Abrahamic Monotheism: Judaism, Christianity & Islam Nearly 55% of the World's Populations

ABRAHAMISM

Abrahamism, Judaism (=1.00)

Symbols of the three largest Abrahamic religions: the Jewish Star of David, the Christian Cross, and the Islamic star and crescent. The Abrahamic religions, also referred to collectively as Abrahamism, are a group of Semitic-originated religious communities of faith that claim descent from the practices of the ancient Israelites and the worship of the God of Abraham.

Abrahamic religion spread globally through Christianity being adopted by the Roman Empire in the 4th century and Islam by the Islamic Empire from the 7th century. The major Abrahamic religions in chronological order of founding are Judaism in the 7th century BCE, Christianity in the 1st century CE, and Islam in the 7th century CE.

As of 2005, estimates classified 54% (3.6 billion people) of the world’s population as adherents of an Abrahamic religion. Christianity claims 33% of the world’s population, Islam has 21%, Judaism has 0.2%. There are key beliefs in both Islam and Judaism that are not shared by most of Christianity (such as strict monotheism and adherence to Divine Law).

History of Judaism

One of Judaism’s primary texts is the Tanakh, an account of the Israelites’ relationship with God from their earliest history until the building of the Second Temple (535 BCE). Abraham is hailed as the first Hebrew and the father of the Jewish people. From the 2nd to the 6th centuries Jews wrote the Talmud, a lengthy work of legal rulings and Biblical exegesis which, along with the Tanakh, is a key text of Judaism.

History of Christianity

Christianity began in the 1st century as a sect within Judaism initially led by Jesus. His followers viewed him as the Messiah, as in the Confession of Peter; after his crucifixion and death they came to view him as God incarnate, who was resurrected and will return at the end of time to judge the living and the dead and create an eternal Kingdom of God. Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire in 380. History of Islam

Islam is based on the teachings of the Quran. The teachings of Quran are presented as the direct revelation and words of Allah. Islam (meaning submission, in the sense of submission to God); like Judaism, it has a strictly unitary conception of God, called tawhid, or strict or simple monotheism.

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ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

Acts of the Apostles, Christian (=1.00)

Acts of the Apostles (Ancient Greek: Práxeis ton Apostólōn) often referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a two-part work, Luke–Acts, by the same anonymous author, usually dated to around 80–90 AD. The first part, the Gospel of Luke, tells how God fulfilled his plan for the world’s salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Messiah. Acts continues the story of Christianity in the 1st century, beginning with Jesus’s Ascension to Heaven.

The early chapters, set in Jerusalem, describe the Day of Pentecost (the coming of the Holy Spirit) and the growth of the church in Jerusalem. The later chapters tell of Paul’s conversion, his mission in Asia Minor and the Aegean, and finally his imprisonment in Rome, where, as the book ends, he awaits trial. Luke seems unclear as to the future God intends for Jews and Christians, celebrating the Jewishness of Jesus and his immediate followers while also stressing how the Jews had rejected God’s promised Messiah. The majority of scholars date Luke–Acts to 80–90 AD. Luke makes clear that the Romans, like all earthly rulers, receive their authority from Satan, while Christ is ruler of the kingdom of God.

Early Christianity and Jewish Christians

At first many Jews follow Christ and are baptized, but the Christians begin to be increasingly persecuted by the Jews. Stephen is arrested for blasphemy, and after a trial, is found guilty and stoned by the Jews. Stephen’s death marks a major turning point: the Jews have rejected the message, and henceforth it will be taken to the Gentiles.

Theology

For Luke, the Holy Spirit is the driving force behind the spread of the Christian message, and he places more emphasis on it than do any of the other evangelists. The Spirit is poured out at Pentecost, on the first Samaritan and Gentile believers, and on disciples who had been baptized only by John the Baptist, each time as a sign of God’s approval. The Holy Spirit represents God’s power (At his ascension, Jesus tells his followers, You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you).

Pauline epistles

Acts agrees with Paul’s letters on the major outline of Paul’s career: as Saul he is converted and becomes Paul the Christian missionary and apostle, establishing new churches in Asia Minor and the Aegean and struggling to free Gentile Christians from the Jewish Law. There are also major differences between Acts and Paul on Christology (the understanding of Christ’s nature), eschatology (understanding of the "last things"), and apostleship.

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AHMADIYYA MUSLIM COMMUNITY (ISLAMIC)

Ahmadiyya, Islamic (=2.00)

Ahmadiyya (officially, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at; Arabic, transliterated: al-Jama’ah al-Islāmiyyah al-Ahmadiyyah;) is a global Islamic revival movement founded in Punjab, British India, in the late 19th century. It originated with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908), who claimed to have been divinely appointed as both the promised Mahdi (Guided One) and Messiah expected by Muslims to appear towards the end times and bring about, by peaceful means, the final triumph of Islam; as well as to embody, in this capacity, the expected eschatological figure of other major religious traditions. Adherents of the Ahmadiyya—a term adopted expressly in reference to Muhammad’s alternative name Aḥmad. —are known as Ahmadi Muslims or simply Ahmadis.

Ahmadi thought emphasizes the belief that Islam is the final dispensation for humanity as revealed to Muhammad and the necessity of restoring it to its true intent and pristine form, which had been lost through the centuries. Its adherents consider Ahmad to have appeared as the Mahdi—bearing the qualities of Jesus in accordance with their reading of scriptural prophecies—to revitalize Islam and set in motion its moral system that would bring about lasting peace. They believe that upon divine guidance he purged Islam of foreign accretions in belief and practice by championing what is, in their view, Islam’s original precepts as practiced by Muhammad and the early Muslim community. Ahmadis thus view themselves as leading the propagation and renaissance of Islam.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad established the movement on 23 March 1889 by formally accepting allegiance from his supporters. Since his death, the Community has been led by a number of Caliphs and has spread to 210 countries and territories of the world as of 2017 with concentrations in South Asia, West Africa, East Africa and Indonesia. The Ahmadis have a strong missionary tradition and formed the first Muslim missionary organization to arrive in Britain and other Western countries.Currently, the Community is led by its Caliph, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, and is estimated to number between 10 and 20 million worldwide.

