Who's who in the Bible
↪ Aaron the brother, companion and helper of Moses. He spoke to the King of Egypt on behalf of Moses, asking him to let the Hebrews leave Egyp.
According to the Book of Numbers, Aaron died at 123 years of age, on Mount Hor, in the fortieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt. Deuteronomy, however, places these events at Moseroth.
↪ Absolom son of David, who fought his father for the Kingdom. At Caesarea, in Cappadocia, the holy martyrs Lucius the Bishop.
Caesarea Absolom, Lorgius, is a part of the William Blackwood & Sons published English language version of the Roman Breviary, the liturgical book of the rites of the Catholic Church containing hymns, readings, notations, and other religious material.
What does Revelation 1:8 mean?
In this verse John identifies Jesus as the Alpha and Omega. These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.
The designation emphasizes Jesus as eternal—the beginning and the end. As someone correctly observed;
"Jesus is the Alpha and Omega and everything in between.
Who is and who is to come, reminds us, that He is our ruler, who deserves our obedience. As God, our Lord, He earn our attentions.
In His address to the church at Smyrna, Jesus affirmed that His words were those of the first and the last (Revelation 2:8).
↪ Abraham one of the main ancestors of the Jewish people: God made promises to him and his descendants so he was known as Father of the Jewish people. His son was Isaac.
Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews and God.
In Christianity, he is the spiritual progenitor of all believers, whether Jewish or non-Jewish; and in Islam, he is a link in the chain of Islamic prophets that begins with Adam and culminates in Muhammad.
↪ Adam the first man, created by God to live in the Garden of Eden. This sinful nature infected all his descendants, and led humanity to be expelled from the Garden. Only through the Crucifixion of Jesus, humanity can be redeemed.
According to Christianity, Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden by eating from the Tree of Knowledge. This action introduced death and sin into the world. This sinful nature infected all his descendants, and led humanity to be expelled from the Garden. Only through the Crucifixion of Jesus, humanity can be redeemed.
In Islam, Adam is considered Khalifa (خليفة) (successor) on earth. This is understood to mean either that he is God's deputy, the initiation of a new cycle of sentient life on earth, or both. Similar to the account in the Bible, according to the Quran, Adam is placed in a Garden. Tempted by the Tree of Immortality, he sins and loses his abode in the Garden.
↪ Ahab King of Israel who ruled at the time of the prophet. Elisha. and was married to Jezebel. The existence of Ahab is historically supported outside the Bible.
Shalmaneser III of Assyria documented in 853 BC that he defeated an alliance of a dozen kings in the Battle of Qarqar; one of these was Ahab.
↪ Andrew one of the twelve disciples of Jesus: a fisherman and brother of Simon and Peter. The word is derived from the Greek: Ἀνδρέας, Andreas, itself related to Ancient Greek.
ἀνήρ/ἀνδρός aner/andros, "man" (as opposed to "woman or girl"), thus meaning "manly" and, as consequence, "brave", "strong", "courageous", and "warrior". In the King James Bible, the Greek "Ἀνδρέας" is translated as Andrew.
↪ Artaxerxes the King of Persia who allowed Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem, to help the Jews there obey the Laws of God. The throne name of several Achaemenid rulers of the 1st Persian Empire.
Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians. From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated the Median Empire as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, marking the formal establishment of a new imperial polity under the Achaemenid dynasty.
↪ Barabbas a murderer who was freed instead of Jesus.vMatthew refers to Barabbas only as a "notorious prisoner".
Mark and Luke further refer to Barabbas as one involved in a στάσις (stásis, a riot), probably "one of the numerous insurrections against the Roman power" who had committed murder.
↪ Bartholomew one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History (5:10) states that after the Ascension.
Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. Tradition narrates that he served as a missionary in Mesopotamia and Parthia, as well as Lycaonia and Ethiopia in other accounts.
↪ Belshazzar the King of Babylon who saw a ghostly hand write a warning on a wall during a feast. Played a pivotal role in the coup d'état that overthrew the king Labashi-Marduk (r. 556 BC) and brought Nabonidus to power in 556 BC.
Since Belshazzar was the main beneficiary of the coup, through confiscating and inheriting Labashi-Marduk's estates and wealth, it is likely that he was the chief orchestrator.
↪ Benjamin the youngest of Jacob's twelve sons. In the Samaritan Pentateuch, Benjamin's name appears as "Binyamēm" "son of days").
In the Quran, Benjamin is referred to as a righteous young child, who remained with Jacob when the older brothers plotted against Joseph.
↪ Boaz the kind farmer who helped and married Ruth when she settled in Bethlehem with Naomi. Boaz is a biblical figure appearing in the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible.
In genealogies of Jesus in the New Testament and also the name of a pillar in the portico of the historic Temple in Jerusalem. The word is found 24 times in the Scriptures, two being in Greek (in the form "Βοόζ (Booz)").
↪ Caiaphas the high priest in Jerusalem at the time of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. The Babylonian Talmud (Yevamot 15B) gives the family name as Kuppai.
The Mishnah, Parah 3:5, refers to the family name as hakKof (perhaps "the Monkey", a play on his name for opposing the Pharisees). While the Jerusalem Talmud (Yevamot 1:6) mentions Nekifi.
↪ Cleopas one of the men who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus. after Jesus had died on the cross. Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions hold that Clopas, believed to be the brother of Saint Joseph, is the same person as Cleopas.
Others consider that Clophas, Cleophas and Alphaeus are all the same name. Some writers claim that the name Clopas in John 19:25 ("Mary of Clopas", "Κλωπᾶς") is a Hellenized form of a claimed Aramaic Cleopatra name.
↪ Cyrus the King of Babylon who let the captive Jews return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple there. Commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.
Hailing from Persis, he brought the Achaemenid dynasty to power by defeating the Median Empire and embracing all of the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanding vastly and eventually conquering most of West Asia and much of Central Asia to create what would soon become the largest polity in human history at the time.
