Christian Writing and Inspiration

Question: What Christian holidays can be traced to Old Testament times?

A. Easter and Pentecost, two of Christianities most important holy days, have their origins in the Jewish festivals of Passover and Shavuot. Indeed, many early Jewish Christians continued not only to observe the Sabbath, or Saturday, as a holy day, they also continued to celebrate the Jewish festivals. In time, however, these festival observances were transformed into commemorations of New Testament events.

      When the church began to celebrate Easter in the second century, there was disagreement over whether it should be kept on Passover or consistently on a Sunday. But the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 fixed the date as the Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal, or spring, equinox. Thus the Jewish and Christian holy days were separated, though they continued to fall close together and occasionally on the same day. The link between Passover and Easter is preserved in such names for the Christian holy day as Pasqua ( Italian ), Pascua ( Spanish ), and Pasques ( French ).

       The second of Christianities movable feasts rooted in Jewish tradition is Pentecost      ( Greek for 50 days ). Pentecost is now celebrated 50 days after Easter-whereas the Jewish Shavuot was a harvest festival coming 50 days after the first day of Passover. Since this was seven weeks later ( 49 days plus the 50^th day for the festival itself ), Shavuot was also referred to as the Feast of Weeks.

Question: Who decided how to break up the text of the Bible into chapter and verses?

A. The chapter divisions commonly used in today’s Bibles were introduced by Stephen Langton, an English theologian and biblical scholar ( later Archbishop of Canterbury ), who taught at the University of Paris in the early 1200’s. In his time there were a number of different systems of dividing the Bible into chapters, and Langton and his colleagues saw a need for standardization. The earliest surviving Bible with Langtons chapter divisions is an edition of the Latin Bible published in 1231.

     The verse divisions are older than the chapter divisions, at least for the Old Testament. The Hebrew text used in ancient synagogues lacked verse divisions, but by the sixth or seventh century the practice of dividing the text into verses began to take hold. Verse breaks were later inserted into Hebrew bibles used for teaching and were introduced into Christian bibles in the 16^th century by the famous French printers Henri and Robert Estienne. Robert added verse divisions for the New Testament in 1551 and printed a whole bible in French with verse divisions in 1553.

Question: What are the oddest English editions of the Bible?

A. Some printings of the Bible pick up unofficial nicknames as a result of a typographical error or a curious translation of a word or phrase.

     Among these was “the Wicked Bible”, also called “the Adulterer’s Bible.” By forgetting an all-important “not”, the printer produced a commandment that said, “Thou shalt commit adultery.” This was in 1632, when the authorities in England, embroiled in religious and political controversies, were not inclined to dismiss such an error lightly, and the printer was fined 300 english pounds, a very hefty penalty to pay at the time.

      “The Bug Bible” tells its readers not to be afraid of “bugs by night” as a result of a peculiar translation of the line, “You will not fear the terror of night” ( Psalm 91:5 ). In “the Placemaker’s Bible” Jesus’ words are mistakenly given as “Blessed are the placemakers” instead of peacemakers ( Matthew 5:9 ). And the psalmist of the “the Printers Bible” laments erroneously: “Printers ( not princes, the correct word ) have persecuted me without a cause. ( Psalm 119:161 ).

      Translators have introduced numerous euphemisms into the Bible, always with good intentions but with mixed effect. For example, the Geneva Bible published in 1560 came to be called “the Breeches Bible” because Adam and Eve, after discovering their nakedness, go off and sew together fig leaves to make “breeches.” The word must have seemed as quaint then as it does now in order for it to be used ironically to describe the whole book.

Question:  Why has the King James Version proved so enduring?

A. The new edition of the Bible presented to King James I of England in 1611 renamed the principal Bible of English-speaking Protestants for over 250 years. Known as the King James Version in America and the Authorized Version in Britain, it was not revised until late in the 19^th century.

     The King James Version was the work of 54 university scholars ( 47 of whose names are known ) appointed by King James in 1604. These learned men formed six committees of nine men each. Two committees labored at Oxford, two at Cambridge, and two at Westminster. The group had both Anglican ( Church of England ) and Puritan members.

