Gibeon: The First Book Of Kings

‘The Kingdom of God’ is perceived in many different ways by a variety of people. It is commonly thought that it refers to a life after death namely ‘Heaven’ and Jesus seems to reinforce this by stating, "my kingdom is not of this

The Bible is a sacred book of scriptures that Christians and people of the Jewish faith believe is the written account of the word of God. Many different authors composed the works that make up the Bible. It is said that Jesus Christ is the son God who was sent to be the Lord and Savior of all people. Many Christians and Jewish people believe the Bible is the way of life. Those who believe and follow the beliefs of the Bible and God’s word will have eternal life if they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The Bible has been in print and given to others for hundreds of years. The first King James Bible was published back in the year 1611. Within the King James Version, it used to contain what are now known as the canons. A biblical canon is a set or series of related books. The canons, within the King James Version, these were called the books of the apocrypha. Apocrypha means ‘hide away’ in Greek. The apocrypha is a collection of books that were located in between the Old Testament and the New Testament. For over 270 years, the books of the apocrypha were published in the King James Version of the Bible.

In the story “ By the Waters of Babylon” the narrator, John, is a priest who values knowledge greatly. In the story John states: “My knowledge made me happy--it was like a fire in my heart.” (312). Through the interpretation of this line the reader can infer that knowledge is very important to the narrator's culture and society. It is what inspires these quests and drives all of his actions. The narrator assumes that all of the knowledge that has been gained throughout a lifetime is true because he has yet to learn otherwise. In relation to John’s strong feelings about knowledge, He also feels as though he can never get enough. His need and desire for knowledge is described by the following quote: “Nevertheless, my knowledge and my lack of knowledge burned in me – I wished to know more.” (312). John

Wisdom essentially provides help to show us that we depend on God and are to live our lives like Christ.This in depth exploration on the love that God has for us will help us to gain a fuller understanding of what the Bible truly shows in this area. Packer states that in us trying to get a hold of the wisdom, we accidentally overlook the love and grace of God.(149) This is to paint a picture so that we can see the true glory/greatness of

a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Doc. 1). This is very bluntly saying that there

What is the most important thing to know about knowledge you are given? The answer is simple, the truth. In the story “By the Waters of Babylon” the main character John is on a quest for knowledge. In his civilization the priests are the wisest and most knowledgeable people. John is the son of a priest and wants to become one himself. John is obsessed with finding more knowledge. John says, “My knowledge made me happy--it was like a fire in my heart” (Benet 312). He dreams of going to on a journey to the The Dead Place, a place that is forbidden for any of his people to go to.

So what does the New Testament have to say about wisdom? Jesus spoke about wisdom with some of his parables. The parable of the wise and foolish builders is interpreted to be about obeying the word of the Lord. The wise man who builds his house on the rock with a foundation is the one who listens and obeys God's word. The foolish builder does not listen to God's word and he builds his house on the sand with no foundation. The parable of the rich fool tells us to avoid greediness and be giving and store up heavenly treasures rather than earthly ones. Lastly there is the parable of the 10 virgins. Some of them were not wise enough to bring enough lamp oil for the night. So when the bridegroom came, the virgins were away to find more oil. Meaning that a wise man will be ready for Christ's return.

A proverb (Hebrew marshal) is a short poetic sentence conveying wisdom in a concise and memorable form. (p.259) Solomon the writer of proverbs, was told by God” he could ask for anything he wanted and God would give it to him. Solomon asked for wisdom to lead the people, so they would know the difference between right and wrong.”(1Kings 3:5-9 paraphrased) According to Hindson and Yates “Hebrew wisdom literature taught people not only how to make good choice s in life but how to make godly choices.” (p.259) Proverbs shows many parallels and contrasts, usually in a two sentence form. In this essay we will look at the teachings of Hebrew wisdom on diligence and laziness, and how it corresponds with the contrast between wisdom and folly.

The second section of Common Sense provides several important topics and ideas such as the issue of kings, subjects, and inequality. He makes the point that in the Bible, “there were no kings; the consequence of which was there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throw mankind into confusion” (p. 11) He also goes on to state that the concept of kings was brought into existence by heathens, yet another example of his bold choice of words. In fact, a great portion of the second section is devoted to biblical examples of how jews fell to their “idolatrous customs”

Kings Solomon was building a place to worship God and offered money to merchants to come and contribute. Solomon wanted specific materials that Tamrin possessed and had a business transaction with him. Tamrin noticed the great wisdom, intelligence and abundance of positive qualities that Solomon possessed.

We see from this passage that Solomon is a loving devoted husband and father. He understands the relationship between a father and his children. Solomon appears through this writings to have been a good

In “By the water of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet the significance of knowledge is it creates power, which only the priest possess. Only the priests withhold the knowledge because they desire to hold the power in their society. At the end of page one John, the narrator, says he wished to gain more knowledge. The priest are the ones with the power and knowledge in his tribe so the reader can infer that John aspires for more power. Since the narrator is a priest’s son he can strive for higher knowledge; therefore, he also can attempt to gain higher power in his tribe. At the end of the story when John gains the knowledge of the Gods being men he says that he can not tell his tribe everything. John says he has to tell the truth little by little.

In the Kingdom of God, God’s purposes and plans are made apparent. There is hope for the poor, there is justice, there is forgiveness, there is triumph over evilness, and there is a greater plan. These themes apparent in several parables from the four Gospels. The first instance of the Kingdom of God the audience sees in the Bible is when Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed. He says, “It [Kingdom of God] is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade” (Mark 4:31-33). Jesus explains to his parables and to his audience

When addressing the question “Describe the teachings of Hebrew wisdom on diligence and laziness? How does this correspond with the contrast between wisdom and folly?” we should first answer the question “ What is Hebrew wisdom?” According to The Essence of the Old Testament: A Survey, by Ed Hindson and Gary Yates, “Hebrew wisdom literature is a certain kind of poetic literature that was used to instruct the young person in the ways of wisdom. Hebrew wisdom tends to be practical and was meant to be applied to many aspects of everyday secular life.” The goal of this essay is to address the everyday issues of diligence and laziness, and the contrast between wisdom and folly.

Wisdom Tradition is a term applied to the Old Testament books of Proverbs, Job, Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes. Wisdom Tradition books all share characteristics and points of view that are somewhat different than other biblical books. Wisdom tradition has very prominent characteristics from other books in the Old Testament such as a search for the goal of life, how to master it and questioning the problems of life, showing interest to human experiences that affect all people, joy of creativity and creation, and very little interest in the great acts of divine salvation. These qualities appear in a few books in the Old Testament. All of them show wisdom, but only some show both wisdom and tradition. Books such as Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes values the beauty of creation and the confidence of human life and nature. This was a new concept to Israel. They learned about wisdom tradition through other nations. They were influenced from Mesopotamian literature and took their ideas of meditations of sufferings and God’s justice into their Old Testament Books. Suffering can be seen in Job, but in the next essay and upcoming classes, we will be relating this to women suffering. The wisdom perspectives did not replace the other two major strands of thought in Ancient Israel, that of prophets and priests. It was simply a different focus that was complementary with the other perspectives presented in the Bible.