Jesus Christ 10 Commandments Silver Bar God Crucifix Spirituality Easter Old UK

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Jesus Crucifixion Ten Commandments Silver Layered Silver Bar Have Jesus by your side always with this beautiful keepsake silver plated ingot. bar The front side of this iconic keepsake features the crucifixion of Jesus, and the back side lists the Ten Commandments. If you are a parent or grandparent, sharing this incredible gift with your family is a great way to remind them that Jesus died for us and the meaning of the Ten Commandments. As they carry it in their pocket, they will ask themselves "What Would Jesus Do" when they find themselves in a difficult situation. Dimension 43mm x 30mm x 3mm weighs 1 troy oz comes in a clear hardened case for safe keeping beautiful mirror-like finish makes for a wonderful conversation piece or gift for family, friends, or your fellow churchgoers A Beautiful and Magnificent Keepsake Souvenir In Excellent Condition Would make an Excellent Stocking Filler at Christmas!
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Religion

   The Ten Commandments

The covenant at Sinai

The Torah teaches Jews about the covenant God made with all Jewish people at Mount Sinai. God gave Moses a set of ten laws that they should follow in order to please him. God told Moses that if these rules were not followed, God would punish people who disobeyed them. Today these laws are known as the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments are found in the book of Exodus. They are:

Do not have any other gods.

Do not make or worship idols.

Do not disrespect or misuse God’s name.

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Honour your mother and father.

Do not commit murder.

Do not commit adultery.

Do not steal.

Do not tell lies

Do not be envious of others.

Exodus 20:1–15

The Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God for all Jewish people to follow. They form part of the covenant made at Mount Sinai.

Moses

Jews believe that Moses was a very important prophet as he was chosen by God to pass on these laws to all of the Jewish people. It is believed that God gave the laws to Moses verbally before they were inscribed on stone.

Importance of the Ten Commandments today

The Ten Commandments still hold great significance for Jews today for many reasons:

They are a guide for Jewish living today.

Following the Ten Commandments is part of the covenant made at Mount Sinai, which applies to all Jews.

God will judge Jews on how well they have observed these commandments.

Following the commandments helps Jews to become better people today.

The commandments help Jews to treat other people with respect.

The commandments guide Jews to love and worship God effectively.

 

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P religion world.svg Religion portal

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Religion is a cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements. However, there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.[1][2]

Different religions may or may not contain various elements ranging from the divine[3], sacred things[4], faith,[5] a supernatural being or supernatural beings[6] or "some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life".[7] Religious practices may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of deities), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture. Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are sometimes said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life, the universe, and other things. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has been considered a source of religious beliefs.[8]

There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide,[9] but about 84% of the world's population is affiliated with one of the five largest religion groups, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion.[10] The religiously unaffiliated demographic includes those who do not identify with any particular religion, atheists, and agnostics. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs.[11]

The study of religion encompasses a wide variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion and social scientific studies. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, including the ontological foundations of religious being and belief.[12]

Concept and etymology

See also: Religio and History of Religion

Religion (from O.Fr. religion religious community, from L. religionem (nom. religio) "respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods, sense of right, moral obligation, sanctity",[13] "obligation, the bond between man and the gods"[14]) is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i.e. re (again) with lego in the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The definition of religio by Cicero is cultum deorum, "the proper performance of rites in veneration of the gods."[15] Julius Caesar used religio to mean "obligation of an oath" when discussing captured soldiers making an oath to their captors.[16] The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder used the term religio on elephants in that they venerate the sun and the moon.[17] Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell favor the derivation from ligare bind, connect, probably from a prefixed re-ligare, i.e. re (again) + ligare or to reconnect, which was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation given by Lactantius in Divinae institutiones, IV, 28.[18][19] The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders: "we hear of the 'religion' of the Golden Fleece, of a knight 'of the religion of Avys'".[20]

In classic antiquity, 'religio' broadly meant conscientiousness, sense of right, moral obligation, or duty to anything.[21] In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was understood as an individual virtue of worship in mundane contexts; never as doctrine, practice, or actual source of knowledge.[22][23] In general, religio referred to broad social obligations towards anything including family, neighbors, rulers, and even towards God.[24] Religio was most often used by the ancient Romans not in the context of a relation towards gods, but as a range of general emotions such as hesitation, caution, anxiety, fear; feelings of being bound, restricted, inhibited; which arose from heightened attention in any mundane context.[25] The term was also closely related to other terms like scrupulus which meant "very precisely" and some Roman authors related the term superstitio, which meant too much fear or anxiety or shame, to religio at times.[25] When religio came into English around the 1200s as religion, it took the meaning of "life bound by monastic vows" or monastic orders.[20][24] The compartmentalized concept of religion, where religious things were separated from worldly things, was not used before the 1500s.[24] The concept of religion was first used in the 1500s to distinguish the domain of the church and the domain of civil authorities.[24]

In the ancient Greece, the Greek term threskeia was loosely translated into Latin as religio in late antiquity. The term was sparsely used in classical Greece but became more frequently used in the writings of Josephus in the first century CE. It was used in mundane contexts and could mean multiple things from respectful fear to excessive or harmfully distracting practices of others; to cultic practices. It was often contrasted with the Greek word deisidaimonia which meant too much fear.[26]

The modern concept of religion, as an abstraction that entails distinct sets of beliefs or doctrines, is a recent invention in the English language. Such usage began with texts from the 17th century due to events such the splitting of Christendom during the Protestant Reformation and globalization in the age of exploration, which involved contact with numerous foreign cultures with non-European languages.[22][23][27] Some argue that regardless of its definition, it is not appropriate to apply the term religion to non-Western cultures.[28][29] Others argue that using religion on non-Western cultures distorts what people do and believe.[30]

The concept of religion was formed in the 16th and 17th centuries,[31][32] despite the fact that ancient sacred texts like the Bible, the Quran, and others did not have a word or even a concept of religion in the original languages and neither did the people or the cultures in which these sacred texts were written.[33][34] For example, there is no precise equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities.[35] One of its central concepts is halakha, meaning the walk or path sometimes translated as law, which guides religious practice and belief and many aspects of daily life.[36] Even though the beliefs and traditions of Judaism are found in the ancient world, ancient Jews saw Jewish identity as being about an ethnic or national identity and did not entail a compulsory belief system or regulated rituals.[37] Even in the 1st century CE, Josephus had used the Greek term ioudaismos, which some translate as Judaism today, even though he used it as an ethnic term, not one linked to modern abstract concepts of religion as a set of beliefs.[2] It was in the 19th century that Jews began to see their ancestral culture as a religion analogous to Christianity.[37] The Greek word threskeia, which was used by Greek writers such as Herodotus and Josephus, is found in the New Testament. Threskeia is sometimes translated as religion in today's translations, however, the term was understood as worship well into the medieval period.[2] In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations, but up to the mid-1600s translators expressed din as law.[2]

The Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, also means law. Throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a similar union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power.[38][39]

Throughout the Americas, Native Americans never had a concept of "religion" and any suggestion otherwise is a colonial imposition by Christians.[40]

Though traditions, sacred texts, and practices have existed throughout time, most cultures did not align with Western conceptions of religion since they did not separate everyday life from the sacred. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, and world religions first entered the English language.[41][42][43] No one self-identified as a Hindu or Buddhist or other similar terms before the 1800s.[44] "Hindu" has historically been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for people indigenous to the Indian subcontinent.[45][46] Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of religion since there was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its meaning, but when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea.[47][48]

According to the philologist Max Müller in the 19th century, the root of the English word religion, the Latin religio, was originally used to mean only reverence for God or the gods, careful pondering of divine things, piety (which Cicero further derived to mean diligence).[49][50] Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, and India, as having a similar power structure at this point in history. What is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law.[51]

Definition

Main article: Definition of religion

Scholars have failed to agree on a definition of religion. There are, however, two general definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical.[52][53][54][55][56]

Modern Western

Religion is a modern Western concept.[29] Parallel concepts are not found in many current and past cultures; there is no equivalent term for religion in many languages.[2][24] Scholars have found it difficult to develop a consistent definition, with some giving up on the possibility of a definition.[57][58] Others argue that regardless of its definition, it is not appropriate to apply it to non-Western cultures.[28][29]

An increasing number of scholars have expressed reservations about ever defining the essence of religion.[59] They observe that the way we use the concept today is a particularly modern construct that would not have been understood through much of history and in many cultures outside the West (or even in the West until after the Peace of Westphalia).[60] The MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religions states:

    The very attempt to define religion, to find some distinctive or possibly unique essence or set of qualities that distinguish the religious from the remainder of human life, is primarily a Western concern. The attempt is a natural consequence of the Western speculative, intellectualistic, and scientific disposition. It is also the product of the dominant Western religious mode, what is called the Judeo-Christian climate or, more accurately, the theistic inheritance from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The theistic form of belief in this tradition, even when downgraded culturally, is formative of the dichotomous Western view of religion. That is, the basic structure of theism is essentially a distinction between a transcendent deity and all else, between the creator and his creation, between God and man.[61] 

The anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined religion as a

    […] system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic."[62] 

Alluding perhaps to Tylor's "deeper motive", Geertz remarked that

    […] we have very little idea of how, in empirical terms, this particular miracle is accomplished. We just know that it is done, annually, weekly, daily, for some people almost hourly; and we have an enormous ethnographic literature to demonstrate it.[63] 

The theologian Antoine Vergote took the term supernatural simply to mean whatever transcends the powers of nature or human agency. He also emphasized the cultural reality of religion, which he defined as

    […] the entirety of the linguistic expressions, emotions and, actions and signs that refer to a supernatural being or supernatural beings.[6] 

Peter Mandaville and Paul James intended to get away from the modernist dualisms or dichotomous understandings of immanence/transcendence, spirituality/materialism, and sacredness/secularity. They define religion as

    […] a relatively-bounded system of beliefs, symbols and practices that addresses the nature of existence, and in which communion with others and Otherness is lived as if it both takes in and spiritually transcends socially-grounded ontologies of time, space, embodiment and knowing.[7] 

According to the MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religions, there is an experiential aspect to religion which can be found in almost every culture:

    […] almost every known culture [has] a depth dimension in cultural experiences […] toward some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life. When more or less distinct patterns of behavior are built around this depth dimension in a culture, this structure constitutes religion in its historically recognizable form. Religion is the organization of life around the depth dimensions of experience—varied in form, completeness, and clarity in accordance with the environing culture.[64] 

Classical

Budazhap Shiretorov (Будажап Цыреторов), the head shaman of the religious community Altan Serge (Алтан Сэргэ) in Buryatia.

Friedrich Schleiermacher in the late 18th century defined religion as das schlechthinnige Abhängigkeitsgefühl, commonly translated as "the feeling of absolute dependence".[65]

His contemporary Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel disagreed thoroughly, defining religion as "the Divine Spirit becoming conscious of Himself through the finite spirit."[66]

Edward Burnett Tylor defined religion in 1871 as "the belief in spiritual beings".[67] He argued that narrowing the definition to mean the belief in a supreme deity or judgment after death or idolatry and so on, would exclude many peoples from the category of religious, and thus "has the fault of identifying religion rather with particular developments than with the deeper motive which underlies them". He also argued that the belief in spiritual beings exists in all known societies.

In his book The Varieties of Religious Experience, the psychologist William James defined religion as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine".[3] By the term divine James meant "any object that is godlike, whether it be a concrete deity or not"[68] to which the individual feels impelled to respond with solemnity and gravity.[69]

The sociologist Émile Durkheim, in his seminal book The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, defined religion as a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things".[4] By sacred things he meant things "set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them". Sacred things are not, however, limited to gods or spirits.[note 1] On the contrary, a sacred thing can be "a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a piece of wood, a house, in a word, anything can be sacred".[70] Religious beliefs, myths, dogmas and legends are the representations that express the nature of these sacred things, and the virtues and powers which are attributed to them.[71]

Echoes of James' and Durkheim's definitions are to be found in the writings of, for example, Frederick Ferré who defined religion as "one's way of valuing most comprehensively and intensively".[72] Similarly, for the theologian Paul Tillich, faith is "the state of being ultimately concerned",[5] which "is itself religion. Religion is the substance, the ground, and the depth of man's spiritual life."[73]

When religion is seen in terms of sacred, divine, intensive valuing, or ultimate concern, then it is possible to understand why scientific findings and philosophical criticisms (e.g., those made by Richard Dawkins) do not necessarily disturb its adherents.[74]

Aspects

Beliefs

Main article: Religious beliefs

Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has been considered a source of religious beliefs. The interplay between faith and reason, and their use as perceived support for religious beliefs, have been a subject of interest to philosophers and theologians.[8]

Mythology

Main article: Mythology

The word myth has several meanings.

    A traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon;

    A person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence; or

    A metaphor for the spiritual potentiality in the human being.[75]

Ancient polytheistic religions, such as those of Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia, are usually categorized under the heading of mythology. Religions of pre-industrial peoples, or cultures in development, are similarly called myths in the anthropology of religion. The term myth can be used pejoratively by both religious and non-religious people. By defining another person's religious stories and beliefs as mythology, one implies that they are less real or true than one's own religious stories and beliefs. Joseph Campbell remarked, "Mythology is often thought of as other people's religions, and religion can be defined as mis-interpreted mythology."[76]

In sociology, however, the term myth has a non-pejorative meaning. There, myth is defined as a story that is important for the group whether or not it is objectively or provably true.[77] Examples include the resurrection of their real-life founder Jesus, which, to Christians, explains the means by which they are freed from sin, is symbolic of the power of life over death, and is also said to be a historical event. But from a mythological outlook, whether or not the event actually occurred is unimportant. Instead, the symbolism of the death of an old life and the start of a new life is what is most significant. Religious believers may or may not accept such symbolic interpretations.

Worldview

Religions have sacred histories, narratives, and mythologies which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim to explain the meaning of life, the origin of life, or the Universe.[citation needed]

Practices

Main articles: Religious behaviour and Cult (religious practice)

The practices of a religion may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of a deity, gods, or goddesses), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, religious music, religious art, sacred dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture.[78]

Social organisation

Religions have a societal basis, either as a living tradition which is carried by lay participants, or with an organized clergy, and a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership.

Academic study

Main articles: Religious studies and Classifications of religious movements

A number of disciplines study the phenomenon of religion: theology, comparative religion, history of religion, evolutionary origin of religions, anthropology of religion, psychology of religion (including neuroscience of religion and evolutionary psychology of religion), law and religion, and sociology of religion.

Daniel L. Pals mentions eight classical theories of religion, focusing on various aspects of religion: animism and magic, by E.B. Tylor and J.G. Frazer; the psycho-analytic approach of Sigmund Freud; and further Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Mircea Eliade, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, and Clifford Geertz.[79]

Michael Stausberg gives an overview of contemporary theories of religion, including cognitive and biological approaches.[80]

Theories

Main article: Theories of religion

Sociological and anthropological theories of religion generally attempt to explain the origin and function of religion.[81] These theories define what they present as universal characteristics of religious belief and practice.

