Besides Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary is the most honored and recognized human religious figures in Christianity. With how perfect Mary was, it would seem that no one else with even the slightest of her qualities would ever exist before her or again. However, while they may not be exact, there are instances within the Old Testament that share very similar qualities to those of Mary’s. These qualities so similar and happen so often that there’s no mistaking them for mere coincidences. The Ark of the Covenant is a particularly interesting example of this because, while most instances of the Old Testament displaying Mary is through other women, the Ark of the Covenant is an object. However, this “object” does have interesting similarities to Mary. A very noticeable one would be when the Ark goes into the house of Obed-Edom for three months, blessing the house while …show more content…
Similarly, Esther was queen of Persia, however she was married into the royal family by marrying King Xerxes. Aside from these two women being risen from rags to riches, they each play a crucial part in saving they’re people from the dangers of their times. While Mary was pregnant, and even after Jesus had been born, word was spread to those in power that a king would be born. Feeling threatened by this, Herod ordered that every baby boy in Bethlehem be killed. Joseph and Mary then took Jesus and escaped to Egypt to protect Him. Had they not left, Jesus would have been killed and we wouldn’t have received our salvation. Esther was much more direct in her approach and solution to the problem of her time. Her cousin had heard of a declaration stating that the Jews were to be slaughtered at a specific day and told Esther about it. Because she was the queen, she was closest to King Xerxes and was able to inform him of who the Jews really were, leading him to allow the Jew to fight back during the time of the
Females in both texts, Gilgamesh and Genesis/Exodus, are not talked about very much at all and I think that in its self says a lot. When women are brought up they are either being used or doing something great. Even though they are only talked about a few times, when they actually are talked about it makes an impact on the story. Women are put into this story to make a difference to one of the other characters in the story.
Her choices of metaphors are simplistic explanations providing the backdrop for the emotional and spiritual connection we seek in following Christ. The symbolic comparisons of Mary Magdalene, her relationship to Jesus, mirrors some of Julian of Norwich’s personal spiritual journey of prayerful contemplation while seeking intimacy in her relationship to God.
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been hailed by people of many religious and cultural backgrounds as the greatest discovery of manuscripts to be made available to modern scholars in our time and has dramatically altered our understanding of the origins of Christianity. Perhaps the most fundamental reexamination brought about by the Scrolls is that of the Gospel of John. The Fourth Gospel originally accepted as a product of second century Hellenistic composition is now widely accepted as a later first century Jewish writing that may even contain some of the oldest traditions of the Gospels . The discovery of the scrolls has led to the discussion of undeniable and distinct parallels between the ideas of the society at Qumran and those present in the Gospel of John.
The depiction of Madonna and Christ is among the most ancient and common in Christian iconography and has an extensive number of variations because apart from its symbolic religious functions, it allows one to interpret the link between mother and child in many aspects. (8)
only had biblical evidence that doesn’t stand out for much. I feel as Erikson did when she
Hindson, E. E., & Yates, G. E. (2012). The Essence of the Old Testament: A survey. Nashville, Tenn: B & H Academic.
Drysdale, Jilian Miller. “Faces of the Goddess.” Synchronicity. Dec. 1999/Jan. 2000: 29-31. Sirs Renaissance. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
When Catherine was six she saw a bridal chamber up in the heavens with Jesus Christ who bestowed upon her the sign of the cross and his eternal bene...
At St. Joseph Parish in Windsor, Connecticut, women are seen as equals to men. They are greeted by a handshake and a warm smile, just like their husbands or siblings they attend church with. I got the feeling that they didn’t care that I was a woman attending Sunday mass alone, they just cared that I had come at all. On every wall of the church were beautiful stain glass with pictures of Jesus and his disciples, while behind the altar, a painting of Jesus on the cross was painted so that everyone who walked in would see it. In every visual aspect of the church, a woman was present and was with Jesus. There was even a statue of her towards the front of the church. She had a halo around her head just like Jesus and the other male disciples. It
King, Karen L. The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle. Santa Rosa, California: Polebridge Press, 2003.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Print
The Bible is the holy, inspired, infallible Word of God. Within the Bible, there are different stories and principles that the Lord gave us through special revelation. In the New Testament there were Jewish or religious groups that began teaching unbiblical doctrines. Two of those sects were the Pharisees and the Essenes. The importance of learning about these groups is so that we can see how they were wrong and to make sure we don’t mirror their actions. In this paper I will be comparing the Pharisees’ views on God and Jesus with that of the Essenes’.
Metzger, B.M. & Coogan, M.D. “The Oxford Companion to the Bible”. Oxford University Press. New York, NY. (1993). P. 806-818.
Sunday evening I attended my weekly Ecumenical Christians of Oberlin meeting. This is a group of generally open-minded individuals that get together on Sundays to have dinner and discuss topics related to Christianity. Topics range from "What is the Kingdom of God?" to "Pacifism: Turning the Other Cheek." Our topic this Sunday was "Women and the Bible."
Its not very often do you see books that date back a thousand years that have a female character as an extremely important roll. This is not the case in the two wonderful books The Odyssey and Song of Solomon. Both books have many fairly important characters but only a few that could almost be considered the most important characters. One of those characters in The Odyssey is Athena and in Song of Solomon it is Pilate. Athena and Pilate have much more in common than it seems, They are more than just guides to the main characters of each book, they are also very important female rolls and outliers among their time.