Tag Archives: Near East

DEFINITION OF THE DAY (PAGAN TEMPLES, PT1)

August 23, 2022Uncategorized1961, Antioch, Asherah, Baal, Bronze Age, Canaan, canaanite, chamber, Christ, cuneiform, definition, Ein Gedi, El, God, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, inner court, Iron Age, jesus, Jesus Christ, Judges, Mardikh, Matthew, modern day Aleppo, Near East, Neo-Hittite, new testament, Old Testament, pantheon, polytheistic, Solomon's Temple, southwest, sphinx, temple, temples, worship, Yamabarkley8

Temples built for polytheistic worship, many pagan temples within the land of Canaan predated Solomon’s temple and some featured similar designs. The earliest excavated temples from the Chalcolithic Period (4600-3300 B.C.), such as those uncovered at Ein Gedi in 1961 and Eshtaol in 2013, illustrate the ubiquitous nature of pagan worship in Canaan prior to the arrival of Abram (Gen 12:5). The cultic site at Eshtaol contained a standing stone, just over four feet high and smoothed on all sides; it was erected to face east.

Continue reading →

EVERYDAY LIFE IN BIBLE TIMES (TEAR A GARMENT PT 1 OF 2)

April 22, 2021bible customs, bible customs and curiosities, bible studies, bible study, bible times, Christ, Christian, christian studies, Christian study, christianity, christians, Church, curiosities, customs, death, evil, Faith, forgive, Forgivness, God, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Holy Bible, jesus, Jesus Christ, Judah, King James Holy Bible, Lord, new testament, NIV, Old Testament, OT, sunday, the church, theology, Uncategorized1 Kings, 1 samuel, 2 Kings, 2 Samuel, accident, ancient, assyrian, culture, dead, death, died, dressers, ecclesiastes, Esther, everyday life in bible times, Exodus, Ezra, failure, garment, Genesis, grief, Hezekiah, intense, Jerusalem, Job, Joshua, King, King Hezekiah, loss of position, Mark, Matthew, mourning, national, Near East, people, personal level, raising children, rip, ripped, risk, ritual, siege, tearing, torn, torn garmentabarkley8

If we tear our clothing, it is generally by accident unless we are tearing up an old garment for rags. This was not true in the culture of Bible times where the tearing of one’s garment was an external sign of one’s internal pain. The average person of the era did not have multiple changes of clothing like we do in our closets and dressers; consequently, they took great care to prevent accident tearing of their clothing (Exod 28:32; Matt 9:16; Mark 2:21). But there was “a time to tear and a time to mend” (Eccles 3:7); the time to intentionally tear was a time of intense grief that might have included repentance.

Continue reading →

EVERYDAY LIFE IN BIBLE TIMES (PLUNDER)

February 2, 2021bible customs, bible customs and curiosities, bible studies, bible study, bible times, Christ, Christian, christian studies, Christian study, christianity, Church, curiosities, customs, death, God, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Holy Bible, jesus, Jesus Christ, Judah, King James Holy Bible, Lord, new testament, NIV, Old Testament, preaching, prophet, the church, theology, Uncategorized1 Chronicles, 1 samuel, 2 Chronicles, 2 Samuel, ancient, Babylon, battle, Benjamin, bible times, community, CSB, day, dominance, egyptian, empires, Exodus, Ezekiel, farthless, fight, force, Genesis, gold, Hosea, Isaiah, jeremiah, Jewelry, Joshua, Judges, Kings, KJV, language, loot, metals, money, Near East, NIV, Numbers, Old Testament, philinstines, plunder, plundering, Proverbs, Psalm, silver, soldiers, threat, wealth, widow, widowsabarkley8

From an early age we are taught to respect the belongings of others even if our size and strength make it possible to take them by force. In order to understand the actions of the people of the ancient Near East, we need to make a major adjustment in this thinking. Within the cultural construct of this world, the expectation was that those who were victorious in battle had the right to seize the personal property of those defeated and even enslave the owners of that property. This practice of plundering is mentioned repeatedly in the literature of the ancient world peatedly in the literature of the ancient world and illustrated in the art of the empires that rose to power during the Old Testament era.