↪ Daniel a Hebrew boy who grew up in Babylon and held important positions under the kings. Faithful to God, he survived imprisonment and a night in a pit of lions.
According to the Hebrew Bible, Daniel was a noble Jewish youth of Jerusalem taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, serving the king and his successors with loyalty and ability until the time of the Persian conqueror Cyrus, all the while remaining true to the God of Israel.
↪ Darius King of Babylon who had Daniel put into the lions' pit. Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE.
He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of Western Asia, parts of the Balkans (Thrace–Macedonia and Paeonia) and the Caucasus, most of the Black Sea's coastal regions, Central Asia, the Indus Valley in the far east, and portions of North Africa and Northeast Africa including Egypt (Mudrâya), eastern Libya, and coastal Sudan.
↪ David a shepherd boy who killed the giant Goliath with a stone. He became a great friend of King Saul's son, Jonathan, and grew up to become the King of Israel. In the biblical narrative of the Books of Samuel, David is described as a young shepherd and harpist who gains fame and becomes a hero by killing Goliath.
He becomes a favorite of Saul, the first king of Israel, but is forced to go into hiding when Saul suspects that David is trying to take his throne. After Saul and his son Jonathan are killed in battle, David is anointed king by the tribe of Judah and eventually all the tribes of Israel.
↪ Delilah the Philistine woman who discovered the secret of Samson's great strength. Delilah has been the subject of both rabbinic and Christian commentary; rabbinic literature identifies her with Micah's mother in the biblical narrative of Micah's Idol, while some Christians have compared her to Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus.
Delilah is bribed by the lords of the Philistines to discover the source of his strength. After three failed attempts at doing so, she finally goads Samson into telling her that his vigor is derived from his hair. As he sleeps, Delilah cuts Samson's hair, thereby enabling her to turn him over to the Philistines.
↪ Disciples friends and followers of Jesus: there were twelve special disciples, also known as apostles: Andrew. Peter. Philip. Simon. Bartholomew, Thomas. James, another James. Simon. Judas. Judas Iscariot and Matthew.
In Christianity, a disciple is a dedicated follower of Jesus. This term is found in the New Testament only in the Gospels and Acts. In the ancient world, a disciple is a follower or adherent of a teacher. Discipleship is not the same as being a student in the modern sense.
A disciple in the ancient biblical world actively imitated both the life and teaching of the master. It was a deliberate apprenticeship which made the fully formed disciple a living copy of the master
↪ Ebedmelech servant of King Zedekiah, who rescued Jeremiah from a muddy pit. The name Ebed-Melech combines the Hebrew words servant and king, but scholars disagree on whether this combination is intended to be a title or personal name.
He served in the palace of Zedekiah, King of Judah during the Siege of Jerusalem (597 BCE). The text states that he was a Cushite. According to Emmanuel Tov, the story exists in Hebrew and Greek versions that differ in length. The most important difference is that the LXX text, which Tov considers the original, does not call Ebed-Melech a eunuch.
↪ Elijah a great prophet of Israel who constantly struggled to keep the people faithful to God and was often in danger from King Ahab, ruler of Israel, who prayed to the god Baal. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worship of the Hebrew God over that of the Canaanite deity Baal.
God also performed many miracles through Elijah, including resurrection, bringing fire down from the sky, and entering heaven alive "by fire." He is also portrayed as leading a school of prophets known as "the sons of the prophets".
↪ Elisha the prophet who followed Elijah. and cured Naaman of his skin disease, and brought a widow's son back to life. Before he settled in Samaria, Elisha passed some time on Mount Carmel.
He served from 892 until 832 BCE as an advisor to the third through the eighth kings of Judah, holding the office of "prophet in Israel". He is called a patriot because of his help to soldiers and kings.
↪ Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist, and cousin of Mary. the mother of Jesus. Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer.
She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Award winner in 1970, and the recipient of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1976. Dwight Garner argued in 2018 that she was perhaps "the most purely gifted poet of the 20th century.
↪ Esau the son of Isaac and Rebecca. whose twin brother, Jacob, tricked him out of his inheritance. According to the Hebrew Bible, Esau is the progenitor of the Edomites and the elder brother of Jacob, the patriarch of the Israelites.
Jacob and Esau were the sons of Isaac and Rebecca, and the grandsons of Abraham and Sarah. Of the twins, Esau was the first to be born with Jacob following, holding his heel. Isaac was sixty years old when the boys were born. Esau, a "man of the field", became a hunter who had "rough" qualities that distinguished him from his twin brother.
↪ Esther the young Jewish queen of the Persian King Xerxes. She saved her people from being killed. The Book of Esther provides the traditional explanation for the Jewish holiday of Purim, celebrated on the date given in the story for when Haman's order was to go into effect, which is the day that the Jews killed their enemies after the plan was reversed.
The story the book tells is as follows: Ahasuerus, the king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, falls in love with the beautiful Jewish woman Esther and makes her his Queen. His grand vizier, Haman, is offended by Esther's cousin and guardian, Mordecai, who refuses to prostrate himself before Haman.
↪ Eve the first woman. whom God created. She lived with Adam in the Garden of Eden. According to the second chapter of Genesis, Eve was created by God (Yahweh) by taking her from the rib of Adam, to be Adam's companion.
Adam is charged with guarding and keeping the garden before her creation; she is not present when God commands Adam not to eat the forbidden fruit – although it is clear that she was aware of the command. Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story of the Abrahamic religions, she was the first woman.
↪ Gabriel the angel who told Mary that she would give birth to a son whose name would be Jesus. In the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke relates the Annunciation, in which the angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah foretelling the birth of John the Baptist with the angel Gabriel foretelling the Virgin Mary the birth of Jesus Christ, respectively (Luke 1:11–38).