Origins and development

The Yazılıkaya sanctuary in Turkey, with the twelve gods of the underworld

The origin of religion is uncertain. There are a number of theories regarding the subsequent origins of religious practices.

According to anthropologists John Monaghan and Peter Just, "Many of the great world religions appear to have begun as revitalization movements of some sort, as the vision of a charismatic prophet fires the imaginations of people seeking a more comprehensive answer to their problems than they feel is provided by everyday beliefs. Charismatic individuals have emerged at many times and places in the world. It seems that the key to long-term success—and many movements come and go with little long-term effect—has relatively little to do with the prophets, who appear with surprising regularity, but more to do with the development of a group of supporters who are able to institutionalize the movement."[82]

The development of religion has taken different forms in different cultures. Some religions place an emphasis on belief, while others emphasize practice. Some religions focus on the subjective experience of the religious individual, while others consider the activities of the religious community to be most important. Some religions claim to be universal, believing their laws and cosmology to be binding for everyone, while others are intended to be practiced only by a closely defined or localized group. In many places, religion has been associated with public institutions such as education, hospitals, the family, government, and political hierarchies.[83]

Anthropologists John Monoghan and Peter Just state that, "it seems apparent that one thing religion or belief helps us do is deal with problems of human life that are significant, persistent, and intolerable. One important way in which religious beliefs accomplish this is by providing a set of ideas about how and why the world is put together that allows people to accommodate anxieties and deal with misfortune."[83]

Cultural system

While religion is difficult to define, one standard model of religion, used in religious studies courses, was proposed by Clifford Geertz, who simply called it a "cultural system".[84] A critique of Geertz's model by Talal Asad categorized religion as "an anthropological category".[85] Richard Niebuhr's (1894–1962) five-fold classification of the relationship between Christ and culture, however, indicates that religion and culture can be seen as two separate systems, though not without some interplay.[86]

Social constructionism

Main article: Social constructionism

One modern academic theory of religion, social constructionism, says that religion is a modern concept that suggests all spiritual practice and worship follows a model similar to the Abrahamic religions as an orientation system that helps to interpret reality and define human beings.[87] Among the main proponents of this theory of religion are Daniel Dubuisson, Timothy Fitzgerald, Talal Asad, and Jason Ānanda Josephson. The social constructionists argue that religion is a modern concept that developed from Christianity and was then applied inappropriately to non-Western cultures.

Cognitive science

Main article: Cognitive science of religion

Cognitive science of religion is the study of religious thought and behavior from the perspective of the cognitive and evolutionary sciences. The field employs methods and theories from a very broad range of disciplines, including: cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology, cognitive anthropology, artificial intelligence, cognitive neuroscience, neurobiology, zoology, and ethology. Scholars in this field seek to explain how human minds acquire, generate, and transmit religious thoughts, practices, and schemas by means of ordinary cognitive capacities.

Hallucinations and delusions related to religious content occurs in about 60% of people with schizophrenia. While this number varies across cultures, this had led to theories about a number of influential religious phenomenon and possible relation to psychotic disorders. A number of prophetic experiences are consistent with psychotic symptoms, although retrospective diagnoses are practically impossible.[88][89][90] Schizophrenic episodes are also experienced by people who do not have belief in gods.[91]

Religious content is also common in temporal lobe epilepsy, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.[92][93] Atheistic content is also found to be common with temporal lobe epilepsy.[94]

Comparativism

Main article: Comparative religion

Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions concerned with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices of the world's religions. In general, the comparative study of religion yields a deeper understanding of the fundamental philosophical concerns of religion such as ethics, metaphysics, and the nature and form of salvation. Studying such material is meant to give one a richer and more sophisticated understanding of human beliefs and practices regarding the sacred, numinous, spiritual and divine.[95]

In the field of comparative religion, a common geographical classification[96] of the main world religions includes Middle Eastern religions (including Zoroastrianism and Iranian religions), Indian religions, East Asian religions, African religions, American religions, Oceanic religions, and classical Hellenistic religions.[96]

Islam

Muslims circumambulating the Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam

Islam is based on the Quran, one of the holy books considered by Muslims to be revealed by God, and on the teachings (hadith) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a major political and religious figure of the 7th century CE. Islam is based on the unity of all religious philosophies and accepts all of the Abrahamic prophets of Judaism, Christianity and other Abrahamic religions before Muhammad. It is the most widely practiced religion of Southeast Asia, North Africa, Western Asia, and Central Asia, while Muslim-majority countries also exist in parts of South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Europe. There are also several Islamic republics, including Iran, Pakistan, Mauritania, and Afghanistan.

    Sunni Islam is the largest denomination within Islam and follows the Quran, the hadiths which record the sunnah, whilst placing emphasis on the sahabah.

    Shia Islam is the second largest denomination of Islam and its adherents believe that Ali succeeded Muhammad and further places emphasis on Muhammad's family.

    Ahmadiyya adherents believe that the awaited Imam Mahdi and the Promised Messiah has arrived, believed to be Mirza Ghulam Ahmad by Ahmadis.

    There are also Muslim revivalist movements such as Muwahhidism and Salafism.

Other denominations of Islam include Nation of Islam, Ibadi, Sufism, Quranism, Mahdavia, and non-denominational Muslims. Wahhabism is the dominant Muslim schools of thought in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Other

Whilst Judaism, Christianity and Islam are commonly seen as the three Abrahamic faiths, there are smaller and newer traditions which lay claim to the designation as well.[116]

For example, the Bahá'í Faith is a new religious movement that has links to the major Abrahamic religions as well as other religions (e.g. of Eastern philosophy). Founded in 19th-century Iran, it teaches the unity of all religious philosophies and accepts all of the prophets of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as additional prophets (Buddha, Mahavira), including its founder Bahá'u'lláh. It is an offshoot of Bábism. One of its divisions is the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith.[117]:48–49

Even smaller regional Abrahamic groups also exist, including Samaritanism (primarily in Israel and the West Bank), the Rastafari movement (primarily in Jamaica), and Druze (primarily in Syria and Lebanon).

East Asian

Main article: East Asian religions

East Asian religions (also known as Far Eastern religions or Taoic religions) consist of several religions of East Asia which make use of the concept of Tao (in Chinese) or Dō (in Japanese or Korean). They include:

Taoism and Confucianism

    Taoism and Confucianism, as well as Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese religion influenced by Chinese thought.

Chinese folk religion

    Chinese folk religion: the indigenous religions of the Han Chinese, or, by metonymy, of all the populations of the Chinese cultural sphere. It includes the syncretism of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, Wuism, as well as many new religious movements such as Chen Tao, Falun Gong and Yiguandao.

    Other folk and new religions of East Asia and Southeast Asia such as Korean shamanism, Chondogyo, and Jeung San Do in Korea; Shinto, Shugendo, Ryukyuan religion, and Japanese new religions in Japan; Satsana Phi in Laos; Cao Đài, Hòa Hảo, and Vietnamese folk religion in Vietnam.

Dharmic (Indian)

Hindu statue of Lord Rama in Kalaram Temple (India)

The Buddha, in a Sanskrit manuscript, Nālandā, Bihar, India

Indian religions are practiced or were founded in the Indian subcontinent. They are sometimes classified as the dharmic religions, as they all feature dharma, the specific law of reality and duties expected according to the religion.[118]

Hinduism

    Hinduism is preferentially self-designated by the term Vaidika Dharma.[119] It is a synecdoche describing the similar philosophies of Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and related groups practiced or founded in the Indian subcontinent. Concepts most of them share in common include karma, caste, reincarnation, mantras, yantras, and darśana.[note 2] Hinduism is one of the most ancient of still-active religions,[120][121] with origins perhaps as far back as prehistoric times.[122] Hinduism is not a monolithic religion but a religious category containing dozens of separate philosophies amalgamated as Sanātana Dharma, which is the name by which Hinduism has been known throughout history by its followers.

Jainism

    Jainism, taught primarily by Rishabhanatha (the founder of ahimsa) is an ancient Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence, truth and anekantavada for all forms of living beings in this universe; which helps them to eliminate all the Karmas, and hence to attain freedom from the cycle of birth and death (saṃsāra), that is, achieving nirvana. Jains are found mostly in India. According to Dundas, outside of the Jain tradition, historians date the Mahavira as about contemporaneous with the Buddha in the 5th-century BCE, and accordingly the historical Parshvanatha, based on the c. 250-year gap, is placed in 8th or 7th century BCE.[123]

        Digambara Jainism (or sky-clad) is mainly practiced in South India. Their holy books are Pravachanasara and Samayasara written by their Prophets Kundakunda and Amritchandra as their original canon is lost.

        Shwetambara Jainism (or white-clad) is mainly practiced in Western India. Their holy books are Jain Agamas, written by their Prophet Sthulibhadra.

Buddhism

    Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama in the 6th century BCE. Buddhists generally agree that Gotama aimed to help sentient beings end their suffering (dukkha) by understanding the true nature of phenomena, thereby escaping the cycle of suffering and rebirth (saṃsāra), that is, achieving nirvana.

        Theravada Buddhism, which is practiced mainly in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia alongside folk religion, shares some characteristics of Indian religions. It is based in a large collection of texts called the Pali Canon.

        Mahayana Buddhism (or the Great Vehicle) under which are a multitude of doctrines that became prominent in China and are still relevant in Vietnam, Korea, Japan and to a lesser extent in Europe and the United States. Mahayana Buddhism includes such disparate teachings as Zen, Pure Land, and Soka Gakkai.

        Vajrayana Buddhism first appeared in India in the 3rd century CE.[124] It is currently most prominent in the Himalaya regions[125] and extends across all of Asia[126] (cf. Mikkyō).

        Two notable new Buddhist sects are Hòa Hảo and the Navayana (Dalit Buddhist movement), which were developed separately in the 20th century.

Fresco of Guru Nanak at Goindwal Sahib Gurdwara

Sikhism

    Sikhism is a panentheistic religion founded on the teachings of Guru Nanak and ten successive Sikh gurus in 15th-century Punjab. It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world, with approximately 30 million Sikhs.[127][128] Sikhs are expected to embody the qualities of a Sant-Sipāhī—a saint-soldier, have control over one's internal vices and be able to be constantly immersed in virtues clarified in the Guru Granth Sahib. The principal beliefs of Sikhi are faith in Waheguru—represented by the phrase ik ōaṅkār, meaning one God, who prevails in everything, along with a praxis in which the Sikh is enjoined to engage in social reform through the pursuit of justice for all human beings.

Indigenous and folk

Incense burner in China

Indigenous religions or folk religions refers to a broad category of traditional religions that can be characterised by shamanism, animism and ancestor worship, where traditional means "indigenous, that which is aboriginal or foundational, handed down from generation to generation…".[129] These are religions that are closely associated with a particular group of people, ethnicity or tribe; they often have no formal creeds or sacred texts.[130] Some faiths are syncretic, fusing diverse religious beliefs and practices.[131]

    Australian Aboriginal religions.

    Folk religions of the Americas: Native American religions

Folk religions are often omitted as a category in surveys even in countries where they are widely practiced, e.g. in China.[130]

Traditional African

Shango, the Orisha (god) of fire, lightning, and thunder, in the Yoruba religion, depicted on horseback

Main article: Traditional African religion

Further information: African diasporic religions

African traditional religion encompasses the traditional religious beliefs of people in Africa. In West Africa, these religions include the Akan religion, Dahomey (Fon) mythology, Efik mythology, Odinani, Serer religion (A ƭat Roog), and Yoruba religion, while Bushongo mythology, Mbuti (Pygmy) mythology, Lugbara mythology, Dinka religion, and Lotuko mythology come from central Africa. Southern African traditions include Akamba mythology, Masai mythology, Malagasy mythology, San religion, Lozi mythology, Tumbuka mythology, and Zulu mythology. Bantu mythology is found throughout central, southeast, and southern Africa. In north Africa, these traditions include Berber and ancient Egyptian.

There are also notable African diasporic religions practiced in the Americas, such as Santeria, Candomble, Vodun, Lucumi, Umbanda, and Macumba.

Iranian

Zoroastrian Fire Temple in Mumbai, India

Iranian religions are ancient religions whose roots predate the Islamization of Greater Iran. Nowadays these religions are practiced only by minorities.

Zoroastrianism is based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster in the 6th century BCE. Zoroastrians worship the creator Ahura Mazda. In Zoroastrianism, good and evil have distinct sources, with evil trying to destroy the creation of Mazda, and good trying to sustain it.

Mandaeism is a monotheistic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Mandaeans are sometime labeled as the Last Gnostics.

Kurdish religions include the traditional beliefs of the Yazidi, Alevi, and Ahl-e Haqq. Sometimes these are labeled Yazdânism.

New religious movements

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Main article: New religious movement

    Shinshūkyō is a general category for a wide variety of religious movements founded in Japan since the 19th century. These movements share almost nothing in common except the place of their founding. The largest religious movements centered in Japan include Soka Gakkai, Tenrikyo, and Seicho-No-Ie among hundreds of smaller groups.

    Cao Đài is a syncretistic, monotheistic religion, established in Vietnam in 1926.

    Raëlism is a new religious movement founded in 1974 teaching that humans were created by aliens. It is numerically the world's largest UFO religion.

    Hindu reform movements, such as Ayyavazhi, Swaminarayan Faith and Ananda Marga, are examples of new religious movements within Indian religions.

    Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, and has no accepted creed or theology.

    Noahidism is a monotheistic ideology based on the Seven Laws of Noah, and on their traditional interpretations within Rabbinic Judaism.

    Scientology teaches that people are immortal beings who have forgotten their true nature. Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counseling known as auditing, in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience and understand painful or traumatic events and decisions in their past in order to free themselves of their limiting effects.

    Eckankar is a pantheistic religion with the purpose of making God an everyday reality in one's life.

    Wicca is a neo-pagan religion first popularised in 1954 by British civil servant Gerald Gardner, involving the worship of a God and Goddess.

    Druidry is a religion promoting harmony with nature, and drawing on the practices of the druids.

    The Bahá'í Faith teaches the unity of all religious philosophies.

    There are various Neopagan movements that attempt to reconstruct or revive ancient pagan practices. These include Heathenry, Hellenism, and Kemeticism.

    Satanism is a broad category of religions that, for example, worship Satan as a deity (Theistic Satanism) or use Satan as a symbol of carnality and earthly values (LaVeyan Satanism and The Satanic Temple).

    Some forms of parody religion or fiction-based religion[132] like Jediism, Pastafarianism, Dudeism, "Tolkien religion"[132], and others often develop their own writings, traditions, and cultural expressions, and end up behaving like traditional religions.

Sociological classifications of religious movements suggest that within any given religious group, a community can resemble various types of structures, including churches, denominations, sects, cults, and institutions.

