THE WISDOM OF THE PROVERBS.

The Book of Proverbs contains many valuable lessons for everyone. Over thousands of years, it has taught billions of people how to live their lives and how to improve their lives as well. It is packed with life lessons and insights that are still very valuable to our lives in the world of today.
The very beginning of Wisdom is fearing the Lord. This fear is not the kind of fear of being struck dead but one reverential fear, respect of His Laws, and deep admiration of His Glory. To have this fear we must continually abide in His Word, the Scripture. The more we know about God the more we learn to fear Him. Where there is no fear there is no Wisdom.
Wisdom is the ability to discern which aspects of knowledge are true, right, lasting, and applicable to our personal life. Knowledge is made of about facts and ideas that we acquire through investigation, observation or experience. Insight is a truer understanding, and the deepest and clearest perception of life . It grasp the underlying nature of knowledge, and the essence of wisdom. Proverbs 2 says: "Indeed if you Call Out For Insight, Cry Aloud For Understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for gold, then you will Understand the Fear of the Lord and Find Knowledge of God" (3-5).
Some Scriptural verses tell us how things were wrong when every man did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6; 21:25). The idea of Trusting God is trusting in What He Says and what He says is often contrary to what humans believe. Proverbs 16:20 says: "Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is the one who Trust In The Lord." The more we lean on our own ideas we are showing a lack of Trust in God. Our own understanding lead us to a hard fall and eventually to an eternal death.
The greatest way to build discernment is to lean in God's Words for it has power to discern what is the best path to take. It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Dark paths lead us to death.
David knew this kind of power and that is why he wrote "The Law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The Statutes of the Lord are Trustworthy, making wise the simple"(Psalm 19:7).
It is not a coincidence that there is so much Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs. It has 31 chapters that are there waiting to be read and become part of our deep thinking. They reveal God's perspective on our daily life, increasing our power of observation and the effect that they bring is to gain Wisdom day by day. They comments extensively on relationships, mentioning more than 180 different kinds of people. Each of them may speak about our friends, neighbors, coworkers, and even our enemies.
Some Proverbs refer to behavioral patterns that God either applauds or condemn pinpointing the behavior that God wants us to implement or curb. Other Proverbs describe the positive or negative consequences of a particular course of action motivating us to discard unwise behaviors. For example, Proverbs 15:25 warns us about the damaging consequences of pride: "The Lord tears down the proud man's house." Also Proverbs 16:18 says: "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before fall."
Over 100 verses in the Book of Proverbs talk about the tongue describing conversational sins. When we provide an apt answer or a timely word, it is because we adopted a listening posture before we talk.
Spend time meditating on each one of the chapters and commit to your memory verses that challenged you the most or left the biggest impression in your conscience. For example, if you have a tendency of being rude in your conversational manners remember Proverbs 1:15 that says: "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 14:30 says as well: "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones."
Applying Truth from Proverbs to stimulate the growing of your personal character in your walk with God, remember them as practical tools to enhance your vision and not a legalistic straightjacket. Think of it as a kaleidoscopic approach that enables us to see many facets of Truth in each of the chapters and soak deeply on the Wisdom of this practical Book of Proverbs.

ANCIENT EDUCATION IN MESOPOTAMIA.

In ancient Israel, the chief source of information regarding education was the teachings written in the Old Testament. The writers of the Old testament were not interested in education as it is known now in the Western world, instead they were more concerned about the transmission of ceremonial traditions, and the provision of information concerning this type of educational processes.
This evidence is supplemented by other literary sources and archaeological discoveries. A form of cuneiform writing was established, scribal places of teachings emerged, with the aim to teach the understanding of the form of writing to scribes serving in palaces, temples, and administration offices. In ancient Summer and Egypt, a form of schooling was developed prior to Israel's conquest of Canaan and this practice influenced the education and development of teaching practices in Israel, related to the family unit.
The places of teaching this art flourished between 2,500 and 2,000 BC and the variety of positions held by the scribes suggests that the places were numerous. The students were the sons of wealthy families and the fathers of the students generally held responsible positions. The head of the institution was the most experienced father, the assistants were "the big brothers"and the students were called "sons" or "sons of the Tablet House." The curriculum included both oral and written practices. Discipline was enforced by strong methods that included whipping or caning. Ancient instruction texts that have been recovered bears the writing of students at various stages along the way towards mastery of the script.
Young-scribes-to-be were taught lists of words and terms which would be needed for writing various  ceremonial documents; and also the practice of copying them was enforced.
Rooms used to teach these practices have been found in Nippur, Sippar, Ur, and Mari. A"teaching day"
article written about 2,000 BC by an anonymous instructor vividly describes the daily routine at the instruction places and a successful attempt at"apple polishing." Learning the staggering number of of necessary characters of the oral and writing process took a great deal of time; the student memory was taxed, and discipline was harsh. The use of Wisdom's sayings in their curriculum was popular since they were brief and generally edifying.
Sumerian teachings in cuneiform writing were later collected by the Assyrian king Ashur'Banipal, whose library also contained interlinear texts of Sumerian and Assyrian.
In Egypt, this formal type of education was introduced sometime during the 3rd millennium BC. It was primarily vocational in aim, teaching the skills needed to become a priest, crafter, noble, or soldier.
The priests were the first to use writing taught in temple schools, since lives of the dead were written and buried with them. Sacred music and dance were also taught because of the ceremonial significance.
Written texts for teaching purposes unearthed from trash heaps near the temples suggest that great attention was paid to calligraphy. In addition to various correspondences and documents used as models to be copied by the students, there are writings which praise the scribe's occupation and exhort the student to diligence.
The nomadic Israelites were influenced directly or indirectly by this approach of philosophical training prior to the settlement of the tribes of Israel in Canaan. We can only speculate about it in the person of Moses and his personal education among the Egyptians and his role as mediator of Egyptian pedagogy to the Israelites. (Acts 7:22; Exodus 2: 10-15) After the Conquest, educational practices were adopted and more youths were taught to write.  Alphabetic writing developed by the Hyksos period of 1730-1580 BC. It is the earliest known alphabet . The Phoenician alphabet also influenced the development of early Hebrew writing.
For ancient Israelites, the training of one's children was a religious duty, and much of the content of what was taught in the homes was the sacred religious beliefs of Israel. Genesis 18:19 states: "For I have chosen Abraham, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the Way of the Lord by doing Righteousness and Justice; so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He Has Promised him." This verse underscores the importance of instruction, its purpose (that children might live righteously and justly), and the integral relationship of this kind of instruction to the hope of the nation ("that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has Promised him).

THE AMARNA TABLETS.

