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The New Oxford Annotated Bible With Apocrypha

The New Oxford Annotated Bible With Apocrypha The New Oxford Annotated Bible With Apocrypha

Students, professors and general readers alike have relied upon The Oxford Annotated Bible for essential scholarship and guidance to the world of the Bible for nearly four decades. Now a new editorial board and team of contributors have completely updated this classic work. The result is a volume which maintains and extends the excellence the Annotated's users have come to expect, bringing new insights, information, and approaches to bear upon the understanding of the text of the Bible.

The new edition includes a full index to all of the study material (not just to the annotations), and one that is keyed to page numbers, not to citations. And, to make certain points in the text clearer for the reader, there are approximately 40 in-text, line drawing maps and diagrams.

With the best of the Annotated's traditional strengths, and the augmentation of new information and new approaches represented in current scholarship, the Third Edition will serve as the reader's and student's constant resource for a new century.

About the Author

Michael Coogan is Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, and director of publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum. Carol Newsom is at Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, Georgia.

Paperback: 2180 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; College edition (January 25, 2001)

The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament Volume One
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament Volume One The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament: Apocrypha

The most esteemed body of books left out of the Bible, the Old Testament Apocrypha is of interest to historians, religious scholars, and ordinary laypeople alike. For more than 70 years this version, edited by R.H. Charles, has been the definitive critical edition. Out of print for years, Apocryphile Press is proud to make it available once more to scholars and the curious.

Paperback: 700 pages
Publisher: Apocryphile Press (November 1, 2004)

The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Volume Two
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Volume Two The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Volume Two

Of all the books left out of the Bible, only the Apocrypha rivals the Pseudepigrapha in popularity and importance. This edition of the Pseudepigrapha was edited by R. H. Charles and was the definitive critical edition for over 70 years.

Paperback: 800 pages
Publisher: Apocryphile Press (November 1, 2004)

The Urantia Book
The Urantia Book The Urantia Book

Love

Love is truly contagious and eternally creative. (p. 2018) “Devote your life to proving that love is the greatest thing in the world.” (p. 2047) “Love is the ancestor of all spiritual goodness, the essence of the true and the beautiful.” (p. 2047) The Father’s love can become real to mortal man only by passing through that man’s personality as he in turn bestows this love upon his fellows. (p. 1289) The secret of a better civilization is bound up in the Master’s teachings of the brotherhood of man, the good will of love and mutual trust. (p. 2065)

Prayer

Prayer is not a technique of escape from conflict but rather a stimulus to growth in the very face of conflict. (p. 1002) The sincerity of any prayer is the assurance of its being heard. … (p. 1639) God answers man’s prayer by giving him an increased revelation of truth, an enhanced appreciation of beauty, and an augmented concept of goodness. (p. 1002) …Never forget that the sincere prayer of faith is a mighty force for the promotion of personal happiness, individual self-control, social harmony, moral progress, and spiritual attainment. (p. 999)

Suffering

There is a great and glorious purpose in the march of the universes through space. All of your mortal struggling is not in vain. (p. 364) Mortals only learn wisdom by experiencing tribulation. (p. 556)

Angels

The angels of all orders are distinct personalities and are highly individualized. (p. 285) Angels....are fully cognizant of your moral struggles and spiritual difficulties. They love human beings, and only good can result from your efforts to understand and love them. (p. 419)

Our Divine Destiny

If you are a willing learner, if you want to attain spirit levels and reach divine heights, if you sincerely desire to reach the eternal goal, then the divine Spirit will gently and lovingly lead you along the pathway of sonship and spiritual progress. (p. 381) …They who know that God is enthroned in the human heart are destined to become like him—immortal. (p. 1449) God is not only the determiner of destiny; he is man’s eternal destination. (p. 67)

Family

Almost everything of lasting value in civilization has its roots in the family. (p. 765) The family is man’s greatest purely human achievement. ... (p. 939)

Faith

…Faith will expand the mind, ennoble the soul, reinforce the personality, augment the happiness, deepen the spirit perception, and enhance the power to love and be loved. (p. 1766) “Now, mistake not, my Father will ever respond to the faintest flicker of faith.” (p. 1733)

History/Science

The story of man’s ascent from seaweed to the lordship of earthly creation is indeed a romance of biologic struggle and mind survival. (p. 731) 2,500,000,000 years ago… Urantia was a well developed sphere about one tenth its present mass. … (p. 658) 1,000,000,000 years ago is the date of the actual beginning of Urantia [Earth] history. (p. 660) 450,000,000 years ago the transition from vegetable to animal life occurred. (p. 669) From the year A.D. 1934 back to the birth of the first two human beings is just 993,419 years. (p. 707) About five hundred thousand years ago…there were almost one-half billion primitive human beings on earth. … (p. 741) Adam and Eve arrived on Urantia, from the year A.D. 1934, 37,848 years ago. (p. 828)

From the Inside Flap

What’s Inside?

Parts I and II

God, the inhabited universes, life after death, angels and other beings, the war in heaven.

Part III

The history of the world, science and evolution, Adam and Eve, development of civilization, marriage and family, personal spiritual growth.

Part IV

The life and teachings of Jesus including the missing years. AND MUCH MORE…

Excerpts

God, …God is the source and destiny of all that is good and beautiful and true. (p. 1431) If you truly want to find God, that desire is in itself evidence that you have already found him. (p. 1440) When man goes in partnership with God, great things may, and do, happen. (p. 1467)

The Origin of Human Life, The universe is not an accident... (p. 53) The universe of universes is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse creatures. (p. 21) The evolutionary planets are the spheres of human origin…Urantia [Earth] is your starting point. … (p. 1225) In God, man lives, moves, and has his being. (p. 22)

The Purpose of Life, There is in the mind of God a plan which embraces every creature of all his vast domains, and this plan is an eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited progress, and endless life. (p. 365) This new gospel of the kingdom… presents a new and exalted goal of destiny, a supreme life purpose. (p. 1778)

Jesus, The religion of Jesus is the most dynamic influence ever to activate the human race. (p. 1091) What an awakening the world would experience if it could only see Jesus as he really lived on earth and know, firsthand, his life-giving teachings! (p. 2083)

Science, Science, guided by wisdom, may become man’s great social liberator. (p. 909) Mortal man is not an evolutionary accident. There is a precise system, a universal law, which determines the unfolding of the planetary life plan on the spheres of space. (p. 560)

Life after Death, God’s love is universal… He is “not willing that any should perish.” (p. 39) Your short sojourn on Urantia [Earth]…is only a single link, the very first in the long chain that is to stretch across universes and through the eternal ages. (p. 435) …Death is only the beginning of an endless career of adventure, an everlasting life of anticipation, an eternal voyage of discovery. (p. 159)

About the Author

The text of The Urantia Book was provided by one or more anonymous contributors working with a small staff which provided editorial and administrative support during the book's creation. The book bears no particular credentials (from a human viewpoint), relying instead on the power and beauty of the writing itself to persuade the reader of its authenticity.

