Constantine can rightfully claim the title of Great, for he turned the history of the world into a new course and made Christianity, which until then had suffered bloody persecution, the religion of the State. Excerpted from Catholic Encyclopedia.
Image courtesy of Holy Land Photos. The image of the menorah on this column fragment, flanked by a shofar, a ram’s horn, to its right a lulav, a palm frond, to its left, was a well-known visual trope in Jewish art across the empire, but our piece is distinguished by the fact that this is the […]
The wall painting to the right of Jesus raising Lazarus is a classic example of early Christian art depicting Christ as a miracle worker. When Jesus wasn’t disguised as a Shepherd or as a Greek god, followers often showed him in the act of his biblical miracles. Far from being as inflammatory as the resurrection, showing Jesus’ […]
After discussing the significance of the number eighteen regarding the prayer of the “Eighteen Benedictions,” the Bablyonian Talmud discusses the origin of what is considered to be the additional nineteenth blessing, denouncing non-believers, which has been incorporated into the prayer. As to those eighteen benedictions — there are nineteen! R. Levi said : The benediction relating to […]
Until after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus (A.D. 70) the Christians were regarded as a sect of the Jews; hence those Jews who were converted by the Apostles at Rome were buried in the catacombs of their fellow-countrymen. The question arises as to where those converted from heathenism by the Apostles found their last […]
Poor Pilate. If ever a man was caught unwittingly in the net of historical circumstance, it was Pilate. A simple Roman governor just doing his job, he could see that Jesus wasn’t the villain the Jewish crowd thought him to be. In the end, he washed his hands of the affair—tormented, it seems, by the […]
Whereas crucifixion, a form of state terror described by Josephus as “the most wretched of deaths” (Jewish Wars 7,23) persisted for hundreds of years, few are aware of its widespread use with victims being crucified on all three continents in the Ancient World. As late as the third century A.D. poets, murderers, robbers, mischief makers […]
WHAT’S A HAFTARAH? The haftarah or haftorah is the selection from the books of the Prophets (Nevi’im) read publicly in the synagogue following the Torah reading on Sabbath and Jewish holidays. The word haftarah derives from the Hebrew word meaning “parting” or “taking leave” since it concludes the scriptural readings in the morning Sabbath and […]
Isaiah 61:10-63:9 This week’s haftarah is the seventh and final installment of a series of seven “Haftarot of Consolation.” These seven haftarot commence on the Shabbat following Tisha b’Av and continue until Rosh Hashanah. The prophet begins on a high note, describing the great joy that we will experience with the Final Redemption, comparing […]
In the haftarah for parshat Ki Tavo the prophet speaks of light: Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has shone upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and a gross darkness the kingdoms, and the Lord shall shine upon you, and His glory shall appear over […]