(Every time you visit, you get a new Biblical image.)
Above, you are currently seeing one of the following Biblical images. Can you guess which one?
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The Bible is the basis of Judaism and Christianity and has had a huge impact on Western culture.
No matter what you believe about God and religion, the Bible remains a work of challenging
profundity and elicits strong emotions.
The Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament, with the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox versions of the Old Testament being slightly larger because of their acceptance of certain books and parts of books considered apocryphal by Protestants. The Jewish Bible is the Hebrew Scriptures, 39 books originally written in Hebrew, except for a few sections in Aramaic. From a Christian point of view, the most significant of the Greek translations of the Old Testament is what is called the Septuagint (Latin for "Seventy" and often abbreviated to "LXX"). This is traditionally credited to the initiative of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 BC) who wanted a translation of the Hebrew Law for his library at Alexandria. |
Test Your Bible/Religion IQIf you get all questions right, you have an extraordinarily high Bible/Religion IQ, worthy of praise from the antediluvian God. (Don't feel bad. So far, on one on Earth has gotten all of these.)Who are the mysterious Nephilim? Why do most Christian churches reject the mysterious Gospel of Thomas? How many of each animal did Noah take on the ark? Would you consider apocatastasis a pleasurable experience? What would you do if you met an achimandrite coming out of your local mall? 
Who said: "Religion has not civilized man -- man has civilized religion. God improves as man advances."? Who painted this tower, and what Biblical scene does it represent? |
"On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord met Moses and tried to kill him. But Zipporah, his wife, took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched his feet with it, and said 'Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!' So he let him alone. It was then she said, 'A bridegroom of blood by circumcision.'"Whom is God trying to kill? Why? What is a "bridegroom of blood?" Author Kenneth Davis suggests that circumcision was believed to ward off demonic attack. Since Moses was presumably not circumcised, the smearing of the blood on him may have protected him as well. Authors Jim Bell and Stan Campbell suggest that perhaps Moses' wife wasn't fond of the Hebrew rite of circumcision and had resisted it. They also suggest that this passage might have referred to Moses contacting an incapacitating disease that almost killed him, leaving his wife to do what was necessary. Author J. R. Porter says that the reason that this episode is so mysterious and difficult to understand is that the biblical narrator no longer knew its real meaning. It seems to be a fragment of a once independent tradition and exhibits archaic features, such as representing Yahweh as a kind of hostile night demon, and the use of a flint knife for circumcision. The King James Bible gives this translation 4:24 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.Why, having asked Moses to return to Egypt, should God then decide to kill him? And why should Zipporah's circumcising her son have apparently led to God's leaving Moses alone?  To me the "Bridegroom of Blood" story is the most mysterious tale in the Bible.
The second most enigmatic story deals with the Nephilim
in Genesis 6:1-4. In Genesis 6:2 we find that the "sons of God saw that daughters of men were
beautiful, and they married any of them they chose."
Kenneth Davis speculates that the "sons of god" might have been angels who took wives from the daughters
of humans. The offspring of these angel-human marriages, were the
Nephilim, the "heros that were of old, warriors of renown." The Nephilim are mentioned only once
again in the Hebrew scriptures, and the word also literally translates to "the fallen ones." The Nephilim
had superhuman powers. Notice that they should have been destroyed in the great Flood, but we do find them
in Canaan during the time of Moses, according to the book of Numbers.
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The Ultimate Bible & Religion Test (With "Answers")
Years ago, in a small town in Eastern Europe, there were two tailors
who were keen rivals. Over the years their rivalry became more and more
extreme, developing into a hatred so deep and intense that it came to
the attention of the Lord Himself who sent an angel with an offer
to one of the
rivals. The angel said, "Schmuel, the Lord has become
aware of your rivalry with Yitzhak, and has
empowered me to settle this rivalry, once and for all, by offering you a
wish." "One wish?" said Schmuel, "Anything I want?" "Yes," said the
angel, "Anything at all, but with one proviso: whatever you ask for,
Yitzhak gets twice as much." What did Yitzhak ask for?