Leather Bound: 2097 pages
Publisher: Urantia Foundation; Box Lea edition (August 25, 2015)

The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation

The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation

From the Back Cover This collection of apocryphal texts supersedes the best-selling edition by M. R. James, which was originally published in 1924, and regularly reprinted. Several new texts have come to light since 1924 and the textual base for some of the apocrypha previously translated by James is now more secure, as in several cases there are recently published critical editions available. Although a modest appendix to James's edition was added in 1953, no thorough revision has previously been undertaken. In this volume, J. K. Elliott presents new translations of the texts and has provided each of them with a short introduction and bibliography directed to those who wish to pursue further the issues raised in the texts, or to consult the critical editions, other versions, or general studies. The translations are in modern English, in contrast to James's deliberate imitation of the language of the Authorized Version. The collection is designed to give readers the most important and famous of the Christian apocrypha, together with a select sample of gnostic texts. Full translations of the earliest texts are printed.

About the Author

J. K. Elliott (Editor)

Paperback: 774 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; First Paperback Edition edition (December 22, 2005)

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English

From Library Journal

This one-volume translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls joins those of Florentino Garcia Martinez (The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated, Eerdman's, 1996) and Michael Wise and others (The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation, LJ 12/96) and is the latest edition of The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, first published in 1962. In a 90-page introduction, Vermes (emeritus, Jewish studies, Wolfson Coll., Oxford) briefly summarizes the 50-year history of scrolls research. He presents an overview of the sectarian community associated with the scrolls (whom he identifies as the Essenes), its history, and its beliefs. Though dubbed "complete" (the preface explains that "meaningless scraps or badly damaged manuscript sections are not inflicted on the reader"), Vermes's translation is generally the most selective of the three. This sometimes saves the reader from the possible frustration of line upon line of brackets and ellipses, but it gives a limited idea of the extent of the textual material available. However, the translation is good and has stood as the standard for many years. As with Bibles, libraries should have more than one version of the Dead Sea Scrolls.?Craig W. Beard, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hardcover: 648 pages
Publisher: Allen Lane / The Penguin Press; 1st edition (July 1, 1997)

The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library)

The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library) The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library)

"Bentley Layton's "The Gnostic Scriptures is the one indispensable book for the understanding of Gnosis and Gnosticism. No other translations are within light-years of Layton's in eloquence, pathos, and accuracy, while no other commentaries match his as an introduction to this perpetually relevant religious stance. Layton is particularly brilliant in his appreciation of Valentinus, the central Gnostic visionary, whose "Gospel of Truth is marvelously served in this translation." --Harold Bloom, author of "The Book of J and "The Western Canon

"Bentley Layton's "The Gnostic Scriptures" is the one indispensable book for the understanding of Gnosis and Gnosticism. No other translations are within light-years of Layton's in eloquence, pathos, and accuracy, while no other commentaries match his as an introduction to this perpetually relevant religious stance. Layton is particularly brilliant in his appreciation of Valentinus, the central Gnostic visionary, whose "Gospel of Truth" is marvelously served in this translation." --Harold Bloom, author of "The Book of J" and "The Western Canon"

About the Author:

Bentley Layton was educated at Harvard University and taught for five years in Jerusalem at the Ecole biblique et archeologique francaise. He worked in Cairo with UNESCO Technical Subcommittee to reconstruct the Coptic Gnostic manuscripts of Nag Hammadi and then taught at Yale University, where he was appointed to the Goff Professorship of Religious Studies. He is the recipient of fellowships from American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Guggenheim Foundation and past President of the International Association of Coptic Studies.

Paperback: 337 pages
Publisher: Independently published (January 9, 2018)


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The Origin
Of
Our Belief In God

by Erik Langkjer

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    TABLE OF CONTENTS    


Part II: The Sun Hero

10. Jerusalem


J.Morgenstern[1] has shown the important structure in Tyre with an old transcendent god Saturn-Baalshamem and a young active god as theos epiphanês, the young god being closely connected with the sun and the sunrise. The old god is linked to the world mountain = the Saturn-pillar, the young god is linked to the split mountain = the two Heracles pillars. Morgenstern thinks that this structure has also influenced the cult on Mt Zion through the temple of Solomon built with the help of Hiram of Tyre. With its system of gates the temple was oriented towards the sunrise. At spring and autumn equinox the sun would rise and send its light through the gates, between the two copper pillars, Jakin and Boaz, into the Holy of Holies. It was seen as the coming of the Lord to his temple after a night of darkness and chaos, the victory of the Kabod, the Glory of the Lord.

But the kabod-ceremony was obviously already celebrated in the Tent in Silo, where Eli's daughter-in-law names her son Ikabod = "Where is kabod?" in her despair at the removal of the Ark as pointed out by T.N.D.Mettinger [2]. And the symbolism of the three pillars is also typical of the area of Midian and Seir, where Moses has his first encounter with God. So when it is told that the cult of Melqart in Tyre was reformed at the time of Solomon, it is obvious that the borrowing is the other way around: from Jerusalem to Tyre and not from Tyre to Jerusalem.

On the second evening of the feast of Tabernacles the leading men of Israel would gather in the temple-court of the women. They would dance with torches in their hands all night until sunrise. Some of them were excellent jugglers and could keep five torches flying through the air simultaneously. When dawn was approaching, two priest with silver-trumpets were standing ready at the top of the staircase leading to the inner courts, and with the first sight of the sun they would start blowing, moving down the stairs through the dancing crowd, out through the eastern gate to greet the coming of the glory of the Lord.

Now, it is obvious that the original meaning of the Yom Kippur ritual was to clean the temple, and especially the throne constituted by the two cherubs and the Ark of the Covenant as its footstool. The many sins of Israel are seen as dirt clinging to the sanctuary, and God has withdrawn to the transcendent world. But by the blood of the divine bull, the cherubs and the footstool are cleansed and prepared for the presence of the Lord coming on the second morning of the feast of Tabernacles.

"The blood poured out as forgiveness of sins" touches upon the same symbolism: the celebration of the Eucharist in the early church is a cultic cleansing followed by the epiphany of the Lord witnessed by the maranatha-call (a cultic cry with the meaning: "come Lord") and the hosianna-call (= "save") from Jesus´s coming as Lord to Jerusalem and the temple on Palm Sunday. Bjørn Sandvik [3] has proved that the "Eucharist is a celebration in advance of the escatological coming of the Judge" of the living and dead. In the ritual, Apost.Const.VII,26, the Hosianna-call is followed by the words: "God the Lord has become visible among us", cf. the prayer in the Acts of Thomas 50: "Come and partake with us in this Eucharist celebrated in your name" [4].