     That so large and diverse a group had differences of opinion is hardly surprising-some passages are said to have been reworked as many as 17 times- but what is astonishing is that out of the committees came a united masterpiece of translation. No doubt certain individuals were leaders and shapers of the project, but little is known about who they were and the extent of their contribution. What is known is that they did not attempt a completely new translation and almost unerringly recognized the best of their predecessors work. About one-third of their New Testament for example, was carried over from William Tyndales translation; and overall some 60 percent of their Bible was derived from earlier editions.

     More than 300 years after its publication the work was hailed by Harvard English professor John Livingston Lowes as “The noblest monument of English prose.” It has been praised for its musical cadences, for its simplicity, dignity, and power. Today any English-speaking person who can read Shakespeare can enter this book with ease. It is not just a noble monument but a book that continues to inspire and move people as few others can.

Question:  What were the principal causes of death in biblical times?

A. Investigation of burial sites indicate that parasitic disease were major killers in ancient Israel. Infants and children were particularly hard hit, and at least half the population of an average community never lived past the age of 18. Thirty years was the average life expectancy for women, a statistic that has led one observer to comment sadly: “ Women in antiquity were a class of humanity in short supply.”

      In part, Israels position as a trade and cultural crossroads was to blame for the frequent outbreaks of fearsome plagues, like those described in the Bible as a ‘pestilence upon Israel” or “the fierce anger of the Lord.” ( Numbers 25:4 ). Israel was a land bridge for much of the Near east, used by invading armies and by commercial caravans traveling through the region. With the strangers came diseases, including-many scholars believe- the terrifying bubonic plague, which could run rampant in the absence of effective medical and public health practices.

Question: What do B.C.E and C.E. signify?

A. The chronological tags B.C.E ( Before the Common Era ) and C.E. ( Common Era ) are considered religiously neutral, whereas B.C. ( Before Christ ) and A.D. ( Anno Domini, or in the Year of the Lord ) reflect Christian belief. B.C.E and C.E. dates are the same as B.C. and A.D., but do not imply a confession of Jesus as Lord and so can be readily used by non-christians.

Question:  Who were the scribes?

A. Before the Babylonian exile; scribes were government officials or others who held positions because of their ability to read and write. They performed such tasks as keeping records, writing letters, and copying documents. During the exile, priest-scholars such as Ezra studied and copied the Hebrew scriptures, and the role of the scribe took on a specifically religious meaning. By the time of Jesus, the scribes were professional Torah scholars and interpreters of the law, both oral and written. Because of their intensive training and specialized knowledge, they were an elite group- a kind of intellectual aristocracy- and they wielded considerable authority. Scribes made up a large segment of the Sanhedrin, Judaism’s highest court, and many held office in synagogues and local judicial bodies.

     The scribes had three main responsibilities. They preserved and interpreted the law, applying it to daily life; they helped judge cases in the courts; and they taught the Torah and the oral law to students. Since the scribes were not paid for their work in the Sanhedrin, and were not supposed to accept money for teaching, many were merchants, craftsmen, or even laborers.

    Scribes were scholars who might also be priests or might belong to one of the two influential religious groups, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. As a mark of their status, the scribes dressed like the nobility in flowing robes with long, fringed tassels. Ordinary people revered them, addressed them as “Rabbi” and stood up when they passed.

Question:  What is the Geneva Bible?

A. During her brief reign ( 1553-58 ), the Roman Catholic queen Mary sought to curb the Reformation, thus driving from England many Protestant scholars and churchmen. Some of them fled to Geneva, where the exiles produced the Geneva Bible. Published in 1560, it helped shape the course of English history.

   The Geneva Bible was the one carried by Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan army in the English civil war. It was the Bible taken to Massachusetts Bay by the stern men and women who founded the New England colonies; and it was the Bible that spread Puritan doctrines throughout the realm of Mary’s successor, Elizabeth. The Geneva Bible passed through 140 editions, influencing English and American religious thought over several generations.

      The main force behind the Geneva Bible was William Whittingham, a colleague of John Calvin. In the spirit of the Protestantism of that era, Whittingham intended the translation and notes to reach not only the learned but also simple folk. He believed that the Bible was the source of the help all men and women needed.

Question: What does the Bible say was wrong with touching a dead body?

