a large group of scholars take a middle ground in dating the patriarchal age. Archaeologically, they say, Abraham and his life and times fit perfectly within the early second millennium, but imperfectly within any later period. By placing Abraham roughly between 1800 and 1600 <span>BC<\/span>, they provide enough latitude for a merging of all the available evidence, biblical and nonbiblical, into a workable chronological scheme. Archaeology provides four major bits of evidence for an early second-millennium patriarchal era.<\/p>\n<p>1. Though the Nuzi tablets furnish a clear parallel to patriarchal social life, other tablets from other towns and an earlier era reflect many of the same customs common to Nuzi and Genesis. Since the Nuzians were Hurrians who came to northeastern Mesopotamia from elsewhere (perhaps Armenia), their social customs originated no doubt much earlier than the time of their tablets now in our possession. Accordingly, the 15th-century <span>BC<\/span> date of the Nuzi tablets does not preclude an earlier date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<li>2. The names of several of Abraham’s ancestors listed in Genesis 11 can now be identified with towns in the northern area of Mesopotamia around Haran, the city from which Abraham migrated to Canaan (Gn 11:31–12:3). Significantly, Haran flourished in the 19th and 18th centuries <span>BC<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>3. Shortly after 2000 <span>BC<\/span> Semitic nomads from the desert invaded the civilized communities of the Fertile Crescent. Those invaders, called Amorites in the OT, established themselves in several cities in northern Syria and Mesopotamia. One of the Amorite cities was Babylon, ruled by Hammurabi sometime around the beginning of the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. Although the King Amraphel of Genesis 14:1 is not linguistically identifiable with the Babylonian king Hammurabi, as earlier scholars believed, the picture of the times following the Amorite invasion still accords well with the Genesis narratives generally.<\/li>\n<li>4. Mari, another Amorite town, is now well known because of more than 20,000 tablets recovered from its royal palace and archives. Geographically, Mari is located in the general area of Haran. Chronologically, the tablets recovered come from the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. One 18th-century king of Mari, Zimri Lim, carried on extensive correspondence with Hammurabi of Babylon. The tablets from Mari also furnish valuable information about tribal and ethnic groups and their movements in the general region. Of basic importance for dating the Genesis materials are certain documents from Mari that include personal names very similar to Abraham (Abi-ram), Jacob, Laban, and several other West Semitic names.<\/li>\n<p>Archaeological evidence neither proves nor disproves the actual existence of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. That is admitted on all sides. What archaeology has done is to provide a framework of probabilities within which the biblical patriarchal narratives appear more and more to be at home.<\/p>\n<h5>Date of the Exodus<\/h5>\n<p>The problem of dating the patriarchal age is closely related to the problem of assigning a date to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Since the evidence does not permit a precise date for Abraham, a precise date for the entry of Joseph or Jacob into Egypt is likewise unobtainable. Further, the biblical evidence does not yield an exact figure for the length of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>For many years biblical scholars viewed 1 Kings 6:1 as a foundation upon which to build an unshakable date for the exodus. Because Solomon’s fourth year could be unquestionably fixed to within at least a 10-year span (967–958 <span>BC<\/span>), the exodus too could be dated with the same precision simply by adding 480 years. But other biblical data raise serious questions about that simple procedure. When the Bible deals with all the events between the time of the exodus and the founding of Solomon’s temple, that is, from Numbers to 1 Kings 5:18, the precise numbers given total not 480 but closer to 600 years.<\/p>\n<p>Because the evidence is insufficient to allow a precise date for the exodus, scholarly opinion remains divided between two possibilities. A 15th-century exodus is supported by several pieces of evidence. The chronology in 1 Kings 6:1 appears to be independently corroborated by a passage in Judges 11:26. It claims that Israel had occupied the area around Heshbon for 300 years preceding Jephthah’s own day. If Jephthah is dated at roughly 1100 <span>BC<\/span>, one is obviously led back to an exodus in the middle of the 15th century. Also, three successive generations of pharaohs who ruled in the 16th and 15th centuries produced no male offspring, making it more likely that Moses would have become the foster son of a royal princess during that time; all of the 19th-dynasty kings (1306–1200 <span>BC<\/span>) had legitimate male heirs.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, a 15th-century date makes possible a connection between the Habiru invasion of Canaan (1400–1350 <span>BC<\/span>)—described in the Amarna letters found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt—and the invasion of Canaan by the Hebrews described in the OT book of Joshua. Related to that is a reference to “Israel” in the Merneptah Stele, a stone pillar inscribed with the deeds of the Egyptian king, Merneptah, of about 1220 <span>BC<\/span>. It implies that the people referred to, met by Merneptah in the course of a Canaanite military campaign, had been in existence for some time. Finally, an excavator of Jericho, John Garstang, placed the destruction of that city at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Other evidence, however, strongly implies not a 15th- but a 13th-century date for the exodus. Many scholars assign a date between 1290 and 1275 <span>BC<\/span> on the basis of that evidence. First, the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 discussed above may be interpreted as schematically representing 12 generations, as indicated by 1 Chronicles 6:3-8. Thus if 12 generations averaged 25 years instead of 40 years, the reduction of 480 schematized years to 300 actual years would point to an exodus date of around 1266 <span>BC<\/span>. Second, archaeological evidence exists that dates destruction at the assumed sites of several cities conquered by Joshua (Lachish, Debir, Bethel, and Hazor) to the late 13th century. Third, there is no biblical mention of Egyptian military campaigns (such as Merneptah’s 1220 <span>BC<\/span> incursion); Israelites living in Canaan before the time of the militarily active pharaohs Seti I (1319–1301 <span>BC<\/span>) and Ramses II (1301–1234 <span>BC<\/span>) would certainly have been affected by such activity. Fourth, Exodus 1:11 mentions the city of Rameses, the capital built by Ramses II, according to his own inscriptions. A fifth line of argument comes from archaeological conclusions that Transjordan and the Negev Desert were not occupied by sedentary people between 1900 and 1300 <span>BC<\/span>, whereas the Bible states clearly that the Israelites encountered stiff opposition from groups in that same region. Thus, it is argued, the Israelites must have entered that region after 1300 <span>BC<\/span>. Sixth, connecting the Habiru with the Israelites of the Conquest lacks weight because many texts besides the Amarna tablets attest to the existence of Habiru groups virtually all over the ancient Near East. “Habiru” seems to be a much broader term, possibly meaning “trespasser,” and is probably unrelated etymologically or semantically to “Hebrew.” Seventh, and finally, Garstang’s work at Jericho has now been revised by archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who showed that the fallen walls that Garstang had dated about 1400 <span>BC<\/span> in reality were destroyed in 1800 <span>BC<\/span> or earlier.<\/p>\n<p>So far, it has been impossible to decide with precision between the two centuries proposed for the exodus. The majority opinion among OT scholars generally, including a growing number of moderate or conservative scholars, is in favor of the 13th-century option. On the other hand, many other conservative scholars continue to favor the 15th-century date. Dogmatism is unwarranted since problems remain unresolved with either option.<\/p>\n<p>In accordance with the majority opinion, however, a date of about 1290 <span>BC<\/span> for the exodus will be used in dealing with subsequent problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"ConquestandConsolidation\">Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>The chronological task for the period of conquest and consolidation is to fit all the events narrated by the OT, chiefly in Joshua and Judges, between the exodus (c. 1290 <span>BC<\/span>) and the times of David (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>) and Solomon (d. 930 <span>BC<\/span>). In other words, one must fit roughly 550 years of biblical events between Moses and David into a 290-year span.<\/p>\n<p>Although assigning an early date for the exodus (c. 1447 <span>BC<\/span>) would make the task somewhat easier, the mere addition of about 157 years does not by itself solve all the problems. Neither date allows enough time for all the OT events from Joshua to David to take place singly and consecutively. Accordingly, advocates of both dates assume that some of the judges ruled simultaneously rather than consecutively. The difference is one of degree only.<\/p>\n<p>The book of Joshua furnishes most of the OT evidence regarding the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. Unfortunately, the book of Joshua has no chronological notes that specify the amount of time elapsing during Joshua’s career. Further, there are no biblical references to major contemporary events in other parts of the ancient world, the dates of which could be used to fix the chronology. Rather, in what is obviously a telescoped account, the book of Joshua records the fall of Jericho and Ai, followed closely by a southern and then a northern campaign. After those victories, covering much of the total territory of Canaan, various parcels of land were distributed to the tribal groups of Israel; the tribes were expected to complete the task of destroying whatever Canaanite inhabitants remained in their particular region. One seeks in vain, however, for any statements indicating how long those events took.<\/p>\n<p>In the book of Judges a slightly different circumstance prevails. There the OT furnishes a rather complete list of figures to indicate the duration of periods of foreign oppression, judgeships, and ensuing peace. The total number of years described for that period is 410, but that total does not include any time for the many “minor” judges. It seems obvious, therefore, that most if not all of the judges were simply local chieftains whose activity was simultaneous with that of other judges, at least for part of their reign. Unfortunately, the book of Judges provides no cross-reference system to indicate which judges were contemporaries of which others. Perhaps the best one can do is to assume general guidelines for the chronology of that period between Moses and David.<\/p>\n<p>Two significant facts should be kept in mind. First, archaeological information seems to demand a Conquest date beginning about 1250 <span>BC<\/span> rather than 200 years earlier. Assuming concurrent careers for the judges allows one to compress the literal OT figures into the general scheme demanded by other evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Second, the ancient scribes evidently related the chronology of the period to a 40-year or generation-based schema, a practice that lasted until the time of the divided kingdom, when a regular dynastic chronology was introduced. In the face of so many careers being assigned exactly 40 years, the fact remains that the literal totals of such numbers cannot be harmonized with either the biblical or the archaeological evidence for the period. Accordingly, most scholars doubt that the number 40 was ever intended to be an exact mathematical calculation. That view permits enough leeway for cautious fitting of biblical and other evidence into a general timetable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheMonarchy\">The Monarchy<\/p>\n<h5>Types of Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>For the period of the Israelite monarchy, chronological evidence is abundant.<\/p>\n<p>The OT itself strives to provide all the information necessary for the chronology of the period, including (1) a complete list of all the kings in Israel and in Judah both before and after the division of the kingdom; (2) the age of each king (except Saul) at his accession; (3) synchronisms of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah showing in what year of his contemporary in the other kingdom each king came to the throne; and (4) precise calculations of the length of each king’s reign. In addition some important events are dated by reference to another event; others are coordinated with concurrent events in secular history.<\/p>\n<p>Outside the OT an abundance of material provides evidence for a chronology of the period. By far the most important single source is a collection of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists. In Assyria a record of each king’s reign was kept on a particular kind of annal. Each year of reign was named after an individual of high rank in the court; the first year was named after the king himself, the second after the next highest-ranking official (though that name appears to have been selected by lot originally), and so on, down until the death of the king. The word <em>limmu<\/em> was used to introduce the name of the official after whom the current year was to be named, hence the designation <em>“limmu<\/em> lists.”<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists are tied precisely to the solar year, making the documents highly reliable. Further, in addition to many events in Assyrian history, notable natural phenomena were dated on the basis of the <em>limmu<\/em> in which they occurred. For example, a solar eclipse dated by the Assyrian scribes in the <em>limmu<\/em> year of Bur-Sagale has been computed astronomically as June 15, 763 <span>BC<\/span>. Beginning with the year 763, then, and working both backward and forward, a complete list of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> officials has been obtained for the period between 891 and 648 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>With the accuracy of the Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists corroborated by a number of sources, they can be used with confidence in reconstructing the chronology of the corresponding period of biblical history. That is especially true where a biblical writer related an Israelite or a Judahite event to a particular year in the reign of an Assyrian king whose <em>limmu<\/em> list indicates the precise years of his reign.<\/p>\n<p>There are also records from Chaldean (Babylonian) king lists and from later Greek historians. Ptolemy, in the second century <span>AD<\/span>, for example, gave dates for Babylonian kings from 747 <span>BC<\/span> and continued with dates for Persian, Greek, and Roman rulers down to <span>AD<\/span> 161. Finally, useful information is found in inscriptions from monuments, stelae, and other artifacts from Assyria and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<h5>Monarchical Chronology<\/h5>\n<p>The <em>limmu<\/em> list of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III provides a basis for the first comparison of dates among Assyria, Israel, and Judah. In the <em>limmu<\/em> of Daian-Assur, Shalmaneser’s sixth year on the throne, Ahab of Israel was listed as one of the kings who fought against the Assyrians in the battle of Qarqar. Thus the date for that battle may be placed confidently in 853 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian records also indicate that Shalmaneser III came into contact with an Israelite king 12 years later, in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. That king was Jehu. Thus two fixed points are available for correlating the biblical information. Following the death of Ahab, which is not dated exactly by reference to the Assyrian records, two of his sons came to power. The first, Ahaziah, reigned two years (1 Kgs 22:51); the second, Joram (also called Jehoram), reigned a total of 12 years (2 Kgs 3:1). Recognizing a nonaccession-year reckoning by the Israelites in that era, the apparent total of 14 years may be reduced to an actual total of 12. Thus it seems evident that Ahab not only fought Shalmaneser III in 853 <span>BC<\/span> but also died in that year. Ahab was then followed by his two sons for a total of 12 years before the accession of Jehu in time to account for his contact with Shalmaneser II in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. Further, because Jehu murdered both the king of Israel (Jehoram) and the king of Judah (Ahaziah) at the same time (2 Kgs 9:24-27), a fixed synchronism is provided between the two kingdoms for the year 841 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>The first nine kings of Israel ruled an apparent total of 98 years or an actual total (taking into account Israel’s nonaccession-year policy) of 90 years. Zimri, who ruled only seven days (1 Kgs 16:15-18), counts as one of the nine but does not insert an extra year in either the actual or apparent totals. The accession of Jeroboam I thus occurred in 930 <span>BC<\/span> (adding 90 years to 841 <span>BC<\/span>), and Rehoboam of Judah began to rule in that same year as well. Allowing Solomon the 40-year reign indicated in 1 Kings 11:42 points to the year 970 <span>BC<\/span> for his accession. The death of David would also be pinpointed in that period, although allowance must be made for the possibility of a short co-regency of David and Solomon before David’s death. The reign of Saul then falls approximately in the late 11th century <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In Judah the period between the death of Solomon in 930 <span>BC<\/span> and the murder of Ahaziah by Jehu in 841 <span>BC<\/span> was occupied by the kingships of six men whose time on the throne totals 95 biblical years. Computation of that era in Judah is not as simple as for the Israelite kings for several reasons. Problems include a change from accession- to nonaccession-year reckoning sometime around 850 <span>BC<\/span>, at least two co-regencies (Jehoshaphat with Asa and then Jehoram with Jehoshaphat), and the calendar differences between the two kingdoms. It is clear that the 95 apparent years must be reduced, on the basis of the differences in computation and calendar, to 90 actual years in order to bring the Judahite figures into line with the established Assyrian and Israelite synchronisms.<\/p>\n<p>After the year 841, the next biblical event to be certified by nonbiblical materials is the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>. That date is furnished by the annals of Sargon II of Assyria (722–705 <span>BC<\/span>), successor to Shalmaneser V (727–722 <span>BC<\/span>). Although that date comes just 120 years after the fixed point of 841 <span>BC<\/span> in Israelite history, the chronological materials for that period are quite difficult to interpret accurately. In the past, scholars resorted to assumptions of extensive co-regencies, to presumed confusion on the part of certain scribes over methods to be followed in computations, or to other theories in attempting to understand the period. In spite of the many difficulties, however, all the biblical and Assyrian dates for the period of the divided monarchy have been harmonized—with the exception of four figures related to the closing years of the Israelite kingdom, all connected in some way with the problematic reign of Hoshea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"JudahaftertheFallofIsrael\">Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>Following the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>, OT chronology is concerned only with the southern kingdom of Judah until its destruction some 135 years later. Two events in the biblical record important for establishing a chronology for that period are the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib of Assyria in the late eighth century and the eventual fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in the early sixth century.<\/p>\n<h5>Sennacherib’s Invasion of Judah<\/h5>\n<p>The Assyrian invasion (704–681 <span>BC<\/span>) is recorded in 2 Kings 18:13-16, where verse 13 dates the event to the 14th year of King Hezekiah. Sennacherib’s own inscriptions include a lengthier version of the affair. From them the date of 701 <span>BC<\/span> is established, placing the accession of Hezekiah in 715 <span>BC<\/span>. That much is simple, but problems still arise. For example, 2 Kings 19:9 reports that Sennacherib was in contact with an Ethiopian king, Tirhakah (c. 690–664 <span>BC<\/span>), during the course of his campaign, which included a siege of Jerusalem. Obviously, contact with a ruler who came to power in 690 <span>BC<\/span> at the earliest could not refer to events in 701 <span>BC<\/span>. It is possible, however, that Sennacherib actually made two invasions of Judah, the first in 701 and the second sometime later. The date of that supposed second invasion is not assured, although 2 Kings 19:35-37 may imply that Sennacherib was murdered only shortly after his withdrawal from Jerusalem. Since Sennacherib was succeeded by his son Esarhaddon in the year 681, the presumed second invasion of Judah would have occurred somewhere in the last half of the same decade.<\/p>\n<p>A number of scholars oppose the assumption of a second invasion of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. They suggest the possibility that Tirhakah, though king only from 690 <span>BC<\/span>, may have led troops against Sennacherib as early as 701, before acceding to the throne. The reference to King Tirhakah in 2 Kings 19:9 would then be understood as use of his eventual title in an effort to identify him to a later generation of readers.<\/p>\n<p>However the question of the number of invasions is decided, it is certain that Sennacherib invaded Judah in 701 <span>BC<\/span>, the 14th regnal year of Hezekiah. Such a synchronism establishes Hezekiah’s accession year as 715 <span>BC<\/span>, but that date raises another problem. The fall of Samaria, now established at 722, is dated by 2 Kings 18:10 in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign. The most likely solution is that Hezekiah began a co-regency with his father, Ahaz, six years before Samaria fell. The possibility for confusion arises from the fact that one verse (2 Kgs 18:13; repeated in Is 36:1) synchronizes Sennacherib’s 701 <span>BC<\/span> invasion with the 14th year of Hezekiah’s independent reign; another verse (2 Kgs 18:10) correlates the fall of Samaria with the beginning of Hezekiah’s co-regency. Thus from about 728 to 715 <span>BC<\/span> Hezekiah was co-regent with Ahaz. From 715 to 697 he reigned alone. From 696 to 686 his son Manasseh was co-ruler with him.<\/p>\n<p>According to the chronological information given by a number of verses in 2 Kings, a total of 128 years and six months elapsed between the time of Hezekiah’s accession in 715 and the capture of King Jehoiachin in 597, a date to be discussed below. Thus another problem is to explain the more than 10-year excess apparently demanded by the biblical totals. The best solution appears to lie in the assumption that Manasseh first came to power in 697 as co-regent with his father, Hezekiah. Manasseh died in 642, following what 2 Kings 21:1 states was a 55-year reign. Hezekiah, who came to the throne in 715, is said to have reigned 29 years (2 Kgs 18:2), which would mean that he was king until 686, roughly 11 years after the time when Manasseh must have come to the throne in order to have completed a 55-year reign by 642.<\/p>\n<h5>Fall of Jerusalem<\/h5>\n<p>Contemporary Babylonian records are available to shed valuable light on the last few years of Judah’s existence. For the years 626–623, 618–595, and 556 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonian Chronicle, a formal record of Babylonian affairs of state, has been recovered. From information contained in that chronicle and other cuneiform documents of the period, three dates in Judah’s history may be fixed firmly. The first is the death of Josiah in 609; the second is the battle of Carchemish in 605; the third is the end of the reign of Jehoiachin, which is dated by the Babylonian Chronicle to the second month of Adar in the ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, or March 16, 597.<\/p>\n<p>After Jehoiachin’s capture, Zedekiah became puppet king of Judah for 11 years (2 Kgs 24:18). On the tenth day of the tenth month during Zedekiah’s ninth regnal year (2 Kgs 25:1), the final siege of Jerusalem was begun by the Babylonian army. That day was January 15, 588. On the ninth day of the fourth month during the 11th regnal year of Zedekiah, after a siege of almost 18 months, the wall of Jerusalem was broken through (2 Kgs 25:3-4). The temple was burned on day seven of the following (fifth) month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Beyond587bc\">Beyond 586 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Following the tragedy of 586 <span>BC<\/span>, several further developments are given chronological notice in the OT. Jeremiah 52:30 records a third deportation of Jews to Babylonia in the 23d year of King Nebuchadnezzar (582 or 581 <span>BC<\/span>). Both 2 Kings 25:27 and Jeremiah 52:31 give evidence of the release of King Jehoiachin from prison; the Babylonian Chronicle dates that event at 27 Adar, or March 21, 561 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In 539 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonians themselves were destined to learn the meaning of defeat. In that year a Persian ruler, Cyrus the Great, launched a successful campaign against Babylon and its king, Nabonidus. Inheriting control over the exiled Jews and many other groups of people conquered earlier by Babylonia, Cyrus moved quickly to initiate a policy of tolerance toward his new subjects. In the first year of his rule Cyrus issued an edict making it possible for Jews to return to their former land (Ezr 1:1). On the first day of the following year, 1 Tishri (Ezr 3:6), an altar was set up in Jerusalem. In Iyyar of the following year (April\/May 536) work was begun on the temple itself (Ezr 3:8).<\/p>\n<p>After a period of frustrating work stoppages of varying lengths, the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah spurred on the Jews to complete the temple. Work resumed in 520 (Ezr 4:24; Hg 1:1, 15) and was finally completed on 3 Adar, or March 12, 515 (Ezr 6:15). The final stages of OT chronology pertain to the careers of Ezra and Nehemiah. The traditional view of their era places Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I (458 <span>BC<\/span>) and Nehemiah in the 20th (445 <span>BC<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> “Date” under each OT book; Conquest and Allotment of the Land; Diaspora of the Jews; Exodus, The; Israel, History of; Patriarchs, Period of the; Postexilic Period; Wilderness Wanderings.<\/p>","summary_ro":"CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament) Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper his...","summary_en":"CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament) Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper his...","source":"Articles\/C.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"14":[{"id":9995,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Eber","title_en":"Eber","content_ro":"<h3>EBER<\/h3>\n<li>1. Abraham’s ancestor (Gn 10:21-25; 11:14-17; 1 Chr 1:18-25; Lk 3:35) from whom the word “Hebrew” may be derived. Eber lived 464 years and was the ancestor of the “sons of Eber,” a phrase possibly equal to the “Hebrews,” as “sons of Heth” equals the “Hittites” (Gn 23:10, <span>nasb<\/span>). However, the term “Hebrew” may be an indication of social class rather than of descent from Eber. Eber had a son in whose time the earth was divided, a division possibly into nomadic and sedentary groups.<\/li>\n<li>2. Gadite leader registered during the reigns of Jothan, king of Judah (950–932 <span>BC<\/span>), and Jeroboam II, king of Israel (993–953 <span>BC<\/span>; 1 Chr 5:13, <span>kjv<\/span> “Heber”).<\/li>\n<li>3. Benjamite and Elpaal’s descendant (1 Chr 8:12).<\/li>\n<li>4. Benjamite and Shashak’s descendant (1 Chr 8:22).<\/li>\n<li>5. Head of Amok’s priestly family during the days of the high priest Joiakim (Neh 12:20).<\/li>","content_en":"<h3>EBER<\/h3>\n<li>1. Abraham’s ancestor (Gn 10:21-25; 11:14-17; 1 Chr 1:18-25; Lk 3:35) from whom the word “Hebrew” may be derived. Eber lived 464 years and was the ancestor of the “sons of Eber,” a phrase possibly equal to the “Hebrews,” as “sons of Heth” equals the “Hittites” (Gn 23:10, <span>nasb<\/span>). However, the term “Hebrew” may be an indication of social class rather than of descent from Eber. Eber had a son in whose time the earth was divided, a division possibly into nomadic and sedentary groups.<\/li>\n<li>2. Gadite leader registered during the reigns of Jothan, king of Judah (950–932 <span>BC<\/span>), and Jeroboam II, king of Israel (993–953 <span>BC<\/span>; 1 Chr 5:13, <span>kjv<\/span> “Heber”).<\/li>\n<li>3. Benjamite and Elpaal’s descendant (1 Chr 8:12).<\/li>\n<li>4. Benjamite and Shashak’s descendant (1 Chr 8:22).<\/li>\n<li>5. Head of Amok’s priestly family during the days of the high priest Joiakim (Neh 12:20).<\/li>","summary_ro":"EBER 1. Abraham’s ancestor (Gn 10:21-25; 11:14-17; 1 Chr 1:18-25; Lk 3:35) from whom the word “Hebrew” may be derived. Eber lived 464 years and was the ancestor of the “sons of Eber,” a phrase possibly equal to the “Hebrews,” as “sons of Heth” equals the “Hittites” (Gn 23:10, nasb). However, the term “Hebrew” may be an indication of social class rather than of descent from Eber. Eber had a son in whose time the earth was divided, a division possibly into nomadic and sedentary groups. 2. Gadit...","summary_en":"EBER 1. Abraham’s ancestor (Gn 10:21-25; 11:14-17; 1 Chr 1:18-25; Lk 3:35) from whom the word “Hebrew” may be derived. Eber lived 464 years and was the ancestor of the “sons of Eber,” a phrase possibly equal to the “Hebrews,” as “sons of Heth” equals the “Hittites” (Gn 23:10, nasb). However, the term “Hebrew” may be an indication of social class rather than of descent from Eber. Eber had a son in whose time the earth was divided, a division possibly into nomadic and sedentary groups. 2. Gadit...","source":"Articles\/E.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"16":[{"id":29445,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Peleg","title_en":"Peleg","content_ro":"<h3>PELEG<\/h3>\n<p>Son of Eber and father of Reu (Gn 10:25; 11:16-19; 1 Chr 1:19, 25; Lk 3:35). During his lifetime, the earth was divided (Peleg means “division” or “watercourse”). Precisely what the division refers to is still debated. Suggestions include (1) the geographical and linguistic dispersion following the Tower of Babel fiasco (Gn 11:1-9); (2) dispersion of Noah’s descendants; (3) separation of the people of Arphaxad from Joktanide Arabs (Gn 10:24-29); and (4) the division of land by irrigation canals (the term is so used in Jb 29:6; 38:25; Is 30:25; 32:2). The origin of the name is usually traced to the city of Phalga, north of the junction of the Euphrates and Khabur rivers.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>PELEG<\/h3>\n<p>Son of Eber and father of Reu (Gn 10:25; 11:16-19; 1 Chr 1:19, 25; Lk 3:35). During his lifetime, the earth was divided (Peleg means “division” or “watercourse”). Precisely what the division refers to is still debated. Suggestions include (1) the geographical and linguistic dispersion following the Tower of Babel fiasco (Gn 11:1-9); (2) dispersion of Noah’s descendants; (3) separation of the people of Arphaxad from Joktanide Arabs (Gn 10:24-29); and (4) the division of land by irrigation canals (the term is so used in Jb 29:6; 38:25; Is 30:25; 32:2). The origin of the name is usually traced to the city of Phalga, north of the junction of the Euphrates and Khabur rivers.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","summary_ro":"PELEG Son of Eber and father of Reu (Gn 10:25; 11:16-19; 1 Chr 1:19, 25; Lk 3:35). During his lifetime, the earth was divided (Peleg means “division” or “watercourse”). Precisely what the division refers to is still debated. Suggestions include (1) the geographical and linguistic dispersion following the Tower of Babel fiasco (Gn 11:1-9); (2) dispersion of Noah’s descendants; (3) separation of the people of Arphaxad from Joktanide Arabs (Gn 10:24-29); and (4) the division of land by irrigatio...","summary_en":"PELEG Son of Eber and father of Reu (Gn 10:25; 11:16-19; 1 Chr 1:19, 25; Lk 3:35). During his lifetime, the earth was divided (Peleg means “division” or “watercourse”). Precisely what the division refers to is still debated. Suggestions include (1) the geographical and linguistic dispersion following the Tower of Babel fiasco (Gn 11:1-9); (2) dispersion of Noah’s descendants; (3) separation of the people of Arphaxad from Joktanide Arabs (Gn 10:24-29); and (4) the division of land by irrigatio...","source":"Articles\/P.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":34868,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Shem","title_en":"Shem","content_ro":"<h3>SHEM<\/h3>\n<p>Eldest son of Noah (Gn 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18, 23, 26-27; 11:10; 1 Chr 1:4, 17-27; Lk 3:36) and the ancestor of the Semitic peoples (Gn 10:1, 21-31). Shem lived 600 years (11:10-11). In Hebrew, Shem means “name,” perhaps implying that Noah expected this son’s name to become great.<\/p>\n<p>After their deliverance from the great Flood, Shem and Japheth acted with respect and dignity toward their drunken father Noah on an occasion when their brother Ham dishonored him (Gn 9:20-29). Because of this act, Noah later pronounced a curse on Canaan, the son of Ham, and a blessing on both Shem and Japheth.<\/p>\n<p>In Genesis 11:10-27, the line of descent for the promised seed, which was to crush Satan (Gn 3:15; 5:1-32), is traced through Shem to Abraham, and ultimately through Judah and David to Christ (cf. Lk 3:36). The blessing of Noah on Shem is thus to be taken as an indication that the line of Shem will be the line through which the seed of Genesis 3:15 will come. This is the first time in the Bible that God is called the God of some particular individual or group of people. The statement that Canaan would be a servant to Shem was fulfilled centuries later when the Israelites, who descended from Shem, entered the land of Canaan and subdued the inhabitants of the land (cf. 1 Kgs 9:20-21).<\/p>\n<p>Noah also said that Japheth would be enlarged and dwell in the tents of Shem (Gn 9:27), the latter of which would seem to imply sustenance and protection. After Japheth would be greatly increased in numbers, the Japhethites would be brought into contact with Shem and would share in the blessings and promises of the Semitic faith. Many scholars see fulfillment of this prophecy in the opening of the gospel to the Gentiles during the NT era of the establishment of the church.<\/p>\n<p>In the “table of nations” recorded in Genesis 10, five descendants of Shem are mentioned (Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram). Receiving particular emphasis among these descendants is Eber from the line of Arphaxad, whose line is traced to Abraham in Genesis 11:16-27.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Genealogy of Jesus Christ; Nations; Noah #1.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>SHEM<\/h3>\n<p>Eldest son of Noah (Gn 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18, 23, 26-27; 11:10; 1 Chr 1:4, 17-27; Lk 3:36) and the ancestor of the Semitic peoples (Gn 10:1, 21-31). Shem lived 600 years (11:10-11). In Hebrew, Shem means “name,” perhaps implying that Noah expected this son’s name to become great.<\/p>\n<p>After their deliverance from the great Flood, Shem and Japheth acted with respect and dignity toward their drunken father Noah on an occasion when their brother Ham dishonored him (Gn 9:20-29). Because of this act, Noah later pronounced a curse on Canaan, the son of Ham, and a blessing on both Shem and Japheth.<\/p>\n<p>In Genesis 11:10-27, the line of descent for the promised seed, which was to crush Satan (Gn 3:15; 5:1-32), is traced through Shem to Abraham, and ultimately through Judah and David to Christ (cf. Lk 3:36). The blessing of Noah on Shem is thus to be taken as an indication that the line of Shem will be the line through which the seed of Genesis 3:15 will come. This is the first time in the Bible that God is called the God of some particular individual or group of people. The statement that Canaan would be a servant to Shem was fulfilled centuries later when the Israelites, who descended from Shem, entered the land of Canaan and subdued the inhabitants of the land (cf. 1 Kgs 9:20-21).<\/p>\n<p>Noah also said that Japheth would be enlarged and dwell in the tents of Shem (Gn 9:27), the latter of which would seem to imply sustenance and protection. After Japheth would be greatly increased in numbers, the Japhethites would be brought into contact with Shem and would share in the blessings and promises of the Semitic faith. Many scholars see fulfillment of this prophecy in the opening of the gospel to the Gentiles during the NT era of the establishment of the church.<\/p>\n<p>In the “table of nations” recorded in Genesis 10, five descendants of Shem are mentioned (Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram). Receiving particular emphasis among these descendants is Eber from the line of Arphaxad, whose line is traced to Abraham in Genesis 11:16-27.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Genealogy of Jesus Christ; Nations; Noah #1.<\/p>","summary_ro":"SHEM Eldest son of Noah (Gn 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18, 23, 26-27; 11:10; 1 Chr 1:4, 17-27; Lk 3:36) and the ancestor of the Semitic peoples (Gn 10:1, 21-31). Shem lived 600 years (11:10-11). In Hebrew, Shem means “name,” perhaps implying that Noah expected this son’s name to become great. After their deliverance from the great Flood, Shem and Japheth acted with respect and dignity toward their drunken father Noah on an occasion when their brother Ham dishonored him (Gn 9:20-29). Because of this ...","summary_en":"SHEM Eldest son of Noah (Gn 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18, 23, 26-27; 11:10; 1 Chr 1:4, 17-27; Lk 3:36) and the ancestor of the Semitic peoples (Gn 10:1, 21-31). Shem lived 600 years (11:10-11). In Hebrew, Shem means “name,” perhaps implying that Noah expected this son’s name to become great. After their deliverance from the great Flood, Shem and Japheth acted with respect and dignity toward their drunken father Noah on an occasion when their brother Ham dishonored him (Gn 9:20-29). Because of this ...","source":"Articles\/S.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"18":[{"id":32853,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Reu","title_en":"Reu","content_ro":"<h3>REU<\/h3>\n<p>Peleg’s son, the father of Serug, and a descendant of Shem (Gn 11:18-21; 1 Chr 1:25), listed in Luke’s genealogy of Christ (Lk 3:35). <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>REU<\/h3>\n<p>Peleg’s son, the father of Serug, and a descendant of Shem (Gn 11:18-21; 1 Chr 1:25), listed in Luke’s genealogy of Christ (Lk 3:35). <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","summary_ro":"REU Peleg’s son, the father of Serug, and a descendant of Shem (Gn 11:18-21; 1 Chr 1:25), listed in Luke’s genealogy of Christ (Lk 3:35). See Genealogy of Jesus Christ.","summary_en":"REU Peleg’s son, the father of Serug, and a descendant of Shem (Gn 11:18-21; 1 Chr 1:25), listed in Luke’s genealogy of Christ (Lk 3:35). See Genealogy of Jesus Christ.","source":"Articles\/R.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":43002,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:18","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:18","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:18<\/strong> <em>Peleg:<\/em> See study note on 10:25.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:18<\/strong> <em>Peleg:<\/em> See study note on 10:25.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:18 Peleg: See study note on 10:25.","summary_en":"11:18 Peleg: See study note on 10:25.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70628,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:18","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:18","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:18<\/strong> <em>Peleg:<\/em> See study note on 10:25.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:18<\/strong> <em>Peleg:<\/em> See study note on 10:25.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:18 Peleg: See study note on 10:25.","summary_en":"11:18 Peleg: See study note on 10:25.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98254,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:18","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:18","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:18<\/strong> <em>Peleg:<\/em> See study note on 10:25.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:18<\/strong> <em>Peleg:<\/em> See study note on 10:25.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:18 Peleg: See study note on 10:25.","summary_en":"11:18 Peleg: See study note on 10:25.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125880,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:18","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:18","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:18<\/strong> <em>Peleg:<\/em> See study note on 10:25.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:18<\/strong> <em>Peleg:<\/em> See study note on 10:25.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:18 Peleg: See study note on 10:25.","summary_en":"11:18 Peleg: See study note on 10:25.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"20":[{"id":34404,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Serug","title_en":"Serug","content_ro":"<h3>SERUG<\/h3>\n<p>Reu’s son from Shem’s line (Gn 11:20-23), Abraham’s forefather and an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Lk 3:35; <span>kjv<\/span> “Saruch”). <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>SERUG<\/h3>\n<p>Reu’s son from Shem’s line (Gn 11:20-23), Abraham’s forefather and an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Lk 3:35; <span>kjv<\/span> “Saruch”). <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","summary_ro":"SERUG Reu’s son from Shem’s line (Gn 11:20-23), Abraham’s forefather and an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Lk 3:35; kjv “Saruch”). See Genealogy of Jesus Christ.","summary_en":"SERUG Reu’s son from Shem’s line (Gn 11:20-23), Abraham’s forefather and an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Lk 3:35; kjv “Saruch”). See Genealogy of Jesus Christ.","source":"Articles\/S.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"22":[{"id":26853,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Nahor (Person)","title_en":"Nahor (Person)","content_ro":"<h3>NAHOR (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<li>1. Abraham’s grandfather (Gn 11:22-25; 1 Chr 1:26); also an ancestor of Jesus according to Luke’s genealogy (Lk 3:34, where some English translations follow the Greek spelling, Nachor). The Genesis and 1 Chronicles passages show that Nahor is from Shem’s line. Hence, Abraham and his descendants are part of the Semitic family of nations.<\/li>\n<li>2. Son of Terah and Abraham’s brother (Gn 11:26-29; Jos 24:2). He married Milcah, Haran’s daughter, and his family is named in Genesis 22:20-23. Abraham sent his servant to seek a wife for Isaac at Nahor’s residence in Mesopotamia (see Gn 24:10, which possibly suggests that the city itself was called Nahor). There he found Rebekah, Nahor’s granddaughter (Gn 24:1-51). Nahor is also named as the father (perhaps grandfather) of Laban, to whom Jacob went when he fled from his brother Esau (Gn 29:5). Both of these texts link Abraham’s family with related Semitic people. In Genesis 31:53 God is spoken of as “the God of Abraham and Nahor.”<\/li>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Nahor (Place).<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>NAHOR (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<li>1. Abraham’s grandfather (Gn 11:22-25; 1 Chr 1:26); also an ancestor of Jesus according to Luke’s genealogy (Lk 3:34, where some English translations follow the Greek spelling, Nachor). The Genesis and 1 Chronicles passages show that Nahor is from Shem’s line. Hence, Abraham and his descendants are part of the Semitic family of nations.<\/li>\n<li>2. Son of Terah and Abraham’s brother (Gn 11:26-29; Jos 24:2). He married Milcah, Haran’s daughter, and his family is named in Genesis 22:20-23. Abraham sent his servant to seek a wife for Isaac at Nahor’s residence in Mesopotamia (see Gn 24:10, which possibly suggests that the city itself was called Nahor). There he found Rebekah, Nahor’s granddaughter (Gn 24:1-51). Nahor is also named as the father (perhaps grandfather) of Laban, to whom Jacob went when he fled from his brother Esau (Gn 29:5). Both of these texts link Abraham’s family with related Semitic people. In Genesis 31:53 God is spoken of as “the God of Abraham and Nahor.”<\/li>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Nahor (Place).<\/p>","summary_ro":"NAHOR (Person) 1. Abraham’s grandfather (Gn 11:22-25; 1 Chr 1:26); also an ancestor of Jesus according to Luke’s genealogy (Lk 3:34, where some English translations follow the Greek spelling, Nachor). The Genesis and 1 Chronicles passages show that Nahor is from Shem’s line. Hence, Abraham and his descendants are part of the Semitic family of nations. 2. Son of Terah and Abraham’s brother (Gn 11:26-29; Jos 24:2). He married Milcah, Haran’s daughter, and his family is named in Genesis 22:20-23...","summary_en":"NAHOR (Person) 1. Abraham’s grandfather (Gn 11:22-25; 1 Chr 1:26); also an ancestor of Jesus according to Luke’s genealogy (Lk 3:34, where some English translations follow the Greek spelling, Nachor). The Genesis and 1 Chronicles passages show that Nahor is from Shem’s line. Hence, Abraham and his descendants are part of the Semitic family of nations. 2. Son of Terah and Abraham’s brother (Gn 11:26-29; Jos 24:2). He married Milcah, Haran’s daughter, and his family is named in Genesis 22:20-23...","source":"Articles\/N.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"26":[{"id":40783,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":68409,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":96035,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":123661,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":272,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>ABRAHAM<\/h3>\n<p>One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut separation from pagan roots. The new name, interpreted by the biblical text as meaning “father of a multitude,” was also a statement of God’s promise to Abraham that he would have many descendants, as well as a significant test of his faith in God—since he was 99 years old at the time and his childless wife was 90 (Gn 11:30; 17:1-4, 17).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"AbrahamsLife\">Abraham’s Life<\/p>\n<p>The story of Abram begins in Genesis 11, where his family relationships are recorded (Gn 11:26-32). Terah, Abram’s father, was named after the moon deity worshiped at Ur. Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran, the father of Lot, died before the family left Ur. Terah took Lot, Abram, and Abram’s wife, Sarai, from Ur to go to Canaan but settled at the city of Haran (v 31). It is stated in Acts 7:2-4 that Abraham heard the call of God to leave for a new land while he was still in Ur.<\/p>\n<p>A note of major importance to the course of Abram’s life is found in Genesis 11:30: “Sarai was not able to have any children” (<span>nlt<\/span>). The problem of Sarai’s barrenness provided the basis for great crises of faith, promise, and fulfillment in the lives of Abram and Sarai.<\/p>\n\n<p>After Terah’s death, God told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.” This command was the basis of a “covenant,” in which God promised to make Abram the founder of a new nation in that new land (Gn 12:1-3, <span>nlt<\/span>). Abram, trusting God’s promise, left Haran at the age of 74. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, an important Canaanite royal city between Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal. Near the oak of Moreh, a Canaanite shrine, God appeared to him (12:7). Abram built an altar at Shechem, then moved to the vicinity of Bethel and again built an altar to the Lord (12:8). The expression “to call on the name of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (<span>rsv<\/span>) means more than just to pray. Rather, Abram made a proclamation, declaring the reality of God to the Canaanites in their centers of false worship. Later Abram moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, where again he built an altar to worship God. Another blessing given in a vision (15:1) led Abram to exclaim that he was still childless and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). Discovery of the Nuzi documents has helped to clarify that otherwise obscure statement. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of station and substance would adopt an heir. Often a slave, the heir would be responsible for the burial and mourning of his adoptive parents. If a son should be born after the adoption of a slave-heir, the natural son would of course supplant him. Thus God’s response to Abram’s question is directly to the point: “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own to inherit everything I am giving you” (Gn 15:4, <span>nlt<\/span>). God then made a covenant with Abram insuring an heir, a nation, and the land.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. When Abram was 99, the Lord appeared to the aged patriarch and again reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and blessing (Gn 17). Circumcision was added as the seal of covenantal relationship (17:9-14), and at that point the names Abram and Sarai were changed to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham’s response to the promise of another son was to laugh: “Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. ‘How could I become a father at the age of one hundred?’ he wondered. ‘Besides, Sarah is ninety; how could she have a baby?’ ” (Gn 17:17, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 18 and 19 recount the total destruction of two cities of the Jordan plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. Chapter 18 begins with three individuals seeking comfort in the heat of the day. Abraham offered refreshment and a meal to his guests. They turned out to be no ordinary travelers, however, but the Angel of the Lord along with two other angels (18:1-2; 19:1). There is reason to believe that the Angel of the Lord was God himself (18:17, 33). Another announcement of a promised son made Sarah laugh in unbelief and then deny having laughed (18:12-15).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 21 to 23 form the climax of the story of Abraham. At long last, when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife 90, “the <span>Lord<\/span> did exactly what he had promised” (Gn 21:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). The joy of the aged couple on the birth of their long-promised son could not be contained. Both Abraham and Sarah had laughed in unbelief in the days of promise; now they laughed in joy as God had “the last laugh.” The baby, born at the time God promised, was named Isaac (“he laughs!”). Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me” (Gn 21:6, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The laughter over Isaac’s birth subsided entirely in the test of Abraham’s faith described in chapter 22, God’s command to sacrifice Isaac. Only when one has experienced vicariously with Abraham the long 25 years of God’s promise of a son can one imagine the trauma of such a supreme test. Just as the knife was about to fall, and only then, did the angel of God break the silence of heaven with the call, “Abraham!” (22:11). The name of promise, “father of a multitude,” took on its most significant meaning when Abraham’s son was spared and the test was explained: “I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me” (Gn 22:12, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Those words were coupled with a promise implicit in the discovery of a ram caught in the thicket. The Lord provided an alternative sacrifice, a substitute. The place was named “the Lord will provide.” Christian believers generally see the whole episode as looking ahead to God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Covenant; Patriarchs, Period of the; Israel, History of; “Abraham’s Bosom”; Sarah #1.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>ABRAHAM<\/h3>\n<p>One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut separation from pagan roots. The new name, interpreted by the biblical text as meaning “father of a multitude,” was also a statement of God’s promise to Abraham that he would have many descendants, as well as a significant test of his faith in God—since he was 99 years old at the time and his childless wife was 90 (Gn 11:30; 17:1-4, 17).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"AbrahamsLife\">Abraham’s Life<\/p>\n<p>The story of Abram begins in Genesis 11, where his family relationships are recorded (Gn 11:26-32). Terah, Abram’s father, was named after the moon deity worshiped at Ur. Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran, the father of Lot, died before the family left Ur. Terah took Lot, Abram, and Abram’s wife, Sarai, from Ur to go to Canaan but settled at the city of Haran (v 31). It is stated in Acts 7:2-4 that Abraham heard the call of God to leave for a new land while he was still in Ur.<\/p>\n<p>A note of major importance to the course of Abram’s life is found in Genesis 11:30: “Sarai was not able to have any children” (<span>nlt<\/span>). The problem of Sarai’s barrenness provided the basis for great crises of faith, promise, and fulfillment in the lives of Abram and Sarai.<\/p>\n\n<p>After Terah’s death, God told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.” This command was the basis of a “covenant,” in which God promised to make Abram the founder of a new nation in that new land (Gn 12:1-3, <span>nlt<\/span>). Abram, trusting God’s promise, left Haran at the age of 74. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, an important Canaanite royal city between Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal. Near the oak of Moreh, a Canaanite shrine, God appeared to him (12:7). Abram built an altar at Shechem, then moved to the vicinity of Bethel and again built an altar to the Lord (12:8). The expression “to call on the name of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (<span>rsv<\/span>) means more than just to pray. Rather, Abram made a proclamation, declaring the reality of God to the Canaanites in their centers of false worship. Later Abram moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, where again he built an altar to worship God. Another blessing given in a vision (15:1) led Abram to exclaim that he was still childless and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). Discovery of the Nuzi documents has helped to clarify that otherwise obscure statement. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of station and substance would adopt an heir. Often a slave, the heir would be responsible for the burial and mourning of his adoptive parents. If a son should be born after the adoption of a slave-heir, the natural son would of course supplant him. Thus God’s response to Abram’s question is directly to the point: “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own to inherit everything I am giving you” (Gn 15:4, <span>nlt<\/span>). God then made a covenant with Abram insuring an heir, a nation, and the land.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. When Abram was 99, the Lord appeared to the aged patriarch and again reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and blessing (Gn 17). Circumcision was added as the seal of covenantal relationship (17:9-14), and at that point the names Abram and Sarai were changed to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham’s response to the promise of another son was to laugh: “Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. ‘How could I become a father at the age of one hundred?’ he wondered. ‘Besides, Sarah is ninety; how could she have a baby?’ ” (Gn 17:17, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 18 and 19 recount the total destruction of two cities of the Jordan plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. Chapter 18 begins with three individuals seeking comfort in the heat of the day. Abraham offered refreshment and a meal to his guests. They turned out to be no ordinary travelers, however, but the Angel of the Lord along with two other angels (18:1-2; 19:1). There is reason to believe that the Angel of the Lord was God himself (18:17, 33). Another announcement of a promised son made Sarah laugh in unbelief and then deny having laughed (18:12-15).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 21 to 23 form the climax of the story of Abraham. At long last, when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife 90, “the <span>Lord<\/span> did exactly what he had promised” (Gn 21:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). The joy of the aged couple on the birth of their long-promised son could not be contained. Both Abraham and Sarah had laughed in unbelief in the days of promise; now they laughed in joy as God had “the last laugh.” The baby, born at the time God promised, was named Isaac (“he laughs!”). Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me” (Gn 21:6, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The laughter over Isaac’s birth subsided entirely in the test of Abraham’s faith described in chapter 22, God’s command to sacrifice Isaac. Only when one has experienced vicariously with Abraham the long 25 years of God’s promise of a son can one imagine the trauma of such a supreme test. Just as the knife was about to fall, and only then, did the angel of God break the silence of heaven with the call, “Abraham!” (22:11). The name of promise, “father of a multitude,” took on its most significant meaning when Abraham’s son was spared and the test was explained: “I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me” (Gn 22:12, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Those words were coupled with a promise implicit in the discovery of a ram caught in the thicket. The Lord provided an alternative sacrifice, a substitute. The place was named “the Lord will provide.” Christian believers generally see the whole episode as looking ahead to God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Covenant; Patriarchs, Period of the; Israel, History of; “Abraham’s Bosom”; Sarah #1.<\/p>","summary_ro":"ABRAHAM One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people. Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut s...","summary_en":"ABRAHAM One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people. Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut s...","source":"Articles\/A.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":293,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Abram","title_en":"Abram","content_ro":"<h3>ABRAM<\/h3>\n<p>Original name of Abraham (Gn 11:26). <em>See<\/em> Abraham.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>ABRAM<\/h3>\n<p>Original name of Abraham (Gn 11:26). <em>See<\/em> Abraham.<\/p>","summary_ro":"ABRAM Original name of Abraham (Gn 11:26). See Abraham.","summary_en":"ABRAM Original name of Abraham (Gn 11:26). See Abraham.","source":"Articles\/A.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":15316,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Haran (Person)","title_en":"Haran (Person)","content_ro":"<h3>HARAN (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<li>1. Terah’s son, brother of Abraham, and the father of Lot (Gn 11:26-31).<\/li>\n<li>2. Caleb’s son by his concubine Ephah, a member of Judah’s tribe and the father of Gazez (1 Chr 2:46).<\/li>\n<li>3. Shimei’s son, a member of the Gershonite division of Levi’s tribe (1 Chr 23:9).<\/li>","content_en":"<h3>HARAN (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<li>1. Terah’s son, brother of Abraham, and the father of Lot (Gn 11:26-31).<\/li>\n<li>2. Caleb’s son by his concubine Ephah, a member of Judah’s tribe and the father of Gazez (1 Chr 2:46).<\/li>\n<li>3. Shimei’s son, a member of the Gershonite division of Levi’s tribe (1 Chr 23:9).<\/li>","summary_ro":"HARAN (Person) 1. Terah’s son, brother of Abraham, and the father of Lot (Gn 11:26-31). 2. Caleb’s son by his concubine Ephah, a member of Judah’s tribe and the father of Gazez (1 Chr 2:46). 3. Shimei’s son, a member of the Gershonite division of Levi’s tribe (1 Chr 23:9).","summary_en":"HARAN (Person) 1. Terah’s son, brother of Abraham, and the father of Lot (Gn 11:26-31). 2. Caleb’s son by his concubine Ephah, a member of Judah’s tribe and the father of Gazez (1 Chr 2:46). 3. Shimei’s son, a member of the Gershonite division of Levi’s tribe (1 Chr 23:9).","source":"Articles\/H.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":26856,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Nahor (Person)","title_en":"Nahor (Person)","content_ro":"<h3>NAHOR (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<li>1. Abraham’s grandfather (Gn 11:22-25; 1 Chr 1:26); also an ancestor of Jesus according to Luke’s genealogy (Lk 3:34, where some English translations follow the Greek spelling, Nachor). The Genesis and 1 Chronicles passages show that Nahor is from Shem’s line. Hence, Abraham and his descendants are part of the Semitic family of nations.<\/li>\n<li>2. Son of Terah and Abraham’s brother (Gn 11:26-29; Jos 24:2). He married Milcah, Haran’s daughter, and his family is named in Genesis 22:20-23. Abraham sent his servant to seek a wife for Isaac at Nahor’s residence in Mesopotamia (see Gn 24:10, which possibly suggests that the city itself was called Nahor). There he found Rebekah, Nahor’s granddaughter (Gn 24:1-51). Nahor is also named as the father (perhaps grandfather) of Laban, to whom Jacob went when he fled from his brother Esau (Gn 29:5). Both of these texts link Abraham’s family with related Semitic people. In Genesis 31:53 God is spoken of as “the God of Abraham and Nahor.”<\/li>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Nahor (Place).<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>NAHOR (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<li>1. Abraham’s grandfather (Gn 11:22-25; 1 Chr 1:26); also an ancestor of Jesus according to Luke’s genealogy (Lk 3:34, where some English translations follow the Greek spelling, Nachor). The Genesis and 1 Chronicles passages show that Nahor is from Shem’s line. Hence, Abraham and his descendants are part of the Semitic family of nations.<\/li>\n<li>2. Son of Terah and Abraham’s brother (Gn 11:26-29; Jos 24:2). He married Milcah, Haran’s daughter, and his family is named in Genesis 22:20-23. Abraham sent his servant to seek a wife for Isaac at Nahor’s residence in Mesopotamia (see Gn 24:10, which possibly suggests that the city itself was called Nahor). There he found Rebekah, Nahor’s granddaughter (Gn 24:1-51). Nahor is also named as the father (perhaps grandfather) of Laban, to whom Jacob went when he fled from his brother Esau (Gn 29:5). Both of these texts link Abraham’s family with related Semitic people. In Genesis 31:53 God is spoken of as “the God of Abraham and Nahor.”<\/li>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Nahor (Place).<\/p>","summary_ro":"NAHOR (Person) 1. Abraham’s grandfather (Gn 11:22-25; 1 Chr 1:26); also an ancestor of Jesus according to Luke’s genealogy (Lk 3:34, where some English translations follow the Greek spelling, Nachor). The Genesis and 1 Chronicles passages show that Nahor is from Shem’s line. Hence, Abraham and his descendants are part of the Semitic family of nations. 2. Son of Terah and Abraham’s brother (Gn 11:26-29; Jos 24:2). He married Milcah, Haran’s daughter, and his family is named in Genesis 22:20-23...","summary_en":"NAHOR (Person) 1. Abraham’s grandfather (Gn 11:22-25; 1 Chr 1:26); also an ancestor of Jesus according to Luke’s genealogy (Lk 3:34, where some English translations follow the Greek spelling, Nachor). The Genesis and 1 Chronicles passages show that Nahor is from Shem’s line. Hence, Abraham and his descendants are part of the Semitic family of nations. 2. Son of Terah and Abraham’s brother (Gn 11:26-29; Jos 24:2). He married Milcah, Haran’s daughter, and his family is named in Genesis 22:20-23...","source":"Articles\/N.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":37100,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Terah (Person)","title_en":"Terah (Person)","content_ro":"<h3>TERAH (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Abram was born. Terah initiated the trip to Canaan, though he failed to go beyond Haran (Gn 11:31-32). Abram was commanded there to leave his family and proceed to Canaan (12:1).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>TERAH (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Abram was born. Terah initiated the trip to Canaan, though he failed to go beyond Haran (Gn 11:31-32). Abram was commanded there to leave his family and proceed to Canaan (12:1).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham.<\/p>","summary_ro":"TERAH (Person) Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Ab...","summary_en":"TERAH (Person) Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Ab...","source":"Articles\/T.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"27":[{"id":40586,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Lot","title_en":"Lot","content_ro":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","summary_en":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":68212,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Lot","title_en":"Lot","content_ro":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","summary_en":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":95838,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Lot","title_en":"Lot","content_ro":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","summary_en":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":123464,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Lot","title_en":"Lot","content_ro":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","summary_en":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":13413,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Genealogy","title_en":"Genealogy","content_ro":"<h3>GENEALOGY<\/h3>\n<p>Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium <span>BC<\/span> contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 <span>BC<\/span>) referred to his “father,” Sesostris III, who lived some 1,200 years before him. Greeks and Romans also kept genealogical records. However, the biblical genealogies, especially those in Genesis and 1 Chronicles 1–9, are unique in the literature of the ancient Near East. Only at the beginning of the Islamic age are such broad genealogical records found. Even today among tribal Semites, such as Arab nomads, there is an intense interest in genealogy, and it is not unusual for an Arab to be able to recite accurately the names of his ancestors for 10 or 15 generations back, covering a period of several hundred years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TermsUsed\">Terms Used<\/p>\n<p>The word “genealogy” occurs only once as a noun in the Hebrew OT (Neh 7:5), where it refers to a register of those who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel at the end of the exile. The verbal form of the same word is found a total of 20 times in 1—2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The terms “generations” and “book of the generations,” used in Genesis and elsewhere in the OT, convey the same idea. The equivalent NT terms are found in 1 Timothy 1:4 and Titus 3:9 (“genealogies”) and Matthew 1:1, which refers to the “book of the genealogy” of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PurposeofGenealogicalRecords\">Purpose of Genealogical Records<\/p>\n<p>The keeping of genealogical records in ancient Israel was an important activity and served a number of useful purposes. God’s promise of a land to Abraham and his descendants made such records necessary to establish and preserve the allotment of the land; a genealogical record served as evidence of a legitimate title to the ancestral property. Genealogies were essential for the preservation of the exclusive priesthood that had been established by the Mosaic law. In the time of Josephus every priest was supposed to be able to prove his descent.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most important reasons for keeping genealogical records was to establish and maintain the right of royal succession in Judah through the family of David. The belief that the Messiah would come from the Davidic house made such records even more important.<\/p>\n<p>Other purposes served by these family records included the imposition of military duty according to families (Nm 1:2-3). Position in camp and on the march from Egypt was determined by tribes and families (2:2, 17; 10:11-28). Also, God’s blessings were passed from one member of the family to his descendants (Gn 27). The stress placed on the purity of the congregation (Dt 7:1-4; 23:1-8) required complete family records, particularly in the postexilic period. With the insistence of Ezra and Nehemiah upon racial purity, and with the purging of foreign elements from among the people (Ezr 2:59-63; 10:9-44; Neh 13:23-28), written evidence of purity of descent became essential; interest in the compilation of genealogies became intense after the exile.<\/p>\n<p>Lineage was ordinarily traced through the male members of the family, with females being mentioned only rarely (e.g., Gn 11:29, Sarah and Milcah; 22:23, Rebekah; and Nm 26:33–27:11, where the property inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad was involved). Matthew mentions three women: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth; and in the second group alludes to Bathsheba (see discussion below).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrincipalGenealogicalListsintheBible\">Principal Genealogical Lists in the Bible<\/p>\n<p>The principal sources of genealogical material in the OT are found in Genesis, Numbers, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1—2 Chronicles (which contain the greatest amount of genealogical material in the Bible), Ezra, and Nehemiah. The genealogies of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 are the only NT records. Together they contain a genealogical record from Adam to Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Grouped together by historical periods, the following are the principal genealogical lists found in the Bible:<\/p>\n<h5>Before the Flood<\/h5>\n<p>Three lists are from this period. The first, found in Genesis 4:17-22, traces the descendants of Cain through seven generations and explains the hereditary origin of certain occupations and crafts. The second, Genesis 4:25-26, begins the account of the descendants of Seth, the posterity of Adam whose faithfulness to God is contrasted with the ungodly posterity of Cain. The third list, Genesis 5:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:1-4), traces the descendants of Adam through Seth down to Noah and his sons at the time of the Flood.<\/p>\n<h5>From Noah to Abraham<\/h5>\n<p>Genesis 10:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:4-23), frequently called the “table of nations,” contains a list of the nations descended from the sons of Noah (Shem, Ham, and Japheth). Genesis 11:10-26 (cf. 1 Chr 1:24-27) traces the descendants of Shem to the time of Abraham, and Genesis 11:27-30 (see also Gn 22:20-24) lists the descendants of Nahor, Abraham’s brother.<\/p>\n<h5>From Abraham to the Descent into Egypt<\/h5>\n<p>The descendants of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah are found in Genesis 16:15, 21:1-3, and 25:1-4 (introducing the Arabs as descendants of Abraham; cf. 1 Chr 1:28-34). Genesis 19:37-38 links the Moabites and Ammonites to Abraham through his nephew Lot. A very important genealogical list during this period is that of the descendants of Jacob, giving the account of the parentage, birth, and naming of the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel (Gn 29:31–30:24; 35:16-26). Esau is acknowledged as the ancestor of the Edomites; his Edomite descendants are traced through his three wives (Gn 26:34; 36:1-43; 1 Chr 1:35-54). The list of Jacob’s family at the time he entered Egypt, numbering 70, is found in Genesis 46:1-27 (cf. Ex 6:14-16; Nm 26:1-51; 1 Chr 2–8). A partial list of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi is found in Exodus 6:14-25; the chief purpose of this genealogy is to establish Aaron and Moses as members of Levi’s tribe.<\/p>\n<h5>From the Exodus to the Conquest of Canaan<\/h5>\n<p>While the tribes were still in the desert after leaving Egypt, a census was taken to determine the total number of Israelites (Nm 1:4-54; 2:2-33). During this same period, a genealogy of the family of Aaron was compiled, and a separate census was taken of the Levites (3:1-39). A list of the 12 spies who searched out the land and the tribes they represented is given in Numbers 13:4-16; the most important names on this list are Caleb and Joshua. Near the end of the wilderness wanderings, another census of the people was ordered; the total number was approximately the same as that of the first census almost 40 years earlier (26:4-51, 57-62). As the tribes neared the Promised Land, a list was prepared of the tribal representatives who would take part in the division of the land (34:16-29).<\/p>\n<h5>Period of the Kings<\/h5>\n<p>During the entire period of the monarchy, over 400 years, the only genealogical records of any consequence are those that pertain to David. His descendants are traced through 20 rulers who sat upon the throne of Judah until the nation fell to the Babylonians in 586 <span>BC<\/span> (1—2 Kgs; cf. 1 Chr 11:1—2 Chr 36:21). A list of David’s children is found in 2 Samuel 3:2-5 and 5:14-16 (cf. 1 Chr 3:1-9; 14:4-7). His mighty men, an elite group of soldiers, are named in 2 Samuel 23:8-39 (cf. 1 Chr 11:10-47). His recruits at Ziklag are recorded in 1 Chronicles 12:1-22. Those who were his musicians and doorkeepers when the ark was brought to Jerusalem are named in 1 Chronicles 15:1-24 (cf. 1 Chr 16:5-6, 37-43). David’s political and religious organization of the kingdom—including the Levites, priests, singers, porters and other administrative officials, and military officers—is found in 1 Chronicles 23–27. In spite of the literary activity associated with the reign of Solomon, the only genealogical record preserved from this period is that of Solomon’s princes and 12 officers (1 Kgs 4:1-19). The genealogy of one prophet is traced back four generations (Zep 1:1).<\/p>\n<h5>The Postexilic Period<\/h5>\n<p>During the postexilic period, the keeping of genealogical records probably received its greatest impetus through the activity of Ezra and Nehemiah, primarily because of their insistence upon racial purity and the purging of foreign elements from the community. A list of the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel is found in Ezra 2:1-70 (cf. Neh 7:6-73, where the same list is found). A list of those who returned with Ezra is included in 8:1-20. Ezra’s own genealogy is also recorded (Ezr 7:5). There is a list of the Jews who married foreign women that included priests, Levites, singers, porters, and other Israelites (Ezr 10:18-44). Nehemiah 8:4-7 names the Levites and others who assisted Ezra when he read the law publicly. Nehemiah also contains a list of those who participated in the ceremony of sealing the covenant (Neh 10:1-27) and a list of those who lived in Jerusalem and other cities (11:3-36). His interest in the priesthood is reflected in the list of priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel (12:1-9), of the high priests from Jeshua to Jaddua (vv 10-11), of the heads of the priestly families (vv 12-21), of the Levites and porters who served under the high priest (vv 22-26), and of the princes and priests who were present at the dedication of the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem (vv 31-42).<\/p>\n<p>The final genealogical record that must be mentioned is the genealogy from Adam to Saul (1 Chr 1–8), the longest section of genealogical material in the Bible. It is properly included with the genealogies compiled during the postexilic period, as the unknown chronicler (some think he was Ezra) prepared this list around 400 <span>BC<\/span> from extant records and documents available to him. His purpose seems to have been to conserve the purity of blood in the restored nation and to insist that the nation’s well-being depended on its faithfulness to God’s law.<\/p>\n<h5>The New Testament Period<\/h5>\n<p>The only genealogies of consequence in the NT are those concerning Jesus Christ in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38. <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>GENEALOGY<\/h3>\n<p>Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium <span>BC<\/span> contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 <span>BC<\/span>) referred to his “father,” Sesostris III, who lived some 1,200 years before him. Greeks and Romans also kept genealogical records. However, the biblical genealogies, especially those in Genesis and 1 Chronicles 1–9, are unique in the literature of the ancient Near East. Only at the beginning of the Islamic age are such broad genealogical records found. Even today among tribal Semites, such as Arab nomads, there is an intense interest in genealogy, and it is not unusual for an Arab to be able to recite accurately the names of his ancestors for 10 or 15 generations back, covering a period of several hundred years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TermsUsed\">Terms Used<\/p>\n<p>The word “genealogy” occurs only once as a noun in the Hebrew OT (Neh 7:5), where it refers to a register of those who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel at the end of the exile. The verbal form of the same word is found a total of 20 times in 1—2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The terms “generations” and “book of the generations,” used in Genesis and elsewhere in the OT, convey the same idea. The equivalent NT terms are found in 1 Timothy 1:4 and Titus 3:9 (“genealogies”) and Matthew 1:1, which refers to the “book of the genealogy” of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PurposeofGenealogicalRecords\">Purpose of Genealogical Records<\/p>\n<p>The keeping of genealogical records in ancient Israel was an important activity and served a number of useful purposes. God’s promise of a land to Abraham and his descendants made such records necessary to establish and preserve the allotment of the land; a genealogical record served as evidence of a legitimate title to the ancestral property. Genealogies were essential for the preservation of the exclusive priesthood that had been established by the Mosaic law. In the time of Josephus every priest was supposed to be able to prove his descent.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most important reasons for keeping genealogical records was to establish and maintain the right of royal succession in Judah through the family of David. The belief that the Messiah would come from the Davidic house made such records even more important.<\/p>\n<p>Other purposes served by these family records included the imposition of military duty according to families (Nm 1:2-3). Position in camp and on the march from Egypt was determined by tribes and families (2:2, 17; 10:11-28). Also, God’s blessings were passed from one member of the family to his descendants (Gn 27). The stress placed on the purity of the congregation (Dt 7:1-4; 23:1-8) required complete family records, particularly in the postexilic period. With the insistence of Ezra and Nehemiah upon racial purity, and with the purging of foreign elements from among the people (Ezr 2:59-63; 10:9-44; Neh 13:23-28), written evidence of purity of descent became essential; interest in the compilation of genealogies became intense after the exile.<\/p>\n<p>Lineage was ordinarily traced through the male members of the family, with females being mentioned only rarely (e.g., Gn 11:29, Sarah and Milcah; 22:23, Rebekah; and Nm 26:33–27:11, where the property inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad was involved). Matthew mentions three women: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth; and in the second group alludes to Bathsheba (see discussion below).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrincipalGenealogicalListsintheBible\">Principal Genealogical Lists in the Bible<\/p>\n<p>The principal sources of genealogical material in the OT are found in Genesis, Numbers, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1—2 Chronicles (which contain the greatest amount of genealogical material in the Bible), Ezra, and Nehemiah. The genealogies of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 are the only NT records. Together they contain a genealogical record from Adam to Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Grouped together by historical periods, the following are the principal genealogical lists found in the Bible:<\/p>\n<h5>Before the Flood<\/h5>\n<p>Three lists are from this period. The first, found in Genesis 4:17-22, traces the descendants of Cain through seven generations and explains the hereditary origin of certain occupations and crafts. The second, Genesis 4:25-26, begins the account of the descendants of Seth, the posterity of Adam whose faithfulness to God is contrasted with the ungodly posterity of Cain. The third list, Genesis 5:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:1-4), traces the descendants of Adam through Seth down to Noah and his sons at the time of the Flood.<\/p>\n<h5>From Noah to Abraham<\/h5>\n<p>Genesis 10:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:4-23), frequently called the “table of nations,” contains a list of the nations descended from the sons of Noah (Shem, Ham, and Japheth). Genesis 11:10-26 (cf. 1 Chr 1:24-27) traces the descendants of Shem to the time of Abraham, and Genesis 11:27-30 (see also Gn 22:20-24) lists the descendants of Nahor, Abraham’s brother.<\/p>\n<h5>From Abraham to the Descent into Egypt<\/h5>\n<p>The descendants of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah are found in Genesis 16:15, 21:1-3, and 25:1-4 (introducing the Arabs as descendants of Abraham; cf. 1 Chr 1:28-34). Genesis 19:37-38 links the Moabites and Ammonites to Abraham through his nephew Lot. A very important genealogical list during this period is that of the descendants of Jacob, giving the account of the parentage, birth, and naming of the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel (Gn 29:31–30:24; 35:16-26). Esau is acknowledged as the ancestor of the Edomites; his Edomite descendants are traced through his three wives (Gn 26:34; 36:1-43; 1 Chr 1:35-54). The list of Jacob’s family at the time he entered Egypt, numbering 70, is found in Genesis 46:1-27 (cf. Ex 6:14-16; Nm 26:1-51; 1 Chr 2–8). A partial list of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi is found in Exodus 6:14-25; the chief purpose of this genealogy is to establish Aaron and Moses as members of Levi’s tribe.<\/p>\n<h5>From the Exodus to the Conquest of Canaan<\/h5>\n<p>While the tribes were still in the desert after leaving Egypt, a census was taken to determine the total number of Israelites (Nm 1:4-54; 2:2-33). During this same period, a genealogy of the family of Aaron was compiled, and a separate census was taken of the Levites (3:1-39). A list of the 12 spies who searched out the land and the tribes they represented is given in Numbers 13:4-16; the most important names on this list are Caleb and Joshua. Near the end of the wilderness wanderings, another census of the people was ordered; the total number was approximately the same as that of the first census almost 40 years earlier (26:4-51, 57-62). As the tribes neared the Promised Land, a list was prepared of the tribal representatives who would take part in the division of the land (34:16-29).<\/p>\n<h5>Period of the Kings<\/h5>\n<p>During the entire period of the monarchy, over 400 years, the only genealogical records of any consequence are those that pertain to David. His descendants are traced through 20 rulers who sat upon the throne of Judah until the nation fell to the Babylonians in 586 <span>BC<\/span> (1—2 Kgs; cf. 1 Chr 11:1—2 Chr 36:21). A list of David’s children is found in 2 Samuel 3:2-5 and 5:14-16 (cf. 1 Chr 3:1-9; 14:4-7). His mighty men, an elite group of soldiers, are named in 2 Samuel 23:8-39 (cf. 1 Chr 11:10-47). His recruits at Ziklag are recorded in 1 Chronicles 12:1-22. Those who were his musicians and doorkeepers when the ark was brought to Jerusalem are named in 1 Chronicles 15:1-24 (cf. 1 Chr 16:5-6, 37-43). David’s political and religious organization of the kingdom—including the Levites, priests, singers, porters and other administrative officials, and military officers—is found in 1 Chronicles 23–27. In spite of the literary activity associated with the reign of Solomon, the only genealogical record preserved from this period is that of Solomon’s princes and 12 officers (1 Kgs 4:1-19). The genealogy of one prophet is traced back four generations (Zep 1:1).<\/p>\n<h5>The Postexilic Period<\/h5>\n<p>During the postexilic period, the keeping of genealogical records probably received its greatest impetus through the activity of Ezra and Nehemiah, primarily because of their insistence upon racial purity and the purging of foreign elements from the community. A list of the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel is found in Ezra 2:1-70 (cf. Neh 7:6-73, where the same list is found). A list of those who returned with Ezra is included in 8:1-20. Ezra’s own genealogy is also recorded (Ezr 7:5). There is a list of the Jews who married foreign women that included priests, Levites, singers, porters, and other Israelites (Ezr 10:18-44). Nehemiah 8:4-7 names the Levites and others who assisted Ezra when he read the law publicly. Nehemiah also contains a list of those who participated in the ceremony of sealing the covenant (Neh 10:1-27) and a list of those who lived in Jerusalem and other cities (11:3-36). His interest in the priesthood is reflected in the list of priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel (12:1-9), of the high priests from Jeshua to Jaddua (vv 10-11), of the heads of the priestly families (vv 12-21), of the Levites and porters who served under the high priest (vv 22-26), and of the princes and priests who were present at the dedication of the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem (vv 31-42).<\/p>\n<p>The final genealogical record that must be mentioned is the genealogy from Adam to Saul (1 Chr 1–8), the longest section of genealogical material in the Bible. It is properly included with the genealogies compiled during the postexilic period, as the unknown chronicler (some think he was Ezra) prepared this list around 400 <span>BC<\/span> from extant records and documents available to him. His purpose seems to have been to conserve the purity of blood in the restored nation and to insist that the nation’s well-being depended on its faithfulness to God’s law.<\/p>\n<h5>The New Testament Period<\/h5>\n<p>The only genealogies of consequence in the NT are those concerning Jesus Christ in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38. <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","summary_ro":"GENEALOGY Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium BC contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 BC) referred to his “f...","summary_en":"GENEALOGY Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium BC contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 BC) referred to his “f...","source":"Articles\/G.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":13554,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Book of Genesis","title_en":"Book of Genesis","content_ro":"<h3>GENESIS, Book of<\/h3>\n<p>First book of the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Name<\/p>\n<p>• Author<\/p>\n<p>• Date<\/p>\n<p>• Purpose<\/p>\n<p>• Structure<\/p>\n<p>• Content<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Name\">Name<\/p>\n<p>The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">bere’shith<\/span><em>,<\/em> “in the beginning.”<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Author\">Author<\/p>\n<p>The authorship of Genesis is closely related to the authorship of the entire Pentateuch (lit. “five-volumed,” the first five books of the Bible, which in Hebrew are called the Torah). It is clear that the Bible regards the human author of these books as Moses. On several occasions the Lord commanded Moses to write down various things: “in a book” (Ex 17:14) “write these words” (34:27). The Pentateuch reports that “Moses wrote all the words of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (24:4); he wrote the itinerary of the exodus wanderings (Nm 33:2); “Moses wrote this law” (Dt 31:9). (Here it is not certain that all five books are meant, but it must refer to at least the greater part of Deuteronomy.) In Exodus 24:7 it is said that Moses read the Book of the Covenant, which he must have just completed.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the OT bears witness to the writing of the Pentateuch by Moses. David referred to “the law of Moses” (1 Kgs 2:3). In the time of Josiah, there was found in the temple the “Book of the Law of the <span>Lord<\/span> . . . given through Moses” (2 Chr 34:14, <span>nlt<\/span>). Day by day Ezra read from “the Book of the Law of God” (Neh 8:18, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>In the NT, Jesus refers to “the book of Moses” (Mk 12:26; Lk 20:37) and otherwise mentions the commands or statements of Moses (Mt 8:4; 19:8; Mk 7:10; cf. Lk 16:31; 24:44). The Jews also quoted from the Torah as coming from Moses, and Jesus did not contradict them.<\/p>\n<p>Of Genesis in particular, it may be said that Moses had the opportunity and ability to write the book. He could have written it during his years in Egypt or while exiled with the Kenites. As the recognized leader of the Israelites, he would have had access to, or perhaps even custody of, the records that Jacob brought from Canaan. He was “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22) and probably could have written in several languages and in several scripts (hieroglyphic, cuneiform, Old Hebrew). Although Moses was admirably fitted for the task of writing, one must remember that he was not putting together a human composition but was writing under the inspiration of God (2 Pt 1:21). We may with confidence conclude that Moses was the human author of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>The liberal view of the authorship of Genesis is that the book is an editorial composite—a view first put forward by a French physician, Jean Astruc, who suggested that the different names for God indicated different documents or sources for the writing of the book. The German higher critics expanded the view of the use of documents in the writing of Genesis and developed it into the Graf-Wellhausen-Kuenen, or Documentary, Hypothesis, which may also be called the JEDP theory of the authorship of the book. This view holds that there were four basic documents: (1) J, which uses the name YHWH (Jehovah or Yahweh) for God, dates from about the ninth century <span>BC<\/span> and comes from Judah; (2) E uses the name Elohim, dates from the eighth century, and comes from the northern kingdom; (3) D is Deuteronomy and is supposed to come from the time of Josiah, about 621 <span>BC<\/span>; and (4) P is the priestly element, which deals with matters of the priesthood and ritual, dating to the fifth century <span>BC<\/span> or later. Some may date portions of Genesis as late as the Hellenistic period. According to this theory, the various documents were blended together by editors, so that there was a JE, JED, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>The science of archaeology discredited many of the extreme postulations of these critics, and the work of W. F. Albright and his followers did much to restore confidence in the historicity of Genesis. Within the last several decades, the patriarchal narratives and the account of Joseph have again come under strong attack, but these views are extreme, and much of the evidence adduced by Albright and earlier scholars like R. D. Wilson, W. H. Green, and others still has validity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Date\">Date<\/p>\n<p>The date of the book is also a matter of debate. Even among those who accept Mosaic authorship there is debate as to when Moses lived. Based on the biblical data, Moses should have lived in the 15th century <span>BC<\/span> (cf. Jgs 11:26; 1 Kgs 6:1), but many scholars incline toward a 13th-century date. As outlined above, the liberal view of the date of Genesis would be from the ninth to the fifth centuries <span>BC<\/span>, with the final editing coming around the fifth century or perhaps even later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Purpose\">Purpose<\/p>\n<p>Genesis sketches the origin of many things: the universe, the earth, plants, animals, and mankind. It gives the beginnings of human institutions, professions, and crafts. It describes the origin of sin and death, and illustrates the insidious working of Satan in human life. Above all, Genesis relates the beginning of the history of redemption with the announcement of a Redeemer who was to come (Gn 3:15). It names the early progenitors in the lineage of the Messiah and the beginning of the Hebrew people through whom the Bible and the Savior came. Genesis also gives a selective history of people and events as viewed from the perspective of the purposes of God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Structure\">Structure<\/p>\n<p>The book is divided into 11 parts of uneven length, each set off by the expression “these are the generations [descendants, history] of” (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1; 37:2). Only three times does the formula coincide with the first verse of a chapter. Usually called a heading or superscription, the expression serves as a kind of link between what precedes and what follows.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Content\">Content<\/p>\n<h5>The Creation (1:1–2:25)<\/h5>\n<p>These two chapters have been a scientific-theological battleground for many years, as researchers and students have tried to probe the origins of the universe and of life. Much of the evidence is not subject to scientific scrutiny, for science by definition requires that the evidence must be reproducible by experiment.<\/p>\n<p>The statement of Genesis 1:1 remains the grandest, most precise, and most accurate statement of origins: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He did this <em>ex nihilo<\/em> (“out of nothing”) by his word (Heb 11:3); he spoke the word of command and it was done (Gn 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20; Ps 33:6, 9).<\/p>\n<p>The date of the beginning is unknown. Uniformitarian cosmogonists (students of the origins of the universe who believe that natural events have always followed a uniform pattern; cf. 2 Pt 3:3-7) have speculated that the beginning of the universe was billions of years ago. But some creationists posit a world thousands of years old.<\/p>\n<p>To accommodate geological ages and the existence of extinct animals, some interpreters have proposed a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, with Genesis 1:2–2:3 representing a second or new creation. But this is conjecture. So is the idea that each day represents a geological age.<\/p>\n<p>As the text stands, there is a correlation between the first three days and the second three days. Day one saw the creation of light; day four, the light bearers. Day two was the time of the creation of the firmament (better, “expanse”), which divided the waters; day five, birds and swarming water creatures. On day three, God made the dry land and plants; on day six he created the land animals and man. He made man in the image of God (Gn 1:26), “a little less than God” (Ps 8:5), and gave him dominion over the earth. He made everything “according to their kinds,” so that each kind is distinct and unique. The perfection of his work is affirmed in that “God saw that it was good” (Gn 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21; “very good,” v 31). The seventh day was a time of cessation from the activity of creating and served as a type for mankind’s day of rest (2:1-3).<\/p>\n<p>Critical scholarship eyes 2:4-25 as a doublet in conflict with Genesis 1:1–2:3. To conservative scholars, the second chapter is the same account from a different perspective. Chapter 1 gives the Creation from the standpoint of sequence; chapter 2 shows it in view of the centrality of mankind in God’s creative work.<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 2 gives details of the creation of man of “dust from the ground” (v 7) and woman from a rib of the man (vv 21-22). She was created to be “a companion who will help him” (vv 18-20). They were created as mature adults, with the gift of speech and with great intelligence. Adam had imagination and vocabulary sufficient for naming all of the animal species (v 19).<\/p>\n<p>The location of the Garden of Eden is given (vv 10-14). Two of the four rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, can be identified with certainty. So man lived in this beautiful garden in the bliss of innocence.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Humankind from Eden to Babel (3:1–11:26)<\/h5>\n<h6>The Fall<\/h6>\n<p>The loss of Eden and the break in fellowship with God is the saddest chapter in human history. The serpent, the devil, approached Eve with the same philosophy he always uses: doubt of God’s word (Gn 3:1), denial of death (v 4), and the suggestion of equality with God (v 5). He gained access to her will by deceiving her with the promise that the fruit would make her as wise as God is (Gn 3:5; cf. 1 Jn 2:16). Eve was deceived, but when she offered the fruit to Adam, he took it willingly, knowing what he was doing (Gn 3:6; cf. 1 Tm 2:14). Later, he tried to blame God for giving him the wife who gave him the fruit (Gn 3:12). Fellowship with God was broken (v 8), yet God came seeking Adam and found him.<\/p>\n<p>With sin came judgment, and the Lord pronounced righteous judgment on the serpent, the woman, and the man. The earth was also “subjected to frustration” and now groans as it awaits renewal (Rom 8:21-22). God gave hope to man and a promise of a Redeemer (Gn 3:15), who was to bruise the serpent’s head. Adam and Eve were forced out of the Garden, and it was made inaccessible to them.<\/p>\n<p>The impatience of humankind is shown in Eve’s expectation that her son Cain was the promised Deliverer. Instead, he developed a wrong-hearted attitude toward God and became so jealous of his younger brother that he murdered him. Apprehended by God and confronted with his crime, Cain showed only self-pity and went east from Eden, where he built a city (4:1-16). Chapter 4 closes with another contrast: the brazen Lamech, who called for vengeance, while others began to call upon the name of the Lord.<\/p>\n<h6>The Generations of Adam<\/h6>\n<p>This genealogical table (5:1-32) brings humankind to the time of Noah and the Flood. The longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs seems very striking to us, but one must remember that the earth had not yet been subjected to pollution and that the effects of sin on the human race were still nominal. The refrain “and he died” reminds us of man’s mortality. For Enoch, however, there was something better: “He enjoyed a close relationship with God throughout his life. Then, suddenly, he disappeared because God took him” (5:24, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<h6>The Flood<\/h6>\n<p>With increased population came an eruption of sin (6:1-5). As men multiplied, so did their corruption. The universal condemnation of verse 5 shows a world ripe for judgment. Noah, however, “found favor with the <span>Lord<\/span>,” for he was a righteous and blameless man who walked with God (6:8-9).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord planned to annihilate the human race, but he determined to save Noah and his family. Intending to flood the earth, God instructed Noah to build an ark. Noah was directed to take animals aboard the ark, two by two, male and female, for the preservation of each species. When all was in readiness, the Flood came: “the underground waters burst forth on the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky” (7:11, <span>nlt<\/span>). It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The highest mountains were covered, and life outside the ark perished. “But God remembered Noah” and sent a wind to evaporate the waters (8:1). Eventually the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (v 4). Noah made a sacrifice to the Lord, and the Lord determined that he would never again bring such destruction upon the earth.<\/p>\n<p>The Flood is another of God’s acts that has been much debated. Many have argued for a local flood, which affected only part of Mesopotamia. Archaeologists have pointed to various flood strata in the excavation of Mesopotamian city-mounds as evidence for the account of the flood and have cited the various flood stories from that area as the source of the Genesis record. The epic of Gilgamesh gives an interesting tale of this hero, who went on a mission to visit Utnapishtim, the cuneiform Noah, in quest of eternal life. The flood story told by Utnapishtim has many parallels to Genesis, but there are greater contrasts, which demonstrate that the Bible preserves the true account.<\/p>\n<p>Both the Genesis account and the references to it in the NT (cf. 2 Pt 3:6) favor the view that the deluge was not a minor episode in the Tigris-Euphrates area but was an unprecedented worldwide catastrophe. Christian geologists affirm that the Flood had far-reaching effects on the earth itself. Flood stories are almost universally known, lending support to the conclusion that the Flood covered the whole earth. Following the Flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. God made a covenant with Noah, promising that he would never again send a worldwide flood. As a sign of this, he established the rainbow.<\/p>\n<p>Noah was the first tiller of the soil, and he planted a vineyard (9:20). Noah became drunk from wine he made and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham saw him and reported this to his brothers, who discreetly covered him. Ham and his son Canaan were cursed; Shem and Japheth were blessed.<\/p>\n<h6>The History of the Nations<\/h6>\n<p>“This is the history of the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah. Many children were born to them after the Flood” (10:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). This chapter lists the descendants of Noah’s three sons, in the order of Japheth (vv 2-5), Ham (vv 6-20), and Shem (vv 21-31). Many of the names of their descendants are preserved in tribes and nations of the world.<\/p>\n<h6>The Tower of Babel<\/h6>\n<p>The building of the Tower of Babel (“Gate of God”) illustrates man’s perversity and his tendency to want independence from God. The desire of man to displace God follows the fateful example of Lucifer and is a basic tenet of many cults. God thwarted the designs of the builders of Babel by confusing their languages, so that the project came to a halt (11:1-9). The site of this tower is not known with certainty. Some associate it with Birs Nimrud, not far from the ruins of the city of Babylon. Genesis 11:10-25 picks up the line of Shem and carries it down to Terah, the father of Abram.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Abraham (11:27–25:10) and Isaac (21:1–28:5)<\/h5>\n<p>Abram came from Ur of the Chaldees, a prosperous city. The city had an imposing ziggurat (temple-tower), with many temples, storehouses, and residences. Abram and Sarai, his half sister and wife, went with his father to Haran in Syria, which like Ur was a center of the worship of the moon god, Sin (or Annar).<\/p>\n<h6>Abram’s Call<\/h6>\n<p>The call of God came to Abram directing him to leave his relatives and move to a land that the Lord would show him (12:1; cf. Acts 7:2-3). Abram obeyed. At the age of 75, he, Sarai, and his nephew Lot left Haran and went to Shechem, where the Lord appeared to him and promised that land to his descendants.<\/p>\n<p>Famine drove Abram down to Egypt (Gn 12:10-20). Because of Sarai’s beauty, he feared that someone might kill him to get her, so he passed her off as his sister. She was taken into the pharaoh’s harem. When the Lord plagued Pharaoh because of this, Abram’s lie was discovered and Sarai was returned to him.<\/p>\n<h6>Abram and Lot<\/h6>\n<p>Abram and Lot returned to Canaan, where strife broke out between Abram’s herdsmen and those of Lot. Abram suggested that they should separate, and he gave Lot the choice of territory. Lot chose the well-watered Jordan Valley and the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah (ch 13).<\/p>\n<h6>The Invasion of the Four Kings from the East<\/h6>\n<p>The four kings who invaded along the King’s Highway in Transjordan cannot be identified with certainty. Those kings were successful in their attack against the five cities of the plain, and they moved off with much booty and many captives, including Lot. Abram took 318 retainers, born in his household, and set off after them. By surprise attack, Abram recovered both Lot and the loot. On his return he was met by Melchizedek, king of Jerusalem, to whom Abram paid tithes (ch 14).<\/p>\n<h6>The Covenant<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord promised Abram a son as heir, and in an impressive nighttime ceremony, God made a covenant with Abram and promised him the land from the River of Egypt (Wadi el Arish) to the Euphrates (ch 15). Because of her own barrenness, Sarai gave her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to Abram. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arab peoples. When trouble arose between the women, Sarai sent Hagar away, which was her right according to Near Eastern customs (as illustrated by the Nuzi tablets). God showed mercy to Hagar and promised that she would have a great posterity (ch 16).<\/p>\n<p>God repeated his promise to Abram concerning his descendants and changed the names of Abram (“exalted father”) and Sarai to Abraham (“father of many”) and Sarah (“princess”). A covenant sign of circumcision was given to Abraham (ch 17). This operation had already been practiced among the Egyptians for several centuries.<\/p>\n<h6>The Destruction of the Cities of the Plain<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord and two angels appeared to Abraham and announced the birth of the promised heir within a year, as well as proclaimed the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, concerning which Abraham bargained with God (18:22-33). Lot and his immediate family were rescued from Sodom, and the cities were destroyed by God with brimstone and fire (19:24-25). Lot’s two daughters, wishing to preserve their family line, got their father drunk and had sexual relations with him. Moab and Ammon, enemies of Israel in later times, were the result.<\/p>\n<p>In Genesis 20:1-18, Abraham again represented Sarah as his sister and got into trouble with Abimelech, king of Gerar.<\/p>\n<h6>Isaac<\/h6>\n<p>When Isaac was born (21:1-3), trouble again broke out between Sarah and Hagar. Hagar was driven out a second time, and once more was befriended by the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>A disagreement arose between Abraham and Abimelech concerning a well, but they made a covenant of peace at Beersheba (21:25-34).<\/p>\n<p>God tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice Isaac on Mt Moriah, which probably is the same site David later bought from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Sm 24:16-25), the place where the temple was to stand. As Abraham was about to use the knife, God called to him and showed him a ram caught in a thicket. Isaac was freed and the animal was sacrificed in his stead.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at Hebron, and Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite (ch 23), in a transaction typical of Near Eastern business dealings. To find a wife for Isaac, Abraham sent his servant Eliezer back to the area of Haran, and the Lord directed Eliezer to Rebekah (ch 24).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 25 records the marriage of Abraham to Keturah, who bore him a number of children. Abraham died at the age of 175 years and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Jacob and Esau (25:19–37:1)<\/h5>\n<p>Rebekah gave birth to twin sons, Esau and Jacob. When the boys were grown, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a meal of red pottage (25:27-34).<\/p>\n<p>When famine came to the land, Isaac went to Gerar, as his father had done (ch 20), and repeated his father’s lie by calling his wife his sister (26:1-11). Trouble arose with the Philistines over wells, but Isaac was a peaceable man and preferred digging new wells rather than fighting over old ones (vv 17-33).<\/p>\n<p>In Isaac’s old age, when his sight had failed, Rebekah connived with Jacob to trick Isaac into giving to Jacob the blessing of the firstborn, which was rightfully Esau’s. This oral blessing had legal validity and was irrevocable, according to the ancient Nuzi tablets. Fearing for Jacob’s life at the hands of Esau, Rebekah arranged to send Jacob to Haran to find a wife from among her own people. At Bethel, God appeared to Jacob in a dream of a ladder leading up to heaven; God renewed with Jacob the promise made to Abraham and Isaac (28:10-22).<\/p>\n<p>Jacob reached Haran, found his uncle Laban, and was employed by him (ch 29). His wages for seven years of labor were to be Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel, as his wife. But Laban substituted Leah, so that Jacob had to work another seven years for Rachel. The Lord prospered Jacob, but he continually had difficulties with Laban. The Lord directed Jacob back to Canaan (31:3), so he left secretly with his wives, children, and property. Laban pursued them because his household gods were missing (possession of these “gods” made the holder heir to the owner’s estate, according to Nuzi custom). Rachel had taken them but successfully concealed them from her father, and Laban went back to Haran.<\/p>\n<p>Fearing a meeting with Esau as they passed through Edom, Jacob sent gifts to his brother and divided his own party into two camps for security. On this return journey, Jacob had an unexpected wrestling bout with the Angel of the Lord, and he was left with a limp and a new name, Israel (ch 32).<\/p>\n<p>The meeting with Esau was friendly, and Jacob went on to Shechem (ch 33), where his sons killed the male Shechemites because of the rape of their sister Dinah (ch 34). God told Jacob to go to Bethel and build an altar to the Lord. All idols of foreign gods were buried (35:1-4). At Bethel, God reaffirmed his promise of a posterity and the land (vv 9-15). Rachel died on the way to Bethlehem, while giving birth to Benjamin, Jacob’s 12th and last son. Isaac died at Hebron at age 180 and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by Esau and Jacob.<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 36 records “the generations of Esau” (v 1). Here Esau is also named Edom (“Red”; cf. 25:30).<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Joseph (37:2–50:26)<\/h5>\n<p>Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son and thus incurred the jealousy of his brothers. This was heightened by Joseph’s dreams of lordship over them. Their resentment of Joseph came to a climax when Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful coat. The brothers determined to kill Joseph, but they compromised by selling him to a caravan of merchants, who took him to Egypt and sold him as a slave to Potiphar, an Egyptian captain of the guard (37:36; 39:1).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 38 relates a historic case of levirate marriage. Judah failed to give his widowed daughter-in-law to his third son. She deceived him into fathering twin sons and forced him to acknowledge his faults. The elder son, Perez, is named in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Lk 3:33).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord blessed Joseph, who soon was put in charge of Potiphar’s household (Gn 39). The young man attracted the attention of Potiphar’s wife, who, after many attempts to seduce him, at last accused him of attempted rape. Sentenced on this charge, Joseph met with favor in prison, where he had opportunity to interpret dreams for two of the pharaoh’s servants (ch 40). When the king had dreams that his magicians and wise men could not interpret, Joseph was summoned from jail. Joseph told Pharaoh that the dreams meant seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Joseph was then exalted to the office of vizier, or prime minister, second only to the king, and put in charge of the administration of the land (41:37-44).<\/p>\n<p>When the famine came to Palestine, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to purchase grain. Joseph recognized his brothers but did not reveal his identity to them. Joseph put them to the test by accusing them of being spies (42:9), by keeping one of the brothers (Simeon) hostage (v 19), and by demanding that if they came to Egypt again, they must bring their youngest brother with them (42:20; 43:3). The famine became so severe in Canaan (43:1) that Jacob at last allowed Benjamin to go with his brothers to Egypt. The brothers were again set up by Joseph, who had his silver cup put into Benjamin’s grain sack and then had him apprehended as a thief (ch 44).<\/p>\n<p>At this point Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers (45:4-15) and there was much rejoicing. Joseph pointed out that it was God who had sent him to Egypt (vv 7-8), in order to preserve the lives of all the family. Jacob was then sent for (46:1), and Joseph met him in the land of Goshen (46:28-29). The Israelites were assigned land in the region of Goshen, where they prospered (47:27).<\/p>\n<p>In Jacob’s final illness, Joseph brought his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to his father for his blessing. Jacob gave the primary blessing to the second-born, Ephraim (48:13-20). Jacob blessed each of his own sons and then died at the age of at least 130 years. Joseph arranged for Jacob’s body to be prepared for burial according to Egyptian custom (50:2-3). After the burial of their father in the cave of Machpelah at Hebron, Joseph’s brothers worried about vengeance, but Joseph declared, “As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people” (v 20, <span>nlt<\/span>). Joseph died at age 110 with the prophetic request that when the Israelites went up from Egypt they would take his bones with them (50:25; cf. Ex 13:19; Jos 24:32).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Adam (Person); Covenant; Creation; Eve; Fall of Man; Flood, The; Isaac; Jacob #1; Joseph #1; Nations; Noah #1; Patriarchs, Period of the.