God has withdrawn to the transcendent world (Hos 5,15), he is hiding his countenance. Darkness rules the earth. But in the Kabod-ceremony he is coming with the bright glory of the dawn to make his solemn entrance into the temple through the primordial gate (Ps 24) to rule as Lord of the universe from the throne on his holy Mt Zion at the navel of cosmos. Then sounds the cultic call JHVH mlk "Jhvh is king":

"The Lord has shown he is king, he has set the universe into order (tikken - with the Greek trans.,Symm,Hier,Syr. trans.,Targ.), it will not be moved, with justice will he judge the nations…for he comes, he comes to judge the earth with justice", Ps 96,10.13. "For to his temple in an instant comes the Lord you seek, and the angel of the covenant", Mal 3,1."Listen, you shepherd of Israel…you that throne over the cherubs, break forth (hofia´ means to "shine forth" like the sun, and in the background is felt the idea of epiphany, acc. to S.Mowinckel,[5]) in glory before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manassa, wake up your hero-strength, come to salvation for us", Ps 80,2f.(Cf. with the Hosianna-call by the entrance of Jesus into the temple through the Golden Gate, the eastern gate to the temple-area close to Kedron and the Mount of Olives). All these calls, "break forth", "wake up", "come" are calling for divine epiphany in the glory of the rising sun.

To this tradition of epiphany must also be counted the "fullness" Ez 43,5; "the filling up" of the locality with the symbols of divine presence, the smoke of incense, glory, or roaring sound. The presence of the Spirit Ez 43,5. The falling on one´s face, but being raised up to standing before the throne of God 43,3+5 cf. 3,23f. Mettinger [6] mentions as "aspects of a theophanic ritual": incense, Shofar signals, the proclamation of the Jhvh-name, the jubilation of the cult-community (teru´a).

Characteristic of the New Testament Christology is, that this Old Testament theophanic tradition and divine enthronement ritual is transferred to Jesus. The disciples beheld his Glory, he comes to the temple from the east across the Mount of Olives, he identifies with the shecinah =the divine presence in the temple, Matt 23,37ff., Luke 13,34f. And therefore his death and resurrection can be compared with the destruction and rebuilding of the temple, Mark 14,58; 15,29. He has got the power to be judge over all living and dead, Matt 25,31ff, a role up till then exclusively played by God[7]. He has risen high above all heavens to fill the All with his Glory (Eph 4,10 with a clear echo of Is 6,3).

Dan 7 with the description of the "coming of one looking like a Son of Man with the clouds" is a description of apotheosis, and must be compared with other descriptions of how the prophet Ezekiel and other prophets are ascending to the heavenly sphere to the council of God (Hebrew:sod, cf. the thrones erected Dan. 7,9) Jer 23,18.22; Amos 3,7 as proved by H.Gese[8]. In this connection Ezekiel is spoken to as "Son of Man" by the heavenly creatures. Compare this with the same way of addressing a prophet in Dan 8,17. He is mere "man" stepping into the circle of angels.

"Three days" is the time it takes to travel through the realm of death, the time Jesus has to stay in Sheol, but it can also be used about his travel toteleiosis, a journey during which he has to act as the sun hero clearing the road of demons, Luke 13,32f and accompanied by the Dioscouric pair, the "Sons of Thunder"(J.Rendel Harris, Boanerges, 1913), later together with Peter called the three "pillars". In Ugarit 3 days are the time it takes the rephaim to travel from the realm of death to the land of the living. In Hos 6,1-3 there are two days of hard tribulations until the third day: "On the third day he will raise us up, so we can live before his countenance". In the background the journey of the sun warriors through struggles and labours to erection before the throne of the highgod in paradise (with its earthly reflection on Mt. Zion).

Now it is important to understand that Matt 16,17-17,9 finds its explanation on the background of the Yom Kippur-day (10th of Tishri) and the following feast of Tabernacles (15-22nd of T.,"6 days later", Matt 17,1). Motifs from this feast are


a) ´even shetiyyah, the "corner-stone", the stone in the centre of the world, standing firm against the attacks of chaos. For its role during Yom Kippur, see Mishna Yoma 5,2.

b) Peter gets the power to forgive sins. Israel´s sins are forgiven at Yom Kippur.

c) Jesus is the sacrifice making atonement, Matt 16,21,cf. Marc 8,31, where the word "rejected" used about the cornerstone, Ps 118,22; Matt 21,42 is also used about Jesus.

d) Jesus shining as the sun. The coming of the Glory of the Lord on the second morning of the feast of Tabernacles/huts, cf. Peter's wish to build huts.

e) The illuminated cloud. The cloud of incense filling the sanctuary hiding God´s presence, Is 6,4.

f) As with the theophanic scenes in the O.T. the disciples fall to the ground, but are raised up.

g) God has eudokia ("well-pleasing") in the Son. Mostly this word is used about God choosing Zion as his abode.


The cleansing of the temple at Yom Kippur is a total renewal. The temple is seen as ruined by the powers of chaos, but is created anew from the ´even shetiyya. This symbolism of the "corner stone" is also touched upon in Zech 3,9 and 4,7b-10: it bears the seven eyes of God, that is, it is animago of the world mountain =the heavenly vault with the seven wandering lights (the planets), and inscribed by God with the destiny of the people: "On a single day (Yom Kippur) will he wipe out the guilt of Israel". It is, like Peter, the corner stone for a new temple, and is laid down by Zerubbabel, who is painted in the colours of a sun hero: standing face to face with the primordial massive rock, he will turn it into a smooth road, 4,7a.

The cleansing of the temple is to Jesus both a most concrete task, Matt 21,12ff and a total rebuilding, John 2,19.

His sacrifice is for the cleansing of the spiritual temple he is going to build from human hearts. H.Sahlin[9] has rightly stressed that Acts 2, with the "roaring" and the "filling" of the house and the fiery phenomena, has to be understood on the background of the theophanic tradition from the O.T.:

            "the train of his cloak filled the whole temple", Is 6,1

"and the house was filled with smoke", Is 6,4

"The Glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle", Exod 40,34f

"the cloud filled the house of the Lord", 1.Kings 8,10

"the cloud filled the inner courtyard… and the roaring of the wings of the cherubs was heard", Ez 10,3-5.


When Paul speaks about the pleroma, "it pleased God to let the whole fullness take up its abode" (the word used about God´s "pleasing" is, as in Matt 17, eudokia) Col 1,19, this has to be seen on the same background and not on the background of Stoic and Gnostic thinking as J.Ernst (Pleroma und Pleroma Christi,1970) thinks. The normal translation of the Hebrew Qedushah (=Trishagion): "Holy,holy,holy…All the world is full of his glory" Is 6,3, is wrong. The Hebrew text does not have adj. male´, but nomen, melo´, "fullness". This is the explanation of the Greek word, pleroma, "all the world is fullness of his glory".