Related aspects

Law

Main article: Law and religion

The study of law and religion is a relatively new field, with several thousand scholars involved in law schools, and academic departments including political science, religion, and history since 1980.[133] Scholars in the field are not only focused on strictly legal issues about religious freedom or non-establishment, but also study religions as they are qualified through judicial discourses or legal understanding of religious phenomena. Exponents look at canon law, natural law, and state law, often in a comparative perspective.[134][135] Specialists have explored themes in Western history regarding Christianity and justice and mercy, rule and equity, and discipline and love.[136] Common topics of interest include marriage and the family[137] and human rights.[138] Outside of Christianity, scholars have looked at law and religion links in the Muslim Middle East[139] and pagan Rome.[140]

Studies have focused on secularization.[141][142] In particular, the issue of wearing religious symbols in public, such as headscarves that are banned in French schools, have received scholarly attention in the context of human rights and feminism.[143]

Science

Main articles: Faith and rationality, Relationship between religion and science, and Epistemology

Science acknowledges reason, empiricism, and evidence; and religions include revelation, faith and sacredness whilst also acknowledging philosophical and metaphysical explanations with regard to the study of the universe. Both science and religion are not monolithic, timeless, or static because both are complex social and cultural endeavors that have changed through time across languages and cultures.[144]

The concepts of science and religion are a recent invention: the term religion emerged in the 17th century in the midst of colonization and globalization and the Protestant Reformation.[2][22] The term science emerged in the 19th century out of natural philosophy in the midst of attempts to narrowly define those who studied nature (natural science),[22][145][146] and the phrase religion and science emerged in the 19th century due to the reification of both concepts.[22] It was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism first emerged.[22] In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin roots of both science (scientia) and religion (religio) were understood as inner qualities of the individual or virtues, never as doctrines, practices, or actual sources of knowledge.[22]

In general the scientific method gains knowledge by testing hypotheses to develop theories through elucidation of facts or evaluation by experiments and thus only answers cosmological questions about the universe that can be observed and measured. It develops theories of the world which best fit physically observed evidence. All scientific knowledge is subject to later refinement, or even rejection, in the face of additional evidence. Scientific theories that have an overwhelming preponderance of favorable evidence are often treated as de facto verities in general parlance, such as the theories of general relativity and natural selection to explain respectively the mechanisms of gravity and evolution.

Religion does not have a method per se partly because religions emerge through time from diverse cultures and it is an attempt to find meaning in the world, and to explain humanity's place in it and relationship to it and to any posited entities. In terms of Christian theology and ultimate truths, people rely on reason, experience, scripture, and tradition to test and gauge what they experience and what they should believe. Furthermore, religious models, understanding, and metaphors are also revisable, as are scientific models.[147]

Regarding religion and science, Albert Einstein states (1940): "For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary. Religion, on the other hand, deals only with evaluations of human thought and action; it cannot justifiably speak of facts and relationships between facts…Now, even though the realms of religion and science in themselves are clearly marked off from each other, nevertheless there exist between the two strong reciprocal relationships and dependencies. Though religion may be that which determine the goals, it has, nevertheless, learned from science, in the broadest sense, what means will contribute to the attainment of the goals it has set up." [148]

Morality

Main article: Morality and religion

Many religions have value frameworks regarding personal behavior meant to guide adherents in determining between right and wrong. These include the Triple Jems of Jainism, Judaism's Halacha, Islam's Sharia, Catholicism's Canon Law, Buddhism's Eightfold Path, and Zoroastrianism's good thoughts, good words, and good deeds concept, among others.[149]

Religion and morality are not synonymous. While it is "an almost automatic assumption."[150] in Christianity, morality can have a secular basis.

The study of religion and morality can be contentious due to ethnocentric views on morality, failure to distinguish between in group and out group altruism, and inconsistent definitions of religiosity.

Politics

Impact

Religion has had a significant impact on the political system in many countries. Notably, most Muslim-majority countries adopt various aspects of sharia, the Islamic law. Some countries even define themselves in religious terms, such as The Islamic Republic of Iran. The sharia thus affects up to 23% of the global population, or 1.57 billion people who are Muslims. However, religion also affects political decisions in many western countries. For instance, in the United States, 51% of voters would be less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who did not believe in God, and only 6% more likely.[151] Christians make up 92% of members of the US Congress, compared with 71% of the general public (as of 2014). At the same time, while 23% of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated, only one member of Congress (Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona), or 0.2% of that body, claims no religious affiliation.[152] In most European countries, however, religion has a much smaller influence on politics[153] although it used to be much more important. For instance, same-sex marriage and abortion were illegal in many European countries until recently, following Christian (usually Catholic) doctrine. Several European leaders are atheists (e.g. France’s former president Francois Hollande or Greece's prime minister Alexis Tsipras). In Asia, the role of religion differs widely between countries. For instance, India is still one of the most religious countries and religion still has a strong impact on politics, given that Hindu nationalists have been targeting minorities like the Muslims and the Christians, who historically belonged to the lower castes.[154] By contrast, countries such as China or Japan are largely secular and thus religion has a much smaller impact on politics.

Secularism

Ranjit Singh established secular rule over Punjab in the early 19th century.

Main articles: Secularism and Secularization

Secularization is the transformation of the politics of a society from close identification with a particular religion's values and institutions toward nonreligious values and secular institutions. The purpose of this is frequently modernization or protection of the populations religious diversity.

Economics

Average income correlates negatively with (self-defined) religiosity.[109]

Main article: Economics of religion

Further information: Religion and business and Wealth and religion

One study has found there is a negative correlation between self-defined religiosity and the wealth of nations.[155] In other words, the richer a nation is, the less likely its inhabitants to call themselves religious, whatever this word means to them (Many people identify themselves as part of a religion (not irreligion) but do not self-identify as religious).[155]

Sociologist and political economist Max Weber has argued that Protestant Christian countries are wealthier because of their Protestant work ethic.[156]

According to a study from 2015, Christians hold the largest amount of wealth (55% of the total world wealth), followed by Muslims (5.8%), Hindus (3.3%) and Jews (1.1%). According to the same study it was found that adherents under the classification Irreligion or other religions hold about 34.8% of the total global wealth.[157]

Health

Main article: Impacts of religion on health

Mayo Clinic researchers examined the association between religious involvement and spirituality, and physical health, mental health, health-related quality of life, and other health outcomes. The authors reported that: "Most studies have shown that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes, including greater longevity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life (even during terminal illness) and less anxiety, depression, and suicide."[158]

The authors of a subsequent study concluded that the influence of religion on health is largely beneficial, based on a review of related literature.[159] According to academic James W. Jones, several studies have discovered "positive correlations between religious belief and practice and mental and physical health and longevity." [160]

An analysis of data from the 1998 US General Social Survey, whilst broadly confirming that religious activity was associated with better health and well-being, also suggested that the role of different dimensions of spirituality/religiosity in health is rather more complicated. The results suggested "that it may not be appropriate to generalize findings about the relationship between spirituality/religiosity and health from one form of spirituality/religiosity to another, across denominations, or to assume effects are uniform for men and women.[161]

Violence

Main article: Religious violence

See also: Islam and violence, Christianity and violence, and Judaism and violence

United Airlines Flight 175 hits the South Tower during the September 11 attacks of 2001 in New York City. The September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11) were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

Critics like Hector Avalos[162] Regina Schwartz,[163] Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins have argued that religions are inherently violent and harmful to society by using violence to promote their goals, in ways that are endorsed and exploited by their leaders.[164][page needed][165][page needed]

Anthropologist Jack David Eller asserts that religion is not inherently violent, arguing "religion and violence are clearly compatible, but they are not identical." He asserts that "violence is neither essential to nor exclusive to religion" and that "virtually every form of religious violence has its nonreligious corollary."[166][167]

Animal sacrifice

Done by some (but not all) religions, animal sacrifice is the ritual killing and offering of an animal to appease or maintain favour with a deity. It has been banned in India.[168]

Superstition

Further information: Superstition, Magical thinking, and Magic and religion

Greek and Roman pagans, who saw their relations with the gods in political and social terms, scorned the man who constantly trembled with fear at the thought of the gods (deisidaimonia), as a slave might fear a cruel and capricious master. The Romans called such fear of the gods superstitio.[169] Ancient Greek historian Polybius described superstition in Ancient Rome as an instrumentum regni, an instrument of maintaining the cohesion of the Empire.[170]

Superstition has been described as the non rational establishment of cause and effect.[171] Religion is more complex and is often composed of social institutions and has a moral aspect. Some religions may include superstitions or make use of magical thinking. Adherents of one religion sometimes think of other religions as superstition.[172][173] Some atheists, deists, and skeptics regard religious belief as superstition.

The Roman Catholic Church considers superstition to be sinful in the sense that it denotes a lack of trust in the divine providence of God and, as such, is a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that superstition "in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion" (para. #2110). "Superstition," it says, "is a deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand is to fall into superstition. Cf. Matthew 23:16–22" (para. #2111)

Agnosticism and atheism

Main articles: Atheism, Agnosticism, Irreligion, Antireligion, and Humanism

See also: Criticism of atheism

The terms atheist (lack of belief in any gods) and agnostic (belief in the unknowability of the existence of gods), though specifically contrary to theistic (e.g. Christian, Jewish, and Muslim) religious teachings, do not by definition mean the opposite of religious. There are religions (including Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism), in fact, that classify some of their followers as agnostic, atheistic, or nontheistic. The true opposite of religious is the word irreligious. Irreligion describes an absence of any religion; antireligion describes an active opposition or aversion toward religions in general.

Interfaith cooperation

Main article: Interfaith dialogue

Because religion continues to be recognized in Western thought as a universal impulse[citation needed], many religious practitioners[who?] have aimed to band together in interfaith dialogue, cooperation, and religious peacebuilding. The first major dialogue was the Parliament of the World's Religions at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, which affirmed universal values and recognition of the diversity of practices among different cultures. The 20th century has been especially fruitful in use of interfaith dialogue as a means of solving ethnic, political, or even religious conflict, with Christian–Jewish reconciliation representing a complete reverse in the attitudes of many Christian communities towards Jews.[citation needed]

Recent interfaith initiatives include A Common Word, launched in 2007 and focused on bringing Muslim and Christian leaders together,[174] the "C1 World Dialogue",[175] the Common Ground initiative between Islam and Buddhism,[176] and a United Nations sponsored "World Interfaith Harmony Week".[177][178]

Culture

Culture and religion have usually been seen as closely related. Paul Tillich looked at religion as the soul of culture and culture as the form or framework of religion.[179] In his own words:

    Religion as ultimate concern is the meaning-giving substance of culture, and culture is the totality of forms in which the basic concern of religion expresses itself. In abbreviation: religion is the substance of culture, culture is the form of religion. Such a consideration definitely prevents the establishment of a dualism of religion and culture. Every religious act, not only in organized religion, but also in the most intimate movement of the soul, is culturally formed.[180]

Ernst Troeltsch, similarly, looked at culture as the soil of religion and thought that, therefore, transplanting a religion from its original culture to a foreign culture would actually kill it in the same manner that transplanting a plant from its natural soil to an alien soil would kill it. [181] However, there have been many attempts in the modern pluralistic situation to distinguish culture from religion.[182] Domenic Marbaniang has argued that elements grounded on beliefs of a metaphysical nature (religious) are distinct from elements grounded on nature and the natural (cultural). For instance, language (with its grammar) is a cultural element while sacralization of language in which a particular religious scripture is written is more often a religious practice. The same applies to music and the arts.[183]

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of religion

Criticism of religion is criticism of the ideas, the truth, or the practice of religion, including its political and social implications.[184]

See also

    iconReligion portal Spirituality portal

    Cosmogony

    Index of religion-related articles

    Life stance

    List of foods with religious symbolism

    List of religious texts

    Nontheistic religions

    Outline of religion

    Parody religions

    Philosophy of religion

    Priest

    Religion and happiness

    Religion and peacebuilding

    Religions by country

    Religious conversion

    Religious discrimination

    Social conditioning

    Socialization

    Temple

    Theocracy

    Theology of religions

    Timeline of religion

    Why is there something rather than nothing?

"

Morreall, John; Sonn, Tamara (2013). 50 Great Myths about Religions. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-470-67350-8. "Before the British colonized India, for example, the people there had no concept "religion" and no concept "Hinduism." There was no word "Hindu" in classical India, and no one spoke of "Hinduism" until the 1800s. Until the introduction of that term, Indians identified themselves by any number of criteria—family, trade or profession, or social level, and perhaps the scriptures they followed or the particular deity or deities upon whose care they relied in various contexts or to whom they were devoted. But these diverse identities were united, each an integral part of life; no part existed in a separate sphere identified as "religious." Nor were the diverse traditions lumped together under the term "Hinduism" unified by sharing such common features of religion as a single founder, creed, theology, or institutional organization."

Pennington, Brian K. (2005), Was Hinduism Invented?: Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction of Religion, Oxford University Press, pp. 111–118, ISBN 978-0-19-803729-3

Lloyd Ridgeon (2003). Major World Religions: From Their Origins To The Present. Routledge. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-1-134-42935-6., Quote: "It is often said that Hinduism is very ancient, and in a sense this is true (...). It was formed by adding the English suffix -ism, of Greek origin, to the word Hindu, of Persian origin; it was about the same time that the word Hindu, without the suffix -ism, came to be used mainly as a religious term. (...) The name Hindu was first a geographical name, not a religious one, and it originated in the languages of Iran, not of India. (...) They referred to the non-Muslim majority, together with their culture, as 'Hindu'. (...) Since the people called Hindu differed from Muslims most notably in religion, the word came to have religious implications, and to denote a group of people who were identifiable by their Hindu religion. (...) However, it is a religious term that the word Hindu is now used in English, and Hinduism is the name of a religion, although, as we have seen, we should beware of any false impression of uniformity that this might give us."

Josephson, Jason Ananda (2012). The Invention of Religion in Japan. University of Chicago Press. pp. 1, 11–12. ISBN 978-0-226-41234-4.

Zuckerman, Phil; Galen, Luke; Pasquale, Frank (2016). "2. Secularity around the World". The Nonreligious: Understanding Secular People and Societies. Oxford University Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-0-19-992494-3. "It was only in response to Western cultural contact in the late nineteenth century that a Japanese word for religion (shukyo) came into use. It tends to be associated with foreign, founded, or formally organized traditions, particularly Christianity and other monotheisms, but also Buddhism and new religious sects."

Max Müller, Natural Religion, p. 33, 1889

Lewis & Short, A Latin Dictionary

Max Müller. Introduction to the science of religion. p. 28.

Vgl. Johann Figl: Handbuch Religionswissenschaft: Religionen und ihre zentralen Themen. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003, ISBN 3-7022-2508-0, S. 65.

Julia Haslinger: Die Evolution der Religionen und der Religiosität, s. Literatur Religionsgeschichte, S. 3–4, 8.

Johann Figl: Handbuch Religionswissenschaft: Religionen und ihre zentralen Themen. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003, ISBN 3-7022-2508-0, S. 67.