The Amarna Tablets are an archive, written on clay, primarily consisting of correspondence between the Egyptian representatives in Canaan and the rest of the Great Powers and independent kingdoms, between 1360-1332 BC. The recovery of the Amarna Tablets in our time was the result, in part, of their storage in ancient times in the Royal Records Office in the kingdom of Egypt. They total 382 ordered chronologically and geographically and the time in between the correspondence spans a period of at most 30 years. Several Tablets dates back to the rule of Amen'Hotep III (1390-1353 BC), father of Akhen'Aten, meaning that they were brought to the new royal city from an older archive. The primary reason for the storage is explained practically by the information recorded in them -recent ceremonial promises, requests, gifts and tribute- tangible traces of important contracts forged across long distances that needed to be checked or verified by the future generation of rulers.
Most of the Tablets are ceremonial correspondence written from rulers of the lands North of Egypt and received by the Egyptians, and only a few of them were written by the Egyptian king. Some of the letters, written on the clay surface, seem to have been made to be visually impressive, with larger tablet sizes and bold handwriting as well as carefully planned margins or marked-off sections.
Like other rulers who wrote to the Egyptian king, Abi-Milku and Ashur-Uballit sought to achieve  specific goals: -one practical like the assurance of safety and protection, -the other ideological and status-oriented like establishing contact with Egypt and acquiring knowledge of the foreign land. Other correspondence are inscribed with myths, epics, syllabary, lexical texts belonging to the kind used to learn cuneiform writing. Also some of them contain instructions for ceremonial training purposes, the exchanged correspondence requests or send a list of gifts asking something in return.These information is divided into Tablets that exchanged correspondence between Great Powers and the ones with correspondence to independent kingdoms only.
-The Great Powers were considered an exclusive group in which kingdoms were treated equally. They were the most influential and prosperous. Egypt only entered this group after the campaigns of Thut'Mose III. The others were Babylon, Hatti, Mitanni, and Assyria. They had a brotherly relationship and had to employ a specific pattern when writing to each other. At first, they had to identify who was writing and for whom the letter was written, then, report their wishes to the other, as showed in this example : "Say to Nap'Hurreya, the king of Egypt, my brother, my son-in-law, whom I love and whom loves me: Thus Tush'Ratta, Great King, the king of Mittani, you father-in-law, who loves you, your brother. For me all goes well. For Tadu-Heba, my daughter, your wife, for the rest of your wives, for your sons, for your magnates, for your chariots, for your horses, for your troops, for your country, and for whatever else belongs to you, may all go very, very well."  The rest of the correspondence was less stereotypical, making requests or listing the items being sent.
- The Independent Kingdoms are only two places, which is Ar'Zawa and Al'Ash'Iya.   Ar'Zawa was located on the South of the Anatolian coast. The alliance with Egypt was made via marriage.  Al'Ash'Iya was on Cyprus and was known as a source of copper.
The Amarna Tablets were discovered around 1887 CE, in Upper Egypt (Land of Reeds), by local Egyptians who secretly dug most of them from an area located in the center of the ruined city, the short lived capital of Akhen'Aten, founded by pharaoh, Akhen'Aten (1350s-1330s BC) and sold them in the antiquities market.
Akhen'Aten, known before the 5th BC as Amen'Hotep IV (Amun is satisfied), was a pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty who ruled for 17 years and died in 1336 BC. He is noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, an aspect of the god Ra, focusing on the monotheistic religion of Atenism. He tried to shift the traditional Egyptian religion to the monotheistic one. The shift was not widely accepted. After his death, his monuments were dismantled and hidden, his statues destroyed, and his name excluded from the king lists. Traditional Egyptian practices were gradually restored and years later, new rulers without clear rights of succession from the 18th Dynasty climbed into power, they founded a new dynasty, discrediting Akhen'Aten and his immediate successors, referring to Akhen'Aten himself as "the enemy" or "that criminal" in archival records. He was all but lost in history until the discovery of the Amarna Tablets.
In 1891- 1892 the ruins of the site of Akhen'Aten, the city built and designed for the worship of Aten, were explored more by an English digger and archaeologist by nature, with no formal education, but instructed at home as a surveyor by his own father. He uncovered 21 fragments. Then, since 1903, more tablets, or fragments, have been found, either in Egypt, or identified in the collections of various museums in Germany, England, Egypt, France, Russia, and the United States.
The Tablets were found in Upper Egypt (named: "the Land of Reeds,"a strip of land on both sides of the Nile between Nubia to Lower Egypt), at Amarna, the modern name for the ancient Egyptian capital of Akhet'Aten (el-Amarna), founded by pharaoh, Ahken'Aten (1350s-1330s BC) during the 18th dynasty of Egypt (classified as the 1st of the Ancient New Kingdom period lasting from 1549 to 1292 BC). This dynasty boasts several of Egypt's most famous pharaohs, including Tutankh'Amun.
The Amarna  Tablets are of great significance for Scriptural studies since they shed light on the ancient culture and language of the Canaanite people several centuries prior to their actual manifestation. The tablets are mostly written in Akkadian cuneiform, rather than of ancient Egypt, and heavily colored by the mother tongue of the writers, who spoke an early form of Canaanite, the language family which later evolved into its daughter languages, Hebrew and Phoenician.
The Tablets of Amarna proofs that the history of the Scriptural writings and the conquest of the Promise Land under Joshua leadership, is true. The Hebrew conquest of Canaan took 8 Years to complete but it was not counted until he began the conquest of Southern Israel, followed by the conquest of Northern Israel. Aaron died on the 1st Day of the 5th Month of the 40th Year of the wilderness wandering. Shortly after mourning Aaron for 30 Days, the people left Mount Hor, defeated Trans'Jordan nations, and then mourned for Moses 30 Days. They crossed the Jordan on the 10th Day of the 1st Month of the 41st Year, 4 Days before the Passover, which was exactly 40 Years to the Day they left Goshen.
From Joshua 14 we know that Caleb was given Hebron 45 Years after Moses promised it to him. This correspond with the 5th Year after crossing the Jordan.
The Habiru (also spelled Apiru) who are attacking the ones who are writing the Amarna Tablets, are the Hebrews under the command of Joshua. The etymology of "Hebrew" is "one who wanders." The 1st time the word "hebrew" is used in the Scripture is in Genesis 14 when it is applied to Abraham.
The Amarna Tablets make the connection of Habiru with Hebrew and tells about the Hebrews taking possession of the Land of Canaan shortly after they crossed the Jordan River under the command of Joshua. They are a secular witness to the Power of God and the truthfulness of the Scriptural record.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

Ancient Egyptians had a rich knowledge, since prehistoric times (5th BC), of the patterns and behaviors of the sky which permeated every aspect of their society. This knowledge led them to create a number of myths to explain the astronomical phenomena that played a considerable part in fixing dates of religious festivals and determining the hours of night. Trained priests were especially adept at watching the stars and observing the conjunctions and risings of the Sun, Moon, and planets, as well as the lunar phases. This is the reason why Egyptian gods and goddesses were so numerous and they are pictured in many paintings and murals.
Only certain gods were seen in the constellations, and others were represented by actual astronomical bodies.The constellation Orion, for instance, represented Osiris, who was the god of death, rebirth, and the afterlife. The Milky Way represented the sky goddess Nut giving birth to the sun god Ra. The stars were represented by the goddess of writing, Se'Shat, while the moon was either Toth, the god of wisdom, or Khons, a child moon god.
In the 3rd BC the observation of the horizon was extremely important, since it was here that the Sun appeared and disappeared daily. The Sun itself was represented by several gods, depending on its position. A rising morning Sun was Horus, the divine child of Osiris and Isis. The noon Sun was Ra because of its incredible strength. The evening Sun became Atum, the creator god who lifted pharaohs from the tombs to the stars. The red color of the Sun at sunset was considered to be the blood from the Sun as he died. After the Sun had set, it became Osiris, god of death and rebirth. In this way, night was associated with death and day with life or rebirth.
Egyptians grew in number and made the Nile River the center of its civilization, which flooded every year at the same time and provided rich soils for agriculture. Owing to the flood's own irregularity, the extreme precision of the Sirius star and the time of its return was very important to them. They named it Sopdet (meaning: Triangle), a goddess who was the guarantor of fertility over their land. The Egyptian priests, recognized that the flooding always occurred at the summer solstice, which was also when the bright star Sirius rose before the Sun. The priests, who were actually astronomers, were able to predict the annual flooding.
Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, is recorded in the earliest astronomical records. Its displacement from the ecliptic (the mean plane in the sky the Sun follows over a year), causes the star rising above the others in a remarkably regular basis compared to other stars, with a period exactly 365 days holding it constant in relation to the solar year. This occur at Cairo on July 19 (Julian), placing it just prior to the summer solstice and the onset of the annual flooding of the Nile.
The Egyptians continued to note the times of Sirius's annual return, which led them to discover the 1460-year Sothic cycle (Egyptian civil years of 365 days each or 1460 Julian years averaging 363 days each) and influenced the development of the Julian and Alexandrian calendars.
The Egyptian structures were built using astronomical orientation. The temples and pyramids were constructed in relation to the stars, zodiac, and constellations. In different cities, the structures had different orientations based on the specific beliefs of that place. For instance, some temples were built to align with a star that either rose or set at harvest or sowing time. Other structures were oriented toward the solstices or equinoxes.
As early as 4,000 BC, temples were built so precisely in its orientation that sunlight entered a room at only one precise time of the year. Another alternative building method was to gradually narrow successive doors into a specific room, in order to concentrate the sunbeams onto a god's image on the wall. The designs sometimes became quite complex. At the temple of Medinet Habu, there are actually two structures which are slightly off-kilter. It has been suggested that the second structure was built when the altitude of the other temple's orientation stars changed over a long period of time.
Their pyramids were carefully aligned towards the pole star (axis of rotation), and the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak (meaning "fortified village"), a vast open site, was aligned on the rising of the midwinter Sun.
In Ptolemaic Egypt, after the death of Alexander the Great in 323BC, the Egyptian tradition merged with Greek and Babylonian astronomy, with the city of Alexandria in Lower Egypt becoming the centre of universal knowledge and activity across the Hellenistic world. Following the Muslim conquest of Egypt, the region came to be dominated by Arabic culture and Islamic astronomy.
Ybn Yunus, born in Egypt between 950-952 CE, became an important Egyptian Muslim astronomer.
His father, a historian, biographer, scholar of Islamic religious law,wrote 2 volumes about the history of Egypt. Ybn's father has been described as a prolific who became Egypt's most celebrated early historian and first known compiler of a biographical dictionary devoted exclusively to Egyptians. Ybn's works are noted for being ahead of time, and, like his father, having been based on meticulous calculations and attention to detail. He worked as an astronomer for the Fatimid Dynasty which came to power and the new city of Cairo was founded. In astrology, Ybn is noted for making predictions and having written a work concerning the heliacal risings of Sirius ("On attainment of Desire"), and on predictions concerning what day of the week the Coptic (Alexandrian calendar) year will start on. Ibn's most famous work in Islamic astronomy is a handbook of astronomical tables which contains very accurate observations expressing them without mathematical symbols. Ybn described 40 planetary conjunctions (Two objects have either same right ascension  or same ecliptic longitude observed from earth) and 30 lunar eclipses. For example, he accurately describes the planetary conjunction that occurred in the year 1000CE as follows: A conjunction of Venus and Mercury in Gemini, observed in the Western sky: "2 planets were in conjunction after sunset on the night of Sunday, May 19, 1000. The time was 8 equi-noctial hours after midday of Sunday ... Mercury was North of Venus and their latitude difference was a 3rd of a degree." Ybn's observations on conjunctions and eclipses were so accurate that they were used by the surveyor Richard Dunthorne, and the autodidactic Simon Newcombs' respective calculations of the secular acceleration of the moon.
In 1006CE, Ali ibn Ridwan, an Arab of Egyptian origin, observed a supernova (SN 1006), reaching an estimated 7.5 visual magnitude, and exceeding 16 times the brightness of Venus). He wrote: "the spectacle was a large circular body, 3 times as large as Venus. The sky was shining because of its light.
The intensity of its light was a little more than a quarter of that of Moon light." Ali ibn also noted that the new star was low on the Southern horizon. It was regarded as the brightest stellar event in recorded history, and Ali ibn left the most detailed description of it. Some astrologers of his time interpreted the event as a portent of plague and famine.
In the 14th CE, Najm al-Din al-Misri, from Egypt wrote a treaty describing over 100 different types of astronomical instruments, many of which he invented himself.
In the 20th CE, Farouk El-Baz from Egypt worked for NASA and was involved in the first Moon Landings (arrival of manned and unmanned robotic missions) with Apollo program, where he assisted in the explorations' plans of the Moon.