Acts 2 has the elements, theophany and giving of the Spirit. Ez. 1-3 has the elements, theophany, giving of the Spirit, and raising up in the presence of the Lord.

Modern studies have underlined the great importance of the Council of God in O.T. (F.M.Cross, "The Council of Yahweh in Second Isaiah",JNES 12,1953,pp.274-8. R.E.Brown, "The Pre-Christian Semitic Concept of Mystery", CBQ 20,1958,pp.417-20. H.W.Robinson, "The Council of Yahweh", JTS 45, 1944, pp.151-7). The prophets had access to this higher sphere as a source of information, the false prophets had not stood in Jahveh´s council (Jer 23,18.22). This council is the circle of the sons of God.

In a temple niche in Hazor dating from the late Bronze Age Y.Yadin found a slightly curved row of ten stelai, and a sitting god with a drinking vessel in his hand and a moon sickle on his breast. On one of the stelai was the relief of two hands stretched up towards the primordial mystical light (the unity of sun, moon, and star). G.W.Ahlström ("Heaven onEarth - At Hazor and Arad",[10]) has interpreted this as the earthly symbol of "the assembly of the gods", a well known phrase from the Ugarit texts (phr (bn)ilm cf. the Accadian puhur ilânî). They are the O.T. "the sons of God" and "the assembly (qahal) of the holy", "the council of God", "the sons of the Most High", "all those standing around Him".

In the Qumran community there was already in this life a "present participation in angelic life" [11] on the high plains of the paradise: "And you shall be an angel of countenance in the sanctuary"(I QSb 4,24-26), "an abode for the Glory (kabod) of his kingdom" (4 Q 510,1,3-4).

When the Glory arrives and takes up its abode in the sanctuary the believer is raised up as an angel standing before the face of God. But perhaps already the 70 elderly picked out by Moses are seen as an earthly manifestation of the council of God, Num 11,24ff.:

a) Theophany - the Lord comes, veiled in the cloud.

b) The elderly are arranged standing in a circle around the tent. Note the word sebibot, cf the phrase kol sebibin "all those standing around (God)".

c) God lets the Spirit fall upon them, and they all experience prophetic rapture.


The belief in eternal life is not a borrowing from Iran, but a genuine Semitic development. The only place where there is eternal life is in the presence of God, on his mountain, standing before his countenance.

When one reads the Mandaean Canonical Prayerbook, it is seen at once that the purpose of the baptism is to make the candidate standing firm in eternity, "like a stone pillar in the storm" [12]. Adam-Juhana [13]"was signed with a great seal and set up for ever and ever". As in early Christianity "sealing" is closely linked to this firmatio, this setting up as firm and standing: "secure, seal and guard the soul of N. and establish it"[14]. An important role is played by the shkinta, the hut of green vegetation, where the saved one is set up and made firm in eternity: "Between mountains twain … a shkinta did Yawar found, and chosen righteous were established therein"[15]. The hut is built on the twin mountain of paradise, also called the mountains full of sweet smell[16]. "Life" is the name of the highest god in some Mandaean texts, like sol invictus in the classical Syrian religion, "Life" is hailed as victorious: "Life is renowned and victorious, and victorious the man who went hence"[17]. "thou wast victorious, Manda-d-Hiia, and thou leadest all thy friends to victory"[18]. The victory is the same as in Rev 2-3, a victory over the earthly labours and struggles of life: "Thou hast proven thyself by (thy sojourn on?) earth, and thy destiny leapt upwards from its struggles" [19]. "In my Father's Glory I stand" (qajjam – also used as the Mandaean word for baptism). In baptism you are set up in the presence of the god of Life as one of his sons. 

The rite of raising up/making firm is also known in gnosticism where it is referred to as (in Greek) stêrizô, and in early Christianity it hides behind confirmatio. Epiphanius is amused at the Manichaeans with the following words: "Silly is also the teaching of the Manichaeans, that the souls, that is to say, the manes (Latin for the spirits), all sprung from a pillar of light, form a unity, and that they, when separated from the body, are formed back to this single substance, this same pillar." (Anchor. 48).

The background of this strange belief is the world pillar and the old belief that the sun hero by following the course of the sun, finally comes to Saturn, Kvn, the "Firmly Grounded". The Greek word kiôn = pillar must be a Semitic loanword. In the Syrian language the word for baptism is derived from the word for pillar and must be translated "to raise up and make firm" (´md)[20]. From the Qumran texts: "on a place of standing, thou hast set me" (fragm. transl. by Holm Nielsen, Hodayoth[21]). The morning and evening prayers of the Essenes/Therapeutes are found in Philo of Alexandria, de cont. vit. 27: in the morning they would pray that the sunrise would "fill them" (cf. above what we have said about the fullness of the Glory filling the earth, and God´s presence filling the temple). In the evening they would pray that the soul "may reach its own synedrium and council" (the council of sons of God surrounding his throne). After the nightly ritual of Exodus they were  "set up together with (systathéntes) the Father and Creator of all things", ibd. 90.



10.a. The visions of Zechariah


The first vision is a vision closely linked to the sunset in the deep abyss in the west and the fiery red, white, dark, and brown clouds surrounding it. The "myrtle" (1,8) is the herb of life growing where the sun enters the realm of death. The last vision is a vision of sunrise above the twin peaks in the east: the copper mountains are the world mountain split into two to allow the sun to rise, 6,1.

Most of the visions have the Zion-ideology as their background: Mt Zion is the firm rock in the centre of the universe. The four horns beaten with the axe are the attack of the nations from the four corners of the world on the holy mountain of God, a motif quite often met with in the Psalms, 2,1-4. The next vision 2,5-17 describes how the people pour into Jerusalem to seek the protection and blessing of the holy mountain. For that purpose the measurements of the holy city are greatly increased until it is like open land. Then the Lord "will come and take up his abode in their midst" 2,14. He has "again chosen Jerusalem" as his dwelling place 2,15. 

Important is the hierogamic formula: "Be jubilant and rejoice, daughter of Zion, for look, I come" 2,14, cf. 9,9; Is 62,11; Zeph 3,14; Is 12,6 - obviously a formula from some lost ritual. Is 12,6 seems closely linked to the making of the beaten track of the sun. In Zech 4,7 this motif the beaten track/ the road made even/the passage for the sun returns as the mighty mountain is made into a plain for Zerubbabel.

But to these visions of a "Zion-mystery" of the coming of the Lord to his holy mountain is linked a priestly initiation, which, in some aspects, is a forerunner of the early Christian baptismal ritual. "The Lord shall threaten you, Satan" (3,2) cf. in the credo the renunciation of the devil. Then thedevestio, the taking off of the old shabby clothes, followed by an investio in clean clothes as a symbol of the guilt taken away (cf. the white baptismalalba). The short instruction mentioning "the paths of the Lord" could be compared with the baptismal instruction about the "two roads", Didakê 1,1. Finally the high priest is "one of those standing here" on the holy Mt. Zion, 3,7 - that is, the angels standing before God.

