Kingdom of Israel

where the Jewish population was said to contain less than ten people (Roth). Nahmanides built a synagogue that lasted until the 1948 War of Independence, destroyed by the fleeing Jordanians. Nahmanides is one of the first of many Jews to return to Israel with the hope of freedom from persecution (Roth). The 1986 film “The Disputation of Barcelona”, though ending with an exile, depicts what a free medieval society can achieve. To the dismay of the friars, the honesty of the conversation actually…

Ezra-Nehemiah is a historical account found within the Ketuvim detailing the Israelite return to Judah after the Babylonian exile. It focuses on the desire to restore Israelite society and quickly intermarriage arises as a major issue within this restoration attempt involving the more abstract issue of identity disintegration. The fight over intermarriage in Ezra-Nehemiah is not about racial purity but, instead, is directed at Israelite assimilation and the fear of an impending loss of religious…

One of the case studies in Ancient Israel comes from Psalms 88.In the anthropology of the dead, the nephesh is inviolable and makes the journey to Sheol (Psalms 30:3). The beginning of Psalms 88 is of a man praying to God about his afterlife, because he knows his death is coming in the near future. He prays for “salvation” and the man nephesh is still currently on earth but he is aware that he will be going to “the pit” when he dies (Psalms 88:1-4). He feels that God has forsaken him and accuses…

I am looking forward to sharing a room with you in the coming years. As we are both part of a Jewish community, I wanted to share with you my Jewish story so that you can understand who I truly am. In order to do this, I will be utilizing David Hartman’s narrative called “Auschwitz or Sinai” in order to connect my affinity for the Sinai model to two critical…

As Yeshua and his entourage continued on to Galilee, he decided to take an unusual route through an area of the former Northern Kingdom of Israel known then as Samaria. Samaria was the home of the Samaritans who were also believers in Yahweh. The word Samarian means, watchers of the Torah. Samaritans believe that they follow and guard the true Hebrew religion of the ancient Israelites prior to their Babylonian Exile. They believed the true Hebrew religion was preserved by the Israelites who…

Classes developed and priest became more powerful than ever before. The kingdoms divided into two with Judah in the South and Israel in the North. This left the Hebrew tribes a great target for the brutal king of the Assyrians showed no mercy upon the Hebrews. During this time period, religious enthusiasts influenced many Hebrews that their downfall…

different ways. John portrays Jesus as having being the word and having heavenly wisdom and supernatural characteristics but He is also described as being human or made of flesh. John gives more weight to Jesus as the son of God rather than on the kingdom itself (Autry, 2018). The fourth and final Gospel is distinctively different from the other three Gospels. The first three Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke are synoptic Gospels, meaning they contain many of the same stories and in some cases…

Throughout much of history, various groups of Christians, Muslims, and Jews have fought with each other rather than cooperating with each other. For example, the current Israeli-Palestinian Conflict between Israel, a Jewish majority country, and the state of Palestine, a Muslim majority territory, started due to disputes over land, especially over the holy city of Jerusalem. Wars have also been ignited between different groups of the same religion, such as the Thirty Years War, which was fought…

considered to be the dwelling place of the Divine Presence and could only be entered by the high priest on the Day of Atonement. Its religious importance grew as The Temple Mount was established as the only acceptable place for sacrifice in the Judah Kingdom. The First Temple stood almost 500 years before being destroyed by the Babylonians in 586BCE. Having conquered the city, the Babylonians forced the Jews into exile and 70 years would pass before the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem…

Temple Mount Jerusalem has long been referred to as one of the most holy geographical locations on Earth and home to the sacred Temple Mount. Temple Mount has served as a central location for religious worship to numerous different religions and rulers, yet despite this unity, it has caused much separation throughout the land. The history of the Temple Mount dates back to a time filled with religion, bloodshed, and conflict and has continued this pattern century after century. Permanently…