The population is almost entirely contained in the single, highly organized and united movement. However, in the early history of the Community, a number of Ahmadis broke away over the nature of Ahmad’s prophetic status and succession and formed the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam, which today represents a small fraction of all Ahmadis. Some Ahmadiyya-specific beliefs have been thought of as opposed to current conceptions of Islamic orthodoxy since the movement’s birth, and some Ahmadis have subsequently faced persecution. Many Muslims consider Ahmadi Muslims as either kafirs or heretics.

 The Ahmadiyya movement was founded in 1889, but the name Ahmadiyya was not adopted until about a decade later. In a manifesto dated 4 November 1900, Muhammad—the most praised one

—indicated the glorious destiny and grandeur of the Islamic prophet that was manifest after the migration to Medina; but Ahmad, an Arabic elative form which means highly praised and also one who praises the most, conveyed the beauty of his sermons, the peace that he was destined to establish, and the qualities of perseverance and forbearance that found particular emphasis during his earlier life at Mecca. According to Ahmad, these two names thus reflected two aspects or modalities of Islam, and in later times it was the latter aspect that commanded greater attention. Labelling a group or school in Islam after anyone (or anything) other than Muhammad the prophet of Islam, he thus rejected as religious innovation (Bid’ah).

Accordingly, in Ahmad’s view, this was the reason that the Old Testament had prophesied a messenger like unto Moses, in reference to Muhammad, while according to the Quran 61:6, Jesus used the elative form Ahmad when referring to that messenger since it reflected his own disposition and circumstances. Further, his reading of Quran 48:29 was that Moses, who himself characterized power and glory, described Muhammad and those with him as unyielding against the disbelievers and tender among themselves which comported with the name Muhammad and with the early Muslims who achieved swift military successes against their oppressors, while Jesus, whose life consisted purely of preaching and involved nothing of might or fighting, described them as like unto a seed-produce that sends forth its sprout, then makes it strong; it then becomes thick and stands firm on its stem.

This latter description which, according to him, comported with the name Ahmad, suggested a gradual, measured and peaceful emergence and intimated another community of Muslims: those with the promised Mahdi, the counterpart of Jesus in the latter times. In view of these exegetical rationales, he considered the term Ahmadi—in relation to the incipience of Muhammad’s proclamation and in order to distinguish the movement from other Muslim groups—as most befitting for himself and the movement:

The name which is appropriate for this Movement and which I prefer for myself and for my Jama’at is Muslims of the Ahmadiyya Section. And it is permissible that it also be referred to as Muslims of the Ahmadi school of thought. Despite Ahmadis dissociating the name from their founder, deriving it instead from Islamic prophecy and the name variant of Muhammad, some Sunni Muslims, especially in the Indian subcontinent from where the movement originated, refer to Ahmadis using the pejorative terms Qadiyani—derived from Qadian, the home town of Ghulam Ahmad; or Mirzai—from Mirza, one of his titles. Both are externally attributed names and are never used by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community itself.

Summary of beliefs

The Six articles of Islamic Faith and the Five Pillars of Islam constitute the basis of Ahmadi belief and practice. Likewise, Ahmadis accept the Quran as their holy text, face the Kaaba during prayer, follow the Sunnah (normative practice of Muhammad) and accept the authority of the Ahadith (sing. hadith; reported sayings of and narrations about Muhammad).

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ALAWITES (SHI’A MUSLIMS)

Alawites, Shi’a Muslims (=1.00)

The Alawis, also rendered as Alawites (Arabic: Alawiyyah/Alawiyyah), are a syncretic sect of the Twelver branch of Shia Islam, primarily centered in Syria. The eponymously-named Alawites revere Ali (Ali ibn Abi Talib), considered the first Imam of the Twelver school. However, they are generally considered to be ghulat by most other sects of Shia Islam. The sect is believed to have been founded by Ibn Nusayr during the 9th century and fully established as a religion. For this reason, Alawites are sometimes called Nusayris (Arabic: Nuṣayrīyyah), though the term has come to be used as a pejorative in the modern era. Another name, Ansari (Arabic: Anṣāriyyah), is believed to be a mistransliteration of Nusayri.

Today, Alawites represent 11 percent of the Syrian population and are a significant minority in Turkey and northern Lebanon. There is also a population living in the village of Ghajar in the Golan Heights. They are often confused with the Alevis of Turkey. Alawites form the dominant religious group on the Syrian coast and towns near the coast which are also inhabited by Sunnis, Christians, and Ismailis.

Alawites identify as Shiite Muslims. Like other Muslims, the Qur’an is their primary holy book, and Muhammad is recognized as the Prophet of God. But, Alawite theology and rituals break from mainstream Shiite Islam in several remarkable ways. For one, the Alawites reject sharia. Alawite women eschew the hijab. The Alawites also drink alcohol in their rituals; while other Muslims abstain from alcohol, Alawites are encouraged to drink socially in moderation.

Finally, they also believe in reincarnation. Alawites have historically kept their beliefs secret from outsiders and non-initiated Alawites, so rumors about them have arisen. Arabic accounts of their beliefs tend to be partisan (either positively or negatively). However, since the early 2000s, Western scholarship on the Alawite religion has made significant advances. At the core of Alawite belief is a divine triad, comprising three aspects of the one God. These aspects, or emanations, appear cyclically in human form throughout history.

The establishment of the French Mandate of Syria marked a turning point in Alawi history. It gave the French the power to recruit Syrian civilians into their armed forces for an indefinite period and created exclusive areas for minorities, including an Alawite State. The Alawite State was later dismantled, but the Alawites continued to be a significant part of the Syrian Armed Forces. Since Hafez al-Assad took power in the 1970 Corrective Movement, the government has been dominated by a political elite led by the Alawite Al-Assad family. During the Islamist uprising in Syria in the 1970s and 1980s, the establishment came under pressure. Even greater pressure has resulted from the Syrian Civil War.