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Mueller, MD, Paul S.; Plevak, MD, David J.; Rummans, MD, Teresa A. "Religious Involvement, Spirituality, and Medicine: Implications for Clinical Practice" (PDF). Retrieved 13 November 2010. "We reviewed published studies, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and subject reviews that examined the association between religious involvement and spirituality and physical health, mental health, health-related quality of life, and other health outcomes. We also reviewed articles that provided suggestions on how clinicians might assess and support the spiritual needs of patients. Most studies have shown that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes, including greater longevity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life (even during terminal illness) and less anxiety, depression, and suicide"

Seybold, Kevin S.; Hill, Peter C. (February 2001). "The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Mental and Physical Health". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 10 (1): 21–24. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.00106.

Jones, James W. (2004). "Religion, Health, and the Psychology of Religion: How the Research on Religion and Health Helps Us Understand Religion". Journal of Religion and Health. 43 (4): 317–328. doi:10.1007/s10943-004-4299-3.

Maselko, Joanna; Kubzansky, Laura D. (2006). "Gender differences in religious practices, spiritual experiences and health: Results from the US General Social Survey". Social Science & Medicine. 62 (11): 2848–2860. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.11.008. PMID 16359765.

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Dawkins, Richard (2006). The God Delusion. Bantam Books.

Eller, Jack David (2010). Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence: Religious Violence Across Culture and History. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-61614-218-6. "As we have insisted previously, religion is not inherently and irredeemably violent; it certainly is not the essence and source of all violence."

Eller, Jack David (2010). Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence: Religious Violence Across Culture and History. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-61614-218-6. "Religion and violence are clearly compatible, but they are not identical. Violence is one phenomenon in human (and natural existence), religion is another, and it is inevitable that the two would become intertwined. Religion is complex and modular, and violence is one of the modules—not universal, but recurring. As a conceptual and behavioral module, violence is by no means exclusive to religion. There are plenty of other groups, institutions, interests, and ideologies to promote violence. Violence is, therefore, neither essential to nor exclusive to religion. Nor is religious violence all alike... And virtually every form of religious violence has its nonreligious corollary."

France-Presse, Agence (2 September 2014). "Indian court bans animal sacrifice". The Guardian.

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Kevin R. Foster & Hanna Kokko (2009) [Published online 9 September 2008]. "The evolution of superstitious and superstition-like behaviour" (PDF). Proc. R. Soc. B (276): 31–37. doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0981. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2010.

Boyer, Pascal (2001). "Why Belief". Religion Explained.

David, Fitzgerald (October 2010). Nailed : ten Christian myths that show Jesus never existed at all. [Place of publication not identified]. ISBN 978-0-557-70991-5. OCLC 701249439.

"A Common Word Between Us and You". acommonword.com.

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World Interfaith Harmony Week

"» World Interfaith Harmony Week UNGA Resolution A/65/PV.34". worldinterfaithharmonyweek.com.

Edward L. Queen, Encyclopedia of American Religious History, Volume 1 Facts on File, 1996. p. vi.

Paul Tillich, Theology of Culture, Robert C. Kimball (ed), (Oxford University Press, 1959). p.42

Eric J. Sharpe, "Religion and Cultures", An inaugural lecture delivered on 6 July, 1977 by Eric J. Sharpe, Professor of Religious Studies in the University of Sydney. Accessed at Openjournals on June 22, 2018

See Taslima Nasreen, "I Say, Three Cheers For Ayaan", Outlook, The Magazine 28 August 2006. Also, Nemani Delaibatiki, "Religion and the Vanua" Fiji Sun July 08, 2017 in which the distinctive elements of culture against religion are taken from Domenic Marbaniang, "Difference Between Culture and Religion: A Proposal Requesting Response", 12 October 2014.

Domenic Marbaniang, "The Gospel and Culture: Areas of Conflict, Consent, and Conversion", Journal of Contemporary Christian Vol. 6, No. 1 (Bangalore: CFCC, Aug 2014), ISSN 2231-5233 pp. 7–17

    Beckford, James A. (2003). Social Theory and Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-521-77431-4.

Sources

Primary

    Saint Augustine; The Confessions of Saint Augustine (John K. Ryan translator); Image (1960), ISBN 0-385-02955-1.

    Lao Tzu; Tao Te Ching (Victor H. Mair translator); Bantam (1998).

    The Holy Bible, King James Version; New American Library (1974).

    The Koran; Penguin (2000), ISBN 0-14-044558-7.

    The Origin of Live & Death, African Creation Myths; Heinemann (1966).

    Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia; Penguin (1971).

    Selected Work Marcus Tullius Cicero

    United States Constitution

Secondary

    Barzilai, Gad; Law and Religion; The International Library of Essays in Law and Society; Ashgate (2007), ISBN 978-0-7546-2494-3

    Borg, J. (November 2003), "The Serotonin System and Spiritual Experiences", American Journal of Psychiatry, 160 (11): 1965–1969, doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.160.11.1965, PMID 14594742

    Brodd, Jeffrey (2003). World Religions. Winona, MN: Saint Mary's Press. ISBN 978-0-88489-725-5.

    Yves Coppens, Origines de l'homme – De la matière à la conscience, De Vive Voix, Paris, 2010

    Yves Coppens, La preistoria dell'uomo, Jaca Book, Milano, 2011

    Descartes, René; Meditations on First Philosophy; Bobbs-Merril (1960), ISBN 0-672-60191-5.

    Dow, James W. (2007), A Scientific Definition of Religion

    Dundas, Paul (2002) [1992], The Jains (Second ed.), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-26605-5

    Durant, Will (& Ariel (uncredited)); Our Oriental Heritage; MJF Books (1997), ISBN 1-56731-012-5.

    Durant, Will (& Ariel (uncredited)); Caesar and Christ; MJF Books (1994), ISBN 1-56731-014-1

    Durant, Will (& Ariel (uncredited)); The Age of Faith; Simon & Schuster (1980), ISBN 0-671-01200-2.

    Durkheim, Emile (1915). The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. London: George Allen & Unwin.

    Geertz, Clifford (1993). "Religion as a cultural system". The interpretation of cultures: selected essays, Geertz, Clifford. London: Fontana Press. pp. 87–125.

    Marija Gimbutas 1989. The Language of the Goddess. Thames and Hudson New York

    Gonick, Larry; The Cartoon History of the Universe; Doubleday, vol. 1 (1978) ISBN 0-385-26520-4, vol. II (1994) ISBN 0-385-42093-5, W.W. Norton, vol. III (2002) ISBN 0-393-05184-6.

    Haisch, Bernard The God Theory: Universes, Zero-point Fields, and What's Behind It All—discussion of science vs. religion (Preface), Red Wheel/Weiser, 2006, ISBN 1-57863-374-5

    James, William (1902). The Varieties of Religious Experience. A Study in Human Nature. Longmans, Green, and Co.

    Khanbaghi, A., The Fire, the Star and the Cross: Minority Religions in Medieval and Early Modern Iran (IB Tauris; 2006) 268 pages. Social, political and cultural history of religious minorities in Iran, c. 226–1722 AD.

    King, Winston, Religion [First Edition]. In: Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. Vol. 11. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference US, 2005. pp. 7692–7701.

    Korotayev, Andrey, World Religions and Social Evolution of the Old World Oikumene Civilizations: A Cross-cultural Perspective, Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7734-6310-0.

    Lynn, Richard; Harvey, John; Nyborg, Helmuth (2009). "Average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 nations". Intelligence. 37: 11–15. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2008.03.004.

    McKinnon, Andrew M. (2002), "Sociological Definitions, Language Games and the 'Essence' of Religion". Method & theory in the study of religion, vol 14, no. 1, pp. 61–83.

    Marx, Karl; "Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right", Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, (1844).

    Massignon, Louis (1949). "Les trois prières d'Abraham, père de tous les croyants". Dieu Vivant. 13: 20–23.

    Palmer, Spencer J., et al. Religions of the World: a Latter-day Saint [Mormon] View. 2nd general ed., tev. and enl. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1997. xv, 294 p., ill. ISBN 0-8425-2350-2

    Pals, Daniel L. (2006), Eight Theories of Religion, Oxford University Press

    Ramsay, Michael, Abp. Beyond Religion? Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications, (cop. 1964).

    Saler, Benson; "Conceptualizing Religion: Immanent Anthropologists, Transcendent Natives, and Unbounded Categories" (1990), ISBN 1-57181-219-9

    Schuon, Frithjof. The Transcendent Unity of Religions, in series, Quest Books. 2nd Quest ... rev. ed. Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993, cop. 1984. xxxiv, 173 p. ISBN 0-8356-0587-6

    Segal, Robert A (2005). "Theories of Religion". In Hinnells, John R. (ed.). The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion. London; New York: Routledge. pp. 49–60.

    Smith, Wilfred Cantwell (1962), The Meaning and End of Religion

    Stausberg, Michael (2009), Contemporary Theories of religion, Routledge

    Wallace, Anthony F.C. 1966. Religion: An Anthropological View. New York: Random House. (pp. 62–66)

    The World Almanac (annual), World Almanac Books, ISBN 0-88687-964-7.

    The World Almanac (for numbers of adherents of various religions), 2005

Further reading

    James, Paul & Mandaville, Peter (2010). Globalization and Culture, Vol. 2: Globalizing Religions. London: Sage Publications.

    Noss, John B.; Man's Religions, 6th ed.; Macmillan Publishing Co. (1980). N.B.: The first ed. appeared in 1949, ISBN 0-02-388430-4.

    Lang, Andrew; The Making of Religion, (1898)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Religion.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Religion

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Religion and spirituality.

    Religion Statistics from UCB Libraries GovPubs

    Religion at Curlie

    Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents by Adherents.com August 2005

    IACSR – International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion

    Studying Religion – Introduction to the methods and scholars of the academic study of religion

    A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right – Marx's original reference to religion as the opium of the people.

    The Complexity of Religion and the Definition of "Religion" in International Law Harvard Human Rights Journal article from the President and Fellows of Harvard College (2003)

    Sociology of Religion Resources

    Video: 5 Religions spreading across the world

    vte

Religion

Major religious groups and denominations1

Abrahamic

Judaism

    Orthodox

        Haredi Hasidic Modern Conservative Reform Karaite Samaritanism Haymanot Reconstructionist Renewal Humanistic

Christianity

    Catholicism

        Latin Church Eastern Catholicism Eastern Orthodoxy Oriental Orthodoxy Nestorianism

        Assyrian Church of the East Ancient Church of the East Proto-Protestantism

        Waldensianism Hussitism

            Czech Brethren Moravian Church Protestantism

        Lutheranism Calvinism

            Reformed Presbyterianism Congregationalism Anabaptism

            Amish Hutterites Mennonites Schwenkfelders Anglicanism Methodism Baptists Quakerism Plymouth Brethren Restorationism Adventism Holiness Pentecostalism (Charismatic) Independent Catholicism Nontrinitarianism

        Unitarianism Swedenborgianism Mormonism Christadelphians Bible Students Jehovah's Witnesses Oneness Pentecostalism Spiritual Tolstoyan Esoteric Nondenominational

        Evangelicalism

Islam

    Sunni

        Ashʿari Maturidi Traditionalist theology Salafism

            Wahhabism Modernist Salafism Shia

        Twelver Zaidiyyah Isma'ilism Alawis Sufism Khawarij

        Ibadi Alevism Ahmadi Mahdavia Quranism Non-denominational

Others

    Bábism

        Azali Bahá'í Druze Ali-Illahism Yarsanism Mandaeism Rastafarianism

Dharmic

Hinduism

    Vaishnavism

        Sri Vaishnavism Brahma Sampradaya Nimbarka Sampradaya Pushtimarg Mahanubhava Ramanandi Varkari Shaivism

        Siddhantism Kashmir Shaivism Kapalika Kaumaram Lingayatism Nath Balinese Shaktism Smartism Śrauta Sant Mat Ayyavazhi Neo-Hinduism

Buddhism

    Theravada Mahayana

        Chan/Zen Amidism Nichiren Vajrayana

        Tibetan Neo-Buddhism

Others

    Jainism

        Digambara Śvētāmbara Sikhism Kalash

Iranian

    Zoroastrianism Yazidis Ossetian

European

    Armenian Baltic Celtic

        Druidry Germanic Hellenism Italo-Roman Romanian Slavic

Uralic

    Estonian Finnish Hungarian Mari Mordvin Sámi Udmurt

Altaic

    Turkic-Mongolic

        Tengrism Burkhanism Vattisen Yaly Tungusic

        Manchu Evenki

Chinese

    Confucianism Taoism

        Folk Taoism Yao Taoism Nuo Salvationist

        Xiantiandao Yiguandao Luoism

Tibetic

    Bon Burmese Benzhuism Bimoism Bathouism Bongthingism Donyi-Polo Kiratism Qiang Sanamahism

Korean

    Sindoism Cheondoism Jeungsanism

Japanese

    Shinto Tenrikyo Ryukyuan

Tai

    Ahom Mo Satsana Phi

Austroasiatic

    Vietnamese

        Caodaism Đạo Mẫu Hoahaoism Sarnaism

Austronesian

    Batak Parmalim Dayak

        Kaharingan Momolianism Javanese Kejawèn Karo Pemena Malaysian Philippine Dayawism

        Tagalog Polynesian

        Hawaiian Māori Sumbese Marapu Sundanese Wiwitan

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The crucifixion of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely between AD 30 and 33. Jesus' crucifixion is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and is established as a historical event confirmed by non-Christian sources,[1] although there is no consensus among historians on the exact details.[2][3][4]

According to the canonical gospels, Jesus was arrested and tried by the Sanhedrin, and then sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally [crucified by the Romans.[5][6][7][8] Jesus was stripped of his clothing and offered wine mixed with myrrh or gall to drink after saying I am thirsty. He was then hung between two convicted thieves and, according to the Gospel of Mark, died some six hours later. During this time, the soldiers affixed a sign to the top of the cross stating "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" which, according to the Gospel of John, was written in three languages. They then divided his garments among themselves and cast lots for his seamless robe, according to the Gospel of John. According to the Gospel of John after Jesus' death, one soldier pierced his side with a spear to be certain that he had died, then blood and water gushed from the wound. The Bible describes seven statements that Jesus made while he was on the cross, as well as several supernatural events that occurred.

Collectively referred to as the Passion, Jesus' suffering and redemptive death by crucifixion are the central aspects of Christian theology concerning the doctrines of salvation and atonement.