Now, the purpose of both Mandaean and early Christian baptism is to make the candidate "a standing one". An old Jewish tradition says that at the anointing the kings were signed by a circle, O, the priests with an X, cf the early Christian "sealing" with the cross. It seems likely that baptism is a democratization of a priestly initiation. During a visit in Uppsala prof. E.Segelberg kindly offered me his important article, "Evangelium Veritatis - a confirmation homily and its relation to the Odes of Solomon", [22]The Gospel of Truth found among the Nag Hammadi scriptures could very well be a translation of the gospel written by the early gnostic, Valentine. Segelberg finds the following traces of early ritual in the text:

Conversio et exorcismus (33,19-21)

devestio et investio (20,30-37)

unctio et insufflatio (30,34)

confirmatio (19,30) et erectio (30,19-23)


Gnosticism is a typically spiritualistic sect: the forgiveness of sins has totally disappeared behind the mystery of how to achieve divine nature: eternal standing. "It placed him upon his feet, because he had not yet risen" (erectio). "For when they had been confirmed (raised up) they learned to contemplate", cf from the Odes of Solomon, the earliest Christian hymn book (2nd cent.A.C.): "and (the Spirit) raised me on high: and made me to stand on my feet in the high place of the Lord. Before his perfection and his glory"(36,1f., transl. by Segelberg).



10.b. Conclusions


Early in this book we came across an Ugarit text describing a nocturnal ritual with 7 sacrifices and a bird. We have seen that the journey to the transcendent world is a journey in seven stages, and we have seen the semeion-pole with seven discs and at the top the bird of ecstasy. Now this journey to the mountain of El can also be seen as a journey in the course of the sun. In a nightly officium the believer is seen as travelling with the sun through darkness and death to the standing on the mountain of God. This is the background of the through-death-to-life motifs in the Psalms.

In Syrian and Babylonian cosmology Saturn is seen as the sun of the night. Saturn, the world pillar, is the end of the sun´s journey. (The reason for this must be speculations about the most active and the most static of the wandering lights of heaven.) The end of the journey is "standing firmly grounded" on the eternal rock as the obelisk, the miniature of the world pillar.

In the Christian use of the standing-symbolism it is not so much the picture of standing stones, but angels standing before God we have to call to mind.

In Ps 121 the pilgrimage up to Jerusalem is described as a climbing of high mountains. The right interpretation of the psalm is put forward by P.H.Pollock[23]: the dangers of mountain climbing are that the foot can stumble or slip, that one is exposed to the burning of the sun on the rocks (and the pale shine of the moon making people into lunatics). The psalm is asking God for help in the mountain climbing. It is no mere coincidence that this psalm stands as the introduction to the psalms of pilgrimage. The pilgrimage is an ascension to the top of God's holy mountain, and the goal is linked to eternity by the last verse: eternal life is linked to the singer´s going in and out of the gates and forecourts. The journey to Jerusalem is a spiritual journey to paradise, and God´s caring for the pilgrim in his ascent grows to eternal preservation on all roads in life and death.

The most typical feature of the temple of Resheph in Byblos was the many upright stones in the temple yard. We know from Philo that Resheph was identified with the planet Saturn/Cronos, in West Semitic called Kvn = "firmly established", "standing firmly", probably an old name for the world pillar, for in Greek we find the namekion for a column.

That Resheph is the world pillar separating heaven and earth is also seen from the fact that a renewed victory over Uranos is won after El Cronos has ruled for 32 years. The Sed-festival in Egypt was celebrated by Pharaoh after 32 years' reign by putting up the Djed-pillar = the world column. And Resheph-El Cronos was often pictured with the two Hercules-pillars in his hands or with the sickle-sword, the weapon that separates heaven and earth, the weapon also used by Zeus-Sandan when he attacked Typhon, the monster which is the symbol of primordial totality.

G.Widengren has compared the earliest Christian baptismal ritual and the Mandaean baptismal ritual, both ending with the uprising of the baptismal candidate to eternal standing before the countenance of God, with a a)Sumerian ritual ending with the erection of a statue of the initiated among the gods of the temple and with b) the description of Apuleius of Lucius standing on a platform and hailed as and dressed like the sun after his nocturnal journey in the path of the sun[24].

The background of all these ideas is a very old myth about the journey in the sun´s path to eternity at the top of the unshakable world-mountain at the top of the vault of heaven. El Cronos with his double pair of wings is the one leading the gods (planets) in this flight (acc. to Philo), cf. the description in Plato´s Phaidros. But also Baal is carried by the sun to the "grave of the gods" inside the cosmic Saphon mountain, where he finally erects his throne, also the "gods", ílnim, are mentioned at the end of the Baal-epos as gathered round the sun. They are the deceased following the sun in its path.



10.c. Jakin & Boaz


The stele is a model of the cosmic mountain. On the North African Saturn-stele, Saturn is seen resting at the top; the "second floor" are the two Hercules columns and the "first floor"/ the base shows the sacrificial bull, the symbol of primordial totality.

We have tried to trace the Near Eastern folk religion. Folk religion is not so much a religion in opposition to the official religion as a certain structure of thinking, determining the plot in both myth and fairy tale, making the highgod split up in a young and an old god and his opponents taking the head or the hide of a lion on their shoulders; and again and again folk religion paints the picture of the mystical, immovable mountain of god and the journey to it.

Saturn/Baalshamem and Melqart in Tyre are the sungod split up in his static and active aspect. Actually, the same can be seen in the God of Jerusalem. His numen as mountain is split up in Jakin and Boaz, the two pillars forming the gate of the sun, where Ja-kin is the kvn-aspect, and Bo-´az must be seen in connection with the sun hero, the morning star, in the Nabataean-North Arabian area called ´Azizu = "the strong one".

In Ugarit we meet them as the two mountains at the edge of the world, Targhuzaz and Sharrumag, acc to de Moor[25]  after the two Anatolian gods,  Tarkun(zai) and Sharruma, in our opinion the sun hero and the demon god.

Already in Anatolia there is a tendency to see the two pillars as contrasting symbols of the high god and the sun hero, as seen by A.B.Cook (Zeus, II, p.492, fig.381). From Salonina in Lycia, from the time of emperor Caracalla there are coins showing two wooden pillars, one dedicated to Zeus (bull and thunder weapon), the other to Heracles (with club and lion). Mostly the pillar of Heracles is bigger than that of Zeus:



On the top of the pillars at the temple were metal works in the form of a lily (1.Kings 7,21). The world pillar ending in a mystical flower is typical of the cult in Baalbeck, as we have seen. The seven chains hanging from the capitals, 1. Kings 7,17 are also well known decorations, as can be seen from a picture of the omphalos-stone of Apollo (Cook II, p. 171, fig.117. Amphora from Ruvo. Baumeister, Denkmähler II, 1009f., fig.1215).