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>GENESIS, Book of<\/h3>\n<p>First book of the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Name<\/p>\n<p>• Author<\/p>\n<p>• Date<\/p>\n<p>• Purpose<\/p>\n<p>• Structure<\/p>\n<p>• Content<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Name\">Name<\/p>\n<p>The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">bere’shith<\/span><em>,<\/em> “in the beginning.”<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Author\">Author<\/p>\n<p>The authorship of Genesis is closely related to the authorship of the entire Pentateuch (lit. “five-volumed,” the first five books of the Bible, which in Hebrew are called the Torah). It is clear that the Bible regards the human author of these books as Moses. On several occasions the Lord commanded Moses to write down various things: “in a book” (Ex 17:14) “write these words” (34:27). The Pentateuch reports that “Moses wrote all the words of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (24:4); he wrote the itinerary of the exodus wanderings (Nm 33:2); “Moses wrote this law” (Dt 31:9). (Here it is not certain that all five books are meant, but it must refer to at least the greater part of Deuteronomy.) In Exodus 24:7 it is said that Moses read the Book of the Covenant, which he must have just completed.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the OT bears witness to the writing of the Pentateuch by Moses. David referred to “the law of Moses” (1 Kgs 2:3). In the time of Josiah, there was found in the temple the “Book of the Law of the <span>Lord<\/span> . . . given through Moses” (2 Chr 34:14, <span>nlt<\/span>). Day by day Ezra read from “the Book of the Law of God” (Neh 8:18, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>In the NT, Jesus refers to “the book of Moses” (Mk 12:26; Lk 20:37) and otherwise mentions the commands or statements of Moses (Mt 8:4; 19:8; Mk 7:10; cf. Lk 16:31; 24:44). The Jews also quoted from the Torah as coming from Moses, and Jesus did not contradict them.<\/p>\n<p>Of Genesis in particular, it may be said that Moses had the opportunity and ability to write the book. He could have written it during his years in Egypt or while exiled with the Kenites. As the recognized leader of the Israelites, he would have had access to, or perhaps even custody of, the records that Jacob brought from Canaan. He was “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22) and probably could have written in several languages and in several scripts (hieroglyphic, cuneiform, Old Hebrew). Although Moses was admirably fitted for the task of writing, one must remember that he was not putting together a human composition but was writing under the inspiration of God (2 Pt 1:21). We may with confidence conclude that Moses was the human author of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>The liberal view of the authorship of Genesis is that the book is an editorial composite—a view first put forward by a French physician, Jean Astruc, who suggested that the different names for God indicated different documents or sources for the writing of the book. The German higher critics expanded the view of the use of documents in the writing of Genesis and developed it into the Graf-Wellhausen-Kuenen, or Documentary, Hypothesis, which may also be called the JEDP theory of the authorship of the book. This view holds that there were four basic documents: (1) J, which uses the name YHWH (Jehovah or Yahweh) for God, dates from about the ninth century <span>BC<\/span> and comes from Judah; (2) E uses the name Elohim, dates from the eighth century, and comes from the northern kingdom; (3) D is Deuteronomy and is supposed to come from the time of Josiah, about 621 <span>BC<\/span>; and (4) P is the priestly element, which deals with matters of the priesthood and ritual, dating to the fifth century <span>BC<\/span> or later. Some may date portions of Genesis as late as the Hellenistic period. According to this theory, the various documents were blended together by editors, so that there was a JE, JED, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>The science of archaeology discredited many of the extreme postulations of these critics, and the work of W. F. Albright and his followers did much to restore confidence in the historicity of Genesis. Within the last several decades, the patriarchal narratives and the account of Joseph have again come under strong attack, but these views are extreme, and much of the evidence adduced by Albright and earlier scholars like R. D. Wilson, W. H. Green, and others still has validity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Date\">Date<\/p>\n<p>The date of the book is also a matter of debate. Even among those who accept Mosaic authorship there is debate as to when Moses lived. Based on the biblical data, Moses should have lived in the 15th century <span>BC<\/span> (cf. Jgs 11:26; 1 Kgs 6:1), but many scholars incline toward a 13th-century date. As outlined above, the liberal view of the date of Genesis would be from the ninth to the fifth centuries <span>BC<\/span>, with the final editing coming around the fifth century or perhaps even later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Purpose\">Purpose<\/p>\n<p>Genesis sketches the origin of many things: the universe, the earth, plants, animals, and mankind. It gives the beginnings of human institutions, professions, and crafts. It describes the origin of sin and death, and illustrates the insidious working of Satan in human life. Above all, Genesis relates the beginning of the history of redemption with the announcement of a Redeemer who was to come (Gn 3:15). It names the early progenitors in the lineage of the Messiah and the beginning of the Hebrew people through whom the Bible and the Savior came. Genesis also gives a selective history of people and events as viewed from the perspective of the purposes of God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Structure\">Structure<\/p>\n<p>The book is divided into 11 parts of uneven length, each set off by the expression “these are the generations [descendants, history] of” (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1; 37:2). Only three times does the formula coincide with the first verse of a chapter. Usually called a heading or superscription, the expression serves as a kind of link between what precedes and what follows.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Content\">Content<\/p>\n<h5>The Creation (1:1–2:25)<\/h5>\n<p>These two chapters have been a scientific-theological battleground for many years, as researchers and students have tried to probe the origins of the universe and of life. Much of the evidence is not subject to scientific scrutiny, for science by definition requires that the evidence must be reproducible by experiment.<\/p>\n<p>The statement of Genesis 1:1 remains the grandest, most precise, and most accurate statement of origins: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He did this <em>ex nihilo<\/em> (“out of nothing”) by his word (Heb 11:3); he spoke the word of command and it was done (Gn 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20; Ps 33:6, 9).<\/p>\n<p>The date of the beginning is unknown. Uniformitarian cosmogonists (students of the origins of the universe who believe that natural events have always followed a uniform pattern; cf. 2 Pt 3:3-7) have speculated that the beginning of the universe was billions of years ago. But some creationists posit a world thousands of years old.<\/p>\n<p>To accommodate geological ages and the existence of extinct animals, some interpreters have proposed a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, with Genesis 1:2–2:3 representing a second or new creation. But this is conjecture. So is the idea that each day represents a geological age.<\/p>\n<p>As the text stands, there is a correlation between the first three days and the second three days. Day one saw the creation of light; day four, the light bearers. Day two was the time of the creation of the firmament (better, “expanse”), which divided the waters; day five, birds and swarming water creatures. On day three, God made the dry land and plants; on day six he created the land animals and man. He made man in the image of God (Gn 1:26), “a little less than God” (Ps 8:5), and gave him dominion over the earth. He made everything “according to their kinds,” so that each kind is distinct and unique. The perfection of his work is affirmed in that “God saw that it was good” (Gn 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21; “very good,” v 31). The seventh day was a time of cessation from the activity of creating and served as a type for mankind’s day of rest (2:1-3).<\/p>\n<p>Critical scholarship eyes 2:4-25 as a doublet in conflict with Genesis 1:1–2:3. To conservative scholars, the second chapter is the same account from a different perspective. Chapter 1 gives the Creation from the standpoint of sequence; chapter 2 shows it in view of the centrality of mankind in God’s creative work.<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 2 gives details of the creation of man of “dust from the ground” (v 7) and woman from a rib of the man (vv 21-22). She was created to be “a companion who will help him” (vv 18-20). They were created as mature adults, with the gift of speech and with great intelligence. Adam had imagination and vocabulary sufficient for naming all of the animal species (v 19).<\/p>\n<p>The location of the Garden of Eden is given (vv 10-14). Two of the four rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, can be identified with certainty. So man lived in this beautiful garden in the bliss of innocence.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Humankind from Eden to Babel (3:1–11:26)<\/h5>\n<h6>The Fall<\/h6>\n<p>The loss of Eden and the break in fellowship with God is the saddest chapter in human history. The serpent, the devil, approached Eve with the same philosophy he always uses: doubt of God’s word (Gn 3:1), denial of death (v 4), and the suggestion of equality with God (v 5). He gained access to her will by deceiving her with the promise that the fruit would make her as wise as God is (Gn 3:5; cf. 1 Jn 2:16). Eve was deceived, but when she offered the fruit to Adam, he took it willingly, knowing what he was doing (Gn 3:6; cf. 1 Tm 2:14). Later, he tried to blame God for giving him the wife who gave him the fruit (Gn 3:12). Fellowship with God was broken (v 8), yet God came seeking Adam and found him.<\/p>\n<p>With sin came judgment, and the Lord pronounced righteous judgment on the serpent, the woman, and the man. The earth was also “subjected to frustration” and now groans as it awaits renewal (Rom 8:21-22). God gave hope to man and a promise of a Redeemer (Gn 3:15), who was to bruise the serpent’s head. Adam and Eve were forced out of the Garden, and it was made inaccessible to them.<\/p>\n<p>The impatience of humankind is shown in Eve’s expectation that her son Cain was the promised Deliverer. Instead, he developed a wrong-hearted attitude toward God and became so jealous of his younger brother that he murdered him. Apprehended by God and confronted with his crime, Cain showed only self-pity and went east from Eden, where he built a city (4:1-16). Chapter 4 closes with another contrast: the brazen Lamech, who called for vengeance, while others began to call upon the name of the Lord.<\/p>\n<h6>The Generations of Adam<\/h6>\n<p>This genealogical table (5:1-32) brings humankind to the time of Noah and the Flood. The longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs seems very striking to us, but one must remember that the earth had not yet been subjected to pollution and that the effects of sin on the human race were still nominal. The refrain “and he died” reminds us of man’s mortality. For Enoch, however, there was something better: “He enjoyed a close relationship with God throughout his life. Then, suddenly, he disappeared because God took him” (5:24, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<h6>The Flood<\/h6>\n<p>With increased population came an eruption of sin (6:1-5). As men multiplied, so did their corruption. The universal condemnation of verse 5 shows a world ripe for judgment. Noah, however, “found favor with the <span>Lord<\/span>,” for he was a righteous and blameless man who walked with God (6:8-9).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord planned to annihilate the human race, but he determined to save Noah and his family. Intending to flood the earth, God instructed Noah to build an ark. Noah was directed to take animals aboard the ark, two by two, male and female, for the preservation of each species. When all was in readiness, the Flood came: “the underground waters burst forth on the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky” (7:11, <span>nlt<\/span>). It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The highest mountains were covered, and life outside the ark perished. “But God remembered Noah” and sent a wind to evaporate the waters (8:1). Eventually the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (v 4). Noah made a sacrifice to the Lord, and the Lord determined that he would never again bring such destruction upon the earth.<\/p>\n<p>The Flood is another of God’s acts that has been much debated. Many have argued for a local flood, which affected only part of Mesopotamia. Archaeologists have pointed to various flood strata in the excavation of Mesopotamian city-mounds as evidence for the account of the flood and have cited the various flood stories from that area as the source of the Genesis record. The epic of Gilgamesh gives an interesting tale of this hero, who went on a mission to visit Utnapishtim, the cuneiform Noah, in quest of eternal life. The flood story told by Utnapishtim has many parallels to Genesis, but there are greater contrasts, which demonstrate that the Bible preserves the true account.<\/p>\n<p>Both the Genesis account and the references to it in the NT (cf. 2 Pt 3:6) favor the view that the deluge was not a minor episode in the Tigris-Euphrates area but was an unprecedented worldwide catastrophe. Christian geologists affirm that the Flood had far-reaching effects on the earth itself. Flood stories are almost universally known, lending support to the conclusion that the Flood covered the whole earth. Following the Flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. God made a covenant with Noah, promising that he would never again send a worldwide flood. As a sign of this, he established the rainbow.<\/p>\n<p>Noah was the first tiller of the soil, and he planted a vineyard (9:20). Noah became drunk from wine he made and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham saw him and reported this to his brothers, who discreetly covered him. Ham and his son Canaan were cursed; Shem and Japheth were blessed.<\/p>\n<h6>The History of the Nations<\/h6>\n<p>“This is the history of the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah. Many children were born to them after the Flood” (10:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). This chapter lists the descendants of Noah’s three sons, in the order of Japheth (vv 2-5), Ham (vv 6-20), and Shem (vv 21-31). Many of the names of their descendants are preserved in tribes and nations of the world.<\/p>\n<h6>The Tower of Babel<\/h6>\n<p>The building of the Tower of Babel (“Gate of God”) illustrates man’s perversity and his tendency to want independence from God. The desire of man to displace God follows the fateful example of Lucifer and is a basic tenet of many cults. God thwarted the designs of the builders of Babel by confusing their languages, so that the project came to a halt (11:1-9). The site of this tower is not known with certainty. Some associate it with Birs Nimrud, not far from the ruins of the city of Babylon. Genesis 11:10-25 picks up the line of Shem and carries it down to Terah, the father of Abram.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Abraham (11:27–25:10) and Isaac (21:1–28:5)<\/h5>\n<p>Abram came from Ur of the Chaldees, a prosperous city. The city had an imposing ziggurat (temple-tower), with many temples, storehouses, and residences. Abram and Sarai, his half sister and wife, went with his father to Haran in Syria, which like Ur was a center of the worship of the moon god, Sin (or Annar).<\/p>\n<h6>Abram’s Call<\/h6>\n<p>The call of God came to Abram directing him to leave his relatives and move to a land that the Lord would show him (12:1; cf. Acts 7:2-3). Abram obeyed. At the age of 75, he, Sarai, and his nephew Lot left Haran and went to Shechem, where the Lord appeared to him and promised that land to his descendants.<\/p>\n<p>Famine drove Abram down to Egypt (Gn 12:10-20). Because of Sarai’s beauty, he feared that someone might kill him to get her, so he passed her off as his sister. She was taken into the pharaoh’s harem. When the Lord plagued Pharaoh because of this, Abram’s lie was discovered and Sarai was returned to him.<\/p>\n<h6>Abram and Lot<\/h6>\n<p>Abram and Lot returned to Canaan, where strife broke out between Abram’s herdsmen and those of Lot. Abram suggested that they should separate, and he gave Lot the choice of territory. Lot chose the well-watered Jordan Valley and the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah (ch 13).<\/p>\n<h6>The Invasion of the Four Kings from the East<\/h6>\n<p>The four kings who invaded along the King’s Highway in Transjordan cannot be identified with certainty. Those kings were successful in their attack against the five cities of the plain, and they moved off with much booty and many captives, including Lot. Abram took 318 retainers, born in his household, and set off after them. By surprise attack, Abram recovered both Lot and the loot. On his return he was met by Melchizedek, king of Jerusalem, to whom Abram paid tithes (ch 14).<\/p>\n<h6>The Covenant<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord promised Abram a son as heir, and in an impressive nighttime ceremony, God made a covenant with Abram and promised him the land from the River of Egypt (Wadi el Arish) to the Euphrates (ch 15). Because of her own barrenness, Sarai gave her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to Abram. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arab peoples. When trouble arose between the women, Sarai sent Hagar away, which was her right according to Near Eastern customs (as illustrated by the Nuzi tablets). God showed mercy to Hagar and promised that she would have a great posterity (ch 16).<\/p>\n<p>God repeated his promise to Abram concerning his descendants and changed the names of Abram (“exalted father”) and Sarai to Abraham (“father of many”) and Sarah (“princess”). A covenant sign of circumcision was given to Abraham (ch 17). This operation had already been practiced among the Egyptians for several centuries.<\/p>\n<h6>The Destruction of the Cities of the Plain<\/h6>\n<p>The Lord and two angels appeared to Abraham and announced the birth of the promised heir within a year, as well as proclaimed the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, concerning which Abraham bargained with God (18:22-33). Lot and his immediate family were rescued from Sodom, and the cities were destroyed by God with brimstone and fire (19:24-25). Lot’s two daughters, wishing to preserve their family line, got their father drunk and had sexual relations with him. Moab and Ammon, enemies of Israel in later times, were the result.<\/p>\n<p>In Genesis 20:1-18, Abraham again represented Sarah as his sister and got into trouble with Abimelech, king of Gerar.<\/p>\n<h6>Isaac<\/h6>\n<p>When Isaac was born (21:1-3), trouble again broke out between Sarah and Hagar. Hagar was driven out a second time, and once more was befriended by the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>A disagreement arose between Abraham and Abimelech concerning a well, but they made a covenant of peace at Beersheba (21:25-34).<\/p>\n<p>God tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice Isaac on Mt Moriah, which probably is the same site David later bought from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Sm 24:16-25), the place where the temple was to stand. As Abraham was about to use the knife, God called to him and showed him a ram caught in a thicket. Isaac was freed and the animal was sacrificed in his stead.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at Hebron, and Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite (ch 23), in a transaction typical of Near Eastern business dealings. To find a wife for Isaac, Abraham sent his servant Eliezer back to the area of Haran, and the Lord directed Eliezer to Rebekah (ch 24).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 25 records the marriage of Abraham to Keturah, who bore him a number of children. Abraham died at the age of 175 years and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Jacob and Esau (25:19–37:1)<\/h5>\n<p>Rebekah gave birth to twin sons, Esau and Jacob. When the boys were grown, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a meal of red pottage (25:27-34).<\/p>\n<p>When famine came to the land, Isaac went to Gerar, as his father had done (ch 20), and repeated his father’s lie by calling his wife his sister (26:1-11). Trouble arose with the Philistines over wells, but Isaac was a peaceable man and preferred digging new wells rather than fighting over old ones (vv 17-33).<\/p>\n<p>In Isaac’s old age, when his sight had failed, Rebekah connived with Jacob to trick Isaac into giving to Jacob the blessing of the firstborn, which was rightfully Esau’s. This oral blessing had legal validity and was irrevocable, according to the ancient Nuzi tablets. Fearing for Jacob’s life at the hands of Esau, Rebekah arranged to send Jacob to Haran to find a wife from among her own people. At Bethel, God appeared to Jacob in a dream of a ladder leading up to heaven; God renewed with Jacob the promise made to Abraham and Isaac (28:10-22).<\/p>\n<p>Jacob reached Haran, found his uncle Laban, and was employed by him (ch 29). His wages for seven years of labor were to be Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel, as his wife. But Laban substituted Leah, so that Jacob had to work another seven years for Rachel. The Lord prospered Jacob, but he continually had difficulties with Laban. The Lord directed Jacob back to Canaan (31:3), so he left secretly with his wives, children, and property. Laban pursued them because his household gods were missing (possession of these “gods” made the holder heir to the owner’s estate, according to Nuzi custom). Rachel had taken them but successfully concealed them from her father, and Laban went back to Haran.<\/p>\n<p>Fearing a meeting with Esau as they passed through Edom, Jacob sent gifts to his brother and divided his own party into two camps for security. On this return journey, Jacob had an unexpected wrestling bout with the Angel of the Lord, and he was left with a limp and a new name, Israel (ch 32).<\/p>\n<p>The meeting with Esau was friendly, and Jacob went on to Shechem (ch 33), where his sons killed the male Shechemites because of the rape of their sister Dinah (ch 34). God told Jacob to go to Bethel and build an altar to the Lord. All idols of foreign gods were buried (35:1-4). At Bethel, God reaffirmed his promise of a posterity and the land (vv 9-15). Rachel died on the way to Bethlehem, while giving birth to Benjamin, Jacob’s 12th and last son. Isaac died at Hebron at age 180 and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by Esau and Jacob.<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 36 records “the generations of Esau” (v 1). Here Esau is also named Edom (“Red”; cf. 25:30).<\/p>\n<h5>The History of Joseph (37:2–50:26)<\/h5>\n<p>Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son and thus incurred the jealousy of his brothers. This was heightened by Joseph’s dreams of lordship over them. Their resentment of Joseph came to a climax when Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful coat. The brothers determined to kill Joseph, but they compromised by selling him to a caravan of merchants, who took him to Egypt and sold him as a slave to Potiphar, an Egyptian captain of the guard (37:36; 39:1).<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 38 relates a historic case of levirate marriage. Judah failed to give his widowed daughter-in-law to his third son. She deceived him into fathering twin sons and forced him to acknowledge his faults. The elder son, Perez, is named in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Lk 3:33).<\/p>\n<p>The Lord blessed Joseph, who soon was put in charge of Potiphar’s household (Gn 39). The young man attracted the attention of Potiphar’s wife, who, after many attempts to seduce him, at last accused him of attempted rape. Sentenced on this charge, Joseph met with favor in prison, where he had opportunity to interpret dreams for two of the pharaoh’s servants (ch 40). When the king had dreams that his magicians and wise men could not interpret, Joseph was summoned from jail. Joseph told Pharaoh that the dreams meant seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Joseph was then exalted to the office of vizier, or prime minister, second only to the king, and put in charge of the administration of the land (41:37-44).<\/p>\n<p>When the famine came to Palestine, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to purchase grain. Joseph recognized his brothers but did not reveal his identity to them. Joseph put them to the test by accusing them of being spies (42:9), by keeping one of the brothers (Simeon) hostage (v 19), and by demanding that if they came to Egypt again, they must bring their youngest brother with them (42:20; 43:3). The famine became so severe in Canaan (43:1) that Jacob at last allowed Benjamin to go with his brothers to Egypt. The brothers were again set up by Joseph, who had his silver cup put into Benjamin’s grain sack and then had him apprehended as a thief (ch 44).<\/p>\n<p>At this point Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers (45:4-15) and there was much rejoicing. Joseph pointed out that it was God who had sent him to Egypt (vv 7-8), in order to preserve the lives of all the family. Jacob was then sent for (46:1), and Joseph met him in the land of Goshen (46:28-29). The Israelites were assigned land in the region of Goshen, where they prospered (47:27).<\/p>\n<p>In Jacob’s final illness, Joseph brought his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to his father for his blessing. Jacob gave the primary blessing to the second-born, Ephraim (48:13-20). Jacob blessed each of his own sons and then died at the age of at least 130 years. Joseph arranged for Jacob’s body to be prepared for burial according to Egyptian custom (50:2-3). After the burial of their father in the cave of Machpelah at Hebron, Joseph’s brothers worried about vengeance, but Joseph declared, “As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people” (v 20, <span>nlt<\/span>). Joseph died at age 110 with the prophetic request that when the Israelites went up from Egypt they would take his bones with them (50:25; cf. Ex 13:19; Jos 24:32).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Adam (Person); Covenant; Creation; Eve; Fall of Man; Flood, The; Isaac; Jacob #1; Joseph #1; Nations; Noah #1; Patriarchs, Period of the.<\/p>","summary_ro":"GENESIS, Book of First book of the Bible. Preview • Name • Author • Date • Purpose • Structure • Content Name The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, bere’shith, “in the beginning.” Author The authorship of Gene...","summary_en":"GENESIS, Book of First book of the Bible. Preview • Name • Author • Date • Purpose • Structure • Content Name The name Genesis comes into English as a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning.” This name was given to the book in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Septuagint. Genesis reflects both the content of the book and the Hebrew name for it, which is taken from its first word, bere’shith, “in the beginning.” Author The authorship of Gene...","source":"Articles\/G.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":15323,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Haran (Place)","title_en":"Haran (Place)","content_ro":"<h3>HARAN (P<span>lace<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>City of northern Mesopotamia, first mentioned in Genesis 11:31 as the destination of Terah, Abraham’s father, in migrating from Ur of the Chaldees, and his home until his death. At age 75, Abraham was commanded by God to move to a land that God had for him (Gn 12:1-4). There were relatives who remained in Haran, however, to whom Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, fled in fear of Esau (27:42-43). Jacob stayed in Haran many years while serving his Uncle Laban and acquiring Leah and Rachel as wives, as well as many sheep and goats, servants, camels, and donkeys (30:43).<\/p>\n<p>This “city of Nahor” (Gn 11:27-29; 24:10; 27:43) was established in the third millennium <span>BC<\/span>, and its location on a branch of the Euphrates soon made it an important commercial center. Perhaps the ancient trade route that linked Damascus, Nineveh, and Carchemish passed by Haran. Ezekiel mentions trade between Haran and Tyre (Ez 27:23). Haran was an Aramean city and was famous for its worship of the lunar Sin and Nikkal. This system was an offspring of the cult found in Sumerian Ur. Sin and his consort Nikkal were revered not only here but throughout Canaan and even in Egypt. The cult persisted past NT times, its temple finally being destroyed by Mongols in the 13th century <span>AD<\/span>. It is little wonder that God commanded Abraham to leave this seat of idolatry. Modern Harran preserves the ancient cuneiform spelling of the name (cf. <span>kjv<\/span> “Charran,” Acts 7:2, 4).<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>HARAN (P<span>lace<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>City of northern Mesopotamia, first mentioned in Genesis 11:31 as the destination of Terah, Abraham’s father, in migrating from Ur of the Chaldees, and his home until his death. At age 75, Abraham was commanded by God to move to a land that God had for him (Gn 12:1-4). There were relatives who remained in Haran, however, to whom Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, fled in fear of Esau (27:42-43). Jacob stayed in Haran many years while serving his Uncle Laban and acquiring Leah and Rachel as wives, as well as many sheep and goats, servants, camels, and donkeys (30:43).<\/p>\n<p>This “city of Nahor” (Gn 11:27-29; 24:10; 27:43) was established in the third millennium <span>BC<\/span>, and its location on a branch of the Euphrates soon made it an important commercial center. Perhaps the ancient trade route that linked Damascus, Nineveh, and Carchemish passed by Haran. Ezekiel mentions trade between Haran and Tyre (Ez 27:23). Haran was an Aramean city and was famous for its worship of the lunar Sin and Nikkal. This system was an offspring of the cult found in Sumerian Ur. Sin and his consort Nikkal were revered not only here but throughout Canaan and even in Egypt. The cult persisted past NT times, its temple finally being destroyed by Mongols in the 13th century <span>AD<\/span>. It is little wonder that God commanded Abraham to leave this seat of idolatry. Modern Harran preserves the ancient cuneiform spelling of the name (cf. <span>kjv<\/span> “Charran,” Acts 7:2, 4).<\/p>","summary_ro":"HARAN (Place) City of northern Mesopotamia, first mentioned in Genesis 11:31 as the destination of Terah, Abraham’s father, in migrating from Ur of the Chaldees, and his home until his death. At age 75, Abraham was commanded by God to move to a land that God had for him (Gn 12:1-4). There were relatives who remained in Haran, however, to whom Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, fled in fear of Esau (27:42-43). Jacob stayed in Haran many years while serving his Uncle Laban and acquiring Leah and Rachel...","summary_en":"HARAN (Place) City of northern Mesopotamia, first mentioned in Genesis 11:31 as the destination of Terah, Abraham’s father, in migrating from Ur of the Chaldees, and his home until his death. At age 75, Abraham was commanded by God to move to a land that God had for him (Gn 12:1-4). There were relatives who remained in Haran, however, to whom Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, fled in fear of Esau (27:42-43). Jacob stayed in Haran many years while serving his Uncle Laban and acquiring Leah and Rachel...","source":"Articles\/H.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":23525,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Lot","title_en":"Lot","content_ro":"<h3>LOT<\/h3>\n<p>Abraham’s nephew; progenitor of both the Moabites and the Ammonites. Like Abraham, he was born in Ur. When his father died, he was put in the care of his grandfather Terah, and accompanied him and his uncle Abram to Haran (Gn 11:27-32). After the death of Terah, he joined Abram in the journey to Canaan and subsequently to Egypt and back to Canaan.<\/p>\n<p>By the time the pair returned to Canaan, their flocks and herds were too numerous for them to live together in a single area. Generously, Abram gave Lot his choice of where he would like to settle; Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan, which was like a “garden of the Lord” (Gn 13:10) before the divine judgment and catastrophe fell on the region. Thus, Lot became increasingly involved with and contaminated by the corruption of the cities of the plain and took up his residence in Sodom.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot was living in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings (probably of small city-states) defeated the kings of the five towns in the area in battle, and in the subsequent plundering they carried off Lot and his family and possessions. When word of the loss reached Abram, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered all the prisoners and the loot at Hobah, north of Damascus (Gn 14).<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, two angelic visitors called on Lot in Sodom to hasten his departure from the doomed city. The homosexual attack on them illustrated the depravity of the city, and Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters shows how the corruption of his environment was rubbing off on him. As further evidence of the evil influence, Lot was unwilling to leave Sodom; his future sons-in-law refused to accompany him; and his wife looked back and was turned to a pillar of salt (Gn 19).<\/p>\n<p>The sequel to the story was as sordid as the scene at Lot’s door. His daughters, despairing of husbands of their own, got him drunk enough to engage in sexual relations with them. The result was the birth of two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites, inveterate enemies of Israel (Gn 19:30-38).<\/p>\n<p>In spite of his waywardness the NT declares that Lot was a “righteous man” (2 Pt 2:7-9), apparently meaning that his faith in God was sufficient to guarantee his salvation. To critics who question the historicity of Lot and the destruction of Sodom, it must be noted that Jesus vouched for both in Luke 17:28-29.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Sodom and Gomorrah.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>LOT<\/h3>\n<p>Abraham’s nephew; progenitor of both the Moabites and the Ammonites. Like Abraham, he was born in Ur. When his father died, he was put in the care of his grandfather Terah, and accompanied him and his uncle Abram to Haran (Gn 11:27-32). After the death of Terah, he joined Abram in the journey to Canaan and subsequently to Egypt and back to Canaan.<\/p>\n<p>By the time the pair returned to Canaan, their flocks and herds were too numerous for them to live together in a single area. Generously, Abram gave Lot his choice of where he would like to settle; Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan, which was like a “garden of the Lord” (Gn 13:10) before the divine judgment and catastrophe fell on the region. Thus, Lot became increasingly involved with and contaminated by the corruption of the cities of the plain and took up his residence in Sodom.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot was living in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings (probably of small city-states) defeated the kings of the five towns in the area in battle, and in the subsequent plundering they carried off Lot and his family and possessions. When word of the loss reached Abram, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered all the prisoners and the loot at Hobah, north of Damascus (Gn 14).<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, two angelic visitors called on Lot in Sodom to hasten his departure from the doomed city. The homosexual attack on them illustrated the depravity of the city, and Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters shows how the corruption of his environment was rubbing off on him. As further evidence of the evil influence, Lot was unwilling to leave Sodom; his future sons-in-law refused to accompany him; and his wife looked back and was turned to a pillar of salt (Gn 19).<\/p>\n<p>The sequel to the story was as sordid as the scene at Lot’s door. His daughters, despairing of husbands of their own, got him drunk enough to engage in sexual relations with them. The result was the birth of two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites, inveterate enemies of Israel (Gn 19:30-38).<\/p>\n<p>In spite of his waywardness the NT declares that Lot was a “righteous man” (2 Pt 2:7-9), apparently meaning that his faith in God was sufficient to guarantee his salvation. To critics who question the historicity of Lot and the destruction of Sodom, it must be noted that Jesus vouched for both in Luke 17:28-29.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Sodom and Gomorrah.<\/p>","summary_ro":"LOT Abraham’s nephew; progenitor of both the Moabites and the Ammonites. Like Abraham, he was born in Ur. When his father died, he was put in the care of his grandfather Terah, and accompanied him and his uncle Abram to Haran (Gn 11:27-32). After the death of Terah, he joined Abram in the journey to Canaan and subsequently to Egypt and back to Canaan. By the time the pair returned to Canaan, their flocks and herds were too numerous for them to live together in a single area. Generously, Abram...","summary_en":"LOT Abraham’s nephew; progenitor of both the Moabites and the Ammonites. Like Abraham, he was born in Ur. When his father died, he was put in the care of his grandfather Terah, and accompanied him and his uncle Abram to Haran (Gn 11:27-32). After the death of Terah, he joined Abram in the journey to Canaan and subsequently to Egypt and back to Canaan. By the time the pair returned to Canaan, their flocks and herds were too numerous for them to live together in a single area. Generously, Abram...","source":"Articles\/L.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":43003,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27–25:11<\/strong> <em>This is the account<\/em> (Hebrew <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">toledoth<\/span>; see study note on 2:4) <em>of Terah’s family<\/em>: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27–25:11<\/strong> <em>This is the account<\/em> (Hebrew <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">toledoth<\/span>; see study note on 2:4) <em>of Terah’s family<\/em>: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27–25:11 This is the account (Hebrew toledoth; see study note on 2:4) of Terah’s family: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.","summary_en":"11:27–25:11 This is the account (Hebrew toledoth; see study note on 2:4) of Terah’s family: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":43004,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27-32<\/strong> This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27-32<\/strong> This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27-32 This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).","summary_en":"11:27-32 This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":43005,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27<\/strong> <em>Nahor<\/em> was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • <em>Lot:<\/em> See “Lot” Profile.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27<\/strong> <em>Nahor<\/em> was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • <em>Lot:<\/em> See “Lot” Profile.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27 Nahor was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • Lot: See “Lot” Profile.","summary_en":"11:27 Nahor was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • Lot: See “Lot” Profile.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70629,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27–25:11<\/strong> <em>This is the account<\/em> (Hebrew <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">toledoth<\/span>; see study note on 2:4) <em>of Terah’s family<\/em>: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27–25:11<\/strong> <em>This is the account<\/em> (Hebrew <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">toledoth<\/span>; see study note on 2:4) <em>of Terah’s family<\/em>: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27–25:11 This is the account (Hebrew toledoth; see study note on 2:4) of Terah’s family: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.","summary_en":"11:27–25:11 This is the account (Hebrew toledoth; see study note on 2:4) of Terah’s family: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70630,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27-32<\/strong> This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27-32<\/strong> This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27-32 This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).","summary_en":"11:27-32 This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70631,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27<\/strong> <em>Nahor<\/em> was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • <em>Lot:<\/em> See “Lot” Profile.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27<\/strong> <em>Nahor<\/em> was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • <em>Lot:<\/em> See “Lot” Profile.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27 Nahor was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • Lot: See “Lot” Profile.","summary_en":"11:27 Nahor was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • Lot: See “Lot” Profile.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98255,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27–25:11<\/strong> <em>This is the account<\/em> (Hebrew <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">toledoth<\/span>; see study note on 2:4) <em>of Terah’s family<\/em>: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27–25:11<\/strong> <em>This is the account<\/em> (Hebrew <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">toledoth<\/span>; see study note on 2:4) <em>of Terah’s family<\/em>: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27–25:11 This is the account (Hebrew toledoth; see study note on 2:4) of Terah’s family: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.","summary_en":"11:27–25:11 This is the account (Hebrew toledoth; see study note on 2:4) of Terah’s family: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98256,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27-32<\/strong> This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27-32<\/strong> This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27-32 This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).","summary_en":"11:27-32 This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98257,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27<\/strong> <em>Nahor<\/em> was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • <em>Lot:<\/em> See “Lot” Profile.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27<\/strong> <em>Nahor<\/em> was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • <em>Lot:<\/em> See “Lot” Profile.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27 Nahor was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • Lot: See “Lot” Profile.","summary_en":"11:27 Nahor was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • Lot: See “Lot” Profile.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125881,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27–25:11<\/strong> <em>This is the account<\/em> (Hebrew <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">toledoth<\/span>; see study note on 2:4) <em>of Terah’s family<\/em>: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27–25:11<\/strong> <em>This is the account<\/em> (Hebrew <span class=\"hebrew\" lang=\"he\">toledoth<\/span>; see study note on 2:4) <em>of Terah’s family<\/em>: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27–25:11 This is the account (Hebrew toledoth; see study note on 2:4) of Terah’s family: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.","summary_en":"11:27–25:11 This is the account (Hebrew toledoth; see study note on 2:4) of Terah’s family: What follows in 11:28–25:11 are the particulars about the family descended from Terah, notably about Abraham and God’s covenant with him, and about Isaac, the child of promise, who carried forward the line and the blessing to the next generation.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125882,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27-32<\/strong> This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27-32<\/strong> This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27-32 This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).","summary_en":"11:27-32 This brief section provides a complete summary of Terah’s life and accounts for his other sons and their marriages; it also introduces Lot, Abram’s nephew, who later played a prominent role. The ancestors, including Terah and his family, were idolatrous, worshiping other gods in Mesopotamia (Josh 24:2).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125883,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:27","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:27","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:27<\/strong> <em>Nahor<\/em> was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • <em>Lot:<\/em> See “Lot” Profile.<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:27<\/strong> <em>Nahor<\/em> was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • <em>Lot:<\/em> See “Lot” Profile.<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:27 Nahor was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • Lot: See “Lot” Profile.","summary_en":"11:27 Nahor was the grandfather of Laban, whose daughters later became Jacob’s wives (chs 29–31). • Lot: See “Lot” Profile.","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"28":[{"id":6190,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Chaldea*, Chaldeans","title_en":"Chaldea*, Chaldeans","content_ro":"<h3>CHALDEA*, CHALDEANS<\/h3>\n<p>Ancient region in Mesopotamia and its inhabitants. The name comes from the Chaldean (or Kaldu) tribes that shared Babylonia in southeastern Mesopotamia with several other peoples, especially the Sumerians and Akkadians. After the old Babylonian Empire was absorbed by the Assyrians, the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar’s leadership took control and built a Neo-Babylonian Empire that dominated the Near East for nearly a century. The region called Chaldea is also associated with the patriarch Abraham, whose Mesopotamian home was “Ur of the Chaldeans” (Gn 11:28).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheLandandPeople\">The Land and People<\/p>\n<p>Until the end of the eighth century <span>BC<\/span>, Chaldea referred only to a small territory in southern Babylonia. Within 100 years, following a rapid and successful bid for power, it embraced all of Babylonia. At that time it included the territory from Baghdad on the Tigris River to the Persian Gulf and extended up the Euphrates River as far as the city of Hit. Although Chaldea is usually placed between the Tigris and Euphrates, it reached into the flatlands between the Tigris and the Zagros Mountains to the east and also included some land west of the Euphrates. The Arabian Desert formed its western boundary. Chaldea rarely exceeded 40 miles (64.4 kilometers) in width, having an area of about 8,000 square miles (12,872 square kilometers), approximately the size of New Jersey. On today’s map Chaldea falls inside Iraq, with its southwestern tip touching the small kingdom of Kuwait.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"History\">History<\/p>\n<p>First mention of the Chaldeans is found in the Assyrian annals of Ashurnasirpal II (885–860 <span>BC<\/span>), leading some authorities to suggest that they entered Babylonia about 1000 <span>BC<\/span>. They are usually associated (though not identified) with the Semitic Aramean tribes who were constantly pushing their way from the western deserts into Mesopotamia. They settled primarily in the southern tip of Babylonia, at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, perhaps centuries before the Assyrian annals mentioned them.<\/p>\n<p>Job 1:17 mentions three bands of Chaldeans who participated in a raid against Job’s camels and servants, probably in the vicinity of Edom or northern Arabia. Their presence in those regions does not necessarily mean they lived nearby, since armies from Babylonia (Sinar) and Elam ranged as far as Palestine centuries earlier (Gn 14:1-2).<\/p>\n<h5>Under Assyrian Rule<\/h5>\n<p>Living by the marshes and lakes of the extreme south, the Chaldeans maintained a high degree of independence, even when Assyrian dominion extended over them. It was difficult for invading armies to maneuver in the Chaldean marshes. As a result, the Chaldeans resisted paying taxes or providing any form of service to the Assyrian government. When the Assyrians sought to limit their freedom, the Chaldeans turned to guerrilla warfare and political intrigue. They were quick to disregard treaties or to switch alliances as circumstances dictated. Under Assyrian rule, whereas the native residents of Babylonian cities were generally content, the Chaldeans became the leaders of a national independence movement. For 250 years the Assyrians had to enforce their dominion against persistent Chaldean attempts to assert their autonomy and influence.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, in 721 <span>BC<\/span> the Chaldean leader Marduk-apla-iddina II (known as Merodach-baladan in 2 Kgs 20:12 and Is 39:1, who sent an embassy to Hezekiah, king of Judah) entered Babylon and claimed the kingship of Babylonia, a position long appointed by the Assyrian king. Crafty and resourceful, he successfully maintained his claim for 10 years before being driven back into his own southern territory by Assyria’s Sargon II. On Sargon’s death in 705 <span>BC<\/span>, he reasserted his claim but was defeated by the new Assyrian king, Sennacherib, who destroyed Babylon as a lesson to the Chaldeans and their allies.<\/p>\n<p>Sennacherib’s son and successor, Esarhaddon, pursued a policy of conciliation with the Babylonians and rebuilt their capital city, a gesture that effectively neutralized Chaldean agitation and inaugurated a period of peace that lasted over 30 years. The last unsuccessful revolt occurred under Ashurbanipal’s reign and was actually instigated by his brother, whom the Assyrian king had appointed to the Babylonian throne. The Chaldeans gladly joined the rebellion, which was crushed in 648 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<h5>The Neo-Babylonian Empire<\/h5>\n<p>Two decades later, at the time of Ashurbanipal’s death, Assyrian power suddenly and dramatically slipped. Nabopolassar, a Chaldean governor, took the opportunity to drive the Assyrians out of Babylonia. He became king of Babylon in 625 <span>BC<\/span>. Allied with the Medes, the Babylonians went on to destroy the Assyrian Empire, capturing the capital cities of Asshur in 614 and Nineveh in 612. They divided the conquered lands with the Medes and annexed the Assyrian regions west and south of the Tigris, creating a new Babylonian Empire. (The first Babylonian Empire, with which Hammurabi is associated, had flourished over 1,000 years earlier.) Throughout the Near East, Chaldea and Babylonia became synonymous.<\/p>\n<p>During the long and brilliant reign of Nabopolassar’s son Nebuchadnezzar (or Nebuchadrezzar) II, the empire reached its zenith. As crown prince, he won a decisive victory in 605 <span>BC<\/span> over the Egyptians at Carchemish (the battle mentioned in 2 Chr 35:20), which effectively established Babylonian supremacy in the Near East (see 2 Kgs 24:7). That same year the southern kingdom of Judah became a vassal nation to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar won the submission of King Jehoiachim, carried off the choicest articles from the temple for his own temple in Babylon, and took the outstanding leaders and youth of Judah captive (2 Kgs 24:1; 2 Chr 36:5-7; Dn 1:1-4). When Judah revolted several years later at the instigation of Egypt, the Chaldean army captured Jerusalem in 597 <span>BC<\/span>. Judah’s new king, Jehoiachin, was deposed at that time together with more of its leaders (2 Kgs 24:8-16). A second revolt in 594 <span>BC<\/span> by the Chaldean-appointed king (Zedekiah) resulted in a third invasion, the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 <span>BC<\/span>, and the exile of most of Judah’s citizens (2 Kgs 24:20–25:12; 2 Chr 36:11-21). With the booty from that and other conquests, Nebuchadnezzar built Babylon into one of the most dazzling cities in the ancient world. His projects included the Hanging Gardens (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world), the Ishtar Gate, and a 17-mile (27-kilometer) outer wall designed for defense of the city. His pride in such accomplishments eventually brought the judgment of God (Dn 4:30-33).<\/p>\n<p>Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son Amel-marduk (Evil-merodach in 2 Kgs 25:27 and Jer 52:31, remembered there for his special kindness to the exiled king Jehoiachin). After two years he was killed in an armed rebellion led by his brother-in-law, Nergal-shar-usur (Nergal-sharezer of Jer 39:3), who attempted to establish his own dynasty. After a four-year reign Nergal-shar-usur was succeeded by his son, who lasted only a few months before being ousted by a usurper, Nabonidus.<\/p>\n\n<h5>The Fall of Babylon<\/h5>\n<p>Nabonidus was the last of the Chaldean monarchs. His installation as king was supported by many Babylonian officials. They were watching their former allies, the Medes, gradually become a rival power and saw in Nabonidus a ruler strong enough to meet their threat. Strong or not, his attempts to reform Babylonian religion proved extremely unpopular, and his efforts to strengthen the economy were unsuccessful. Both facts made Babylon an unpleasant residence for Nabonidus; during one extended absence from the capital city, he installed his son Belshazzar as co-regent. (Belshazzar’s position explains why he is described as the king of Babylon in the OT book of Daniel and why in Dn 5:7 he could make Daniel only “the third ruler in the kingdom.”)<\/p>\n<p>While Belshazzar was handling government affairs, the famous incident of the “writing on the wall” occurred, ominously predicting Babylon’s downfall (Dn 5). The Elamites, in fact, were already attacking the empire’s eastern flank. Rumors of Persian power in the north brought Nabonidus back to Babylon just in time for an invasion by the Persian king, Cyrus the Great. Cyrus took Babylon without a fight, putting an end both to Chaldean power and to the Neo-Babylonian Empire.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Assyria, Assyrians; Astrology; Babylon, Babylonia; Daniel, Book of; Diaspora of the Jews; Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar; Ur (Place).<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>CHALDEA*, CHALDEANS<\/h3>\n<p>Ancient region in Mesopotamia and its inhabitants. The name comes from the Chaldean (or Kaldu) tribes that shared Babylonia in southeastern Mesopotamia with several other peoples, especially the Sumerians and Akkadians. After the old Babylonian Empire was absorbed by the Assyrians, the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar’s leadership took control and built a Neo-Babylonian Empire that dominated the Near East for nearly a century. The region called Chaldea is also associated with the patriarch Abraham, whose Mesopotamian home was “Ur of the Chaldeans” (Gn 11:28).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheLandandPeople\">The Land and People<\/p>\n<p>Until the end of the eighth century <span>BC<\/span>, Chaldea referred only to a small territory in southern Babylonia. Within 100 years, following a rapid and successful bid for power, it embraced all of Babylonia. At that time it included the territory from Baghdad on the Tigris River to the Persian Gulf and extended up the Euphrates River as far as the city of Hit. Although Chaldea is usually placed between the Tigris and Euphrates, it reached into the flatlands between the Tigris and the Zagros Mountains to the east and also included some land west of the Euphrates. The Arabian Desert formed its western boundary. Chaldea rarely exceeded 40 miles (64.4 kilometers) in width, having an area of about 8,000 square miles (12,872 square kilometers), approximately the size of New Jersey. On today’s map Chaldea falls inside Iraq, with its southwestern tip touching the small kingdom of Kuwait.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"History\">History<\/p>\n<p>First mention of the Chaldeans is found in the Assyrian annals of Ashurnasirpal II (885–860 <span>BC<\/span>), leading some authorities to suggest that they entered Babylonia about 1000 <span>BC<\/span>. They are usually associated (though not identified) with the Semitic Aramean tribes who were constantly pushing their way from the western deserts into Mesopotamia. They settled primarily in the southern tip of Babylonia, at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, perhaps centuries before the Assyrian annals mentioned them.