Historicity

See also: Historicity of Jesus

Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, medieval illustration from the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg (12th century)

Descent from the Cross, depicted by Rubens (1616-17)

The baptism of Jesus and his crucifixion are considered to be two historically certain facts about Jesus.[9][10] James Dunn states that these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent" and "rank so high on the 'almost impossible to doubt or deny' scale of historical facts" that they are often the starting points for the study of the historical Jesus.[9] Bart Ehrman states that the crucifixion of Jesus on the orders of Pontius Pilate is the most certain element about him.[11] John Dominic Crossan states that the crucifixion of Jesus is as certain as any historical fact can be.[12] Eddy and Boyd state that it is now "firmly established" that there is non-Christian confirmation of the crucifixion of Jesus.[13] Craig Blomberg states that most scholars in the third quest for the historical Jesus consider the crucifixion indisputable.[4] Christopher M. Tuckett states that, although the exact reasons for the death of Jesus are hard to determine, one of the indisputable facts about him is that he was crucified.[14]

While scholars agree on the historicity of the crucifixion, they differ on the reason and context for it. For example, both E. P. Sanders and Paula Fredriksen support the historicity of the crucifixion but contend that Jesus did not foretell his own crucifixion and that his prediction of the crucifixion is a "church creation" (p. 126).[15] Geza Vermes also views the crucifixion as a historical event but provides his own explanation and background for it.[15]

John P. Meier views the crucifixion of Jesus as historical fact and states that Christians would not have invented the painful death of their leader, invoking the criterion of embarrassment principle in historical research.[16] Meier states that a number of other criteria, e.g., the criterion of multiple attestation (i.e., confirmation by more than one source) and the criterion of coherence (i.e., that it fits with other historical elements) help establish the crucifixion of Jesus as a historical event.[17]

Although almost all ancient sources relating to crucifixion are literary, the 1968 archeological discovery just northeast of Jerusalem of the body of a crucified man dated to the 1st century provided good confirmatory evidence that crucifixions occurred during the Roman period roughly according to the manner in which the crucifixion of Jesus is described in the gospels.[18] The crucified man was identified as Yehohanan ben Hagkol and probably died about 70 AD, around the time of the Jewish revolt against Rome. The analyses at the Hadassah Medical School estimated that he died in his late 20s. Another relevant archaeological find, which also dates to the 1st century AD, is an unidentified heel bone with a spike discovered in a Jerusalem gravesite, now held by the Israel Antiquities Authority and displayed in the Israel Museum.[19][20]

New Testament narrative

See also: Gospel harmony

The earliest detailed accounts of the death of Jesus are contained in the four canonical gospels. There are other, more implicit references in the New Testament epistles. In the synoptic gospels, Jesus predicts his death in three separate places.[21] All four Gospels conclude with an extended narrative of Jesus' arrest, initial trial at the Sanhedrin and final trial at Pilate's court, where Jesus is flogged, condemned to death, is led to the place of crucifixion initially carrying his cross before Roman soldiers induce Simon of Cyrene to carry it, and then Jesus is crucified, entombed, and resurrected from the dead. His death is described as a sacrifice in the Gospels and other books of the New Testament.[22] In each Gospel these five events in the life of Jesus are treated with more intense detail than any other portion of that Gospel's narrative. Scholars note that the reader receives an almost hour-by-hour account of what is happening.[23]:p.91

After arriving at Golgotha, Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh or gall to drink. Matthew's and Mark's Gospels record that he refused this. He was then crucified and hung between two convicted thieves. According to some translations of the original Greek, the thieves may have been bandits or Jewish rebels.[24] According to Mark's Gospel, he endured the torment of crucifixion for some six hours from the third hour, at approximately 9 am,[25] until his death at the ninth hour, corresponding to about 3 pm.[26] The soldiers affixed a sign above his head stating "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" which, according to the Gospel of John, was in three languages, and then divided his garments and cast lots for his seamless robe. According to the Gospel of John, the Roman soldiers did not break Jesus' legs, as they did to the two crucified thieves (breaking the legs hastened the onset of death), as Jesus was dead already. Each gospel has its own account of Jesus' last words, seven statements altogether.[27] In the Synoptic Gospels, various supernatural events accompany the crucifixion, including darkness, an earthquake, and (in Matthew) the resurrection of saints. Following Jesus' death, his body was removed from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and buried in a rock-hewn tomb, with Nicodemus assisting.

The Crucifixion. Christ on the Cross between two thieves. Illumination from the Vaux Passional, 16th century

Bronzino's depiction of the Crucifixion with 3 nails, no ropes, and a hypopodium standing support, c. 1545.

According to all four gospels, Jesus was brought to the "Place of a Skull"[28] and crucified with two thieves,[29] with the charge of claiming to be "King of the Jews",[30] and the soldiers divided his clothes[31] before he bowed his head and died.[32] Following his death, Joseph of Arimathea requested the body from Pilate,[33] which Joseph then placed in a new garden tomb.[34]

The three Synoptic gospels also describe Simon of Cyrene bearing the cross,[35] a crowd of people mocking Jesus[36] along with the thieves/robbers/rebels,[37] darkness from the 6th to the 9th hour,[38] and the temple veil being torn from top to bottom.[39] The Synoptic Gospels also mention several witnesses, including a centurion,[40] and several women who watched from a distance[41] two of whom were present during the burial.[42]

Luke is the only gospel writer to omit the detail of sour wine mix that was offered to Jesus on a reed,[43] while only Mark and John describe Joseph actually taking the body down off the cross.[44]

There are several details that are only found in one of the gospel accounts. For instance, only Matthew's gospel mentions an earthquake, resurrected saints who went to the city and that Roman soldiers were assigned to guard the tomb,[45] while Mark is the only one to state the actual time of the crucifixion (the third hour, or 9 am) and the centurion's report of Jesus' death.[46] The Gospel of Luke's unique contributions to the narrative include Jesus' words to the women who were mourning, one criminal's rebuke of the other, the reaction of the multitudes who left "beating their breasts", and the women preparing spices and ointments before resting on the Sabbath.[47] John is also the only one to refer to the request that the legs be broken and the soldier's subsequent piercing of Jesus' side (as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy), as well as that Nicodemus assisted Joseph with burial.[48]

According to the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:4), Jesus was raised from the dead ("on the third day" counting the day of crucifixion as the first) and according to the canonical Gospels, appeared to his disciples on different occasions before ascending to heaven.[49] The account given in Acts of the Apostles says that Jesus remained with the apostles for forty days, whereas the account in the Gospel of Luke makes no clear distinction between the events of Easter Sunday and the Ascension.[50][51] However, most biblical scholars agree that St. Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles as a follow-up volume to his Gospel account, and the two works must be considered as a whole.[52]

In Mark, Jesus is crucified along with two rebels, and the sun goes dark or is obscured for three hours.[53] Jesus calls out to God, then gives a shout and dies.[53] The curtain of the Temple is torn in two.[53] Matthew follows Mark, but mentions an earthquake and the resurrection of saints.[54] Luke also follows Mark, although he describes the rebels as common criminals, one of whom defends Jesus, who in turn promises that he (Jesus) and the criminal will be together in paradise.[55] Luke portrays Jesus as impassive in the face of his crucifixion.[56] John includes several of the same elements as those found in Mark, though they are treated differently.[57]

Other accounts and references

See also: Josephus on Jesus and Tacitus on Christ

Crucifixion, from the Buhl Altarpiece, a particularly large Gothic oil on panel painting from the 1490s.

An early non-Christian reference to the crucifixion of Jesus is likely to be Mara Bar-Serapion's letter to his son, written some time after AD 73 but before the 3rd century AD.[58][5][59] The letter includes no Christian themes and the author is presumed to be neither Jewish nor Christian.[58][5][60] The letter refers to the retributions that followed the unjust treatment of three wise men: Socrates, Pythagoras, and "the wise king" of the Jews.[58][59] Some scholars see little doubt that the reference to the execution of the "king of the Jews" is about the crucifixion of Jesus, while others place less value in the letter, given the possible ambiguity in the reference.[60][61]

In the Antiquities of the Jews (written about 93 AD) Jewish historian Josephus stated (Ant 18.3) that Jesus was crucified by Pilate, writing that:[62]

    Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, ... He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles ... And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross ...

Most modern scholars agree that while this Josephus passage (called the Testimonium Flavianum) includes some later interpolations, it originally consisted of an authentic nucleus with a reference to the execution of Jesus by Pilate.[6][7][8] James Dunn states that there is "broad consensus" among scholars regarding the nature of an authentic reference to the crucifixion of Jesus in the Testimonium.[63]

Early in the second century another reference to the crucifixion of Jesus was made by Tacitus, generally considered one of the greatest Roman historians.[64][65] Writing in The Annals (c. 116 AD), Tacitus described the persecution of Christians by Nero and stated (Annals 15.44) that Pilate ordered the execution of Jesus:[62][66]

    Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.

Scholars generally consider the Tacitus reference to the execution of Jesus by Pilate to be genuine, and of historical value as an independent Roman source.[64][67][68][69][70][71] Eddy and Boyd state that it is now "firmly established" that Tacitus provides a non-Christian confirmation of the crucifixion of Jesus.[13]

Another possible reference to the crucifixion ("hanging" cf. Luke 23:39; Galatians 3:13) is found in the Babylonian Talmud:

    On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, 'He is going forth to be stoned because he has practised sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.' But since nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the eve of the Passover!

    — Sanhedrin 43a, Babylonian Talmud (Soncino Edition)

Although the question of the equivalence of the identities of Yeshu and Jesus has at times been debated, many historians agree that the above 2nd-century passage is likely to be about Jesus, Peter Schäfer stating that there can be no doubt that this narrative of the execution in the Talmud refers to Jesus of Nazareth.[72] Robert Van Voorst states that the Sanhedrin 43a reference to Jesus can be confirmed not only from the reference itself, but from the context that surrounds it.[73]

Muslims maintain that Jesus was not crucified and that those who thought they had killed him had mistakenly killed Judas Iscariot, Simon of Cyrene, or someone else in his place.[74] They hold this belief based on various interpretations of Quran 4:157–158, which states: "they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them [or it appeared so unto them], ... Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself".[74]

Some early Christian Gnostic sects, believing Jesus did not have a physical substance, denied that he was crucified.[75][76] In response, Ignatius of Antioch insisted that Jesus was truly born and was truly crucified and wrote that those who held that Jesus only seemed to suffer only seemed to be Christians.[77][78]

The crucifixion

Main article: Passion (Christianity)

Chronology

Main article: Chronology of Jesus

There is no consensus regarding the exact date of the crucifixion of Jesus, although it is generally agreed by biblical scholars that it was on a Friday on or near Passover (Nisan 15), during the governorship of Pontius Pilate (who ruled AD 26–36).[79] Scholars have provided estimates for the year of crucifixion in the range 30–33 AD,[80][81][82] with Rainer Riesner stating that "the fourteenth of Nisan (7 April) of the year A.D. 30 is, apparently in the opinion of the majority of contemporary scholars as well, far and away the most likely date of the crucifixion of Jesus."[83] Another preferred date among scholars is Friday, April 3, 33 AD.[84][85]

Since an observational calendar was used during the time of Jesus, including an ascertainment of the new moon and ripening barley harvest, the exact day or even month for Passover in a given year is subject to speculation.[86][87][failed verification] Various approaches have been used to estimate the year of the crucifixion, including the canonical Gospels, the chronology of the life of Paul, as well as different astronomical models.

The consensus of scholarship is that the New Testament accounts represent a crucifixion occurring on a Friday, but a Thursday or Wednesday crucifixion have also been proposed.[88][89] Some scholars explain a Thursday crucifixion based on a "double sabbath" caused by an extra Passover sabbath falling on Thursday dusk to Friday afternoon, ahead of the normal weekly Sabbath.[88][90] Some have argued that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, not Friday, on the grounds of the mention of "three days and three nights" in Matthew before his resurrection, celebrated on Sunday. Others have countered by saying that this ignores the Jewish idiom by which a "day and night" may refer to any part of a 24-hour period, that the expression in Matthew is idiomatic, not a statement that Jesus was 72 hours in the tomb, and that the many references to a resurrection on the third day do not require three literal nights.[88][91]

In Mark 15:25 crucifixion takes place at the third hour (9 a.m.) and Jesus' death at the ninth hour (3 p.m.).[92] However, in John 19:14 Jesus is still before Pilate at the sixth hour.[93] Scholars have presented a number of arguments to deal with the issue, some suggesting a reconciliation, e.g., based on the use of Roman timekeeping in John but not in Mark, yet others have rejected the arguments.[93][94][95] Several scholars have argued that the modern precision of marking the time of day should not be read back into the gospel accounts, written at a time when no standardization of timepieces, or exact recording of hours and minutes was available, and time was often approximated to the closest three-hour period.[93][96]

[97]

Path to the crucifixion

Main articles: Christ carrying the Cross and Via Dolorosa

Andrea di Bartolo, Way to Calvary, c. 1400. The cluster of halos at the left are the Virgin Mary in front, with the Three Marys.

The three Synoptic Gospels refer to a man called Simon of Cyrene whom the Roman soldiers order to carry the cross after Jesus initially carries it but then collapses,[98] while the Gospel of John just says that Jesus "bears" his own cross.[Jn. 19:17]

Luke's gospel also describes an interaction between Jesus and the women among the crowd of mourners following him, quoting Jesus as saying "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.' For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"[Lk. 23:28–31]

The Gospel of Luke has Jesus address these women as "daughters of Jerusalem", thus distinguishing them from the women whom the same gospel describes as "the women who had followed him from Galilee" and who were present at his crucifixion.[99]

Traditionally, the path that Jesus took is called Via Dolorosa (Latin for "Way of Grief" or "Way of Suffering") and is a street in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is marked by nine of the fourteen Stations of the Cross. It passes the Ecce Homo Church and the last five stations are inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

There is no reference to a woman named Veronica[100] in the Gospels, but sources such as Acta Sanctorum describe her as a pious woman of Jerusalem who, moved with pity as Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead.[101][102][103][104]

Location

A diagram of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the historical site

The precise location of the crucifixion remains a matter of conjecture, but the biblical accounts indicate that it was outside the city walls of Jerusalem,[Jn. 19:20] [Heb. 13:12] accessible to passers-by[Mt. 27:39] [Mk. 15:21,29-30] and observable from some distance away.[Mk. 15:40] Eusebius identified its location only as being north of Mount Zion,[105] which is consistent with the two most popularly suggested sites of modern times.

Calvary as an English name for the place is derived from the Latin word for skull (calvaria), which is used in the Vulgate translation of "place of a skull", the explanation given in all four Gospels of the Aramaic word Gûlgaltâ (transliterated into the Greek as Γολγοθᾶ (Golgotha)), which was the name of the place where Jesus was crucified.[106] The text does not indicate why it was so designated, but several theories have been put forward. One is that as a place of public execution, Calvary may have been strewn with the skulls of abandoned victims (which would be contrary to Jewish burial traditions, but not Roman). Another is that Calvary is named after a nearby cemetery (which is consistent with both of the proposed modern sites). A third is that the name was derived from the physical contour, which would be more consistent with the singular use of the word, i.e., the place of "a skull". While often referred to as "Mount Calvary", it was more likely a small hill or rocky knoll.[107]

The traditional site, inside what is now occupied by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, has been attested since the 4th century. A second site (commonly referred to as Gordon's Calvary[108] ), located further north of the Old City near a place popularly called the Garden Tomb, has been promoted since the 19th century.

