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Jacob
Jacob is one of the patriarchs of ancient Judaism and the father of who became the twelve tribes of Israel. His story is told in Genesis 25-50. His Hebrew name is derived from Ya-aqob ("to supplant" or "circumvent") and is constructed from...
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Battle of Marj Ayyun
The Battle of Marj Ayyun (10 June 1179, also given as the Battle on the Litani) was a military engagement between Baldwin IV, King of Jerusalem (r. 1174-1185) and Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria (r. 1174-1193). Saladin decisively won the...
Article
The Twelve Tribes of Israel
The Twelve Tribes of Israel refer to the sons of the Jewish Patriarch Jacob and are important for the tribal lineages of those who constituted the nation of Israel. In the ancient world, all ethnic groups developed stories of their ancestors...
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Esau & Jacob by Ghiberti
Esau & Jacob on Lorenzo Ghiberti's Doors of Paradise for the Baptistry, made between 1420 and 1447 with assistance from Lucca della Robbia, Donatello, Michelozzo, Benozzo Gozzoli, Bernardo Cennini, and two of Ghiberti's sons. Museo...
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Jacob's Dream at Bethel by Raphael
Jacob's Dream at Bethel, fresco by Raphael (1483-1520).
Vatican Palace.
Definition
Yahweh
Yahweh is the name of the state god of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and, later, the Kingdom of Judah. His name is composed of four Hebrew consonants (YHWH, known as the Tetragrammaton) which the prophet Moses is said to have revealed to...
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Women in the Old Testament
Modern practitioners of Judaism and Christianity often turn to the Bible for stories concerning women and their roles in ancient religion and society. It is important to acknowledge that these stories were written by men. The male perspectives...
Definition
Kingdom of Israel
The Kingdom of Israel occupied that part of the land on the Mediterranean Sea known as the Levant which corresponds roughly to the State of Israel of modern times. The region was known, historically, as part of Canaan, as Phoenicia, as Palestine...
Definition
Torah
The Torah, also known as the Pentateuch (from the Greek for “five books”), is the first collection of texts in the Hebrew Bible. It deals with the origins of not only the Israelites but also the entire world. Though traditionally...
Definition
Amorite
The Amorites were a Semitic people who seem to have emerged from western Mesopotamia (modern-day Syria) at some point prior to the 3rd millennium BCE. In Sumerian they were known as the Martu or the Tidnum (in the Ur III Period), in Akkadian...