A. The Hebrews believed that touching a corpse made a person unclean for seven days, during which time any contact with sacred objects was forbidden. To remove the taint of defilement, a mixture called “the water for impurity” was prepared under a priests’ direction. It consisted of the ashes of a ceremonially slaughtered red heifer mixed with the waters from a clean stream. On the third and seventh days after contact, the mixture was to be thrown on anyone who had touched a corpse. The same procedure was used to purify the possessions of the dead.

      For priests, whose days were spent in holy observances among sacred things, the rules were stricter. A priest could not go near a dead body unless it was the body of a member of his immediate family. The high priest was not permitted to go near a corpse at all, even that of a parent.

       The ritual defilement resulting from contact with the dead was not equivalent to a lack of virtue or physical cleanliness, but rather an undesirable religious state. Even so, special rules for being “clean” in a ritual sense did not appeal to Jesus, who disagreed with the Pharisee’s insistence on ritual purity as a prerequisite to worship: “Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornification, theft, false witness, slander,” Jesus said.  ( Matthew 15:19 ). “These are what defile a man.” ( That is, only moral evil made a person impure ).

Question:  What does the Bible say about childbirth?

A.  Giving birth is described as intense agony. Isaiah, for example, compared Israel’s distress under oppressors to the pain of  “a woman with child, who writhes and cries out in her pangs, when she is near her time.” ( Isaiah 26:17 ). The Bible acknowledged the dangers of birth to mother and child. Rachel died after the hard labor of delivering Benjamin, and the wife of Phinehas died after giving birth prematurely to Ichabod, the grandson of the priest Eli. Babies were often born in unsanitary conditions, and infant mortality was high.

    Women in labor were usually assisted by midwives, who were esteemed in the Bible and throughout the ancient world. The midwife would cut the umbilical cord, wash the baby, and then rub its body with salt to toughen the skin, a custom still observed by some people in the Middle East today. The baby was wrapped in swaddling cloths ( strips of fabric four or five inches wide and several yards long ) in the belief that the child’s body snuggly would make the bones strong.

   Although most women had midwives in attendance, Matthew and Luke do not mention one at the birth of Jesus. However, the description of Jesus’ birth in a second-century Christian work attributed to James relates that Joseph brought a midwife to Mary shortly after the birth.

Question:  How did women regain ritual purity after delivery?

A.  Women who had just given birth were regarded as unclean or impure. The uncleanness was not physical or moral, but meant only that the woman had to observe certain ritual restrictions for a period of time. The new mother could not leave her house for seven days after the birth of a son or fourteen days after the birth of a daughter. She was not allowed to touch sacred objects or participate in religious ceremonies for an additional 33 days if she borne a son or 66 days in the event of a daughter. The Bible gives no explanation for the two different periods of impurity.

     A woman marked the end of her uncleanness with ceremonial offerings. “When the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest…a burnt offering and….a sin offering, and he shall offer it before the Lord, and make atonement for her; then she shall be clean from the flow of her blood.”    ( Leviticus 12:6 )

     A year-old lamb was preferred for the burnt offering and a young pigeon or turtledove for the sin offering, but poor women were allowed to sacrifice birds for both offerings. Mary sacrificed two turtledoves after the birth of Jesus.

A. The Bible-in whole or in part- has been translated into everything from Afrikaans to Zulu and more than 1,900 languages in between. By 1989, according to the American Bible Society, there were complete Bible translations in 314 lanugages ( including all of the world's major tongues ), New Testament translations in 715, and translations of at least one book of the Bible in 890. The most widely translated book is the Gospel of Mark, available in 800 different languages and dialects.

During the 19th century, several Bible societies were founded to oversee the translation efforts; a coordination agency, the United Bible Societies, was established after World War II. Today, the largest such group is the Wycliffe Bible Translators International and its sister organization, the Summer Institute of Linguistics, which began when missionaries recognized the need for translations in smaller language groups.

The hazards of translating a work as large and complex as the Bible are legion: grammatical structures usually do not match, and often biblical references are totally foreign to other cultures. In one Indonesian-language version, wolf "in sheeps clothing" had to be translated as "crocodile in human form," a much more graphic image in a culture that lacked wolves but had an abundance of crocodiles. A too literal translation of the 23rd Psalm into the language of the Tlingit Indians in Alaska created the misunderstanding that "The Lord is my shepherd" meant that God is a goatherd.