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ALHAMBRA DECREE: JEWISH EXPULSION

Alhambra Decree, Judaism (=1.00)

The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion; Spanish: Decreto de la Alhambra, Edicto de Granada) was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) ordering the expulsion of practicing Jews from the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year. The primary purpose was to eliminate their influence on Spain’s large Converso population and ensure they did not revert to Judaism.

Over half of Spain’s Jews had converted as a result of the religious persecution and pogroms which occurred in 1391, and as such were not subject to the Decree or to expulsion. A further number of those remaining chose to avoid expulsion as a result of the edict. As a result of the Alhambra decree and persecution in prior years, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism and between 40,000 and 100,000 were expelled, an indeterminate number returning to Spain in the years following the expulsion.

The edict was formally and symbolically revoked on 16 December 1968, following the Second Vatican Council and a full century after Jews had once more been allowed to openly practice their religion in Spain and synagogues had been allowed to be used as places of worship under Spain’s Laws of Religious Freedom. In 1924, the regime of Primo de Rivera granted Spanish citizenship to the entire Sephardic Jewish diaspora.

In 2014, the government of Spain passed a law allowing dual citizenship to Jewish descendants who apply, in order to compensate for shameful events in the country’s past. Thus, Sephardi Jews who are descendants of those Jews expelled from Spain due to the Alhambra Decree, and can prove it, can become Spaniards without leaving home or giving up their present nationality.

Background: History of the Jews in Spain

Beginning in the 8th century, Muslims had conquered and settled most of the Iberian Peninsula. Jews, who had lived in these regions since Roman times, were considered "People of the Book" and given special status and often thrived. The tolerance of the Muslim Moorish rulers of Al-Andalus compared to the repressive Visigothic kingdom which preceded them led to Jewish enclaves in Muslim Iberian cities flourishing as places of learning and commerce. Although Jews never enjoyed equal status to Muslims, in some Taifas, such as Granada, Jewish men were appointed to very high offices, including Grand Vizier.

The Reconquista, the gradual reconquest of Muslim Iberia by the Christian kingdoms, was driven by a powerful religious motivation: to reclaim Iberia for Christendom following the Umayyad conquest of Hispania centuries before. By the 14th century, most of the Iberian Peninsula (present-day Spain and Portugal) had been conquered by the Christian kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, León, Galicia, Navarre, and Portugal.

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ALLAH: GOD OF ISLAM

Allah, God of Islam (=2.00)

Allah (Arabic: ٱلل‍َّٰه, romanized: Allāh, IPA:) is the Arabic word for God in Abrahamic religions. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh, which means the god, and is related to El and Elah, the Hebrew and Aramaic words for God.

The word Allah has been used by Arabic people of different religions since pre-Islamic times. More specifically, it has been used as a term for God by Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) and Arab Christians. It is also often, albeit not exclusively, used in this way by Bábists, Bahá’ís, Mandaeans, Indonesian and Maltese Christians, and Mizrahi Jews. Similar usage by Christians and Sikhs in West Malaysia has recently led to political and legal controversies.

Etymology

The etymology of the word Allāh has been discussed extensively by classical Arab philologists. Grammarians of the Basra school regarded it as either formed spontaneously (murtajal) or as the definite form of lāh (from the verbal root lyh with the meaning of lofty or hidden). Others held that it was borrowed from Syriac or Hebrew, but most considered it to be derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- the and ilāh deity, god to al-lāh meaning the deity, or the God. The majority of modern scholars subscribe to the latter theory, and view the loanword hypothesis with skepticism.

Cognates of the name Allāh exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic. The corresponding Aramaic form is Elah (אלה), but its emphatic state is Elaha (אלהא). It is written as (ʼĔlāhā) in Biblical Aramaic and (ʼAlâhâ) in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church, both meaning simply God. Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural (but functional singular) form Elohim (אלהים), but more rarely it also uses the singular form Eloah (אלוהּ).

Pre-Islamic Arabians

Regional variants of the word Allah occur in both pagan and Christian pre-Islamic inscriptions. Different theories have been proposed regarding the role of Allah in pre-Islamic polytheistic cults. Some authors have suggested that polytheistic Arabs used the name as a reference to a creator god or a supreme deity of their pantheon. The term may have been vague in the Meccan religion. According to one hypothesis, which goes back to Julius Wellhausen, Allah (the supreme deity of the tribal federation around Quraysh) was a designation that consecrated the superiority of Hubal (the supreme deity of Quraysh) over the other gods. However, there is also evidence that Allah and Hubal were two distinct deities. According to that hypothesis, the Kaaba was first consecrated to a supreme deity named Allah and then hosted the pantheon of Quraysh after their conquest of Mecca, about a century before the time of Muhammad. Some inscriptions seem to indicate the use of Allah as a name of a polytheist deity centuries earlier, but we know nothing precise about this use. Some scholars have suggested that Allah may have represented a remote creator god who was gradually eclipsed by more particularized local deities. There is disagreement on whether Allah played a major role in the Meccan religious cult. No iconic representation of Allah is known to have existed. Allah is the only god in Mecca that did not have an idol. Muhammad’s father’s name was ʿAbd-Allāh meaning the slave of Allāh.

Christianity

Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word Allah to mean God. The Christian Arabs of today have no other word for God than Allah. Similarly, the Aramaic word for God in the language of Assyrian Christians is ʼĔlāhā, or Alaha. (Even the Arabic-descended Maltese language of Malta, whose population is almost entirely Catholic, uses Alla for God.) Arab Christians, for example, use the terms Allāh al-ab for God the Father, Allāh al-ibn for God the Son, and Allāh ar-rūḥ al-quds for God the Holy Spirit. (See God in Christianity for the Christian concept of God.)

