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| The first five books of the Hebrew Bible traditionally attributed to Moses that together comprise the Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. |
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| (Hebrew for "teaching, instruction, direction") Refers to the "five books of Moses," the first main division of the Hebrew Bible. |
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| The author of the J narrative source in the Torah/Pentateuch that favors the use of the divine name YHWH. |
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| (Also priestly document) (P) A literary source used in the composition of the Torah/Pentateuch; it probably was composed in Babylonia in the sixth century. |
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| A term for the attribution of human behavior or characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, natural phenomena, or deity; became a point of theological discussion in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. |
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| The seventh day of the week, a day of rest and worship. It was a sign of the Mosaic covenant and became important as an identifier of Jewishness beginning in the Babylonian exile. |
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| The first words the Torah quotes Adam as saying appear right after his wife was created. Names for man and woman. |
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| The first son of Adam and Eve who murdered his brother Abel because he was jealous of his sacrifice to God. |
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| The second son of Adam and Eve whose sacrifice pleased God. He was murdered by his brother Abel. |
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| Built a boat and survived the Flood with his family and representatives of the animal word; God made a covenant with him, promising never again to destroy the world with a flood. |
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| The drunken Noah fell asleep naked, and his son Ham "saw his father's nakedness" (this phrase is important in interpretations of the story). Ham told his two brothers, Shem and Japheth, who then covered Noah with a cloak while averting their eyes. When Noah awoke "he knew what his youngest son had done to him" and delivered a curse, not on Ham, but on Ham's son Canaan, who was condemned to become a slave to Shem and Japheth. |
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| The name of a Mesopotamian city with a tower. The name means "gate of God." The tower was built by humans and seen by God as an act of defiance. |
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| A Babylonian epic centering on Gilgamesh, an ancient king of Uruk; the epic contains a story of a flood that has parallels to the biblical story of Noah and the ark. |
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According to the biblical account, Genesis 19:37-38, Ammon and Moab were born to Lot and Lot's younger and elder daughters, respectively, in the aftermath of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible refers to both the Ammonites and Moabites as the "children of Lot". Throughout the Bible, the Ammonites and Israelites are portrayed as mutual antagonists. During the Exodus, the Israelites were prohibited by the Ammonites from passing through their lands.[5] In the Book of Judges, the Ammonites work with Eglon, king of the Moabites against Israel. Attacks by the Ammonites on Israelite communities east of the Jordan were the impetus behind the unification of the tribes under Saul.[6]
According to both 1 Kings 14:21-31 and 2 Chronicles 12:13, Naamah was an Ammonite. She was the only wife of King Solomon to be mentioned by name in the Tanakh as having borne a child. She was the mother of Solomon's successor, Rehoboam.[7]
The Ammonites presented a serious problem to the Pharisees because many marriages with Ammonite (and Moabite) wives had taken place in the days of Nehemiah.[8] The men had married women of the various nations without conversion, which made the children not Jewish.[9] The legitimacy of David's claim to royalty was disputed on account of his descent from Ruth, the Moabite.[10] |
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Artaxerxes (Hebrew: אַרְתַּחְשַׁסְתְּא, pronounced [artaχʃast]) commissioned Ezra, a Jewish priest-scribe, by means of a letter of decree, to take charge of the ecclesiastical and civil affairs of the Jewish nation. A copy of this decree may be found in Ezra 7:13-28.
Ezra thereby left Babylon in the first month of the seventh year (~ 457 BCE) of Artaxerxes' reign, at the head of a company of Jews that included priests and Levites. They arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month of the seventh year (Hebrew Calendar).
The rebuilding of the Jewish community in Jerusalem had begun under Cyrus the Great, who had permitted Jews held captive in Babylon, to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple of Solomon. Consequently, a number of Jews returned to Jerusalem in 538 B.C., and the foundation of this "Second Temple" was laid the following year.
In Artaxerxes' 20th year (444 B.C.)[5], Nehemiah, the king's cupbearer, apparently was also a friend of the king as in that year Artaxerxes inquired after Nehemiah's sadness. Nehemiah related to him the plight of the Jewish people and that the city of Jerusalem was undefended. The king sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem with letters of safe passage to the governors in Trans-Euphrates, and to Asaph, keeper of the royal forests, to make beams for the citadel by the Temple and to rebuild the city walls.[6] |
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In the Book of Samuel Ashdod is mentioned (I Samuel 6:17) among the principal Philistine cities. After capturing the Ark of the covenant from the Israelites, the Philistines took it to Ashdod, where it was placed in the temple of Dagon. The next morning Dagon was found prostrate before it; on being restored to his place, he was on the following morning again found prostrate and broken. The people of Ashdod were smitten with boils; a plague of mice was sent over the land (1 Samuel 6:5).[16]
In the Book of Nehemiah, some residents of Jerusalem are said to have married women from Ashdod, and half of the children of these unions were reportedly unable to understand Hebrew; instead, they spoke "the language of Ashdod." (Nehemiah 13:23–24)
In the Book of Isaiah, an Assyrian general named Tartan, sent by Sargon, gained control of Ashdod in 711. (Isaiah 20:1) The capture of the city by King Uzziah shortly after 815 BCE is mentioned within the text of the Book of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 26:6) and in the Book of Zechariah (Zechariah 9:6), speaking of the false Jews. |
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| Persian monarch who founded the Medo-Persian empire in the sixth century BCE and allowed the Judean refugees to return to their homeland after the Babylonian exile. |
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| The Book of Ezra (chapter 6, verse 1) describes the adoption and precise instructions to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. It was completed and inaugurated of the sixth year of Darius (March 515 BCE), as also related in the Book of Ezra (chapter 6, verse 15), so the 70-year prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled. Between Cyrus and Darius, an exchange of letters with King Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes is described (chapter 4, verse 7), the grandson of Darius I, in whose reign Ezra and Nehemiah came to Jerusalem. The generous funding of the temple gave Darius and his successors the support of the Jewish priesthood. [6][7] There is mention of a Darius in the Book of Daniel, identified as Darius the Mede. He began ruling when he was 62 years old (chapter 5, verse 31), appointed 120 satraps to govern over their provinces or districts (chapter 6, verse 1), was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans (chapter 9, verse 1), and predated Cyrus (chapter 11, verse 1). Therefore, many scholars identify him with Cyaxares II rather than Darius I of Persia.[8] |
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| Exogamy is the custom of marrying outside a specified group of people to which a person belongs. |
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| A series of poetic lines or verses whose initial letters form the alphabet, a word, or a regular pattern/ |
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| (also called the Elohist and abbreviated E) The name given to a reconstructed source underlying certain Pentateuchal narratives; characterized by the use of the divine name Elohim. |
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| Goel (go'el) is a Hebrew term which comes from the word gal'al ("to redeem"), hence meaning "redeemer", which in the Bible and the rabbinical tradition denotes a person who as the nearest relative of another is charged with the duty of restoring the rights of another and avenging his wrongs. |
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| also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. |
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| a group that resisted the policies of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the second century BCE at the start of the Maccabean revolt. |
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| Chokhmah, also sometimes transliterated chochma or hokhmah (חכמה) is the Hebrew word for "wisdom". |
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