Morgenstern has stood alone with his interpretation of the meaning of the cult of pillars in Tyre. But the reason could be that scholars have not yet discovered what immense diffusion the symbolism of the two pillars has as the symbol of duality, the gate of the sun. Also at the great temple in Mabbug were two enormous pillars, acc to tradition set up by Dionysos when travelling to the land of the Ethiopians (Lucian, de dea) and in Edessa. (See below the two enormous free-standing columns.). In Antioch, Tiberius put up two great stelai for Zethos and Amphion (John Malala X, p.160). On Mesopotamian seals they can be placed on one of the platforms of the ziggurat with the mystical 8-petalled flower or star at the top.[26]. Or Gilgamesh is seen erecting the gate in the primordial sea with the highgod Ea as the spender of the moisture of life in the background[27].



The symbol of the Germanic Dioscuri were two rods: they were called Raos and Raptos ="reed" & "raft"[28]. Naturally these motifs are also found among the Mandaeans: "Adatan and Jadatan sitting by the gate of Life." The Paronomasia marks them out as the primordial twins. The world pillar = the pillar of fire: the light-ether (Ayar-Rba) is called "Rod of upstanding…by which the whole edifice is held together" (Drower, Canonical Prayerbook, p.175). The new-born sun hero is called ´Usfar, "the little child who dwelleth upon pure springs of light", "Any demon... will be thrashed by ´Usfar... beaten with the mace of water by which fire was beaten out and extinguished; and by the strength of Mân, the healer" (pp.11f.). ´Usfar is a "cutting instrument" crushing the demons, acc. to Drower. Note the water-against-fire symbolism.

These rather late examples are to my mind, the best proof of how widespread these motifs were in the thinking of the Middle East and how profoundly they influenced the very structure of religious thinking.

The many Saturn-stelai from North Africa show the symbols of Phoenician religion. On many of them the deceased is seen standing in a gate, the gate of the sun. Now the big and rather exciting question is: With the orientation of the temple of Jerusalem, with Jakin and Boaz forming the gate of the sun, is there also a symbolism of apotheosis tied to the gate of the sun on Zion?

There is actually such a gate, the Nicanor-gate (Nicanor = "the victorious") made of highly polished Corinthian bronze, the Eastern gate to the temple area much bigger than the many other gates.

Nicanor is perhaps a historical person. An ossuar is found on Mt Scopus carrying an inscription: "The bones of Nicanor from Alexandria, who made the doors" (See the note in Der Toseftatraktat Jom hak-Kippurim, ed. Göran Larsson, 1980, p.156n63.) The Nicanor-gate was the great gate on top of the 15 semicircular steps leading from the court of the women to the court of the men and the priests. Acc. to tradition the Psalms 120-134 were sung on the 15 steps. They speak about an ascension beginning far from Jerusalem in tribulations: the singer is a stranger among unfriendly people. But he lifts his eyes to the holy mountains of God and finally he is among the priests in the tempel receiving eternal blessing. One may assume that the eating from the showbreads in the presence of God is a kind of apotheosis. And this was the privilege of the priest. Cf. the Eastern gate of the temple, Ez 44,3 where only the king of Israel may sit and eat in the presence of the Lord.

Julian Morgenstern ("The Gates of Righteousness", HUCA 6,1929,pp.1ff.) thinks that it is possible to follow an ancient gate-ritual back to the "Gate of Justice", Ps 118, and the "Gate of Eternity", Ps 24,3ff.

During the rule of the crusaders the "Golden Gate" was opened twice a year on Palm Sunday and Exaltatio Crucis (the 14th of September) to give room to a procession into the old temple-area. Acc. to Morgenstern this is the last trace of an old ritual, a procession around spring and autumn equinox. Not only the procession, but also the Glory (Hebrew: kabod) of the Lord comes through the gate at sunrise to be enthroned on the throne of cherubim in the dark back-room of the Hecal ("Throne-room") to reign as king of the universe. In late Jewish tradition the "Presence" (Shecinah) of the Lord went into exile through this gate. Acc. to Josephus, de bello jud. VI,5,3, shortly before the Jewish war broke out on the 8th of Xantikos (Nisan) this gate opened itself at midnight although it normally took 20 men to open it, and it was kept closed with bolts of iron.


Of special importance is the research of M.Ravndal Hauge ("Some Aspects of the Motif:  the City facing Death" of Ps 68,21, SJOT, 1988, pp.1-29). On several occasions in the Old Testament an "I" goes from death to life, from the valleys at the bottom of Mt.Zion to the city walls in a procession, Ps 118, and this motif is felt through the story in Is 26,1-27,1 & the sickness of king Ezekiya Is 38/2.Kings 20. The king's sickness leads him to the gate of the realm of death (38,10), but he gets a promise of healing, and "on the third day he will ascend to the temple of Yhvh". Both versions stress this ascension as "the relevant ending of a story, starting in the deathbed" (Hauge, p.27). The king is pictured as the "just one" going in through the gates (Ps 118,20) belonging to Jhvh, cf. Is 26,2: "Open the gates, that the just nation can enter, the nation who keeps itself faithful". "Trust in Yhvh in eternity, for by Jah-Yhvh is a rock of eternity". He prepares an even road for the just (v.7). (The sun's road made even for the sun hero to run his course) The opposite of the temple rock is "the low places with carcasses and ashes of fat" Jer 31,40,cf. Ps 68,14 "heaps of ashes". In Is 29,4 the city of Jerusalem is calling to God from the ashes, and it is saved. Some scholars think that the child sacrifice to Molok was an early JHVH-cult, but J.A.Montgomery[29] has shown that Zion is the Paradise mountain, and the valley of Hinnom, where the child sacrifice took place, is Sheol (the home of the dead spirits, cf. the Refaim-valley, Jos 15,8.). Acc to the old Near Eastern world view, the Paradise mountain has at its foot the entrance to the underworld. The top of Mt. Zion is the place of life, survival and the place of God, the valley of the "spirits" is the place of ashes, dung heaps, Satan and death.

The final goal of the procession of the festivals of Sukkoth was the high towering pyramid of the holocaust altar. Today the Omar mosque is built over the socalled Eben Shetiyya, "the foundation- stone of the earth". It is today the only part of the mountain seen above the esplanade built as the big platform for Herod's temple. What part of the old temple complex did this stone support? It is obviously not the Holy of holies. It must have been situated farther west close to the western edge of the esplanade. Of course it must have been some important part of the temple: the holocaust altar. At the old top of Mt Moria Abraham presented the "tied up" Isaac (in Hebrew called the ´akedah). Every sacrifice on this holy spot would call this act to God's remembrance.