<\/p>\n<p>Job 1:17 mentions three bands of Chaldeans who participated in a raid against Job’s camels and servants, probably in the vicinity of Edom or northern Arabia. Their presence in those regions does not necessarily mean they lived nearby, since armies from Babylonia (Sinar) and Elam ranged as far as Palestine centuries earlier (Gn 14:1-2).<\/p>\n<h5>Under Assyrian Rule<\/h5>\n<p>Living by the marshes and lakes of the extreme south, the Chaldeans maintained a high degree of independence, even when Assyrian dominion extended over them. It was difficult for invading armies to maneuver in the Chaldean marshes. As a result, the Chaldeans resisted paying taxes or providing any form of service to the Assyrian government. When the Assyrians sought to limit their freedom, the Chaldeans turned to guerrilla warfare and political intrigue. They were quick to disregard treaties or to switch alliances as circumstances dictated. Under Assyrian rule, whereas the native residents of Babylonian cities were generally content, the Chaldeans became the leaders of a national independence movement. For 250 years the Assyrians had to enforce their dominion against persistent Chaldean attempts to assert their autonomy and influence.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, in 721 <span>BC<\/span> the Chaldean leader Marduk-apla-iddina II (known as Merodach-baladan in 2 Kgs 20:12 and Is 39:1, who sent an embassy to Hezekiah, king of Judah) entered Babylon and claimed the kingship of Babylonia, a position long appointed by the Assyrian king. Crafty and resourceful, he successfully maintained his claim for 10 years before being driven back into his own southern territory by Assyria’s Sargon II. On Sargon’s death in 705 <span>BC<\/span>, he reasserted his claim but was defeated by the new Assyrian king, Sennacherib, who destroyed Babylon as a lesson to the Chaldeans and their allies.<\/p>\n<p>Sennacherib’s son and successor, Esarhaddon, pursued a policy of conciliation with the Babylonians and rebuilt their capital city, a gesture that effectively neutralized Chaldean agitation and inaugurated a period of peace that lasted over 30 years. The last unsuccessful revolt occurred under Ashurbanipal’s reign and was actually instigated by his brother, whom the Assyrian king had appointed to the Babylonian throne. The Chaldeans gladly joined the rebellion, which was crushed in 648 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<h5>The Neo-Babylonian Empire<\/h5>\n<p>Two decades later, at the time of Ashurbanipal’s death, Assyrian power suddenly and dramatically slipped. Nabopolassar, a Chaldean governor, took the opportunity to drive the Assyrians out of Babylonia. He became king of Babylon in 625 <span>BC<\/span>. Allied with the Medes, the Babylonians went on to destroy the Assyrian Empire, capturing the capital cities of Asshur in 614 and Nineveh in 612. They divided the conquered lands with the Medes and annexed the Assyrian regions west and south of the Tigris, creating a new Babylonian Empire. (The first Babylonian Empire, with which Hammurabi is associated, had flourished over 1,000 years earlier.) Throughout the Near East, Chaldea and Babylonia became synonymous.<\/p>\n<p>During the long and brilliant reign of Nabopolassar’s son Nebuchadnezzar (or Nebuchadrezzar) II, the empire reached its zenith. As crown prince, he won a decisive victory in 605 <span>BC<\/span> over the Egyptians at Carchemish (the battle mentioned in 2 Chr 35:20), which effectively established Babylonian supremacy in the Near East (see 2 Kgs 24:7). That same year the southern kingdom of Judah became a vassal nation to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar won the submission of King Jehoiachim, carried off the choicest articles from the temple for his own temple in Babylon, and took the outstanding leaders and youth of Judah captive (2 Kgs 24:1; 2 Chr 36:5-7; Dn 1:1-4). When Judah revolted several years later at the instigation of Egypt, the Chaldean army captured Jerusalem in 597 <span>BC<\/span>. Judah’s new king, Jehoiachin, was deposed at that time together with more of its leaders (2 Kgs 24:8-16). A second revolt in 594 <span>BC<\/span> by the Chaldean-appointed king (Zedekiah) resulted in a third invasion, the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 <span>BC<\/span>, and the exile of most of Judah’s citizens (2 Kgs 24:20–25:12; 2 Chr 36:11-21). With the booty from that and other conquests, Nebuchadnezzar built Babylon into one of the most dazzling cities in the ancient world. His projects included the Hanging Gardens (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world), the Ishtar Gate, and a 17-mile (27-kilometer) outer wall designed for defense of the city. His pride in such accomplishments eventually brought the judgment of God (Dn 4:30-33).<\/p>\n<p>Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son Amel-marduk (Evil-merodach in 2 Kgs 25:27 and Jer 52:31, remembered there for his special kindness to the exiled king Jehoiachin). After two years he was killed in an armed rebellion led by his brother-in-law, Nergal-shar-usur (Nergal-sharezer of Jer 39:3), who attempted to establish his own dynasty. After a four-year reign Nergal-shar-usur was succeeded by his son, who lasted only a few months before being ousted by a usurper, Nabonidus.<\/p>\n\n<h5>The Fall of Babylon<\/h5>\n<p>Nabonidus was the last of the Chaldean monarchs. His installation as king was supported by many Babylonian officials. They were watching their former allies, the Medes, gradually become a rival power and saw in Nabonidus a ruler strong enough to meet their threat. Strong or not, his attempts to reform Babylonian religion proved extremely unpopular, and his efforts to strengthen the economy were unsuccessful. Both facts made Babylon an unpleasant residence for Nabonidus; during one extended absence from the capital city, he installed his son Belshazzar as co-regent. (Belshazzar’s position explains why he is described as the king of Babylon in the OT book of Daniel and why in Dn 5:7 he could make Daniel only “the third ruler in the kingdom.”)<\/p>\n<p>While Belshazzar was handling government affairs, the famous incident of the “writing on the wall” occurred, ominously predicting Babylon’s downfall (Dn 5). The Elamites, in fact, were already attacking the empire’s eastern flank. Rumors of Persian power in the north brought Nabonidus back to Babylon just in time for an invasion by the Persian king, Cyrus the Great. Cyrus took Babylon without a fight, putting an end both to Chaldean power and to the Neo-Babylonian Empire.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Assyria, Assyrians; Astrology; Babylon, Babylonia; Daniel, Book of; Diaspora of the Jews; Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar; Ur (Place).<\/p>","summary_ro":"CHALDEA*, CHALDEANS Ancient region in Mesopotamia and its inhabitants. The name comes from the Chaldean (or Kaldu) tribes that shared Babylonia in southeastern Mesopotamia with several other peoples, especially the Sumerians and Akkadians. After the old Babylonian Empire was absorbed by the Assyrians, the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar’s leadership took control and built a Neo-Babylonian Empire that dominated the Near East for nearly a century. The region called Chaldea is also associated wit...","summary_en":"CHALDEA*, CHALDEANS Ancient region in Mesopotamia and its inhabitants. The name comes from the Chaldean (or Kaldu) tribes that shared Babylonia in southeastern Mesopotamia with several other peoples, especially the Sumerians and Akkadians. After the old Babylonian Empire was absorbed by the Assyrians, the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar’s leadership took control and built a Neo-Babylonian Empire that dominated the Near East for nearly a century. The region called Chaldea is also associated wit...","source":"Articles\/C.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":37880,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Ur (Place)","title_en":"Ur (Place)","content_ro":"<h3>UR (P<span>lace<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>Hometown of Terah, the father of Abraham, and the birthplace of Abraham and Sarah. It is mentioned by name only four times in the Bible (Gn 11:28, 31; 15:7; Neh 9:7), always with the full name “Ur of the Chaldeans.”<\/p>\n<p>The modern site is known as Tell el Muqayyar, “The Mound of Bitumen.” The results of archaeological investigations demonstrate that Abraham came from a great city, cultured, sophisticated, and powerful. The landscape was dominated by the ziggurat, or temple tower, and the life of the city was controlled by a religion with a multiplicity of gods. The chief deity was Nannar, or Sin, the moon god, who was also worshiped at Haran. Near his ziggurat was a temple dedicated to his consort, the moon goddess, Ningal.<\/p>\n\n<p>Many clay tablets found at Ur tell of the business life of the city, which focused on the temples and their income. There were factories here, such as the weaving establishment for the manufacture of woolen cloth. Some tablets dealt with religion, history, law, and education. Students were instructed in reading and writing in cuneiform script. They were taught multiplication and division, and some were even able to extract square roots and cube roots.<\/p>\n<p>Domestic architecture was highly developed. Houses had two stories and many rooms (10 to 20), sometimes with a private chapel. Small clay religious figures (teraphim or household idols) were discovered. Many art objects made of precious metals and other costly materials have been excavated, especially in the royal tombs. These tombs also contained the remains of a number of retainers who must have been put to death at the time of the royal burials in order to accompany their masters in the afterlife.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>UR (P<span>lace<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>Hometown of Terah, the father of Abraham, and the birthplace of Abraham and Sarah. It is mentioned by name only four times in the Bible (Gn 11:28, 31; 15:7; Neh 9:7), always with the full name “Ur of the Chaldeans.”<\/p>\n<p>The modern site is known as Tell el Muqayyar, “The Mound of Bitumen.” The results of archaeological investigations demonstrate that Abraham came from a great city, cultured, sophisticated, and powerful. The landscape was dominated by the ziggurat, or temple tower, and the life of the city was controlled by a religion with a multiplicity of gods. The chief deity was Nannar, or Sin, the moon god, who was also worshiped at Haran. Near his ziggurat was a temple dedicated to his consort, the moon goddess, Ningal.<\/p>\n\n<p>Many clay tablets found at Ur tell of the business life of the city, which focused on the temples and their income. There were factories here, such as the weaving establishment for the manufacture of woolen cloth. Some tablets dealt with religion, history, law, and education. Students were instructed in reading and writing in cuneiform script. They were taught multiplication and division, and some were even able to extract square roots and cube roots.<\/p>\n<p>Domestic architecture was highly developed. Houses had two stories and many rooms (10 to 20), sometimes with a private chapel. Small clay religious figures (teraphim or household idols) were discovered. Many art objects made of precious metals and other costly materials have been excavated, especially in the royal tombs. These tombs also contained the remains of a number of retainers who must have been put to death at the time of the royal burials in order to accompany their masters in the afterlife.<\/p>","summary_ro":"UR (Place) Hometown of Terah, the father of Abraham, and the birthplace of Abraham and Sarah. It is mentioned by name only four times in the Bible (Gn 11:28, 31; 15:7; Neh 9:7), always with the full name “Ur of the Chaldeans.” The modern site is known as Tell el Muqayyar, “The Mound of Bitumen.” The results of archaeological investigations demonstrate that Abraham came from a great city, cultured, sophisticated, and powerful. The landscape was dominated by the ziggurat, or temple tower, and t...","summary_en":"UR (Place) Hometown of Terah, the father of Abraham, and the birthplace of Abraham and Sarah. It is mentioned by name only four times in the Bible (Gn 11:28, 31; 15:7; Neh 9:7), always with the full name “Ur of the Chaldeans.” The modern site is known as Tell el Muqayyar, “The Mound of Bitumen.” The results of archaeological investigations demonstrate that Abraham came from a great city, cultured, sophisticated, and powerful. The landscape was dominated by the ziggurat, or temple tower, and t...","source":"Articles\/U.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":43006,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:28","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:28","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:28<\/strong> The call of Abram occurred in <em>Ur of the Chaldeans<\/em> (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • <em>land of his birth:<\/em> The same Hebrew phrase is repeated in 12:1 (“native country”), making Ur, not Haran, the location of Abram’s call (see 15:7; Neh 9:7; Acts 7:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:28<\/strong> The call of Abram occurred in <em>Ur of the Chaldeans<\/em> (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • <em>land of his birth:<\/em> The same Hebrew phrase is repeated in 12:1 (“native country”), making Ur, not Haran, the location of Abram’s call (see 15:7; Neh 9:7; Acts 7:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:28 The call of Abram occurred in Ur of the Chaldeans (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • land of his birth: The same Hebrew phrase is repe...","summary_en":"11:28 The call of Abram occurred in Ur of the Chaldeans (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • land of his birth: The same Hebrew phrase is repe...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70632,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:28","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:28","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:28<\/strong> The call of Abram occurred in <em>Ur of the Chaldeans<\/em> (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • <em>land of his birth:<\/em> The same Hebrew phrase is repeated in 12:1 (“native country”), making Ur, not Haran, the location of Abram’s call (see 15:7; Neh 9:7; Acts 7:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:28<\/strong> The call of Abram occurred in <em>Ur of the Chaldeans<\/em> (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • <em>land of his birth:<\/em> The same Hebrew phrase is repeated in 12:1 (“native country”), making Ur, not Haran, the location of Abram’s call (see 15:7; Neh 9:7; Acts 7:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:28 The call of Abram occurred in Ur of the Chaldeans (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • land of his birth: The same Hebrew phrase is repe...","summary_en":"11:28 The call of Abram occurred in Ur of the Chaldeans (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • land of his birth: The same Hebrew phrase is repe...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98258,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:28","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:28","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:28<\/strong> The call of Abram occurred in <em>Ur of the Chaldeans<\/em> (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • <em>land of his birth:<\/em> The same Hebrew phrase is repeated in 12:1 (“native country”), making Ur, not Haran, the location of Abram’s call (see 15:7; Neh 9:7; Acts 7:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:28<\/strong> The call of Abram occurred in <em>Ur of the Chaldeans<\/em> (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • <em>land of his birth:<\/em> The same Hebrew phrase is repeated in 12:1 (“native country”), making Ur, not Haran, the location of Abram’s call (see 15:7; Neh 9:7; Acts 7:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:28 The call of Abram occurred in Ur of the Chaldeans (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • land of his birth: The same Hebrew phrase is repe...","summary_en":"11:28 The call of Abram occurred in Ur of the Chaldeans (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • land of his birth: The same Hebrew phrase is repe...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125884,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:28","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:28","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:28<\/strong> The call of Abram occurred in <em>Ur of the Chaldeans<\/em> (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • <em>land of his birth:<\/em> The same Hebrew phrase is repeated in 12:1 (“native country”), making Ur, not Haran, the location of Abram’s call (see 15:7; Neh 9:7; Acts 7:2).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:28<\/strong> The call of Abram occurred in <em>Ur of the Chaldeans<\/em> (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • <em>land of his birth:<\/em> The same Hebrew phrase is repeated in 12:1 (“native country”), making Ur, not Haran, the location of Abram’s call (see 15:7; Neh 9:7; Acts 7:2).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:28 The call of Abram occurred in Ur of the Chaldeans (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • land of his birth: The same Hebrew phrase is repe...","summary_en":"11:28 The call of Abram occurred in Ur of the Chaldeans (15:7; Acts 7:2-4), the main city of Sumer in Mesopotamia near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The family had moved there perhaps generations before the call. Their ancestral home (“native country,” Gen 12:1) was apparently near Haran, in the region of the descendants of Shem (11:10-26); thus they settled there when they left Ur (11:31) and were later described as “Arameans” (Deut 26:5). • land of his birth: The same Hebrew phrase is repe...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"29":[{"id":40561,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Sarah","title_en":"Sarah","content_ro":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","summary_ro":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","summary_en":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":68187,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Sarah","title_en":"Sarah","content_ro":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","summary_ro":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","summary_en":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":95813,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Sarah","title_en":"Sarah","content_ro":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","summary_ro":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","summary_en":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":123439,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Sarah","title_en":"Sarah","content_ro":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","summary_ro":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","summary_en":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":13402,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Genealogy","title_en":"Genealogy","content_ro":"<h3>GENEALOGY<\/h3>\n<p>Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium <span>BC<\/span> contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 <span>BC<\/span>) referred to his “father,” Sesostris III, who lived some 1,200 years before him. Greeks and Romans also kept genealogical records. However, the biblical genealogies, especially those in Genesis and 1 Chronicles 1–9, are unique in the literature of the ancient Near East. Only at the beginning of the Islamic age are such broad genealogical records found. Even today among tribal Semites, such as Arab nomads, there is an intense interest in genealogy, and it is not unusual for an Arab to be able to recite accurately the names of his ancestors for 10 or 15 generations back, covering a period of several hundred years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TermsUsed\">Terms Used<\/p>\n<p>The word “genealogy” occurs only once as a noun in the Hebrew OT (Neh 7:5), where it refers to a register of those who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel at the end of the exile. The verbal form of the same word is found a total of 20 times in 1—2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The terms “generations” and “book of the generations,” used in Genesis and elsewhere in the OT, convey the same idea. The equivalent NT terms are found in 1 Timothy 1:4 and Titus 3:9 (“genealogies”) and Matthew 1:1, which refers to the “book of the genealogy” of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PurposeofGenealogicalRecords\">Purpose of Genealogical Records<\/p>\n<p>The keeping of genealogical records in ancient Israel was an important activity and served a number of useful purposes. God’s promise of a land to Abraham and his descendants made such records necessary to establish and preserve the allotment of the land; a genealogical record served as evidence of a legitimate title to the ancestral property. Genealogies were essential for the preservation of the exclusive priesthood that had been established by the Mosaic law. In the time of Josephus every priest was supposed to be able to prove his descent.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most important reasons for keeping genealogical records was to establish and maintain the right of royal succession in Judah through the family of David. The belief that the Messiah would come from the Davidic house made such records even more important.<\/p>\n<p>Other purposes served by these family records included the imposition of military duty according to families (Nm 1:2-3). Position in camp and on the march from Egypt was determined by tribes and families (2:2, 17; 10:11-28). Also, God’s blessings were passed from one member of the family to his descendants (Gn 27). The stress placed on the purity of the congregation (Dt 7:1-4; 23:1-8) required complete family records, particularly in the postexilic period. With the insistence of Ezra and Nehemiah upon racial purity, and with the purging of foreign elements from among the people (Ezr 2:59-63; 10:9-44; Neh 13:23-28), written evidence of purity of descent became essential; interest in the compilation of genealogies became intense after the exile.<\/p>\n<p>Lineage was ordinarily traced through the male members of the family, with females being mentioned only rarely (e.g., Gn 11:29, Sarah and Milcah; 22:23, Rebekah; and Nm 26:33–27:11, where the property inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad was involved). Matthew mentions three women: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth; and in the second group alludes to Bathsheba (see discussion below).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrincipalGenealogicalListsintheBible\">Principal Genealogical Lists in the Bible<\/p>\n<p>The principal sources of genealogical material in the OT are found in Genesis, Numbers, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1—2 Chronicles (which contain the greatest amount of genealogical material in the Bible), Ezra, and Nehemiah. The genealogies of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 are the only NT records. Together they contain a genealogical record from Adam to Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Grouped together by historical periods, the following are the principal genealogical lists found in the Bible:<\/p>\n<h5>Before the Flood<\/h5>\n<p>Three lists are from this period. The first, found in Genesis 4:17-22, traces the descendants of Cain through seven generations and explains the hereditary origin of certain occupations and crafts. The second, Genesis 4:25-26, begins the account of the descendants of Seth, the posterity of Adam whose faithfulness to God is contrasted with the ungodly posterity of Cain. The third list, Genesis 5:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:1-4), traces the descendants of Adam through Seth down to Noah and his sons at the time of the Flood.<\/p>\n<h5>From Noah to Abraham<\/h5>\n<p>Genesis 10:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:4-23), frequently called the “table of nations,” contains a list of the nations descended from the sons of Noah (Shem, Ham, and Japheth). Genesis 11:10-26 (cf. 1 Chr 1:24-27) traces the descendants of Shem to the time of Abraham, and Genesis 11:27-30 (see also Gn 22:20-24) lists the descendants of Nahor, Abraham’s brother.<\/p>\n<h5>From Abraham to the Descent into Egypt<\/h5>\n<p>The descendants of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah are found in Genesis 16:15, 21:1-3, and 25:1-4 (introducing the Arabs as descendants of Abraham; cf. 1 Chr 1:28-34). Genesis 19:37-38 links the Moabites and Ammonites to Abraham through his nephew Lot. A very important genealogical list during this period is that of the descendants of Jacob, giving the account of the parentage, birth, and naming of the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel (Gn 29:31–30:24; 35:16-26). Esau is acknowledged as the ancestor of the Edomites; his Edomite descendants are traced through his three wives (Gn 26:34; 36:1-43; 1 Chr 1:35-54). The list of Jacob’s family at the time he entered Egypt, numbering 70, is found in Genesis 46:1-27 (cf. Ex 6:14-16; Nm 26:1-51; 1 Chr 2–8). A partial list of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi is found in Exodus 6:14-25; the chief purpose of this genealogy is to establish Aaron and Moses as members of Levi’s tribe.<\/p>\n<h5>From the Exodus to the Conquest of Canaan<\/h5>\n<p>While the tribes were still in the desert after leaving Egypt, a census was taken to determine the total number of Israelites (Nm 1:4-54; 2:2-33). During this same period, a genealogy of the family of Aaron was compiled, and a separate census was taken of the Levites (3:1-39). A list of the 12 spies who searched out the land and the tribes they represented is given in Numbers 13:4-16; the most important names on this list are Caleb and Joshua. Near the end of the wilderness wanderings, another census of the people was ordered; the total number was approximately the same as that of the first census almost 40 years earlier (26:4-51, 57-62). As the tribes neared the Promised Land, a list was prepared of the tribal representatives who would take part in the division of the land (34:16-29).<\/p>\n<h5>Period of the Kings<\/h5>\n<p>During the entire period of the monarchy, over 400 years, the only genealogical records of any consequence are those that pertain to David. His descendants are traced through 20 rulers who sat upon the throne of Judah until the nation fell to the Babylonians in 586 <span>BC<\/span> (1—2 Kgs; cf. 1 Chr 11:1—2 Chr 36:21). A list of David’s children is found in 2 Samuel 3:2-5 and 5:14-16 (cf. 1 Chr 3:1-9; 14:4-7). His mighty men, an elite group of soldiers, are named in 2 Samuel 23:8-39 (cf. 1 Chr 11:10-47). His recruits at Ziklag are recorded in 1 Chronicles 12:1-22. Those who were his musicians and doorkeepers when the ark was brought to Jerusalem are named in 1 Chronicles 15:1-24 (cf. 1 Chr 16:5-6, 37-43). David’s political and religious organization of the kingdom—including the Levites, priests, singers, porters and other administrative officials, and military officers—is found in 1 Chronicles 23–27. In spite of the literary activity associated with the reign of Solomon, the only genealogical record preserved from this period is that of Solomon’s princes and 12 officers (1 Kgs 4:1-19). The genealogy of one prophet is traced back four generations (Zep 1:1).<\/p>\n<h5>The Postexilic Period<\/h5>\n<p>During the postexilic period, the keeping of genealogical records probably received its greatest impetus through the activity of Ezra and Nehemiah, primarily because of their insistence upon racial purity and the purging of foreign elements from the community. A list of the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel is found in Ezra 2:1-70 (cf. Neh 7:6-73, where the same list is found). A list of those who returned with Ezra is included in 8:1-20. Ezra’s own genealogy is also recorded (Ezr 7:5). There is a list of the Jews who married foreign women that included priests, Levites, singers, porters, and other Israelites (Ezr 10:18-44). Nehemiah 8:4-7 names the Levites and others who assisted Ezra when he read the law publicly. Nehemiah also contains a list of those who participated in the ceremony of sealing the covenant (Neh 10:1-27) and a list of those who lived in Jerusalem and other cities (11:3-36). His interest in the priesthood is reflected in the list of priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel (12:1-9), of the high priests from Jeshua to Jaddua (vv 10-11), of the heads of the priestly families (vv 12-21), of the Levites and porters who served under the high priest (vv 22-26), and of the princes and priests who were present at the dedication of the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem (vv 31-42).<\/p>\n<p>The final genealogical record that must be mentioned is the genealogy from Adam to Saul (1 Chr 1–8), the longest section of genealogical material in the Bible. It is properly included with the genealogies compiled during the postexilic period, as the unknown chronicler (some think he was Ezra) prepared this list around 400 <span>BC<\/span> from extant records and documents available to him. His purpose seems to have been to conserve the purity of blood in the restored nation and to insist that the nation’s well-being depended on its faithfulness to God’s law.<\/p>\n<h5>The New Testament Period<\/h5>\n<p>The only genealogies of consequence in the NT are those concerning Jesus Christ in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38. <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>GENEALOGY<\/h3>\n<p>Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium <span>BC<\/span> contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 <span>BC<\/span>) referred to his “father,” Sesostris III, who lived some 1,200 years before him. Greeks and Romans also kept genealogical records. However, the biblical genealogies, especially those in Genesis and 1 Chronicles 1–9, are unique in the literature of the ancient Near East. Only at the beginning of the Islamic age are such broad genealogical records found. Even today among tribal Semites, such as Arab nomads, there is an intense interest in genealogy, and it is not unusual for an Arab to be able to recite accurately the names of his ancestors for 10 or 15 generations back, covering a period of several hundred years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TermsUsed\">Terms Used<\/p>\n<p>The word “genealogy” occurs only once as a noun in the Hebrew OT (Neh 7:5), where it refers to a register of those who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel at the end of the exile. The verbal form of the same word is found a total of 20 times in 1—2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The terms “generations” and “book of the generations,” used in Genesis and elsewhere in the OT, convey the same idea. The equivalent NT terms are found in 1 Timothy 1:4 and Titus 3:9 (“genealogies”) and Matthew 1:1, which refers to the “book of the genealogy” of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PurposeofGenealogicalRecords\">Purpose of Genealogical Records<\/p>\n<p>The keeping of genealogical records in ancient Israel was an important activity and served a number of useful purposes. God’s promise of a land to Abraham and his descendants made such records necessary to establish and preserve the allotment of the land; a genealogical record served as evidence of a legitimate title to the ancestral property. Genealogies were essential for the preservation of the exclusive priesthood that had been established by the Mosaic law. In the time of Josephus every priest was supposed to be able to prove his descent.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most important reasons for keeping genealogical records was to establish and maintain the right of royal succession in Judah through the family of David. The belief that the Messiah would come from the Davidic house made such records even more important.<\/p>\n<p>Other purposes served by these family records included the imposition of military duty according to families (Nm 1:2-3). Position in camp and on the march from Egypt was determined by tribes and families (2:2, 17; 10:11-28). Also, God’s blessings were passed from one member of the family to his descendants (Gn 27). The stress placed on the purity of the congregation (Dt 7:1-4; 23:1-8) required complete family records, particularly in the postexilic period. With the insistence of Ezra and Nehemiah upon racial purity, and with the purging of foreign elements from among the people (Ezr 2:59-63; 10:9-44; Neh 13:23-28), written evidence of purity of descent became essential; interest in the compilation of genealogies became intense after the exile.<\/p>\n<p>Lineage was ordinarily traced through the male members of the family, with females being mentioned only rarely (e.g., Gn 11:29, Sarah and Milcah; 22:23, Rebekah; and Nm 26:33–27:11, where the property inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad was involved). Matthew mentions three women: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth; and in the second group alludes to Bathsheba (see discussion below).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrincipalGenealogicalListsintheBible\">Principal Genealogical Lists in the Bible<\/p>\n<p>The principal sources of genealogical material in the OT are found in Genesis, Numbers, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1—2 Chronicles (which contain the greatest amount of genealogical material in the Bible), Ezra, and Nehemiah. The genealogies of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 are the only NT records. Together they contain a genealogical record from Adam to Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Grouped together by historical periods, the following are the principal genealogical lists found in the Bible:<\/p>\n<h5>Before the Flood<\/h5>\n<p>Three lists are from this period. The first, found in Genesis 4:17-22, traces the descendants of Cain through seven generations and explains the hereditary origin of certain occupations and crafts. The second, Genesis 4:25-26, begins the account of the descendants of Seth, the posterity of Adam whose faithfulness to God is contrasted with the ungodly posterity of Cain. The third list, Genesis 5:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:1-4), traces the descendants of Adam through Seth down to Noah and his sons at the time of the Flood.<\/p>\n<h5>From Noah to Abraham<\/h5>\n<p>Genesis 10:1-32 (cf. 1 Chr 1:4-23), frequently called the “table of nations,” contains a list of the nations descended from the sons of Noah (Shem, Ham, and Japheth). Genesis 11:10-26 (cf. 1 Chr 1:24-27) traces the descendants of Shem to the time of Abraham, and Genesis 11:27-30 (see also Gn 22:20-24) lists the descendants of Nahor, Abraham’s brother.<\/p>\n<h5>From Abraham to the Descent into Egypt<\/h5>\n<p>The descendants of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah are found in Genesis 16:15, 21:1-3, and 25:1-4 (introducing the Arabs as descendants of Abraham; cf. 1 Chr 1:28-34). Genesis 19:37-38 links the Moabites and Ammonites to Abraham through his nephew Lot. A very important genealogical list during this period is that of the descendants of Jacob, giving the account of the parentage, birth, and naming of the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel (Gn 29:31–30:24; 35:16-26). Esau is acknowledged as the ancestor of the Edomites; his Edomite descendants are traced through his three wives (Gn 26:34; 36:1-43; 1 Chr 1:35-54). The list of Jacob’s family at the time he entered Egypt, numbering 70, is found in Genesis 46:1-27 (cf. Ex 6:14-16; Nm 26:1-51; 1 Chr 2–8). A partial list of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi is found in Exodus 6:14-25; the chief purpose of this genealogy is to establish Aaron and Moses as members of Levi’s tribe.<\/p>\n<h5>From the Exodus to the Conquest of Canaan<\/h5>\n<p>While the tribes were still in the desert after leaving Egypt, a census was taken to determine the total number of Israelites (Nm 1:4-54; 2:2-33). During this same period, a genealogy of the family of Aaron was compiled, and a separate census was taken of the Levites (3:1-39). A list of the 12 spies who searched out the land and the tribes they represented is given in Numbers 13:4-16; the most important names on this list are Caleb and Joshua. Near the end of the wilderness wanderings, another census of the people was ordered; the total number was approximately the same as that of the first census almost 40 years earlier (26:4-51, 57-62). As the tribes neared the Promised Land, a list was prepared of the tribal representatives who would take part in the division of the land (34:16-29).<\/p>\n<h5>Period of the Kings<\/h5>\n<p>During the entire period of the monarchy, over 400 years, the only genealogical records of any consequence are those that pertain to David. His descendants are traced through 20 rulers who sat upon the throne of Judah until the nation fell to the Babylonians in 586 <span>BC<\/span> (1—2 Kgs; cf. 1 Chr 11:1—2 Chr 36:21). A list of David’s children is found in 2 Samuel 3:2-5 and 5:14-16 (cf. 1 Chr 3:1-9; 14:4-7). His mighty men, an elite group of soldiers, are named in 2 Samuel 23:8-39 (cf. 1 Chr 11:10-47). His recruits at Ziklag are recorded in 1 Chronicles 12:1-22. Those who were his musicians and doorkeepers when the ark was brought to Jerusalem are named in 1 Chronicles 15:1-24 (cf. 1 Chr 16:5-6, 37-43). David’s political and religious organization of the kingdom—including the Levites, priests, singers, porters and other administrative officials, and military officers—is found in 1 Chronicles 23–27. In spite of the literary activity associated with the reign of Solomon, the only genealogical record preserved from this period is that of Solomon’s princes and 12 officers (1 Kgs 4:1-19). The genealogy of one prophet is traced back four generations (Zep 1:1).<\/p>\n<h5>The Postexilic Period<\/h5>\n<p>During the postexilic period, the keeping of genealogical records probably received its greatest impetus through the activity of Ezra and Nehemiah, primarily because of their insistence upon racial purity and the purging of foreign elements from the community. A list of the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel is found in Ezra 2:1-70 (cf. Neh 7:6-73, where the same list is found). A list of those who returned with Ezra is included in 8:1-20. Ezra’s own genealogy is also recorded (Ezr 7:5). There is a list of the Jews who married foreign women that included priests, Levites, singers, porters, and other Israelites (Ezr 10:18-44). Nehemiah 8:4-7 names the Levites and others who assisted Ezra when he read the law publicly. Nehemiah also contains a list of those who participated in the ceremony of sealing the covenant (Neh 10:1-27) and a list of those who lived in Jerusalem and other cities (11:3-36). His interest in the priesthood is reflected in the list of priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel (12:1-9), of the high priests from Jeshua to Jaddua (vv 10-11), of the heads of the priestly families (vv 12-21), of the Levites and porters who served under the high priest (vv 22-26), and of the princes and priests who were present at the dedication of the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem (vv 31-42).<\/p>\n<p>The final genealogical record that must be mentioned is the genealogy from Adam to Saul (1 Chr 1–8), the longest section of genealogical material in the Bible. It is properly included with the genealogies compiled during the postexilic period, as the unknown chronicler (some think he was Ezra) prepared this list around 400 <span>BC<\/span> from extant records and documents available to him. His purpose seems to have been to conserve the purity of blood in the restored nation and to insist that the nation’s well-being depended on its faithfulness to God’s law.<\/p>\n<h5>The New Testament Period<\/h5>\n<p>The only genealogies of consequence in the NT are those concerning Jesus Christ in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38. <em>See<\/em> Genealogy of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","summary_ro":"GENEALOGY Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium BC contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 BC) referred to his “f...","summary_en":"GENEALOGY Record or study of descent involving a tracing backward or forward of the ancestry of a nation, tribe, family, or individual. The Hebrews were not the only people in the ancient world to take an interest in maintaining genealogical records. The Sumerian king list of the third millennium BC contains records of the early rulers of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian records the word “son” was frequently used in the sense of “descendant of.” King Tirhakah of Egypt (c. 685 BC) referred to his “f...","source":"Articles\/G.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":17907,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Iscah","title_en":"Iscah","content_ro":"<h3>ISCAH<\/h3>\n<p>Haran’s daughter and Milcah’s sister (Gn 11:29).<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>ISCAH<\/h3>\n<p>Haran’s daughter and Milcah’s sister (Gn 11:29).<\/p>","summary_ro":"ISCAH Haran’s daughter and Milcah’s sister (Gn 11:29).","summary_en":"ISCAH Haran’s daughter and Milcah’s sister (Gn 11:29).","source":"Articles\/I.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":25723,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Milcah","title_en":"Milcah","content_ro":"<h3>MILCAH<\/h3>\n<li>1. Daughter of Haran and half sister of Nahor who became Nahor’s wife (Gn 11:29). She bore Nahor eight sons (22:20-23). Through her son Bethuel she was the grandmother of Rebekah (24:15-47).<\/li>\n<li>2. One of the five daughters of Zelophehad. Because Zelophehad had no sons, his daughters petitioned Moses to allow them to receive their father’s inheritance in west Manasseh after their father’s death (Nm 26:33; 27:1-11; 36:5-13; Jos 17:3-4).<\/li>","content_en":"<h3>MILCAH<\/h3>\n<li>1. Daughter of Haran and half sister of Nahor who became Nahor’s wife (Gn 11:29). She bore Nahor eight sons (22:20-23). Through her son Bethuel she was the grandmother of Rebekah (24:15-47).<\/li>\n<li>2. One of the five daughters of Zelophehad. Because Zelophehad had no sons, his daughters petitioned Moses to allow them to receive their father’s inheritance in west Manasseh after their father’s death (Nm 26:33; 27:1-11; 36:5-13; Jos 17:3-4).<\/li>","summary_ro":"MILCAH 1. Daughter of Haran and half sister of Nahor who became Nahor’s wife (Gn 11:29). She bore Nahor eight sons (22:20-23). Through her son Bethuel she was the grandmother of Rebekah (24:15-47). 2. One of the five daughters of Zelophehad. Because Zelophehad had no sons, his daughters petitioned Moses to allow them to receive their father’s inheritance in west Manasseh after their father’s death (Nm 26:33; 27:1-11; 36:5-13; Jos 17:3-4).","summary_en":"MILCAH 1. Daughter of Haran and half sister of Nahor who became Nahor’s wife (Gn 11:29). She bore Nahor eight sons (22:20-23). Through her son Bethuel she was the grandmother of Rebekah (24:15-47). 2. One of the five daughters of Zelophehad. Because Zelophehad had no sons, his daughters petitioned Moses to allow them to receive their father’s inheritance in west Manasseh after their father’s death (Nm 26:33; 27:1-11; 36:5-13; Jos 17:3-4).","source":"Articles\/M.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":33916,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Sarah","title_en":"Sarah","content_ro":"<h3>SARAH<\/h3>\n<li>1. Wife of Abraham whose name was originally Sarai (Gn 11:29). Her name was changed to Sarah (“princess”) when she was promised that she would bear a son and become the mother of nations and kings (17:15-16). Sarah was both the wife and the half sister of Abraham (20:12).<\/li>\n<p>Sarah accompanied Abraham in his journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran and eventually into the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31; 12:5). She remained barren for much of her marriage. When God promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation (12:2) and that the land of Canaan would be given to his seed (v 7), Sarah was still barren.<\/p>\n<p>After 10 years had passed (cf. Gn 12:4; 16:16) and Sarah continued without children, she gave her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to Abraham as a concubine. Hagar conceived and bore a son, Ishmael (16:3-4). God promised that a nation would come from Ishmael (17:20) but indicated that he was not to be the child of the promise. Sarah herself was to be the mother of this child, even though she laughed when the birth was predicted. The fulfillment of this prediction took place with the birth of Isaac (21:2-3), when Sarah was 90 years old, 25 years after the original promise of a seed to Abraham (17:17; 21:5).<\/p>\n<p>When famine forced Abraham and Sarah to journey down into Egypt shortly after their entrance into Canaan, Sarah was represented to the Egyptians as Abraham’s sister. This resulted in Sarah’s being taken into the harem of Pharaoh because of her great beauty (Gn 12:11-15), and Abraham’s being well treated and rewarded by the Egyptians instead of being killed. God intervened to protect the marriage of Abraham and Sarah by plaguing the house of Pharaoh to force Sarah’s release. A similar tactic was followed by Abraham and Sarah on another occasion in Gerar (ch 20), where she was taken into the household of Abimelech the king of Gerar. Again God protected Sarah, preserved her as the mother of the promised seed, and prevented any suspicion or doubt concerning who was the father of Isaac. Significantly, Isaac was born not long after this incident (21:1-5), his birth having been promised about a year earlier (17:21; 18:10-14). Sarah died at the age of 127 and was buried in the cave at Machpelah, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite (ch 23).<\/p>\n<p>Apart from the book of Genesis, Sarah is referred to in the OT only in Isaiah 51:2. Reference is made to her in the NT in Romans 4:19, 9:9, Hebrews 11:11, 1 Peter 3:6, and Galatians 4:21-31, although in the Galatians text she is not mentioned by name.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Barrenness.<\/p>\n<li>2. KJV spelling of Serah, Asher’s daughter, in Numbers 26:46. <em>See<\/em> Serah.<\/li>\n<li>3. The heroine of the book of Tobit. Her prayer of anguish was heard by God, who sent the angel Raphael as a matchmaker to arrange her marriage to Tobias (Tb 6:9ff.). She had been tormented by a demon, who had caused the death of her previous seven husbands but was exorcised by Tobias using a recipe of fish heart and liver that was given to him by the angel Raphael (8:2). After the death of Tobit and his wife, Anna, in Nineveh, Tobias and Sarah, and their children returned to Sarah’s family in Ecbatana (14:12ff.).<\/li>","content_en":"<h3>SARAH<\/h3>\n<li>1. Wife of Abraham whose name was originally Sarai (Gn 11:29). Her name was changed to Sarah (“princess”) when she was promised that she would bear a son and become the mother of nations and kings (17:15-16). Sarah was both the wife and the half sister of Abraham (20:12).<\/li>\n<p>Sarah accompanied Abraham in his journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran and eventually into the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31; 12:5). She remained barren for much of her marriage. When God promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation (12:2) and that the land of Canaan would be given to his seed (v 7), Sarah was still barren.<\/p>\n<p>After 10 years had passed (cf. Gn 12:4; 16:16) and Sarah continued without children, she gave her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to Abraham as a concubine. Hagar conceived and bore a son, Ishmael (16:3-4). God promised that a nation would come from Ishmael (17:20) but indicated that he was not to be the child of the promise. Sarah herself was to be the mother of this child, even though she laughed when the birth was predicted. The fulfillment of this prediction took place with the birth of Isaac (21:2-3), when Sarah was 90 years old, 25 years after the original promise of a seed to Abraham (17:17; 21:5).<\/p>\n<p>When famine forced Abraham and Sarah to journey down into Egypt shortly after their entrance into Canaan, Sarah was represented to the Egyptians as Abraham’s sister. This resulted in Sarah’s being taken into the harem of Pharaoh because of her great beauty (Gn 12:11-15), and Abraham’s being well treated and rewarded by the Egyptians instead of being killed. God intervened to protect the marriage of Abraham and Sarah by plaguing the house of Pharaoh to force Sarah’s release. A similar tactic was followed by Abraham and Sarah on another occasion in Gerar (ch 20), where she was taken into the household of Abimelech the king of Gerar. Again God protected Sarah, preserved her as the mother of the promised seed, and prevented any suspicion or doubt concerning who was the father of Isaac. Significantly, Isaac was born not long after this incident (21:1-5), his birth having been promised about a year earlier (17:21; 18:10-14). Sarah died at the age of 127 and was buried in the cave at Machpelah, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite (ch 23).<\/p>\n<p>Apart from the book of Genesis, Sarah is referred to in the OT only in Isaiah 51:2. Reference is made to her in the NT in Romans 4:19, 9:9, Hebrews 11:11, 1 Peter 3:6, and Galatians 4:21-31, although in the Galatians text she is not mentioned by name.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Barrenness.<\/p>\n<li>2. KJV spelling of Serah, Asher’s daughter, in Numbers 26:46. <em>See<\/em> Serah.<\/li>\n<li>3. The heroine of the book of Tobit. Her prayer of anguish was heard by God, who sent the angel Raphael as a matchmaker to arrange her marriage to Tobias (Tb 6:9ff.). She had been tormented by a demon, who had caused the death of her previous seven husbands but was exorcised by Tobias using a recipe of fish heart and liver that was given to him by the angel Raphael (8:2). After the death of Tobit and his wife, Anna, in Nineveh, Tobias and Sarah, and their children returned to Sarah’s family in Ecbatana (14:12ff.).<\/li>","summary_ro":"SARAH 1. Wife of Abraham whose name was originally Sarai (Gn 11:29). Her name was changed to Sarah (“princess”) when she was promised that she would bear a son and become the mother of nations and kings (17:15-16). Sarah was both the wife and the half sister of Abraham (20:12). Sarah accompanied Abraham in his journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran and eventually into the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31; 12:5). She remained barren for much of her marriage. When God promised Abraham that he would m...","summary_en":"SARAH 1. Wife of Abraham whose name was originally Sarai (Gn 11:29). Her name was changed to Sarah (“princess”) when she was promised that she would bear a son and become the mother of nations and kings (17:15-16). Sarah was both the wife and the half sister of Abraham (20:12). Sarah accompanied Abraham in his journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran and eventually into the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31; 12:5). She remained barren for much of her marriage. When God promised Abraham that he would m...","source":"Articles\/S.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":33946,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Sarai","title_en":"Sarai","content_ro":"<h3>SARAI<\/h3>\n<p>Original name for Sarah, Abraham’s wife (Gn 11:29). <em>See<\/em> Sarah #1.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>SARAI<\/h3>\n<p>Original name for Sarah, Abraham’s wife (Gn 11:29). <em>See<\/em> Sarah #1.<\/p>","summary_ro":"SARAI Original name for Sarah, Abraham’s wife (Gn 11:29). See Sarah #1.","summary_en":"SARAI Original name for Sarah, Abraham’s wife (Gn 11:29). See Sarah #1.","source":"Articles\/S.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":43007,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:29","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:29","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:29<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em> means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • <em>Nahor’s wife was Milcah:<\/em> Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “queen.” In Akkadian, it is a title of the goddess Ishtar, the moon-god’s daughter. Terah’s name is related to the word for “moon” in Hebrew; his whole family appears to have worshiped Sin, the moon-god (see Josh 24:14).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:29<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em> means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • <em>Nahor’s wife was Milcah:<\/em> Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “queen.” In Akkadian, it is a title of the goddess Ishtar, the moon-god’s daughter. Terah’s name is related to the word for “moon” in Hebrew; his whole family appears to have worshiped Sin, the moon-god (see Josh 24:14).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:29 Sarai means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • Nahor’s wife was Milcah: Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “qu...","summary_en":"11:29 Sarai means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • Nahor’s wife was Milcah: Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “qu...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70633,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:29","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:29","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:29<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em> means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • <em>Nahor’s wife was Milcah:<\/em> Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “queen.” In Akkadian, it is a title of the goddess Ishtar, the moon-god’s daughter. Terah’s name is related to the word for “moon” in Hebrew; his whole family appears to have worshiped Sin, the moon-god (see Josh 24:14).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:29<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em> means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • <em>Nahor’s wife was Milcah:<\/em> Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “queen.” In Akkadian, it is a title of the goddess Ishtar, the moon-god’s daughter. Terah’s name is related to the word for “moon” in Hebrew; his whole family appears to have worshiped Sin, the moon-god (see Josh 24:14).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:29 Sarai means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • Nahor’s wife was Milcah: Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “qu...","summary_en":"11:29 Sarai means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • Nahor’s wife was Milcah: Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “qu...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98259,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:29","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:29","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:29<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em> means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • <em>Nahor’s wife was Milcah:<\/em> Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “queen.” In Akkadian, it is a title of the goddess Ishtar, the moon-god’s daughter. Terah’s name is related to the word for “moon” in Hebrew; his whole family appears to have worshiped Sin, the moon-god (see Josh 24:14).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:29<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em> means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • <em>Nahor’s wife was Milcah:<\/em> Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “queen.” In Akkadian, it is a title of the goddess Ishtar, the moon-god’s daughter. Terah’s name is related to the word for “moon” in Hebrew; his whole family appears to have worshiped Sin, the moon-god (see Josh 24:14).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:29 Sarai means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • Nahor’s wife was Milcah: Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “qu...","summary_en":"11:29 Sarai means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • Nahor’s wife was Milcah: Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “qu...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125885,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:29","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:29","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:29<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em> means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • <em>Nahor’s wife was Milcah:<\/em> Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “queen.” In Akkadian, it is a title of the goddess Ishtar, the moon-god’s daughter. Terah’s name is related to the word for “moon” in Hebrew; his whole family appears to have worshiped Sin, the moon-god (see Josh 24:14).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:29<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em> means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • <em>Nahor’s wife was Milcah:<\/em> Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “queen.” In Akkadian, it is a title of the goddess Ishtar, the moon-god’s daughter. Terah’s name is related to the word for “moon” in Hebrew; his whole family appears to have worshiped Sin, the moon-god (see Josh 24:14).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:29 Sarai means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • Nahor’s wife was Milcah: Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “qu...","summary_en":"11:29 Sarai means “princess” in Hebrew. No mention is made of Sarai’s parentage, perhaps to add suspense to the Abimelech story, which reveals that she was Abram’s half sister (20:9-12). Later, the law prohibited such a marriage (Lev 18:9; 20:17; Deut 27:22). • Nahor’s wife was Milcah: Milcah was Haran’s daughter and Nahor’s niece (see Gen 11:29). Her son Bethuel was the father of Rebekah, the wife of Abram’s son Isaac (24:10, 15, 24). The name Milcah is related to the Hebrew word meaning “qu...