Arab Christians have used two forms of invocations that were affixed to the beginning of their written works. They adopted the Muslim bismillāh, and also created their own Trinitized bismillāh as early as the 8th century. The Muslim bismillāh reads: "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful." The Trinitized bismillāh reads: "In the name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God." The Syriac, Latin and Greek invocations do not have the words One God at the end. This addition was made to emphasize the monotheistic aspect of Trinitarian belief and also to make it more palatable to Muslims.

It seems that in the pre-Islamic times, some Arab Christians made pilgrimage to the Kaaba, a pagan temple at that time, honoring Allah there as God the Creator. Some archaeological excavation quests have led to the discovery of ancient pre-Islamic inscriptions and tombs made by Arab Christians in the ruins of a church at Umm el-Jimal in Northern Jordan, which initially, according to Enno Littman (1949), contained references to Allah as the proper name of God.

The syriac word (ʼĔlāhā) can be found in the reports and the lists of names of Christian martyrs in South Arabia, as reported by antique Syriac documents of the names of those martyrs from the era of the Himyarite and Aksumite kingdoms. In Ibn Ishaq’s biography there is a Christian leader named Abd Allah ibn Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad, who was martyred in Najran in 523, as he had worn a ring that said "Allah is my lord".

In pre-Islamic Gospels, the name used for God was Allah, as evidenced by some discovered Arabic versions of the New Testament written by Arab Christians during the pre-Islamic era in Northern and Southern Arabia.

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AL-MAHDI: AN ISLAMIC MESSIAH

Al-Mahdi Islamic Messiah (=2.00)

In Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi (English: Guided One) is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will rule for seven, nine or nineteen years (according to differing interpretations) before the Day of Judgment (Yawm al-Qiyamah/literally, the Day of Resurrection) and will rid the world of evil. The Mahdi’s tenure will coincide with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (Isa), who is to assist the Mahdi against the Masih ad-Dajjal (literally, the "false Messiah" or Antichrist), Jesus, who is considered the Masih (Messiah) in Islam, will descend at the point of a white arcade, east of Damascus, dressed in yellow robes with his head anointed. He will then join the Mahdi in his war against the Dajjal, where Jesus will slay Dajjal and unite mankind. Sahih Muslim, 41:7023

Sahih al-Bukhari, 3:43:656: Narrated Abu Hurairah:

Allah’s apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until the son of Maryam (Jesus) descends amongst you as a just ruler; he will break the cross, kill the swine, and abolish the Jizya tax. Wealth will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it."

Jesus Christ has been foretold to return at near the end of the world. The Qur’an says:

"And [Isa] shall be a Sign (for the coming of) the Hour (of Judgment): therefore have no doubt about the (Hour), but follow ye Me: this is a Straight Way." [Qur’an 43:61]

Mahdi in Sunni Islam

The Sunnis view the Mahdi as the successor Mohammad. The Mahdi is expected to arrive to rule the world and to reestablish righteousness. The Mahdi is not described in the Qur’an but only in hadith, with scholars suggesting that he arose when some Arabian tribes were settling in Syria under Mu’awiyah. They anticipated ‘the Mahdi who will lead the rising people of the Yemen (or Qahtani Arabs) back to their country’ in order to restore the glory of their lost Himyarite kingdom. It was believed that he would eventually conquer Constantinople.

The Kaysaniya extended two other notions that became thoroughly related with the belief in the Mahdi. The first was the notion of return of the dead, particularly of the Imams. The second was the indication of occultation. "When Mohammad b. al-Hanafiyyah died in 700, the Kaysaniya maintained that he was in occultation in the Razwa Mountains west of Medina, and would one day return as the Mahdi and the Qaem." The appearance of the Prophet was also proposed unto the Mahdi. "An enormously influential tradition attributed to ‘Abd-Allah b. Mas ’ud has Mohammad predicting the coming of a Mahdi coined in his own image: ‘His name will be my name, and his father’s name my father’s name’"

• Muhammad said:

The world will not come to an end until the Arabs are ruled by a man from my family whose name is the same as mine and whose father’s name is the same as my father’s.

• Umm Salamah said:

His [the Mahdi’s] aim is to establish a moral system from which all superstitious faiths have been eliminated. In the same way that students enter Islam, so unbelievers will come to believe. When the Mahdi appears, Allah will cause such power of vision and hearing to be manifested in believers that the Mahdi will call to the whole world from where he is, with no postman involved, and they will hear and even see him.

• Abu Sa’id al-Khudri said:

The Messenger of Allah said: "The Mahdi is of my lineage, with a high forehead and a long, thin, curved nose. He will fill the earth with fairness and justice as it was filled with oppression and injustice, and he will rule for seven years.

A typical modernist in his views on the Mahdi, Abul Ala Mawdudi (1903-1979), the Pakistani Islamic revivalist, stated that the Mahdi will be a modern Islamic reformer/statesman, who will unite the Ummah and revolutionize the world according to the ideology of Islam, but will never claim to be the Mahdi, instead receiving posthumous recognition as such.

Mahdi in Twelver Shi’ism

In Shia Islam, the Mahdi is believed to be the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, whose return from occultation will be the return of the Mahdi. Belief in the Mahdi is more prevalent in Shi’ite Islam. Twelvers believe him to be the Twelfth Imam who is in occultation until he returns at the end of time. Mahdism in Twelver Shi’ism takes many of its essentials from previous sacred trends. According to the customary date most often taken, Imam Hasan ‘Askari, the eleventh Imam, died in 874.

The cryptic destiny of the assumed son of the eleventh Imam led to numerous rifts with prominent doctrinal adjustments. Some groups claimed that his son died at a very early age, others that he had survived until a certain age and then died, and still others solely denied his very reality, considering that Hasan Askari never had a son. Only a small minority sustained the notion that the son of the eleventh imam was alive, that he was in occultation, and that he was to recur as Mahdi at the end of time. This idea was progressively accepted by all Imamis, who accordingly became known as Twelvers.