The brazen altar was a stepped pyramid, the front of which measured 16 yards for the lower step, 14 for middle step, and 12 for the upper, the whole structure resting on a platform called heq ha ´ars ("bosom of the earth"). Today the only remnant is the naked rock seen in the Omar mosque. It is possible to descend into a cave just under the ´eben shetijja. The man descending into the rock itself becomes one with the ´eben shetijja, "the corner stone" of cosmos, Ps 118,22.

Every day during the Sukkot-festival the people would circle round the altar saying: "Oh Jhvh Help!" Acc. to rabbi Jehudah they called out: "Ani wehu, Help!"(Mishna Sukka IV,5). Ani wehu had the same arithmetical value as Oh Jhvh, and it had the meaning: "I and He", and was a formula expressing an intimate relationship between God and his people. G.Klein[30], thinks that it is a mystical formula, and he compares it with the bridal mysticism of the Gnostic Marcos, who would say to the women he initiated: "Prepare to receive me as the bride receives the groom, that you may be me, and I you". In the Gospel of Eve referred to by Epiphanios a man tells about a vision: he saw a small and a tall man (micro- & macro-anthropos) saying: "I am you, and you are I, I you, you I and everywhere I am sown, and when you collect me, you collect yourself". In Pistis Sophia Jesus says: "I am them and they are me" (C.Schmidt's transl.1905, p.148). The Jewish formula Ani weHu is the Jewish parallel to the Hindu: Tat twam asi. O.Weinrich has treated this Hindu "formula of identity" and its parallels[31]. The Jewish formula has its origin in the hierogamic atmosphere of the Sukkot-festival, cf. Cant 6,3: "I am my friend's, and my friend is mine". This "mystical formula of identity" is already used by Simon Magus in Apophasis Megale: "I and you one" (ap. Hippolytos). The characteristic unity of motifs a) the formula of identity ("I in you and you in me"), b) divine love, c) revelation of the divine name and d) God taking up his abode in the believer found in John 14,20-23 & 17,21-26 is Jewish Shekinah-symbolism with its origin in the theophanic tradition linked with the Sukkoth-festival. The temple itself is the Sukkah (originally the bridal hut) of God built on the Paradise mountain. To this hut God comes in the sunrise on the second morning of the Sukkoth-festival to take up his abode on Zion. On the second evening people would gather to dance in the women's temple court.

When the tourist comes to Jerusalem, he is shown the empty tomb of Jesus, the room for the Last Supper, the church built over the site of the house of the High Priest, Caiphas, where Peter wept at the crowing of the cock, but it is impossible to estimate the historical validity of these traditions. They are a universe created by faith and religion. A help for the fragile human mind in  its effort to go back and visualize and feel; a door opening up to something great, divine and incomprehensible, turning Mt. Zion into a sacred mountain.

Urim and Tummim are the two "tablets of destiny". As the Mesopotamian god Marduc carries the "tablets of destiny" on his chest, so are these two items determining destiny worn as part of the official garment of the high priest[32]. Uri is the call at dawn, Tummim means "those who have perfection" at the end of the sun´s journey, "those who have completed" their journey. U. & T. are the symbols of polarity, of East and West, of dawn and sunset, a new version of two stelai inscribed with the world's destiny.


[1] "The King-God…", V.T. X,1960

[2] The Dethronement of Sabaoth, p.121

[3] Das Kommen des Herrn beim Abendmahl im Neuen Testament,1970,p.36;cf.p.50.

[4] Sandvik, pp.47;27.

[5] Bemerkninger til Salmene,1962,p.219.

[6] Dethronement, p.120

[7] P.Bilde, "Gud og Messsias som eskatologisk dommer", DTT 1977,pp.159-80.

[8] "Die Weisheit, der Menschensohn und die Christologie", SEÅ,1979, 44, p.95.

[9] "Pingstberättelsens teologiska Innebörd", STKv,1949,p.187.

[10] in: Religious Syncretism in Antiquity. Essays in Conversation with G.Widengren, ed. B.Pearson, 1975, pp.67-83.

[11] H.W.Kuhn, Enderwartung und Gegenwärtiges Heil, 1966.

[12] Drower´s transl., 1959, p.134.

[13] ibd. p.276.

[14] p.10.

[15] p.126.

[16] p.135.

[17] pp.137, 179, 181, 194, 196, etc.

[18] p.117.

[19] p.95.

[20] C-M. Edsman, Le Baptême de Feu,1940, pp.172ff.

[21] 1960, pp.259f.

[22] Orientalia Suecana,8, 1959.

[23] "Psalm 121",JBL 59,1940,pp.411f.

[24] "Heavenly Enthronement and Baptism", in: Religion in Antiquity. Essays in memory of E.Goodenough, ed. J.Neusner, 1968,pp.551-82

[25] An Anthology, p.66n303.

[26] A.Parrot, La tour de Babel. 2.ed., 1954, p.19

[27] Amiet, RA 50, 1956, fig.5

[28] J.Loewenthal, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Lit. 45, 1920-21, pp.248f.

[29] "The holy City and Gehenna", JBL 27,1908.

[30] Den första Kristna Katekesen, 1908, pp.59-64.

[31] "Gnosticism and Hellenistic Magic", ARW 19, 1916-19, pp.165ff.

[32] G.Widengren, Religionsphänomenologie, pp.329f.; 382


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Disclaimer:
Some material presented will contain links, quotes, ideologies, etc., the contents of which should be understood to first, in their whole, reflect the views or opinions of their editors, and second, are used in my personal research as "fair use" sources only, and not espousement one way or the other. Researching for 'truth' leads one all over the place...a piece here, a piece there. As a researcher, I hunt, gather and disassemble resources, trying to put all the pieces into a coherent and logical whole. I encourage you to do the same. And please remember, these pages are only my effort to collect all the pieces I can find and see if they properly fit into the 'reality aggregate'.

Personal Position

Personal Position:
I've come to realize that 'truth' boils down to what we 'believe' the facts we've gathered point to. We only 'know' what we've 'experienced' firsthand. Everything else - what we read, what we watch, what we hear - is what someone else's gathered facts point to and 'they' 'believe' is 'truth', so that 'truth' seems to change in direct proportion to newly gathered facts divided by applied plausibility. Though I believe there is 'truth', until someone representing the celestial realm visibly appears and presents the heavenly records of Facts And Lies In The Order They Happened, I can't know for sure exactly what "the whole truth' on any given subject is, and what applies to me applies to everyone. Until then I'll continue to ask, "what does The Urantia Book say on the subject?"
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The Oxford Study Bible: Revised English Bible with Apocrypha
The Oxford Study Bible: Revised English Bible with Apocrypha The Oxford Study Bible: Revised English Bible with Apocrypha

This volume combines a cultural guide to the biblical world and an annotated Bible. Its notes feature the reflections of Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish scholars.