THE JORDAN RIVER.

Water is a source of life, energy and absolution in religion, and Rivers have always played an especially important role in worshippers lives. Unfortunately, in the world of today, people have polluted the spiritual purpose of this essential sources of life by industrialization and urban waste.
The Jordan River is a 251km/156mi long River in the Middle East that flows roughly North to South through the Sea of Galilee and on to the Dead Sea. It has an upper course from its sources to the Sea of Galilee, and a lower course South of the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea.
Over its upper course, the Jordan drops rapidly in a 75km/47mi run to the once large and swampy Lake Hula, which is slightly above sea level. Then, exiting the now almost extinct lake, it goes through an even steeper drop over 25km/16mi down to the Sea of Galilee, which enters at its Northern end. The River deposits much of the silt it is carrying within the Lake, which it leaves again near its Southern tip. At that point the river is situated about 210 meters below sea level. The last 120km/75mi long section follows what is commonly termed the "Jordan Valley,"which has less gradient (the total drop is another 210m) so that river meanders before entering the Dead Sea, a terminal Lake about 422 meters below sea level with no outlet. Two major tributaries enter from the East during this last section: the Yarmouk River, the largest tributary of the Jordan that runs in Jordan, Syria, and Israel and drains much of the Hauran plateau, and the Zarqa River, the second largest tributary that encompasses the most densely populated areas of the Jordan River.
In 1964, Israel began operating a pumping station that diverts water from the Sea of Galilee in the North of the country to the highly populated center and arid South. In 1964 also, Jordan constructed a channel that diverted water from the Yarmouk River, one of the major tributaries of the Jordan River, to the East Ghor Canal, the largest irrigation canal system in Jordan that runs parallel to the East bank of the Jordan River. Syria has also built reservoirs that catch the Yarmouk's waters. Environmentalists blame Israel, Jordan, and Syria for extensive damage to the Jordan River ecosystem. The practice of letting sewage and brackish water flow into the river has almost destroyed it all. The waters are now 70% to 90% used for human purposes and the flow is greatly reduced. Because of this and the high evaporation rate of the Dead Sea, as well as industrial extraction of salts through evaporation ponds, the Dead Sea is shrinking rapidly. Rescuing the Jordan could take decades. In 2007, The Jordan River was declared one of the World's most endangered ecological site, due to the lack of cooperation between Israel and the neighboring Arab states.
The people of the Jordan Rift Valley, also called the Syro-African Depression, do not realize that it is an elongated depression shared by modern-day Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. Anything that alter the normal function of its ecosystem will have a change reaction affecting the whole geographical area. This geographic region includes the entire length of the Jordan River -from its sources, through the Hula Valley, the Korazim block, the Sea of Galilee, the Lower Jordan Valley, all the way to the Dead Sea (the lowest point on Earth) and then continues through the Ar'Ab'Ah depression, the Gulf of Aq'Ab'A whose shorelines it incorporates, until finally reaching the Red Sea proper at the Straits of Tir'An. Access to Jordan's only Seaport of Aq'Ab'A and to Israel's only Red Sea seaport of E'Ilat is through the Gulf of Aqaba, which gives the Straits of Tir'An strategic importance.
The Jordan Rift Valley was formed many millions of years ago when the Arabian Plate moved Northward and then Eastward away from Africa. One million years later, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan Rift Valley rose so that the sea water stopped flooding the area.
The Jordan Rift Valley's lowest point is in the Dead Sea, the lowest spot of which is 790 meters below sea level. Rising sharply to almost 1,000m/3,300ft in the West, and similarly in the East, the Rift is a significant topographic feature over which a few narrow paved roads and difficult mountain tracks lead.
The Great Rift Valley is the continuous geographic trench, approximately 6,000km / 3,700mi in length, that runs from Lebanon's Beqaa Valley in Asia to Mozambique in South Eastern Africa.
In the Scripture, the Jordan River is referred to as the source of fertility of a large plain, said to be watered like "the Garden of God" (Genesis 13). It has a major significancy in Judaism and Christianity Jacob and his sons, crossed it and its tributary, the Jabbok (Al-Zarqa), on his way back from Haran  (Genesis 32). The Jordan is noted as the line of demarcation between the "two tribes and the half tribe" settled to the East (Numbers 34) and the "nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh" that, led by Joshua, settle to the West (Joshua 13).
Opposite Jericho, it was called "the Jordan of Jericho"(Num. 34). The Jordan has a number of fords, a shallow place good for crossing, and one is famous as the place where many Ephraimites were slain by Jephthah, the judge (Judges 12). This same forts are mentioned as being near Beth'Barah, where Gideon lay in wait for the Midianites (Judges 7). In the plain of the Jordan, between Suc'Coth and Zar'than, is the clay ground where Solomon had his brass-foundries (1King7). In 2 King 6 the Jordan Valley is portrayed as a Wood Land Region. The trees were rare in most parts of Palestine, but plentiful in the Jordan Valley.
The New Testament speaks several times about Jesus crossing the Jordan during His Ministry (Matt19; Mark10), and of believers crossing the Jordan to come near and hear Him preach and to be healed of their diseases (Matt.4; Mark 3). When his enemies sought to capture Him, Jesus took refuge at Jordan in the place where John the Baptist had first baptized Him (John 10).
Jordan is understood as the bridge to freedom from slavery. The Israelites had to make a difficult and hazardous journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. The actual crossing is the final step of the journey, which is then complete.