Islam regards Gabriel as an archangel sent by God to various prophets, including Muhammad. The first five verses of the Al-Alaq, the 96th chapter of the Quran, are believed by Muslims to have been the first verses revealed by Gabriel to Muhammad.
↪ Goliath a giant Philistine soldier who was killed by David. The phrase "David and Goliath" has taken on a more popular meaning denoting an underdog situation, a contest wherein a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary.
David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armor and javelin, David with his staff and sling. "The Philistine cursed David by his gods", but David replies:
↪ Hebrews the name of the Jewish people. also called Israelites. By the time of the Roman Empire, the term Hebraios (Greek: Ἑβραῖος) could refer to the Jews in general (as Strong's Hebrew Dictionary puts it: "any of the Jewish Nation") or, at other times, specifically to those Jews who lived in Roman Judaea.
Historians mostly consider the Hebrews as synonymous with the Israelites, with the term "Hebrew" denoting an Israelite from the nomadic era that preceded the establishment of the united Kingdom of Israel. However, in some instances, the designation "Hebrews" may also be used historically in a wider sense, referring to the Phoenicians or other ancient civilizations, such as the Shasu on the eve of the Late Bronze Age collapse.
↪ Herod the Great the governor of Galilee and King of Judaea. He heard of the birth of Jesus from the Wise Men and tried to have him killed. Herod also appears in the Christian Gospel of Matthew as the ruler of Judea who orders the Massacre of the Innocents at the time of the birth of Jesus
Although most Herod biographers do not believe that this event occurred. Despite his successes, including single-handedly forging a new aristocracy from practically nothing, he has still been criticized by various historians. His reign polarizes opinion among historians, some viewing his legacy as evidence of success, and some viewing it as a reminder of his tyrannical rule.
↪ Herod Antipas son of Herod the Great, he had John the Baptist put to death, is widely known today for accounts in the New Testament of his role in events that led to the executions of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 14, Matthew 14:1–12).
His father, Herod the Great, ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, marking the earliest Biblical account of the concerns of the government in Jerusalem regarding Jesus's existence. Following the death of his father in 4 BC.
Herod Antipas was recognized as tetrarch by Caesar Augustus, and subsequently by his own brother, the ethnarch Herod Archelaus. Antipas officially ruled Galilee and Perea as a client state of the Roman Empire.
↪ Herodias the wife of Herod Antipas and mother of Salome. Daughter of Aristobulus IV and his wife Berenice. Full sister to Herod V (king of Chalkis), Herod Agrippa (king of Judea), Aristobulus Minor, and Mariamne III
(wife of Crown Prince Antipater and, after his execution by Herod the Great, she was possibly the first wife of Herod Archelaus, principal heir of Herod the Great and ethnarch of Judea).
↪ Hiram King of Tyre, who supplied Solomon with cedar wood for the building of the Temple. (Phoenician "benevolent brother", Hebrew חִירָם "high-born", Standard Hebrew Ḥiram, Tiberian Hebrew Ḥîrām) is a biblical given name referring to Phoenician kings.
The Messenger Lectures are a series of talks given by scholars and public figures at Cornell University. They were funded in 1924 by a gift from Hiram Messenger of "a musical engagement to provide a course of lectures on the Evolution of Civilization for the special purpose of raising the moral standard delivered by the ablest non-resident lecturer or lecturers obtainable.
The lecture series has been described as one of Cornell's most important of extracurricular activities.
↪ Isaac the son of Abraham and Sarah's husband of Rebecca and the father of Jacob and Esau. Isaac's name means "he will laugh", reflecting the laughter, in disbelief, of Abraham and Sarah, when told by God that they would have a child.
He is the only patriarch whose name was not changed, and the only one who did not move out of Canaan. According to the narrative, he died aged 180, the longest-lived of the three patriarchs. Isaac first appears in the Book of Genesis, later adopted by the Hebrew tradition of the Torah, in which he is considered to be the son of Abraham and Sarah, the father of Jacob and Esau, and the grandfather of the twelve tribes of Israel.
↪ Israel the name given to Jacob whose sons fathered the twelve tribes of Israel. They later settled in the Promised Land: Israel is also the name of the kingdom. The Israel Bible is a bilingual English-Hebrew version of the Hebrew Bible.
Edited by Rabbi Tuly Weisz and published in June 2018, for the 70th anniversary of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. It contains the full text of the Hebrew Bible along with scholarly introductions to each book of the Bible and various maps, charts, illustrations, and photographs.
↪ Israelites God's special people. They went to live in Israel, the Promised Land, and were also known as Hebrews and Jews. According to the Bible, the Israelites are the descendants of Jacob, a patriarch who was later renamed as Israel.
Following a severe drought in Canaan, Jacob and his twelve sons fled to Egypt, where they eventually formed the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The Israelites were later led out of slavery in Egypt by Moses and conquered Canaan under Joshua's leadership, who was Moses's successor.
↪ Jacob Isaac's son. He stole the inheritance from his twin brother. Esau and had twelve sons. He was also named Israel. Jacob had twelve sons through four women: his wives (and cousins), Leah and Rachel, and his concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah.
His sons were, in order of their birth: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin, all of whom became the heads of their own family groups, later known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel. He also had a daughter named Dinah.
↪ Jairus the synagogue leader whose daughter Jesus brought back to life. The story has no equivalent in the Gospel of John. The combined stories have been used as an example of intercalation ("sandwich story"), where one incident is inserted within another, linked in this case by the connection between the 12-year ailment and the 12-year-old girl.
Although some have drawn comparisons with the healing the royal official's son (John 4:46–53) and with the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1–54) narratives, Zwiep (2015) states that "they are entirely different and unrelated stories, according to most biblical scholars to date"
↪ James the name of two of the twelve disciples of Jesus. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. Its high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope.
James College is a college at the University of York in the United Kingdom. It is known as the "Sports College" largely due to its prowess on the Sports field but also has a diversity of events that cater to all tastes.