A. The Books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes are related to an ancient Near Eastern tradition of recording thoughts and apharisms about the ways of divinity and the universe and the proper role of humans. They differ profoundly from that tradition, however, in placing God above all in their universe. They are often called the wisdom books of the Old Testament. In the organization of the Bible, the wisdom books provide a contrasting perspective to the historical narratives and the prophetic writings.

The Roman Catholic Bible following the precendent of the Greek Septuagint translation, includes two additional wisdom books, the Wisdom of Solomon ( also known simply as the Book of Wisdom ) and Sirach ( its full title is the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach ). The Book of Wisdom was not composed by King Solomon, since it probably dates to the first century B.C., although it is clearly linked to more ancient sources. The actual author is unknown.

The author of Sirach-Jesus the son of Sirach, or Joshua be Sira in Hebrew- was a scribe and teacher of Jewish law in the second century B.C. He probably lived in Jerusalem and instructed young men in religion and moral law. In the Latin Church, Sirach's book came to be called Ecclesiasticus, meaning church instruction. In the tradition stretching back to the ancient sayings in Proverbs, it was the last of the great Hebrew wisdom literature to be written.

A. Both men and women wore bracelets, necklaces, and rings, especially for celebrations and holy days. Although in some Middle Eastern cultures both men and women wore earrings and nose rings, among the Isrealites only the women did. Men wore rings as symbols of authority and for use as seals. An Isrealite womans' jewelry might consist of beads made from shells or cyrstalline rocks; pendants carved out of animal bone; and bracelets, anklets, rings, nose rings, and earrings of bronze. As a rule, only the rich owned jewelry fashioned from gold, silver, and precious stones.

A. To make many of their cosmetics, the Isrealites ground certain minerals into a powder, which they then mixed with water or gum to make a paste. One form of eye paint, for example, contained crushed greeen malachite and galena ( lead sulfide ), a bluish-grey mineral. Red ocher, an iron compound, may have been the base for the first known rogue. Other cosmetics came from plants. The crushed leaves of the henna tree yielded a reddish dye used on the feet, hands, nails and hair.

People rubbed perfumed oils into their hair and on their bodies not only to smell pleasant ( frequent baths being uncommon ) but also to protect their skin from mthe burning sun. Common fragrances added to oils included myrrh, frankincense, saffron, cinnamon, balm of Gilead, rose, jasmine, balsam and mint. Men and women of all social classes used those scented oils, although it was not considered proper for scholars to appear perfumed in public.

Question: Did the Romans give Jews religious autonomy?

A.  The governors appointed by Rome held supreme military, financial, and judicial authority and had broad administrative powers. This left a wide scope for misrule, and Judea repeatedly suffered from inept, corrupt, or malicious governors.

    As a practical matter, however, the governors regularly allowed institutions such as the Sanhedrin court in Jerusalem self-government in local and religious affairs. Jewish national leadership was vested in the high priest, who was appointed by the Roman governor. For the most part the governor intervened judicially only in affairs of a political nature, leaving the everyday administration of justice wholly to the Jewish officials in charge of applying the law.

Question:   How was the Bible first read?

A. The earliest books were in the form of scrolls made out of sheets of papyrus, parchment, pr leather fastened together end to end to make a long strip. The writing, from right to left in Hebrew, was generally confined to one side of the sheet, though some scrolls had writing on both sides. A scroll was read by holding it in ones left hand and unrolling it slowly with the right hand. Wooden rollers were attached to each end of scrolls considered especially important.

    Apparently scrolls were usually read aloud in front of a group. The Book of Nehemiah described Ezra reading the Law of Moses, “from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.” ( Nehemiah 8:3 )

     People usually learned bible passages by listening, rather than by silent reading. Learning to read written words- and to speak them fluently as one read- was a skill that required much training. Early Hebrew writing had no vowels, word separations, or punctuation.

Question:  How did monks help ensure the survival of Scripture?

A. Beginning in about 500 and lasting until the dawn of the Renaissance in the 14^th century, virtually all intellectual and artistic accomplishments in Western Europe took place under the auspices of the church. The monks who faithfully copied ad recopied biblical manuscripts ensured that written record of Christianity would be handed down to future generations.