KETH'UR'A, MOTHER OF MIDIAN.

The traditional belief among medieval Jewish commentators was that Keth'Ur'A had the same role played by Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid from which Abraham's firstborn Ish'Ma'El, the progenitor of the Ish'Ma'El'Ites, was born. God's plan shows us the Old and the New Covenant with each woman representing the world of the flesh according to the time in which they came to the life of Ab'Ra'Ham.
Hag'Ar and Keth'Ur' A, both are called concubines of Ab'Ra'Ham, but Sarah always was referred to as wife. Sarah is the Covenant itself,  and the 2 concubines represents the Old flesh and the New flesh.
Then when Abraham still was alive, he gave his whole state unto Isaac, his son through his wife Sarah, the son of the Promise, But unto the sons of his concubines Ab'Ra'Ham gave gifts, and sent them away from his son Isaac. Therefore the sons of the concubines have gifts that were given by his father when he was alive but those gifts are not powerful enough to attain salvation and eternal life.
According to the Scripture, the Midianites, were descendants of Midian, the son of Ab'Ra'Ham  through Keth'Ur'A.  Ab'Ra'Ham and Keth'Ur'A had 6 sons.
Genesis 25 says, "... she bore him   Zimr'An, -Jok'Sh'An, -Med'An, -Midi'An, -Ishb'Ak, and  -Shu'Ah.
-Jok'Sh'An's sons were Sh'Eba and Ded'An.  Ded'An descendants were the Assh'Ur'Ites, Letu'Sh'Ites,  Leumm'Ites.
-Mid'Ian's sons were Eph'Ah, -Eph'Er, -Han'Och, -Ab'Ida, -El'Da'Ah. (1-4)
Mid'Ian is also mentioned in the Scripture through these series of events:
-Joseph, an important figure in the Scripture was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers to Mid'Ian, who came across them, and Mid'Ian'Ites sold Joseph to the Ish'Ma'El'Ites. Joseph rose to become vizier, the second powerful man in Egypt next to Pharaoh.
-Mid'An is the place where Moses spent 40 years in voluntary exile after killing an E'gypt'ian.
-Moses married Zipp'Or'Ah the daughter of Jeth'Ro (also known as Reu'El), the priest of Mid'Ian.
-Jeth'Ro advised Moses on establishing a system of delegated legal decision-making.
-Moses asked Hob'Ah, the son of Reu'El (Jeth'Ro) the Midianite, to accompany the Israelites traveling towards the Promised Land because of his local knowledge, although Hob'Ah preferred to return to his homeland.
-Cozbi, the daughter of Z'Ur, a prominent Medianite chief, was speared by Phinehas, a priest, grandson of Aaron and son of Eleazar, the High Priest, together with the Israelite Zim'Ri, son of a Simeon'Ite chief. Zimri, as Prince of a family within the Tribe of Simeon, took the woman into his family as a concubine. The Midianite women's seductions of Israelites to their idol Baal-Peor is described as the cause of offense to God, even though, the Midianites were racially akin to the Israelites as descendants of Abraham, and Moses' own wife Zipporah was Midianite.
-Soon after, God instructed Moses to collect an army and destroy Mid'Ian.
-The Israelites killed every Midianite male including the chief Z'Ur and four other named chiefs, and brought back the women and children as prisoners of war.
-Moses condemned the Midianite women as the cause of the enmity (threatening, forceful adverse) between the Israelites and the Midianites, and ordered every woman who had slept with a man to be killed (Numbers 31), but 32,000 girls who have never slept with a man were kept as slaves.
-Israel was oppressed by Mid'Ian for 7 years during the time of Judges (chapter 6). Gideon was called by God to deliver Israel from Mid'ian's armies. He killed the Mid'Ian princes Or'Eb and Ze'Eb, then pursued their kings Zeb'Ah and Zal'Mun'Na as far as Kar'Kor in the open desert wastes on the East of the Jordan, not far beyond Succoth and Penuel to the South, slaying them as well.
-Hadad the Edomite, opposing King Solomon, passed through Mid'ian and Par'An while fleeing from Edom to Egypt.
-Isaiah 60 speaks of camels from Midian and Ephah coming to "cover your land," along with the gold and frankincense from Sheba. This passage is taken by the Gospel of Matthew as a foreshadowing of the Magi's gift to the infant Jesus. Again the representation of the Abraham's gifts given to the sons of the concubines are offered to the Christ Jesus, showing Him as the only one powerful enough to defeat Satan and the power of Death.
Mid'Ian, in a religious sense, was a foundation or confederation of tribes brought together as a cultic collective league in the vicinity of a sanctuary to exercise their gifts for worship purposes. It is uncertain which deities the Mid'Ianites worship. But through the apparent religio-political connection with the Moab'Ites they are thought to have worshiped a multitude, including Baal-peor and the Queen of heaven, Ash'Ter'Oth.
An Egyptian temple of Hath'Or (personification of joy, music, feminine love, motherhood) at Tim'Na, North of the Gulf of Aq'Aba (area rich in copper ore mined since 5th BC) continued to be used for cultic purposes during Mid'Ian occupation of the site . Mid'Ian transformed the Hath'Or mining temple into a desert tent-shrine. However , whether Hath'Or or some other deity was the object of devotion during this period is difficult to ascertain. Post-holes, large quantities of red and yellow decayed cloth with beads woven into it, along with numerous copper rings/wire used to suspend the curtains, were unearthed all along two walls of the shrine. Mid'Ian did make offerings to whoever the divinity was, especially since a large number of Mid'Ian votive vessels were also discovered in the shrine. The Mid'Ian tent-shrine at Tim'Na is one of the closest parallels to the Scriptural Tabernacles.
The people of Median are also mentioned in the Arabic Q'Ur'An. The word Mad'Yan appears 10 times in it. They are also called "Ash'Abu" meaning "Companions of the Wood."

MOUNT BISOTOUN.

Mount Bisotoun is a mountain of the Zagros Mountains range, located in Ker'Man'Shah Province of Western Iran. The Zagros Mountains is long mountain range in Iran, Iraq, and South Eastern Turkey.
Ker'Man'Shah is located in the middle of the Western part of Iran. The city is built on the slopes of Mount Sefid Kooh. City's elevation average is about 1,350 meters above sea level. The distance between Ker'Man'Shah and Teh'Eran is 525 km. It is the trade center of rich agricultural region that produces grain, rice, vegetables, fruits, and oilseeds, and there are many industrial centers, oil and sugar refineries, and cement, textile, and flour factories, etc.
Many caves with Paleo'Lithic remains have been surveyed or excavated there. The oldest prehistoric village in the Middle East dating back to 9,800 BC was discovered in Sah'Neh, in West Ker'Man'Sheh.
Mount Bisotoun is well known for the inscription and rock relief in which the great Acha'Emen'Ian King, Darius the Great, had the narrative of his exploits carved around 500 BC.
The Acha'Emen'Id Empire (550-330BC), also called the First Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. Darius I ruled the empire at its peak, when it included much of West Asia, the Caucasos (region at the border of Europe and Asia between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea), part of the Balkans (Thrace-Macedonia and Paeonia), most of the Black Sea coastal regions, parts of the North Caucasus (between the Sea of Azov and Black Sea on the West and Caspian Sea on the East), Central Asia, as far as the Indus Valley in the far East and portions of North and North East Africa including Egypt (Mud'Raya), Eastern Libya and coastal Sudan.
It was larger than any previous empire in history, spanning 5.5 million sq km. Darius organized the empire by dividing it into provinces, incorporating various peoples of different origins and faiths. Also it is notable for its successful model of a centralized and unified, bureaucratic administration through governors [satraps] under the King of Kings, for building infrastructure such as road systems and a postal system, the use of Aramaic as an official language across its territories, and the development of civil services and a large professional army. He also introduced standard weights and measures and organized a new uniform monetary system. The empire's successes inspired similar systems in later empires. Darius also worked on construction projects throughout the empire, focusing on Susa (lower Zagros, East of the Tigris, between Kar'Kheh and Dez rivers, Pas'Argad'Ae, Perse'Polis, Babyl'On, and Egypt.
Darius is mentioned in the Scriptural Books of Hagg'Ai, Zechar'Iah, and Ez'Ra-Neh'Em'Iah.
Darius the Great's inscription at Mount Bisotun, which dates to 522 BC, lies some 1300 meters high in the Mountains, and counts as one of the most famous sites in Near Eastern archaeology. The site has attracted visitors for centuries.
The Behistun inscription is to Old Persian cuneiform what the Roseta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The trilingual inscription (in Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian) was crucial in the decipherment of the script. The relief above the inscription depicts Darius facing 9 rebels who objected to his crowning. At the king's feet lies Gaumata, a Magian priest from Media, and impostor of Bardiya, the younger son of Cyrus the Great. The location of this important historical document is not coincidental : Gaumata was a Medean and in Acha'Emen'Id times Behistun lay on the Medea-Parsa highway.
The Behistun is also notable for 3 reliefs at the foot of the hill that date from the Parth'Ian era. Among them is a Hellenistic-era depiction of the divinity Bah'Ram as the Greek hero Hercules, who reclines with a goblet in his hand, a club at his feet and a lion-skin beneath him.

