.... kingdom of 10 tribes. Today it is used as a collective name for all Jewry and since 1948 for the Jewish state. (Citizens of the state of Israel are called Israelis; not all of them are Jews.) In the Bible, Hebrew is used by foreign peoples as a name for the Israelites; today it is applied only to the hebrew language. The origin of the Jews is recounted in the Hebrew Bible. Despite legendary and miraculous elements in its early narratives, most scholars believe that the biblical account is based on historic realities. According to the Book of Genesis, God ordered the patriarch Abraham to leave his home in Mesopotamia and travel to a new land, which he promised to ....

.... Leading up to the first night of Passover, the home is cleaned and cleared of all yeast foods, called hametz. All hametz is either eaten before Passover begins or "sold" to non-Jewish neighbors and friends. The rules surrounding Passover are strict and many, with only special foods, utensils, and dishware allowed. Kitchen utensils and dishware normally used in the home are not be used during Passover. Special dishes and utensils for the Passover holiday are taken out of storage, cleaned and used. Only foods that are "Kosher for Passover" are allowed. No leavened (containing yeast) foods or grains are eaten. In their place matzoh and foods containing matzoh are eaten. ....

.... the Bible's relevance to contemporary thought in general, and in particular to the role of women in worship. If the Bible were not written under divine inspiration, a person or practice is not bound by its teachings. He or she can therefor pick and choose whatever corresponds to his/her point of view. However, if the Bible is of divine inspiration, then a cautious consideration of passages relevant to a particular issue must be undertaken. Traditions and customs that have arisen after the Bible was written may thus be carefully scrutinized. Such practices may or may not prove sound after comparison with scripture. Before we discuss specific issues concerning women i ....

.... that the military historian C. Sanders lists as principles for documentary historical proof: the bibliographical test, internal evidence test, and the external evidence test (McDowell 43). The bibliographical test is the examination of text by the documents that have reached us. The reliability of the copies of the New Testament is tested by the number of manuscripts (MSS) and the time intervals between the time in which the piece of literature was written and our earliest copy. There are more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and 10,000 Latin vulgate manuscripts, not to mention the other various translations. Totally there are around 24,000 total MSS for ....

.... beliefs of the group, analyze the importance of religions dialogue, and to discuss the challenge of religious pluralism in the contemporary world. The first group member states her firm Christian views. Melissa recognizes all the religions of the world, but she holds Christanity to be the only true religion. To her, Christianity is the only way one person can attain salvation. All other religions are false and those who do not follow Christanity are misguided and will not attain salvation. It is only through Jesus Christ's death on the cross that one can repent, be forgiven, and attain salvation. Melissa feels that others who are non-Christians believe that their r ....

.... of searching, he meditated under a tree, and he recieved enlitghtenment. He now understood the cause of suffering. From then on he was known as the Buddha which started the religion, Buddhism. Hindu's beliefs are recorded in sacred texts. The most important being the Vedas and the Upanishads. The Vedas contains eternal thruths that were reveiled to the wise men. The Upanishads helped to explain the ideas that occured in the Vedas. This is somewhat similar to Buddhism being that the Buddah taught others what he learned as he sat under the tree. He called those ideas the four noble truths. The first truth was that suffering was universal. The second was that suffering is c ....

.... sounds very strange to those who have been raised on western music. The chants were originally monophonic, or non-harmonized. Within the last several centuries a drone note was added underneath the melody to bring out the basic tone. In modern practice the drone note may change to harmonize with its melody note. Recently, various efforts have been made to create a fully harmonized Byzantine chant, but these efforts seem to obscure and ruin the basis of the tones. Byzantine Chant had an influence on, and is directly related, to other Orthodox chants. It is one of the basis' for all other Orthodox chant forms. The chants used by the churches in Serbia and Bulgaria are ch ....

.... the Lutheran Reformation was less widespread. Luther and Calvin held that not mere abuses of the Roman Catholic Church needed correcting, but that the Catholic Church itself was wrong in principle. Luther’’s cause for reformation of 16th century European religion came from his unnatural paranoia that he was damned. He had problems convincing himself that his spirit was pure and that he would go to heaven; internal distress raged within him about the awful omnipotence of God, his own insignificant existence in comparison, and his apprehensiveness of the devil. His personal problems would not yield to the existing manners of assuring oneself that he/she was headed for heave ....