Isaiah was of Royal Descent

 

When King Amaziah died , his son, Uzziah/Azariah became king of Judah. The prophet Isaiah was the son of Amoz, who was possibly a brother of King Amaziah, so, Isaiah was of royal descent. 2 Kings 14: 19-22; 2 Chronicles 25-27.

Relatives of Jesus

 

9 December 598 BC/BCE: Death of Jehoiakim/Eliakim (608-598 BC/BCE), ascension of his son, Jehoiachin/Jeconiah (ruled 597 BC/BCE), as King of Judah (for a three-month and ten-day reign). Jehoiachin is held captive in Babylon for 37 years. The Sheshbazzar, “prince of Judah,” mentioned in Ezra is believed to have been Shenazzar, a son of Jehoiakin. This man would have been the uncle of  Zerubbabel, an ancestor of Jesus.  Ezra 1:8ff, 5:1-2,14, 2:63; 1 Chronicles 3:18; 2 Kings 23: 1-24:16.

Find a Penny

 

Find a penny and pick it up and all the day you’ll have good luck. I heard this chant many times as a child in the southern portion of the United States but it is not restricted to the American South.

            The “lucky Penny” superstition has been known for thousands of years. Ancient peoples, just like many moderns, often believed in the power inherent in coins. Finding a coin was considered to be a sign of good luck, or of coming prosperity, because metals were considered to represent wealth and protection.

            Making a wish after throwing a coin into a fountain may have originated as giving a valuable offering to water deities.

            “A penny for your thoughts” carries the idea that your thoughts are valuable because the coin has value.

            After a coin flip, a coin landing with its head-side up (obverse) is considered to be a positive sign. A coin with the tails-side up (reverse) is considered to be negative. Some people will not pick up a coin from the street if the coin is in the tails up position. In American football, the referee determines first possession of the ball by the use of a coin flip.

            This may seem like a trivial and harmless holdover of an ancient superstition. Most people would view it in this way and, for the most part, it is. The children gleefully throwing coins into the fountain outside a restaurant and making a wish are totally innocent. Most adults have no idea of the origins of the superstition and have not given it a single thought, and probably never will. In its origins it is a demonstration of the use of Magick.

            Magick, as opposed to harmless stage magic (where you do not actually see what you think you see) is an ancient concept. The actual modern word, Magick, seems to have been originated by Aleister Crowley, an utterly evil and awful man who described himself as The Great Beast. His most famous quotation is “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”

            Magick is the intentional attempt to control reality by performing certain actions or saying certain words. It is an attempt to impose one’s will on the universe. It is an assertion of self as the master. If you gave them a coin, the water deities were obligated to grant you a wish. If you rubbed the lamp, the genie was your slave. If you said the correct words in the correct sequence, a demon could be forced to obey you.

            Simony is the practice of buying or selling objects held to be religiously sacred. It does not include the selling of modern Christian merchandise which, of itself, is not inherently holy or sacred.  Simony would be the selling, for personal profit, of materials or items or powers used in the official functions of the church. The word originates from Acts 8:18-24, where a magician, Simon Magus, offered money to Peter in an attempt to purchase the power to perform miracles. Peter angrily rejected Simon’s offer of money.

            The Bible clearly says that we are to avoid the intentional use of magic and the occult. Deuteronomy 18:10-11, 18:2; Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 19:31, 20:6,27; Isaiah 19:1-4; Ezekiel 13:20-21; 2 Kings 21:6; Revelation 21:8.

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            Your innocent child can probably still enjoy throwing a few coins into a fountain.

Theophoric Names

Often, we fail to recognize that many personal and family names also have religious origins. Many are easy to see when we actually look. Others require a little effort.

Surnames originating in Western culture are of several types: occupational (example: Baker), relating to a place (example: Lincoln), relating to a particular family trait (example : Jolly), named for historical people (example: Kennedy), sarcastic or silly names (examples: Naaktgeboren (“born naked”), family relationships (example: Harrison), animal names (example: Bird), emotions: (example: Love), vulgar names (example: Mist, translate this name from German to English), and other types of name origins. This post will present a few names of theophoric origin.   

Surnames and personal names in the Far East appear to be based primarily on nature or philosophical concepts.

Chinese surnames http://www.yutopian.net/names/, Japanese surnames http://surnames.behindthename.com/names/usage/japanese, and Korean surnames https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_name appear to be primarily based on philosophy or nature.

θεόφορος (theophoros) is a Greek word meaning “God bearing.” The word “theophoric” in English is used of pronames, surnames, and place names which have religious origins. This blog has a recurrent segment profiling religious place names. 

The religious meanings of most of the ancient biblical personal names are known, including those of the foes of the Israelites and early Christians. An example is Tiglath-pileser III, King of Assyria (745 - 727BC).  He is mentioned in 2 Kings 15:19 and 2 Kings 15:29. His Assyrian name is Tukulti-apil-esharra, which translates as "my trust is in the son of Esharra." Esharra is Ashur, the main god of the Assyrian pantheon.