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Berosus was a famous Chaldean astrologer who flourished during and after the lifetime of Alexander the Great. Although the exact dates of his birth and death are unknown, it is certain that he lived in the days of Alexander (356-326 B. C.)
At some point in his life, Berosus left Chaldea (southern Babylonia) and settled in Greece on the island of Cos, where he opened a school of astronomy and astrology. The ancient Greeks considered him be a great magician and were impressed by the supposed accuracy of his astrological predictions. The Greeks honored Berosus by erecting a statue of him with a tongue sculpted from gold, signifying the truth of his forecasts. Berosus was also a historian and wrote a Greek-language work in three books on the history and culture of Babylonia. The book was widely used by later Greek compilers, whose versions in turn were quoted by religious historians. Even though Berosus's work survives only in fragmentary citations, he is remembered for passing knowledge of the origins of Babylon to the ancient Greeks.
Berosus's gave a creative account of the creation of the world and of mankind, as preserved to us by Syncellus who copied it from Alexander Polyhistor:
b Artemidorus Daldianus
Daldianus lived in the 2nd century AD in Asia Minor. He was a soothsayer whose Oneirocritica ("Interpretation of Dreams") described a variety of superstitions, dreams, divination methods, and myths. The book was so popular that sixteen hundred years later it was translated into English and published in London, where, in the year 1800, it had already been reprinted 33 times.
b Daniel
Daniel was a prophet from the Old Testament who foretold the coming of the messiah Y'shua. Nearly all that is known of Daniel comes from the Old Testament. He belonged to the tribe of Juda, and was of noble descent. While a teenager, he was carried captive to Babylon. There he was entrusted to the care of Asphenez, the master of the king's eunuchs, and was educated in the language and learning of the Chaldeans, experts on divination, magic, and astrology in Babylon. After three years, Daniel and three companions appeared before the king who found that they were great diviners. The King promoted them to a place in his court. Whenever Daniel's powers of divination was tested, he proved superior to "all the diviners, and wise men, that were in all his kingdom." The Book of Daniel describes the King's dream that Daniel alone could interpret. Nebuchadnezzer's dream included a large statue made up of various materials and broken in pieces by a small stone that became a mountain and filled the earth. Daniel said that the several parts of the statue symbolized monarchies, while the stone that destroyed them and grew into a mountain foretold an everlasting kingdom (the Messiah) that would shatter all the other kingdoms. Some biblical scholars suggest that Daniel may have been a composite of several people, or that he may also be the prophet Ezekiel, because of the overwhelming similarities in their prophecies.
b Ezekiel
Ezekiel (592-570 BC) was one of the major Hebrew prophets and the author of an Old Testament book. He was carried as a prisoner to Babylonia in 597 BC. Ezekiel's early prophesies in Jerusalem foretold various calamities, but his later prophecies, given while the Jews were exiled in Babylon, were more hopeful. He dramatized his prophecies with metaphors and descriptions that seem bizarre or, as some skeptics might say, psychotic. Notice how Ezekiel in the Old Testament had visions that, today, sound like modern UFO reports:
Here is one of Ezekiel's famous prophecies:
The references in endnote 6 discuss the remote possibility that Ezekiel had temporal lobe epilepsy, which is thought to play a role in intense religious experience for some people. Also note that Ezekiel was struck dumb on one occasion for an unspecified length of time (Ezekiel 3:26).
b Isaiah
Isaiah is the Old Testament prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Scholars now recognize that the Book took shape over several centuries, attaining its present form sometime before 180 BC. He said that the people of Israel would be punished for their sins, but some Jews will be redeemed and dwell in a perfect age. When Isaiah had his first vision of God, he was overwhelmed by God's power. Isaiah offered to convey God's messages, even though he was aware he would experience terrible opposition.
For many years, scholars have wondered about the meaning of the 53rd chapter of the Book of Isaiah. It appears to be a prophesy concerning the sufferings and trials of the coming Messiah, who Christians interpret to be Jesus. Some modern rabbis suggest the trials described refer to difficulties faced by the nation of Israel.
b Jeremiah
Jeremiah (650 BC - 570 BC) was a Hebrew prophet and author of an Old Testament book. Jeremiah tried to help his nation of Judah adjust to various conflicts between its powerful neighbors, which included Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt. He correctly predicted the destruction of the Holy Temple by the Babylonians.
