About Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a small town which is not far from Jerusalem. It is a very popular place for Christian pilgrims especially during Christmas because Jesus was born in this town and this was also the birth of Christian faith. Christian pilgrims visit the most important parts of Bethlehem such as the church of Nativity which part of the right altar belonged to the Greek Orthodox church and part of the left belonged to the Armenian church. Although the church of Nativity may not actually mark the spot where Jesus was born it has become an important place for pilgrims.
Pilgrims enter the church of the Nativity by a small doorway bowing down to show their humbleness and respect to Jesus.
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They will also remember that Jesus was visited by the shepherds and the wise men. There was no crib so he was laid in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes. The shrine represents a manger where Mary gave birth to Jesus and inside the manger a doll to represent the baby Jesus. Above the manger there is a picture Mary Jesus 's mother. When pilgrims get to the manger they usually kneel and pray to show there devotion to Jesus and it makes them feel more closer to God who sent down the infant Jesus. They also thank God for sending Jesus to earth.
The Chapel of Kings commemorates the coming of the wise man (MAGI) who according to Mathew came to visit the newborn child Jesus and brought him gifts.
Pilgrims may think about their story and the gifts they brought and some pilgrims may think how best they can serve Jesus today. The Grotto of Nativity is the star making the birth place of Christ. Near the Chapel of Kings there is a flight of stairs which lead into the Grotto of Nativity where there is a type of cave made like a stable. The floor is covered with white marble and in the corner is set
The 2006 film The Nativity Story, is a retelling of the birth of Jesus and the events surrounding it. The film takes pieces both from the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke in order to create its narrative. The film takes some of its key scenes as well as aspects of both Mary and Joseph from the Bible. The advantage of using both gospels as a basis for the film is that it allows for the dual perspective of Mary and Joseph instead of being limited to one or the other, and allows for a more complete feeling narrative. It then builds upon how the characters of Mary and Joseph are described in both gospels by giving the audience the chance to connect with them at a human level.
Gestation, Delivery, and Post-Natal Period: Lawrence was a healthy baby born in Stone Mountain, Georgia. To his knowledge his delivery was normal, there was no problems or unusual circumstances. He remembers his mother telling him that he was placed in the incubator, but he is not sure for what reason. His mother’s pregnancy was a normal delivery and a full nine-month term.
The long-awaited death in 4 BCE of Herod, the ruthless architect of an oppressive Judean police state, sparked a series of spontaneous revolts by the Jewish peasantry. Once these rebellions were subdued, the Jews continued to chafe under a series of tyrannical Roman governors until the massive revolt of 66-70. This period was marked by "widespread discontent and periodic turbulence." Direct Roman rule, along with the burdensome tribute that accompanied it, was highly offensive to the Jews, who considered themselves subjects only to God. Many, in fact, considered their conditions tantamount to slavery (Horsley and Hanson 34-5).
The life of Joseph could be considered a foreshadowing of Jesus’ life since there are many similarities. Joseph was the prized son of Rachel to Jacob, which optimized the resentment felt towards him from his other ten brothers, whom later sold him to a caravan traveling to Egypt for slavery. Jesus, likewise the promised Messiah, was rejected by his family and community. Neither of their relatives could perceive the significance of these two men nor notice what God was doing with their lives.
Chapters thirty-nine through forty-one of Genesis chronicle a portion of the life of Joseph, the eleventh, and most favored, son of Jacob. “The book of Genesis is an account of the creation of the universe (Genesis 1-2), the origins of human communities (Genesis 3-11), and the beginnings of the people set apart by God (Genesis 12-50)” (Hauer and Young 67). The Joseph story begins in chapter thirty-seven, and spans nearly fourteen full chapters; the book ends, in chapter fifty, with the death of Joseph. The narrative of Joseph’s life is well crafted and highly detailed. It is, in fact, the most comprehensive narrative in the book of Genesis. The story flows, from beginning to end as a novel would. “Unique, too, is the somewhat secular mold in which the biography is cast. The miraculous or supernatural is conspicuously absent” (Sarna 211). Although God is mentioned, as a presence, he never overtly presents himself as he did with the many of the heroes that came before Joseph. The ending chapters of Genesis are a coming of age story; the tale of a boy, becoming a man.
Most history books has recorded that between the years 1701-1760, millions of Africans were literally stolen away from their native lands leaving behind their families, work, heritage, and everything that was familiar to them. Robbed of their independence and ‘humanness’; they were reduced to cargo. This was what ‘the Middle Passage’ also known, as the ‘Slave Triangle’ was all about; the trading of goods and commodities among continents including the trading of black men, women and children who were treated like property.
Every Christians today knows the story of Jesus birth. The story of how Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem for a censes declared by the Roman Empire. While not being able to find an inn to stay in and Mary getting ready to give birth, they stow away in the cave where the animals were kept. While there Mary gave birth to a son and called him Jesus. While Jesus was in a manger a heavenly host of angles came down and also Shepard’s from the field came and rejoiced the savior was born. This is where the typical nativity scene comes from. Unless you have a Doctorate and teach a History of the New testament class and go into fine detail about the story, then story this is what people hear. Well this is for History of the New Testament so the fine details are what we are looking for. Most people do not realize that the story they tell every Christmas is actually a combination of two stories. The birth story is told in the Gospels of Luke and the Gospels of Mathew but each tell a very different version of what actually happened and that is what leads to people questioning the accuracy of the bible today.