  • Twenty-three insightful articles on aspects of the history, literary background, and culture of the biblical era.
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Paperback: 1860 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (March 12, 1992)

Nave's Topical Bible: A comprehensive Digest of over 20,000 Topics and Subtopics With More Than 10,000 Associated Scripture References

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"Nave's Topical Bible, " the best known of all topical bibles, has been a valuable Bible-study reference and a best-seller for more than 75 years. It is a comprehensive digest of over 20,000 topics and subtopics with more than 100,000 associated Scripture references. The most significant references for each topic actually include the full text of the verse cited saving the need to separately look up each verse.

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For the pastor or teacher interested in saving hours of time but not willing to give their second best, and for anyone wanting to be challenged by what God has to say about a given subject, "Nave's Topical Bible" is the passport that will allow immediate and successful entry to the many points of interest."

About the Author

Orville J. Nave, A.M., D.D., LL.D., compiled this magnificient reference work while serving as a Chaplain in the United States Army. He referred to his work as "the result of fourteen years of delightful and untiring study of the Word of God."

Hardcover: 1616 pages
Publisher: Hendrickson Pub (July 1, 2002)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (Super Value Series)

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Read the best of Matthew Henry's classic commentary on the Bible in one convenient book. Henry's profound spiritual insights have touched lives for over 300 years. Indexed maps and charts make this a book any pastor, student, Bible teacher, or devotional reader will treasure!

About the Author

Matthew Henry (1662-1714) was a Presbyterian minister in England who began his commentary on the Bible in 1704. He completed his work up to the end of Acts before his death. Afterward, his ministerial friends completed the work from Henry's notes and writings.

Series: Super Value Series
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Strongest Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
Strongest Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Strongest Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible

Like a redwood that towers above all other trees, The Strongest Strong’s takes James Strong’s classic concordance to unprecedented heights. Reflecting thousands of research hours, custom computer technology, and an exclusive database perfected over twenty years, The Strongest Strong’s is packed with features that make it the last word in accuracy and usefulness. No other Strong’s concordance can touch it. This is no mere study tool. Destined to become a foundational resource for Bible study the world over, The Strongest Strong’s is a landmark in biblical reference works.

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Kohlenberger and Swanson have also added the Nave’s Topical Bible Reference System―the world’s most complete topical Bible, updated, expanded, and streamlined to meet the needs of today’s Bible user. No other edition of Strong’s or Nave’s gives you all the information combined in The Strongest Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.

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In order to experience all the advantages of The Strongest Strong’s, you’ll have to look inside. But here is a thumbnail sketch of what awaits you:

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  • Nave’s Topical Bible Reference System supplies the complete descriptive content and references (without the Bible text) of Nave’s Topical Bible, expanded to provide a total of more than 100,000 verses indexed by subject, word, phrase, synonym, and example
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  • Major Social Concerns of the Mosaic Covenant
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Hardcover: 1742 pages
Publisher: Zondervan; Supesaver ed. edition (September 1, 2001)

Zondervan Pictorial Encylopedia of the Bible, Vols. 1-5
Zondervan Pictorial Encylopedia of the Bible, Vols. 1-5 The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (5 Volume Set)

From the Back Cover

The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, the result of more than ten years of research and preparation, provides Bible students with a comprehensive and reliable library of information. Varying viewpoints of scholarship permit a well-rounded perspective on significant issues relating to doctrines, themes, and biblical interpretation. Well-organized and generously illustrated, this encyclopedia will become a frequently used resource and reference work because of its many helpful features: - More than 5,000 pages of vital information of Bible lands and people - More than 7,500 articles alphabetically arranged for easy reference - Hundreds of full-color and black-and-white illustrations, charts, and graphs - Thirty-two pages of full-color maps and hundreds of black-and-white outline maps for quick perspective and ready reference - Scholarly articles ranging across the entire spectrum of theological and biblical topics, backed by recent archaeological discoveries - Two hundred and thirty-eight contributors from around the world. The editors have brought to this encyclopedia the fruit of many years of study and research.

About the Author

Merrill C. Tenney was professor of theological studies and dean of the Graduate school of Theology at Wheaton College.

Hardcover: 5 volume set More than 5,000 pages
Publisher: Zondervan Publishing House; Second Printing edition (March 15, 1975)

HarperColins Bible Dictionary
HarperColins Bible Dictionary HarperCollins Bible Dictionary

The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary puts the latest and most comprehensive biblical scholarship at your fingertips. Here is everything you need to know to fully understand the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament. An unparalleled resource, The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary explains every aspect of the Bible, including biblical archaeology, culture, related writings such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Bible‘s influence on Western civilization, biblical history, theological concepts, modern biblical interpretations, flora nad fauna, climate and environment, crafts and industry, the content of individual books of the bible, and more.

The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary features:

  • Contributions by 193 noted experts on the Bible and the ancient Near East
  • More than 3700 entries covering the Bible from A to Z
  • Outlines for each book of the Bible
  • 590 black–and–white photographs
  • 53 color photographs
  • An updated pronunciation guide
  • 72 black–and–white maps
  • 18 color maps
  • Dozens of drawings, diagrams, and tables

About the Author

Paul J. Achtemeier is Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. A widely respected authority on the Bible, he is the author or co-author of 14 books, former editor of the quarterly Interpretation, and New Testament editor of the Interpretation Biblical Commentary Series. Professor Achtemeier has also been chief executive officer and president of the Society of Biblical Literature, and president of the Catholic Biblical Association.

The Editorial Board of the revised edition of The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary includes associate editors; Roger S. Boraas, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Religion, Uppsala College; Michael Fishbane, Ph.D., Nathan Cummings Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Chicago Divinity School; Pheme Perkins, Ph.D., Professor of Theology (New Testament), Boston College; and William O. Walker, Jr., Ph.D., Professor of Religion, Trinity University.

The Society of Biblical Literature is a seven-thousand-member international group of experts on the Bible and related fields. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Amazon.com Review

For the maps alone, this book is worth it. Following 1,250 pages that describe and explain the people, places, terms, and events of the Bible from Aaron to Zurishaddai, the 16 spectacular maps detail the political entities and boundaries of biblical times, bringing the historic times to vivid life. A fascinating book, an impressive collection of scholarship, and a possession to cherish, the 188 contributors and five editors show what can be produced if you don't cut corners on excellence. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Hardcover: 1178 pages
Publisher: HarperOne; Rev Upd Su edition

Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary Old and New Testament

Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary Old and New Testament Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary Old and New Testament

A Nelson exclusive. Study the meaning of biblical words in the original languages-without spending years learning Greek or Hebrew. This classic reference tool has helped thousands dig deeper into the meaning of the biblical text. Explains over 6,000 key biblical words. Includes a brand new comprehensive topical index that enables you to study biblical topics more thoroughly than ever before.

Hardcover: 1184 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 2nd Edition edition (August 26, 1996)


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