According to the Bible, Jeremiah had his first visions in 627 BC, when he foretold the coming of enemies, symbolized by a boiling pot:
Scholars are not sure if the enemy was supposed to be Russian nomads, Assyrians, Babylonians, or some vague evil. Jeremiah was often depressed and overwhelmed by God. Jeremiah said that he wished he never been born and accused God of being deceitful.
Jeremiah's most important prophecy described a future where man could be at peace with God (Jer. 31:31-34):
b Joel
Joel was an Old Testament prophet who had dramatic visions of cosmic omens, plagues, wars, and ruins. The Bible reveals very little about Joel who lived during the period of the Second Temple of Jerusalem (516 BC - 70 AD). In the Book of Joel, the prophet Joel describes calamity resulting from a locust plague. He warns the people to repent and that there will be a final judgment.
b St. John of Patmos
According to tradition, John is believed to have written the Apocalypse or Book of Revelation around AD 81-96. This final book of the New Testament appears to be written by more than one author, though it purports to have been written by John, Jesus's disciple who witnessed Jesus' crucifixion. In many of John's apocalyptic prophecies we gain glimpses of how terrible he sees life will become for nonbelievers:
My Seven Favorite and Famous Old Testament Prophets
In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the Rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands - a Rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces." -- Daniel 2:44-45
And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
-- Ezekiel 1:14
And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire.... Also out of the midst thereof, came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance, they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the color of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
On the Day Gog attacks Israel -- it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks -- I shall grow angry... I swear that on that Day there will be a fearful quaking in the Land of Israel. At my presence the fish in the sea and the birds of heaven, the wild beasts and all the reptiles... and all men on earth will quake. Mountains will fall, cliffs crumble and walls collapse and I will confront Gog with every sort of terror... I will punish him with plague and bloodshed and send torrential rain, hailstones, fire and brimstone against him and his hordes and against the many nations with him. I mean to display my greatness and holiness and to compel the many nations to acknowledge me. THIS IS HOW THEY WILL LEARN THAT I AM YAHwEH.
And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. -- Isaiah 3:24-25
God: Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Jeremiah: Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
-- Jeremiah 1:5
The word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see a boiling pot, tilted away from the north. Then the LORD said to me: Out of the north disaster shall break out on all the inhabitants of the land. (Jeremiah 1:13)
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
The day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness. -- Joel 1:1 - 1:20
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. -- Revelation 6:8
I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:12-17)
| Prophet | Visions |
| Amos | The judgment of the Lord upon Israel and the Assyrian threat: "Trouble for those who are waiting so longingly for the day of God! What will this day of God mean for you? It will mean darkness, not light, as when a man escapes a lion's mouth, only to meet a bear. Will not the day of God be darkness, not light? It will all be gloom, without a single ray of light." |
| Daniel | End of the world: "That will be a time of great distress, unparalleled since nations first came into existence. When that time comes, your own people will be spared -- all those whose names are found written in the Book." |
| Ezekiel | The future of Israel: "When in the world there shall appear quakings of places, tumult of peoples, schemings of nations, confusion of leaders, disquietude of princes, then shall you understand that it is of these things that the Most High has spoken since the days that were aforetime from beginning." |
| Isaiah | Future of Israel: "See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants... The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers... The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left." |
| Joel | Repentance and hope: "Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near -- a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come." |
| Zechariah | The Messiah: "I shall gather all the nations to Jerusalem for battle. The city will be taken, the horses plundered, the women ravished. Half the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be ejected from the city. Then Yahweh will sally out and fight those nations as once he fought on the day of battle." |