People present

The dead Christ with the Virgin, John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene. Unknown painter of the 18th century

See also: Women at the crucifixion

The Gospel of Matthew describes many women at the crucifixion, some of whom are named in the Gospels. Aside from these women, the three Synoptic Gospels speak of the presence of others: "the chief priests, with the scribes and elders";[109] two robbers crucified, one on Jesus' right and one on his left,[110] whom the Gospel of Luke presents as the penitent thief and the impenitent thief;[111] "the soldiers",[112] "the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus";[113] passers-by;[114] "bystanders",[115] "the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle";[116] and "his acquaintances".[117]

The Gospel of John also speaks of women present, but only mentions the soldiers[118] and "the disciple whom Jesus loved".[119]

The Gospels also tell of the arrival, after the death of Jesus, of Joseph of Arimathea[120] and of Nicodemus.[121]

Method and manner

Main article: Instrument of Jesus' crucifixion

Crucifixion of Jesus on a two-beamed cross, from the Sainte Bible (1866)

Torture stake, a simple wooden torture stake. Image by Justus Lipsius.

Whereas most Christians believe the gibbet on which Jesus was executed was the traditional two-beamed cross, the Jehovah's Witnesses hold the view that a single upright stake was used. The Greek and Latin words used in the earliest Christian writings are ambiguous. The Koine Greek terms used in the New Testament are stauros (σταυρός) and xylon (ξύλον). The latter means wood (a live tree, timber or an object constructed of wood); in earlier forms of Greek, the former term meant an upright stake or pole, but in Koine Greek it was used also to mean a cross.[122] The Latin word crux was also applied to objects other than a cross.[123]

However, early Christian writers who speak of the shape of the particular gibbet on which Jesus died invariably describe it as having a cross-beam. For instance, the Epistle of Barnabas, which was certainly earlier than 135,[124] and may have been of the 1st century AD,[125] the time when the gospel accounts of the death of Jesus were written, likened it to the letter T (the Greek letter tau, which had the numeric value of 300),[126] and to the position assumed by Moses in Exodus 17:11–12.[127] Justin Martyr (100–165) explicitly says the cross of Christ was of two-beam shape: "That lamb which was commanded to be wholly roasted was a symbol of the suffering of the cross which Christ would undergo. For the lamb, which is roasted, is roasted and dressed up in the form of the cross. For one spit is transfixed right through from the lower parts up to the head, and one across the back, to which are attached the legs of the lamb."[128] Irenaeus, who died around the end of the 2nd century, speaks of the cross as having "five extremities, two in length, two in breadth, and one in the middle, on which [last] the person rests who is fixed by the nails."[129]

The assumption of the use of a two-beamed cross does not determine the number of nails used in the crucifixion and some theories suggest three nails while others suggest four nails.[130] However, throughout history larger numbers of nails have been hypothesized, at times as high as 14 nails.[131] These variations are also present in the artistic depictions of the crucifixion.[132] In the Western Church, before the Renaissance usually four nails would be depicted, with the feet side by side. After the Renaissance most depictions use three nails, with one foot placed on the other.[132] Nails are almost always depicted in art, although Romans sometimes just tied the victims to the cross.[132] The tradition also carries to Christian emblems, e.g. the Jesuits use three nails under the IHS monogram and a cross to symbolize the crucifixion.[133]

The placing of the nails in the hands, or the wrists is also uncertain. Some theories suggest that the Greek word cheir (χειρ) for hand includes the wrist and that the Romans were generally trained to place nails through Destot's space (between the capitate and lunate bones) without fracturing any bones.[134] Another theory suggests that the Greek word for hand also includes the forearm and that the nails were placed near the radius and ulna of the forearm.[135] Ropes may have also been used to fasten the hands in addition to the use of nails.[136]

Another issue of debate has been the use of a hypopodium as a standing platform to support the feet, given that the hands may not have been able to support the weight. In the 17th century Rasmus Bartholin considered a number of analytical scenarios of that topic.[131] In the 20th century, forensic pathologist Frederick Zugibe performed a number of crucifixion experiments by using ropes to hang human subjects at various angles and hand positions.[135] His experiments support an angled suspension, and a two-beamed cross, and perhaps some form of foot support, given that in an Aufbinden form of suspension from a straight stake (as used by the Nazis in the Dachau concentration camp during World War II), death comes rather quickly.[137]

Words of Jesus spoken from the cross

Main article: Sayings of Jesus on the cross

James Tissot, What Our Lord Saw from the Cross, c.1890, Brooklyn Museum

The Gospels describe various "last words" that Jesus said while on the cross,[138] as follows:

Mark / Matthew

    "E′li, E′li, la′ma sa‧bach‧tha′ni?" [Mt. 27:46] [Mk. 15:34] (Aramaic for "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"). However, as Aramaic linguist Steve Caruso of AramaicNT.org[139] explains, Jesus most likely spoke Galilean Aramaic, which would render the pronunciation of these words as follows: əlahí əlahí ləmáh šəvaqtáni.[140]

The only words of Jesus on the cross mentioned in the Mark and Matthew accounts, this is a quotation of Psalm 22. Since other verses of the same Psalm are cited in the crucifixion accounts, some commentators consider it a literary and theological creation; however, Geza Vermes points out that the verse is cited in Aramaic rather than the Hebrew in which it usually would have been recited, and suggests that by the time of Jesus, this phrase had become a proverbial saying in common usage.[141] Compared to the accounts in the other Gospels, which he describes as 'theologically correct and reassuring', he considers this phrase 'unexpected, disquieting and in consequence more probable'.[142] He describes it as bearing 'all the appearances of a genuine cry'.[143] Raymond Brown likewise comments that he finds 'no persuasive argument against attributing to the Jesus of Mark/Matt the literal sentiment of feeling forsaken expressed in the Psalm quote'.[144]

Luke

    "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." [Some early manuscripts do not have this][Lk. 23:34]

    "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."[Lk. 23:43]

    "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!"[Lk. 23:46]

The Gospel of Luke does not include the aforementioned exclamation of Jesus mentioned in Matthew and Mark.[145]

John

    "Woman, behold, your son!" [Jn. 19:25–27]

    "I thirst."[Jn. 19:28]

    "It is finished."[Jn. 19:30]

The words of Jesus on the cross, especially his last words, have been the subject of a wide range of Christian teachings and sermons, and a number of authors have written books specifically devoted to the last sayings of Christ.[146][147][148][149][150][151]

Reported extraordinary occurrences

The synoptics report various miraculous events during the crucifixion.[152][153] Mark mentions a period of darkness in the daytime during Jesus' crucifixion, and the Temple veil being torn in two when Jesus dies.[53] Luke follows Mark;[55] as does Matthew, additionally mentioning an earthquake and the resurrection of dead saints.[54] No mention of any of these appears in John.[154]

Darkness

Main article: Crucifixion darkness

Christ on the Cross, by Carl Heinrich Bloch, showing the skies darkened

In the synoptic narrative, while Jesus is hanging on the cross, the sky over Judea (or the whole world) is "darkened for three hours," from the sixth to the ninth hour (noon to mid-afternoon). There is no reference to darkness in the Gospel of John account, in which the crucifixion does not take place until after noon.[155]

Some Christian writers considered the possibility that pagan commentators may have mentioned this event, mistaking it for a solar eclipse – although this would have been impossible during the Passover, which takes place at the full moon. Christian traveller and historian Sextus Julius Africanus and Christian theologian Origen refer to Greek historian Phlegon, who lived in the 2nd century AD, as having written "with regard to the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place".[156]

Sextus Julius Africanus further refers to the writings of historian Thallus: "This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate the passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Saviour falls on the day before the passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun."[157] Christian apologist Tertullian believed the event was documented in the Roman archives.[158]

Colin Humphreys and W. G. Waddington of Oxford University considered the possibility that a lunar, rather than solar, eclipse might have taken place.[159][160] They concluded that such an eclipse would have been visible, for thirty minutes, from Jerusalem and suggested the gospel reference to a solar eclipse was the result of a scribe wrongly amending a text. Historian David Henige dismisses this explanation as 'indefensible'[161] and astronomer Bradley Schaefer points out that the lunar eclipse would not have been visible during daylight hours.[162][163]

Modern biblical scholarship treats the account in the synoptic gospels as a literary creation by the author of the Mark Gospel, amended in the Luke and Matthew accounts, intended to heighten the importance of what they saw as a theologically significant event, and not intended to be taken literally.[164] This image of darkness over the land would have been understood by ancient readers, a typical element in the description of the death of kings and other major figures by writers such as Philo, Dio Cassius, Virgil, Plutarch and Josephus.[165] Géza Vermes describes the darkness account as typical of "Jewish eschatological imagery of the day of the Lord", and says that those interpreting it as a datable eclipse are "barking up the wrong tree".[166]

Temple veil, earthquake and resurrection of dead saints

The synoptic gospels state that the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom.

The Gospel of Matthew mentions an account of earthquakes, rocks splitting, and the opening of the graves of dead saints and describes how these resurrected saints went into the holy city and appeared to many people.[167]

In the Mark and Matthew accounts, the centurion in charge comments on the events: "Truly this man was the Son of God!"[Mk. 15:39] or "Truly this was the Son of God!".[Mt. 27:54] The Gospel of Luke quotes him as saying, "Certainly this man was innocent!"[Lk. 23:47]

A widespread 6.3 magnitude earthquake has been confirmed to have taken place between 26–36 AD in the time of Jesus.[168] The authors concluded that:

    Plausible candidates include the earthquake reported in the Gospel of Matthew, an earthquake that occurred sometime before or after the crucifixion and was in effect ‘borrowed’ by the author of the Gospel of Matthew, and a local earthquake between 26 and 36 AD that was sufficiently energetic to deform the sediments at Ein Gedi but not energetic enough to produce a still extant and extra-biblical historical record. If the last possibility is true, this would mean that the report of an earthquake in the Gospel of Matthew is a type of allegory. 

Medical aspects

See also: Crucifixion § Cause of death

A number of theories to explain the circumstances of the death of Jesus on the cross have been proposed by physicians and Biblical scholars. In 2006, Matthew W. Maslen and Piers D. Mitchell reviewed over 40 publications on the subject with theories ranging from cardiac rupture to pulmonary embolism.[169]

Bronzino's Deposition of Christ

In 1847, based on the reference in the Gospel of John (John 19:34) to blood and water coming out when Jesus' side was pierced with a spear, physician William Stroud proposed the ruptured heart theory of the cause of Christ's death which influenced a number of other people.[170][171]

The cardiovascular collapse theory is a prevalent modern explanation and suggests that Jesus died of profound shock. According to this theory, the scourging, the beatings, and the fixing to the cross would have left Jesus dehydrated, weak, and critically ill and that this would have led to cardiovascular collapse.[172][173]

Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, physician William Edwards and his colleagues supported the combined cardiovascular collapse (via hypovolemic shock) and exhaustion asphyxia theories, assuming that the flow of water from the side of Jesus described in the Gospel of John[19:34] was pericardial fluid.[174]

In his book The Crucifixion of Jesus, physician and forensic pathologist Frederick Zugibe studied the likely circumstances of the death of Jesus in great detail.[175][176] Zugibe carried out a number of experiments over several years to test his theories while he was a medical examiner.[177] These studies included experiments in which volunteers with specific weights were hanging at specific angles and the amount of pull on each hand was measured, in cases where the feet were also secured or not. In these cases the amount of pull and the corresponding pain was found to be significant.[177]

Pierre Barbet, a French physician, and the chief surgeon at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Paris,[178] hypothesized that Jesus would have had to relax his muscles to obtain enough air to utter his last words, in the face of exhaustion asphyxia.[179] Some of Barbet's theories, e.g., location of nails, are disputed by Zugibe.

Orthopedic surgeon Keith Maxwell not only analyzed the medical aspects of the crucifixion, but also looked back at how Jesus could have carried the cross all the way along Via Dolorosa.[180][181]

In an article for the Catholic Medical Association, Phillip Bishop and physiologist Brian Church suggested a new theory based on suspension trauma.[182]

In 2003, historians FP Retief and L. Cilliers reviewed the history and pathology of crucifixion as performed by the Romans and suggested that the cause of death was often a combination of factors. They also state that Roman guards were prohibited from leaving the scene until death had occurred.[183]

Theological significance

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    Christ (Messiah)

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Christians believe that Jesus' death was instrumental in restoring humankind to relationship with God.[184][185] Christians believe that through faith in Jesus' substitutionary death (among other interpretive theories see below) and triumphant resurrection[186][187] people are reunited with God and receive new joy and power in this life as well as eternal life in heaven after the body's death. Thus the crucifixion of Jesus along with his resurrection restores access to a vibrant experience of God's presence, love and grace as well as the confidence of eternal life.[188]

Christology of the crucifixion

See also: Lamb of God

The accounts of the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of Jesus provide a rich background for Christological analysis, from the canonical Gospels to the Pauline epistles.[189] Christians believe Jesus' suffering was foretold in the Hebrew Bible, such as in Psalm 22, and Isaiah's songs of the suffering servant.[190]

In Johannine "agent Christology" the submission of Jesus to crucifixion is a sacrifice made as an agent of God or servant of God, for the sake of eventual victory.[191][192] This builds on the salvific theme of the Gospel of John which begins in John 1:29 with John the Baptist's proclamation: "The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world".[193][194] Further reinforcement of the concept is provided in Revelation 21:14 where the "lamb slain but standing" is the only one worthy of handling the scroll (i.e. the book) containing the names of those who are to be saved.[195]

A central element in the Christology presented in the Acts of the Apostles is the affirmation of the belief that the death of Jesus by crucifixion happened "with the foreknowledge of God, according to a definite plan".[196] In this view, as in Acts 2:23, the cross is not viewed as a scandal, for the crucifixion of Jesus "at the hands of the lawless" is viewed as the fulfillment of the plan of God.[196][197]

Paul's Christology has a specific focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus. For Paul, the crucifixion of Jesus is directly related to his resurrection and the term "the cross of Christ" used in Galatians 6:12 may be viewed as his abbreviation of the message of the gospels.[198] For Paul, the crucifixion of Jesus was not an isolated event in history, but a cosmic event with significant eschatological consequences, as in 1 Corinthians 2:8.[198] In the Pauline view, Jesus, obedient to the point of death (Philippians 2:8) died "at the right time" (Romans 4:25) based on the plan of God.[198] For Paul the "power of the cross" is not separable from the Resurrection of Jesus.[198]

However, the belief in the redemptive nature of Jesus' death predates the Pauline letters and goes back to the earliest days of Christianity and the Jerusalem church.[199] The Nicene Creed's statement that "for our sake he was crucified" is a reflection of this core belief's formalization in the fourth century.[200]