Continue reading →

DECREES AND LAWS

January 20, 2021bible customs, bible customs and curiosities, bible studies, bible study, bible times, Christ, Christian, christian studies, Christian study, christianity, Church, curiosities, customs, death, Faith, Forgivness, God, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Holy Bible, jesus, Jesus Christ, King James Holy Bible, Lord, new testament, NIV, Old Testament, preach, preaching, primitive, prophet, Proverbs, sunday, the church, theology, Uncategorizedaffinities, America, apodictic, apodictic laws, BC, covenant, curses, deuteronomhy, Eshnunna, Exodus, Hammurapi, Joshua, King, laws, Leviticus 7:9, literature, Mediterranean, millennium, Nammu, Near East, subcategories, suzerain-vassal, treatyabarkley8

Deuteronomy shares many affinities with literature from the ancient Near East. The most evident is tis relationship to the various collections of legal sayings that have been recovered. These collections have come from as early as 2000 BC and before – eg., Sumerian Laws of Ur-Nammu (2064-2046 BC), the Laws Eshnunna (c 1850 BC), and the Code of Hammurapi king of Babylon (1792-1750 BC). The OT contains both similarities with and difference from these collections in subcategories of types of laws, such as case law, apodictic law, laws, involving curses, motive clauses, etc.

Continue reading →

DEFINITION OF THE DAY (DREAMS)

January 19, 2021bible customs, bible customs and curiosities, bible studies, bible study, bible times, Christ, Christian, christian studies, Christian study, christianity, Church, curiosities, customs, God, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Holy Bible, jesus, Jesus Christ, King James Holy Bible, Lord, new testament, NIV, Old Testament, sunday, the church, theology, Uncategorizedancient, Assyria, books, definition, definition of the day, Deuteronomy, dream, dreams, Egypt, figures, God, interpretaation, Israel, Nation, nations, Near East, new testament, old testeament, OT, people, prophecy, scale, sleep, sleepyabarkley8

In the ancient Near East dreams were one of several ways people sought to see the future and to make decisions that would be beneficial to them. In some societies, people went to temples or holy places to sleep in order to have a dream that would show them the best decision to make.

Continue reading →

DEFINITION OF THE DAY (SOAP, SOBER)

September 29, 2020bible customs, bible customs and curiosities, bible studies, bible study, bible times, Christ, Christian, christian studies, Christian study, christianity, Church, curiosities, customs, God, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Holy Bible, jesus, Jesus Christ, King James Holy Bible, Lord, new testament, NIV, Old Testament, sunday, the church, theology, Uncategorized1 Peter, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 peter, 2 Thessalonians, 2 Timothy, alikali, body, burning, clean, cleaner, cleaning body, clothes, definition, definition of the day, definitions, employed, jeremiah, judgmetn, KJV, Malachi, mixing, moral, Near East, oil, olive oil, people, plants, pound clothes, right mind, rock, rocks, salt, scant, self-control, seriousness, soap, sober, sound moral, Titus, wash, washing, wetabarkley8

SOAP – Cleaner made by mixing olive oil and alikali from burning certain salt-producing plants. It was used of washing the body (Jer 2:22) and of washing clothes (Mal 3:2). Perhaps the scant references to soap are due to the fact that people in the Near East use oil for cleansing the body and pound clothes on rocks while wet to cleanse them.

Continue reading →

DEFINITION OF THE DAY (LOTS)

May 29, 2020bible customs, bible customs and curiosities, bible studies, bible study, bible times, Christ, Christian, christian studies, Christian study, christianity, Church, curiosities, customs, death, God, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Holy Bible, jesus, Jesus Christ, King James Holy Bible, Lord, new testament, NIV, Old Testament, Proverbs, rock, rocks, the church, theology, Uncategorized1 Chronicles, 1 samuel, 2 Chronicles, 2 Samuel, acts, Akkadian, Angel, bet, betting, cast, casting, celebrate, Esther, fair, game, games, God, haman, Holy, human, Isaiah, Israelites, Jewish, jews, John the Baptist, Joshua, Lord, Lot, lots, Luke, Matthew, Matthias, Near East, non-christians, non-Israelites, NT, Numbers, OT, play, priest, Proverbs, Psalm, Purim, righteous, Sin, sinned, sinner, sinners, Urim, Zechariahabarkley8

soldiers-casting-lots (1)

Objects of unknown shape and material used to determine the divine will. Often in the ancient Near East people, especially priests, made difficult and significant decisions by casting lots on the ground or drawing them from a receptacle. Several times Scripture mentions the practice. We do not know exactly what the lots look like. Nor do we know how they were interpreted. We do know that people of the OT and NT believe God (or gods in the case of non-Israelites or non-Christians) influenced the fall or outcome of the lots (Prov 16:33). Thus, casting lots was a way of determining God’s will. Continue reading DEFINITION OF THE DAY (LOTS) →

Powered by WordPress.com.

Social Media Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com