What Was Hezekiah Religious Reform

1 Id-According to the Old Testament, what massacre took place shortly after Moses received the 10 Commandments and why did it take place? Briefly list the main events in Moses’ life according to the Old Testament. Do any Egyptian sources confirm the events narrated in the Old Testament?

The destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (586 BC) and the subsequent

After conquering northern Israel in 722 B.C.E., the Assyrians engendered centuries of political intrigue and laid the foundation for future unscrupulous kingdoms and idolatrous people.1 Once the Babylonian empire overthrew Josiah, the King of Judah, Habakkuk began to compose a prophetic book, questioning the ways of God. Above all, Habakkuk could not comprehend why “the evil circumvented the just”2; he thought that the impiety of the world did not correlate with a supposedly just God.3 Throughout his narrative, this biblical prophet came to understand that “the just man, because of his faith, shall live” (Hb 2,4). Eventually discovering that righteousness and faith in God lead to justice, Habakkuk cried out to the people of Judah through

The ancient tabernacle of Moses was a sacred and holy place for the people of Israel. It served as a tool for the people to remember God and to look forward to their promised Messiah. The tabernacle was so integral to the lives of the Israelites that they even built the tabernacle in the center of their encampments during their journeys (Yom Kippur). The tabernacle also served many purposes for the Israelites in their rituals, ceremonies, and beliefs of their religion. Many practices that the ancient Israelites performed in and for the tabernacle anciently, may seem peculiar to the modern thought process or many beliefs today. The main focus of the tabernacle was the day of Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement. On this day, the Israelites would gather and watch as a high priest performed the rituals in the tabernacle that would rid the sins of the people of Israel. This day and ceremony was a very important aspect to Israelites’ beliefs and the tabernacle was the main tool for their ceremonies. The tabernacle and the day of Yom Kippur served many purposes in helping the Israelites to remember their God, learn from symbols, and to help them strive to obey their God’s commandments.

The king’s decision to move the capital from Thebes to this new site was due to the fact that the sun rose from a dip in the surrounding mountaintops, which he believed to be Aton coming up to watch over the city. Akhenaten commemorated the founding of his new capital by erecting boundary stelae, markers placed around the capital to show the limit of the city. These markers were also used to keep any god other than Aton, out of the city. After a year of residing in the new capital, Akhenaten prohibited the worship of Amun-Ra completely and ordered that all temples dedicated to the worship of Amun-Ra be closed. The king also prohibited all festivals and worship of Osiris, Isus, Mut and Ptah and any and all other major and minor deities, as only one god was to be worshipped, that god being Aton. In this sense, Akhenaten became a ruler with a newly created religion, monotheism. The total defilement of Amun-Ra from all statues, papyrus and temples meant that his father’s name had to be defiled too. To wipe out a person’s name meant wiping out a part of that person’s being. Therefore, that person could not be introduced to the God’s and resurrected – one of the ancient Egyptian’s worst fears.

After their exile, around fifty-thousand Jews returned to Jerusalem which was now called Judaea. The leader of Judea, the Persian King Cyrus, allowed the Jews to return and to build another place of worship (Fisher 251). The second temple was built in 515 BCE and according to the text Living Religions, became “the central symbol to a scattered Jewish nation” (Fisher). The temple became a place where the Torah was formed and where the religion prospered. However, Jewish prosperity was not going to last. After four centuries of Roman rule, that was domineering and dreadful, a group of Jews decided to rebel against their oppressors. This led to Jews being slaughtered by the Romans and to the second Temple being destroyed. All that is left of the Temple are foundation stones which are referred to as the Western Wall. The temple has never been rebuilt and the Western Wall has become a place for prayer and remembrance for Jews all over the world. Jewish people look at the Western Wall as a representation of the hardships and oppression that their religion and people have endured. According to the article, Mystical Secret of the Western Wall:

I decided to do this response on sources 10 and 11 which were about the destruction of the Holy Sepulcher. Source 10 was from a Christian's point of view. Right away, the source begins by describing how the sepulcher was destroyed by the prince of Babylon, and how the Jews aided in the destruction as well. This source portrays Jews as being bitter, bold, and proud people. It also states that the reason why the prince of Babylon wanted to destroy the sepulcher was due to the fact that Christians were gaining power, and that they supposedly would soon take over his entire kingdom, which of course, the prince could not let happen. After the Christians had figured out that it was the jews that had helped destroy the temple, they disowned them from

“People built many altars on mountains to serve the Canaanite gods, the Baal and Ashtarte. The Golden Calves, which the first Jeroboam set up in the north and south of the country to turn the people away from the Beth Hamikdosh in Jerusalem, were worshipped more than before and the teachings of the Torah and the holy commandments were viewed with contempt.”