According to the first, mentioned by EbN Babuya, the Hidden Imam exists in the world by his spiritual substance thanks to a subsisting essence. According to another theory stated by EbN Nadim, Abu Sahl is said to have kept that the twelfth Imam died, but covertly left behind a son as a descendant to him; the heredity of Imams would therefore be preserved in occultation from father to son until the last Imam reveals himself publicly as the Mahdi. These doctrines were faced with, and overpowered, much confrontation before finally standing as articles of faith. The eschatological Redeemer of Imamism is presented as Abu’I-Qasem Mohammad b. Hasan al-‘Askari, twelfth and final among the Imams. He thus bears the identical title and Konya as the Prophet.

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ANTICHRIST (THE)

Antichrist, Christian (=3.00)

In Christianity, the Antichrist or False Messiah is generally regarded as a figure of evil that will falsely claim to be the Christ (Messiah). The term Antichrist is found in the New Testament five times in 1 John and 2 John, once in plural form and four times in the singular. Jesus, whom Christians believe to be the Jewish Messiah (the Christ), will appear in his Second Coming to Earth to face the Antichrist, who will be regarded as the greatest false messiah in Christianity. Just as Christ is the savior and the ideal model for humanity, his opponent will be a single figure of concentrated evil.

In Islamic eschatology, Masih ad-Dajjal is an anti-messiah figure (similar to the Christian concept of Antichrist), who will appear to deceive humanity before the second coming of Isa, as Jesus is known by Arabic-speaking Muslims. In some schools of non-legalistic medieval Jewish eschatology, a comparable (parodic) anti-Messiah figure, son of a virgin, is called Armilus, "a king who will arise at the end of time against the Messiah, and will be conquered by him after having brought much distress upon Israel." The concept of an antichrist is absent in traditional Judaism; however, in the medieval diaspora, his inevitable destruction is narrated as the symbol of ultimate victory of good over evil in the Messianic Age.

Etymology

The word antichrist combines two roots: Αντί can mean not only against and opposite of, but also in place of. Hebrew Messiah. Both Christ and "Messiah" literally mean "Anointed One", and refer to Jesus of Nazareth in Christian, Islamic and Messianic Jewish theology.

Christian views: New Testament

Whether the New Testament contains an individual Antichrist is disputed. The Greek term antikhristos originates in 1 John. The similar term pseudokhristos ("False Messiah") is also first found in the New Testament, and, for example, never used by Josephus in his accounts of various false messiahs. The concept of an antikhristos is not found in Jewish writings in the period 500 BC–50 AD. However, Bernard McGinn conjectures that the concept may have been generated by the frustration of Jews subject to often-capricious Seleucid or Roman rule, who found the nebulous Jewish idea of a Satan who is more of an opposing angel of God in the heavenly court insufficiently humanized and personalized to be a satisfactory incarnation of evil and threat.

The five uses of the term antichrist or antichrists in the Epistles of John do not clearly present a single latter-day individual Antichrist. The articles the deceiver or the antichrist are usually seen as marking out a certain category of persons, rather than an individual. Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

— 1 John 2:18 KJV

Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist!

— 2 John 1:7 NRSV (1989)

Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

— 1 John 2:22 NRSV (1989)

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.

— 1 John 4:2–3 NRSV (1989)

Consequently, attention for an individual Antichrist figure focuses on the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians. However, the term antichrist is never used in this passage:

As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God.

— 2 Thessalonians 2:1–4 NRSV (1989)

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

— 2 Thessalonians 2:7–10 NRSV (1989)

Although the word "antichrist" (Greek antikhristos) is used only in the Epistles of John, the similar word pseudochrist (Greek pseudokhristos, meaning "false messiah") is used by Jesus in the Gospels. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

— Matthew 24:24 and Mark 13:22 NRSV (1989)

The Beast from the earth, according to the Book of Revelation and also referred to as the False Prophet, has often been equated with an individual Antichrist:

Then I saw another beast that rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all; and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the beast, it deceives the inhabitants of earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet lived; and it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast could even speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

— Revelation 13:11–17 NRSV (1989)

And I saw three foul spirits like frogs coming from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet. These are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.

— Revelation 16:13–14 NRSV (1989)

Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against the rider on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed in its presence the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

— Revelation 19:19–20 NRSV (1989)

And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

— Revelation 20:10 NRSV (1989)

Early Church

The only one of the late 1st/early 2nd Century Apostolic Fathers to use the term is Polycarp (c. 69 – c. 155) who warned the Philippians that everyone who preached false doctrine was an antichrist. His use of the term Antichrist follows that of the New Testament in not identifying a single personal Antichrist, but a class of people.

In Book V of Against Heresies he addresses the figure of the Antichrist referring to him as the "recapitulation of apostasy and rebellion. He uses 666", the Number of the Beast from Revelation 13:18, to numerologically decode several possible names.

The Ascension of Isaiah presents a detailed exposition of the Antichrist as Belial and Nero. Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220 AD) held that the Roman Empire was the restraining force written about by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8. The fall of the Western Roman Empire and the disintegration of the ten provinces of the Roman Empire into ten kingdoms were to make way for the Antichrist.

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ANTISEMITISM (NON-JEWISH)

Antisemitism, non-Jewish (=4.00)

Antisemitism (also spelled anti-Semitism or anti-Semitism) is prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. A person who holds such positions is called an anti-Semite. It is a form of racism. While the term’s etymology might suggest that anti-Semitism is directed against all Semitic people, the term was coined in the late 19th century in Germany as a more scientific-sounding term for Judenhass (Jew-hatred), and that has been its normal use since then.

Antisemitism may be manifested in many ways, ranging from expressions of hatred of or discrimination against individual Jews to organized violent attacks by mobs, state police, or even military attacks on entire Jewish communities. Although the term did not come into common usage until the 19th century, it is now also applied to historic anti-Jewish incidences. Notable instances of persecution include the pogroms which preceded the First Crusade in 1096, the expulsion from England in 1290, the massacres of Spanish Jews in 1391, the persecutions of the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Cossack massacres in Ukraine, various pogroms in Russia, the Dreyfus affair, the Holocaust, official Soviet anti-Jewish policies and the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries.