     The monasteries were the centers of these activities, and most of them had a special room, the scriptorium, where the manuscripts were copied. This scholarly workroom had windows through which daylight fell on the tables at which the monks labored. It was usually situated next to the monastery library, where existing texts could be examined. Each scriptorium was headed by a monk who directed the work and distributed the materials needed. Surviving manuscripts reveal that some were the work of a single copyist, while others were a collaborative effort, with different monks working on separate sections of the text.

      Complete Bibles and other biblical texts, such as psalters-books of psalms-were produced for use mainly in the monasteries. Texts were exchanged between monasteries, copied, and the original returned. Thus comparisons could be made and errors corrected.

Question:  Why was the Douay Bible significant?

A.  Facing increasing hostility under Elizabeth I, some English Catholics fled across the Channel and in 1568 established an English college at Douay in Flanders. Led by Gregory Martin, they translated the Vulgate into English, publishing the New Testament in 1582 and the Old Testament in 1609-1610. The translation is sometimes known as the Douay-Rheims Bible because the college moved to Rheims France and back to Douay as the work proceeded.

      The translators’ aim was to strengthen Catholic doctrine on the meaning of the Bible against what they saw as heretical interpretations. As the English cardinal William Allen wrote in 1578, “Perhaps indeed it would have been more desirable that the scriptures had never been translated into barbarous tongues; nevertheless at the present day, when either from heresy or other causes, the curiosity of man, even of those who are not bad, is so great, and there is often such need of reading the scriptures in order to confute our opponents, it is better that there should be a faithful and catholic translation, that that men should use a corrupt version to their peril or destruction.”

A. Early in the period covered by the Old Testament, every man was a potential soldier. He changed from shepherd or farmer to warrior simply by picking up his weapon at the sound of the shofar wailing over the hills. Larger families were capable of fielding 50 armed men for defense and raids, while the tribes deployed battalion-sized units known as thousands. In wartime the tribes were led by charismatic chieftans believed to be chosen by God. Warfare was primitive, training was rudimentary, and tactics were simple.

This model of military ogranization, which might be described as a tribal militia, suited the needs of a wandering people. Tribal leaders called the army into being when the need arose and disbanded it when danger was past.

When this fast-soldier militia, carrying swords, spears, bows and slings, the Hebrew nation crossed the desert and occupied Canaan. For about two centuries, down to the time of King Saul, such an army fought nearly constant bloody wars with its enemies. But Saul saw the need for change.

Saul recruited a standing army and began to build a corps of professional soldiers. His successor, David, used mercenaries and probably introduced the chariot, which the Philistines already used with great effectiveness. Solomon completed the shaping of a professional army and, by mounting archers and spearmen on chariots, established a swift and maneuverable fighting force.

With the change to mobile warfare came Solomons commitment to a large support system; full time horse trainers, foragers, stable hands, and garrison troops; barracks and stables; maintaining trade routes to bring fine horses south from what is now Turkey; and manufacturing and repairing chariots and other weapons.

A. To the Israelites who saw themselves as God's chosen people, war was holy because God declared that their enemies were his enemies. He was their leader is battle. They carried the ark of the covenant as a symbol of the presence of Gof. The spoke of him as a "man of war" and "the Lord of hosts ( armies )." ( Exodus 15:3, 1 Samuel 15:2 )

When the Hebrews mobilized for war, they consulted oracles and prophets to be sure that God approved of their aims. When they conquered, they sometimes "devoted" the spoils of victory-that is, sacrificed them to God. This might mean the execution or the slaughter of the male captives and enslavements of the children and females and the burning or destruction of houses and livestock.

The Book of Joshua portrays Israel's conquest of Canaan as a holy way. At Jericho, Joshua ordered the enitre city and its inhabitants to be "devoted to the Lord for destruction; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her house shall live, because she hid the messengers ( spies ) that we sent." ( Joshua 6:17 )

Question:  Was adopting a child a common practice in biblical times?

A.  Adoption was one answer to certain problems resulting from infertility: adopted children could care for their aged parents, for example, and inherit property. Another option was surrogate parenthood. The childless Rachel told her husband, Jacob, to take her maid, Bilhah, “that she may bear upon my knees, and even I may have children through her.” ( Genesis 30:3 ). There are several other references to children being born or being placed on the knees of family members. The phrase may refer to an adoption ritual within the family.