John Calvin supported the "agent of God" Christology and argued that in his trial in Pilate's Court Jesus could have successfully argued for his innocence, but instead submitted to crucifixion in obedience to the Father.[201][202] This Christological theme continued into the 20th century, both in the Eastern and Western Churches. In the Eastern Church Sergei Bulgakov argued that the crucifixion of Jesus was "pre-eternally" determined by the Father before the creation of the world, to redeem humanity from the disgrace caused by the fall of Adam.[203] In the Western Church, Karl Rahner elaborated on the analogy that the blood of the Lamb of God (and the water from the side of Jesus) shed at the crucifixion had a cleansing nature, similar to baptismal water.[204]

Atonement

Main articles: Atonement in Christianity and Salvation (Christianity)

Jesus' death and resurrection underpin a variety of theological interpretations as to how salvation is granted to humanity. These interpretations vary widely in how much emphasis they place on the death of Jesus as compared to his words.[205] According to the substitutionary atonement view, Jesus' death is of central importance, and Jesus willingly sacrificed himself as an act of perfect obedience as a sacrifice of love which pleased God.[206] By contrast the moral influence theory of atonement focuses much more on the moral content of Jesus' teaching, and sees Jesus' death as a martyrdom.[207] Since the Middle Ages there has been conflict between these two views within Western Christianity. Evangelical Protestants typically hold a substitutionary view and in particular hold to the theory of penal substitution. Liberal Protestants typically reject substitutionary atonement and hold to the moral influence theory of atonement. Both views are popular within the Roman Catholic church, with the satisfaction doctrine incorporated into the idea of penance.[206]

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the Crucifixion of Jesus was part of the Atonement. "The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the foreordained but voluntary act of the Only Begotten Son of God. He offered his life, including his innocent body, blood, and spiritual anguish as a redeeming ransom (1) for the effect of the Fall of Adam upon all mankind and (2) for the personal sins of all who repent, from Adam to the end of the world. Latter-day Saints believe this is the central fact, the crucial foundation, the chief doctrine, and the greatest expression of divine love in the Plan of Salvation." &/Atonement_of_Jesus_Christ> The Prophet Joseph Smith declared that all "things which pertain to our religion are only appendages" to the Atonement of Christ. <Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 121)>

In the Roman Catholic tradition this view of atonement is balanced by the duty of Roman Catholics to perform Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ[208] which in the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor of Pope Pius XI were defined as "some sort of compensation to be rendered for the injury" with respect to the sufferings of Jesus.[209] Pope John Paul II referred to these Acts of Reparation as the "unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified."[210]

Among Eastern Orthodox Christians, another common view is Christus Victor.[211] This holds that Jesus was sent by God to defeat death and Satan. Because of his perfection, voluntary death, and resurrection, Jesus defeated Satan and death, and arose victorious. Therefore, humanity was no longer bound in sin, but was free to rejoin God through faith in Jesus.[212]

Denial of crucifixion

Docetism

In Christianity, docetism is the doctrine that the phenomenon of Jesus, his historical and bodily existence, and above all the human form of Jesus, was mere semblance without any true reality.[213][214] Broadly it is taken as the belief that Jesus only seemed to be human, and that his human form was an illusion.

Nag Hammadi Manuscripts

According to the First Revelation of James in the Nag Hammadi library, Jesus appeared to James after apparently being crucified and stated that another person had been inflicted in his place:

    "The master appeared to him. He stopped praying, embraced him, and kissed him, saying, “Rabbi, I’ve found you. I heard of the sufferings you endured, and I was greatly troubled. You know my compassion. Because of this I wished, as I reflected upon it, that I would never see these people again. They must be judged for what they have done, for what they have done is not right.”

    The master said, “James, do not be concerned for me or these people. I am the one who was within me. Never did I suffer at all, and I was not distressed. These people did not harm me. Rather, all this was inflicted upon a figure of the rulers, and it was fitting that this figure should be [destroyed] by them."[215]

Islam

Main article: Islamic view of Jesus' death

See also: Jesus in Islam

Most Islamic traditions, save for a few, categorically deny that Jesus physically died, either on a cross or another manner. The contention is found within the Islamic traditions themselves, with the earliest Hadith reports quoting the companions of Muhammad stating Jesus having died, while the majority of subsequent Hadith and Tafsir have elaborated an argument in favor of the denial through exegesis and apologetics, becoming the popular (orthodox) view.

Professor and scholar Mahmoud M. Ayoub sums up what the Quran states despite interpretative arguments:

    "The Quran, as we have already argued, does not deny the death of Christ. Rather, it challenges human beings who in their folly have deluded themselves into believing that they would vanquish the divine Word, Jesus Christ the Messenger of God. The death of Jesus is asserted several times and in various contexts." (3:55; 5:117; 19:33.)[216] 

The presence of the Virgin Mary under the cross[Jn. 19:26–27] has in itself been the subject of Marian art, and well known Catholic symbolism such as the Miraculous Medal and Pope John Paul II's Coat of Arms bearing a Marian Cross. And a number of Marian devotions also involve the presence of the Virgin Mary in Calvary, e.g., Pope John Paul II stated that "Mary was united to Jesus on the Cross".[234][235] Well known works of Christian art by masters such as Raphael (e.g., the Mond Crucifixion), and Caravaggio (e.g., his Entombment) depict the Virgin Mary as part of the crucifixion scene.

    Betrayal of Christ, stained glass, Gotland, Sweden, 1240

    Mateo Cerezo, Ecce Homo, 1650

    Carrying the Cross fresco, Decani monastery, Serbia, 14th century

    Orthodox Crucifixion icon, Athens, Greece

    Crucifixion of Christ, Michelangelo, 1540

    Calvary by Paolo Veronese, 16th century

    Descent from the Cross, Raphael, 1507

    Pietro Lorenzetti fresco, Assisi Basilica, 1310–1329

    From a 14th-15th century Welsh Manuscript

    The Christ of Mont'Iraz, Portugal. Unknown Iberian master, 13th century

See also

    iconChristianity portal Death portal

    Dismas and Gestas, the two thieves crucified alongside Jesus

    Early Christian descriptions of the execution cross

    Empty tomb

    Feast of the Cross

    Feast of the Sacred Heart

    Life of Jesus in the New Testament

    Seven Sorrows of Mary

    Swoon hypothesis

References

Eddy, Paul Rhodes and Gregory A. Boyd (2007). The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition. Baker Academic. p. 172. ISBN 0801031141. "...if there is any fact of Jesus' life that has been established by a broad consensus, it is the fact of Jesus' crucifixion."

Christopher M. Tuckett in The Cambridge companion to Jesus edited by Markus N. A. Bockmuehl 2001 Cambridge Univ Press ISBN 978-0-521-79678-1 pages 123–124

Funk, Robert W.; Jesus Seminar (1998). The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. San Francisco: Harper. ISBN 978-0060629786.

Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey by Craig L. Blomberg 2009 ISBN 0-8054-4482-3 pages 211–214

Studying the Historical Jesus: Evaluations of the State of Current Research edited by Bruce Chilton, Craig A. Evans 1998 ISBN 90-04-11142-5 pages 455–457

The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 ISBN 978-0-8054-4365-3 page 104–108

Evans, Craig A. (2001). Jesus and His Contemporaries: Comparative Studies ISBN 0-391-04118-5 page 316

Wansbrough, Henry (2004). Jesus and the Oral Gospel Tradition ISBN 0-567-04090-9 page 185

Jesus Remembered by James D. G. Dunn 2003 ISBN 0-8028-3931-2 page 339

Jesus of Nazareth by Paul Verhoeven (April 6, 2010) ISBN 1-58322-905-1 page 39

A Brief Introduction to the New Testament by Bart D. Ehrman 2008 ISBN 0-19-536934-3 page 136

Crossan, John Dominic (1995). Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. HarperOne. p. 145. ISBN 0-06-061662-8. "That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus ... agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact."

Eddy, Paul; Boyd, Gregory (2007). The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition Baker Academic, ISBN 0-8010-3114-1 page 127

The Cambridge Companion to Jesus by Markus N. A. Bockmuehl 2001 ISBN 0-521-79678-4 page 136

A Century of Theological and Religious Studies in Britain, 1902–2007 by Ernest Nicholson 2004 ISBN 0-19-726305-4 pages 125–126 Link 126

John P. Meier "How do we decide what comes from Jesus" in The Historical Jesus in Recent Research by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight 2006 ISBN 1-57506-100-7 pages 126–128

John P. Meier "How do we decide what comes from Jesus" in The Historical Jesus in Recent Research by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight 2006 ISBN 1-57506-100-7 pages 132–136

David Freedman, 2000, Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, ISBN 978-0-8028-2400-4, page 299.

"Archaeology and the New Testament".

Article on the Crucifixion of Jesus

St Mark's Gospel and the Christian faith by Michael Keene 2002 ISBN 0-7487-6775-4 pages 24–25

Hawkin, David J. (2004). The twenty-first century confronts its gods: globalization, technology, and war. SUNY Press. p.  121.

Powell, Mark A. Introducing the New Testament. Baker Academic, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8010-2868-7

Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Random House, 2014. ISBN 0812981480.

Mark 15:25

Mark 15:34–37

Ehrman, Bart D.. Jesus, Interrupted, HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN 0-06-117393-2

Matthew 27:33 – "place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull)"; Mark 15:22 (same as Matthew); Luke 23:32–33 – "place that is called The Skull"; John 19:17 – "place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha"

Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27–28; Luke 23:33; John 19:18

Matthew 27:37 – "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews."; Mark 15:26 – "The King of the Jews."; Luke 23:38 – "This is the King of the Jews." Some manuscripts add in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew; John 19:19–22 – "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." "... it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek."

Matthew 27:35–36; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:23–24

Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46; John 19:30

Matthew 27:57–58; Mark 15:42–43; Luke 23:50–52; John 19:38

Matthew 27:59–60; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53; John 19:41–42

Matthew 27:31–32; Mark 15:20–21; Luke 23:26

Matthew 27:39–43; Mark 15:29–32; Luke 23:35–37

Matthew 27:44; Mark 15:32; Luke 23:39

Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44–45

Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45

Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39; Luke 23:47

Matthew 27:55–56; Mark 15:40–41; Luke 23:49

Matthew 27:61; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:54–55

Matthew 27:34; 27:47–49; Mark 15:23; 15:35–36; John 19:29–30

Mark 15:45; John 19:38

Matthew 27:51; 27:62–66

Mark 15:25; 15:44–45

Luke 23:27–32; 23:40–41; 23:48; 23:56

John 19:31–37; 19:39–40

John 19:30–31; Mark 16:1; Mark 16:6

Geza Vermes, The Resurrection, (Penguin, 2008) page 148.

E. P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus, (Penguin, 1993), page 276.

Donald Guthrie, New Testament Introduction, (Intervarsity, 1990) pages 125, 366.

Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Mark," p. 51–161 ISBN 978-0060629786

Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Matthew," p. 129–270 ISBN 978-0060629786

Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Luke," p. 267–364 ISBN 978-0060629786

Ehrman, Bart D.. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 978-0-06-073817-4

Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "John" pp. 365–440 ISBN 978-0060629786

Evidence of Greek Philosophical Concepts in the Writings of Ephrem the Syrian by Ute Possekel 1999 ISBN 90-429-0759-2 pages 29–30

The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 ISBN 978-0-8054-4365-3 page 110

Jesus outside the New Testament: an introduction to the ancient evidence by Robert E. Van Voorst 2000 ISBN 0-8028-4368-9 pages 53–55

Jesus and His Contemporaries: Comparative Studies by Craig A. Evans 2001 ISBN 978-0-391-04118-9 page 41

Theissen 1998, pp. 81–83

Dunn, James (2003). Jesus remembered ISBN 0-8028-3931-2 page 141

Van Voorst, Robert E (2000). Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence Eerdmans Publishing ISBN 0-8028-4368-9 pages 39–42

Backgrounds of early Christianity by Everett Ferguson 2003 ISBN 0-8028-2221-5 page 116

Green, Joel B. (1997). The Gospel of Luke : new international commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. p. 168. ISBN 0-8028-2315-7.

Jesus as a figure in history: how modern historians view the man from Galilee by Mark Allan Powell 1998 ISBN 0-664-25703-8 page 33

Jesus and His Contemporaries: Comparative Studies by Craig A. Evans 2001 ISBN 0-391-04118-5 page 42

Ancient Rome by William E. Dunstan 2010 ISBN 0-7425-6833-4 page 293

Tacitus' characterization of "Christian abominations" may have been based on the rumors in Rome that during the Eucharist rituals Christians ate the body and drank the blood of their God, interpreting the symbolic ritual as cannibalism by Christians. References: Ancient Rome by William E. Dunstan 2010 ISBN 0-7425-6833-4 page 293 and An introduction to the New Testament and the origins of Christianity by Delbert Royce Burkett 2002 ISBN 0-521-00720-8 page 485

Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation by Helen K. Bond 2004 ISBN 0-521-61620-4 page xi

Jesus in the Talmud by Peter Schäfer (August 24, 2009) ISBN 0-691-14318-8 page 141 and 9

Van Voorst, Robert E. (2000). Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. ISBN 0-8028-4368-9 pages 177–118

George W. Braswell Jr., What You Need to Know about Islam and Muslims, page 127 (B & H Publishing Group, 2000). ISBN 978-0-8054-1829-3

Dunderberg, Ismo; Christopher Mark Tuckett; Kari Syreeni (2002). Fair play: diversity and conflicts in early Christianity : essays in honour of Heikki Räisänen. Brill. p. 488. ISBN 90-04-12359-8.

Pagels, Elaine H. (2006). The Gnostic gospels. Phoenix. p. 192. ISBN 0-7538-2114-1.

William Barclay, Great Themes of the New Testament. Westminster John Knox Press. 2001. ISBN 978-0-664-22385-4. p. 41.

"St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans (Roberts-Donaldson translation)".

Lémonon, J.P. (1981). Pilate et le gouvernement de la Judée: textes et monuments, Études bibliques. Paris: Gabalda. pp. 29–32.

Paul L. Maier "The Date of the Nativity and Chronology of Jesus" in Chronos, kairos, Christos: nativity and chronological studies by Jerry Vardaman, Edwin M. Yamauchi 1989 ISBN 0-931464-50-1 pages 113–129

The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 ISBN 978-0-8054-4365-3 page 114

Jesus & the Rise of Early Christianity: A History of New Testament Times by Paul Barnett 2002 ISBN 0-8308-2699-8 pages 19–21

Rainer Riesner, Paul's Early Period: Chronology, Mission Strategy, Theology (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998), page 58.

Maier, P.L. (1968). "Sejanus, Pilate, and the Date of the Crucifixion". Church History. 37 (1): 3–13. JSTOR 3163182.

Fotheringham, J.K. (1934). "The evidence of astronomy and technical chronology for the date of the crucifixion". Journal of Theological Studies. 35: 146–162.

"Tractate Sanhedrin 10b", Babylonian Talmud

"Tractate Sanhedrin 11b", Babylonian Talmud

"Niswonger "which meant Friday" – Google Search".

The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 ISBN 978-0-8054-4365-3 pages 142–143

Cyclopaedia of Biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical literature: Volume 7 John McClintock, James Strong – 1894 "... he lay in the grave on the 15th (which was a 'high day' or double Sabbath, because the weekly Sabbath coincided ..."