Xenophobia and usage

Antisemitism refers specifically to prejudice against Jews alone and in general, despite the fact that there are other speakers of Semitic languages (e.g. Arabs, Ethiopians, or Assyrians) and that not all Jews speak a Semitic language.

Etymology

Although Wilhelm Marr is generally credited with coining the word anti-Semitism, Alex Bein writes that the word was first used in 1860 by the Austrian Jewish scholar Moritz Steinschneider in the phrase anti-Semitic prejudices. Steinschneider used this phrase to characterize Ernest Renan’s ideas about how Semitic races were inferior to Aryan races, especially as Prussian nationalistic historian Heinrich von Treitschke did much to promote this form of racism. He coined the phrase "the Jews are our misfortune" which would later be widely used by Nazis.

In 1873 German journalist Wilhelm Marr published a pamphlet, "The Victory of the Jewish Spirit over the Germanic Spirit, Observed from a non-religious perspective." In his next pamphlet, The Way to Victory of the Germanic Spirit over the Jewish Spirit, published in 1880, Marr developed his ideas further and coined the related German word Antisemitismus, anti-Semitism, derived from the word Semitismus that he had earlier used. The pamphlet became very popular, and in the same year he founded the League of Antisemites (Antisemiten-Liga), the first German organization committed specifically to combating the alleged threat to Germany and German culture posed by the Jews and their influence, and advocating their forced removal from the country.

Definition

For Sonja Weinberg, as distinct from economic and religious anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism in its modern form shows conceptual innovation, a resort to ‘science’ to defend itself, new functional forms and organizational differences. It was anti-liberal, racialist and nationalist. It promoted the myth that Jews conspired to ‘judaise’ the world; it served to consolidate social identity; it channeled dissatisfactions among victims of the capitalist system; and it was used as a conservative cultural code to fight emancipation and liberalism. Bernard Lewis defines anti-Semitism as a special case of prejudice, hatred, or persecution directed against people who are in some way different from the rest. According to Lewis, anti-Semitism is marked by two distinct features: Jews are judged according to a standard different from that applied to others, and they are accused of cosmic evil.

The U.S. Department of State defines anti-Semitism in its 2005 Report on Global Anti-Semitism as hatred toward Jews – individually and as a group – that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and/or ethnicity.

In 2005, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (now Fundamental Rights Agency), then an agency of the European Union developed a more detailed working definition, which states: "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. It adds "such manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as Jewish collectivity", holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of an individual Jewish person or group; denying the Holocaust or accusing Jews or Israel of exaggerating it; and accusing Jews of dual loyalty or a greater allegiance to Israel than their own country. By claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor, can be a manifestation of anti-Semitism, or holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State is Israel.

Evolution of usage

In the aftermath of the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, German propaganda minister Goebbels announced: The German people is anti-Semitic. It has no desire to have its rights restricted or to be provoked in the future by parasites of the Jewish race.

Forms

It is often emphasized that there are different forms of anti-Semitism. Rene Konig mentions social anti-Semitism, economic anti-Semitism, religious anti-Semitism, and political anti-Semitism as examples. Bernard Lazare identifies three forms of anti-Semitism: Christian anti-Semitism, economic anti-Semitism, and ethnologic anti-Semitism. William Brustein names four categories: religious, racial, economic and political. Louis Harap separates economic anti-Semitism and merges political and nationalistic anti-Semitism into ideological anti-Semitism. Harap also adds a category of social anti-Semitism.

• religious (Jew as Christ-killer),

• economic (Jew as banker, usurer, money-obsessed),

• social (Jew as social inferior, pushy, vulgar, therefore excluded from personal contact),

• racist (Jews as an inferior race),

• ideological (Jews regarded as subversive or revolutionary),

• Cultural (Jews regarded as undermining the moral and structural fiber of civilization).

Cultural antisemitism

Louis Harap defines cultural anti-Semitism as that species of anti-Semitism that charges the Jews with corrupting a given culture and attempting to supplant or succeeding in supplanting the preferred culture with a uniform, crude, Jewish culture. According to Kandel, this form of anti-Semitism views Jews as possessing unattractive psychological and social characteristics that are acquired through acculturation. An important feature of cultural anti-Semitism is that it considers the negative attributes of Judaism to be redeemable by education or religious conversion.

Religious antisemitism

Religious anti-Semitism, also known as anti-Judaism, shifts the focus from racial hatred to that of religious belief. Under this version of anti-Semitism, attacks would often stop if Jews stopped practicing or changed their public faith, especially by conversion to the official or right religion, and sometimes, liturgical exclusion of Jewish converts (the case of Christianized Marranos or Iberian Jews in the late 15th century and 16th century convicted of secretly practicing Judaism or Jewish customers). Frederick Schweitzer asserts that, most scholars ignore the Christian foundation on which the modern anti-Semitic edifice rests and invoke political anti-Semitism, cultural anti-Semitism, racism or racial anti-Semitism, economic anti-Semitism and the like. A Jew ceased to be a Jew upon baptism.

Economic antisemitism

The underlying premise of economic anti-Semitism is that Jews perform harmful economic activities or that economic activities become harmful when they are performed by Jews. Linking Jews and money underpins the most damaging and lasting Anti-Semitic canards. Antisemites claim that Jews control the world finances, a theory promoted in the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and later repeated by Henry Ford and his Dearborn Independent. In the modern era, such myths continue to be spread in books such as The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews published by the Nation of Islam. Gerald Krefetz summarizes the myth as {Jews} control the banks, the money supply, the economy, and businesses – of the community, of the country, of the world.

Racial antisemitism

Racial antisemitism is prejudice against Jews as a racial/ethnic group, rather than Judaism as a religion. Racial antisemitism is the idea that the Jews are a distinct and inferior race compared to their host nations. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, it gained mainstream acceptance as part of the eugenics movements which categorized non-Europeans as inferior. It more specifically claimed that Northern Europeans, or Aryans, were superior. Racial anti-Semites saw the Jews as part of a Semitic race and emphasized their non-European origins and culture. They saw Jews as beyond redemption even if they converted to the majority religion.