THE SPIRITUAL WORLD OF PYTH'AGORAS.

Pyth'Agoras was considered a philosopher, more than anything else. He was born on the island of Samos, Greece in 569BC. Various writings place his death between 500BC and 475BC in Meta-Pontum, Lucania, Italy. His father, Mnes'Archus, was a gem merchant. His mother's name was Pyth'Ais. Pyth'Agoras had two or three brothers.
Pyth'Agoras was well educated, and he played the 7 strings lyre throughout his lifetime, knew poetry and recited Homer. He was interested in philosophy, astronomy, music, the mysticism of numbers, and was greatly influenced by Ph'Erek'Ydes (philosophy), Th'Ales (astronomy), and Ana'Xim'Ander (phylosophy).
Pyth'Agoras left Samos for Egypt in about 535BC(35 years old) to study with the priests in the temples.
Ten years later, when Persia invaded Egypt, he was taken prisoner and sent to Babyl'On (now Iraq), where he met the Magoi, priests who taught him sacred rites. Iam'Blichus (250-330CE), a Syrian philosopher, wrote about Pyth'Agoras, "He also reached the acme of perfection in numbers and music and other sciences taught by the babylonians.. ."
In 520BC (49 years old), now a free man, left Babyl'On and returned to Samos, and sometime later began a school called "The Semicircle."His methods of teaching were not very popular with the leaders of Samos, and their desire for him to become involved in politics did not appeal to him, so he left.
In 518CE9 (51 years old), he settled in Crotona, a Greek colony in Southern Eastern coast of Italy, and founded a philosophical and religious school where his many followers lived and worked. The school lived by rules of behavior, including when they spoke, what they wore and what they ate. Many of the practices and beliefs of the society (secrecy, vegetarianism, fasting, silence, refusal to eat beans, refusal to wear animal skins, celibacy, self-examination, immortality and reincarnation) can be traced to the beliefs of Egyptian priests and were re-directed as "rules of life." They had no personal possessions and were strictly vegetarians . Another group of followers who lived apart from the school were allowed to have personal possessions and were not expected to be vegetarians.  They all worked communally on discoveries and logical thinking. Both men and women were permitted to become members. In fact, several female Pyth'Agoreans became noted philosophers. For example, Ae'Sara of Lucania was known for her theory of the tri-part soul, which she believed consisted of the mind, spiritedness, and desire.
Pyth'Agoreans believed that all relationships of any kind could be reduced to mystic numbers in order to account for geometrical properties and purposes. He had long played the seven string lyre and learned how harmonious the vibrating strings sounded when the lengths of the strings were proportional to whole numbers, such as 2:1, 3:2, 4:3. He also realized that this knowledge could be applied to other musical instruments. From this viewpoint, the concept of number was developed, which became the dominant principle of all proportion, order, and harmony in the universe. Then, with the same principle, they found the existence of the "incommensurable" (irrational) numbers. It caused a scandal at the beginning, so serious that some members tried to suppress the knowledge of the existence of the newly found concept. By any means the ethics of the school was based on strict loyalty and secrecy.
The core of Pyth'Agorean philosophy developed primarily within religious concepts, such as: the soul was thought to reside in the brain, and was considered immortal. The soul was able to move from one being to another, or sometimes from a human into an animal, through a series of reincarnations called transmigration until it achieved the spiritual purification needed in order to continue its divine journey. Both mathematic and music were considered entities with enough power to achieve purification. Certain symbols have a mystical significance. Numbers have personalities,characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. They were not only symbols of reality, but also were the final substance of real things, known as "number mysticism." They held, for example, that One is the point, Two is the line, Three is the surface, and Four is the solid. Seven was considered the destiny that dominates human life because infancy ends there, and also because the number Seven was associated with the Seven Wandering Stars. the age of maturity began at age Fourteen, marriage occurred in the Twenty-First year, and Seventy years was the normal life span. The number Ten was identified as the perfect number because it was the sum of One, plus Two, plus Three, plus Four.
The world was understood an an entity that depends upon the interaction of opposites, such as male and female, lightness and darkness, warm and cold, dry and moist, light and heavy, fast and slow.
The Pyth'Agoreans deduced that any Triangle whose sides were in the ratio 3:4:5 was a right- angled triangle. The earlier Egyptians stated this empirical relationship and the desire to find the mathematical harmonies of all things led the Pyth'Agoreans to prove it. Today it is known as the Pyth'Agorean Theorem.
In Astronomy, the Pyth'Agorean were the first to consider the Earth as a sphere revolving with the other planets and the Sun around a universal central fire. Then planets were believed to exist in order to produce the number of Ten. They also recognized that the orbit of the Moon was inclined to the equator of the Earth, and were one of the first to accept that Venus was both the Evening Star and the Morning Star.
The Pyth'Agorean doctrine of numerology and number mysticism influence the developing of the idea that nature could be understood through mathematical concepts and science was extremely important for studying and understanding the physical world in which we live.

THE ROLE OF PLANTS AND TREES IN THE SCRIPTURE.

Human life ends with death and burial in the ground. Plants are just the opposite. They emerge from the earth and draw nourishment from it. For this specific reason, many stories associate plants with birth or rebirth and with the eternal cycle of life springing from death. However, because some plants yield poisons and some die in winter, plants can also represent death and decay.
Various trees, shrubs, herbs, grains, flowers, and fruit appear in the Scripture as general symbols of rebirth, decay, and immorality. We can see why trees often take leading roles along with mountains and the sea, because trees are bigger than we are; they stand when we fall and they endure when we pass away. Yet, unlike the sea and the hills, we can muster the trees' power by chopping them down and discard them from its natural use for the sake of our on commodity. This is a sinful and stupid act.
We, as believers, are bound to the obligation to see the natural world as one charged with the power and glory of God. In the world of today, nature is treated as something that have lost their enchantment and it is represent just a thing for consumption. A star is just a nuclear reaction; a snake is just a reptile; a baby is just an arrangement of cells. We are not able to fell the insight of things.
In Genesis, the Scripture says, "And out of the ground made God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the Tree of Life also in the midst of the Garden, and Tree of Knowledge  of good and evil." When we read these words, we are able to see the setup for the plot. The Tree of Knowledge of good and evil God commands the humans not to use, they disobey and used it as food. "The woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise." The woman reverses God's order. For her food is first, beauty second. That Tree was good only for its beauty but not for its food. The woman was deceived: It is not wise to set aside beauty for food. Any animal can eat, but only humans can worship the Creator of things.
We find in the Scripture trees mentioned in a variety of kinds. They are mentioned for their beauty and each had fruits with seeds in it given to us for its spiritual use. Some seeds produced oil, others provided food. God gave us the possibility to increase their number by planting the seeds and by taking care of the trees, in that way we were able to secure our overall welfare.
In Revelation 22, we learn that the tree of life bears fruit crops 12 times a year and its leaves are for the healing of the nations. The Tree of Life, referred to in Genesis, is now portrayed as the symbol of God's provision for immortality to His chosen ones. The Tree of Life is now the blessing for all mankind while the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil is a curse. The Tree of Life is then the continuous reminder that immortality is a consequence of obedience. God has given us enough time to know the New Covenant made through Christ Jesus and His provision for eternal life to the ones who have the sincere desire in their hearts to obey His Command.

