Dead Sea ScrollsThe Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered to be a keystone in the history of archaeology with great historical, religious, and linguistic significance because they include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books later included in the biblical canons, along with deuterocanonical and extra-biblical manuscripts which preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late Second Temple Judaism.
Biblical canonA biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible. The English word canon comes from the Greek κανών kanōn, meaning "rule" or "measuring stick". The use of the word "canon" to refer to a set of religious scriptures was first used by David Ruhnken, in the 18th century. Various biblical canons have developed through debate and agreement on the part of the religious authorities of their respective faiths and denominations.
Jewish diasporaThe Jewish diaspora (təfūṣā) or exile (Hebrew: גָּלוּת gālūṯ; Yiddish: golus) is the biblical dispersion of Israelites or Jews out of their ancient ancestral homeland (the Land of Israel) and their subsequent settlement in other parts of the globe. In terms of the Hebrew Bible, the term "Exile" denotes the fate of the Israelites who were taken into exile from the Kingdom of Israel during the 8th century BCE, and the Judahites from the Kingdom of Judah who were taken into exile during the 6th century BCE.
Textual criticismTextual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range in dates from the earliest writing in cuneiform, impressed on clay, for example, to multiple unpublished versions of a 21st-century author's work. Historically, scribes who were paid to copy documents may have been literate, but many were simply copyists, mimicking the shapes of letters without necessarily understanding what they meant.
Second Temple periodThe Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and ended with the First Jewish–Roman War and the Roman siege of Jerusalem. In 587/586 BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Judah; the Judeans lost their independence upon the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, during which the First Temple was destroyed.
MezuzahA mezuzah (מְזוּזָה "doorpost"; plural: mezuzot) is a piece of parchment inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah, which Jewish followers of Rabbinical Judaism affix to the doorposts of their homes. These verses are the Biblical passages in which the use of a mezuzah is commanded ( and ); they also form part of the Shema prayer. In mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, a mezuzah must generally be placed in every doorway in the home, with some exceptions such as bathrooms (which are not a living space) and small closets.
Ten CommandmentsThe Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew , aséret ha-dvarím, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְּרוֹת, aséret ha-divrót, lit. The Ten Sayings, The Ten Utterances), or the Decalogue (from Latin decalogus, from Ancient Greek δεκάλογος [dekálogos], lit. "ten words"), are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship that play a fundamental role in Judaism and Christianity. The text of the Ten Commandments appears twice in the Hebrew Bible: at Exodus and Deuteronomy .
Biblical criticismBiblical criticism is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible. During the eighteenth century, when it began as historical-biblical criticism, it was based on two distinguishing characteristics: (1) the concern to avoid dogma and bias by applying a neutral, non-sectarian, reason-based judgment to the study of the Bible, and (2) the belief that the reconstruction of the historical events behind the texts, as well as the history of how the texts themselves developed, would lead to a correct understanding of the Bible.
ExegesisExegesis (ˌɛksɪˈdʒiːsɪs ; from the Greek ἐξήγησις, from ἐξηγεῖσθαι, "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretations of virtually any text, including not just religious texts but also philosophy, literature, or virtually any other genre of writing. The phrase Biblical exegesis can be used to distinguish studies of the Bible from other critical textual explanations.
Yehud MedinataYehud, also known as Yehud Medinata or Yehud Medinta, was an autonomous administrative province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It was one of several such provinces in Palestine, with the others being Moab, Ammon, Gilead, Samaria, Ashdod and Idumea, constituting the fifth Persian satrapy of Eber-Nari. Located in Judea, it continued to exist for two centuries before it was incorporated into the Hellenistic empires following the Wars of Alexander the Great.