Following is a listing of several theophoric surnames occurring in English language usage. The religious origins of some of the surnames is readily obvious, some are more indirect:  Benjamin, Aaron, Abraham, Isaacson, Bishop, Abbot, Church, Grace, Eglise, Bartolo, Sofer (Hebrew  = "scribe"), Dayyan (Hebrew = "Jewish civil judge"), Abdullah (Arabic = "slave of Allah"), di Moise, di Angelo, Kohen/Cohen (Hebrew = "priest"), Simon, Stephens, Dennis (Latin = "of Dionysus") Godwin/Godwynn, Goodwin, Goodwyn (Old English = "God's friend"), Gotfried/Gottfried, Holiness, Nunmaker, Faith, Kirk (Scottish = "church"), Angel, Theodore (Greek = "gift of God"), Oden  (Swedish form of Odin, the main Norse god), Johnson ("son of John". John is derived from the Hebrew personal name Yohannan, which means "Yahweh is gracious"), Christian, Soul, Monk, St. James, Zacharias, and many others.  

Extrabiblical Evidences of Biblical Persons and/or Events: The Mesha Stele

Those who doubt the historicity of the Bible are either ignorant of the archeological record or choose to ignore it.  There are multiple extrabiblical corroborations of biblical statements.  These confirm the accuracy of the Bible’s historical assertions.  The religious interpretation of the information, of course, cannot be “proven.”

Those of faith come to realize that there are other ways of “knowing.”  (I know how “mystical” this sounds, but if the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is true, this is so.)

One of the first extrabiblical eveidences is the Mesha Stele (also known as the Moabite Stone).  The stele was shown to F.A. Klein, a Prussian missionary in Dhiban (the ancient Dibon, Moab) in 1868 by Bedouins.    When the Prussian government tried to purchase it, so did France, and a bidding war erupted.  The locals decided to break the stone into pieces.

There are several modern explanations for breaking the stone.  1. The locals wanted to prevent its removal and they thought a broken stone would be useless.  2.  The locals thought there was a treasure inside since so many people wanted it.  And the most likely explanation, 3. Someone understood the Law of Supply and Demand.  The individual pieces might collectively be of more value than one piece.

A stele is a commemoration or memorial carved or sculpted into an upright pillar, stone, tablet, or slab, often of basalt or marble.  The Mesha Stele was erected 847 BC/BCE in what is now Jordan by Mesha, the king of Moab.  The stele describes how Omri, King of Israel  ( ruled ca 886-874 BC/BCE), and his son Ahab (ruled 873-851 BC/BCE) defeated Moab because the Moabite deity, Chemosh, was angry at his people.  On the stele, Mesha is celebrating his defeat of Ahaziah, on of Ahab’s two sons.

"As for Omri, king of Israel, he humbled Moab many years [lit. days], for Chemosh was angry with his land. And his son followed him and he also said 'I will humble Moab.' In my time he spoke [thus], but I have triumphed over him and over his house, while Israel hath perished forever" (cf. 2 Kings 1:1; 3:4–5)

Moabite is considered by many to have been a dialect of Hebrew and the name of the king, Mesha, may be equivalent to Moshe (“Moses”).

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=mesha+stele&gbv=2&gs_l=hp.3..0l3j0i30l7.2292.5796.0.6261.11.11.0.0.0.0.60.528.11.11.0...0.0.xyqc_p4Q9Nk&sa=X&oi=image_result_group

http://www.jordanjubilee.com/history/mesha.htm

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0014_0_13724.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesha_Stele

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mesha_Stele

Extra-Biblical Evidences of Biblical Persons and/or Events: The Taylor Prism

The Taylor Prism (691 BC/BCE) s one of three red clay six-sided prisms, all inscribed with the same Akkadian inscription written in cuneiform characters.  The Taylor Prism is in the British Museum, while the two Sennacherib prisms are located in the Israel Museum (Jerusalem) and in the Oriental Institute of Chicago.

Sin-ahhi-eriba (the Biblical Sennacherib), was the son of Sargon II and ruled Assyria 705-681 BC/BCE.  The Taylor Prism and its two sisters present the king's version of the events related in 2 Kings 17:17;  2 Chronicles 32:9;  and the 33rd and 36th chapters of the book of Isaiah.  The event described is Sennacherib's attack on Jerusalem in 701 BC/BCE during the reign of King Hezekiah.  Sennacherib destroyed forty-six cities in Judah and deported 200,150 people.  King Hezekiah was forced to pay tribute (including several of his daughters) to the Assyrian monarch.  (Another extra-biblical mention of the event is in the writings of the historian Herodotus.)

The Taylor Prism was acquired by Colonel R. Taylor in 1830 in Baghdad after having been found earlier in the ruins of Ninevah, the ancient capital of Assyria.  Colonel Taylor's widow sold the prism to the British Museum in 1855.

To read more about the prisms, see these links:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/t/the_taylor_prism.aspx 

http://www.bible-history.com/empires/prism.html 

http://www.scholarofgod.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78:sennacherib-prism&catid=40:biblical-archaeology&Itemid=57