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"30":[{"id":40791,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":68417,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":96043,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":123669,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":269,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>ABRAHAM<\/h3>\n<p>One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut separation from pagan roots. The new name, interpreted by the biblical text as meaning “father of a multitude,” was also a statement of God’s promise to Abraham that he would have many descendants, as well as a significant test of his faith in God—since he was 99 years old at the time and his childless wife was 90 (Gn 11:30; 17:1-4, 17).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"AbrahamsLife\">Abraham’s Life<\/p>\n<p>The story of Abram begins in Genesis 11, where his family relationships are recorded (Gn 11:26-32). Terah, Abram’s father, was named after the moon deity worshiped at Ur. Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran, the father of Lot, died before the family left Ur. Terah took Lot, Abram, and Abram’s wife, Sarai, from Ur to go to Canaan but settled at the city of Haran (v 31). It is stated in Acts 7:2-4 that Abraham heard the call of God to leave for a new land while he was still in Ur.<\/p>\n<p>A note of major importance to the course of Abram’s life is found in Genesis 11:30: “Sarai was not able to have any children” (<span>nlt<\/span>). The problem of Sarai’s barrenness provided the basis for great crises of faith, promise, and fulfillment in the lives of Abram and Sarai.<\/p>\n\n<p>After Terah’s death, God told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.” This command was the basis of a “covenant,” in which God promised to make Abram the founder of a new nation in that new land (Gn 12:1-3, <span>nlt<\/span>). Abram, trusting God’s promise, left Haran at the age of 74. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, an important Canaanite royal city between Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal. Near the oak of Moreh, a Canaanite shrine, God appeared to him (12:7). Abram built an altar at Shechem, then moved to the vicinity of Bethel and again built an altar to the Lord (12:8). The expression “to call on the name of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (<span>rsv<\/span>) means more than just to pray. Rather, Abram made a proclamation, declaring the reality of God to the Canaanites in their centers of false worship. Later Abram moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, where again he built an altar to worship God. Another blessing given in a vision (15:1) led Abram to exclaim that he was still childless and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). Discovery of the Nuzi documents has helped to clarify that otherwise obscure statement. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of station and substance would adopt an heir. Often a slave, the heir would be responsible for the burial and mourning of his adoptive parents. If a son should be born after the adoption of a slave-heir, the natural son would of course supplant him. Thus God’s response to Abram’s question is directly to the point: “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own to inherit everything I am giving you” (Gn 15:4, <span>nlt<\/span>). God then made a covenant with Abram insuring an heir, a nation, and the land.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. When Abram was 99, the Lord appeared to the aged patriarch and again reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and blessing (Gn 17). Circumcision was added as the seal of covenantal relationship (17:9-14), and at that point the names Abram and Sarai were changed to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham’s response to the promise of another son was to laugh: “Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. ‘How could I become a father at the age of one hundred?’ he wondered. ‘Besides, Sarah is ninety; how could she have a baby?’ ” (Gn 17:17, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 18 and 19 recount the total destruction of two cities of the Jordan plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. Chapter 18 begins with three individuals seeking comfort in the heat of the day. Abraham offered refreshment and a meal to his guests. They turned out to be no ordinary travelers, however, but the Angel of the Lord along with two other angels (18:1-2; 19:1). There is reason to believe that the Angel of the Lord was God himself (18:17, 33). Another announcement of a promised son made Sarah laugh in unbelief and then deny having laughed (18:12-15).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 21 to 23 form the climax of the story of Abraham. At long last, when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife 90, “the <span>Lord<\/span> did exactly what he had promised” (Gn 21:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). The joy of the aged couple on the birth of their long-promised son could not be contained. Both Abraham and Sarah had laughed in unbelief in the days of promise; now they laughed in joy as God had “the last laugh.” The baby, born at the time God promised, was named Isaac (“he laughs!”). Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me” (Gn 21:6, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The laughter over Isaac’s birth subsided entirely in the test of Abraham’s faith described in chapter 22, God’s command to sacrifice Isaac. Only when one has experienced vicariously with Abraham the long 25 years of God’s promise of a son can one imagine the trauma of such a supreme test. Just as the knife was about to fall, and only then, did the angel of God break the silence of heaven with the call, “Abraham!” (22:11). The name of promise, “father of a multitude,” took on its most significant meaning when Abraham’s son was spared and the test was explained: “I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me” (Gn 22:12, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Those words were coupled with a promise implicit in the discovery of a ram caught in the thicket. The Lord provided an alternative sacrifice, a substitute. The place was named “the Lord will provide.” Christian believers generally see the whole episode as looking ahead to God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Covenant; Patriarchs, Period of the; Israel, History of; “Abraham’s Bosom”; Sarah #1.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>ABRAHAM<\/h3>\n<p>One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut separation from pagan roots. The new name, interpreted by the biblical text as meaning “father of a multitude,” was also a statement of God’s promise to Abraham that he would have many descendants, as well as a significant test of his faith in God—since he was 99 years old at the time and his childless wife was 90 (Gn 11:30; 17:1-4, 17).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"AbrahamsLife\">Abraham’s Life<\/p>\n<p>The story of Abram begins in Genesis 11, where his family relationships are recorded (Gn 11:26-32). Terah, Abram’s father, was named after the moon deity worshiped at Ur. Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran, the father of Lot, died before the family left Ur. Terah took Lot, Abram, and Abram’s wife, Sarai, from Ur to go to Canaan but settled at the city of Haran (v 31). It is stated in Acts 7:2-4 that Abraham heard the call of God to leave for a new land while he was still in Ur.<\/p>\n<p>A note of major importance to the course of Abram’s life is found in Genesis 11:30: “Sarai was not able to have any children” (<span>nlt<\/span>). The problem of Sarai’s barrenness provided the basis for great crises of faith, promise, and fulfillment in the lives of Abram and Sarai.<\/p>\n\n<p>After Terah’s death, God told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.” This command was the basis of a “covenant,” in which God promised to make Abram the founder of a new nation in that new land (Gn 12:1-3, <span>nlt<\/span>). Abram, trusting God’s promise, left Haran at the age of 74. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, an important Canaanite royal city between Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal. Near the oak of Moreh, a Canaanite shrine, God appeared to him (12:7). Abram built an altar at Shechem, then moved to the vicinity of Bethel and again built an altar to the Lord (12:8). The expression “to call on the name of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (<span>rsv<\/span>) means more than just to pray. Rather, Abram made a proclamation, declaring the reality of God to the Canaanites in their centers of false worship. Later Abram moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, where again he built an altar to worship God. Another blessing given in a vision (15:1) led Abram to exclaim that he was still childless and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). Discovery of the Nuzi documents has helped to clarify that otherwise obscure statement. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of station and substance would adopt an heir. Often a slave, the heir would be responsible for the burial and mourning of his adoptive parents. If a son should be born after the adoption of a slave-heir, the natural son would of course supplant him. Thus God’s response to Abram’s question is directly to the point: “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own to inherit everything I am giving you” (Gn 15:4, <span>nlt<\/span>). God then made a covenant with Abram insuring an heir, a nation, and the land.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. When Abram was 99, the Lord appeared to the aged patriarch and again reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and blessing (Gn 17). Circumcision was added as the seal of covenantal relationship (17:9-14), and at that point the names Abram and Sarai were changed to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham’s response to the promise of another son was to laugh: “Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. ‘How could I become a father at the age of one hundred?’ he wondered. ‘Besides, Sarah is ninety; how could she have a baby?’ ” (Gn 17:17, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 18 and 19 recount the total destruction of two cities of the Jordan plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. Chapter 18 begins with three individuals seeking comfort in the heat of the day. Abraham offered refreshment and a meal to his guests. They turned out to be no ordinary travelers, however, but the Angel of the Lord along with two other angels (18:1-2; 19:1). There is reason to believe that the Angel of the Lord was God himself (18:17, 33). Another announcement of a promised son made Sarah laugh in unbelief and then deny having laughed (18:12-15).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 21 to 23 form the climax of the story of Abraham. At long last, when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife 90, “the <span>Lord<\/span> did exactly what he had promised” (Gn 21:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). The joy of the aged couple on the birth of their long-promised son could not be contained. Both Abraham and Sarah had laughed in unbelief in the days of promise; now they laughed in joy as God had “the last laugh.” The baby, born at the time God promised, was named Isaac (“he laughs!”). Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me” (Gn 21:6, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The laughter over Isaac’s birth subsided entirely in the test of Abraham’s faith described in chapter 22, God’s command to sacrifice Isaac. Only when one has experienced vicariously with Abraham the long 25 years of God’s promise of a son can one imagine the trauma of such a supreme test. Just as the knife was about to fall, and only then, did the angel of God break the silence of heaven with the call, “Abraham!” (22:11). The name of promise, “father of a multitude,” took on its most significant meaning when Abraham’s son was spared and the test was explained: “I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me” (Gn 22:12, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Those words were coupled with a promise implicit in the discovery of a ram caught in the thicket. The Lord provided an alternative sacrifice, a substitute. The place was named “the Lord will provide.” Christian believers generally see the whole episode as looking ahead to God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Covenant; Patriarchs, Period of the; Israel, History of; “Abraham’s Bosom”; Sarah #1.<\/p>","summary_ro":"ABRAHAM One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people. Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut s...","summary_en":"ABRAHAM One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people. Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut s...","source":"Articles\/A.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":43008,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:30","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:30","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:30<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em>, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:30<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em>, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:30 Sarai, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).","summary_en":"11:30 Sarai, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70634,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:30","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:30","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:30<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em>, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:30<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em>, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:30 Sarai, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).","summary_en":"11:30 Sarai, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98260,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:30","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:30","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:30<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em>, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:30<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em>, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:30 Sarai, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).","summary_en":"11:30 Sarai, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125886,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:30","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:30","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:30<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em>, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:30<\/strong> <em>Sarai<\/em>, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:30 Sarai, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).","summary_en":"11:30 Sarai, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":59977,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Infertility","title_en":"Infertility","content_ro":"<h3>Infertility<\/h3>\n<p>With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; Prov 30:15-16; Isa 54:1), who understood herself to be created as a vessel of life (Gen 1:28; 3:20). It was considered a denial of blessing, design, and desire (1:28), and it brought shame (1 Sam 1:7), ridicule (Gen 16:4), and vicious jealousy (30:1).<\/p>\n<p>In the Old Testament, childlessness is a theological issue. Fertility is controlled by the Creator (20:17-18; 30:2, 22-23; 1 Sam 1:6, 27), who causes fertility and infertility according to his purpose and his promises (Gen 17:19; 30:2; Ps 113:9; Luke 1:11-20; Rom 4:19). God often chose infertility as a precursor to the birth of a promised or unique child, marking the birth as God’s own work. Childlessness is thus a trial of patience that prompts prayer and faith (Gen 25:21; 1 Sam 1:11). Abraham learned to nurture faith in God’s promise long before his child arrived (Gen 15:4-6; 17:15-21; Rom 4:20-22). When a couple has been infertile, a child’s arrival is marked as a special display of God’s faithfulness and creative authority.<\/p>\n<p>God’s delays are not necessarily denials, but they remind longing men and women to use trials for growth and to see children as a gift that cannot be taken for granted. A childless home can be filled with devotion to God as human expectations are submitted to his will. And for whatever reason, a couple may remain infertile their entire lives. God’s people must not isolate their brothers and sisters who are experiencing infertility but must surround them with love and support.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 16:1-6; 17:15-21; 20:17-18; 25:21; 29:31; 30:1-2, 22-24; Exod 23:25-26; Deut 7:12-15; Judg 13:2-5; 1 Sam 1:2-28; 2:5-7; Ps 113:5-9; Isa 54:1-3; Luke 1:5-25; Rom 4:19-22; Gal 4:24-28; Heb 11:11-12<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Infertility<\/h3>\n<p>With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; Prov 30:15-16; Isa 54:1), who understood herself to be created as a vessel of life (Gen 1:28; 3:20). It was considered a denial of blessing, design, and desire (1:28), and it brought shame (1 Sam 1:7), ridicule (Gen 16:4), and vicious jealousy (30:1).<\/p>\n<p>In the Old Testament, childlessness is a theological issue. Fertility is controlled by the Creator (20:17-18; 30:2, 22-23; 1 Sam 1:6, 27), who causes fertility and infertility according to his purpose and his promises (Gen 17:19; 30:2; Ps 113:9; Luke 1:11-20; Rom 4:19). God often chose infertility as a precursor to the birth of a promised or unique child, marking the birth as God’s own work. Childlessness is thus a trial of patience that prompts prayer and faith (Gen 25:21; 1 Sam 1:11). Abraham learned to nurture faith in God’s promise long before his child arrived (Gen 15:4-6; 17:15-21; Rom 4:20-22). When a couple has been infertile, a child’s arrival is marked as a special display of God’s faithfulness and creative authority.<\/p>\n<p>God’s delays are not necessarily denials, but they remind longing men and women to use trials for growth and to see children as a gift that cannot be taken for granted. A childless home can be filled with devotion to God as human expectations are submitted to his will. And for whatever reason, a couple may remain infertile their entire lives. God’s people must not isolate their brothers and sisters who are experiencing infertility but must surround them with love and support.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 16:1-6; 17:15-21; 20:17-18; 25:21; 29:31; 30:1-2, 22-24; Exod 23:25-26; Deut 7:12-15; Judg 13:2-5; 1 Sam 1:2-28; 2:5-7; Ps 113:5-9; Isa 54:1-3; Luke 1:5-25; Rom 4:19-22; Gal 4:24-28; Heb 11:11-12<\/p>","summary_ro":"Infertility With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; ...","summary_en":"Infertility With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; ...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":87603,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Infertility","title_en":"Infertility","content_ro":"<h3>Infertility<\/h3>\n<p>With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; Prov 30:15-16; Isa 54:1), who understood herself to be created as a vessel of life (Gen 1:28; 3:20). It was considered a denial of blessing, design, and desire (1:28), and it brought shame (1 Sam 1:7), ridicule (Gen 16:4), and vicious jealousy (30:1).<\/p>\n<p>In the Old Testament, childlessness is a theological issue. Fertility is controlled by the Creator (20:17-18; 30:2, 22-23; 1 Sam 1:6, 27), who causes fertility and infertility according to his purpose and his promises (Gen 17:19; 30:2; Ps 113:9; Luke 1:11-20; Rom 4:19). God often chose infertility as a precursor to the birth of a promised or unique child, marking the birth as God’s own work. Childlessness is thus a trial of patience that prompts prayer and faith (Gen 25:21; 1 Sam 1:11). Abraham learned to nurture faith in God’s promise long before his child arrived (Gen 15:4-6; 17:15-21; Rom 4:20-22). When a couple has been infertile, a child’s arrival is marked as a special display of God’s faithfulness and creative authority.<\/p>\n<p>God’s delays are not necessarily denials, but they remind longing men and women to use trials for growth and to see children as a gift that cannot be taken for granted. A childless home can be filled with devotion to God as human expectations are submitted to his will. And for whatever reason, a couple may remain infertile their entire lives. God’s people must not isolate their brothers and sisters who are experiencing infertility but must surround them with love and support.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 16:1-6; 17:15-21; 20:17-18; 25:21; 29:31; 30:1-2, 22-24; Exod 23:25-26; Deut 7:12-15; Judg 13:2-5; 1 Sam 1:2-28; 2:5-7; Ps 113:5-9; Isa 54:1-3; Luke 1:5-25; Rom 4:19-22; Gal 4:24-28; Heb 11:11-12<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Infertility<\/h3>\n<p>With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; Prov 30:15-16; Isa 54:1), who understood herself to be created as a vessel of life (Gen 1:28; 3:20). It was considered a denial of blessing, design, and desire (1:28), and it brought shame (1 Sam 1:7), ridicule (Gen 16:4), and vicious jealousy (30:1).<\/p>\n<p>In the Old Testament, childlessness is a theological issue. Fertility is controlled by the Creator (20:17-18; 30:2, 22-23; 1 Sam 1:6, 27), who causes fertility and infertility according to his purpose and his promises (Gen 17:19; 30:2; Ps 113:9; Luke 1:11-20; Rom 4:19). God often chose infertility as a precursor to the birth of a promised or unique child, marking the birth as God’s own work. Childlessness is thus a trial of patience that prompts prayer and faith (Gen 25:21; 1 Sam 1:11). Abraham learned to nurture faith in God’s promise long before his child arrived (Gen 15:4-6; 17:15-21; Rom 4:20-22). When a couple has been infertile, a child’s arrival is marked as a special display of God’s faithfulness and creative authority.<\/p>\n<p>God’s delays are not necessarily denials, but they remind longing men and women to use trials for growth and to see children as a gift that cannot be taken for granted. A childless home can be filled with devotion to God as human expectations are submitted to his will. And for whatever reason, a couple may remain infertile their entire lives. God’s people must not isolate their brothers and sisters who are experiencing infertility but must surround them with love and support.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 16:1-6; 17:15-21; 20:17-18; 25:21; 29:31; 30:1-2, 22-24; Exod 23:25-26; Deut 7:12-15; Judg 13:2-5; 1 Sam 1:2-28; 2:5-7; Ps 113:5-9; Isa 54:1-3; Luke 1:5-25; Rom 4:19-22; Gal 4:24-28; Heb 11:11-12<\/p>","summary_ro":"Infertility With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; ...","summary_en":"Infertility With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; ...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":115229,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Infertility","title_en":"Infertility","content_ro":"<h3>Infertility<\/h3>\n<p>With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; Prov 30:15-16; Isa 54:1), who understood herself to be created as a vessel of life (Gen 1:28; 3:20). It was considered a denial of blessing, design, and desire (1:28), and it brought shame (1 Sam 1:7), ridicule (Gen 16:4), and vicious jealousy (30:1).<\/p>\n<p>In the Old Testament, childlessness is a theological issue. Fertility is controlled by the Creator (20:17-18; 30:2, 22-23; 1 Sam 1:6, 27), who causes fertility and infertility according to his purpose and his promises (Gen 17:19; 30:2; Ps 113:9; Luke 1:11-20; Rom 4:19). God often chose infertility as a precursor to the birth of a promised or unique child, marking the birth as God’s own work. Childlessness is thus a trial of patience that prompts prayer and faith (Gen 25:21; 1 Sam 1:11). Abraham learned to nurture faith in God’s promise long before his child arrived (Gen 15:4-6; 17:15-21; Rom 4:20-22). When a couple has been infertile, a child’s arrival is marked as a special display of God’s faithfulness and creative authority.<\/p>\n<p>God’s delays are not necessarily denials, but they remind longing men and women to use trials for growth and to see children as a gift that cannot be taken for granted. A childless home can be filled with devotion to God as human expectations are submitted to his will. And for whatever reason, a couple may remain infertile their entire lives. God’s people must not isolate their brothers and sisters who are experiencing infertility but must surround them with love and support.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 16:1-6; 17:15-21; 20:17-18; 25:21; 29:31; 30:1-2, 22-24; Exod 23:25-26; Deut 7:12-15; Judg 13:2-5; 1 Sam 1:2-28; 2:5-7; Ps 113:5-9; Isa 54:1-3; Luke 1:5-25; Rom 4:19-22; Gal 4:24-28; Heb 11:11-12<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Infertility<\/h3>\n<p>With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; Prov 30:15-16; Isa 54:1), who understood herself to be created as a vessel of life (Gen 1:28; 3:20). It was considered a denial of blessing, design, and desire (1:28), and it brought shame (1 Sam 1:7), ridicule (Gen 16:4), and vicious jealousy (30:1).<\/p>\n<p>In the Old Testament, childlessness is a theological issue. Fertility is controlled by the Creator (20:17-18; 30:2, 22-23; 1 Sam 1:6, 27), who causes fertility and infertility according to his purpose and his promises (Gen 17:19; 30:2; Ps 113:9; Luke 1:11-20; Rom 4:19). God often chose infertility as a precursor to the birth of a promised or unique child, marking the birth as God’s own work. Childlessness is thus a trial of patience that prompts prayer and faith (Gen 25:21; 1 Sam 1:11). Abraham learned to nurture faith in God’s promise long before his child arrived (Gen 15:4-6; 17:15-21; Rom 4:20-22). When a couple has been infertile, a child’s arrival is marked as a special display of God’s faithfulness and creative authority.<\/p>\n<p>God’s delays are not necessarily denials, but they remind longing men and women to use trials for growth and to see children as a gift that cannot be taken for granted. A childless home can be filled with devotion to God as human expectations are submitted to his will. And for whatever reason, a couple may remain infertile their entire lives. God’s people must not isolate their brothers and sisters who are experiencing infertility but must surround them with love and support.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 16:1-6; 17:15-21; 20:17-18; 25:21; 29:31; 30:1-2, 22-24; Exod 23:25-26; Deut 7:12-15; Judg 13:2-5; 1 Sam 1:2-28; 2:5-7; Ps 113:5-9; Isa 54:1-3; Luke 1:5-25; Rom 4:19-22; Gal 4:24-28; Heb 11:11-12<\/p>","summary_ro":"Infertility With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; ...","summary_en":"Infertility With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; ...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":142855,"type":"theme_note","type_label":"Temă biblică","type_icon":"🎯","type_color":"#ef4444","title_ro":"Infertility","title_en":"Infertility","content_ro":"<h3>Infertility<\/h3>\n<p>With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; Prov 30:15-16; Isa 54:1), who understood herself to be created as a vessel of life (Gen 1:28; 3:20). It was considered a denial of blessing, design, and desire (1:28), and it brought shame (1 Sam 1:7), ridicule (Gen 16:4), and vicious jealousy (30:1).<\/p>\n<p>In the Old Testament, childlessness is a theological issue. Fertility is controlled by the Creator (20:17-18; 30:2, 22-23; 1 Sam 1:6, 27), who causes fertility and infertility according to his purpose and his promises (Gen 17:19; 30:2; Ps 113:9; Luke 1:11-20; Rom 4:19). God often chose infertility as a precursor to the birth of a promised or unique child, marking the birth as God’s own work. Childlessness is thus a trial of patience that prompts prayer and faith (Gen 25:21; 1 Sam 1:11). Abraham learned to nurture faith in God’s promise long before his child arrived (Gen 15:4-6; 17:15-21; Rom 4:20-22). When a couple has been infertile, a child’s arrival is marked as a special display of God’s faithfulness and creative authority.<\/p>\n<p>God’s delays are not necessarily denials, but they remind longing men and women to use trials for growth and to see children as a gift that cannot be taken for granted. A childless home can be filled with devotion to God as human expectations are submitted to his will. And for whatever reason, a couple may remain infertile their entire lives. God’s people must not isolate their brothers and sisters who are experiencing infertility but must surround them with love and support.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 16:1-6; 17:15-21; 20:17-18; 25:21; 29:31; 30:1-2, 22-24; Exod 23:25-26; Deut 7:12-15; Judg 13:2-5; 1 Sam 1:2-28; 2:5-7; Ps 113:5-9; Isa 54:1-3; Luke 1:5-25; Rom 4:19-22; Gal 4:24-28; Heb 11:11-12<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Infertility<\/h3>\n<p>With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; Prov 30:15-16; Isa 54:1), who understood herself to be created as a vessel of life (Gen 1:28; 3:20). It was considered a denial of blessing, design, and desire (1:28), and it brought shame (1 Sam 1:7), ridicule (Gen 16:4), and vicious jealousy (30:1).<\/p>\n<p>In the Old Testament, childlessness is a theological issue. Fertility is controlled by the Creator (20:17-18; 30:2, 22-23; 1 Sam 1:6, 27), who causes fertility and infertility according to his purpose and his promises (Gen 17:19; 30:2; Ps 113:9; Luke 1:11-20; Rom 4:19). God often chose infertility as a precursor to the birth of a promised or unique child, marking the birth as God’s own work. Childlessness is thus a trial of patience that prompts prayer and faith (Gen 25:21; 1 Sam 1:11). Abraham learned to nurture faith in God’s promise long before his child arrived (Gen 15:4-6; 17:15-21; Rom 4:20-22). When a couple has been infertile, a child’s arrival is marked as a special display of God’s faithfulness and creative authority.<\/p>\n<p>God’s delays are not necessarily denials, but they remind longing men and women to use trials for growth and to see children as a gift that cannot be taken for granted. A childless home can be filled with devotion to God as human expectations are submitted to his will. And for whatever reason, a couple may remain infertile their entire lives. God’s people must not isolate their brothers and sisters who are experiencing infertility but must surround them with love and support.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 16:1-6; 17:15-21; 20:17-18; 25:21; 29:31; 30:1-2, 22-24; Exod 23:25-26; Deut 7:12-15; Judg 13:2-5; 1 Sam 1:2-28; 2:5-7; Ps 113:5-9; Isa 54:1-3; Luke 1:5-25; Rom 4:19-22; Gal 4:24-28; Heb 11:11-12<\/p>","summary_ro":"Infertility With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; ...","summary_en":"Infertility With the apparent exception of Leah—and only then for a time—each of the patriarchs’ wives suffered infertility before eventually having children (Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; see also 1 Sam 1:1-18). Children continued the family line, helped protect the tribe, and provided labor. They ensured that hereditary property would stay within the family, guaranteed assistance in old age, and enacted the proper funeral rites. Infertility was therefore a crushing stigma for a woman (Ps 113:9; ...","source":"ThemeNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"31":[{"id":40563,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Sarah","title_en":"Sarah","content_ro":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","summary_ro":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","summary_en":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":40594,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Lot","title_en":"Lot","content_ro":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","summary_en":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":40784,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":68189,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Sarah","title_en":"Sarah","content_ro":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","summary_ro":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","summary_en":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":68220,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Lot","title_en":"Lot","content_ro":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","summary_en":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":68410,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":95815,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Sarah","title_en":"Sarah","content_ro":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","summary_ro":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","summary_en":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":95846,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Lot","title_en":"Lot","content_ro":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","summary_en":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":96036,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":123441,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Sarah","title_en":"Sarah","content_ro":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Sarah<\/h3>\n<p>Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19).<\/p>\n<p>Sarah is one of several women in Scripture who were barren but miraculously bore a son (see also Gen 30:22-24; 1 Sam 1:9-20; 2 Kgs 4:14-17; Luke 1:5-25). After a series of promises from God, Sarah eventually conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Because Sarah was ninety years old when this happened (cp. Gen 17:17; 21:1-5), she testifies to God’s ability to do what is humanly impossible. Her name Sarai was changed to Sarah on one of the occasions when Isaac’s birth was promised (17:15-16). Sarah is honored for her faithfulness, even though she laughed at the prediction of Isaac’s birth (18:10-15), twenty-five years after God’s original promise to Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah died at age 127 and was buried in the cave that Abraham purchased (Gen 23) at Machpelah. She is known as the mother of the nation of Israel (Isa 51:2), just as Abraham is its father. She is a key player in accounts of Abraham’s faith (see Rom 4:19). She represents the freedom that Christians have (as children of Sarah the free woman) through faith in Christ (see Gal 4:21-31). Peter cites her as an example of holy submission (1 Pet 3:5-6). The writer of Hebrews presents Sarah as an example of faith, for she believed in God’s ability to keep his promises (Heb 11:11-12). Her life demonstrates that God is indeed faithful, though his timing may not always match our expectations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:29-31; 12:10-20; Gen 17:15-22; 18:9-15; 20:1-18; 21:1-13; 23:1-20; Isa 51:2; Rom 4:19; 9:6-9; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:11-12; 1 Pet 3:6<\/p>","summary_ro":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","summary_en":"Sarah Sarah was Abraham’s wife and half sister (Gen 11:29; 20:12). She accompanied Abraham from Ur to Haran to Canaan (11:31; 12:5). On two occasions, in Egypt (12:10-20) and Gerar (20:1-18), Abraham asked Sarah to say that she was his sister rather than his wife because he was afraid that he would be killed as her husband. In both cases, despite Abraham’s lack of faith, God protected Sarah, thus preserving the chosen line through whom he promised to multiply the Israelite nation (12:2; 17:19...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":123472,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Lot","title_en":"Lot","content_ro":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Lot<\/h3>\n<p>Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (Gen 13:10), and eventually he took up residence in Sodom. Lot’s increasing involvement with the completely corrupt cities of the plain compromised him.<\/p>\n<p>While Lot lived in Sodom, four Mesopotamian kings defeated the kings of five towns in the area; in the subsequent plundering, they carried off Lot, his family, and his possessions (Gen 14:1-12). When word of this reached Abraham, he launched a rearguard action against the invaders and recovered the prisoners and property (14:13-16).<\/p>\n<p>Because of the wickedness of Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah, God decided to destroy these towns. He sent two angelic visitors to Lot in Sodom to encourage his departure from the doomed city (Gen 19:1-15). The city’s depravity became even more evident in an attempted homosexual attack on the visitors. Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters, along with his reluctance to leave Sodom, shows how corrupt and compromised he had become. No one but his immediate family accompanied him, and his wife was destroyed when she turned back in disobedience. Soon after the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters, despairing of having no husbands, got Lot drunk enough to have sexual relations with them. Their two sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, were ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Gen 19:30-38), two nations that became inveterate enemies of Israel (see Deut 23:3-6). Despite Lot’s waywardness, Peter declares that Lot was a “righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day” (see 2 Pet 2:6-9). This analysis of Lot may stem from Jewish interpretive tradition, as it is difficult to see in the Genesis account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:27, 31; 12:4-5; 13:1-14; 14:12-16; 19:1-38; Deut 2:9, 17-19; Ps 83:4-8; Luke 17:28-33; 2 Pet 2:6-9<\/p>","summary_ro":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","summary_en":"Lot Lot was Abraham’s nephew and the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites. Like Abraham, Lot was born in Ur and accompanied Terah to Haran (Gen 11:27-32). After Terah’s death, he joined Abraham in journeying to Canaan and Egypt. When Lot and Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, their flocks and herds grew too numerous for them to live together, so Abraham gave Lot his choice of land on which to settle. Lot chose the fertile plain of the Jordan that was like “the garden of the Lord” (Gen 1...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":123662,"type":"profile","type_label":"Profil","type_icon":"👤","type_color":"#f59e0b","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>Abraham<\/h3>\n<p>“By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known.<\/p>\n<p>God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Terah left Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot, whose father, Haran, had died. On his way to Canaan, Terah settled in the city of Haran (11:31). God had called Abram to a new land while he was still in Ur (Acts 7:2-4). God told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). God blessed Abram by making a covenant with him that included promises of great blessing, numerous descendants, and a new land (12:1-3). These promises later saved Israel from destruction when they repeatedly failed to keep their covenant with God (see Lev 26:40-45).<\/p>\n<p>Abram left Haran at age seventy-five. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, a Canaanite city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. God appeared to Abram near the oak of Moreh, likely a Canaanite shrine. Abram built altars there and near Bethel (Gen 12:6-8), proclaiming the one true God at these centers of false worship. Abram later moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, again building an altar to worship God (13:18).<\/p>\n<p>When God again promised blessings to Abram in a vision (15:1), Abram exclaimed that he was still childless because Sarai was barren (11:30) and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). This obscure statement is clarified by the Nuzi documents, discovered at the site of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nuzi. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of means could adopt an heir, often a slave who would be responsible for their burial and mourning. However, a natural son born after the slave-heir’s adoption would supplant him. Apparently Abram had adopted Eliezer in this manner, but God promised that Abram’s own son would be his heir (15:4).<\/p>\n<p>The hallmark of Abram’s life was that he believed the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous because of his faith (Gen 15:6; see Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23). Abram was declared righteous not because he was sinless. On several occasions he failed to do what was right—twice he lied about Sarai out of fear, and he took the provision of a son into his own hands with Hagar rather than continuing to wait for God to act (Gen 16:1-5). But he consistently returned to faith as the fundamental principle of his life before God.<\/p>\n<p>Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born to Sarai’s servant Hagar. When Abram was ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to him and reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and of blessing (Gen 17), adding circumcision as the mark of the covenant relationship (17:9-14). God also changed Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham laughed at the promise of another son (17:17). Shortly afterward, the Lord appeared again to Abraham (18:1-15) and again announced the promised son. This time, Sarah was caught laughing in disbelief (18:10-15). Abraham was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety when the Lord did “exactly what he had promised” (21:1). The long-promised son was born and was fittingly named Isaac (“he laughs!”).<\/p>\n<p>The supreme test of Abraham’s faith came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19). Abraham obeyed faithfully, trusting that God would not thwart his own purposes (see Heb 11:17-19). Just as the knife was about to fall, the angel of God stopped Abraham and provided a ram for him to sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was complete (22:10-13).<\/p>\n<p>Christians understand the sacrifice of Isaac as prefiguring God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God has fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Jesus Christ, through whom the blessing of salvation is extended to all who have faith (Rom 4:16-17), making believers Abraham’s spiritual descendants (Gal 3:29). Abraham’s life shows that God is faithful and worthy of belief and obedience. The full import of God’s promise was realized when the gospel was preached to all nations and people from all families of the earth responded in faith (see Gal 3:6-9).<\/p>\n<p>Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Jas 2:23). All who live by faith are challenged to live as he did, daily venturing into the unknown with trust in God’s guidance and sustenance. Abraham is one of many great “witnesses” to a life of faith (Heb 12:1; see Heb 11), inspiring believers to persevere in faith because we know God is faithful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Passages for Further Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gen 11:26–25:11; 26:2-5; Exod 3:15-16; 6:3; 32:13; Josh 24:2-3; 1 Chr 1:27-34; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:1-2; Ezek 33:24; Matt 1:1-2; 3:9; 8:11; 22:31-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:31-58; Acts 7:2-8; Rom 4:1-23; 9:5-9; 11:16-17; Gal 3:6-29; Heb 6:13-15; 11:8-12, 17-19; Jas 2:21-23<\/p>","summary_ro":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","summary_en":"Abraham “By faith . . . Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land. . . . He went without knowing where he was going. . . . By faith . . . Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him” (Heb 11:8, 17). These key events in Abraham’s life illustrate the faithful obedience for which he is best known. God called Abram from the city of Ur to become the patriarch of God’s people. Abram’s family relationships are recorded in Genesis 11:26-32. Terah had th...","source":"Profiles.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":273,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Abraham","title_en":"Abraham","content_ro":"<h3>ABRAHAM<\/h3>\n<p>One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut separation from pagan roots. The new name, interpreted by the biblical text as meaning “father of a multitude,” was also a statement of God’s promise to Abraham that he would have many descendants, as well as a significant test of his faith in God—since he was 99 years old at the time and his childless wife was 90 (Gn 11:30; 17:1-4, 17).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"AbrahamsLife\">Abraham’s Life<\/p>\n<p>The story of Abram begins in Genesis 11, where his family relationships are recorded (Gn 11:26-32). Terah, Abram’s father, was named after the moon deity worshiped at Ur. Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran, the father of Lot, died before the family left Ur. Terah took Lot, Abram, and Abram’s wife, Sarai, from Ur to go to Canaan but settled at the city of Haran (v 31). It is stated in Acts 7:2-4 that Abraham heard the call of God to leave for a new land while he was still in Ur.<\/p>\n<p>A note of major importance to the course of Abram’s life is found in Genesis 11:30: “Sarai was not able to have any children” (<span>nlt<\/span>). The problem of Sarai’s barrenness provided the basis for great crises of faith, promise, and fulfillment in the lives of Abram and Sarai.<\/p>\n\n<p>After Terah’s death, God told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.” This command was the basis of a “covenant,” in which God promised to make Abram the founder of a new nation in that new land (Gn 12:1-3, <span>nlt<\/span>). Abram, trusting God’s promise, left Haran at the age of 74. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, an important Canaanite royal city between Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal. Near the oak of Moreh, a Canaanite shrine, God appeared to him (12:7). Abram built an altar at Shechem, then moved to the vicinity of Bethel and again built an altar to the Lord (12:8). The expression “to call on the name of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (<span>rsv<\/span>) means more than just to pray. Rather, Abram made a proclamation, declaring the reality of God to the Canaanites in their centers of false worship. Later Abram moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, where again he built an altar to worship God. Another blessing given in a vision (15:1) led Abram to exclaim that he was still childless and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). Discovery of the Nuzi documents has helped to clarify that otherwise obscure statement. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of station and substance would adopt an heir. Often a slave, the heir would be responsible for the burial and mourning of his adoptive parents. If a son should be born after the adoption of a slave-heir, the natural son would of course supplant him. Thus God’s response to Abram’s question is directly to the point: “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own to inherit everything I am giving you” (Gn 15:4, <span>nlt<\/span>). God then made a covenant with Abram insuring an heir, a nation, and the land.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. When Abram was 99, the Lord appeared to the aged patriarch and again reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and blessing (Gn 17). Circumcision was added as the seal of covenantal relationship (17:9-14), and at that point the names Abram and Sarai were changed to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham’s response to the promise of another son was to laugh: “Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. ‘How could I become a father at the age of one hundred?’ he wondered. ‘Besides, Sarah is ninety; how could she have a baby?’ ” (Gn 17:17, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 18 and 19 recount the total destruction of two cities of the Jordan plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. Chapter 18 begins with three individuals seeking comfort in the heat of the day. Abraham offered refreshment and a meal to his guests. They turned out to be no ordinary travelers, however, but the Angel of the Lord along with two other angels (18:1-2; 19:1). There is reason to believe that the Angel of the Lord was God himself (18:17, 33). Another announcement of a promised son made Sarah laugh in unbelief and then deny having laughed (18:12-15).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 21 to 23 form the climax of the story of Abraham. At long last, when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife 90, “the <span>Lord<\/span> did exactly what he had promised” (Gn 21:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). The joy of the aged couple on the birth of their long-promised son could not be contained. Both Abraham and Sarah had laughed in unbelief in the days of promise; now they laughed in joy as God had “the last laugh.” The baby, born at the time God promised, was named Isaac (“he laughs!”). Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me” (Gn 21:6, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The laughter over Isaac’s birth subsided entirely in the test of Abraham’s faith described in chapter 22, God’s command to sacrifice Isaac. Only when one has experienced vicariously with Abraham the long 25 years of God’s promise of a son can one imagine the trauma of such a supreme test. Just as the knife was about to fall, and only then, did the angel of God break the silence of heaven with the call, “Abraham!” (22:11). The name of promise, “father of a multitude,” took on its most significant meaning when Abraham’s son was spared and the test was explained: “I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me” (Gn 22:12, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Those words were coupled with a promise implicit in the discovery of a ram caught in the thicket. The Lord provided an alternative sacrifice, a substitute. The place was named “the Lord will provide.” Christian believers generally see the whole episode as looking ahead to God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Covenant; Patriarchs, Period of the; Israel, History of; “Abraham’s Bosom”; Sarah #1.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>ABRAHAM<\/h3>\n<p>One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut separation from pagan roots. The new name, interpreted by the biblical text as meaning “father of a multitude,” was also a statement of God’s promise to Abraham that he would have many descendants, as well as a significant test of his faith in God—since he was 99 years old at the time and his childless wife was 90 (Gn 11:30; 17:1-4, 17).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"AbrahamsLife\">Abraham’s Life<\/p>\n<p>The story of Abram begins in Genesis 11, where his family relationships are recorded (Gn 11:26-32). Terah, Abram’s father, was named after the moon deity worshiped at Ur. Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran, the father of Lot, died before the family left Ur. Terah took Lot, Abram, and Abram’s wife, Sarai, from Ur to go to Canaan but settled at the city of Haran (v 31). It is stated in Acts 7:2-4 that Abraham heard the call of God to leave for a new land while he was still in Ur.<\/p>\n<p>A note of major importance to the course of Abram’s life is found in Genesis 11:30: “Sarai was not able to have any children” (<span>nlt<\/span>). The problem of Sarai’s barrenness provided the basis for great crises of faith, promise, and fulfillment in the lives of Abram and Sarai.<\/p>\n\n<p>After Terah’s death, God told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.” This command was the basis of a “covenant,” in which God promised to make Abram the founder of a new nation in that new land (Gn 12:1-3, <span>nlt<\/span>). Abram, trusting God’s promise, left Haran at the age of 74. Entering Canaan, he went first to Shechem, an important Canaanite royal city between Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal. Near the oak of Moreh, a Canaanite shrine, God appeared to him (12:7). Abram built an altar at Shechem, then moved to the vicinity of Bethel and again built an altar to the Lord (12:8). The expression “to call on the name of the <span>Lord<\/span>” (<span>rsv<\/span>) means more than just to pray. Rather, Abram made a proclamation, declaring the reality of God to the Canaanites in their centers of false worship. Later Abram moved to Hebron by the oaks of Mamre, where again he built an altar to worship God. Another blessing given in a vision (15:1) led Abram to exclaim that he was still childless and that Eliezer of Damascus was his heir (15:2). Discovery of the Nuzi documents has helped to clarify that otherwise obscure statement. According to Hurrian custom, a childless couple of station and substance would adopt an heir. Often a slave, the heir would be responsible for the burial and mourning of his adoptive parents. If a son should be born after the adoption of a slave-heir, the natural son would of course supplant him. Thus God’s response to Abram’s question is directly to the point: “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own to inherit everything I am giving you” (Gn 15:4, <span>nlt<\/span>). God then made a covenant with Abram insuring an heir, a nation, and the land.<\/p>\n\n<p>Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. When Abram was 99, the Lord appeared to the aged patriarch and again reaffirmed his covenant promise of a son and blessing (Gn 17). Circumcision was added as the seal of covenantal relationship (17:9-14), and at that point the names Abram and Sarai were changed to Abraham and Sarah (17:5, 15). Abraham’s response to the promise of another son was to laugh: “Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. ‘How could I become a father at the age of one hundred?’ he wondered. ‘Besides, Sarah is ninety; how could she have a baby?’ ” (Gn 17:17, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 18 and 19 recount the total destruction of two cities of the Jordan plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. Chapter 18 begins with three individuals seeking comfort in the heat of the day. Abraham offered refreshment and a meal to his guests. They turned out to be no ordinary travelers, however, but the Angel of the Lord along with two other angels (18:1-2; 19:1). There is reason to believe that the Angel of the Lord was God himself (18:17, 33). Another announcement of a promised son made Sarah laugh in unbelief and then deny having laughed (18:12-15).<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 21 to 23 form the climax of the story of Abraham. At long last, when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife 90, “the <span>Lord<\/span> did exactly what he had promised” (Gn 21:1, <span>nlt<\/span>). The joy of the aged couple on the birth of their long-promised son could not be contained. Both Abraham and Sarah had laughed in unbelief in the days of promise; now they laughed in joy as God had “the last laugh.” The baby, born at the time God promised, was named Isaac (“he laughs!”). Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me” (Gn 21:6, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>The laughter over Isaac’s birth subsided entirely in the test of Abraham’s faith described in chapter 22, God’s command to sacrifice Isaac. Only when one has experienced vicariously with Abraham the long 25 years of God’s promise of a son can one imagine the trauma of such a supreme test. Just as the knife was about to fall, and only then, did the angel of God break the silence of heaven with the call, “Abraham!” (22:11). The name of promise, “father of a multitude,” took on its most significant meaning when Abraham’s son was spared and the test was explained: “I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me” (Gn 22:12, <span>nlt<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>Those words were coupled with a promise implicit in the discovery of a ram caught in the thicket. The Lord provided an alternative sacrifice, a substitute. The place was named “the Lord will provide.” Christian believers generally see the whole episode as looking ahead to God’s provision of his only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Covenant; Patriarchs, Period of the; Israel, History of; “Abraham’s Bosom”; Sarah #1.<\/p>","summary_ro":"ABRAHAM One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people. Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut s...","summary_en":"ABRAHAM One of the Bible’s most significant personalities, whom God called from the city of Ur to become patriarch of God’s own people. Abraham’s name was originally Abram, meaning “[the] father is exalted.” When he was given that name by his parents, they were probably participants in the moon cult of Ur, so the father deity suggested in his old name could have been the moon god or another pagan deity. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (Gn 17:5), partly, no doubt, to indicate a clear-cut s...","source":"Articles\/A.