↪ Jeremiah a prophet who lived in Jerusalem: he was very unpopular as he foretold the destruction of the city by the Babylonians. Jeremiah is an important figure in both Judaism and Christianity.
His words are read in synagogues as part of the Haftara and he is quoted in the New Testament. Islam also regards Jeremiah as a prophet and his narrative is recounted in Islamic tradition.
↪ Jeroboam an official in King Solomon's court. He became the first King of the ten Northern tribes when Israel split into two kingdoms under King Rehoboam. Jeroboam was the son of Nebat, a member of the Tribe of Ephraim of Zereda.
His mother, named Zeruah (צרוע "leprous") was a widow. He had at least two sons, Abijah and Nadab; Nadab succeeded Jeroboam on the throne. King Solomon made the young Jeroboam a superintendent over his tribesmen in the building of the fortress Millo in Jerusalem and of other public works, and he naturally became conversant with the widespread discontent caused by the extravagances which marked the reign of Solomon.
↪ Jesus believed by Christians to be the Son of God: his life, teaching. miracles, death and resurrection are the subject of the New Testament. Christian theology includes the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary.
After his death, his followers became convinced that he rose from the dead, and following his ascension, the community they formed eventually became the early Christian Church that expanded as a worldwide movement.
↪ Mary The mother of God performed miracles, founded the Christian Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement for sin, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, from where he will return.
Mary has been venerated since early Christianity, and is often considered to be the holiest and greatest saint. There is a certain diversity in the Mariology and devotional practices of major Christian traditions. The Catholic Church holds distinctive Marian dogmas, namely her Immaculate Conception and her bodily Assumption into heaven.
↪ Jews God's special people. They were also known as Hebrews and Israelites. Jew's harps may be categorized as idioglot or heteroglot (whether or not the frame and the tine are one piece); by the shape of the frame (rod or plaque); by the number of tines, and whether the tines are plucked, joint-tapped, or string-pulled.
The lower harmonics of the series cannot be obtained, owing to the limited capacity of the resonating cavity. The black notes on the stave show the scale which may be produced by using two harps, one tuned a fourth above the other.
See also James College at the University of York in the United Kingdom.
↪ John one of the twelve disciples of Jesus.
What does Revelation 1:8 mean?
Mary John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John further describes Jesus in Revelation 1:8 as the Lord God, "who is and was and who is to come, the Almighty." The title, "Lord God, reminds us that He is our ruler, who deserves our obedience. As God, He deserves our worship.
Jesus has always existed and always will exist as the Almighty. Before the world was formed Jesus existed, and as John 1:2 and 3 point out, He was in the beginning with God, and He created everything. Because He is Almighty, nothing is too hard for Him.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
↪ The latter part of Revelation depicts enemies marshaled against Jesus, but they cannot defeat Him. He destroys His enemies with the breath of His mouth (Isaiah 11:4). Because He is all-powerful, we can trust Him to accomplish for us what we could never do for ourselves.
↪ Revelation 1:4–8 identifies John's audience as the seven churches in Asia. John addresses these churches with a greeting from the triune God, and he ascribes praise to Jesus. Jesus is coming in glory, John declares, and His coming will be visible to everyone.
At that time, the tribes of Israel will express remorse because of His crucifixion. John concludes this passage by quoting Jesus as saying He is the beginning, the eternal Almighty One.
Who is and who is to come, reminds us, that He is our ruler, who deserves our obedience. As God, our Lord, He earn our attentions.
↪ John the Baptist the cousin of Jesus. He told the people to be prepared for the coming of Jesus and was beheaded on the orders of King Herod Antipas. John is mentioned by the Roman Jewish historian Josephus and he is revered as a major religious figure in Christianity, Islam, the Baháʼí faith, the Druze faith, and Mandaeism, the latter in which he is considered to be the final and most vital prophet.
He is considered to be a prophet of God by all of the aforementioned faiths, and is honoured as a saint in many Christian denominations. According to the New Testament, John anticipated a messianic figure greater than himself, and the Gospels portray John as the precursor or forerunner of Jesus.
↪ Jonah a reluctant prophet who was swallowed by a whale after he refused to obey God's orders. In Judaism, the story of Jonah represents the teaching of repentance in Judaism, the ability to repent to God for forgiveness.
In the New Testament of Christianity, Jesus calls himself "greater than Jonah" and promises the Pharisees "the sign of Jonah" when referring to his resurrection. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, which details his reluctance in delivering the judgment of Yahweh to the city of Nineveh (near present-day Mosul) in the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
↪ Jonathan the son of King Saul. and King David's great friend. Jonathan first appears in the biblical narrative as the victor of Geba, a Philistine stronghold (1 Samuel 13), while in the following chapter he carries out a lone and secret attack on another Philistine garrison, demonstrating his "prowess and courage as a warrior.
The last meeting between Jonathan and David would take place in a forest of Ziph at Horesh, during Saul's pursuit of David. There, the two would make a covenant before the Lord before going their separate ways.
↪ Joseph Jacob's much-loved son who was sold as a slave and became a great ruler in Egypt. In the Book of Genesis Joseph is Jacob's eleventh son and Rachel's first son, and known in the Hebrew Bible as Yossef ben-Yaakov.
In the New Testament the most notable two are Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus; and Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Jesus who supplied the tomb in which Jesus was buried.
↪ Joseph husband of Mary. the mother of Jesus. The first appearance of Joseph is in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, often dated from around 80–90 AD.
Each contains a genealogy of Jesus showing ancestry from King David, but through different sons; Matthew follows the major royal line from Solomon, while Luke traces another line back to Nathan, another son of David and Bathsheba.
↪ Joseph of Arimathea provided a tomb for Jesus. Matthew 27 describes him simply as a rich man and disciple of Jesus, but according to Mark 15, Joseph of Arimathea was "a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God".