     Adoption of one kind or another seems to have been an accepted part of life throughout biblical times. Exodus indicates that the child Moses was adopted by the pharaoh’s daughter. Centuries later the orphan Esther, was reared ( though perhaps no formally adopted ) by her husband Mordecai. Adoptions for the purpose of inheritance included those of Joseph’s son Ephraim and Manasseh by Jacob, the children of Manasseh’s son Machir by Joseph, and ( informally ) Ruth’s son by her mother-in-law, Naomi.

Question:  How did church altars originate?

A. As early as the third century A.D., Christians began calling the table used for the Lord’s Supper, or Eucharist, an altar. This usage arose because the Eucharist is a commemoration of Christ’s death, which was regarded as a sacrifice. In early times, when private houses served as places of worship, altars were simple household tables. During the persecutions Christians began to venerate their martyrs and offer the Eucharist on their tombs. This led to the custom of depositing the bones of martyrs in stone altars.

    In the western half of the Roman Empire, the types of altars multiplied; there was not only the “high altar” but also several secondary altars dedicated to various saints. The altar was placed in the chancel, the area reserved for the clergy, which, starting in the Middle Ages, was separated from the main body of the church. It was covered with three cloths and two great candles, while seven candles burned alongside it.

Question:  Are sacrifices still performed?

A. With the destruction of the temple, Jesus stopped making animal sacrifices; Christians never included such sacrifices in their worship. However, a small community of Samaritans in present day Israel practices at least one ancient sacrifice.

     The Samaritans-best known, perhaps, for Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan-claim to be descendants of ancient Israelites who intermarried with foreigners brought in by the Assyrians after the conquest of the northern kingdom in the eight century B.C. Today Samaritans preserve many of the tenets of ancient Judaism but have a separate religion with the center of their worship at Mount Gerizim rather than Jerusalem. Every year at Passover they make a pilgrimage to the mountain, sacrifice the paschal lamb, and eat it, as prescribed in the Law of Moses.

Question:  Did the Israelites every practice human sacrifice?

A.  When the Lord commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac “ as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you,” ( Genesis 22:2 ), it was a test of the patriarchs fidelity and not a call for human sacrifice. Indeed, the Law of Moses condemns child sacrifice, in recognition of the fact that such terrible offerings were made by Israel’s neighbors to their gods. When the king of Moab, “saw that the battle was going against him,” he proposed his eldest son as a burnt offering, to the horror of the Israelites, who gave up their certain victory and “withdrew from him and returned to their own land.”      ( 2 Kings 26-27 ).

    There is, however, an exceptional instance in the Bible of a child being sacrificed to the God of Israel. According to Judges 11:30, the judge Jephthah slew his only daughter in fulfillment of the reckless vow he had made to God in return for victory in battle. The story is told without explicit comment or condemnation. The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel condemned child sacrifice as widespread; yet in the Bible the practice is attributed to only two kings of Judah, Ahaz and Manasseh, who introduced pagan rites as the kingdoms official religion.

Question:  How did swearing on the bible begin?

A. Calling on God to bear witness to one’s truthfulness is an ancient custom, as seen in such Old Testament phrases as “God is witness between you and me.” ( Genesis 31:50 ). Jews also swore oaths by touching a sacred object or putting a hand on the Torah. Apparently by Jesus’ time, oath taking was being abused, and he discouraged swearing by heaven or earth: “Let what you say be simply yes or no; anything more than this comes from evil.” ( Matthew 5:37 )

    In the Middle Ages it became customary to swear by a cross, a prayer book, or a copy of scripture. One kissed the sacred object or placed a hand on it. But over the centuries, it was mainly the Bible that was used in oath taking.

Question: How were criminals executed?

A. Most judicial executions were carried out by stoning. In earlier times, the criminal may have been killed by a crowd hurling stones small enough to be thrown. Later, stonings involved pushing the victim headlong off a precipice at least 10 feet high; then the principal witness smashed his chest with a large stone. Only if he remained alive would other stones be cast.

