Bible Dictionary
OSTRACA
OSTRACA
Pl. of “ostrakon” (Gr.; originally meaning “oyster shell”; later it came to mean “fragment of potsherd”).
Fragments of broken ceramic vessels that were used for various purposes, including writing notes of various characters on them with ink. They have the particularity that they are very well preserved in conditions that cannot be resisted by papyri.
In Greece they were used in voting to decide whether or not a person should be banned from society; That’s where the term ostracism arose. In Egypt they were used for all types of notes on daily life, business, receipts, letters, etc. The term “ostrakon” appears in Jb. 2:8 in the LXX version: “Kai elaben ostrakon” (“And he took… a potsherd”).
Among the various ostraca finds in archaeological excavations in the Middle East we can mention:
(a) Egypt.
Ostraca have been found from all periods, but the majority belong to the New Kingdom era and come from Thebes and the Valley of the Kings (Deir el-Medineh). Written for the most part in hieratic cursive, a few have also been found inscribed with hieroglyphics and also with artistic drawings. The ostraca found can be classified into two categories:
(A) literary:
Óstraca in which selections of stories, poems, wisdom works, hymns, etc. appear. They seem to come from school exercises or perhaps also as memory or family exercises.
(B) non-literary:
In the category of non-literary ostraca there are lists of workers, with absence marks, work reports, distribution of rations, invoices, lawsuits, correspondence, marriage contracts, etc. Thanks to this, it has been possible to obtain much greater information about Egypt corresponding to the time of the New Kingdom. Chronologically, this Empire is conventionally placed between 1570 and 1085 BC.
However, Velikovsky and Courville, among other exponents of the revised chronology, convincingly document the expulsion of the Hyksos and the beginning of the New Kingdom during the reign of King Saul. Thus, these ostraca actually shed light on the conditions of Egypt contemporary and after the time of King David. (See EGYPT, HYKSOS, etc.)
(b) Samaria.
In excavations carried out in 1910, seventy-five ostraca in the Hebrew language, written in Phoenician characters, were found in the ruins of the royal palace. These are private and commercial texts. They have been variously assigned to the reign of Ahab and Jeroboam II. Although they do not contribute anything of importance to the knowledge of history, they do have value in the study of ancient Hebrew writing and its vocabulary and phrases.
(c) Lachish.
In excavations between 1935 and 1938 at Tell ed-Duweir, where the ruins of the biblical Lachish are located, twenty-one ostraca were discovered, most of them military letters written in Paleo-Hebrew. Due to the study of their internal evidence, the date of 588 BC has been assigned to them.
They were addressed to the governor of the city during the last years of the kingdom of Judah, at the time when the armies of Babylon were reducing the walled cities one after another. There is a close relationship between the conditions revealed by these documents and the book of Jeremiah.
Ostracon III, addressed from Jerusalem to Lachish, like the others, says: «The words of the prophet are not good… he can weaken the hands of… (cf. Jer. 38: 4). These words may refer to Jeremiah himself. Another fact of interest is that in these ostraca there is the repeated use of YHWH, which later rabbinism would greatly restrict its use.
(d) Jerusalem.
In excavations carried out between 1923 and 1925, the so-called “Ofel” ostracon was found, which gives a list of names that is difficult to read, and which has been dated to the 7th century BC.
(e) New Testament ostraca.
Among the large number of ostraca found in Egypt, twenty of them have been discovered with short passages from the NT, from the 7th century AD, and written in Greek. Of the twenty, ten of them give a long uninterrupted passage (Luke 22:40-71). The other ten ostraca show passages from the four gospels ranging from two to nine verses each. They constitute a testimony of the interest of poor people in the Gospel in Egypt at the time of the Arab invasion.
There is a much greater variety of ostraca, such as the Copts of the Byzantine era, of interest to the history of the Church. As well as others of much greater antiquity in Gezer, with proto-alphabetic writing. For these and much additional information, the study of specialized works is recommended.
BETHEL
is the name of a Canaanite city in the ancient region of Samaria, located in the center of the land of Canaan, northwest of Ai on the road to Shechem, 30 kilometers south of Shiloh and about 16 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
Bethel is the second most mentioned city in the Bible. Some identify it with the Palestinian village of Beitin and others with the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Bethel was the place where Abraham built his altar when he first arrived in Canaan (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3). And at Bethel Jacob saw a vision of a ladder whose top touched heaven and the angels ascended and descended (Genesis 28:10-19).
For this reason Jacob was afraid, and said, “How terrible is this place! It is nothing other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven »and he called Bethel the place that was known as «Light» (Genesis 35-15).
Bethel was also a sanctuary in the days of the prophet Samuel, who judged the people there (1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Samuel 10:3). And it was the place where Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was buried.
Bethel was the birthplace of Hiel, who sought to rebuild the city of Jericho (1 Kings 16:34).
When Bethel did not yet belong to the people of Israel, Joshua had to battle against the king of Bethel and other kings and defeated them (Joshua 12-16).
When the people of Israel had taken possession of the promised land, in the division by tribes it was assigned to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18-22), but in later times it belonged to the Tribe of Judah (2 Chronicles 13:19).