Luke 23 adds that he "had not consented to their decision and action". According to John 19, upon hearing of Jesus' death, this secret disciple of Jesus "asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission." Joseph immediately purchased a linen shroud and proceeded to Golgotha to take the body of Jesus down from the cross.
↪ Joshua became leader of the Israelites after Moses, and captured the city of Jericho. Joshua holds a position of respect among Muslims, who also see him as the leader of the faithful following the death of Moses.
In Islam, it is also believed that Yusha bin Nun (Joshua) was the "attendant" of Moses mentioned in the Quran before Moses meets Khidr. Joshua plays a role in Islamic literature, with significant narration in the hadith. The Hebrew Bible identifies Joshua as one of the twelve spies of Israel sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan.
↪ Judah one of Jacob's twelve sons. His descendants were one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Judah was also the name of a kingdom. Judah Apostle and betrayer of Christ.
Judas Iscariot was one of the Twelve Apostles. He is notorious for betraying Jesus by disclosing Jesus' whereabouts for 30 pieces of silver. Judas brought men to arrest Jesus and identified him with a kiss.
↪ Judas Iscariot the disciple of Jesus who betrayed him to the chief priests and Temple guards. in return for thirty silver coins. The Gospel of Mark gives no motive for Judas' betrayal but does present Jesus predicting it at the Last Supper, an event also described in all the other gospels.
The Gospel of Matthew 26:15 states that Judas committed the betrayal in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. The Gospel of Luke 22:3 and the Gospel of John 13:27 suggest that he was possessed by Satan. According to Matthew 27:1–10, after learning that Jesus was to be crucified, Judas attempted to return the money he had been paid for his betrayal to the chief priests and hanged himself.
↪ Laban brother of Rebecca and father of Rachel. Laban first appears in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 24:29–60 as the grown spokesman for his father Bethuel's house; he was impressed by the gold jewelry given to his sister on behalf of Isaac, and played a key part in arranging their marriage.
Twenty years later, Laban's nephew Jacob was born to Isaac and Rebekah. When grown, Jacob comes to work for Laban. The biblical narrative provides a framework for dating these events: Jacob begat Joseph 14 years after his flight to Laban; Joseph entered Pharaoh's service at age 30; and from that point, after seven years of plenty and two years of famine, Jacob met Pharaoh and stated his age as 130.
↪ Lazarus brother of Mary and Martha, whom Jesus brought back to life after he had been dead for three days. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.
But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Along with the parables of the Ten Virgins, Prodigal Son, and Good Samaritan, the rich man and Lazarus was one of the most frequently illustrated parables in medieval art, perhaps because of its vivid account of an afterlife.
↪ Lot Abraham's nephew, who parted from Abraham to take the best land for his flocks. In astrology, the Arabian/Arabic parts or lots are constructed points based on mathematical calculations of three horoscopic entities such as planets or angles.
The distance between two of the points is added to the position of the third to derive the location of the lot. Although it is not clear whether the number of lots began to proliferate in late Antiquity or whether it was purely the product of the fascination the Arabs had for them, Arabic manuscripts show an explosion in the number of lots that were used over the next several centuries.
↪ Manoah father of Samson Manoah and his barren wife were childless, but the angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife and told her that she would give birth to a son.
The child was to be dedicated from the womb as a Nazirite, which entailed restrictions on his diet that the angel spelled out in detail. The woman, whose name is not mentioned in the Bible, told her husband, "A man of God came to me." Manoah prayed, and the angel returned to instruct the both of them.
↪ Martha a good friend of Jesus. and sister of Mary and Lazarus. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus visits the home of two sisters named Mary and Martha. The two sisters are contrasted: Martha was "encumbered about many things" while Jesus was their guest.
↪ Mary the mother of Jesus, had chosen "the better part", that of listening to the master's discourse. The name Martha is a Latin transliteration of the Koine Greek Μάρθα, itself a transliteration of the Aramaic מָרְתָא Mârtâ, "the mistress" or "the lady", from מרה "mistress", feminine of מר "master."
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.
She came to him and asked; 'Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!
↪ Mary of Bethany sister of Martha and Lazarus. and a good friend of Jesus. Mary of Bethany is a biblical figure mentioned by name in the Gospel of John and probably the Gospel of Luke in the Christian New Testament.
Together with her siblings Lazarus and Martha, she is described as living in the village of Bethany, a small village in Judaea to the south of the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem.
↪ Mary Magdalene a friend of Jesus. She was the first to see Jesus again after his death. The Gospel of Luke chapter 8 lists Mary Magdalene as one of the women who travelled with Jesus and helped support his ministry.
Magda our Magdalene is considered to be a saint by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran denominations. In 2016, Pope Francis raised the level of liturgical memory on July 22 from memorial to feast, and for her to be referred to as the "Apostle of the apostles".
↪ Matthew a tax collector who became one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Matthew is mentioned in Matthew 9:9 and Matthew 10:3 while sitting at the "receipt of custom" in Capernaum, was called to follow Jesus.
He is also listed among the Twelve Disciples, but without identification of his background, in Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13. The New Testament records that as a disciple, Matthew followed Jesus. Afterward, the disciples withdrew to an upper room (Acts 1:10–14) (traditionally the Cenacle) in Jerusalem. The disciples remained in and about Jerusalem and proclaimed that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
↪ Meshach friend of Daniel, figure from chapter 3 of the biblical Book of Daniel. In the narrative, the three Jewish men are thrown into a fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon for refusing to bow to the king's image.
The three are preserved from harm and the king sees four men walking in the flames, "the fourth ... like a son of God". Daniel 3 forms part of a chiasmus (a poetic structure in which the main point or message of a passage is placed in the centre and framed by further repetitions on either side) within Daniel 2–7, paired with Daniel 6, the story of Daniel in the lions' den.
↪ Michal daughter of King Saul and wife of David. On 1 Samuel 14:49 identifies Saul's elder daughter as Merab and younger daughter as Michal. Michal's story is recorded in the first Book of Samuel, where it is said in 1 Samuel 18:20 and 18:28 that Michal loved David.
