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*   Advent takes its name from the Latin word adventus, meaning “arrival”

*   Major earthquakes in 1838 and 1927 destroyed most of the ancient buildings of Nablus.

*   Joash is Hebrew for “God has given.” In some passages of the Bible, the name appears in a slightly different form, as Jehoash.

*   Aftre an Israelite woman gave birth to her first boy, she became known as the “mother of” that child. For example, if the baby was named John, she was called “mother of John.”

*   The name Ishbaal means “man of Baal.” Because Baal, which means: “master,” is also the name for a Canaanite god, Israelite names containing those four letters were often changed. So in some biblical translations, Ishbaal’s name is Ish-boseth, meaning “man of shame.”

*  In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Good Friday is known as Great Friday.

*  Joseph of Arimathea, who removed Jesus’ body from the cross, was a disciple.

*  Muhammad wrote that Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus were prophets whose teachings were fulfilled by the beliefs of Islam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

El-Amarna Letters

 

The El-Amarna Letters are clay tablets inscribed with diplomatic messages between the Egyptian court and other kingdoms during the 14th century B.C. The tablets were accidentally discovered by a peasant woman in 1887 among some ruins on the east bank of the Nile River, about 190 miles south of Cairo.

The ruins where the tablets were found, now known as Tell el-Amarna, are of Akhetaton, a city built by Pharaoh Akhenaton about 1348 B.C. At this time Moses was still living in the land of Egypt. Akhenaton dedicated the city to the sun god, Aten. He is one of the first people, besides the Israelites, known to worship only one god. Three years after Akhenaton’s death, his successor, Pharaoh Tutankhamen, destroyed the city, and Egypt returned to worshipping many different gods.

During Akhetaton’s brief existence, the city served as Egypt’s capital, and more than 350 letters were stored in its archives. Many of the letters are to or from rulers in Tyre, Assyria, and Babylon, giving historians valuable information about the political situation at that time. Other letters are to kings in Canaan, asking their help in fighting Egypt’s enemies.

The El-Amarna Letters are written in Akkadian, a Semitic Language spoken in Babylon. Language scholars have been able to use the letters to learn about all the Semitic languages, including the Canaanite language and early Hebrew. As a result, scholars can better understand the language of the early books of the Old Testament.