avodah

Leave a Comment / Jewish Words / By Youssef Matta

avodah n. Hebrew (ah-voh-DAH) Literally, “Divine service.” In the Pirke Avot, it is written that the world stands on three pillars: Torah; gemilut hasadim, acts of kindness toward our fellow man; and avodah, service and worship of God. 2. Avodah A unique part of the Musaf service on Yom Kippur, the Avodah prayers describe the …

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Asarah be-Tevet

Leave a Comment / Jewish Words / By Youssef Matta

Asarah be-Tevet n. Hebrew (ah-sah-RAH bih-teh-VET) A minor fast day that falls on the 10th of Tevet. It commemorates the start of the siege of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia in 586 b.c.e, which is considered the beginning of the destruction of the First Temple. On minor fast days, fasting begins at dawn and …

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Ark of the Covenant

Leave a Comment / Jewish Words / By Youssef Matta

Ark of the Covenant n. English According to Exodus, the ancient chest built by Moses at God’s command to house the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. According to legend, it was a gold box with two large angels on it. After King Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem, the Ark of the Covenant …

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ark

Leave a Comment / Jewish Words / By Youssef Matta

ark n. English 1. Shorthand for Holy Ark (Aron Kodesh), the cabinet at the front of an Ashkenazic synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls. It is usually set into or against a wall that faces east toward Jerusalem. The ark is sometimes large and ornate, sometimes small and plain. A depiction of the tablets of …

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Antiochus IV, King

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Antiochus IV, King (an-TIE-ah-cuss) A Syrian king who ruled Judea and ancient Israel from 175 to 163 b.c.e In his efforts to wipe out Judaism, Antiochus demanded intense Hellenization and forbade many Jewish practices, including circumcision and Sabbath observance. He desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem with animal sacrifices and statues of Greek gods. The Maccabees’ …

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Aish HaTorah

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Aish HaTorah n. Hebrew (AYSH HAH-toe-RAH) Literally, “fire of the Torah.” Jewish outreach organization founded in Jerusalem in 1974 by Rabbi Noah Weinberg to stem Jewish assimilation and help Jews rediscover the relevance of Judaism in contemporary life. The international network now has 25 Jewish educational centers and provides creative programming in over 80 cities. …

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The concept of historical cause in Flavius Josephus

Leave a Comment / History / By Youssef Matta

The concept of historical cause in Flavius Josephus Historical explanation by means of causes is the all-important prime requisite for a historical text to be presented with guarantees of faithfulness to historical truth. I therefore propose to analyse the two aspects announced at the beginning of this chapter. In the first section I shall classify …

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ANTICHRIST (ἀντίχριστος)

Leave a Comment / Dictionaries / By Youssef Matta

ANTICHRIST (ἀντίχριστος) The word is found in the NT only in 1 Jn 2:18, 22; 4:3, 2 Jn 7, but the idea further appears in the Gospels, the Pauline Epistles, and above all in the Apocalypse. It is not, however, an idea original to Christianity, but an adaptation of Jewish conceptions which, as Bousset has …

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ANSWER

Leave a Comment / Dictionaries / By Youssef Matta

ANSWER Passing over the very large number of occurrences of this word in the common sense of ‘reply’ (ἀποκρίνομαι, ἀπόκρισις), there are one or two interesting usages to note before we come to the most theologically significant use of the term. Thus in Tit 2:9 slaves are enjoined not to ‘answer again’ (AV; RV ‘gainsay,’ …

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ANANIAS (Gr. Ἀνανίας; Heb. חָנָן ‘Jahweh is gracious’)

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ANANIAS (Gr. Ἀνανίας; Heb. חָנָן ‘Jahweh is gracious’) A very common name in later Jewish times, corresponding to Hananiah or Hanani of the OT. We find it occurring frequently in the post-exilic writings and particularly in the Apocrypha. In the history of the Apostolic Church, we meet with three persons bearing this name. An early …

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