The narrative does not indicate whether this is reciprocated. After David's success in battle against the Philistine giant Goliath, Merab was given in marriage to Adriel.
↪ Miriam sister of Moses, daughter of Amram and Jochebed and the sister of Aaron and Moses, the leader of the Israelites in ancient Egypt. The narrative of Moses' infancy in the Torah describes an unnamed sister of Moses observing him being placed in the Nile (Exodus 2:4); she is traditionally identified as Miriam.
In the biblical narrative of The Exodus, Miriam is described as a "prophetess" when she leads the Israelites in the Song of the Sea after the Pharaoh's army is destroyed at the Yam Suph.
↪ Moses rescued as a baby from the River Nile. He was a great leader and persuaded the King of Egypt to free the Hebrew people from slavery. He led them to the Promised Land and was given the Ten Commandments by God.
According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when his people, the Israelites, an enslaved minority, were increasing in population and, as a result, the Egyptian Pharaoh worried that they might ally themselves with Egypt's enemies.
After killing an Egyptian slave-master who was beating a Hebrew, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, where he encountered the Angel of the Lord, speaking to him from within a burning bush on Mount Horeb, which he regarded as the Mountain of God.
↪ Naaman an army general. His skin disease was cured by Elisha. According to 2 Kings 5 in the Bible, Naaman was a commander of the army of Aram. He was a good commander and was held in favor because of the victory that God brought him.
Who is and who is to come, reminds us, that He is our ruler, who deserves our obedience. As God, our Lord, He earn our attentions.
However, Naaman suffered from tzaraath, a skin disease often translated as "leprosy"
↪ Naboth killed by King Ahab for his vineyard, after a plot by Queen Jezebel. According to 1 Kings 21:1-16, Naboth owned a vineyard that was close to Ahab's palace in Jezreel.
Ahab asked Naboth if he could buy the vineyard so that he could use it as a vegetable (or herb) garden. Naboth refused because the land was ancestral inheritance. Some theorize that Naboth was also fearful of disobeying the Mosaic law which forbade the permanent selling of land.
↪ Naomi mother-in-law of Ruth who returned to her home in Bethlehem. Naomi is married to a man named Elimelech. A famine causes them to move with their two sons, from their home in Judea to Moab.
While there Elimelech dies, as well as his sons who had gotten married in the meantime. Near destitute, Naomi returns to Bethlehem with one daughter-in-law, Ruth, whom she could not dissuade from accompanying her. Her other daughter-in-law, Orpah, remains in Moab.
↪ Nebuchadnezzar the powerful king of Babylon who captured Jerusalem, destroyed and looted Solomon's Temple, and took the Jewish people into exile. Despite his successful military career during his father's reign, the first third or so of Nebuchadnezzar's reign saw little to no major military achievements, and notably a disastrous failure in an attempted invasion of Egypt.
These years of lackluster military performance saw some of Babylon's vassals, particularly in the Levant, beginning to doubt Babylon's power, viewing the Neo-Babylonian Empire as a "paper tiger" rather than a power truly on the level of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
↪ Nehemiah a Jewish exile in Babylon. he was allowed to return to Jerusalem by King Cyrus. to rebuild the city and the Temple. Most scholars believe Nehemiah was a real historical figure and that the Nehemiah Memoir, a name given by scholars to certain portions of the book written in the first person, is historically reliable.
Nehemiah is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, where his feast day is July 13, the same as his contemporary, Ezra. He is also considered a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where his feast day is December 17.
↪ Noah a man faithful to God. He built an ark to save his family and all the animals from a great flood which God sent to drown the world. The Genesis flood narrative is among the best-known stories of the Bible.
In this account, Noah labored faithfully to build the Ark at God's command, ultimately saving not only his own family, but mankind itself and all land animals, from extinction during the Flood, which God created after regretting that the world was full of sin.
Afterwards, God made a covenant with Noah and promised never again to destroy all the Earth's creatures with a flood. Noah is also portrayed as a "tiller of the soil" and as a drinker of wine. After the flood, God commands Noah and his sons to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth".
↪ Peter a fisherman and one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. According to Christian tradition, Peter was crucified in Rome under Emperor Nero. The ancient Christian churches all venerate Peter as a major saint and as the founder of the Church of Antioch and the Church of Rome, but they differ in their attitudes regarding the authority of his successors.
According to Catholic teaching, Jesus promised Peter a special position in the Church. In the New Testament, the name "Simon Peter" is found 19 times. He is the brother of Saint Andrew, and they both were fishermen.
↪ Pharisees members of a group of strict Jewish leaders who plotted against Jesus. Josephus (c. 37 – c. 100 CE), believed by many historians to have been a Pharisee, estimated the total Pharisee population before the fall of the Second Temple to be around 6,000.
He claimed that the Pharisees' influence over the common people was so great that anything they said against the king or the high priest was believed, apparently in contrast to the more elite Sadducees, who were the upper class.
↪ Philistines people who were constantly at war with the Israelites, invading their borders. The Philistines are known for their biblical conflict with the Canaanite peoples of the region, in particular, the Israelites.
Though the primary source of information about the Philistines is the Hebrew Bible, they are first attested to in reliefs at the Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu, in which they are called the Peleset accepted as cognate with Hebrew Peleshet. They also left behind a distinctive material culture.
↪ Pontius Pilate Roman governor of Judaea who ordered the death of Jesus. Although Pilate is the best-attested governor of Judaea, few sources regarding his rule have survived. Nothing is known about his life before he became governor of Judaea, and nothing is known about the circumstances that led to his appointment to the governorship.
Coins that he minted have survived from Pilate's governorship, as well as a single inscription, the so-called Pilate stone. The Jewish historian Josephus, the philosopher Philo of Alexandria, and the Gospel of Luke all mention incidents of tension and violence between the Jewish population and Pilate's administration.