| Zephaniah | Punishment of the Lord: "On the Day of Yahweh's anger, by the fire of his jealousy, the whole earth will be consumed. For he will destroy, yes, annihilate everyone living on earth." |
Excerpted from
The Loom of God
Is God a Mathematician?"I have always thought it curious that, while most scientists claim to eschew religion, it actually dominates their thoughts more than it does the clergy." - Astrophysicist Fred HoyleMathematics and mysticism have fascinated humanity since the dawn of civilization. Throughout history, numbers held certain powers that made it possible for mortals to seek help from spirits, perform witchcraft, and make prayers more potent. Numbers have been used to predict the end of the world, to raise the dead, to find love, and prepare for war. Even today, serious mathematicians sometimes resort to mystical or religious reasoning when trying to convey the power of mathematics. Has humanity's long-term fascination with mathematics arisen because the universe is constructed from a mathematical fabric? In 1623, Galileo Galilei echoed this belief by stating his credo: "Nature's great book is written in mathematical symbols." Plato's doctrine was that God is a geometer, and Sir James Jeans believed God experimented with arithmetic. Newton supposed that the planets were originally thrown into orbit by God, but after God decreed the law of gravitation, the planets continued without further need of divine guidance. Is God a mathematician? Certainly, the world, the universe, and nature can be reliably understood using mathematics. Nature is mathematics. The arrangement of seeds in a sunflower can be understood using Fibonacci numbers (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13...) named after the Italian merchant Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa. Except for the first 2 numbers, every number in the sequence equals the sum of the two previous. Sunflower heads, like other flowers, contain two families of interlaced spirals -- one winding clockwise, the other counter clockwise. The number of seeds and pedals are almost always Fibonacci numbers. The shape assumed by a delicate spider web suspended from fixed points, or the cross-section of sails bellying in the wind, is a catenary -- a simple curve defined by a simple forumula. Seashells, animal's horns, and the cochlea of the ear are logarithmic spirals which can be generated using a mathematical constant known as the golden ratio. Mountains and the branching patterns of blood vessels and plants are fractals, a class of shapes which exhibit similar structures at different magnifications. Einstein's E = mc**2 defines the fundamental relationship between energy and matter. And a few simple constants -- the gravitational constant, Planck's constant, and the speed of light -- control the destiny of the universe. I do not know if God is a mathematician, but mathematics is the loom upon which God weaves the fabric of the universe. |
Recommended ReadingDon't Know Much About the Bible : Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis, Paperback - 533 pages (September 7, 1999) Avon Books (Pap Trd); ISBN: 0380728397The Four Witnesses : The Rebel, the Rabbi, the Chronicler, and the Mystic -- Why the Gospels Present Strikingly Different Visions of Jesus? by Robin Griffith-Jones, Hardcover - 384 pages (April 4, 2000) Harper San Francisco; ISBN: 0062516477 King David : A Biography by Steven L. McKenzie, Hardcover - 272 pages (May 2000) Oxford Univ Pr (Trade); ISBN: 0195132734 Dreams of Being Eaten Alive : The Literary Core of the Kabbalah by David Rosenberg, Hardcover - 192 pages (April 11, 2000) Harmony Books; ISBN: 060960306X Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs and Rituals by George Robinson, Hardcover - 656 pages (March 2000) Pocket Books; ISBN: 0671034804 The Parnas : A Scene from the Holocaust by Silvano Arieti, Harold S. Kushner, Paperback - 160 pages 1st Paul Dry Books edition edition (March 2000) Paul Dry Books Inc; ISBN: 0966491300 The Illustrated Guide to the Bible by J. R. Porter (Editor), Hardcover (November 1995) Oxford Univ Press; ISBN: 0195211596 Asimov's Guide to The Bible by Isaac Asimov, Hardcover - 1344 pages Random House; ISBN: 0517209772 The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong, Hardcover - 448 pages 1 Ed edition (March 7, 2000) Knopf; ISBN: 0679435972 The Loom of God: Mathematical Tapestries at the End of Time by Cliff Pickover, Plenum Publishing, 1997 In the Beginning : A New Interpretation of Genesis by Karen Armstrong, Paperback - 195 pages (October 1997) Ballantine Books (Trd Pap); ISBN: 0345406044 A History of God : The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Karen Armstrong, Paperback - 460 pages Reprint edition (September 1994) Ballantine Books (Trd Pap); ISBN: 0345384563 |
He is also author of
The
Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience.