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":2520,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Aram-Naharaim","title_en":"Aram-Naharaim","content_ro":"<h3>ARAM-NAHARAIM<\/h3>\n<p>Hebrew word meaning “Aram of the two rivers”; it refers to the area bounded by the upper Euphrates and the Habur Rivers. It is sometimes translated “Mesopotamia” (Dt 23:4, <span>rsv<\/span>). The major city of that area was Haran, where Terah and Abram stopped and where Terah died (Gn 11:31-32). A servant of Abraham (Abram) returned to the same region to seek a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac (Gn 24:1-10). Isaac’s son Jacob also returned to Haran to seek a wife (Gn 28:1-5; Paddan-aram is a synonym of Aram-naharaim). Aram-naharaim was the home of Balaam, the pagan prophet (Dt 23:4). One oppressor of Israel during the period of the judges was Cushan-rishathaim, king of Aram-naharaim (Jgs 3:8-11). Later, in King David’s wars with Ammon, he had to confront mercenary charioteers hired from the Aramean centers of Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah, and Zobah (1 Chr 19:6; cf. Ps 60 title). <em>See<\/em> Syria, Syrians.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>ARAM-NAHARAIM<\/h3>\n<p>Hebrew word meaning “Aram of the two rivers”; it refers to the area bounded by the upper Euphrates and the Habur Rivers. It is sometimes translated “Mesopotamia” (Dt 23:4, <span>rsv<\/span>). The major city of that area was Haran, where Terah and Abram stopped and where Terah died (Gn 11:31-32). A servant of Abraham (Abram) returned to the same region to seek a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac (Gn 24:1-10). Isaac’s son Jacob also returned to Haran to seek a wife (Gn 28:1-5; Paddan-aram is a synonym of Aram-naharaim). Aram-naharaim was the home of Balaam, the pagan prophet (Dt 23:4). One oppressor of Israel during the period of the judges was Cushan-rishathaim, king of Aram-naharaim (Jgs 3:8-11). Later, in King David’s wars with Ammon, he had to confront mercenary charioteers hired from the Aramean centers of Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah, and Zobah (1 Chr 19:6; cf. Ps 60 title). <em>See<\/em> Syria, Syrians.<\/p>","summary_ro":"ARAM-NAHARAIM Hebrew word meaning “Aram of the two rivers”; it refers to the area bounded by the upper Euphrates and the Habur Rivers. It is sometimes translated “Mesopotamia” (Dt 23:4, rsv). The major city of that area was Haran, where Terah and Abram stopped and where Terah died (Gn 11:31-32). A servant of Abraham (Abram) returned to the same region to seek a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac (Gn 24:1-10). Isaac’s son Jacob also returned to Haran to seek a wife (Gn 28:1-5; Paddan-aram is a synon...","summary_en":"ARAM-NAHARAIM Hebrew word meaning “Aram of the two rivers”; it refers to the area bounded by the upper Euphrates and the Habur Rivers. It is sometimes translated “Mesopotamia” (Dt 23:4, rsv). The major city of that area was Haran, where Terah and Abram stopped and where Terah died (Gn 11:31-32). A servant of Abraham (Abram) returned to the same region to seek a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac (Gn 24:1-10). Isaac’s son Jacob also returned to Haran to seek a wife (Gn 28:1-5; Paddan-aram is a synon...","source":"Articles\/A.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":4267,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Ben-Ammi","title_en":"Ben-Ammi","content_ro":"<h3>BEN-AMMI<\/h3>\n<p>Son born to Lot and his younger daughter. A similar incestuous liaison between Lot and his older daughter produced a son named Moab. The two sons are identified as the ancestral heads of the Ammonite and Moabite peoples (Gn 19:38).<\/p>\n<p>Although the promise made to Abraham could have been enjoyed by Lot (Gn 11:31; 12:1-4), Lot went his own way (13:2-12) and failed to trust the Lord (19:15-23). Lot’s relationship to Abraham, however, evoked deferential treatment by the Israelites (Dt 2:8-19) toward these occasionally powerful enemies (2 Chr 20:1-12).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Ammon, Ammonites.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>BEN-AMMI<\/h3>\n<p>Son born to Lot and his younger daughter. A similar incestuous liaison between Lot and his older daughter produced a son named Moab. The two sons are identified as the ancestral heads of the Ammonite and Moabite peoples (Gn 19:38).<\/p>\n<p>Although the promise made to Abraham could have been enjoyed by Lot (Gn 11:31; 12:1-4), Lot went his own way (13:2-12) and failed to trust the Lord (19:15-23). Lot’s relationship to Abraham, however, evoked deferential treatment by the Israelites (Dt 2:8-19) toward these occasionally powerful enemies (2 Chr 20:1-12).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Ammon, Ammonites.<\/p>","summary_ro":"BEN-AMMI Son born to Lot and his younger daughter. A similar incestuous liaison between Lot and his older daughter produced a son named Moab. The two sons are identified as the ancestral heads of the Ammonite and Moabite peoples (Gn 19:38). Although the promise made to Abraham could have been enjoyed by Lot (Gn 11:31; 12:1-4), Lot went his own way (13:2-12) and failed to trust the Lord (19:15-23). Lot’s relationship to Abraham, however, evoked deferential treatment by the Israelites (Dt 2:8-1...","summary_en":"BEN-AMMI Son born to Lot and his younger daughter. A similar incestuous liaison between Lot and his older daughter produced a son named Moab. The two sons are identified as the ancestral heads of the Ammonite and Moabite peoples (Gn 19:38). Although the promise made to Abraham could have been enjoyed by Lot (Gn 11:31; 12:1-4), Lot went his own way (13:2-12) and failed to trust the Lord (19:15-23). Lot’s relationship to Abraham, however, evoked deferential treatment by the Israelites (Dt 2:8-1...","source":"Articles\/B.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":6437,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"of the Bible* (Old Testament), Chronology","title_en":"of the Bible* (Old Testament), Chronology","content_ro":"<h3>CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament)<\/h3>\n<p>Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper historical background of the biblical texts. In general, the chronology of the OT is understood well enough to vindicate the basic accuracy and sequential order of Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>Both biblical and nonbiblical materials are utilized by students of OT chronology. Biblical data include (1) genealogies showing personal and tribal affiliations among various peoples; (2) specific numbers given by biblical authors to indicate a person’s longevity, a king’s reign, or the duration of a specific event; (3) synchronizing statements that date an event in a specific year of a king’s reign or relate it to a natural phenomenon assumed to be common knowledge at the time of writing (e.g., Am 1:1; Zec 14:5).<\/p>\n<p>From the abundance of such chronological passages in the OT, one might conclude that establishment of OT dates and sequences would be a simple procedure. Each of the three kinds of biblical materials, however, exhibits special problems that must be solved first.<\/p>\n<p>Nonbiblical materials that shed light on OT chronology are quite numerous, and more are discovered year by year. They include (1) official records of important affairs such as military campaigns from countries like Egypt or Babylonia; (2) official inscriptions that are dedicatory or commemorate a great victory; (3) annals listing major accomplishments of a ruler year by year; (4) ostraca (inscribed pieces of pottery) containing letters, tax transactions and economic records, military dispatches between field leaders and command headquarters, or other information. Ostraca may be dated archaeologically and are often used to supplement the biblical record.<\/p>\n<p>The chronologist tries to examine the pertinent biblical and nonbiblical information, notes areas of correlation among all the data, and finally establishes a working system into which the most facts can be fitted. New evidence uncovered at any time may necessitate shifts in the present working system. Although the basic structure of biblical chronology seems reasonably firm, many details will no doubt be subject to change as new evidence is discovered.<\/p>\n<p>As a general rule, the earlier the period, the less certain one can be of one’s dating. In the second millennium <span>BC<\/span>, for example, many dates can be assigned within a range of about 100 years. By the time of David and Solomon (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>), the margin of error over which scholars debate is a decade or less. The range narrows as one comes toward the present, so that, with the exception of one or two problem eras, dates accurate to within one or two years are possible by roughly the middle of the ninth century <span>BC<\/span>. Such limitations must be kept in mind in any examination of the major periods of OT history.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<p>• From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<p>• Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>• The Monarchy<\/p>\n<p>• Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>• Beyond 587 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrepatriarchalPeriod\">Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<h5>Biblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>In the first 11 chapters of Genesis are found accounts of the Creation (chs 1–2), the fall (ch 3), Cain and Abel (ch 4), the Flood (chs 6–9), and the Tower of Babel (ch 11). Those events are set within a certain chronological framework.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 5, a period of 10 generations elapsed between the Creation and the Flood. Although the individuals listed enjoyed a total life span of a hefty 847 years plus, the total time elapsing between Adam and the Flood was only 1,656 years.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 11, another 10 generations elapsed from the time of the Flood until the time of Abraham (at least in the Septuagint, the third-century <span>BC<\/span> Greek translation of the OT; the Hebrew Masoretic text has 9). In that period the average age attained by individuals in the list is 346 years (using a figure of 460 for Arphaxad’s son Cainan, who is included in v 13 of the LXX; cf. Lk 3:36); the total elapsed time from the Flood to Abraham is only 520 years. Taken literally, that would mean that all of Abraham’s ancestors as far back as Noah’s son Shem were still alive at Abraham’s birth, and that a total of only 2,176 years elapsed from the time of Creation to Abraham.<\/p>\n<h5>Interpretation of the Biblical Data<\/h5>\n<p>A literalistic or slavishly mathematical interpretation of the figures, as has appeared in the margin of many <span>kjv<\/span> Bibles, requires a number of assumptions: that no names are omitted from the genealogies, that all the numbers given are consecutive, and especially that numbers used in an ancient biblical source carry the same meaning as that associated with them in the modern Western mind. Each assumption needs serious examination in the light of other established facts.<\/p>\n<p>A cursory reading of other biblical genealogies, for example, reveals that not all the names of a given family were always included. Even Matthew recorded a total of 28 generations (two sets of 14 each) between David and Jesus, and comparison with OT genealogies reveals that Matthew omitted several names. Luke listed a total of 42 generations for the same interval. Omissions are also obvious when one compares the genealogical lists given in 1 Chronicles 1–8 with those recorded earlier in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings.<\/p>\n<p>Further, ancient peoples thought of numbers in a schematic or stylized way. Use of numbers among the ancient Near Eastern nations differed sharply from current Western practice. Examples of that practice are known from both biblical and nonbiblical sources. For example, a list of eight Sumerian kings who ruled in the city of Shurruppak before the “great flood” of the Jemdet Nar era (c. 3000 <span>BC<\/span>) assigns each man an average reign of more than 30,000 years. Berossus, a Babylonian priest of Marduk living in the third century <span>BC<\/span>, added two names to the eight found in that earlier list of kings and assigned an average of 43,200 years to each king. Such extraordinarily high numbers provide a perspective for considering the numbers of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, although one can assume that the numbers assigned to the ages of the patriarchs preceding Abraham in Genesis had real meaning for those responsible for their preservation, they should not be employed in a purely literal sense to compute the length of the various generations mentioned in the text. Further, the numbers given in the Septuagint and in the Samaritan Pentateuch, another early version of the Pentateuch, diverge in many details from those of the Hebrew Masoretic Text. That means, among other things, that the Genesis numbers caused problems for even the earliest scholars of Scripture.<\/p>\n<h5>Nonbiblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>Archaeology provides no evidence that may be used to date either the Creation or any other account preserved in Genesis 1–11. The Flood is an example that illustrates some of the difficulties. Many claims have been made by persons from a wide variety of backgrounds (scientists, explorers, theologians, and others) to the effect that archaeology has proven the Genesis Flood narrative to be true. Yet no city so far excavated in Palestine and Syria (including some of the oldest towns in the world) shows archaeological evidence of the Flood.<\/p>\n<p>Although several cities in Mesopotamia do exhibit evidence of a flood, three factors make it difficult to link that evidence with Genesis 6–9. Each of the flood levels so far discovered dates from a different period. Further, since nearby sites show no evidence of flooding, all of the Mesopotamian flood evidence points to relatively small local floods. Finally, the evidence indicates no great cultural discontinuities of the sort that would result from destruction of an entire population. Thus, it seems that the ancient Mesopotamian floods discovered through archaeological research are of the same kind as the floods that still occur in the Euphrates River valley.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, certain questions one might ask of the Genesis narratives simply cannot be answered. Many who regard the Bible as the Word of God have concluded that the dating of events found in Genesis 1–11 must be less important than the theological truths of salvation, faith, and obedience that these accounts present.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"FromAbrahamtoMoses\">From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<h5>The Patriarchal Age<\/h5>\n<p>The date of Abraham is still a lively topic among biblical scholars who agree that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were indeed historical persons. Opinions range from an early-date view that estimates that the patriarchal age extended from 2086 to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>, to a late-date view placing Abraham at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>. Since each position claims to fit the biblical data, a closer look at the two points of view is in order.<\/p>\n<p>Many OT passages seem to support the view that puts Abraham at a comparatively early date. First Kings 6:1 computes 480 years back from the founding of the temple in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign (961 <span>BC<\/span>, according to the early-date view) to the exodus from Egypt, which would then be dated 1441 <span>BC<\/span>. Counting 430 years as the period of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt (see Gn 15:13; Ex 12:40) takes the date back to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>. To that date are added the 215 years demanded by the total of (1) Abraham’s age upon entering Canaan (75 years according to Gn 12:4); (2) 25 additional years before the birth of Isaac (Gn 21:5); (3) 60 more years to the birth of Jacob (Gn 25:26); and (4) the appearance of Jacob before the pharaoh at age 130 (Gn 47:9). Those 215 years added to the previous total give a date of 2086 <span>BC<\/span> for the entrance of Abraham into Canaan and a date of 2161 <span>BC<\/span> for his birth.<\/p>\n<p>Such a calculation does not use all of the chronological evidence presented in the OT; consequently, the date for Abraham is open to challenge. For example, the 480 years between the exodus and Solomon’s fourth regnal year represent a period of time into which the wilderness wanderings, the career of Joshua and his immediate successors, the period of the judges, Samuel, Saul, and David must all be placed. Although the OT does not specifically say how long were the careers of Joshua, Samuel, or Saul, even a modest reckoning pushes the total years required by all the biblical data together to approximately 600.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the length of time to be assigned to the Egyptian sojourn is problematic. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint both view the number 430 (in Ex 12:40) as applicable not only to the years in Egypt but to the years of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Canaan as well. Evidently Paul followed the Septuagint tradition when he dated the giving of the law 430 years later than the time of God’s promise to Abraham (see Gal 3:15-18). That means the Septuagint figure cannot be dismissed lightly.<\/p>\n<p>The late dating of Abraham (c. 1400 <span>BC<\/span>) is based on two propositions: (1) The picture of patriarchal society portrayed in Genesis most closely parallels that reflected in the cuneiform tablets recovered from Nuzi, a town in northeastern Mesopotamia about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of Baghdad. (2) Because those tablets must be dated in the 15th and 14th centuries <span>BC<\/span>, the parallel patriarchal age must have fallen within the same general time period.<\/p>\n<p>Those who hold the late-date view are aware that their date for Abraham cannot be equated with the set of numbers on which the early-date view depends. They point to other data, also from the OT. Joseph, who was already a highly placed Egyptian official when Jacob moved to Egypt, lived to be 110 years old (Gn 50:26). Moses was a great-grandson of Levi, Joseph’s older brother. Since Joseph lived to see his own greatgrandchildren born (who would probably be younger than Moses since their great-grandfather was younger than his), the late-date view concludes that Joseph could have been alive when Moses was born. The four-generation genealogy of Moses (Levi-Kohath-Amram-Moses, in Ex 6:16-20; Nm 3:17-19; 26:58-59; 1 Chr 6:1-3) was evidently thought to be complete according to Genesis 15:16, which predicted that Abraham’s descendants would be freed from Egyptian bondage “in the fourth generation.”<\/p>\n<p>However, a date of around 1400 <span>BC<\/span> for Abraham cannot be aligned with certain other biblical data, including the long Egyptian sojourn demanded by Genesis 15:13 and Exodus 12:40 and a 40-year (or “one-generation”) wilderness existence. Some normally moderate scholars are forced to reduce the wilderness time to two years in order to maintain their late date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>In short, the late-date theory is consistent with part of the biblical evidence (the genealogies of Moses), but the early-date theory conforms to another part (the actual year figures listed in scattered verses from Genesis and Exodus). The late-date theory holds that the genealogies represent more reliable information in Semitic societies generally, whereas the early-date theory computes years given in the biblical account literally throughout its scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Because of problems attached to both positions, a large group of scholars take a middle ground in dating the patriarchal age. Archaeologically, they say, Abraham and his life and times fit perfectly within the early second millennium, but imperfectly within any later period. By placing Abraham roughly between 1800 and 1600 <span>BC<\/span>, they provide enough latitude for a merging of all the available evidence, biblical and nonbiblical, into a workable chronological scheme. Archaeology provides four major bits of evidence for an early second-millennium patriarchal era.<\/p>\n<p>1. Though the Nuzi tablets furnish a clear parallel to patriarchal social life, other tablets from other towns and an earlier era reflect many of the same customs common to Nuzi and Genesis. Since the Nuzians were Hurrians who came to northeastern Mesopotamia from elsewhere (perhaps Armenia), their social customs originated no doubt much earlier than the time of their tablets now in our possession. Accordingly, the 15th-century <span>BC<\/span> date of the Nuzi tablets does not preclude an earlier date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<li>2. The names of several of Abraham’s ancestors listed in Genesis 11 can now be identified with towns in the northern area of Mesopotamia around Haran, the city from which Abraham migrated to Canaan (Gn 11:31–12:3). Significantly, Haran flourished in the 19th and 18th centuries <span>BC<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>3. Shortly after 2000 <span>BC<\/span> Semitic nomads from the desert invaded the civilized communities of the Fertile Crescent. Those invaders, called Amorites in the OT, established themselves in several cities in northern Syria and Mesopotamia. One of the Amorite cities was Babylon, ruled by Hammurabi sometime around the beginning of the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. Although the King Amraphel of Genesis 14:1 is not linguistically identifiable with the Babylonian king Hammurabi, as earlier scholars believed, the picture of the times following the Amorite invasion still accords well with the Genesis narratives generally.<\/li>\n<li>4. Mari, another Amorite town, is now well known because of more than 20,000 tablets recovered from its royal palace and archives. Geographically, Mari is located in the general area of Haran. Chronologically, the tablets recovered come from the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. One 18th-century king of Mari, Zimri Lim, carried on extensive correspondence with Hammurabi of Babylon. The tablets from Mari also furnish valuable information about tribal and ethnic groups and their movements in the general region. Of basic importance for dating the Genesis materials are certain documents from Mari that include personal names very similar to Abraham (Abi-ram), Jacob, Laban, and several other West Semitic names.<\/li>\n<p>Archaeological evidence neither proves nor disproves the actual existence of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. That is admitted on all sides. What archaeology has done is to provide a framework of probabilities within which the biblical patriarchal narratives appear more and more to be at home.<\/p>\n<h5>Date of the Exodus<\/h5>\n<p>The problem of dating the patriarchal age is closely related to the problem of assigning a date to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Since the evidence does not permit a precise date for Abraham, a precise date for the entry of Joseph or Jacob into Egypt is likewise unobtainable. Further, the biblical evidence does not yield an exact figure for the length of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>For many years biblical scholars viewed 1 Kings 6:1 as a foundation upon which to build an unshakable date for the exodus. Because Solomon’s fourth year could be unquestionably fixed to within at least a 10-year span (967–958 <span>BC<\/span>), the exodus too could be dated with the same precision simply by adding 480 years. But other biblical data raise serious questions about that simple procedure. When the Bible deals with all the events between the time of the exodus and the founding of Solomon’s temple, that is, from Numbers to 1 Kings 5:18, the precise numbers given total not 480 but closer to 600 years.<\/p>\n<p>Because the evidence is insufficient to allow a precise date for the exodus, scholarly opinion remains divided between two possibilities. A 15th-century exodus is supported by several pieces of evidence. The chronology in 1 Kings 6:1 appears to be independently corroborated by a passage in Judges 11:26. It claims that Israel had occupied the area around Heshbon for 300 years preceding Jephthah’s own day. If Jephthah is dated at roughly 1100 <span>BC<\/span>, one is obviously led back to an exodus in the middle of the 15th century. Also, three successive generations of pharaohs who ruled in the 16th and 15th centuries produced no male offspring, making it more likely that Moses would have become the foster son of a royal princess during that time; all of the 19th-dynasty kings (1306–1200 <span>BC<\/span>) had legitimate male heirs.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, a 15th-century date makes possible a connection between the Habiru invasion of Canaan (1400–1350 <span>BC<\/span>)—described in the Amarna letters found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt—and the invasion of Canaan by the Hebrews described in the OT book of Joshua. Related to that is a reference to “Israel” in the Merneptah Stele, a stone pillar inscribed with the deeds of the Egyptian king, Merneptah, of about 1220 <span>BC<\/span>. It implies that the people referred to, met by Merneptah in the course of a Canaanite military campaign, had been in existence for some time. Finally, an excavator of Jericho, John Garstang, placed the destruction of that city at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Other evidence, however, strongly implies not a 15th- but a 13th-century date for the exodus. Many scholars assign a date between 1290 and 1275 <span>BC<\/span> on the basis of that evidence. First, the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 discussed above may be interpreted as schematically representing 12 generations, as indicated by 1 Chronicles 6:3-8. Thus if 12 generations averaged 25 years instead of 40 years, the reduction of 480 schematized years to 300 actual years would point to an exodus date of around 1266 <span>BC<\/span>. Second, archaeological evidence exists that dates destruction at the assumed sites of several cities conquered by Joshua (Lachish, Debir, Bethel, and Hazor) to the late 13th century. Third, there is no biblical mention of Egyptian military campaigns (such as Merneptah’s 1220 <span>BC<\/span> incursion); Israelites living in Canaan before the time of the militarily active pharaohs Seti I (1319–1301 <span>BC<\/span>) and Ramses II (1301–1234 <span>BC<\/span>) would certainly have been affected by such activity. Fourth, Exodus 1:11 mentions the city of Rameses, the capital built by Ramses II, according to his own inscriptions. A fifth line of argument comes from archaeological conclusions that Transjordan and the Negev Desert were not occupied by sedentary people between 1900 and 1300 <span>BC<\/span>, whereas the Bible states clearly that the Israelites encountered stiff opposition from groups in that same region. Thus, it is argued, the Israelites must have entered that region after 1300 <span>BC<\/span>. Sixth, connecting the Habiru with the Israelites of the Conquest lacks weight because many texts besides the Amarna tablets attest to the existence of Habiru groups virtually all over the ancient Near East. “Habiru” seems to be a much broader term, possibly meaning “trespasser,” and is probably unrelated etymologically or semantically to “Hebrew.” Seventh, and finally, Garstang’s work at Jericho has now been revised by archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who showed that the fallen walls that Garstang had dated about 1400 <span>BC<\/span> in reality were destroyed in 1800 <span>BC<\/span> or earlier.<\/p>\n<p>So far, it has been impossible to decide with precision between the two centuries proposed for the exodus. The majority opinion among OT scholars generally, including a growing number of moderate or conservative scholars, is in favor of the 13th-century option. On the other hand, many other conservative scholars continue to favor the 15th-century date. Dogmatism is unwarranted since problems remain unresolved with either option.<\/p>\n<p>In accordance with the majority opinion, however, a date of about 1290 <span>BC<\/span> for the exodus will be used in dealing with subsequent problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"ConquestandConsolidation\">Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>The chronological task for the period of conquest and consolidation is to fit all the events narrated by the OT, chiefly in Joshua and Judges, between the exodus (c. 1290 <span>BC<\/span>) and the times of David (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>) and Solomon (d. 930 <span>BC<\/span>). In other words, one must fit roughly 550 years of biblical events between Moses and David into a 290-year span.<\/p>\n<p>Although assigning an early date for the exodus (c. 1447 <span>BC<\/span>) would make the task somewhat easier, the mere addition of about 157 years does not by itself solve all the problems. Neither date allows enough time for all the OT events from Joshua to David to take place singly and consecutively. Accordingly, advocates of both dates assume that some of the judges ruled simultaneously rather than consecutively. The difference is one of degree only.<\/p>\n<p>The book of Joshua furnishes most of the OT evidence regarding the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. Unfortunately, the book of Joshua has no chronological notes that specify the amount of time elapsing during Joshua’s career. Further, there are no biblical references to major contemporary events in other parts of the ancient world, the dates of which could be used to fix the chronology. Rather, in what is obviously a telescoped account, the book of Joshua records the fall of Jericho and Ai, followed closely by a southern and then a northern campaign. After those victories, covering much of the total territory of Canaan, various parcels of land were distributed to the tribal groups of Israel; the tribes were expected to complete the task of destroying whatever Canaanite inhabitants remained in their particular region. One seeks in vain, however, for any statements indicating how long those events took.<\/p>\n<p>In the book of Judges a slightly different circumstance prevails. There the OT furnishes a rather complete list of figures to indicate the duration of periods of foreign oppression, judgeships, and ensuing peace. The total number of years described for that period is 410, but that total does not include any time for the many “minor” judges. It seems obvious, therefore, that most if not all of the judges were simply local chieftains whose activity was simultaneous with that of other judges, at least for part of their reign. Unfortunately, the book of Judges provides no cross-reference system to indicate which judges were contemporaries of which others. Perhaps the best one can do is to assume general guidelines for the chronology of that period between Moses and David.<\/p>\n<p>Two significant facts should be kept in mind. First, archaeological information seems to demand a Conquest date beginning about 1250 <span>BC<\/span> rather than 200 years earlier. Assuming concurrent careers for the judges allows one to compress the literal OT figures into the general scheme demanded by other evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Second, the ancient scribes evidently related the chronology of the period to a 40-year or generation-based schema, a practice that lasted until the time of the divided kingdom, when a regular dynastic chronology was introduced. In the face of so many careers being assigned exactly 40 years, the fact remains that the literal totals of such numbers cannot be harmonized with either the biblical or the archaeological evidence for the period. Accordingly, most scholars doubt that the number 40 was ever intended to be an exact mathematical calculation. That view permits enough leeway for cautious fitting of biblical and other evidence into a general timetable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheMonarchy\">The Monarchy<\/p>\n<h5>Types of Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>For the period of the Israelite monarchy, chronological evidence is abundant.<\/p>\n<p>The OT itself strives to provide all the information necessary for the chronology of the period, including (1) a complete list of all the kings in Israel and in Judah both before and after the division of the kingdom; (2) the age of each king (except Saul) at his accession; (3) synchronisms of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah showing in what year of his contemporary in the other kingdom each king came to the throne; and (4) precise calculations of the length of each king’s reign. In addition some important events are dated by reference to another event; others are coordinated with concurrent events in secular history.<\/p>\n<p>Outside the OT an abundance of material provides evidence for a chronology of the period. By far the most important single source is a collection of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists. In Assyria a record of each king’s reign was kept on a particular kind of annal. Each year of reign was named after an individual of high rank in the court; the first year was named after the king himself, the second after the next highest-ranking official (though that name appears to have been selected by lot originally), and so on, down until the death of the king. The word <em>limmu<\/em> was used to introduce the name of the official after whom the current year was to be named, hence the designation <em>“limmu<\/em> lists.”<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists are tied precisely to the solar year, making the documents highly reliable. Further, in addition to many events in Assyrian history, notable natural phenomena were dated on the basis of the <em>limmu<\/em> in which they occurred. For example, a solar eclipse dated by the Assyrian scribes in the <em>limmu<\/em> year of Bur-Sagale has been computed astronomically as June 15, 763 <span>BC<\/span>. Beginning with the year 763, then, and working both backward and forward, a complete list of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> officials has been obtained for the period between 891 and 648 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>With the accuracy of the Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists corroborated by a number of sources, they can be used with confidence in reconstructing the chronology of the corresponding period of biblical history. That is especially true where a biblical writer related an Israelite or a Judahite event to a particular year in the reign of an Assyrian king whose <em>limmu<\/em> list indicates the precise years of his reign.<\/p>\n<p>There are also records from Chaldean (Babylonian) king lists and from later Greek historians. Ptolemy, in the second century <span>AD<\/span>, for example, gave dates for Babylonian kings from 747 <span>BC<\/span> and continued with dates for Persian, Greek, and Roman rulers down to <span>AD<\/span> 161. Finally, useful information is found in inscriptions from monuments, stelae, and other artifacts from Assyria and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<h5>Monarchical Chronology<\/h5>\n<p>The <em>limmu<\/em> list of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III provides a basis for the first comparison of dates among Assyria, Israel, and Judah. In the <em>limmu<\/em> of Daian-Assur, Shalmaneser’s sixth year on the throne, Ahab of Israel was listed as one of the kings who fought against the Assyrians in the battle of Qarqar. Thus the date for that battle may be placed confidently in 853 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian records also indicate that Shalmaneser III came into contact with an Israelite king 12 years later, in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. That king was Jehu. Thus two fixed points are available for correlating the biblical information. Following the death of Ahab, which is not dated exactly by reference to the Assyrian records, two of his sons came to power. The first, Ahaziah, reigned two years (1 Kgs 22:51); the second, Joram (also called Jehoram), reigned a total of 12 years (2 Kgs 3:1). Recognizing a nonaccession-year reckoning by the Israelites in that era, the apparent total of 14 years may be reduced to an actual total of 12. Thus it seems evident that Ahab not only fought Shalmaneser III in 853 <span>BC<\/span> but also died in that year. Ahab was then followed by his two sons for a total of 12 years before the accession of Jehu in time to account for his contact with Shalmaneser II in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. Further, because Jehu murdered both the king of Israel (Jehoram) and the king of Judah (Ahaziah) at the same time (2 Kgs 9:24-27), a fixed synchronism is provided between the two kingdoms for the year 841 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>The first nine kings of Israel ruled an apparent total of 98 years or an actual total (taking into account Israel’s nonaccession-year policy) of 90 years. Zimri, who ruled only seven days (1 Kgs 16:15-18), counts as one of the nine but does not insert an extra year in either the actual or apparent totals. The accession of Jeroboam I thus occurred in 930 <span>BC<\/span> (adding 90 years to 841 <span>BC<\/span>), and Rehoboam of Judah began to rule in that same year as well. Allowing Solomon the 40-year reign indicated in 1 Kings 11:42 points to the year 970 <span>BC<\/span> for his accession. The death of David would also be pinpointed in that period, although allowance must be made for the possibility of a short co-regency of David and Solomon before David’s death. The reign of Saul then falls approximately in the late 11th century <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In Judah the period between the death of Solomon in 930 <span>BC<\/span> and the murder of Ahaziah by Jehu in 841 <span>BC<\/span> was occupied by the kingships of six men whose time on the throne totals 95 biblical years. Computation of that era in Judah is not as simple as for the Israelite kings for several reasons. Problems include a change from accession- to nonaccession-year reckoning sometime around 850 <span>BC<\/span>, at least two co-regencies (Jehoshaphat with Asa and then Jehoram with Jehoshaphat), and the calendar differences between the two kingdoms. It is clear that the 95 apparent years must be reduced, on the basis of the differences in computation and calendar, to 90 actual years in order to bring the Judahite figures into line with the established Assyrian and Israelite synchronisms.<\/p>\n<p>After the year 841, the next biblical event to be certified by nonbiblical materials is the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>. That date is furnished by the annals of Sargon II of Assyria (722–705 <span>BC<\/span>), successor to Shalmaneser V (727–722 <span>BC<\/span>). Although that date comes just 120 years after the fixed point of 841 <span>BC<\/span> in Israelite history, the chronological materials for that period are quite difficult to interpret accurately. In the past, scholars resorted to assumptions of extensive co-regencies, to presumed confusion on the part of certain scribes over methods to be followed in computations, or to other theories in attempting to understand the period. In spite of the many difficulties, however, all the biblical and Assyrian dates for the period of the divided monarchy have been harmonized—with the exception of four figures related to the closing years of the Israelite kingdom, all connected in some way with the problematic reign of Hoshea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"JudahaftertheFallofIsrael\">Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>Following the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>, OT chronology is concerned only with the southern kingdom of Judah until its destruction some 135 years later. Two events in the biblical record important for establishing a chronology for that period are the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib of Assyria in the late eighth century and the eventual fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in the early sixth century.<\/p>\n<h5>Sennacherib’s Invasion of Judah<\/h5>\n<p>The Assyrian invasion (704–681 <span>BC<\/span>) is recorded in 2 Kings 18:13-16, where verse 13 dates the event to the 14th year of King Hezekiah. Sennacherib’s own inscriptions include a lengthier version of the affair. From them the date of 701 <span>BC<\/span> is established, placing the accession of Hezekiah in 715 <span>BC<\/span>. That much is simple, but problems still arise. For example, 2 Kings 19:9 reports that Sennacherib was in contact with an Ethiopian king, Tirhakah (c. 690–664 <span>BC<\/span>), during the course of his campaign, which included a siege of Jerusalem. Obviously, contact with a ruler who came to power in 690 <span>BC<\/span> at the earliest could not refer to events in 701 <span>BC<\/span>. It is possible, however, that Sennacherib actually made two invasions of Judah, the first in 701 and the second sometime later. The date of that supposed second invasion is not assured, although 2 Kings 19:35-37 may imply that Sennacherib was murdered only shortly after his withdrawal from Jerusalem. Since Sennacherib was succeeded by his son Esarhaddon in the year 681, the presumed second invasion of Judah would have occurred somewhere in the last half of the same decade.<\/p>\n<p>A number of scholars oppose the assumption of a second invasion of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. They suggest the possibility that Tirhakah, though king only from 690 <span>BC<\/span>, may have led troops against Sennacherib as early as 701, before acceding to the throne. The reference to King Tirhakah in 2 Kings 19:9 would then be understood as use of his eventual title in an effort to identify him to a later generation of readers.<\/p>\n<p>However the question of the number of invasions is decided, it is certain that Sennacherib invaded Judah in 701 <span>BC<\/span>, the 14th regnal year of Hezekiah. Such a synchronism establishes Hezekiah’s accession year as 715 <span>BC<\/span>, but that date raises another problem. The fall of Samaria, now established at 722, is dated by 2 Kings 18:10 in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign. The most likely solution is that Hezekiah began a co-regency with his father, Ahaz, six years before Samaria fell. The possibility for confusion arises from the fact that one verse (2 Kgs 18:13; repeated in Is 36:1) synchronizes Sennacherib’s 701 <span>BC<\/span> invasion with the 14th year of Hezekiah’s independent reign; another verse (2 Kgs 18:10) correlates the fall of Samaria with the beginning of Hezekiah’s co-regency. Thus from about 728 to 715 <span>BC<\/span> Hezekiah was co-regent with Ahaz. From 715 to 697 he reigned alone. From 696 to 686 his son Manasseh was co-ruler with him.<\/p>\n<p>According to the chronological information given by a number of verses in 2 Kings, a total of 128 years and six months elapsed between the time of Hezekiah’s accession in 715 and the capture of King Jehoiachin in 597, a date to be discussed below. Thus another problem is to explain the more than 10-year excess apparently demanded by the biblical totals. The best solution appears to lie in the assumption that Manasseh first came to power in 697 as co-regent with his father, Hezekiah. Manasseh died in 642, following what 2 Kings 21:1 states was a 55-year reign. Hezekiah, who came to the throne in 715, is said to have reigned 29 years (2 Kgs 18:2), which would mean that he was king until 686, roughly 11 years after the time when Manasseh must have come to the throne in order to have completed a 55-year reign by 642.<\/p>\n<h5>Fall of Jerusalem<\/h5>\n<p>Contemporary Babylonian records are available to shed valuable light on the last few years of Judah’s existence. For the years 626–623, 618–595, and 556 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonian Chronicle, a formal record of Babylonian affairs of state, has been recovered. From information contained in that chronicle and other cuneiform documents of the period, three dates in Judah’s history may be fixed firmly. The first is the death of Josiah in 609; the second is the battle of Carchemish in 605; the third is the end of the reign of Jehoiachin, which is dated by the Babylonian Chronicle to the second month of Adar in the ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, or March 16, 597.<\/p>\n<p>After Jehoiachin’s capture, Zedekiah became puppet king of Judah for 11 years (2 Kgs 24:18). On the tenth day of the tenth month during Zedekiah’s ninth regnal year (2 Kgs 25:1), the final siege of Jerusalem was begun by the Babylonian army. That day was January 15, 588. On the ninth day of the fourth month during the 11th regnal year of Zedekiah, after a siege of almost 18 months, the wall of Jerusalem was broken through (2 Kgs 25:3-4). The temple was burned on day seven of the following (fifth) month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Beyond587bc\">Beyond 586 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Following the tragedy of 586 <span>BC<\/span>, several further developments are given chronological notice in the OT. Jeremiah 52:30 records a third deportation of Jews to Babylonia in the 23d year of King Nebuchadnezzar (582 or 581 <span>BC<\/span>). Both 2 Kings 25:27 and Jeremiah 52:31 give evidence of the release of King Jehoiachin from prison; the Babylonian Chronicle dates that event at 27 Adar, or March 21, 561 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In 539 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonians themselves were destined to learn the meaning of defeat. In that year a Persian ruler, Cyrus the Great, launched a successful campaign against Babylon and its king, Nabonidus. Inheriting control over the exiled Jews and many other groups of people conquered earlier by Babylonia, Cyrus moved quickly to initiate a policy of tolerance toward his new subjects. In the first year of his rule Cyrus issued an edict making it possible for Jews to return to their former land (Ezr 1:1). On the first day of the following year, 1 Tishri (Ezr 3:6), an altar was set up in Jerusalem. In Iyyar of the following year (April\/May 536) work was begun on the temple itself (Ezr 3:8).<\/p>\n<p>After a period of frustrating work stoppages of varying lengths, the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah spurred on the Jews to complete the temple. Work resumed in 520 (Ezr 4:24; Hg 1:1, 15) and was finally completed on 3 Adar, or March 12, 515 (Ezr 6:15). The final stages of OT chronology pertain to the careers of Ezra and Nehemiah. The traditional view of their era places Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I (458 <span>BC<\/span>) and Nehemiah in the 20th (445 <span>BC<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> “Date” under each OT book; Conquest and Allotment of the Land; Diaspora of the Jews; Exodus, The; Israel, History of; Patriarchs, Period of the; Postexilic Period; Wilderness Wanderings.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament)<\/h3>\n<p>Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper historical background of the biblical texts. In general, the chronology of the OT is understood well enough to vindicate the basic accuracy and sequential order of Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>Both biblical and nonbiblical materials are utilized by students of OT chronology. Biblical data include (1) genealogies showing personal and tribal affiliations among various peoples; (2) specific numbers given by biblical authors to indicate a person’s longevity, a king’s reign, or the duration of a specific event; (3) synchronizing statements that date an event in a specific year of a king’s reign or relate it to a natural phenomenon assumed to be common knowledge at the time of writing (e.g., Am 1:1; Zec 14:5).<\/p>\n<p>From the abundance of such chronological passages in the OT, one might conclude that establishment of OT dates and sequences would be a simple procedure. Each of the three kinds of biblical materials, however, exhibits special problems that must be solved first.<\/p>\n<p>Nonbiblical materials that shed light on OT chronology are quite numerous, and more are discovered year by year. They include (1) official records of important affairs such as military campaigns from countries like Egypt or Babylonia; (2) official inscriptions that are dedicatory or commemorate a great victory; (3) annals listing major accomplishments of a ruler year by year; (4) ostraca (inscribed pieces of pottery) containing letters, tax transactions and economic records, military dispatches between field leaders and command headquarters, or other information. Ostraca may be dated archaeologically and are often used to supplement the biblical record.<\/p>\n<p>The chronologist tries to examine the pertinent biblical and nonbiblical information, notes areas of correlation among all the data, and finally establishes a working system into which the most facts can be fitted. New evidence uncovered at any time may necessitate shifts in the present working system. Although the basic structure of biblical chronology seems reasonably firm, many details will no doubt be subject to change as new evidence is discovered.<\/p>\n<p>As a general rule, the earlier the period, the less certain one can be of one’s dating. In the second millennium <span>BC<\/span>, for example, many dates can be assigned within a range of about 100 years. By the time of David and Solomon (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>), the margin of error over which scholars debate is a decade or less. The range narrows as one comes toward the present, so that, with the exception of one or two problem eras, dates accurate to within one or two years are possible by roughly the middle of the ninth century <span>BC<\/span>. Such limitations must be kept in mind in any examination of the major periods of OT history.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<p>• From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<p>• Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>• The Monarchy<\/p>\n<p>• Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>• Beyond 587 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"PrepatriarchalPeriod\">Prepatriarchal Period<\/p>\n<h5>Biblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>In the first 11 chapters of Genesis are found accounts of the Creation (chs 1–2), the fall (ch 3), Cain and Abel (ch 4), the Flood (chs 6–9), and the Tower of Babel (ch 11). Those events are set within a certain chronological framework.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 5, a period of 10 generations elapsed between the Creation and the Flood. Although the individuals listed enjoyed a total life span of a hefty 847 years plus, the total time elapsing between Adam and the Flood was only 1,656 years.<\/p>\n<p>According to Genesis 11, another 10 generations elapsed from the time of the Flood until the time of Abraham (at least in the Septuagint, the third-century <span>BC<\/span> Greek translation of the OT; the Hebrew Masoretic text has 9). In that period the average age attained by individuals in the list is 346 years (using a figure of 460 for Arphaxad’s son Cainan, who is included in v 13 of the LXX; cf. Lk 3:36); the total elapsed time from the Flood to Abraham is only 520 years. Taken literally, that would mean that all of Abraham’s ancestors as far back as Noah’s son Shem were still alive at Abraham’s birth, and that a total of only 2,176 years elapsed from the time of Creation to Abraham.<\/p>\n<h5>Interpretation of the Biblical Data<\/h5>\n<p>A literalistic or slavishly mathematical interpretation of the figures, as has appeared in the margin of many <span>kjv<\/span> Bibles, requires a number of assumptions: that no names are omitted from the genealogies, that all the numbers given are consecutive, and especially that numbers used in an ancient biblical source carry the same meaning as that associated with them in the modern Western mind. Each assumption needs serious examination in the light of other established facts.<\/p>\n<p>A cursory reading of other biblical genealogies, for example, reveals that not all the names of a given family were always included. Even Matthew recorded a total of 28 generations (two sets of 14 each) between David and Jesus, and comparison with OT genealogies reveals that Matthew omitted several names. Luke listed a total of 42 generations for the same interval. Omissions are also obvious when one compares the genealogical lists given in 1 Chronicles 1–8 with those recorded earlier in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings.<\/p>\n<p>Further, ancient peoples thought of numbers in a schematic or stylized way. Use of numbers among the ancient Near Eastern nations differed sharply from current Western practice. Examples of that practice are known from both biblical and nonbiblical sources. For example, a list of eight Sumerian kings who ruled in the city of Shurruppak before the “great flood” of the Jemdet Nar era (c. 3000 <span>BC<\/span>) assigns each man an average reign of more than 30,000 years. Berossus, a Babylonian priest of Marduk living in the third century <span>BC<\/span>, added two names to the eight found in that earlier list of kings and assigned an average of 43,200 years to each king. Such extraordinarily high numbers provide a perspective for considering the numbers of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, although one can assume that the numbers assigned to the ages of the patriarchs preceding Abraham in Genesis had real meaning for those responsible for their preservation, they should not be employed in a purely literal sense to compute the length of the various generations mentioned in the text. Further, the numbers given in the Septuagint and in the Samaritan Pentateuch, another early version of the Pentateuch, diverge in many details from those of the Hebrew Masoretic Text. That means, among other things, that the Genesis numbers caused problems for even the earliest scholars of Scripture.<\/p>\n<h5>Nonbiblical Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>Archaeology provides no evidence that may be used to date either the Creation or any other account preserved in Genesis 1–11. The Flood is an example that illustrates some of the difficulties. Many claims have been made by persons from a wide variety of backgrounds (scientists, explorers, theologians, and others) to the effect that archaeology has proven the Genesis Flood narrative to be true. Yet no city so far excavated in Palestine and Syria (including some of the oldest towns in the world) shows archaeological evidence of the Flood.<\/p>\n<p>Although several cities in Mesopotamia do exhibit evidence of a flood, three factors make it difficult to link that evidence with Genesis 6–9. Each of the flood levels so far discovered dates from a different period. Further, since nearby sites show no evidence of flooding, all of the Mesopotamian flood evidence points to relatively small local floods. Finally, the evidence indicates no great cultural discontinuities of the sort that would result from destruction of an entire population. Thus, it seems that the ancient Mesopotamian floods discovered through archaeological research are of the same kind as the floods that still occur in the Euphrates River valley.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, certain questions one might ask of the Genesis narratives simply cannot be answered. Many who regard the Bible as the Word of God have concluded that the dating of events found in Genesis 1–11 must be less important than the theological truths of salvation, faith, and obedience that these accounts present.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"FromAbrahamtoMoses\">From Abraham to Moses<\/p>\n<h5>The Patriarchal Age<\/h5>\n<p>The date of Abraham is still a lively topic among biblical scholars who agree that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were indeed historical persons. Opinions range from an early-date view that estimates that the patriarchal age extended from 2086 to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>, to a late-date view placing Abraham at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>. Since each position claims to fit the biblical data, a closer look at the two points of view is in order.<\/p>\n<p>Many OT passages seem to support the view that puts Abraham at a comparatively early date. First Kings 6:1 computes 480 years back from the founding of the temple in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign (961 <span>BC<\/span>, according to the early-date view) to the exodus from Egypt, which would then be dated 1441 <span>BC<\/span>. Counting 430 years as the period of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt (see Gn 15:13; Ex 12:40) takes the date back to 1871 <span>BC<\/span>. To that date are added the 215 years demanded by the total of (1) Abraham’s age upon entering Canaan (75 years according to Gn 12:4); (2) 25 additional years before the birth of Isaac (Gn 21:5); (3) 60 more years to the birth of Jacob (Gn 25:26); and (4) the appearance of Jacob before the pharaoh at age 130 (Gn 47:9). Those 215 years added to the previous total give a date of 2086 <span>BC<\/span> for the entrance of Abraham into Canaan and a date of 2161 <span>BC<\/span> for his birth.<\/p>\n<p>Such a calculation does not use all of the chronological evidence presented in the OT; consequently, the date for Abraham is open to challenge. For example, the 480 years between the exodus and Solomon’s fourth regnal year represent a period of time into which the wilderness wanderings, the career of Joshua and his immediate successors, the period of the judges, Samuel, Saul, and David must all be placed. Although the OT does not specifically say how long were the careers of Joshua, Samuel, or Saul, even a modest reckoning pushes the total years required by all the biblical data together to approximately 600.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the length of time to be assigned to the Egyptian sojourn is problematic. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint both view the number 430 (in Ex 12:40) as applicable not only to the years in Egypt but to the years of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Canaan as well. Evidently Paul followed the Septuagint tradition when he dated the giving of the law 430 years later than the time of God’s promise to Abraham (see Gal 3:15-18). That means the Septuagint figure cannot be dismissed lightly.<\/p>\n<p>The late dating of Abraham (c. 1400 <span>BC<\/span>) is based on two propositions: (1) The picture of patriarchal society portrayed in Genesis most closely parallels that reflected in the cuneiform tablets recovered from Nuzi, a town in northeastern Mesopotamia about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of Baghdad. (2) Because those tablets must be dated in the 15th and 14th centuries <span>BC<\/span>, the parallel patriarchal age must have fallen within the same general time period.<\/p>\n<p>Those who hold the late-date view are aware that their date for Abraham cannot be equated with the set of numbers on which the early-date view depends. They point to other data, also from the OT. Joseph, who was already a highly placed Egyptian official when Jacob moved to Egypt, lived to be 110 years old (Gn 50:26). Moses was a great-grandson of Levi, Joseph’s older brother. Since Joseph lived to see his own greatgrandchildren born (who would probably be younger than Moses since their great-grandfather was younger than his), the late-date view concludes that Joseph could have been alive when Moses was born. The four-generation genealogy of Moses (Levi-Kohath-Amram-Moses, in Ex 6:16-20; Nm 3:17-19; 26:58-59; 1 Chr 6:1-3) was evidently thought to be complete according to Genesis 15:16, which predicted that Abraham’s descendants would be freed from Egyptian bondage “in the fourth generation.”<\/p>\n<p>However, a date of around 1400 <span>BC<\/span> for Abraham cannot be aligned with certain other biblical data, including the long Egyptian sojourn demanded by Genesis 15:13 and Exodus 12:40 and a 40-year (or “one-generation”) wilderness existence. Some normally moderate scholars are forced to reduce the wilderness time to two years in order to maintain their late date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<p>In short, the late-date theory is consistent with part of the biblical evidence (the genealogies of Moses), but the early-date theory conforms to another part (the actual year figures listed in scattered verses from Genesis and Exodus). The late-date theory holds that the genealogies represent more reliable information in Semitic societies generally, whereas the early-date theory computes years given in the biblical account literally throughout its scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Because of problems attached to both positions, a large group of scholars take a middle ground in dating the patriarchal age. Archaeologically, they say, Abraham and his life and times fit perfectly within the early second millennium, but imperfectly within any later period. By placing Abraham roughly between 1800 and 1600 <span>BC<\/span>, they provide enough latitude for a merging of all the available evidence, biblical and nonbiblical, into a workable chronological scheme. Archaeology provides four major bits of evidence for an early second-millennium patriarchal era.<\/p>\n<p>1. Though the Nuzi tablets furnish a clear parallel to patriarchal social life, other tablets from other towns and an earlier era reflect many of the same customs common to Nuzi and Genesis. Since the Nuzians were Hurrians who came to northeastern Mesopotamia from elsewhere (perhaps Armenia), their social customs originated no doubt much earlier than the time of their tablets now in our possession. Accordingly, the 15th-century <span>BC<\/span> date of the Nuzi tablets does not preclude an earlier date for Abraham.<\/p>\n<li>2. The names of several of Abraham’s ancestors listed in Genesis 11 can now be identified with towns in the northern area of Mesopotamia around Haran, the city from which Abraham migrated to Canaan (Gn 11:31–12:3). Significantly, Haran flourished in the 19th and 18th centuries <span>BC<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>3. Shortly after 2000 <span>BC<\/span> Semitic nomads from the desert invaded the civilized communities of the Fertile Crescent. Those invaders, called Amorites in the OT, established themselves in several cities in northern Syria and Mesopotamia. One of the Amorite cities was Babylon, ruled by Hammurabi sometime around the beginning of the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. Although the King Amraphel of Genesis 14:1 is not linguistically identifiable with the Babylonian king Hammurabi, as earlier scholars believed, the picture of the times following the Amorite invasion still accords well with the Genesis narratives generally.<\/li>\n<li>4. Mari, another Amorite town, is now well known because of more than 20,000 tablets recovered from its royal palace and archives. Geographically, Mari is located in the general area of Haran. Chronologically, the tablets recovered come from the 18th century <span>BC<\/span>. One 18th-century king of Mari, Zimri Lim, carried on extensive correspondence with Hammurabi of Babylon. The tablets from Mari also furnish valuable information about tribal and ethnic groups and their movements in the general region. Of basic importance for dating the Genesis materials are certain documents from Mari that include personal names very similar to Abraham (Abi-ram), Jacob, Laban, and several other West Semitic names.<\/li>\n<p>Archaeological evidence neither proves nor disproves the actual existence of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. That is admitted on all sides. What archaeology has done is to provide a framework of probabilities within which the biblical patriarchal narratives appear more and more to be at home.<\/p>\n<h5>Date of the Exodus<\/h5>\n<p>The problem of dating the patriarchal age is closely related to the problem of assigning a date to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Since the evidence does not permit a precise date for Abraham, a precise date for the entry of Joseph or Jacob into Egypt is likewise unobtainable. Further, the biblical evidence does not yield an exact figure for the length of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>For many years biblical scholars viewed 1 Kings 6:1 as a foundation upon which to build an unshakable date for the exodus. Because Solomon’s fourth year could be unquestionably fixed to within at least a 10-year span (967–958 <span>BC<\/span>), the exodus too could be dated with the same precision simply by adding 480 years. But other biblical data raise serious questions about that simple procedure. When the Bible deals with all the events between the time of the exodus and the founding of Solomon’s temple, that is, from Numbers to 1 Kings 5:18, the precise numbers given total not 480 but closer to 600 years.<\/p>\n<p>Because the evidence is insufficient to allow a precise date for the exodus, scholarly opinion remains divided between two possibilities. A 15th-century exodus is supported by several pieces of evidence. The chronology in 1 Kings 6:1 appears to be independently corroborated by a passage in Judges 11:26. It claims that Israel had occupied the area around Heshbon for 300 years preceding Jephthah’s own day. If Jephthah is dated at roughly 1100 <span>BC<\/span>, one is obviously led back to an exodus in the middle of the 15th century. Also, three successive generations of pharaohs who ruled in the 16th and 15th centuries produced no male offspring, making it more likely that Moses would have become the foster son of a royal princess during that time; all of the 19th-dynasty kings (1306–1200 <span>BC<\/span>) had legitimate male heirs.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, a 15th-century date makes possible a connection between the Habiru invasion of Canaan (1400–1350 <span>BC<\/span>)—described in the Amarna letters found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt—and the invasion of Canaan by the Hebrews described in the OT book of Joshua. Related to that is a reference to “Israel” in the Merneptah Stele, a stone pillar inscribed with the deeds of the Egyptian king, Merneptah, of about 1220 <span>BC<\/span>. It implies that the people referred to, met by Merneptah in the course of a Canaanite military campaign, had been in existence for some time. Finally, an excavator of Jericho, John Garstang, placed the destruction of that city at around 1400 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Other evidence, however, strongly implies not a 15th- but a 13th-century date for the exodus. Many scholars assign a date between 1290 and 1275 <span>BC<\/span> on the basis of that evidence. First, the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 discussed above may be interpreted as schematically representing 12 generations, as indicated by 1 Chronicles 6:3-8. Thus if 12 generations averaged 25 years instead of 40 years, the reduction of 480 schematized years to 300 actual years would point to an exodus date of around 1266 <span>BC<\/span>. Second, archaeological evidence exists that dates destruction at the assumed sites of several cities conquered by Joshua (Lachish, Debir, Bethel, and Hazor) to the late 13th century. Third, there is no biblical mention of Egyptian military campaigns (such as Merneptah’s 1220 <span>BC<\/span> incursion); Israelites living in Canaan before the time of the militarily active pharaohs Seti I (1319–1301 <span>BC<\/span>) and Ramses II (1301–1234 <span>BC<\/span>) would certainly have been affected by such activity. Fourth, Exodus 1:11 mentions the city of Rameses, the capital built by Ramses II, according to his own inscriptions. A fifth line of argument comes from archaeological conclusions that Transjordan and the Negev Desert were not occupied by sedentary people between 1900 and 1300 <span>BC<\/span>, whereas the Bible states clearly that the Israelites encountered stiff opposition from groups in that same region. Thus, it is argued, the Israelites must have entered that region after 1300 <span>BC<\/span>. Sixth, connecting the Habiru with the Israelites of the Conquest lacks weight because many texts besides the Amarna tablets attest to the existence of Habiru groups virtually all over the ancient Near East. “Habiru” seems to be a much broader term, possibly meaning “trespasser,” and is probably unrelated etymologically or semantically to “Hebrew.” Seventh, and finally, Garstang’s work at Jericho has now been revised by archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who showed that the fallen walls that Garstang had dated about 1400 <span>BC<\/span> in reality were destroyed in 1800 <span>BC<\/span> or earlier.<\/p>\n<p>So far, it has been impossible to decide with precision between the two centuries proposed for the exodus. The majority opinion among OT scholars generally, including a growing number of moderate or conservative scholars, is in favor of the 13th-century option. On the other hand, many other conservative scholars continue to favor the 15th-century date. Dogmatism is unwarranted since problems remain unresolved with either option.<\/p>\n<p>In accordance with the majority opinion, however, a date of about 1290 <span>BC<\/span> for the exodus will be used in dealing with subsequent problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"ConquestandConsolidation\">Conquest and Consolidation<\/p>\n<p>The chronological task for the period of conquest and consolidation is to fit all the events narrated by the OT, chiefly in Joshua and Judges, between the exodus (c. 1290 <span>BC<\/span>) and the times of David (c. 1000 <span>BC<\/span>) and Solomon (d. 930 <span>BC<\/span>). In other words, one must fit roughly 550 years of biblical events between Moses and David into a 290-year span.<\/p>\n<p>Although assigning an early date for the exodus (c. 1447 <span>BC<\/span>) would make the task somewhat easier, the mere addition of about 157 years does not by itself solve all the problems. Neither date allows enough time for all the OT events from Joshua to David to take place singly and consecutively. Accordingly, advocates of both dates assume that some of the judges ruled simultaneously rather than consecutively. The difference is one of degree only.<\/p>\n<p>The book of Joshua furnishes most of the OT evidence regarding the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. Unfortunately, the book of Joshua has no chronological notes that specify the amount of time elapsing during Joshua’s career. Further, there are no biblical references to major contemporary events in other parts of the ancient world, the dates of which could be used to fix the chronology. Rather, in what is obviously a telescoped account, the book of Joshua records the fall of Jericho and Ai, followed closely by a southern and then a northern campaign. After those victories, covering much of the total territory of Canaan, various parcels of land were distributed to the tribal groups of Israel; the tribes were expected to complete the task of destroying whatever Canaanite inhabitants remained in their particular region. One seeks in vain, however, for any statements indicating how long those events took.<\/p>\n<p>In the book of Judges a slightly different circumstance prevails. There the OT furnishes a rather complete list of figures to indicate the duration of periods of foreign oppression, judgeships, and ensuing peace. The total number of years described for that period is 410, but that total does not include any time for the many “minor” judges. It seems obvious, therefore, that most if not all of the judges were simply local chieftains whose activity was simultaneous with that of other judges, at least for part of their reign. Unfortunately, the book of Judges provides no cross-reference system to indicate which judges were contemporaries of which others. Perhaps the best one can do is to assume general guidelines for the chronology of that period between Moses and David.<\/p>\n<p>Two significant facts should be kept in mind. First, archaeological information seems to demand a Conquest date beginning about 1250 <span>BC<\/span> rather than 200 years earlier. Assuming concurrent careers for the judges allows one to compress the literal OT figures into the general scheme demanded by other evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Second, the ancient scribes evidently related the chronology of the period to a 40-year or generation-based schema, a practice that lasted until the time of the divided kingdom, when a regular dynastic chronology was introduced. In the face of so many careers being assigned exactly 40 years, the fact remains that the literal totals of such numbers cannot be harmonized with either the biblical or the archaeological evidence for the period. Accordingly, most scholars doubt that the number 40 was ever intended to be an exact mathematical calculation. That view permits enough leeway for cautious fitting of biblical and other evidence into a general timetable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheMonarchy\">The Monarchy<\/p>\n<h5>Types of Evidence<\/h5>\n<p>For the period of the Israelite monarchy, chronological evidence is abundant.<\/p>\n<p>The OT itself strives to provide all the information necessary for the chronology of the period, including (1) a complete list of all the kings in Israel and in Judah both before and after the division of the kingdom; (2) the age of each king (except Saul) at his accession; (3) synchronisms of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah showing in what year of his contemporary in the other kingdom each king came to the throne; and (4) precise calculations of the length of each king’s reign. In addition some important events are dated by reference to another event; others are coordinated with concurrent events in secular history.<\/p>\n<p>Outside the OT an abundance of material provides evidence for a chronology of the period. By far the most important single source is a collection of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists. In Assyria a record of each king’s reign was kept on a particular kind of annal. Each year of reign was named after an individual of high rank in the court; the first year was named after the king himself, the second after the next highest-ranking official (though that name appears to have been selected by lot originally), and so on, down until the death of the king. The word <em>limmu<\/em> was used to introduce the name of the official after whom the current year was to be named, hence the designation <em>“limmu<\/em> lists.”<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists are tied precisely to the solar year, making the documents highly reliable. Further, in addition to many events in Assyrian history, notable natural phenomena were dated on the basis of the <em>limmu<\/em> in which they occurred. For example, a solar eclipse dated by the Assyrian scribes in the <em>limmu<\/em> year of Bur-Sagale has been computed astronomically as June 15, 763 <span>BC<\/span>. Beginning with the year 763, then, and working both backward and forward, a complete list of Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> officials has been obtained for the period between 891 and 648 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>With the accuracy of the Assyrian <em>limmu<\/em> lists corroborated by a number of sources, they can be used with confidence in reconstructing the chronology of the corresponding period of biblical history. That is especially true where a biblical writer related an Israelite or a Judahite event to a particular year in the reign of an Assyrian king whose <em>limmu<\/em> list indicates the precise years of his reign.<\/p>\n<p>There are also records from Chaldean (Babylonian) king lists and from later Greek historians. Ptolemy, in the second century <span>AD<\/span>, for example, gave dates for Babylonian kings from 747 <span>BC<\/span> and continued with dates for Persian, Greek, and Roman rulers down to <span>AD<\/span> 161. Finally, useful information is found in inscriptions from monuments, stelae, and other artifacts from Assyria and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<h5>Monarchical Chronology<\/h5>\n<p>The <em>limmu<\/em> list of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III provides a basis for the first comparison of dates among Assyria, Israel, and Judah. In the <em>limmu<\/em> of Daian-Assur, Shalmaneser’s sixth year on the throne, Ahab of Israel was listed as one of the kings who fought against the Assyrians in the battle of Qarqar. Thus the date for that battle may be placed confidently in 853 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian records also indicate that Shalmaneser III came into contact with an Israelite king 12 years later, in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. That king was Jehu. Thus two fixed points are available for correlating the biblical information. Following the death of Ahab, which is not dated exactly by reference to the Assyrian records, two of his sons came to power. The first, Ahaziah, reigned two years (1 Kgs 22:51); the second, Joram (also called Jehoram), reigned a total of 12 years (2 Kgs 3:1). Recognizing a nonaccession-year reckoning by the Israelites in that era, the apparent total of 14 years may be reduced to an actual total of 12. Thus it seems evident that Ahab not only fought Shalmaneser III in 853 <span>BC<\/span> but also died in that year. Ahab was then followed by his two sons for a total of 12 years before the accession of Jehu in time to account for his contact with Shalmaneser II in 841 <span>BC<\/span>. Further, because Jehu murdered both the king of Israel (Jehoram) and the king of Judah (Ahaziah) at the same time (2 Kgs 9:24-27), a fixed synchronism is provided between the two kingdoms for the year 841 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>The first nine kings of Israel ruled an apparent total of 98 years or an actual total (taking into account Israel’s nonaccession-year policy) of 90 years. Zimri, who ruled only seven days (1 Kgs 16:15-18), counts as one of the nine but does not insert an extra year in either the actual or apparent totals. The accession of Jeroboam I thus occurred in 930 <span>BC<\/span> (adding 90 years to 841 <span>BC<\/span>), and Rehoboam of Judah began to rule in that same year as well. Allowing Solomon the 40-year reign indicated in 1 Kings 11:42 points to the year 970 <span>BC<\/span> for his accession. The death of David would also be pinpointed in that period, although allowance must be made for the possibility of a short co-regency of David and Solomon before David’s death. The reign of Saul then falls approximately in the late 11th century <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In Judah the period between the death of Solomon in 930 <span>BC<\/span> and the murder of Ahaziah by Jehu in 841 <span>BC<\/span> was occupied by the kingships of six men whose time on the throne totals 95 biblical years. Computation of that era in Judah is not as simple as for the Israelite kings for several reasons. Problems include a change from accession- to nonaccession-year reckoning sometime around 850 <span>BC<\/span>, at least two co-regencies (Jehoshaphat with Asa and then Jehoram with Jehoshaphat), and the calendar differences between the two kingdoms. It is clear that the 95 apparent years must be reduced, on the basis of the differences in computation and calendar, to 90 actual years in order to bring the Judahite figures into line with the established Assyrian and Israelite synchronisms.<\/p>\n<p>After the year 841, the next biblical event to be certified by nonbiblical materials is the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>. That date is furnished by the annals of Sargon II of Assyria (722–705 <span>BC<\/span>), successor to Shalmaneser V (727–722 <span>BC<\/span>). Although that date comes just 120 years after the fixed point of 841 <span>BC<\/span> in Israelite history, the chronological materials for that period are quite difficult to interpret accurately. In the past, scholars resorted to assumptions of extensive co-regencies, to presumed confusion on the part of certain scribes over methods to be followed in computations, or to other theories in attempting to understand the period. In spite of the many difficulties, however, all the biblical and Assyrian dates for the period of the divided monarchy have been harmonized—with the exception of four figures related to the closing years of the Israelite kingdom, all connected in some way with the problematic reign of Hoshea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"JudahaftertheFallofIsrael\">Judah after the Fall of Israel<\/p>\n<p>Following the fall of Samaria in 722 <span>BC<\/span>, OT chronology is concerned only with the southern kingdom of Judah until its destruction some 135 years later. Two events in the biblical record important for establishing a chronology for that period are the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib of Assyria in the late eighth century and the eventual fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in the early sixth century.<\/p>\n<h5>Sennacherib’s Invasion of Judah<\/h5>\n<p>The Assyrian invasion (704–681 <span>BC<\/span>) is recorded in 2 Kings 18:13-16, where verse 13 dates the event to the 14th year of King Hezekiah. Sennacherib’s own inscriptions include a lengthier version of the affair. From them the date of 701 <span>BC<\/span> is established, placing the accession of Hezekiah in 715 <span>BC<\/span>. That much is simple, but problems still arise. For example, 2 Kings 19:9 reports that Sennacherib was in contact with an Ethiopian king, Tirhakah (c. 690–664 <span>BC<\/span>), during the course of his campaign, which included a siege of Jerusalem. Obviously, contact with a ruler who came to power in 690 <span>BC<\/span> at the earliest could not refer to events in 701 <span>BC<\/span>. It is possible, however, that Sennacherib actually made two invasions of Judah, the first in 701 and the second sometime later. The date of that supposed second invasion is not assured, although 2 Kings 19:35-37 may imply that Sennacherib was murdered only shortly after his withdrawal from Jerusalem. Since Sennacherib was succeeded by his son Esarhaddon in the year 681, the presumed second invasion of Judah would have occurred somewhere in the last half of the same decade.<\/p>\n<p>A number of scholars oppose the assumption of a second invasion of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. They suggest the possibility that Tirhakah, though king only from 690 <span>BC<\/span>, may have led troops against Sennacherib as early as 701, before acceding to the throne. The reference to King Tirhakah in 2 Kings 19:9 would then be understood as use of his eventual title in an effort to identify him to a later generation of readers.<\/p>\n<p>However the question of the number of invasions is decided, it is certain that Sennacherib invaded Judah in 701 <span>BC<\/span>, the 14th regnal year of Hezekiah. Such a synchronism establishes Hezekiah’s accession year as 715 <span>BC<\/span>, but that date raises another problem. The fall of Samaria, now established at 722, is dated by 2 Kings 18:10 in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign. The most likely solution is that Hezekiah began a co-regency with his father, Ahaz, six years before Samaria fell. The possibility for confusion arises from the fact that one verse (2 Kgs 18:13; repeated in Is 36:1) synchronizes Sennacherib’s 701 <span>BC<\/span> invasion with the 14th year of Hezekiah’s independent reign; another verse (2 Kgs 18:10) correlates the fall of Samaria with the beginning of Hezekiah’s co-regency. Thus from about 728 to 715 <span>BC<\/span> Hezekiah was co-regent with Ahaz. From 715 to 697 he reigned alone. From 696 to 686 his son Manasseh was co-ruler with him.<\/p>\n<p>According to the chronological information given by a number of verses in 2 Kings, a total of 128 years and six months elapsed between the time of Hezekiah’s accession in 715 and the capture of King Jehoiachin in 597, a date to be discussed below. Thus another problem is to explain the more than 10-year excess apparently demanded by the biblical totals. The best solution appears to lie in the assumption that Manasseh first came to power in 697 as co-regent with his father, Hezekiah. Manasseh died in 642, following what 2 Kings 21:1 states was a 55-year reign. Hezekiah, who came to the throne in 715, is said to have reigned 29 years (2 Kgs 18:2), which would mean that he was king until 686, roughly 11 years after the time when Manasseh must have come to the throne in order to have completed a 55-year reign by 642.<\/p>\n<h5>Fall of Jerusalem<\/h5>\n<p>Contemporary Babylonian records are available to shed valuable light on the last few years of Judah’s existence. For the years 626–623, 618–595, and 556 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonian Chronicle, a formal record of Babylonian affairs of state, has been recovered. From information contained in that chronicle and other cuneiform documents of the period, three dates in Judah’s history may be fixed firmly. The first is the death of Josiah in 609; the second is the battle of Carchemish in 605; the third is the end of the reign of Jehoiachin, which is dated by the Babylonian Chronicle to the second month of Adar in the ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, or March 16, 597.<\/p>\n<p>After Jehoiachin’s capture, Zedekiah became puppet king of Judah for 11 years (2 Kgs 24:18). On the tenth day of the tenth month during Zedekiah’s ninth regnal year (2 Kgs 25:1), the final siege of Jerusalem was begun by the Babylonian army. That day was January 15, 588. On the ninth day of the fourth month during the 11th regnal year of Zedekiah, after a siege of almost 18 months, the wall of Jerusalem was broken through (2 Kgs 25:3-4). The temple was burned on day seven of the following (fifth) month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Beyond587bc\">Beyond 586 <span>BC<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Following the tragedy of 586 <span>BC<\/span>, several further developments are given chronological notice in the OT. Jeremiah 52:30 records a third deportation of Jews to Babylonia in the 23d year of King Nebuchadnezzar (582 or 581 <span>BC<\/span>). Both 2 Kings 25:27 and Jeremiah 52:31 give evidence of the release of King Jehoiachin from prison; the Babylonian Chronicle dates that event at 27 Adar, or March 21, 561 <span>BC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In 539 <span>BC<\/span> the Babylonians themselves were destined to learn the meaning of defeat. In that year a Persian ruler, Cyrus the Great, launched a successful campaign against Babylon and its king, Nabonidus. Inheriting control over the exiled Jews and many other groups of people conquered earlier by Babylonia, Cyrus moved quickly to initiate a policy of tolerance toward his new subjects. In the first year of his rule Cyrus issued an edict making it possible for Jews to return to their former land (Ezr 1:1). On the first day of the following year, 1 Tishri (Ezr 3:6), an altar was set up in Jerusalem. In Iyyar of the following year (April\/May 536) work was begun on the temple itself (Ezr 3:8).<\/p>\n<p>After a period of frustrating work stoppages of varying lengths, the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah spurred on the Jews to complete the temple. Work resumed in 520 (Ezr 4:24; Hg 1:1, 15) and was finally completed on 3 Adar, or March 12, 515 (Ezr 6:15). The final stages of OT chronology pertain to the careers of Ezra and Nehemiah. The traditional view of their era places Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I (458 <span>BC<\/span>) and Nehemiah in the 20th (445 <span>BC<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> “Date” under each OT book; Conquest and Allotment of the Land; Diaspora of the Jews; Exodus, The; Israel, History of; Patriarchs, Period of the; Postexilic Period; Wilderness Wanderings.<\/p>","summary_ro":"CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament) Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper his...","summary_en":"CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE* (Old Testament) Branch of biblical studies that attempts to assign dates and sequences to OT events. Chronology is a science. It deals with evidence, theories, assumptions, and the balance of probabilities. Often it boils down to a matter of choosing among theories that are equally unable to solve all the problems raised by other points of view. OT chronology is an accredited branch of biblical studies primarily because it is essential for understanding the proper his...","source":"Articles\/C.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":15319,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Haran (Place)","title_en":"Haran (Place)","content_ro":"<h3>HARAN (P<span>lace<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>City of northern Mesopotamia, first mentioned in Genesis 11:31 as the destination of Terah, Abraham’s father, in migrating from Ur of the Chaldees, and his home until his death. At age 75, Abraham was commanded by God to move to a land that God had for him (Gn 12:1-4). There were relatives who remained in Haran, however, to whom Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, fled in fear of Esau (27:42-43). Jacob stayed in Haran many years while serving his Uncle Laban and acquiring Leah and Rachel as wives, as well as many sheep and goats, servants, camels, and donkeys (30:43).<\/p>\n<p>This “city of Nahor” (Gn 11:27-29; 24:10; 27:43) was established in the third millennium <span>BC<\/span>, and its location on a branch of the Euphrates soon made it an important commercial center. Perhaps the ancient trade route that linked Damascus, Nineveh, and Carchemish passed by Haran. Ezekiel mentions trade between Haran and Tyre (Ez 27:23). Haran was an Aramean city and was famous for its worship of the lunar Sin and Nikkal. This system was an offspring of the cult found in Sumerian Ur. Sin and his consort Nikkal were revered not only here but throughout Canaan and even in Egypt. The cult persisted past NT times, its temple finally being destroyed by Mongols in the 13th century <span>AD<\/span>. It is little wonder that God commanded Abraham to leave this seat of idolatry. Modern Harran preserves the ancient cuneiform spelling of the name (cf. <span>kjv<\/span> “Charran,” Acts 7:2, 4).<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>HARAN (P<span>lace<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>City of northern Mesopotamia, first mentioned in Genesis 11:31 as the destination of Terah, Abraham’s father, in migrating from Ur of the Chaldees, and his home until his death. At age 75, Abraham was commanded by God to move to a land that God had for him (Gn 12:1-4). There were relatives who remained in Haran, however, to whom Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, fled in fear of Esau (27:42-43). Jacob stayed in Haran many years while serving his Uncle Laban and acquiring Leah and Rachel as wives, as well as many sheep and goats, servants, camels, and donkeys (30:43).<\/p>\n<p>This “city of Nahor” (Gn 11:27-29; 24:10; 27:43) was established in the third millennium <span>BC<\/span>, and its location on a branch of the Euphrates soon made it an important commercial center. Perhaps the ancient trade route that linked Damascus, Nineveh, and Carchemish passed by Haran. Ezekiel mentions trade between Haran and Tyre (Ez 27:23). Haran was an Aramean city and was famous for its worship of the lunar Sin and Nikkal. This system was an offspring of the cult found in Sumerian Ur. Sin and his consort Nikkal were revered not only here but throughout Canaan and even in Egypt. The cult persisted past NT times, its temple finally being destroyed by Mongols in the 13th century <span>AD<\/span>. It is little wonder that God commanded Abraham to leave this seat of idolatry. Modern Harran preserves the ancient cuneiform spelling of the name (cf. <span>kjv<\/span> “Charran,” Acts 7:2, 4).<\/p>","summary_ro":"HARAN (Place) City of northern Mesopotamia, first mentioned in Genesis 11:31 as the destination of Terah, Abraham’s father, in migrating from Ur of the Chaldees, and his home until his death. At age 75, Abraham was commanded by God to move to a land that God had for him (Gn 12:1-4). There were relatives who remained in Haran, however, to whom Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, fled in fear of Esau (27:42-43). Jacob stayed in Haran many years while serving his Uncle Laban and acquiring Leah and Rachel...","summary_en":"HARAN (Place) City of northern Mesopotamia, first mentioned in Genesis 11:31 as the destination of Terah, Abraham’s father, in migrating from Ur of the Chaldees, and his home until his death. At age 75, Abraham was commanded by God to move to a land that God had for him (Gn 12:1-4). There were relatives who remained in Haran, however, to whom Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, fled in fear of Esau (27:42-43). Jacob stayed in Haran many years while serving his Uncle Laban and acquiring Leah and Rachel...","source":"Articles\/H.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":25347,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Mesopotamia","title_en":"Mesopotamia","content_ro":"<h3>MESOPOTAMIA<\/h3>\n<p>Name given by the Greeks to the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, an area today called al-Jazira, “the island,” by the Arabs. Mesopotamia, which means literally “between the rivers,” is applied to the land between and near those rivers down to the Persian Gulf. Much of it is included in Iraq, but some of it is in Syria, and a small part in Turkey.<\/p>\n<p>Mesopotamia played a significant role in OT history. Much of the tightly compressed account of Genesis 1–11 was centered here. The Garden of Eden was situated in this area, for two of the rivers of Genesis 2:10-14 are identified as the Euphrates and the Tigris.<\/p>\n<p>The prehistoric cultures of Mesopotamia are unknown. The historical periods are labeled by the names of various cities that dominated them, such as Ur and Isin-Larsa, or by the names of dynasties established in those places, for example, Ur III.<\/p>\n\n<p>The southernmost part of Mesopotamia is known as Sumer and was populated by the Sumerians, who had a distinctive culture and a non-Semitic language, which was written in cuneiform script, as were most of the other languages of Mesopotamia. Farther north was the district called Akkad, which was also named Agade and had a Semitic population. Still farther north, along the Tigris, was the land that became Assyria, while to the far west was Syria, or Aram, and in between was Mitanni (c. 1400 <span>BC<\/span>). As portions of Mesopotamia slipped from hand to hand, various sections became parts of different empires, such as Hittite, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek or Hellenistic, and Roman.<\/p>\n<p>In the Hebrew OT the name for Mesopotamia is Aram-naharaim, “Aram of the two rivers.” Abraham sent his servant, Eliezer, to Aram-naharaim to find a wife for Isaac (Gn 24:10). In this context it has been suggested that the two rivers were the Euphrates and the Khabur. The account of the adventures of Jacob in this area does not use the term Aram-naharaim but employs instead the name Paddan-aram, “the field [or garden] of Aram” (28:2).<\/p>\n<p>Balaam, the son of Beor, was from Pethor in Mesopotamia (Dt 23:4). During the period of the judges, Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, oppressed Israel for eight years, but the Lord brought deliverance through Othniel (Jgs 3:8-10).<\/p>\n<p>When the Ammonites expected David to invade their territory because they had insulted his ambassadors, they hired chariotry from Mesopotamia and elsewhere to bolster their forces (1 Chr 19:6).<\/p>\n<p>In the NT Mesopotamia is mentioned only twice. People from Mesopotamia were present on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9). Stephen, in his defense before the Sanhedrin, states that Abraham lived in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran (Acts 7:2; see Gn 11:31).<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>MESOPOTAMIA<\/h3>\n<p>Name given by the Greeks to the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, an area today called al-Jazira, “the island,” by the Arabs. Mesopotamia, which means literally “between the rivers,” is applied to the land between and near those rivers down to the Persian Gulf. Much of it is included in Iraq, but some of it is in Syria, and a small part in Turkey.<\/p>\n<p>Mesopotamia played a significant role in OT history. Much of the tightly compressed account of Genesis 1–11 was centered here. The Garden of Eden was situated in this area, for two of the rivers of Genesis 2:10-14 are identified as the Euphrates and the Tigris.<\/p>\n<p>The prehistoric cultures of Mesopotamia are unknown. The historical periods are labeled by the names of various cities that dominated them, such as Ur and Isin-Larsa, or by the names of dynasties established in those places, for example, Ur III.<\/p>\n\n<p>The southernmost part of Mesopotamia is known as Sumer and was populated by the Sumerians, who had a distinctive culture and a non-Semitic language, which was written in cuneiform script, as were most of the other languages of Mesopotamia. Farther north was the district called Akkad, which was also named Agade and had a Semitic population. Still farther north, along the Tigris, was the land that became Assyria, while to the far west was Syria, or Aram, and in between was Mitanni (c. 1400 <span>BC<\/span>). As portions of Mesopotamia slipped from hand to hand, various sections became parts of different empires, such as Hittite, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek or Hellenistic, and Roman.<\/p>\n<p>In the Hebrew OT the name for Mesopotamia is Aram-naharaim, “Aram of the two rivers.” Abraham sent his servant, Eliezer, to Aram-naharaim to find a wife for Isaac (Gn 24:10). In this context it has been suggested that the two rivers were the Euphrates and the Khabur. The account of the adventures of Jacob in this area does not use the term Aram-naharaim but employs instead the name Paddan-aram, “the field [or garden] of Aram” (28:2).<\/p>\n<p>Balaam, the son of Beor, was from Pethor in Mesopotamia (Dt 23:4). During the period of the judges, Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, oppressed Israel for eight years, but the Lord brought deliverance through Othniel (Jgs 3:8-10).<\/p>\n<p>When the Ammonites expected David to invade their territory because they had insulted his ambassadors, they hired chariotry from Mesopotamia and elsewhere to bolster their forces (1 Chr 19:6).<\/p>\n<p>In the NT Mesopotamia is mentioned only twice. People from Mesopotamia were present on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9). Stephen, in his defense before the Sanhedrin, states that Abraham lived in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran (Acts 7:2; see Gn 11:31).<\/p>","summary_ro":"MESOPOTAMIA Name given by the Greeks to the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, an area today called al-Jazira, “the island,” by the Arabs. Mesopotamia, which means literally “between the rivers,” is applied to the land between and near those rivers down to the Persian Gulf. Much of it is included in Iraq, but some of it is in Syria, and a small part in Turkey. Mesopotamia played a significant role in OT history. Much of the tightly compressed account of Genesis 1–11 was centered he...","summary_en":"MESOPOTAMIA Name given by the Greeks to the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, an area today called al-Jazira, “the island,” by the Arabs. Mesopotamia, which means literally “between the rivers,” is applied to the land between and near those rivers down to the Persian Gulf. Much of it is included in Iraq, but some of it is in Syria, and a small part in Turkey. Mesopotamia played a significant role in OT history. Much of the tightly compressed account of Genesis 1–11 was centered he...","source":"Articles\/M.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":26223,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Monotheism*","title_en":"Monotheism*","content_ro":"<h3>MONOTHEISM*<\/h3>\n<p>Belief that there is only one God. It is distinguished from polytheism, which posits the existence of more than one god; from henotheism, which worships one god without denying the existence of other gods; and from atheism, which denies the existence of any God. The three great monotheistic religions of the world are, in their historic order, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.<\/p>\n<p>If there is only one God, it follows that the deity is personal, sovereign, infinite, eternal, perfect, and almighty. This is, in fact, what Scripture declares of God in his essential being. It is only in the biblical revelation that we can know clearly and certainly who God is and what he is like. He must be distinct from the world (thus avoiding pantheism) in such a way that he is the only Creator and sustainer of the universe and the Lord of history. He is above and beyond his creation (divine transcendence), and yet he enters into time and human affairs (divine immanence). The biblical doctrine of monotheism is known both through historical events involving “the God who acts” for the salvation of the human race and through his verbal communication as “the God who speaks” to chosen servants for the instruction and edification of those who believe. It is in such dimensions that monotheism embraces the possibility and reality of direct encounter between the eternal and infinite God and the finite, sinful creature. The NT makes it clear that this is accomplished through Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Bible, man was originally a monotheist. No other conclusion is possible from the Genesis records (Gn 1–3). Polytheism developed later as a sinful corruption of the pristine belief in one true God, the God of Creation, revelation, and redemption. This corruption had set in at least by the time of Abraham, for God’s call of Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees and journey toward Canaan, the land God had promised him and his posterity, undoubtedly involved a break with the polytheism of his ancestors in the area of Ur (11:31–12:9).<\/p>\n<p>When Abraham reached Canaan, the Promised Land, he and his family found people worshiping a multitude of gods. Each ethnic grouping in Palestine had its own god or many gods (Gn 31:3-35; Jgs 11:24; 1 Sm 5:2-5; 1 Kgs 11:33). In their disobedience, the sons of Abraham were continually losing faith in God and lusting after the gods of the Canaanites or diluting the true worship of God with the heathen practices associated with the worship of the Canaanite gods (Gn 35:2-4; cf. Jos 24:2; 1 Kgs 16:30-33). One of the major roles of the prophets was to call the Jews back to true worship and faith in the one God, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex 3:6, 15-16; cf. 1 Kgs 18:17-18). This reminder of their monotheistic heritage was constantly needed because of the ever-present danger of losing it through contact with the polytheistic beliefs and practices of their idolatrous neighbors. Such reminders were necessary even for leaders like David (1 Sm 26:19), and certainly for Solomon (1 Kgs 11:1-7) and later kings (12:28-32; 2 Kgs 10:31; 22:17).<\/p>\n<p>The early prophets did not clearly delineate a formal doctrine of monotheism; rather, they showed the importance and unreality of the pagan gods (1 Kgs 18:24). It was the eighth-century <span>BC<\/span> prophets who asserted a monotheistic faith in the face of a persistent polytheism. It was not until the time of the exile that the Jews were cured of their idolatrous polytheism, when their enemies took away their idols and demonstrated their impotence (Ps 115; Is 46). Then Israel learned that God alone was their refuge and help in the time of trouble, because he only is the true and living God who can save his people when they repent of their sins and obey the divine will.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> God, Being and Attributes of.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>MONOTHEISM*<\/h3>\n<p>Belief that there is only one God. It is distinguished from polytheism, which posits the existence of more than one god; from henotheism, which worships one god without denying the existence of other gods; and from atheism, which denies the existence of any God. The three great monotheistic religions of the world are, in their historic order, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.<\/p>\n<p>If there is only one God, it follows that the deity is personal, sovereign, infinite, eternal, perfect, and almighty. This is, in fact, what Scripture declares of God in his essential being. It is only in the biblical revelation that we can know clearly and certainly who God is and what he is like. He must be distinct from the world (thus avoiding pantheism) in such a way that he is the only Creator and sustainer of the universe and the Lord of history. He is above and beyond his creation (divine transcendence), and yet he enters into time and human affairs (divine immanence). The biblical doctrine of monotheism is known both through historical events involving “the God who acts” for the salvation of the human race and through his verbal communication as “the God who speaks” to chosen servants for the instruction and edification of those who believe. It is in such dimensions that monotheism embraces the possibility and reality of direct encounter between the eternal and infinite God and the finite, sinful creature. The NT makes it clear that this is accomplished through Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Bible, man was originally a monotheist. No other conclusion is possible from the Genesis records (Gn 1–3). Polytheism developed later as a sinful corruption of the pristine belief in one true God, the God of Creation, revelation, and redemption. This corruption had set in at least by the time of Abraham, for God’s call of Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees and journey toward Canaan, the land God had promised him and his posterity, undoubtedly involved a break with the polytheism of his ancestors in the area of Ur (11:31–12:9).<\/p>\n<p>When Abraham reached Canaan, the Promised Land, he and his family found people worshiping a multitude of gods. Each ethnic grouping in Palestine had its own god or many gods (Gn 31:3-35; Jgs 11:24; 1 Sm 5:2-5; 1 Kgs 11:33). In their disobedience, the sons of Abraham were continually losing faith in God and lusting after the gods of the Canaanites or diluting the true worship of God with the heathen practices associated with the worship of the Canaanite gods (Gn 35:2-4; cf. Jos 24:2; 1 Kgs 16:30-33). One of the major roles of the prophets was to call the Jews back to true worship and faith in the one God, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex 3:6, 15-16; cf. 1 Kgs 18:17-18). This reminder of their monotheistic heritage was constantly needed because of the ever-present danger of losing it through contact with the polytheistic beliefs and practices of their idolatrous neighbors. Such reminders were necessary even for leaders like David (1 Sm 26:19), and certainly for Solomon (1 Kgs 11:1-7) and later kings (12:28-32; 2 Kgs 10:31; 22:17).<\/p>\n<p>The early prophets did not clearly delineate a formal doctrine of monotheism; rather, they showed the importance and unreality of the pagan gods (1 Kgs 18:24). It was the eighth-century <span>BC<\/span> prophets who asserted a monotheistic faith in the face of a persistent polytheism. It was not until the time of the exile that the Jews were cured of their idolatrous polytheism, when their enemies took away their idols and demonstrated their impotence (Ps 115; Is 46). Then Israel learned that God alone was their refuge and help in the time of trouble, because he only is the true and living God who can save his people when they repent of their sins and obey the divine will.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> God, Being and Attributes of.<\/p>","summary_ro":"MONOTHEISM* Belief that there is only one God. It is distinguished from polytheism, which posits the existence of more than one god; from henotheism, which worships one god without denying the existence of other gods; and from atheism, which denies the existence of any God. The three great monotheistic religions of the world are, in their historic order, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. If there is only one God, it follows that the deity is personal, sovereign, infinite, eternal, perfect, an...","summary_en":"MONOTHEISM* Belief that there is only one God. It is distinguished from polytheism, which posits the existence of more than one god; from henotheism, which worships one god without denying the existence of other gods; and from atheism, which denies the existence of any God. The three great monotheistic religions of the world are, in their historic order, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. If there is only one God, it follows that the deity is personal, sovereign, infinite, eternal, perfect, an...","source":"Articles\/M.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":27038,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Nations","title_en":"Nations","content_ro":"<h3>NATIONS<\/h3>\n<p>Groups formed on the basis of political or social interests or on kinship. Generally, the word “nations” implies peoples of the world other than the Hebrews, although it can also include the Jews.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Origins\">Origins<\/p>\n<p>The book of Genesis attributes to the three sons of Noah the origin of the various “families” or ethnic groups (about 70 in all) who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean regions (Gn 10). The narrative presupposes that each group has its own individual geographical location and language (vv 5, 20, 31). The story of the tower (ziggurat) of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven (ch 11), explains that ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically so that they might not collaborate on presumptuous ventures.<\/p>\n<p>Paul, in his sermon in Athens, assumes that the various nations had a common origin, just as the writer of Genesis did, and accepts as part of the design of God the fact that nations should be separated by geographical boundaries (Acts 17:26). The prophet Zephaniah looked forward to the day when God would reverse this state of affairs and cause all the nations to speak one language (Zep 3:9). The writer of Revelation, in his vision of the new heaven and the new earth, saw these natural boundaries abolished. The nations freely intermingle in the new Jerusalem (Rv 21:22-26).<\/p>\n<p>The distinction between “Israel” and “the nations” is not clear-cut. “Israel” evolved from various ethnic groups, and several of “the nations” traced their origins to prominent figures in the Israelite community. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, lived in Ur of the Chaldees in the delta region of the Tigris-Euphrates valley. With his father he migrated north to Haran, and finally southwest to the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31–12:9). Deuteronomy 26:5 (“a wandering Aramean was my father”) suggests Abraham’s residence was in the district of Mesopotamia known as Aram-naharaim. When Abraham entered into covenant with God, God gave him the token of the covenant relationship: circumcision. Foreigners purchased as slaves were circumcised, thus including them in the covenant community. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt into the wilderness, a mixed multitude also went up with them (Ex 12:38), which suggests again that people not biologically related nevertheless identified themselves with the people of Israel.<\/p>\n<p>The nation of Israel did not include all of those physically descended from Abraham. The first son of Abraham, Ishmael, had an Egyptian mother and is the ancestor of the Ishmaelites, bedouins who roamed the southern wilderness region (Gn 16). Of the twin sons born to Isaac and Rebekah, Esau, the firstborn, is the father of the Edomites living in the southeast, traditional enemies of Israel (Gn 25:23; Nm 20:21).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"GodandtheNations\">God and the Nations<\/p>\n<p>Scripture presents negative and positive attitudes toward the nations. The nations inhabiting the territory between the Tigris-Euphrates valley and the Nile River were wicked nations. Therefore, God took away their land and gave it to the descendants of Abraham (Gn 15:16-20). Incestuous relationships, adultery, homosexuality, and sexual relationships between men and animals characterized the nations and incurred God’s displeasure (Lv 18). The nations indulged in the practice of spiritism, augury, witchcraft, and necromancy, so the Hebrews were instructed to avoid such activities (19:26; 20:6). The nations worshiped many gods and included in their worship the practice of human sacrifice, often the sacrifice of children—a ritual that God abhors (Lv 20:1-5; 2 Kgs 17:29-34). The prophet Isaiah spoke scathingly of the craftsman who, taking a branch of a tree, used part of it to kindle a fire and fashioned from the remainder a graven image that he then worshiped (Is 44:12-20). The Baalim and Ashteroth, fertility gods of the Canaanites, were a constant source of temptation to the people of Israel. The message repeated throughout Scripture is that for these reasons God would drive out the nations and give their territory to Israel (Ex 34:24; Dt 12:29-31). The prophetic oracles against the nations reinforced this negative attitude (Jer 46–51; Am 1:3–2:3).<\/p>\n<p>However, the Scripture also reflects a more positive attitude toward the nations. As revealed in the book of Psalms, God is not only concerned about Israel; his eyes keep watch over the nations, and all the earth praises and worships him (Ps 66:1-8). The psalmist prays that God’s saving power may be known among all the nations. He affirms that God righteously judges the peoples and guides the nations. All the ends of the earth should fear him (67:7). The prophet Isaiah declares that the Jerusalem temple is to be a house of prayer for all peoples and that God welcomes the foreigner who comes with sacrifices and offering worship (Is 56:6-8). Isaiah’s vision of hope for the latter days pictures people of all nations pouring into Jerusalem to worship the Lord and learn his ways. Instead of nation warring against nation, all will live in peace, ruled by God (2:2-4).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheNationsintheNewTestament\">The Nations in the New Testament<\/p>\n<p>According to the Gospels, Jesus ministered not only to the Jews but also to the Gentile nations in accordance with ancient prophecy (Mt 4:15-16). Jesus taught in Galilee, a predominantly non-Jewish area, traveled to Tyre and Sidon (Mk 7:24) and through the Decapolis (v 31). He ministered to a Roman centurion (Lk 7:1-10), the widow of Nain (vv 11-17), and a Syrophoenician woman (Mk 7:26). People from Idumea came to observe his miracles (3:8).<\/p>\n<p>The teaching of Jesus was also wide in scope. The narrative of the great judgment (Mt 25:31-46) depicts all nations gathered before the Son of Man, and Jesus commissions the apostles to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19).<\/p>\n<p>Although the book of Acts does not overlook the nations’ role in the death of Jesus (Acts 4:27) and their role in opposing the ministry of Paul (26:17), it nevertheless clearly indicates that the church fulfilled its commission to present the gospel to non-Jewish peoples. Peter proclaims the message about Jesus to the household of Cornelius, a Roman soldier of the Italian Cohort (ch 10). Although the early church resisted the fact that non-Jewish peoples might freely receive the gift of the Spirit, they eventually welcomed this conclusion (11:1-8; 15:1-29). Paul traveled through Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, founding or visiting churches that were predominantly Gentile. The book of Acts ends dramatically with Paul preaching the gospel in the city of Rome, the heart of the Roman Empire.