In the early 19th century, a number of laws enabling emancipation of the Jews were enacted in Western European countries. Ethnonationalism usually excluded the Jews from the national community as an alien race. Allied to this were theories of Social Darwinism, which stressed a putative conflict between higher and lower races of human beings.

Conspiracy theories

Holocaust denial and Jewish conspiracy theories are also considered a form of antisemitism. Zoological conspiracy theories have been propagated by the Arab media and Arabic language websites, alleging a Zionist plot behind the use of animals to attack civilians or to conduct espionage.

New antisemitism

Starting in the 1990s, some scholars have advanced the concept of new antisemitism, coming simultaneously from the left, the right, and radical Islam, which tends to focus on opposition to the creation of a Jewish homeland in the State of Israel, and argue that the language of anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel are used to attack Jews more broadly. Jewish scholar Gustavo Perednik has posited that anti-Zionism in itself represents a form of discrimination against Jews, in that it singles out Jewish national aspirations as an illegitimate and racist endeavor, and proposes actions that would result in the death of millions of Jews. It is asserted that the new antisemitism deploys traditional anti-Semitic motifs, including older motifs such as the blood libel.

History

Many authors see the roots of economic antisemitism in both pagan antiquity and early Christianity.

1. Pre-Christian anti-Judaism in ancient Greece and Rome which was primarily ethnic in nature

2. Christian antisemitism in antiquity and the Middle Ages which was religious in nature and has extended into modern times

3. Traditional Muslim antisemitism which was – at least in its classical form – nuanced in that Jews were a protected class

4. Political, social and economic antisemitism of Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment Europe which laid the groundwork for racial antisemitism

5. Racial antisemitism that arose in the 19th century and culminated in Nazism

6. Contemporary antisemitism which has been labeled by some as the New Antisemitism

Ancient world

The first clear examples of anti-Jewish sentiment can be traced back to Alexandria in the 3rd century BCE. Alexandria was home to the largest Jewish diaspora community in the world at the time and the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, was produced there. Agatharchides of Cnidus ridiculed the practices of the Jews and the absurdity of their Law, making a mocking reference to how Ptolemy Lagus was able to invade Jerusalem in 320 BCE because its inhabitants were observing the Shabbat. One of the earliest anti-Jewish edicts, promulgated by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in about 170-167 BCE, sparked a revolt of the Maccabees in Judea. The ancient Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria describes an attack on Jews in Alexandria in 38 CE in which thousands of Jews died. The violence in Alexandria may have been caused by the Jews being portrayed as misanthropes.

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APOCALYPSE (END TIME, JUDEO-CHRISTIAN)

Apocalypse, Judeo-Christian (=2.00)

An apocalypse (Ancient Greek: apokalypsis meaning uncovering), translated literally from Greek, is a disclosure of knowledge, i.e., a lifting of the veil or revelation. In religious contexts it is usually a disclosure of something hidden. In the Book of Revelation (Greek: Apokalypsis loannou – literally, John’s Revelation), the last book of the New Testament, the revelation which John receives is that of the ultimate victory of good over evil and the end of the present age, and that is the primary meaning of the term, one that dates to 1175. Today, it is commonly used in reference to any prophetic revelation or so-called end time scenario or to the end of the world in general.

Biblical ideas / Dreams

The revelation may be made through a dream, as in the Book of Daniel, or through a vision, as in the Book of Revelation. John, in the New Testament Book of Revelation (1:9ff), as the prophet lies upon his bed, distressed for the future of his people, he fails into a sort of trance, and in the visions of his head is shown the future.

Angels

Typically, the messengers of the apocalyptic revelation are described as angels. In the Bible, God may give a revelation or instructions through the medium of these heavenly messengers; they act as the seer’s guide. God may Himself give a revelation, as is shown in the Book of Revelation through the person of Jesus Christ. The book of Genesis speaks of the angel bringing for the revelation.

Future

The Biblical prophets’ revelations show God’s justice as taking place in the future or as imminent now. The genre of revelation arms to show God’s way of dealing with humankind and His ultimate purposes, and its writers often reveals the meaning of present events in connection with the ending of the present age. In the book of Daniel the revelation is described as that which shall come to pass in the later days (Daniel 2:28, compare verse 29), similarly Daniel 10:14, to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the later days. Detailed future history seems not to be the main focus of Biblical revelation, but may form a setting for the revelation of God’s meaning, in which a panorama of successive events passes from the known to the unknown.

In the dream recounted in 2 Esdras 11 and 12, the eagle, seemingly representing the Roman Empire, is followed by the lion, representing the promised Messiah, who is to deliver the chosen people and establish an everlasting kingdom, but in nearly all religious writings classed as apocalypses or revelations the eschatological element is prominent. Speculation regarding the age to come and the hope for the chosen people more than anything else occasioned the rise and influenced the development of apocalyptic literature.

End of the age

In the Book of Revelation, the author writes about the revelation of Jesus Christ as Messiah, and about present tribulations leading to the ending of this age and the coming of God’s Kingdom. Hence the term ‘apocalypse’ has come to be used, very loosely, for the end of the world. In the Hebrew Old Testament some pictures of the end of the age were images, of the judgment of the wicked and the glorification of those who were given righteousness before God. In the Book of Job and in some Psalms the dead are described as being in Sheol, awaiting the final judgment. The wicked will then be consigned to eternal suffering in the fires of Gehinnom, or the lake of fire mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

In his New Testament letters the Apostle Paul also has written about the judgment of the wicked and the glorification of those who belong to Christ or Messiah. In letters to the Corinthians and the Thessalonians Paul expounds further the destiny of the righteous. He speaks of the simultaneous resurrection and transformation of those who are in Christ (or Messiah).

The poetic and prophetic literature of the Hebrew Bible, particularly in Isaiah, were rich in millennial imagery, and New Testament writers after Pentecost carried on with this theme. During his imprisonment by the Romans on the Island of Patmos, John in the Book of Revelation, chapter 20, receives a vision of a thousand-year reign of Christ/Messiah upon the earth.