Monuments such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and San Vitale in Ravenna, perform a great importance in Byzantine and Islamic architecture. Both of these structures did not exclusively represent the main place of worship, but most importantly as a symbol of achievement and growth within the current times of construction. Starting in 524, under the influence of Orthodox bishop Ecclesius, the development of San Vitale was to represent the achievements of the emperor Justinian. Julius Argentarius was the sponsor for this structure and it was dedicated by Bishop Maximian in 547. The Dome of the Rock is built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in 692 with the help of Abd al-Malik with the suspected intention to symbolize Islams influence in Jerusalem and its involvement in a highly Jewish and Christian supremacy. Although separated by over 100 yrs, both of these domes share multiple similarity's including a projected confidence of their originating culture.
The Shroud of Turin is one of the relics that had confused scientists, scholars and the whole Christian community. It is basically a piece of rectangular linen cloth with dimensions 4.4 × 1.1 meters that is claimed to be the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. Its main distinctive feature is that it has a very faint image of a man that had brutally suffered through physical torture and crucified. All the marks of the wounds present on his body due to the sharp weapons used to torture this man are shown on the image. Marks on his ankle and wrists that suggest crucifixion is also visible. There are two main distinctive features that suggest that the image of this man represents Jesus of Nazareth is the presence of wound marks on the top of the head that displays wounds caused by the crown of thorns, which is a circular band of branches with spikes that were placed on his head that inflicted serious injuries. The other feature is the wound that was visible on the side of the body which was made by a spear that pierced Jesus of Nazareth while he was hanging on the cross. The Roman Catholic Church popes accept the shroud as authentic and they claim that it is the cloth wrapped around Jesus of Nazareth’s body at his burial, and that the image was formed at his miraculous resurrection. Scientists on the other hand are conducting many scientific tests and using the help of historians to uncover the mysteries of this cloth. Is this piece of cloth really the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth? Or is it a piece of art made by a very skillful forger? These questions are going to be discussed in the following paper.
Essay: The Bible says Jesus of Nazareth was a teacher who used miracles to help people. In reality he was a wandering man whose simple tricks and healing remedies were mistaken for miracles. He wandered Judea preaching about the validity of the jewish laws. This gained him a large following. Roman officials caught wind of this and were scared of an uprising. So they had him executed; however this had the opposite effect. The jewish sect that followed Jesus was pacified for some time but emerged again as Christianity, with a larger following than before. Eventually, and ironically, it ended up surviving the Roman Empire.
There are many themes running through the Old Testament myth of Exodus – slavery, rescue and redemption, guidance, commandments on how to live, the creation of a nation, and God’s power over other gods. In this paper I will explore what appears to be the chief reasoning behind the creation of the Exodus myth – the explanation of the creation of a monotheistic religion and the similarities of the Exodus myth to the ancient myths, as well as how one should approach the reading of the myth.
The Middle Passage (or Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade) was a voyage that took slaves from Africa to the Americas via tightly packed ships. The trade started around the early 1500s, and by 1654 about 8,000-10,000 slaves were being imported from Africa to the Americas every year. This number continued to grow, and by 1750 that figure had climbed to about 60,000-70,000 slaves a year. Because of the lack of necessary documents, it is hard to tell the exact number of Africans taken from their homeland. But based on available clues and data, an estimated 9-15 million were taken on the Middle Passage, and of that about 3-5 million died. While the whole idea seems sick and wrong, many intelligent people and ideas went in to making the slave trade economically successful.
8. Set the scene. Set up a conducive environment for sleeping in a cool, comfortable room. Set the temperature at about 65-70 degrees and dim the lights. You may want to use shades to darken the room and install a night-light for use when the baby wakes up at night.
Jericho is often referred to as the oldest city on earth, with a history of over ten thousand years. This ancient city is located in the region of Canaan at the lower end of the Jordan valley about eight miles north of the Dead (Salt) Sea. It lies 840 feet below sea level making it the lowest city in the world. Hunters were attracted to this location because of the abundant water sources nearby. Aqueducts and other irrigation systems were built early on, making the city an agricultural center. By 8000 BC, about 2,000 people had permanently settled near present-day Jericho (Metzger and Coogan, 1993).
The book of Exodus is seen as, the “Second Book of Moses”, as well as the second book in the Pentateuch . The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Old Testament, and is also known as the Torah, or “Law” in Hebrew, which is just one section that makes up the whole Hebrew Bible or Tanak. The Torah consists of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, and is the beginning sections of the Bible. The other two sections are known as Nevi’im, “Prophets”, and Ketuvim, “Writings”. Upon analysis of the book of Exodus, it is expressively important to consider the historical aspects, literary issues, and theological themes that make up such a book.