We see in the first chapter of Zephaniah that this behavior is directly mentioned, “I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem. I will destroy every remnant of Baal worship in this place,the very names of the idolatrous priests those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who bow down and swear by the Lord and who also swear by Molek” (Zephaniah 1:4-5) We can see that the action of the previous kings effect the book Zephaniah because their actions are being directly referred to. This behavior changed with the reign of King Josiah.

Unlike the other two major religions Judaism evolved form the Israelites who didn't deny the existence of other gods for other nations, though they only worshipped one deity. Its deity was Yahweh, the god of the patriarchs, who was worshipped in a sacrificial cult centered in Jerusalem and later at sanctuaries in the north, where a rival Jewish kingdom was formed. Prophets who warned against the people's reliance on these temple cults saw themselves vindicated when both the northern and southern kingdoms were destroyed by foreign conquerors. The exile of the Judeans to Babylonia in 586 BC was a major turning point in Israelite religion. The prior history of Israel now was reinterpreted

After King Saul died, David was appointed king. The temple built by King Solomon who also held the Ark of the Covenant. This was where sacrifices were made to God. After the first temple was built the Jewish people were sent to Babylon and after their return 50 years later, a second temple was built. This second temple was where the Torah was established. After a war with the Romans in 132-135 CE the Jewish temple was destroyed and Jewish people were forbidden to practice their faith (Fisher, 2005). Judea was renamed Palestine and the Jewish people no longer had a home.

Studying the religion of the Ancient Israelite People must be done in a careful manner. The ways in which biblical scholars frame significant ideas can have a major effect on how their point is received. Today’s ideas about the religious lives of Canaanites have been drawn on primarily from The Hebrew Bible and archaeological evidence. In their respective works, biblical scholars Benjamin Sommer and Carol Meyers choose to interpret these pieces of religious evidence is varying ways; Meyers takes a more cultural approach while Sommer’s has a theological leaning. Recognizing these different perspectives, I prefer the approach that Meyers takes because of its focus in anthropology.

In Ethiopia ,The Zagwe king Lalibela wanted to create a new Jerusalem. South of Aksum he founded a site named after himself. The cultures religion of Christianity was embraced by the rock-hewn sanctuaries that were created by Laibela. The structure of these churches where different compared to the churches we see now. Instead of building the churches from the ground upwards they were hewn from living rock. First they had a wide trench that would be cut around all four sides of the block which would then be the church. The interior and exterior parts of the sanctuaries were carved with hammers and chisels. A chisel was is a hand tool that has a long blade and is strucked by a hammer to give cut or shape wood, tone, metal and hard materials.

     Concerning the actual Temple, one must be reminded that King David’s original intentions were to create a memorial against the Canaanite deities and paganism. However, when Solomon was given responsibility of the construction, he seemed to have forgotten this. Some of the symbolism on the alter was derived from Phoenicia, and can be traced back to older Canaanite symbols from Mesopotamia. A serious spiritual weakness was starting to materialize in the Temple during this time. “Its elaborate organization and its heavy indebtedness to Syro-Phoenician religious architecture and practice. The danger of syncretism became very great- so great that the following centuries were characterized by bitter intermittent conflict between religious assimilators and religious separatists”(Albright 150). In other

After the temple was completed, Zechariah gave several prophecies about Israel’s future. It vividly describes the first and second coming of our lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This book contains more about the person, work, and glory of Christ than any other minor prophets combined. Israel’s king would come, but his people would reject him. They would later repent and be restored to God. The king is going to come again for the Judgment, we pray that when he comes again that we have been faithful and he will find us pure in his sight. The building of the temple is important here. Our bodies are our temple and we must continue to work on them until Christ comes again to claim us, the Church the people of