"Blomberg "Wednesday crucifixion" – Google Search".

The Gospel of Mark, Volume 2 by John R. Donahue, Daniel J. Harrington 2002 ISBN 0-8146-5965-9 page 442

Steven L. Cox, Kendell H Easley, 2007 Harmony of the Gospels ISBN 0-8054-9444-8 pages 323–323

Death of the Messiah, Volume 2 by Raymond E. Brown 1999 ISBN 0-385-49449-1 pages 959–960

Colin Humphreys, The Mystery of the Last Supper Cambridge University Press 2011 ISBN 978-0-521-73200-0, pages 188–190

New Testament History by Richard L. Niswonger 1992 ISBN 0-310-31201-9 pages 173–174

The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 ISBN 978-0-8054-4365-3 page 538

Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26

Luke 23:46 and 23:55

Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok, Who's who in Christianity, (Routledge 1998), page 303.

Notes and Queries, Volume July 6–December 1852, London, page 252

The Archaeological journal (UK), Volume 7, 1850 page 413

"CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Veronica".

Alban Butler, 2000 Lives of the Saints ISBN 0-86012-256-5 page 84

Eusebius of Caesarea. Onomasticon (Concerning the Place Names in Sacred Scripture).

Matthew 27:33; Mark 15:22; Luke 23:33; John 19:17

Eucherius of Lyon. "Letter to the Presbyter Faustus". Archived from the original on June 13, 2008. "The three more frequented exit gates are one on the west, another on the east, and a third on the north. As you enter the city from the northern side, the first of the holy places due to the condition of the directions of the streets is to the church which is called the Martyrium, which was by Constantine with great reverence not long ago built up. Next, to the west one visits the connecting places Golgotha and the Anastasis; indeed the Anastasis is in the place of the resurrection, and Golgotha is in the middle between the Anastasis and the Martyrium, the place of the Lord's passion, in which still appears that rock which once endured the very cross on which the Lord was. These are however separated places outside of Mount Sion, where the failing rise of the place extended itself to the north."

"General Charles Gordon's Letters Discussing His Discovery of "Cavalry" in Jerusalem". SMF Primary Source Documents. Shapell Manuscript Foundation.

Matthew 27:41; cf. Mark 15:31, Luke 23:35

Mark 15:27; Matthew 27:38

Luke 23:39–43

Luke 23:36

Matthew 27:54; cf. Mark 15:39

Mark 15:29; Matthew 27:39

Mark 15:35; Matthew 27:45; cf. Luke 23:35

Luke 23:48

Luke 23:49

John 19:23–24, 19:32–34

John 19:26–27

Mark 16:43–46, Matthew 27:57-50, Luke 23:50–53, John 19:38

John 19:39

"Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon,σταυρός".

"Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary". Perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved January 15, 2019.

For a discussion of the date of the work, see Information on Epistle of Barnabas and Andrew C. Clark, "Apostleship: Evidence from the New Testament and Early Christian Literature," Evangelical Review of Theology, 1989, Vol. 13, p. 380

John Dominic Crossan, The Cross that Spoke (ISBN 978-0-06-254843-6), p. 121

Epistle of Barnabas, 9:7–8

"The Spirit saith to the heart of Moses, that he should make a type of the cross and of Him that was to suffer, that unless, saith He, they shall set their hope on Him, war shall be waged against them for ever. Moses therefore pileth arms one upon another in the midst of the encounter, and standing on higher ground than any he stretched out his hands, and so Israel was again victorious" (Epistle of Barnabas, 12:2–3).

"ANF01. The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus".

Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, II, xxiv, 4

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia by Geoffrey W. Bromiley 1988 ISBN 0-8028-3785-9 page 826

Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature, Part 2 by John Kitto 2003 ISBN 0-7661-5980-9 page 591

Renaissance art: a topical dictionary by Irene Earls 1987 ISBN 0-313-24658-0 page 64

The visual arts: a history by Hugh Honour, John Fleming 1995 ISBN 0-8109-3928-2 page 526

The Crucifixion and Death of a Man Called Jesus by David A Ball 2010 ISBN 1-61507-128-8 pages 82–84

The Chronological Life of Christ by Mark E. Moore 2007 ISBN 0-89900-955-7 page 639–643

Holman Concise Bible Dictionary Holman, 2011 ISBN 0-8054-9548-7 page 148

Crucifixion and the Death Cry of Jesus Christ by Geoffrey L Phelan MD, 2009 ISBN pages 106–111

Thomas W. Walker, Luke, (Westminster John Knox Press, 2013) page 84.

"What is Galilean Aramaic? | The Aramaic New Testament". Aramaicnt.org. March 31, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2019.

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Geza Vermes, The Passion (Penguin, 2005) page 75.

Geza Vermes, The Passion (Penguin, 2005) page 114.

Geza Vermes, The Passion (Penguin, 2005) page 122.

Raymond Brown, The Death of the Messiah Volume II (Doubleday, 1994) page 1051

John Haralson Hayes, Biblical Exegesis: A Beginner's Handbook (Westminster John Knox Press, 1987) page 104-5. The author suggests this possibly was designed to play down the suffering of Jesus and replace a cry of desperation with one of hope and confidence, in keeping with the message of the Gospel in which Jesus dies confident that he would be vindicated as God's righteous prophet.

David Anderson-Berry, 1871 The Seven Sayings of Christ on the Cross, Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis Publishers

Rev. John Edmunds, 1855 The seven sayings of Christ on the cross Thomas Hatchford Publishers, London, page 26

Arthur Pink, 2005 The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross Baker Books ISBN 0-8010-6573-9

Simon Peter Long, 1966 The wounded Word: A brief meditation on the seven sayings of Christ on the cross Baker Books

John Ross Macduff, 1857 The Words of Jesus New York: Thomas Stanford Publishers, page 76

Alexander Watson, 1847 The seven sayings on the Cross John Masters Publishers, London, page 5. The difference between the accounts is cited by James Dunn as a reason to doubt their historicity. James G. D. Dunn, Jesus Remembered, (Eerdmans, 2003) page 779–781.

Scott's Monthly Magazine. J.J. Toon; 1868. The Miracles Coincident With The Crucifixion, by H.P.B. p. 86–89.

Richard Watson. An Apology for the Bible: In a Series of Letters Addressed to Thomas Paine. Cambridge University Press; March 29, 2012. ISBN 978-1-107-60004-1. p. 81–.

Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "John" p. 302–310

Edwin Keith Broadhead Prophet, Son, Messiah: Narrative Form and Function in Mark (Continuum, 1994) page 196.

Origen. "Contra Celsum (Against Celsus), Book 2, XXXIII".

Donaldson, Coxe (1888). The ante-Nicene fathers. 6. New York: The Christian Literature Publishing Co. p. 136.

"In the same hour, too, the light of day was withdrawn, when the sun at the very time was in his meridian blaze. Those who were not aware that this had been predicted about Christ, no doubt thought it an eclipse. You yourselves have the account of the world-portent still in your archives."Tertullian. "Apologeticum".

Colin J. Humphreys and W. G. Waddington, The Date of the Crucifixion Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 37 (March 1985)[1] Archived April 8, 2010, at the Wayback Machine

Colin Humphreys, The Mystery of the Last Supper Cambridge University Press 2011 ISBN 978-0-521-73200-0, p. 193 (However note that Humphreys places the Last Supper on a Wednesday)

Henige, David P. (2005). Historical evidence and argument. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-21410-4.

Schaefer, B. E. (March 1990). Lunar visibility and the crucifixion. Royal Astronomical Society Quarterly Journal, 31(1), 53–67

Schaefer, B. E. (July 1991). Glare and celestial visibility. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 103, 645–660.

Burton L. Mack, A Myth of Innocence: Mark and Christian Origins (Fortress Press, 1988) page 296; George Bradford Caird, The language and imagery of the Bible (Westminster Press, 1980), page 186; Joseph Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, X-XXIV (Doubleday, 1985) page 1513; William David Davies, Dale Allison, Matthew: Volume 3 (Continuum, 1997) page 623.

David E. Garland, Reading Matthew: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the First Gospel (Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 1999) page 264.

Géza Vermes, The Passion (Penguin, 2005) pages 108–109.

John Yueh-Han Yieh, One Teacher: Jesus' Teaching Role in Matthew's Gospel Report (Walter de Gruyter, 2005) page 65; Robert Walter Funk, The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus (Harper San Francisco, 1998) pages 129–270.

Jefferson Williams, Markus Schwab and A. Brauer (2012). An early first-century earthquake in the Dead Sea. International Geology Review.full article

Medical theories on the cause of death in Crucifixion J R Soc Med April 2006 vol. 99 no. 4 185–188. [2]

William Stroud, 1847, Treatise on the Physical Death of Jesus Christ London: Hamilton and Adams.

William Seymour, 2003, The Cross in Tradition, History and Art ISBN 0-7661-4527-1

"The Search for the Physical Cause of Christ's Death BYU Studies". Archived from the original on February 10, 2009. Retrieved January 20, 2009.

The Physical Death Of Jesus Christ, Study by The Mayo Clinic Archived January 31, 2009, at the Wayback Machine citing studies by Bucklin R (The legal and medical aspects of the trial and death of Christ. Sci Law 1970; 10:14–26), Mikulicz-Radeeki FV (The chest wound in the crucified Christ. Med News 1966; 14:30–40), Davis CT (The Crucifixion of Jesus: The passion of Christ from a medical point of view. Ariz Med 1965; 22:183–187), and Barbet P (A Doctor at Calvary: The Passion of Out Lord Jesus Christ as Described by a Surgeon, Earl of Wicklow (trans) Garden City, NY, Doubleday Image Books 1953, pp 12–18, 37–147, 159–175, 187–208).

Edwards, William D.; Gabel, Wesley J.; Hosmer, Floyd E; On the Physical Death of Jesus, JAMA March 21, 1986, Vol 255, No. 11, pp 1455–1463 [3]

Frederick Zugibe, 2005, The Crucifixion of Jesus: A Forensic Inquiry Evans Publishing, ISBN 1-59077-070-6

JW Hewitt, The Use of Nails in the Crucifixion Harvard Theological Review, 1932

Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft. Jahrgang 1997 diagonal-Verlag Ursula Spuler-Stegemann Der Engel Pfau zum Selbstvertändnis der Yezidi p. 14 (german)

James Tissot: the Life of Christ by Judith F. Dolkart 2009 ISBN 1-85894-496-1 page 201

Rookmaaker, H. R. (1970). Modern Art and the Death of a Culture. Crossway Books. p. 73. ISBN 0-89107-799-5.

"CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Symbolism".

"CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Veneration of Images".

"Mary was United to Jesus on the Cross". EWTN. November 1, 1995. Retrieved January 15, 2019.

    "Vatican website on Behold Your Mother!". Archived from the original on May 17, 2009. Retrieved February 19, 2009.

Further reading

    Brox, Norbert (1984). "'Doketismus' – eine Problemanzeige". Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte. Kohlhammer Verlag. 95: 301–314. ISSN 0044-2925.

    Cousar, Charles B. (1990). A Theology of the Cross: The Death of Jesus in the Pauline Letters. Fortress Press. ISBN 0-8006-1558-1.

    Dennis, John (2006). "Jesus' Death in John's Gospel: A Survey of Research from Bultmann to the Present with Special Reference to the Johannine Hyper-Texts". Currents in Biblical Research. 4 (3): 331–363. doi:10.1177/1476993X06064628.

    Dilasser, Maurice (1999). The Symbols of the Church. ISBN 978-0-8146-2538-5.

    Green, Joel B. (1988). The Death of Jesus: Tradition and Interpretation in the Passion Narrative. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 3-16-145349-2.

    Humphreys, Colin J.; W. G. Waddington (December 1983). "Dating the Crucifixion". Nature. 306 (5945): 743–746. Bibcode:1983Natur.306..743H. doi:10.1038/306743a0.

    Rosenblatt, Samuel (December 1956). "The Crucifixion of Jesus from the Standpoint of Pharisaic Law". Journal of Biblical Literature. The Society of Biblical Literature. 75 (4): 315–321. doi:10.2307/3261265. JSTOR 3261265.

    McRay, John (1991). Archaeology and the New Testament. Baker Books. ISBN 0-8010-6267-5.

    Samuelsson, Gunnar. (2011). Crucifixion in Antiquity. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 978-3-16-150694-9.

    Schneemelcher, Wilhelm; Maurer, Christian (1994) [1991]. "The Gospel of Peter". In Schneemelcher, Wilhelm; Wilson, McLachlan (eds.). New Testament Apocrypha: Gospels and related writings. New Testament Apocrypha. 1. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 216–227. ISBN 978-0-664-22721-0. Retrieved April 25, 2012.

    Sloyan, Gerard S. (1995). The Crucifixion of Jesus. Fortress Press. ISBN 0-8006-2886-1.

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Ten Commandments, also called Decalogue (Greek: deka logoi [“10 words”]), list of religious precepts that, according to various passages in Exodus and Deuteronomy, were divinely revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai and were engraved on two tablets of stone. The Commandments are recorded virtually identically in Ex. 20: 2–17 and Deut. 5: 6–21. The rendering in Exodus (Revised Standard Version) appears as follows:

    I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

    You shall have no other gods before me.

    You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

    You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

    Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.

    Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

    You shall not kill.

    You shall not commit adultery.

    You shall not steal.

    You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

    You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Traditions differ in numbering the Ten Commandments. In Judaism, the prologue (“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage”) constitutes the first element, and the prohibitions against false gods and idols the second. Medieval Roman tradition, accepted by Luther, regards all these elements as one and preserves the number 10 by separating the prohibitions against coveting another’s wife and coveting another’s possessions. In the Greek Orthodox and Protestant Reformed traditions, the prologue and the prohibition against false gods are one commandment and the prohibition against images is the second.

Dating the Ten Commandments involves an interpretation of their purpose. Some scholars propose a date between the 16th and 13th centuries bc because Exodus and Deuteronomy connect the Ten Commandments with Moses and the Sinai Covenant between Yahweh and Israel. For those who regard the Ten Commandments as an epitome of prophetic teachings, the date would be some time after Amos and Hosea (after 750 bc). If the Ten Commandments are simply a summary of the legal and priestly traditions of Israel, they belong to an even later period.

The Commandments contain little that was new to the ancient world and reflect a morality common to the ancient Middle East. They are a description of the conditions accepted by the community of Israel in its relationship to Yahweh. The differences found in Exodus and Deuteronomy indicate that the process of transmission from generation to generation brought with it modifications.

The Ten Commandments had no particular importance in Christian tradition until the 13th century, when they were incorporated into a manual of instruction for those coming to confess their sins. With the rise of Protestant churches, new manuals of instruction in the faith were made available and the Ten Commandments were incorporated into catechisms as a fundamental part of religious training, especially of the young.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Matt Stefon, Assistant Editor.

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