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>NATIONS<\/h3>\n<p>Groups formed on the basis of political or social interests or on kinship. Generally, the word “nations” implies peoples of the world other than the Hebrews, although it can also include the Jews.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Origins\">Origins<\/p>\n<p>The book of Genesis attributes to the three sons of Noah the origin of the various “families” or ethnic groups (about 70 in all) who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean regions (Gn 10). The narrative presupposes that each group has its own individual geographical location and language (vv 5, 20, 31). The story of the tower (ziggurat) of Babel, whose peak was to reach to heaven (ch 11), explains that ethnic groups were separated by language barriers and scattered geographically so that they might not collaborate on presumptuous ventures.<\/p>\n<p>Paul, in his sermon in Athens, assumes that the various nations had a common origin, just as the writer of Genesis did, and accepts as part of the design of God the fact that nations should be separated by geographical boundaries (Acts 17:26). The prophet Zephaniah looked forward to the day when God would reverse this state of affairs and cause all the nations to speak one language (Zep 3:9). The writer of Revelation, in his vision of the new heaven and the new earth, saw these natural boundaries abolished. The nations freely intermingle in the new Jerusalem (Rv 21:22-26).<\/p>\n<p>The distinction between “Israel” and “the nations” is not clear-cut. “Israel” evolved from various ethnic groups, and several of “the nations” traced their origins to prominent figures in the Israelite community. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, lived in Ur of the Chaldees in the delta region of the Tigris-Euphrates valley. With his father he migrated north to Haran, and finally southwest to the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31–12:9). Deuteronomy 26:5 (“a wandering Aramean was my father”) suggests Abraham’s residence was in the district of Mesopotamia known as Aram-naharaim. When Abraham entered into covenant with God, God gave him the token of the covenant relationship: circumcision. Foreigners purchased as slaves were circumcised, thus including them in the covenant community. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt into the wilderness, a mixed multitude also went up with them (Ex 12:38), which suggests again that people not biologically related nevertheless identified themselves with the people of Israel.<\/p>\n<p>The nation of Israel did not include all of those physically descended from Abraham. The first son of Abraham, Ishmael, had an Egyptian mother and is the ancestor of the Ishmaelites, bedouins who roamed the southern wilderness region (Gn 16). Of the twin sons born to Isaac and Rebekah, Esau, the firstborn, is the father of the Edomites living in the southeast, traditional enemies of Israel (Gn 25:23; Nm 20:21).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"GodandtheNations\">God and the Nations<\/p>\n<p>Scripture presents negative and positive attitudes toward the nations. The nations inhabiting the territory between the Tigris-Euphrates valley and the Nile River were wicked nations. Therefore, God took away their land and gave it to the descendants of Abraham (Gn 15:16-20). Incestuous relationships, adultery, homosexuality, and sexual relationships between men and animals characterized the nations and incurred God’s displeasure (Lv 18). The nations indulged in the practice of spiritism, augury, witchcraft, and necromancy, so the Hebrews were instructed to avoid such activities (19:26; 20:6). The nations worshiped many gods and included in their worship the practice of human sacrifice, often the sacrifice of children—a ritual that God abhors (Lv 20:1-5; 2 Kgs 17:29-34). The prophet Isaiah spoke scathingly of the craftsman who, taking a branch of a tree, used part of it to kindle a fire and fashioned from the remainder a graven image that he then worshiped (Is 44:12-20). The Baalim and Ashteroth, fertility gods of the Canaanites, were a constant source of temptation to the people of Israel. The message repeated throughout Scripture is that for these reasons God would drive out the nations and give their territory to Israel (Ex 34:24; Dt 12:29-31). The prophetic oracles against the nations reinforced this negative attitude (Jer 46–51; Am 1:3–2:3).<\/p>\n<p>However, the Scripture also reflects a more positive attitude toward the nations. As revealed in the book of Psalms, God is not only concerned about Israel; his eyes keep watch over the nations, and all the earth praises and worships him (Ps 66:1-8). The psalmist prays that God’s saving power may be known among all the nations. He affirms that God righteously judges the peoples and guides the nations. All the ends of the earth should fear him (67:7). The prophet Isaiah declares that the Jerusalem temple is to be a house of prayer for all peoples and that God welcomes the foreigner who comes with sacrifices and offering worship (Is 56:6-8). Isaiah’s vision of hope for the latter days pictures people of all nations pouring into Jerusalem to worship the Lord and learn his ways. Instead of nation warring against nation, all will live in peace, ruled by God (2:2-4).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"TheNationsintheNewTestament\">The Nations in the New Testament<\/p>\n<p>According to the Gospels, Jesus ministered not only to the Jews but also to the Gentile nations in accordance with ancient prophecy (Mt 4:15-16). Jesus taught in Galilee, a predominantly non-Jewish area, traveled to Tyre and Sidon (Mk 7:24) and through the Decapolis (v 31). He ministered to a Roman centurion (Lk 7:1-10), the widow of Nain (vv 11-17), and a Syrophoenician woman (Mk 7:26). People from Idumea came to observe his miracles (3:8).<\/p>\n<p>The teaching of Jesus was also wide in scope. The narrative of the great judgment (Mt 25:31-46) depicts all nations gathered before the Son of Man, and Jesus commissions the apostles to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19).<\/p>\n<p>Although the book of Acts does not overlook the nations’ role in the death of Jesus (Acts 4:27) and their role in opposing the ministry of Paul (26:17), it nevertheless clearly indicates that the church fulfilled its commission to present the gospel to non-Jewish peoples. Peter proclaims the message about Jesus to the household of Cornelius, a Roman soldier of the Italian Cohort (ch 10). Although the early church resisted the fact that non-Jewish peoples might freely receive the gift of the Spirit, they eventually welcomed this conclusion (11:1-8; 15:1-29). Paul traveled through Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, founding or visiting churches that were predominantly Gentile. The book of Acts ends dramatically with Paul preaching the gospel in the city of Rome, the heart of the Roman Empire.<\/p>","summary_ro":"NATIONS Groups formed on the basis of political or social interests or on kinship. Generally, the word “nations” implies peoples of the world other than the Hebrews, although it can also include the Jews. Origins The book of Genesis attributes to the three sons of Noah the origin of the various “families” or ethnic groups (about 70 in all) who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean regions (Gn 10). The narrative presupposes that each group has its own individual geographical location and languag...","summary_en":"NATIONS Groups formed on the basis of political or social interests or on kinship. Generally, the word “nations” implies peoples of the world other than the Hebrews, although it can also include the Jews. Origins The book of Genesis attributes to the three sons of Noah the origin of the various “families” or ethnic groups (about 70 in all) who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean regions (Gn 10). The narrative presupposes that each group has its own individual geographical location and languag...","source":"Articles\/N.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":28757,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Palestine*","title_en":"Palestine*","content_ro":"<h3>PALESTINE*<\/h3>\n<p>Country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, also known as Canaan and Israel. Palestine was situated at the west end of the Fertile Crescent—that arching stretch of highly productive land that ran from the Persian Gulf through Mesopotamia and Syria to Egypt. Palestine lay in a unique position, for it constituted a land bridge between Mesopotamia and Egypt, the two primary cultural centers of the ancient Near East. It also served as a connection between the continents of Asia and Africa and as a continental link between Africa and Europe. Trade moved by well-defined routes as goods were brought into the Fertile Crescent from as far as northern Europe, India, and south of Egypt. The same roads were followed by prospective conquerors as they moved their armies from area to area in quest of power and wealth.<\/p>\n<p>It was the land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants, the homeland of God’s chosen people, and the geographical scene for much of biblical history. It has become a land sacred to three great world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Physically, Palestine is a kind of microcosm. In a stretch of 150 miles (241.4 kilometers) one can find almost every kind of climate and terrain known on the earth. It has fertile plains, sandy deserts, rocky wastes, forests, mountains, lakes, and rivers. With such a variety in so small an area, the land provides sharp contrasts. In the north, Mt Hermon stands perpetually snowcapped at an altitude of about 9,100 feet (2,773.7 meters), while a scant 100 miles (160.9 kilometers) distant in the subtropical depression of the Jordan Valley is the Dead Sea, representing the deepest spot on the earth.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Name<\/p>\n<p>• Territory<\/p>\n<p>• Climate<\/p>\n<p>• Geography<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Name\">Name<\/p>\n<p>This land has been known by many names over its long history. The country seems to have been named after the maritime region, perhaps because this was the area that most foreigners contacted. So the land was called Canaan and later named after Philistia. In the table of nations, Canaan is said to have extended from Sidon in the north toward Gerar as far as Gaza and east toward the Cities of the Plain (Gn 10:19). The name Canaan appears in the Bible; the first occurrence of the name as that of a country or region is in Genesis 11:31.<\/p>\n<p>After the Israelite conquest of Canaan, the country was known as the land of Israel (1 Sm 13:19; 1 Chr 22:2). With the division of the kingdom in the reign of Rehoboam (930 <span>BC<\/span>), the name Israel went with the northern kingdom, and the southern kingdom was known as Judah (later, Judea).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Territory\">Territory<\/p>\n<p>The earliest reference to the extent of Palestine appears in the promise of the land to Abraham and to his descendants (Gn 15:18-21). Here the borders are given as the River of Egypt (Wadi el-Arish) in the southwest to the Euphrates River in the northeast. It is further defined in terms of the peoples who occupied it at that time, 10 in all, including the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. In Genesis 17:8 the land is called simply “all the land of Canaan.”<\/p>\n<p>The Lord gave more detailed directions to Moses concerning the borders of the land that Israel was to occupy (Nm 34:1-12). The southern boundary was to be from the River of Egypt to the south of Kadesh-barnea and along the wilderness of Zin to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. The western boundary was the Mediterranean, the northern border was set at the entrance to Hamath, and the eastern limit was the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.<\/p>\n<p>The greatest extent of the Promised Land is seen in the Lord’s declaration to Moses that he would set the bounds of Israel from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines (Mediterranean) and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River (Ex 23:31). Historically, during the period of the judges and the reign of Saul, Israel did not conquer the land that had been given to the tribes in the division under Joshua. The military strength of David and the diplomacy of Solomon enabled them to achieve a marked expansion of Israelite rule. David defeated Hadadezer, king of Zobah, and thus pushed his northern frontier to the Euphrates River; he defeated Syria, Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Amalek, enlarging the kingdom also to the east and south (2 Sm 8:1-14; 1 Chr 18:1-13). Solomon had a fleet of merchant ships stationed at Ezion-geber on the Gulf of Aqaba. He also engaged in copper mining in that area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Climate\">Climate<\/p>\n<p>It has been said that the climate of Palestine is more varied than that of any other area of comparable size in the world. Generally, the climate may be described as temperate; at Jerusalem, for example, the temperature extremes range from 26°F (-3.3°C) to 107°F (41.6°C), and the average annual rainfall is about 20 inches (50.8 centimeters). The coastal plain is warmer and has been compared to the east coast of Florida. The average annual temperature at Jaffa (Joppa) is 67° F (19.4°C). The Jordan Valley in the area of the Dead Sea is subtropical; in summer its temperatures may reach 120°F (48.8°C).<\/p>\n<p>Rainfall is seasonal, with rain coming in the cooler months of the year as the prevailing west wind brings moisture over the comparatively colder land area, much like the “lake effect” snows of the Great Lakes region of the United States. The rainy season extends from October to April. Within this time the Israelites singled out two periods (Jer 5:24; Jl 2:23), the former rain and the latter rain, with the former rain occurring in the months of October and November and the latter rain falling in March and April. The coastal area receives about 28 inches (71.1 centimeters) of rain annually, while the average for the country in general is 22 to 24 inches (55.9–70 centimeters).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Geography\">Geography<\/p>\n<p>For purposes of description, the land of Palestine may be conveniently divided into five longitudinal sections:<\/p>\n<p>1. The Maritime or Coastal Plain<\/p>\n<li>2. The Shephelah<\/li>\n<li>3. The Western Plateau or Hill Country<\/li>\n<li>4. The Arabah or Jordan Valley<\/li>\n<li>5. The Eastern Plateau or Transjordan<\/li>\n<p>These divisions are based essentially on differences in elevation, but other geographic elements also serve to mark their limits or otherwise distinguish them.<\/p>\n\n<h5>The Maritime or Coastal Plain<\/h5>\n<p>The Maritime or Coastal Plain may be divided into three separate plains from south to north: the plain of Philistia, the plain of Sharon, and the plain of Acre.<\/p>\n<p>1. The plain of Philistia begins with the Wadi el-Arish, or River of Egypt, and extends north to the Nahr el-Auja, about five miles (8 kilometers) north of Joppa. This plain is about 70 miles (112.6 kilometers) long and reaches its greatest width in the latitude of Gaza, where it measures about 30 miles (48.3 kilometers). Along the Mediterranean there were dunes of sand, but for the most part, this area was very fertile and admirably suited for the production of grain.<\/p>\n<li>2. The plain of Sharon is not sharply demarcated from the Philistine plain and was probably under Philistine control, but the OT recognizes it as a separate entity (cf. Sg 2:1; Is 65:10). The plain extends north to Mt Carmel. On the coast are the town of Dor, which is mentioned in “The Tale of Wenamon,” and the city of Caesarea, where Herod the Great did much building.<\/li>\n<li>3. Beyond the promontory of Carmel lies a bay on which was situated the city named Ptolemais (Acts 21:7), also known as Acre or Acco (Jgs 1:31). Here a narrow plain stretches some 20 miles (32.2 kilometers) to the Ladder of Tyre (Ras en-Nakurah). The Kishon River (Jgs 4:7, 13; 1 Kgs 18:40) flows through this plain to the sea.<\/li>\n<h5>The Shephelah<\/h5>\n<p>The Shephelah constitutes a kind of “midlands,” intermediate between the lowlands of the coastal plain and the highlands of the Western Plateau, with an elevation of about 500 to 1,000 feet (152.4– 304.8 meters) and a width of only a few miles. It extends from the valley of Aijalon to Beersheba.<\/p>\n<p>The valleys of the Shephelah produced grain crops, while the hills were well suited for grapes and olives. The region was very important strategically, because it afforded approaches to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<h5>The Western Plateau or Hill Country<\/h5>\n<p>The Western Plateau or Hill Country ranges from 1,000 to 4,000 feet (304.8–609.6 meters) in elevation and covers some 150 miles (241.4 kilometers) from Lebanon to Beersheba. It may also be divided into three areas: Galilee, Samaria, and Judea.<\/p>\n<p>1. Galilee may be regarded as two parts, Upper Galilee (2,000–4,000 feet, or 609.6–1,219.2 meters) and Lower Galilee (below 2,000 feet, or 609.6 meters). The area was agricultural and pastoral, like much of Palestine, and was open to invasion. The highways that traversed Galilee made it a cosmopolitan district, so that Isaiah 9:1 calls it “Galilee of the nations.”<\/p>\n<li>2. Samaria was also suitable for crops and pasture. The brothers of Joseph were grazing their flocks in the plain of Dothan when Joseph visited them and became the victim of their conspiracy (Gn 37:17).<\/li>\n<li>3. Judea has an elevation of about 2,000 to 3,500 feet (609.6–1,066.8 meters) and reaches some 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) from Bethel to Beersheba. The city of Jerusalem stands at an elevation of 2,654 feet (808.9 meters), surrounded by mountains and valleys that served as part of its defense system (Ps 125:2). This was the heart of the nation, for from the time of David onward, the capital was here, and more important, the ark of the covenant had been brought here during David’s reign. As the Lord had long foretold, Jerusalem had become the center of his worship; here Solomon built the temple, one of the greatest structures ever made.<\/li>\n<h5>The Arabah or Jordan Valley<\/h5>\n<p>The Arabah or Jordan Valley presents the extremes of height and depth. Mt Hermon rises to 9,166 feet (2,793.8 meters), while the surface of the Dead Sea lies 1,275 feet (395 meters) below sea level, and at its deepest part the sea plunges another 1,300 feet (396.2 meters).<\/p>\n<p>1. The North Arabah or Upper Jordan Valley. The Jordan River has four sources, all near Mt Hermon. The Jordan flows through what was Lake Huleh, now partly drained and designated as a wildlife refuge. Two miles (3.2 kilometers) below the Huleh basin is the Bridge of Jacob’s Daughters, by which the old road to Damascus crossed the river. The Jordan then flows into a gorge some 1,200 feet (365.8 meters) deep.<\/p>\n<li>2. The Sea of Galilee, about 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) from Huleh, has an elevation of -685 feet (-208.8 meters). It measures 15 by 8 miles (24.1 by 12.9 kilometers), with a maximum depth of 750 feet (228.6 meters). The shape of the lake gave it the OT name, Chinnereth, meaning “harp” (Nm 34:11; Jos 13:27). In the NT it was also called the Lake of Gennesaret (Lk 5:1) and the Sea of Tiberias (Jn 6:1; 21:1).<\/li>\n<li>3. The Middle Arabah, or Ghor. The name Jordan means “descender”; in the 60 miles or 96.5 kilometers (in a straight line) from the outlet of the Sea of Galilee to the northern end of the Dead Sea there is a fall of more than 600 feet (182.9 meters), or 10 feet per mile. The river flows in a series of S-curves or zigzags, so that its actual course between Galilee and the Dead Sea covers some 200 miles (321.8 kilometers).<\/li>\n<p>This stretch of the Jordan Valley is known as the Ghor, or Rift. Six miles (9.7 kilometers) below the Sea of Galilee the Yarmuk River enters from the east. Some smaller streams empty into the Jordan, but the next river of consequence is the Jabbok (Gn 32:22). Just south of the Sea of Galilee the Ghor is about four miles (6.4 kilometers) wide; near Beth-shan it reaches seven miles (11.3 kilometers) wide; beyond that for some 15 miles (24.1 kilometers) the mountains close in on the river on both sides, narrowing the valley to two to three miles (3.2 to 4.8 kilometers); near Jericho it broadens to about 12 miles (19.3 kilometers).<\/p>\n<li>4. The Dead Sea is unique. Its surface is the deepest point on the face of the earth and its waters are of tremendous wealth. In the OT it is known as the Salt Sea (Gn 14:3; Nm 34:12; Jos 12:3) and the Sea of Arabah (Jos 12:3). Josephus calls it Lake Asphaltitis.<\/li>\n<p>This body of water is 46 miles (74 kilometers) long, 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) wide, and 1,300 feet (396.2 meters) deep and consists of about 25 percent mineral matter, making it a chemical deposit of great value. In addition to the flow of the Jordan, the Dead Sea receives the water of other streams, such as the Arnon River on the east. Much of the runoff of the seasonal rains also finds its way into the Salt Sea. Temperatures in the valley may reach 120° F (48.8° C) in summer; with the extreme humidity the climate is very debilitating and almost unbearable. It is estimated that the daily evaporation from the sea is 6 to 8 million tons (5.4–7.3 million metric tons).<\/p>\n<li>5. The Southern Arabah, mostly a barren wilderness, extends from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba, a distance of 150 miles (241.4 kilometers). There is a gradual ascent from the Dead Sea to a watershed just west of Petra. Near the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba were the ports of Elath (modern Eilat) and Ezion-geber.<\/li>\n<h5>The Eastern Plateau or Transjordan<\/h5>\n<p>The Eastern Plateau, or Transjordan, was not named as part of the land of promise, but it was taken by the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh. The region is better supplied with water than the Western Plateau and has perennial streams, such as the Yarmuk, Jabbok, and Arnon. A principal north-south road was the King’s Highway, followed by the Israelites during the exodus (Nm 21:22) and probably also the route taken by the invading kings of Genesis 14.<\/p>\n<p>The northern section of Transjordan was known as Bashan, noted for its cattle (Ps 22:12; Ez 39:18) and for its oak trees (Is 2:13; Zec 11:2).<\/p>\n<p>Gilead, famed for its balm (Gn 37:25; Jer 8:22), was often mentioned in the OT (e.g., Dt 3:10-16; Jgs 11). It extended from the Yarmuk River to the city of Heshbon. This area was heavily forested in David’s time (cf. 2 Sm 18:8).<\/p>\n<p>In Palestine proper there were two important divisions: the plain of Esdraelon and the Negev. The plain of Esdraelon, often associated prophetically with Armageddon, lies between Galilee and Samaria. This is one of the most fertile areas of Palestine and also was the scene of numerous battles. The plain was guarded by fortress cities on its southern side (Megiddo, Ibleam, and Taanach). In the OT the valley of Jezreel was not regarded as a part of Esdraelon but as the valley between the hill of Moreh and Mt Gilboa. At the eastern end was the stronghold of Beth-shan.<\/p>\n<p>In the extreme south of the land is the wilderness area called the Negev, or South Country. This begins in the region of Beersheba and extends roughly to Kadesh-barnea. A district of infrequent and irregular rainfall, its agriculture is restricted, although a nomadic pastoral life has been widely practiced there. <em>See<\/em> Arabah; Conquest and Allotment of the Land; Dead Sea; Decapolis; Sea of Galilee; Jordan River; Negev; Shephelah; Transjordan.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>PALESTINE*<\/h3>\n<p>Country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, also known as Canaan and Israel. Palestine was situated at the west end of the Fertile Crescent—that arching stretch of highly productive land that ran from the Persian Gulf through Mesopotamia and Syria to Egypt. Palestine lay in a unique position, for it constituted a land bridge between Mesopotamia and Egypt, the two primary cultural centers of the ancient Near East. It also served as a connection between the continents of Asia and Africa and as a continental link between Africa and Europe. Trade moved by well-defined routes as goods were brought into the Fertile Crescent from as far as northern Europe, India, and south of Egypt. The same roads were followed by prospective conquerors as they moved their armies from area to area in quest of power and wealth.<\/p>\n<p>It was the land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants, the homeland of God’s chosen people, and the geographical scene for much of biblical history. It has become a land sacred to three great world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Physically, Palestine is a kind of microcosm. In a stretch of 150 miles (241.4 kilometers) one can find almost every kind of climate and terrain known on the earth. It has fertile plains, sandy deserts, rocky wastes, forests, mountains, lakes, and rivers. With such a variety in so small an area, the land provides sharp contrasts. In the north, Mt Hermon stands perpetually snowcapped at an altitude of about 9,100 feet (2,773.7 meters), while a scant 100 miles (160.9 kilometers) distant in the subtropical depression of the Jordan Valley is the Dead Sea, representing the deepest spot on the earth.<\/p>\n<p>Preview<\/p>\n<p>• Name<\/p>\n<p>• Territory<\/p>\n<p>• Climate<\/p>\n<p>• Geography<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Name\">Name<\/p>\n<p>This land has been known by many names over its long history. The country seems to have been named after the maritime region, perhaps because this was the area that most foreigners contacted. So the land was called Canaan and later named after Philistia. In the table of nations, Canaan is said to have extended from Sidon in the north toward Gerar as far as Gaza and east toward the Cities of the Plain (Gn 10:19). The name Canaan appears in the Bible; the first occurrence of the name as that of a country or region is in Genesis 11:31.<\/p>\n<p>After the Israelite conquest of Canaan, the country was known as the land of Israel (1 Sm 13:19; 1 Chr 22:2). With the division of the kingdom in the reign of Rehoboam (930 <span>BC<\/span>), the name Israel went with the northern kingdom, and the southern kingdom was known as Judah (later, Judea).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Territory\">Territory<\/p>\n<p>The earliest reference to the extent of Palestine appears in the promise of the land to Abraham and to his descendants (Gn 15:18-21). Here the borders are given as the River of Egypt (Wadi el-Arish) in the southwest to the Euphrates River in the northeast. It is further defined in terms of the peoples who occupied it at that time, 10 in all, including the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. In Genesis 17:8 the land is called simply “all the land of Canaan.”<\/p>\n<p>The Lord gave more detailed directions to Moses concerning the borders of the land that Israel was to occupy (Nm 34:1-12). The southern boundary was to be from the River of Egypt to the south of Kadesh-barnea and along the wilderness of Zin to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. The western boundary was the Mediterranean, the northern border was set at the entrance to Hamath, and the eastern limit was the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.<\/p>\n<p>The greatest extent of the Promised Land is seen in the Lord’s declaration to Moses that he would set the bounds of Israel from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines (Mediterranean) and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River (Ex 23:31). Historically, during the period of the judges and the reign of Saul, Israel did not conquer the land that had been given to the tribes in the division under Joshua. The military strength of David and the diplomacy of Solomon enabled them to achieve a marked expansion of Israelite rule. David defeated Hadadezer, king of Zobah, and thus pushed his northern frontier to the Euphrates River; he defeated Syria, Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Amalek, enlarging the kingdom also to the east and south (2 Sm 8:1-14; 1 Chr 18:1-13). Solomon had a fleet of merchant ships stationed at Ezion-geber on the Gulf of Aqaba. He also engaged in copper mining in that area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Climate\">Climate<\/p>\n<p>It has been said that the climate of Palestine is more varied than that of any other area of comparable size in the world. Generally, the climate may be described as temperate; at Jerusalem, for example, the temperature extremes range from 26°F (-3.3°C) to 107°F (41.6°C), and the average annual rainfall is about 20 inches (50.8 centimeters). The coastal plain is warmer and has been compared to the east coast of Florida. The average annual temperature at Jaffa (Joppa) is 67° F (19.4°C). The Jordan Valley in the area of the Dead Sea is subtropical; in summer its temperatures may reach 120°F (48.8°C).<\/p>\n<p>Rainfall is seasonal, with rain coming in the cooler months of the year as the prevailing west wind brings moisture over the comparatively colder land area, much like the “lake effect” snows of the Great Lakes region of the United States. The rainy season extends from October to April. Within this time the Israelites singled out two periods (Jer 5:24; Jl 2:23), the former rain and the latter rain, with the former rain occurring in the months of October and November and the latter rain falling in March and April. The coastal area receives about 28 inches (71.1 centimeters) of rain annually, while the average for the country in general is 22 to 24 inches (55.9–70 centimeters).<\/p>\n<p class=\"h2\" id=\"Geography\">Geography<\/p>\n<p>For purposes of description, the land of Palestine may be conveniently divided into five longitudinal sections:<\/p>\n<p>1. The Maritime or Coastal Plain<\/p>\n<li>2. The Shephelah<\/li>\n<li>3. The Western Plateau or Hill Country<\/li>\n<li>4. The Arabah or Jordan Valley<\/li>\n<li>5. The Eastern Plateau or Transjordan<\/li>\n<p>These divisions are based essentially on differences in elevation, but other geographic elements also serve to mark their limits or otherwise distinguish them.<\/p>\n\n<h5>The Maritime or Coastal Plain<\/h5>\n<p>The Maritime or Coastal Plain may be divided into three separate plains from south to north: the plain of Philistia, the plain of Sharon, and the plain of Acre.<\/p>\n<p>1. The plain of Philistia begins with the Wadi el-Arish, or River of Egypt, and extends north to the Nahr el-Auja, about five miles (8 kilometers) north of Joppa. This plain is about 70 miles (112.6 kilometers) long and reaches its greatest width in the latitude of Gaza, where it measures about 30 miles (48.3 kilometers). Along the Mediterranean there were dunes of sand, but for the most part, this area was very fertile and admirably suited for the production of grain.<\/p>\n<li>2. The plain of Sharon is not sharply demarcated from the Philistine plain and was probably under Philistine control, but the OT recognizes it as a separate entity (cf. Sg 2:1; Is 65:10). The plain extends north to Mt Carmel. On the coast are the town of Dor, which is mentioned in “The Tale of Wenamon,” and the city of Caesarea, where Herod the Great did much building.<\/li>\n<li>3. Beyond the promontory of Carmel lies a bay on which was situated the city named Ptolemais (Acts 21:7), also known as Acre or Acco (Jgs 1:31). Here a narrow plain stretches some 20 miles (32.2 kilometers) to the Ladder of Tyre (Ras en-Nakurah). The Kishon River (Jgs 4:7, 13; 1 Kgs 18:40) flows through this plain to the sea.<\/li>\n<h5>The Shephelah<\/h5>\n<p>The Shephelah constitutes a kind of “midlands,” intermediate between the lowlands of the coastal plain and the highlands of the Western Plateau, with an elevation of about 500 to 1,000 feet (152.4– 304.8 meters) and a width of only a few miles. It extends from the valley of Aijalon to Beersheba.<\/p>\n<p>The valleys of the Shephelah produced grain crops, while the hills were well suited for grapes and olives. The region was very important strategically, because it afforded approaches to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<h5>The Western Plateau or Hill Country<\/h5>\n<p>The Western Plateau or Hill Country ranges from 1,000 to 4,000 feet (304.8–609.6 meters) in elevation and covers some 150 miles (241.4 kilometers) from Lebanon to Beersheba. It may also be divided into three areas: Galilee, Samaria, and Judea.<\/p>\n<p>1. Galilee may be regarded as two parts, Upper Galilee (2,000–4,000 feet, or 609.6–1,219.2 meters) and Lower Galilee (below 2,000 feet, or 609.6 meters). The area was agricultural and pastoral, like much of Palestine, and was open to invasion. The highways that traversed Galilee made it a cosmopolitan district, so that Isaiah 9:1 calls it “Galilee of the nations.”<\/p>\n<li>2. Samaria was also suitable for crops and pasture. The brothers of Joseph were grazing their flocks in the plain of Dothan when Joseph visited them and became the victim of their conspiracy (Gn 37:17).<\/li>\n<li>3. Judea has an elevation of about 2,000 to 3,500 feet (609.6–1,066.8 meters) and reaches some 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) from Bethel to Beersheba. The city of Jerusalem stands at an elevation of 2,654 feet (808.9 meters), surrounded by mountains and valleys that served as part of its defense system (Ps 125:2). This was the heart of the nation, for from the time of David onward, the capital was here, and more important, the ark of the covenant had been brought here during David’s reign. As the Lord had long foretold, Jerusalem had become the center of his worship; here Solomon built the temple, one of the greatest structures ever made.<\/li>\n<h5>The Arabah or Jordan Valley<\/h5>\n<p>The Arabah or Jordan Valley presents the extremes of height and depth. Mt Hermon rises to 9,166 feet (2,793.8 meters), while the surface of the Dead Sea lies 1,275 feet (395 meters) below sea level, and at its deepest part the sea plunges another 1,300 feet (396.2 meters).<\/p>\n<p>1. The North Arabah or Upper Jordan Valley. The Jordan River has four sources, all near Mt Hermon. The Jordan flows through what was Lake Huleh, now partly drained and designated as a wildlife refuge. Two miles (3.2 kilometers) below the Huleh basin is the Bridge of Jacob’s Daughters, by which the old road to Damascus crossed the river. The Jordan then flows into a gorge some 1,200 feet (365.8 meters) deep.<\/p>\n<li>2. The Sea of Galilee, about 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) from Huleh, has an elevation of -685 feet (-208.8 meters). It measures 15 by 8 miles (24.1 by 12.9 kilometers), with a maximum depth of 750 feet (228.6 meters). The shape of the lake gave it the OT name, Chinnereth, meaning “harp” (Nm 34:11; Jos 13:27). In the NT it was also called the Lake of Gennesaret (Lk 5:1) and the Sea of Tiberias (Jn 6:1; 21:1).<\/li>\n<li>3. The Middle Arabah, or Ghor. The name Jordan means “descender”; in the 60 miles or 96.5 kilometers (in a straight line) from the outlet of the Sea of Galilee to the northern end of the Dead Sea there is a fall of more than 600 feet (182.9 meters), or 10 feet per mile. The river flows in a series of S-curves or zigzags, so that its actual course between Galilee and the Dead Sea covers some 200 miles (321.8 kilometers).<\/li>\n<p>This stretch of the Jordan Valley is known as the Ghor, or Rift. Six miles (9.7 kilometers) below the Sea of Galilee the Yarmuk River enters from the east. Some smaller streams empty into the Jordan, but the next river of consequence is the Jabbok (Gn 32:22). Just south of the Sea of Galilee the Ghor is about four miles (6.4 kilometers) wide; near Beth-shan it reaches seven miles (11.3 kilometers) wide; beyond that for some 15 miles (24.1 kilometers) the mountains close in on the river on both sides, narrowing the valley to two to three miles (3.2 to 4.8 kilometers); near Jericho it broadens to about 12 miles (19.3 kilometers).<\/p>\n<li>4. The Dead Sea is unique. Its surface is the deepest point on the face of the earth and its waters are of tremendous wealth. In the OT it is known as the Salt Sea (Gn 14:3; Nm 34:12; Jos 12:3) and the Sea of Arabah (Jos 12:3). Josephus calls it Lake Asphaltitis.<\/li>\n<p>This body of water is 46 miles (74 kilometers) long, 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) wide, and 1,300 feet (396.2 meters) deep and consists of about 25 percent mineral matter, making it a chemical deposit of great value. In addition to the flow of the Jordan, the Dead Sea receives the water of other streams, such as the Arnon River on the east. Much of the runoff of the seasonal rains also finds its way into the Salt Sea. Temperatures in the valley may reach 120° F (48.8° C) in summer; with the extreme humidity the climate is very debilitating and almost unbearable. It is estimated that the daily evaporation from the sea is 6 to 8 million tons (5.4–7.3 million metric tons).<\/p>\n<li>5. The Southern Arabah, mostly a barren wilderness, extends from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba, a distance of 150 miles (241.4 kilometers). There is a gradual ascent from the Dead Sea to a watershed just west of Petra. Near the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba were the ports of Elath (modern Eilat) and Ezion-geber.<\/li>\n<h5>The Eastern Plateau or Transjordan<\/h5>\n<p>The Eastern Plateau, or Transjordan, was not named as part of the land of promise, but it was taken by the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh. The region is better supplied with water than the Western Plateau and has perennial streams, such as the Yarmuk, Jabbok, and Arnon. A principal north-south road was the King’s Highway, followed by the Israelites during the exodus (Nm 21:22) and probably also the route taken by the invading kings of Genesis 14.<\/p>\n<p>The northern section of Transjordan was known as Bashan, noted for its cattle (Ps 22:12; Ez 39:18) and for its oak trees (Is 2:13; Zec 11:2).<\/p>\n<p>Gilead, famed for its balm (Gn 37:25; Jer 8:22), was often mentioned in the OT (e.g., Dt 3:10-16; Jgs 11). It extended from the Yarmuk River to the city of Heshbon. This area was heavily forested in David’s time (cf. 2 Sm 18:8).<\/p>\n<p>In Palestine proper there were two important divisions: the plain of Esdraelon and the Negev. The plain of Esdraelon, often associated prophetically with Armageddon, lies between Galilee and Samaria. This is one of the most fertile areas of Palestine and also was the scene of numerous battles. The plain was guarded by fortress cities on its southern side (Megiddo, Ibleam, and Taanach). In the OT the valley of Jezreel was not regarded as a part of Esdraelon but as the valley between the hill of Moreh and Mt Gilboa. At the eastern end was the stronghold of Beth-shan.<\/p>\n<p>In the extreme south of the land is the wilderness area called the Negev, or South Country. This begins in the region of Beersheba and extends roughly to Kadesh-barnea. A district of infrequent and irregular rainfall, its agriculture is restricted, although a nomadic pastoral life has been widely practiced there. <em>See<\/em> Arabah; Conquest and Allotment of the Land; Dead Sea; Decapolis; Sea of Galilee; Jordan River; Negev; Shephelah; Transjordan.<\/p>","summary_ro":"PALESTINE* Country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, also known as Canaan and Israel. Palestine was situated at the west end of the Fertile Crescent—that arching stretch of highly productive land that ran from the Persian Gulf through Mesopotamia and Syria to Egypt. Palestine lay in a unique position, for it constituted a land bridge between Mesopotamia and Egypt, the two primary cultural centers of the ancient Near East. It also served as a connection between the continents of A...","summary_en":"PALESTINE* Country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, also known as Canaan and Israel. Palestine was situated at the west end of the Fertile Crescent—that arching stretch of highly productive land that ran from the Persian Gulf through Mesopotamia and Syria to Egypt. Palestine lay in a unique position, for it constituted a land bridge between Mesopotamia and Egypt, the two primary cultural centers of the ancient Near East. It also served as a connection between the continents of A...","source":"Articles\/P.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":33919,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Sarah","title_en":"Sarah","content_ro":"<h3>SARAH<\/h3>\n<li>1. Wife of Abraham whose name was originally Sarai (Gn 11:29). Her name was changed to Sarah (“princess”) when she was promised that she would bear a son and become the mother of nations and kings (17:15-16). Sarah was both the wife and the half sister of Abraham (20:12).<\/li>\n<p>Sarah accompanied Abraham in his journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran and eventually into the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31; 12:5). She remained barren for much of her marriage. When God promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation (12:2) and that the land of Canaan would be given to his seed (v 7), Sarah was still barren.<\/p>\n<p>After 10 years had passed (cf. Gn 12:4; 16:16) and Sarah continued without children, she gave her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to Abraham as a concubine. Hagar conceived and bore a son, Ishmael (16:3-4). God promised that a nation would come from Ishmael (17:20) but indicated that he was not to be the child of the promise. Sarah herself was to be the mother of this child, even though she laughed when the birth was predicted. The fulfillment of this prediction took place with the birth of Isaac (21:2-3), when Sarah was 90 years old, 25 years after the original promise of a seed to Abraham (17:17; 21:5).<\/p>\n<p>When famine forced Abraham and Sarah to journey down into Egypt shortly after their entrance into Canaan, Sarah was represented to the Egyptians as Abraham’s sister. This resulted in Sarah’s being taken into the harem of Pharaoh because of her great beauty (Gn 12:11-15), and Abraham’s being well treated and rewarded by the Egyptians instead of being killed. God intervened to protect the marriage of Abraham and Sarah by plaguing the house of Pharaoh to force Sarah’s release. A similar tactic was followed by Abraham and Sarah on another occasion in Gerar (ch 20), where she was taken into the household of Abimelech the king of Gerar. Again God protected Sarah, preserved her as the mother of the promised seed, and prevented any suspicion or doubt concerning who was the father of Isaac. Significantly, Isaac was born not long after this incident (21:1-5), his birth having been promised about a year earlier (17:21; 18:10-14). Sarah died at the age of 127 and was buried in the cave at Machpelah, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite (ch 23).<\/p>\n<p>Apart from the book of Genesis, Sarah is referred to in the OT only in Isaiah 51:2. Reference is made to her in the NT in Romans 4:19, 9:9, Hebrews 11:11, 1 Peter 3:6, and Galatians 4:21-31, although in the Galatians text she is not mentioned by name.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Barrenness.<\/p>\n<li>2. KJV spelling of Serah, Asher’s daughter, in Numbers 26:46. <em>See<\/em> Serah.<\/li>\n<li>3. The heroine of the book of Tobit. Her prayer of anguish was heard by God, who sent the angel Raphael as a matchmaker to arrange her marriage to Tobias (Tb 6:9ff.). She had been tormented by a demon, who had caused the death of her previous seven husbands but was exorcised by Tobias using a recipe of fish heart and liver that was given to him by the angel Raphael (8:2). After the death of Tobit and his wife, Anna, in Nineveh, Tobias and Sarah, and their children returned to Sarah’s family in Ecbatana (14:12ff.).<\/li>","content_en":"<h3>SARAH<\/h3>\n<li>1. Wife of Abraham whose name was originally Sarai (Gn 11:29). Her name was changed to Sarah (“princess”) when she was promised that she would bear a son and become the mother of nations and kings (17:15-16). Sarah was both the wife and the half sister of Abraham (20:12).<\/li>\n<p>Sarah accompanied Abraham in his journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran and eventually into the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31; 12:5). She remained barren for much of her marriage. When God promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation (12:2) and that the land of Canaan would be given to his seed (v 7), Sarah was still barren.<\/p>\n<p>After 10 years had passed (cf. Gn 12:4; 16:16) and Sarah continued without children, she gave her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to Abraham as a concubine. Hagar conceived and bore a son, Ishmael (16:3-4). God promised that a nation would come from Ishmael (17:20) but indicated that he was not to be the child of the promise. Sarah herself was to be the mother of this child, even though she laughed when the birth was predicted. The fulfillment of this prediction took place with the birth of Isaac (21:2-3), when Sarah was 90 years old, 25 years after the original promise of a seed to Abraham (17:17; 21:5).<\/p>\n<p>When famine forced Abraham and Sarah to journey down into Egypt shortly after their entrance into Canaan, Sarah was represented to the Egyptians as Abraham’s sister. This resulted in Sarah’s being taken into the harem of Pharaoh because of her great beauty (Gn 12:11-15), and Abraham’s being well treated and rewarded by the Egyptians instead of being killed. God intervened to protect the marriage of Abraham and Sarah by plaguing the house of Pharaoh to force Sarah’s release. A similar tactic was followed by Abraham and Sarah on another occasion in Gerar (ch 20), where she was taken into the household of Abimelech the king of Gerar. Again God protected Sarah, preserved her as the mother of the promised seed, and prevented any suspicion or doubt concerning who was the father of Isaac. Significantly, Isaac was born not long after this incident (21:1-5), his birth having been promised about a year earlier (17:21; 18:10-14). Sarah died at the age of 127 and was buried in the cave at Machpelah, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite (ch 23).<\/p>\n<p>Apart from the book of Genesis, Sarah is referred to in the OT only in Isaiah 51:2. Reference is made to her in the NT in Romans 4:19, 9:9, Hebrews 11:11, 1 Peter 3:6, and Galatians 4:21-31, although in the Galatians text she is not mentioned by name.<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham; Barrenness.<\/p>\n<li>2. KJV spelling of Serah, Asher’s daughter, in Numbers 26:46. <em>See<\/em> Serah.<\/li>\n<li>3. The heroine of the book of Tobit. Her prayer of anguish was heard by God, who sent the angel Raphael as a matchmaker to arrange her marriage to Tobias (Tb 6:9ff.). She had been tormented by a demon, who had caused the death of her previous seven husbands but was exorcised by Tobias using a recipe of fish heart and liver that was given to him by the angel Raphael (8:2). After the death of Tobit and his wife, Anna, in Nineveh, Tobias and Sarah, and their children returned to Sarah’s family in Ecbatana (14:12ff.).<\/li>","summary_ro":"SARAH 1. Wife of Abraham whose name was originally Sarai (Gn 11:29). Her name was changed to Sarah (“princess”) when she was promised that she would bear a son and become the mother of nations and kings (17:15-16). Sarah was both the wife and the half sister of Abraham (20:12). Sarah accompanied Abraham in his journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran and eventually into the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31; 12:5). She remained barren for much of her marriage. When God promised Abraham that he would m...","summary_en":"SARAH 1. Wife of Abraham whose name was originally Sarai (Gn 11:29). Her name was changed to Sarah (“princess”) when she was promised that she would bear a son and become the mother of nations and kings (17:15-16). Sarah was both the wife and the half sister of Abraham (20:12). Sarah accompanied Abraham in his journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran and eventually into the land of Canaan (Gn 11:31; 12:5). She remained barren for much of her marriage. When God promised Abraham that he would m...","source":"Articles\/S.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":37106,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Terah (Person)","title_en":"Terah (Person)","content_ro":"<h3>TERAH (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Abram was born. Terah initiated the trip to Canaan, though he failed to go beyond Haran (Gn 11:31-32). Abram was commanded there to leave his family and proceed to Canaan (12:1).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>TERAH (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Abram was born. Terah initiated the trip to Canaan, though he failed to go beyond Haran (Gn 11:31-32). Abram was commanded there to leave his family and proceed to Canaan (12:1).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham.<\/p>","summary_ro":"TERAH (Person) Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Ab...","summary_en":"TERAH (Person) Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Ab...","source":"Articles\/T.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":43009,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:31","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:31","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:31<\/strong> <em>Terah took:<\/em> The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • <em>Haran<\/em> was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connection with Terah’s son Haran, who had died in Ur (11:28). • <em>Haran<\/em> means “caravan.” Ancient commercial routes converged there, making it a key site for trade. • <em>Haran<\/em> was also well known for the moon worship to which Terah’s family was apparently devoted (see study note on 11:29).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:31<\/strong> <em>Terah took:<\/em> The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • <em>Haran<\/em> was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connection with Terah’s son Haran, who had died in Ur (11:28). • <em>Haran<\/em> means “caravan.” Ancient commercial routes converged there, making it a key site for trade. • <em>Haran<\/em> was also well known for the moon worship to which Terah’s family was apparently devoted (see study note on 11:29).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:31 Terah took: The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • Haran was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connectio...","summary_en":"11:31 Terah took: The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • Haran was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connectio...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":70635,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:31","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:31","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:31<\/strong> <em>Terah took:<\/em> The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • <em>Haran<\/em> was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connection with Terah’s son Haran, who had died in Ur (11:28). • <em>Haran<\/em> means “caravan.” Ancient commercial routes converged there, making it a key site for trade. • <em>Haran<\/em> was also well known for the moon worship to which Terah’s family was apparently devoted (see study note on 11:29).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:31<\/strong> <em>Terah took:<\/em> The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • <em>Haran<\/em> was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connection with Terah’s son Haran, who had died in Ur (11:28). • <em>Haran<\/em> means “caravan.” Ancient commercial routes converged there, making it a key site for trade. • <em>Haran<\/em> was also well known for the moon worship to which Terah’s family was apparently devoted (see study note on 11:29).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:31 Terah took: The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • Haran was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connectio...","summary_en":"11:31 Terah took: The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • Haran was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connectio...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":98261,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:31","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:31","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:31<\/strong> <em>Terah took:<\/em> The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • <em>Haran<\/em> was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connection with Terah’s son Haran, who had died in Ur (11:28). • <em>Haran<\/em> means “caravan.” Ancient commercial routes converged there, making it a key site for trade. • <em>Haran<\/em> was also well known for the moon worship to which Terah’s family was apparently devoted (see study note on 11:29).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:31<\/strong> <em>Terah took:<\/em> The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • <em>Haran<\/em> was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connection with Terah’s son Haran, who had died in Ur (11:28). • <em>Haran<\/em> means “caravan.” Ancient commercial routes converged there, making it a key site for trade. • <em>Haran<\/em> was also well known for the moon worship to which Terah’s family was apparently devoted (see study note on 11:29).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:31 Terah took: The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • Haran was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connectio...","summary_en":"11:31 Terah took: The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • Haran was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connectio...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false},{"id":125887,"type":"study_note","type_label":"Notă de studiu","type_icon":"📝","type_color":"#06b6d4","title_ro":"Notă de studiu: Geneza 11:31","title_en":"Study Note: Geneza 11:31","content_ro":"<p><strong>11:31<\/strong> <em>Terah took:<\/em> The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • <em>Haran<\/em> was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connection with Terah’s son Haran, who had died in Ur (11:28). • <em>Haran<\/em> means “caravan.” Ancient commercial routes converged there, making it a key site for trade. • <em>Haran<\/em> was also well known for the moon worship to which Terah’s family was apparently devoted (see study note on 11:29).<\/p>","content_en":"<p><strong>11:31<\/strong> <em>Terah took:<\/em> The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • <em>Haran<\/em> was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connection with Terah’s son Haran, who had died in Ur (11:28). • <em>Haran<\/em> means “caravan.” Ancient commercial routes converged there, making it a key site for trade. • <em>Haran<\/em> was also well known for the moon worship to which Terah’s family was apparently devoted (see study note on 11:29).<\/p>","summary_ro":"11:31 Terah took: The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • Haran was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connectio...","summary_en":"11:31 Terah took: The text is clear that Abram’s departure from Ur was prompted by God’s calling (see study note on 11:28), but the event is described from Terah’s perspective, in keeping with the patriarchy of ancient Near Eastern culture. This cultural deference to the oldest male is evidently why Abram did not continue on to Canaan by himself at this time (see Acts 7:2-4). • Haran was 550 miles northwest of Ur, near the Syrian-Turkish border. Despite the similar name, there is no connectio...","source":"StudyNotes.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}],"32":[{"id":37105,"type":"article","type_label":"Articol","type_icon":"📖","type_color":"#d4af37","title_ro":"Terah (Person)","title_en":"Terah (Person)","content_ro":"<h3>TERAH (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Abram was born. Terah initiated the trip to Canaan, though he failed to go beyond Haran (Gn 11:31-32). Abram was commanded there to leave his family and proceed to Canaan (12:1).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham.<\/p>","content_en":"<h3>TERAH (P<span>erson<\/span>)<\/h3>\n<p>Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Abram was born. Terah initiated the trip to Canaan, though he failed to go beyond Haran (Gn 11:31-32). Abram was commanded there to leave his family and proceed to Canaan (12:1).<\/p>\n<p><em>See also<\/em> Abraham.<\/p>","summary_ro":"TERAH (Person) Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Ab...","summary_en":"TERAH (Person) Father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26; 1 Chr 1:26; Lk 3:34). Though Abram is listed first among his sons, it is likely that Abram was not the oldest. After Terah lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gn 11:26). Stephen reports in the NT, however, that Abram left Haran after the death of his father, at which time Abram was 75 years old (Gn 12:4; Acts 7:4). Terah died at the age of 205 (v Gn 11:32), which suggests that Terah was at least 130 when Ab...","source":"Articles\/T.xml","external_url":null,"has_map":false,"has_picture":false}]},"labels":{"article":"Articol","map":"Hartă","chart":"Diagramă","textbox":"Notă explicativă","picture":"Imagine","profile":"Profil","study_note":"Notă de studiu","theme_note":"Temă biblică"},"icons":{"article":"📖","map":"🗺️","chart":"📊","textbox":"💡","picture":"🖼️","profile":"👤","study_note":"📝","theme_note":"🎯"},"typeColors":{"article":"#d4af37","map":"#2d7d46","chart":"#3b82f6","textbox":"#8b5cf6","picture":"#ec4899","profile":"#f59e0b","study_note":"#06b6d4","theme_note":"#ef4444"}}
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