    The Bible mentions many other forms of capital punishment. Burning was the penalty if a “man takes a wife and her mother.” ( Leviticus 20:14 ). It was also the fate of a priest’s daughter who “profanes herself” and “profanes her father” by becoming a prostitute. ( Leviticus 21:9 ). Kings evidently executed enemies by sword or spear, sometimes by having them beheaded, as Herod did John the Baptist. Hanging usually referred to the public exposure of the body of a criminal after death. In Persia, however-as in the story of Esther- it meant execution by impaling the body on a tall stake. In New Testament times, hanging meant crucifixion.

Question:        How did people tell time without clocks?

A. Before the invention of mechanical clocks, it was hard to keep track of short periods of time. In ancient Israel the concept of the hour was unknown. The Israelites divided the daytime into its natural segments: dawn, "the heat of the day," " the cool of the day," and "evening, the time when women would go out to draw water." Nighttime was divided into it three watches.

     The nearest thing to a clock in the Bible is "the dial of Ahaz" by which King Hezekiah told the time. When Hezekiah was "at the point of death," he appealed to God, and through Isaiah, God promised to add "fifteen years to your ( Hezekiahs ) life." As a sign that he would do as he said, the Lord ordered Isaiah to tell Hezekiah, "I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps." Once thought to refer to a sundial such as archeologists have found in ancient Palestine, modern research has shown that the word translated dial actually means steps or stairs. This indicates that Hezekiah marked time by noting how a shadow, perhaps one cast by a building in his palace complex, moved along a flight of steps.

      By the time of Jesus, it was commonplace to divide the daytime into 12 hours. The hour, however, was not a fixed unit of time as it is today, but one-twelfth of the period between sunrise and sunset. Thus an hour in summer ( which would be about 70 minutes today ) was substantially longer than the hour in winter ( about 50 minutes today ). To tell the time, one counted from sunrise ( the first hour ) to noon ( the sixth ) to sunset ( the twelfth ).

Question:        How were travel and the spread of christianity linked?

A.  The Roman Empire often persecuted christians. Yet, unwittingly, the Romans also removed barriers in chrisitianity's path. They established a single political regime stretching from Britain to the deserts east of the Holy Land, so that a citizen needed no permits to travel over much of the known world. And across the same vast area, the Romans created a trading network, thereby propagating the language of commerce, which happened to be Greek. The result was that the christian missionary needed to speak only one language to be understood virtually anywhere in the empire.

      The Romans also made sea travel safer by subduing the pirates of the Mediterranean. And they built-over five centuries- 53,000 miles of highways and 200,000 of secondary roads. One traveler on these roads and sea-lanes was the missionary Paul. In his journeys throughout the Holy Land and Asia Minor and to Greece and Italy, Paul was "three times...shipwrecked"; and he faced "danger from rivers, danger from robbers...danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea....toil and hardship...hunger and thirst." Yet Paul’s missionary work would have been more difficult if the Romans had not built roads and tamed the pirates.( 2 Corinthians 11:25-26 )

Question:        Who performed healing miracles?

A.  Most of the miracles of healing in the Old Testament occur when God reverses a plague or punishment that he has imposed. For instance, Abrahams prayer brought healing to Ablimelech, whose household God had stricken with bareness. Moses prayed for the healing of Miriam, who had been punished with leprosy, and he set up a bronze serpent to heal those who were dying because of a plague of fiery serpents. When King Jeroboam stretched out his hand against a prophet, the hand withered, but it was restored by the prophets prayer.

     Rarely is anyone healed of a natural disease in the Old Testament. One instance was when Elisha told a Syrian commander named Naaman that his skin disease could be cleansed by dipping his body seven times in the Jordan.

     In the New Testament, healings are the predominant miracle, and all are cures of natural diseases. When John the Baptist sent two disciples to inquire about the meaning of Jesus' ministry, Jesus responded by performing healings: "In that hour he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind received their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear." Healings by Jesus, the Gospel of Matthew asserts, "fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah," he took our infirmities and bore our diseases." ( Matthew 8:17 )

     The Gospels report that Jesus urged those he healed not to tell anyone of their recovery. Apparently he did not want the healings interpreted as proof of the validity of his teachings; rather, they were a visible sign of the compassion that characterized his ministry.

Old Testament Subjects