VERSES ABOUT THE LAST DAYS.

2 Timothy3: "But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. They are the kind who work their way into people's homes and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by many desires. Such women are forever following new teachings, but they never understand the truth, and their teachers fight the Truth just as Jannes and Jambres fought against Moses. Their minds are depraved and their faith is counterfeit."(1-8)        Paul wrote this Letter in 66CE from prison in Rome, shortly before his execution by the emperor, exhorting Timothy to remain faithful.

James1: "Whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your Faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything."(2-4) ... "for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. They can't make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do."(6-8)... "those who are rich will fade away like a flower in the field. The hot sun rises and dries up the grass; the flower withers, and its beauty fades away. So also, wealthy people will fade away with all of their achievements."(10-11) ... "Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires. These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death."(14-15) ..."Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above, Who created all heaven's lights. Unlike them, He never changes or casts shifting shadows."(17) .."be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.Your
anger can never make things right in God's sight."(20) 'Get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives and humbly accept the Message God Had Planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls.
It is a Message to obey, not just to listen to. If you do not obey, you are only fooling yourself, it is like looking your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance."(21-25) ..."If you claim to be religious but do not control your tongue, you are just fooling yourself and your religion is worthless.
Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God means that we must care for spiritual orphans and widows in their troubles and refuse to let the world corrupt us." (26-27)
James3: "If you do not brag about the good you do, then you will be truly wise! But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your hearts, do not brag about being wise. That is the worst kind of lie. For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, un-spiritual,
and motivated by the Devil. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every kind of evil. But the Wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no partiality and is always sincere." (13-18)   James the half-brother of Jesus and a leader in the Jerusalem church, wrote this Letter around 45CE, in order to correct the false belief that appeared among the believers regarded to Faith. The false belief said that a person can have faith without a change of behavior. The practical instructions that James gave to the believers regarding the true life of faith and its social implications helped them to understand the difference.

Luke 21: "By standing firm, you will win your souls. And when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies then you will know that the time of its destruction has arrived."(20) ..."And Jerusalem will be conquered and trampled down by the Gentiles until the Age of the Gentiles comes to an end. And there will be strange events in the skies -signs in the sun, moon and stars. And down here on earth the nations
will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides... the stability of the very heavens will be broken up."(24-26) Luke, a Gentile physician and associate of Paul, wrote the Gospel around 60CE.

Matthew 24:"As Jesus was leaving the Temple grounds, his disciples pointed out to Him the various Temple buildings.  But Jesus told them, 'Do you see all these buildings? I assure you, they will be so completely demolished that not one stone will be left on top of another.' Later, Jesus sat on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to Him privately and asked,  'When will all this take place? And will there be any sign ahead of time to signal Your Return and the End of the World?' Jesus told them, 'Do not let anyone mislead you. For many will come in My Name, saying, I am the Messiah. They will lead many astray. And spiritual wars will break out near and far, but do not panic. Yes, these things must come, but the end won't follow immediately. The nations and kingdoms will proclaim war against each other in the spiritual world and there will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the physical world. But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come.'"(1-8) ..."The time will come when you will see what Daniel the prophet spoke about:  the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing in the Holy Place... For that will be a time of greater horror than anything the world has ever seen or will ever see again. In fact, unless the Time of Calamity is shortened the entire human race will be destroyed.But it will be shortened for the sake of God's chosen ones.Then if anyone tells you, 'Look, here is the Messiah,' or 'There He is,' do not pay any attention. For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great miraculous signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God's chosen ones.'"(15-24).."Immediately after those horrible days end, the sun will be darkened
the moon will not give light, the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then at last the sign of the coming of the Son of Man will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the nations of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man arrive on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with the sound of a mighty trumpet blast and they will gather together His chosen ones from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven." (29-31)   Matthew's Gospel, written probably between 60-65CE records the advent of this long-awaited age of a new kingdom on earth -The Kingdom of Heaven.

Hebrews1: "Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.
But now in these Final Days, he has spoken to us through His Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance and through the Son He made the universe and everything in it." (1-2)
"The Son reflects God's own glory, and everything about the Son represents God exactly. The Son sustains the universe by the mighty power of God's Command. After the Son died to cleanse us from the stain of sin, the Son sat down in the place of honor at the Right hand of the majestic God of heaven. This shows that God's Son is far greater than the angels, just as the Name God gave Him is far greater than their Names. For God never said to any angel what He said to Jesus: "You are My Son, Today I have become Your Father,' And again God said, 'I will be His Father, and He will be My Son.' And then, when God presented His honored Son to the World, God said, 'Let all the angels of God worship His Son.' God calls His angels 'messengers swift as the wind and servants made of flaming fire.'"(3-7)
Hebrews 2: "Furthermore, the future World we are talking about will not be controlled by angels. For somewhere in the Scripture it says, 'What is man that You should think of him and the Son of Man that you should care for Him. For a little while You made him lower than the angels and You crowned him with glory and honor. You gave him authority over all things.' Now when it says 'all things,' it means 'nothing is left out.' But we have not yet seen all of this happen. What we do see in Jesus, who 'for a little while was made lower than the angels and now is crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death for us. Yes, by God's grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone in all the World. And it was only right that God -Who Made Everything and for Whom Everything was Made- should bring His many children into glory. Through Jesus' suffering, God made Him a perfect leader, One fit to bring them into their salvation."(5-10) .."Because God's children are human beings -made of flesh and blood-
Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could He break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death." (14-15)
Hebrews' writings have an uncertain author or authors. The writings appeared a few years before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (70CE). Apparently, after some pressure and persecution, the believers were having second thoughts about their decision to leave Judaism to become Christians. So, this Letter shows how Christianity is superior to Judaism. In every way, Christ is shown to be better.
As God, He is superior to angels, to Moses, and to the Old Testament priests. As a man, Jesus Christ is able to identify himself with our human struggles. Jesus Christ sealed a New Covenant that is far superior to the Old Covenant. So the writings encourage the believers to move beyond questions about the basics of the Faith and follow the examples of the many faithful men and women of the past, who followed God in the midst of chaos and persecutions.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM TERTULLIANUS?

Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus (155-240CE) from Carth'Age (now Tunisia, North coast of Africa) was a scholar with an excellent education. As an important early Christian theologian, polemicist, and moralist who, as initiator of ecclesiastical Latin, was instrumental in shaping the vocabulary and thought of Western Christianity.
Carth'Age was founded bt Phoenicians of Tyre in 814BC; its Phoenician name means "New Town."The Greeks called the city Karch'Edon. The Aeneid, a Virgil's epic poem, written from about 30 to 19BC, tells the story of Dido, queen of Carth'Age falling in love with Aeneas, who has taken refuge in Carth'Age after the fall of Troy. He refuses to marry her and sails away, the despairing queen kills herself. Carth'Age's inhabitants were known to Romans as "Poeni,"a derivation from the word "Phoenicians,"from the adjective "Punic"is derived. Nothing earlier than the last quarter of the 8thBC has been discovered. The Phoenicians selected the locations of their maritime colonies with great care, focusing on the quality of harbors and their proximity to trade routes. The interests of the inhabitants were turned toward commerce and Carth'Age controlled much of the Western trade in the luxurious dye from the murex shell. The marine snail feeds by drilling a hole through the shell of bivalves or other shelled animals and inserts its long proboscis to ingest the prey. The purple color appears when its natural yellow fluid is exposed to sunlight. Carth"age fell to the expansion of Roman control in 146BC.
In 122 CE the Roman Senate entrusted Gaius Gracchus and Marcus Fulvius Flaccus with the foundation of a colony on the site of Carth'Age.Thereafter it became known as Colonia Julia Carth'Ago and it soon grew prosperous enough to be ranked with Alexandria and Antioch. Carth'Age became a favorite city of the emperors, but in the mid-3rd CE, the city began to decline again.
From the end of the 2nd CE, Cath'Age had its own Christian bishop and among its luminaries were the Church Fathers, Tertullianus, and St. Cyprian.
When Tertullianus was born in 155CE, Carth'Age was 2nd only to Rome as a cultural and educational centre in the West. He received an exceptional education in grammar, rethoric, literature, philosophy and law. His parents were unbelievers, and his father was a non commissioned officer in an African-based legion assigned to the governor of the province. After completing his education Tertullianus went to Rome to study further and it was there that he became interested in the Christian movement, but not until he returned to Carth'Age toward the end of the 2nd CE he was converted to the Christian faith. He left no account of his conversion experience but he indicated in his early works that he was impressed by the courage and determination of martyrs, the moral rigor-ism and the uncompromising belief in one God.  By the end of the 2nd CE the church in Carth'Age had become large, firmly established and well organized and was rapidly becoming a powerful force in North Africa. By the year 225CE there were approximately 70 Bishops in Numidia and Pro-Consularis, the two provinces of Roman Africa.
Tertullianus emerged as a leading member of the African church, using his talents as a teacher in instructing the unbaptized seekers and the faithful and as a literary defender of Christian beliefs and practices.
During the next 20 to 25 years, from his early 40 to mid-60s, Tertullianus devoted himself almost entirely to literary pursuits. Developing an original Latin style, his fiery and tempestuous personality became a lively and pungent propagandist though not the most profound writer in Christian antiquity.
Tertullianus' works abound with arresting and memorable phrases, ingenious aphorisms, bold and ironic puns, wit, sarcasm, countless words of his own coinage, and a constant stream of invective against his opponents.
Sometime before 210CE Tertullianus left the orthodox church to join a new prophetic sectarian movement known as Mountanism (founded by 2nd CE Phrygian prophet Montanus), which has spread from Asia Minor to Africa. It held similar views about the basic tenets of Christian doctrine but it was labelled a heresy for its believe in new prophetic revelations. Montanus proclaimed the towns of Pepuza and Tymion in West-Central Phrygia as the site of the New Jerusalem, making the larger, Pepuza, his headquarters. Phrygia as a source for this movement was not arbitrary. Hellenization never fully took root in Phrygia, unlike many of the surrounding Eastern regions of the Roman Empire. This sense of difference, while simultaneously having easy access to the rest of the Mediterranean Christian world, encouraged the foundation of this separate sect of Christianity. Montanus has 2 female colleagues, Prisca (Priscilla) and Maximilla, who likewise claimed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The female popularity even exceeded Montanus' own. "The Three" spoke in ecstatic visions and urged their followers to fast and to pray, so that they might share these revelations.  Their followers claimed they received the prophetic gift from the prophets Quadratus and Ammia of Philadelphia, figures believed to have been part of a line of prophetic succession stretching all the way back to Agabus, 1st CE and to the daughters of Philip the Evangelist. In time, the New Prophecy spread from Phrygia across the Christian world, to Africa and to Gaul. The response to the new movement split the Christian communities, and the proto-orthodox clergy mostly fought to suppress it. They made the people belief that evil spirits were in possession of the Phrygian prophets, and both Maximilla and Priscilla were the targets of failed exorcisms. There was real doubt at Rome, and its Bishop even wrote letters in support of Montanism. In 193, an anonymus writer found the church at Ancyra in Galatia torn in two, and opposed the movement there. The clash of basic beliefs between the movement's proponents and the greater Westernization of the Christian World was enough ingredients for such conflict to occur. The dramatic public displays by its adherents brought unwanted attention to the still fledging religion. There was never a uniform excommunication of the New Prophecy adherents and in many places they maintained their standing within the orthodox community. Montanists may have been guilty of extravagant reverence for the teachings of their prophetic leaders, treasured them, and even appearing to exalt them above the Scripture themselves. The Montanist certainly made excessive use of the writings of John to such a extreme that some extreme Christian believers began to doubt their authenticity.
As the Catholic Christian Church grew in numbers and prosperity the spiritual fire that had driven it on began to burn low. Tertullianus' own dissatisfaction with the increasing moral laxity and formalism of the orthodox Christian community was congenial with the Montanist message of the imminent end of the world combined with a stringent and demanding moralism. He eventually broke with them to found his own sect, a group that existed until the 5th CE in Africa.
The Seven Books Against the Church in Defense Of Montanism that Tertullianus wrote have, sadly, been lost, leaving us with incidental references gleaned from his other works.

THE MYSTERY OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 900 manuscripts that contain fragments of prophecies by Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Daniel along with important statements like the last words of Judah, Joseph, Levi, Naphtali, Amram. Some are in fragments (there are over 50,000 individual pieces in all). Others are substantial and complete, the longest scroll being 8 meters long. The Scrolls were written over a period of around 200 years and were placed in the caves to hide them from the advancing Roman army at the time of the First Jewish Revolt. The dry climate on the shores of the Dead Sea helped preserve the ancient documents.
The first Scrolls were discovered by a young Bedouin shepherd who found a cave, while searching for a lost goat, in 1947. He stumbled onto the vessels containing scrolls from 2,000 years ago. The vessels were taken back to the encampment. The people of the encampment then brought the scrolls to the Monastery of Saint Mark, and Orthodox Church of Antioch where the Archbishop Mar Samuel had first contact with them. The extent of the find quickly became apparent.
The interest in the scrolls with the hope of money from their sale initiated a long area-wide search. Fear of destruction of archaeological evidence led to a campaign by the French and the Americans to explore all other caves to find any remaining scrolls. Over the next 10 years, between the years 1947 and 1957, the site was thoroughly investigated. In 1952, although 230 natural caves, crevices and other possible hiding places were examined in an 8 km area along the cliffs near Qumran, only 40 contained a sort of artifacts and one alone, Cave#3, produced texts, the most unusual being the Copper Scroll.
The 900 scrolls were found in a series of 11 caves, among the thousands existing around the settlement, some accessible only through the settlement, all of them along the North West shore of the Dead Sea. The scrolls were wrapped in linen and stored inside clay jars. The caves produced the most intact and ancient documents ever found. Over 3/4 of the scrolls are written in Hebrew. The remainder are in Koine Greek and Aramaic. The writings are from right to left and without any punctuation marks.
About a quarter of the 900 scrolls (220 in all) are Books of the Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament), all of them in fact, except Esther and Nehemiah. The most common Books found are Psalms and Deuteronomy. Of the 40 scrolls that contain Psalms, over 1/2 (23) came from Cave#4;  and 6 came from Cave#11. This fragment is likely to derive from Cave#4, and shows verses from Psalm 33 and 35.
A further quarter are religious texts not part of the standard Bible, such as the Book of Enoch or the Book of Jubilees. The rest are other religious texts and a range of writings including lists of Laws, advice on Warfare, and a Catalogue of Places where treasure was buried. About 1 in 6 of the scrolls have not yet been identified. Papyrus is the main writing base, although some scrolls are also written on parchment and one on copper as well.
The collection of scrolls is considered the oldest copy of the Hebrew Scripture ever found, dating to at least 4th BC. Some of the texts were written even 1,000 years before the Old Testament, making it the oldest group of texts related to the Old Testament. Most of the things mentioned in these scrolls are not even found in the New Testament.
Sections of the scrolls were pierced together and they detailed special occasions celebrated by the ancient Jews, which observed a 364-day calendar. These included festivals of New Wheat, New Wine, and new Oil.
In contrast to the Christian Bible of today, which survives in many manuscripts dating back to the 4th CE, the oldest known source for the Hebrew Scripture before the discovery of the scrolls, was only a 1,000 years old. They therefore the earliest surviving sources we have for the Hebrew Scripture by almost another 1,000 years.
The Khirbet Qumran's settlement is atop a plateau overlooking the Ein Fesh'Kha Springs, 20km/13mi East of Jerusalem and at 400m/1300ft below sea level -the lowest place on earth a human can walk- .
The site belongs to the Judaean Desert in Israel and the West Bank, East of Jerusalem and descends to the Dead Sea The settlement was identified as the City of Salt listed in Joshua 15:62. However, Secaca is another settlement referenced in the same area that match the description in Joshua 15:61 as the City of Salt.
The very extensive excavations taken place at Qumran revealed that ancient Qumran was principally in use from the Hasmonean times until some time after the destruction of the temple (in the Herodian era) by Titus in 70 CE.  during the Jewish War.
The uncovered site is divided in two sections: a main building, a square structure of two stories featuring a central courtyard and a defensive tower on its North-Western corner; and a secondary building to the West. A complex water system was also found that supplied water to several stepped cisterns, some quite large, located in various parts of the site. Two of these cisterns were within the walls of the main building. Both the buildings and the water system showed signs of consistent renewal throughout the life of the settlement, with frequent additions, extensions and improvements. The water channel was raised to carry water to newer cisterns farther away and a dam was placed in the upper section of the settlement to secure more water, which was brought to the site by an aqueduct. Rooms were added, floors were raised, pottery ovens relocated and locations were repurposed.  At least three inkwells were found at the beginning  and over the following years of excavations more inkwells have come to light. The number of inkwells found is more that any other site of the Second temple period, a significant indication of writing at Qumran.
The Cisterns, the Jewish ritual baths, the cemeteries found, along with a dining assembly room, as well as pottery kilns and a tower reveal that the inhabitants of the site were a highly ritualistic type.
Many researchers now agreed that the location was a type of small Jewish fortress. The large cemetery discovered to the East of the site, contain mostly male remains, however some females remains were also discovered. Over a thousand bodies are buried at the site.