Some Christian movements in the 18th and 19th centuries were characterized by a rise of Millennialism. All Christian apocalyptic eschatology has been concerned with the two themes referred to through the Bible as "this age" and the age coming. Evangelical Christians have been in the forefront popularizing the biblical prophecy of a major confrontation between good and evil at the end of this age, a coming Millennium to follow, and a final confrontation whereby the wicked are judged, the righteous are rewarded and the beginning of Eternity is viewed.

Some evangelical Christians have taught a form of millennialism known as Dispensationalism, which arose in the 19th century. Dispensationalists see separate destinies for the Christian Church and Israel. Their concept of a pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church has become better known, thanks in part to the Left Behind series of books and films.

Specific judgments that will occur on the earth, the final form of Gentile power; God’s re-dealing with Israel based upon covenants mentioned in the Hebrew Old Testament; the second coming proper; a one-thousand year reign of Messiah, a last test of mankind’s sinful nature under ideal conditions by the loosing of Satan, with a judgment of fire coming down from Heaven that follows; the Great White Throne judgment, and the re-creation of current heavens and the earth as a New Heaven and New Earth ushering in the beginning of Eternity.

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ARK OF THE COVENANT (JUDAISM)

Ark of the Covenant, Judaism (3.00)

The Ark of the Covenant, also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in the Book of Exodus as containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. According to some traditional interpretations of the Book of Exodus, Book of Numbers, and the Letter to the Hebrews, the Ark also contained Aaron’s rod, a jar of manna and the first Torah scroll as written by Moses; however, the first of the Books of Kings says that at the time of King Solomon, the Ark contained only the two Tablets of the Law. According to the Book of Exodus, the Ark was built at the command of God, in accordance with the instructions given to Moses in Mount Sinai, God was said to have communicated with Moses from between the two cherubim on the Ark’s cover.

The biblical account relates that about a year after the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, the Ark was created according to the pattern given Moses by God when Israel was encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai. Thereafter the gold plated, acacia chest was carried by the Levites some 2,000 cubits in advance of the people when on the march or before the Israelite army, the host of fighting men.

When the Ark was borne by Levites into the bed of the Jordan, the waters parted as God had parted the waters of the Red Sea, opening a pathway for the entire host to pass through (Josh. 3:15-16; 4:7-18). The walls of the city of Jericho were shaken to the ground with no more than a shout from the army after the Ark of the Covenant was paraded round them for seven days by Levites. Seven priests sounding seven trumpets of rams’ horns (Josh. 6:4-20).

In the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, the Blessed Virgin Mary is sometimes allegorically referred to as the Ark of the Covenant, in that she bore Jesus Christ in similarity to the original tangible contents of the Ark, as cited in the Book of Revelation and in the Litany of Loreto.

Biblical account: Construction and description

According to the Book of Exodus, Yahweh instructed Moses on Mount Sinai during his 4-day stay upon the mountain within the thick cloud and darkness where God was (Ex. 19:20; 24:18) and he was shown the pattern for the tabernacle and furnishings of the Ark to be made of Shittim wood to house the Tablets of Stone. Moses instructed Bezalel and Oholiab to construct the ark (Exodus 31). The Book of Exodus gives detailed instructions on how the Ark is to be constructed.

Then it is to be plated entirely with gold and a crown or molding of gold is to be put around it. Four rings of gold are to be attached to its four feet – two on each side – and through these rings staves of Shittim-wood overlaid with gold for carrying the Ark are to be inserted; and these are not to be removed. The Ark is finally to be placed behind a veil (Parochet), a full description of which is also given at Exodus 25.

Mobile vanguard

After its creation by Moses, the Ark was carried by the Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert. Whenever the Israelites camped, the Ark was placed in a special and sacred tent, called the Tabernacle. When the Israelites, led by Joshua toward the Promised Land, arrived at the banks of the River Jordan, the Ark was carried in the lead preceding the people and was the signal for their advance (Joshua 3:3, 6). During the crossing, the river grew dry as soon as the feet of the priests carrying the Ark touched its waters, and remained so until the priests – with the Ark – left the river after the people had passed over (Josh. 3:15-17); 4:10, 11, 18).

As memorials, twelve stones were taken from the Jordan at the place where the priests had stood (Josh. 4:1-9). In the Battle of Jericho, the Ark was carried round the city once a day for seven days, preceded by the armed men and seven priests sounding seven trumpets of rams’ horns (Josh. 6:4-15). On the seventh day, the seven priests sounding the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Ark compassed the city seven times and with a great shout, Jericho’s wall fell down flat and the people took the city (Josh. 6:16-20).

Capture by the Philistines

The Ark is next spoken of as being in the Tabernacle at Shiloh during Samuel’s apprenticeship (1 Sam. 3:3). After the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan, the Ark remained in the Tabernacle at Gilgal for a season before being removed to Shiloh until the time of Eli, between 300 and 400 years (Jeremiah 7:12), when it was carried into the field of battle, so as to secure, as they had hoped, victory to the Hebrews. The Ark was taken by the Philistines (1 Sam. 4:3-11) who subsequently sent it back after retaining it for seven months (1 Sam. 4:7, 8) because of the events said to have transpired. After their first defeat at Eben-ezer, the Israelites had the Ark brought from Shiloh, and welcomed its coming with great rejoicing.

In the second battle, the Israelites were again defeated, and the Philistines captured the Ark (1 Sam. 4:3-5, 10, 11). The news of its capture was at once taken to Shiloh by a messenger with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head. The old priest, Eli, fell dead when he heard it. Explained as The glory was departed Israel in reference to the loss of the Ark (1 Sam. 4:12-22).

The Philistines took the Ark to several places in their country, and at each place misfortune befell them (1 Sam. 5:1-6), (1 Sam. 6:5). After the Ark had been among them for seven months, the Philistines, on the advice of their diviners, returned it to the Israelites.

The Ark was set in the field of