↪ Potiphar captain of the Egyptian King's guard who bought Joseph as a slave. Potiphar is the captain of the Egyptian king's guard who is said to have purchased Joseph as a slave and, impressed by his intelligence, makes him the master of his household.
Potiphar's wife, who was known for her infidelities, took a liking to Joseph and attempted to seduce him. When Joseph refused her advances and ran off, leaving his outer vestment in her hands, she retaliated by falsely accusing him of trying to rape her, and Potiphar had Joseph imprisoned.
↪ Rachel Jacob's best-loved wife and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. Rachel is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 29 when Jacob happens upon her as she is about to water her father's flock.
She was the second daughter of Laban, Rebekah's brother, making Jacob her first cousin. Jacob had traveled a great distance to find Laban. Rebekah had sent him there to be safe from his angry twin brother, Esau.
↪ Rebecca Isaac's wife, and mother of Jacob and Esau. After the Binding of Isaac, Sarah died. After taking care of her burial, Abraham went about finding a wife for his son Isaac, who was already 37 years old.
He commanded his servant (whom the Torah commentators identify as Eliezer of Damascus) to journey to his birthplace of Aram Naharaim to select a bride from his own family, rather than engage Isaac to a local Canaanite girl. Abraham sent along expensive jewelry, clothing and dainties as gifts to the bride and her family. If the girl had refused to follow him, Abraham stated that Eliezer would be absolved of his responsibility.
↪ Ruth daughter-in-law of Naomi. She went to Bethlehem with her. In the days when the judges were leading the tribes of Israel, there was a famine.
Because of this crisis, Elimelech, a man from Bethlehem in Judah, moved to Moab with his wife, Naomi, and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. There Elimelech died, and the two sons married Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. They lived for about ten years in Moab, before Mahlon and Chilion died, too.
↪ Salome daughter of Herodias who asked for the head of John the Baptist. The gospel story of her dance at the birthday celebration of her stepfather, who had John the Baptist beheaded at her mother's request, inspired art, literature and music over an extended period of time.
Among the paintings are those by Titian and Gustave Moreau. Oscar Wilde's 1891 eponymous play, and its 1905 operatic setting by Richard Strauss, are among the literary and musical realisations which portrayed her. She also appeared in film, for instance in the 1953 Salome starring Rita Hayworth.
↪ Samaritans the inhabitants of Samaria, and the name of a separate Jewish sect. The Samaritans and Jews in Israel hated each other. For censuses, Israeli law treats Samaritans as a distinct religious community, but the Chief Rabbinate of Israel defines them as ethnically Jewish (i.e., Israelite). Rabbinic literature,.
However, rejected the Samaritans' Halakhic Jewishness unless the community renounced Mount Gerizim as the historical Israelite holy site. All Samaritans in both Holon and Kiryat Luza are Israeli citizens, but those in Kiryat Luza also hold Palestinian citizenship.
↪ Samson immensely strong Israelite who fought against the Philistines. They discovered the secret of his strength and captured him. The biblical account states that Samson was a Nazirite and that he was given immense strength to aid him against his enemies.
Allowing him to perform superhuman feats, including slaying a lion with his bare hands and (after offending groomsmen at his wedding to a Philistine), massacring a Philistine army with a donkey's jawbone. The cutting of Samson's long hair would violate his Nazirite vow and nullify his ability.
↪ Sarah Abraham's wife, and mother of Isaac. According to Book of Genesis 20:12, in conversation with the Philistine king Abimelech of Gerar, Abraham describes Sarah as both his wife and his half-sister ("my father's daughter, but not my mother's").
Such unions were later explicitly banned in the Book of Leviticus (Leviticus 18:9). However, some commentators identify her as Iscah (Genesis 11:29), a daughter of Abraham's brother Haran. By her union with Abraham, Sarah had one child, Isaac. After her death, Abraham married Keturah, whose identity biblical scholars debate (that is, whether or not she was actually Hagar), and by her had at least six more children.
↪ Saul first King of Israel. His son, Jonathan, was a great friend of King David. King Saul was killed by the Philistines. According to the Hebrew text of the Bible, Saul reigned for two years, but Biblical commentators generally agree that the text is faulty and that a reign of 20 or 22 years is more probable.
In the New Testament book of Acts 13:21, the Apostle Paul indicates that Saul's reign lasted for forty years. According to the Hebrew Bible, Saul was the son of Kish, of the family of the Matrites, and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the twelve Tribes of Israel. It appears that he came from Gibeah.
↪ Shadrach one of Daniel's friends. Figures from chapter 3 of the biblical Book of Daniel. In the narrative, the three Jewish men are thrown into a fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon for refusing to bow to the king's image.
The three are preserved from harm and the king sees four men walking in the flames, "the fourth ... like a son of God". They are first mentioned in Daniel 1, where alongside Daniel they are brought to Babylon to study Chaldean language and literature with a view to serving at the King's court, and their Hebrew names are replaced with Chaldean or Babylonian names.
↪ Samson one of Jacob's twelve sons. Simson Joseph was first presented as a 15-minute "pop cantata" at Colet Court School in London in 1968, and was published by Novello and recorded in an expanded form by Decca Records in 1969.
After the success of the next Lloyd Webber and Rice piece, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph received amateur stage productions in the US beginning in 1970, and the first American release of the album was in 1971.
The musical had its professional premiere, as a 35-minute musical, at the Haymarket ice rink during the Edinburgh International Festival in 1972. It was Part Two of Bible One, a Young Vic Theatre Company production presented by the National Theatre of Great Britain.
↪ Simon one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.
Samson has been the subject of rabbinic, Christian, and Islamic commentary, with some Christians viewing him as a type of Jesus, based on similarities between their lives. Notable depictions of Samson include John Milton's closet drama Samson Agonistes and Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 Hollywood film Samson and Delilah. Samson also plays a major role in Western art and traditions.