It was one of the places where the Ark of the Covenant remained, a symbol of the presence of God.
In Bethel the prophet Samuel judged the people.
Then the prophet Elisha went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some boys came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him: “Go up, bald man; Come up, bald! When he looked back and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two boys” (2 Kings 2:23).
After the division of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I, king of Israel, had a golden calf raised at Bethel (1 Kings 21:29) which was destroyed by Josiah, king of Judah, many years later (2 Kings 23:15). .
Bethel was also a place where some of the Babylonian exiles who returned to Israel in 537 BC gathered. (Ezra 2:28).
The prophet Hosea, a century before Jeremiah, refers to Bethel by another name: “Bet-Aven” (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:5-8), which means ‘House of Iniquity’, ‘House of Nothingness’, ‘House of Vanity’, ‘House of Nullity’, that is, of idols.
In Amos 7: 12-13 the priest Amaziah tells the prophet Amos that he flee to Judah and no longer prophesy in Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary, and the head of the kingdom.
The prophet Jeremiah states that “the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel” (Jeremiah 48:13), because of their idolatry and, specifically, the worship of the golden calf.
PUTEOLI
(lat.: “small fountains”).
Two days after arriving in Rhegium, the ship carrying Paul arrived at Puteoli, which was then an important maritime city.
The apostle found Christians there, and enjoyed their hospitality (Acts 28:13).
It was located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples, near the site of present-day Pouzzoles.
The entire surrounding region is volcanic, and the Solfatare crater rises behind the city.
PUT
Name of a nation related to the Egyptians and neighbors of their country (Gen. 10:6).
Put is mentioned with Egypt and other African countries, especially Libya (Nah. 3:9) and Lud (Ez. 27:10; Is. 66:19 in the LXX. Put appears between Cush and Lud in Jer. 46:9; Ez. 30:5).
In the LXX he is translated as Libyans in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Josephus also identifies it with Libya (Ant. 1:6, 2), but in Nah. 3.9 is distinguished from the Libyans.
Current opinion is divided between Somalia, Eastern Arabia and Southern Arabia (Perfume Coast).
PURPLE
A coloring substance that is extracted from various species of mollusks. The ancient Tyrians used two types of them: the “Murex trunculus”, from which the bluish purple was extracted, and the “Murex brandaris”, which gave the red.
The ink of its coloring matter varies in color depending on the region in which it is fished.
Piles of murex shells, artificially opened, have been discovered in Minet el-Beida, port of ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra), which gives evidence of the great antiquity of the use of this purple dye (see UGARIT).
Due to its high price, only the rich and magistrates wore purple (Est. 8:15, cf. the exaltation of Mordecai, v. 2, Pr. 31:22; Dan. 5:7; 1 Mac. 10 :20, 62, 64; 2 Mac. 4:38; cf. v 31; Luke 16:19; Rev. 17:4).
The rulers adorned themselves in purple, even those of Midian (Judg. 8:26). Jesus was mocked with a purple robe (Mark 15:17).
Great use had been made of purple-dyed fabrics for the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36) and for the high priest’s vestments (Ex. 28:5, 6, 15, 33; 39: 29). The Jews gave symbolic value to purple (Wars 5:5, 4).
PURIM
(Heb., plural of “luck”).
Haman cast lots to determine a day of good omen for the destruction of the Jews.
As Haman’s designs were undone, the liberation of the Jews was marked by an annual festival (Est. 3:7; 9:24-32) on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.
This festival is not mentioned by name in the NT, although there are exegetes who assume that it is the one referred to in Jn. 5:1.
This festival continues to be celebrated within Judaism: the book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and his wife, blessings are pronounced on Mordecai and the eunuch Harbonah (Est. 1:10; 7: 9).
PURIFICATION, PURITY
In the Mosaic Law four ways to purify oneself from contamination were indicated:
(a) Purification of contamination contracted by touching a dead person (Num. 19; cf. Num. 5:2, 3),
(b) Purification from impurity due to bodily emissions (Lev. 15; cf. Num. 5:2, 3).
(c) Purification of the woman in labor (Lev. 12:1-8; Luke 2:21-24).
(d) Purification of the leper (Lev. 14).
To this, the scribes and Pharisees added many other purifications, such as washing hands before eating, washing vessels and dishes, showing great zeal in these things, while inside they were full of extortion and iniquity (Mark 7: 2-8).
In Christianity the necessary purification extends:
to the heart (Acts 15:9; James 4:8),
to the soul (1 Pet. 1:22), and
to the conscience through the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
Poetry of Praise and Redemptive Mission
The Praise that Unites All
Praise Resounds Throughout Creation
True Worship that Pleases the Lord
From Heavenly Greatness to Inexhaustible Love
The Gift of Himself
Healing Time
A Personal Promise
-
Christian Quotes7 months agoSteven Furtick Quotes
-
Christian Quotes7 months agoJohn MacArthur Quotes
-
OUR DAILY DEVOTIONAL | My Daily Bread7 months agoGod’s Power, Our Strength
-
Christian Quotes7 months agoPriscilla Shirer Quotes
-
Bible Dictionary7 months ago
BETHEL
-
Christian Quotes7 months agoAnthony George Quotes