THE ANCIENT CITY OF EMONA.

Emona flourished from the 1st to the 5th CE. It was first a Roman military encampment on the territory of the present Ljublj'Ana, capital of Slovenia, around the year 50BC, and later (14CE) a permanent settlement called Iulia Aemona, built on the site of an old settlement where the navigable Ljublj'Anica River came closest to Castle Hill. The Roman occupation of the area is linked to the conquest of the Balkans by Augustus.
The Roman Empire at its height, in the 2nd CE comprised 60 million inhabitants living in an area covering 5 million sq km: from Hadrian's Wall in Northern England to the Euphrates River in Syria, from the Rhine-Danube River routes that linked Central Europe with the Black Sea to the North Africa coast and Egypt. During the Emona period, the area of modern-day Slovenia was incorporated into the Roman territory.
Emona's administrative territory stretched from Trojane along the Karawnaks (Southern Limestone Alps) mountains toward the North, near Vinsja Gora to the East, along the Kolpa River (natural border between North West Croatia and South East Slovenia) and bordered to the West with the territory of Aquileia at the village of Bevke.
As a result of archaeological research conducted in the centre of Ljublj'Ana, a great deal of information about the pre-Roman, ancient settlement was found. The beginnings of the ancient settlement can be traced back to the proto-urban settlement under the Castle Hill, in the area of modern-day district of Prule, which emerged in the 10th BC. The builders carefully planned their settlement. A proper grid of streets was adapted to the terrain and the streets were laid with gravel. Along them were lined wooden buildings, each with one or more rooms. The buildings were renovated and reconstructed several times, yet nevertheless the basic plan of the settlement did not change significantly. The cemetery for the inhabitants of this settlement lay on the other side of the Ljublj"Anica River. The settlement below the castle enjoyed renewed vigor from the 3rd BC on. In the 1st BC the inhabitants traded intensively with the Romans, and the Ljublj'Anica River played an important part as a transport and trade route. It linked the Northern Adriatic and the Danube region. The mass of findings from the bottom of the Ljubljanica that can be dated to the middle Stone Age and later, indicate that the site was also an important cult area  that had associations with the pre-Roman deities of Laburus and Aequorna.
Emona's geographical position meant it played an important part in the Roman's military defense system. As a strategic stronghold, it also played an important role in numerous wars.
Augustus and Tiberius ordered the fortification of the city with strong walls and the construction of large public buildings. The city's ground plan was laid out in a rectangle 430m x 540m, with a central square or forum and a system of rectangular intersecting streets, between which were sites for buildings. Under the streets, running West-East flowed the cloaca, a major drainage channel that carried waste water into the Ljublj'Anica River. The city was enclosed by walls, which were 6 to 8 meters high and 2.5 meters thick, and defended with 29 towers, which were built every 60 meters along the walls. And in places also by one or two ditches filled with water. Some areas beyond the walls were also settled; the potters' quarter behind the Northern wall is well known. Along the Northern, Western, and Eastern thorough-fares into the city-from the directions of Celeia, Aquileia and Neviodunum -cemeteries were established according to Roman custom. In the 1960, Northern cemetery in particular was thoroughly researched.
The city of Emona was settled by colonists from Northern Italy, mainly from the Po River Valley. The population of 5,000 to 6,000 people, were mostly farmers, land owners, merchants and craftsmen, including a number of government officials and war veterans. The city's streets were paved. The houses were brick built, centrally heated and connected to the public sewage system. Their walls were plastered and painted in different colors, and their floors covered in mosaics. Emona became an important centre of power and priviledge, culture and knowledge, with a flourishing trade. The setting displayed the power and magnificence of the Roman Empire to its subjects.
The city had its own goddess, Equrna, worshipped at the Ljublj'Ana Marshes.
From the late 4th to the late 6th CE, Emona was the seat of a bishopric. The intensive contacts pursued by early Christians community of Emona with the ecclesiastical circle of Milan are reflected in the architecture of early Christian complex along Erjavceva Street and in two preserved letters from Hiero-Nymus to the nuns of Emona and the monk Anthony. In the late Roman period, the image of the city gradually changed: some entrance ways through the walls were filled in, while the cleaning and maintenance of the cloaca and city ditches were neglected. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the only new constructions were ecclesiastical. Secular architecture and infrastructure declined in its importance. In cities throughout the empire, bishops were no longer just Church dignitaries, but were taking on administrative functions. The Roman Empire gradually fell apart.
In the winter of 408-9CE Visigoths camped by Emona. In 452CE Emona was torn down by the Huns led by Attila. In 568 CE the Langobards passed through on their way to Italy, and then came incursions by the Avars and Slavs.  The ancient cemetery in Dravlje indicates that the local inhabitants and invaders were able to live peacefully side by side for several decades. After the first half of the 6th century, there was no life left in Emona. Then Slovenians' Slav forefathers arrived in the territory of the present Ljublj'Ana at the end of the 6th CE and started building a settlement under the secure shelter of the present Castle Hill. The settlement gradually turned into a medieval town.
The early Slavs are the least documented group among the so called "barbarian" enemies of Rome so there is no scholarly consensus regarding their origin. Authors who wrote about them do not agree with the Slav's ancient background. In addition to these discrepancies, we must bear in mind that most of the accounts are filled with with the bias of the Romans, who saw all barbarian peoples as primitive, violent and uncivilized. Based on archaeological evidence, the Proto-Slavic people were an active and diverse group of tribal societies by 1500 BC within an area that stretched roughly from Western Poland to the Dnieper River in Belarus. Ancient Romans and Greek historical sources refer to them as "Veneti" in the 1st and 2nd CE and later in the 5th and 6th CE as Sporoi, Antes and Sclaveni.
In 1000 CE the first feudal lordship was formed with Ljublj'Ana as its center, by the local Breze-Seliski family. At the beginning of 12th CE, Ljublj'Ana, together with Carniola, came under the ownership of the Carinthian Dukes of Span'Heim. The city was walled with the first town hall, complete with a fountain, standing in the middle. It had only one bridge, the Butchers' Bridge. In the 13CE the city developed rapidly and became the capital of the province of Carniola. Three separately-walled suburbs, all of which still exist today, emerged: Stari trg, predominantly a suburb of craftsmen; Mestni trg which housed the secular and church governments; and Novi trg home to the nobility. In 1335 Ljublj'Ana, with the rest of Carniola, came under direct Haps'Burg rule, where it remained (with the exception of the Illyrian provinces) until the end of the World War I. The haps'Bugs granted Ljublj'Ana as many as 39 very important trade and other privileges, which attracted merchants and craftsmen from all over Europe to the city. Germans, Italians, the Spanish, and even the English and Swedes moved to the city and a Jewish quarter emerged next to Novi trg. In 1461CE a diocese was established and St Nicholas' Church became a cathedral. In 1511, after an earthquake, the city took on a Renaissance appearance.
Brick houses replaced wooden ones and the city was again walled in to protect it from Turkish siege.
When the Reformation arrived (Protestant period) the city had again a population of 5,000, of which
70% spoke Slovene. Ljublj'Ana developed again into an important trade centre and a centre of various forms of cultural creativity: from sculptors' and painters' workshops to a school of music.
Ljublj"Ana made significant spiritual progress and became the centre of Slovene Reformation.