↪ Simon of Cyrene: the man who carried the cross for Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem. Simon's act of carrying the cross, patibulum (crossbeam in Latin), for Jesus is the fifth station of the Stations of the Cross.
Some interpret the passage as indicating that Simon was chosen because he may have shown sympathy with Jesus. Others point out that the text itself says nothing, that he had no choice, and that there is no basis to consider the carrying of the cross an act of sympathetic generosity.
↪ Solomon son of David and wise King of Israel. he built the Temple in Jerusalem. The Bible says Solomon built the First Temple in Jerusalem, dedicating the temple to Yahweh, or God. Solomon is portrayed as wealthy, wise and powerful, and as one of the 48 Jewish prophets.
He is also the subject of many later references and legends, most notably in the Testament of Solomon (part of first-century biblical apocrypha). The historicity of Solomon is hotly debated. Current consensus states that regardless of whether or not a man named Solomon truly reigned as king over Israel and Judah in the tenth century BCE, the biblical description of his apparent empire's lavishness is most probably an anachronistic exaggeration.
↪ Thomas one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He couldn't believe that Jesus had risen from the dead until he saw him for himself. According to traditional accounts of the Saint Thomas Christians of modern-day states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in India.
Saint Thomas travelled outside the Roman Empire to preach the Gospel, travelling as far as Mylapore in South India (modern-day Tamil Nadu) and reached Muziris (modern-day North Paravur and Kodungalloor in Kerala State) in AD 52. In 1258, some of the relics were brought to Ortona, in Abruzzo, Italy, where they have been held in the Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle.
He is regarded as the patron saint of India among its Christian adherents, and the Feast of Saint Thomas on July 3 is celebrated as Indian Christians' Day. The name Thomas remains quite popular among the Saint Thomas Christians of the Indian subcontinent.
↪ Vashti the wife of King Xerxes. The meaning of the name Vashti is uncertain. As a modern Persian name it is understood to mean "goodness" but most likely it originated from the reconstructed Old Persian.
Hoschander proposed that it originated as a shortening of an unattested "vashtateira", which he also proposed as the origin of the name "Stateira, Vashti is one of a very few proper names in the Tanakh that begins with the letter waw, and by far the most prominently mentioned of them. Hebrew names that begin with waw are rare because of the etymological tendency for word-initial waw to become yodh.
↪ Xerxes the Persian King who married Esther. commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC.
He was the son of Darius the Great and Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus the Great. In Western history, Xerxes is best known for his invasion of Greece in 480 BC, which ended in Persian defeat. Xerxes was designated successor by Darius over his elder brother Artobazan and inherited a large, multi-ethnic empire upon his father's death.
He consolidated his power by crushing revolts in Egypt and Babylon, and renewed his father's campaign to subjugate Greece and punish Athens and its allies for their interference in the Ionian Revolt. In 480 BC, Xerxes personally led a large army and crossed the Hellespont into Europe. He achieved victories at Thermopylae and Artemisium before capturing and razing Athens.
His forces gained control of mainland Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth until their defeat at the Battle of Salamis. Fearing that the Greeks might trap him in Europe, Xerxes retreated with the greater part of his army back to Asia, leaving behind Mardonius to continue his campaign. Mardonius was defeated at Plataea the following year, effectively ending the Persian invasion.
↪ Zacchaeus the short tax collector who climbed a tree to see Jesus, A descendant of Abraham, he was an example of Jesus's personal, earthly mission to bring salvation to the lost.
Tax collectors were despised as traitors (working for the Roman Empire, not for their Jewish community), and as being corrupt. His story is found in the Gospel of Luke.
↪ Zechariah husband of Elizabeth, and father of John the Baptist. A few days later. Mary set off on the long journey to visit her cousin. Elizabeth, who lived with her husband. Zechariah. As soon as she arrived. Mary began to tell Elizabeth all that had happened to her.
To Mary's surprise, she found Elizabeth already knew Mary was to have a baby. It's wonderful that God has chosen you to be the mother of his Son. Elizabeth said, and then she told Mary her own news.
↪ She and Zechariah had for many years, prayed to God, asking him for a child, but she had had no baby. Zechariah was a priest and, one day when he was taking part in a service, he was chosen to burn incense at the altar in the Temple.
↪ Zedekiah last King of Judah. He was captured by the Babylonians. Long after Noah and his family had left the ark, their children spread out all over the world, and had their own families. They settled where there was good grass and water for their animals and where they could farm the land.
They all spoke the same language, so they could talk and work together. Some of the people made their way to the east, where they settled on a great plain. There they leamed to make bricks of mud and straw and to bake them hard in the sun.
With these bricks, they could build houses to live in. They were so pleased with their building, they decided to build a city, with a great tower in the middle. The tower would be so high, they thought that it would reach up to Heaven, and all the people would become famous.
God watched the people working on the walls of their city and putting up their tower, brick by brick. He saw they had grown so proud, that they thought they could do anything: they thought they were almost like gods.
Before the tower was finished, God made the people speak in many different languages. Now they could no longer understand each other, or easily work together. Confused, they left the unfinished city, and spread out in all directions, each group speaking their own language.
Zedekiah was the twentieth and final King of Judah. It is described in Jeremiah 27; Judah to serve Nebuchadnezzar to E'dom, Moab. After the fall of Jerusalem, Nebuzaradan destroyed the city which was infected by a waste of intellectual pursuits.
Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire and king of Persia from 559 to 530 BC. He is venerated in the Hebrew Bible as Cyrus the Messiah for conquering Babylon and liberating the Jews from captivity.
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Cyrus the Great was a Great man he said to the Israelites of Babylon: 'I will go before you levelling the heights. I will shatter the bronze gateways, smash the iron bars. I will give you the hidden treasures, the secret hoards, you may know that I am the Lord. Isaiah 45:1–3.
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