Balaam
A biblical character. He was instructed by Balak, king of Moab, to curse Israel, but after a vision of an angel he blessed the Israelites instead: see Numbers 22. 1–24. 25.[...]
Benedetto Antelami
(late 12th century) Emilian sculptor whose work, informed by both antique Roman and contemporary French sculpture,includes the free-standing prophets in façade niches of Fidenza cathedral and the ...
Christmas
The commemoration of Christ's nativity. The earliest mention of its being celebrated on 25 Dec. is in the Philocalian Calendar, which represents Roman practice in 336. The date was probably chosen to ...
chronology, biblical
1 Old Testament. It is difficult accurately to date the events narrated, partly because there are few allusions to events known from sources outside the OT, partly because the times given for the ...
crib
In the W. Church by popular custom a representation of the crib (or manger) in which Christ was laid at His birth, with a model of the Holy Child, is placed in church on Christmas Eve. St Francis of ...
epiphany
The manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi; the festival commemorating this on 6 January. The name is recorded from Middle English, and comes ultimately from Greek ...
Flight into Egypt
The traditional scene, sometimes preceded by the appearance of the angel to Joseph, was fixed at least from the 6th c., partly inspired by the type of the adventus of ...
frankincense
An aromatic gum found in SW Arabia and Abyssinia, and used in the Temple (Isa. 43: 23). It was one of the gifts brought by the Magi (Matt. 2: 11), part of the stock‐in‐trade of sorcerers who now laid ...
glory
A biblical concept describing a fundamental experience in the relationship of God and humanity which blends within itself a variety of universal images. The English word translates the Hebrew noun ...
Gospel of Matthew
Traditionally held to be the oldest of the four Gospels, it stands first in the NT Canon. It was probably written c.ad 80–90. Though since the 2nd cent. it has been attributed to St Matthew the ...
Gothic Sculpture
Northern France had not ignored sculpture in the Romanesque period: its workshops had produced capitals decorated with foliage or animals, but rarely with the human figure, and the great sculpted ...
Ham
One of the sons of Noah (Gen. 5: 32) and held to be the ancestor of the nations of N. Africa (e.g. Egypt, Ps. 78: 51).
Ham/Canaan, Cursing of.
According to Genesis 9.20–27, Ham saw his father Noah lying drunk and naked in his tent, and Noah later cursed Ham's son Canaan, pronouncing him a slave to his brothers. ...
Herod
The Greek name of an Idumean dynasty whose members governed Palestine for a century and a half, which included the NT era. Because Idumaeans had been forcibly made Jews about a century before the ...
infancy narratives
The first two chapters of Matthew and Luke are in agreement that Jesus was conceived in Mary without the intervention of Joseph and that he was of the house of David. Otherwise there are considerable ...
Johannes Kepler
(1571–1630) German astronomer,who in 1594 became a mathematics teacher in Graz, where he learned of the work of Copernicus. In 1600 he went to work for Tycho Brahe in Prague. It was there that he ...
Konrad Witz
(c.1400×10–1445/6).Swiss painter, a native of the German town of Rottweil (Württemberg) who settled in Basle in 1434. Despite his relatively short career, a remarkable number of paintings survive, ...
Mary
Arabic Maryam. Mother of Jesus and cousin of Elizabeth. Similar to the biblical account, chapter 19 of the Quran (which is named for her) depicts Mary as a chaste woman whose miraculous virgin ...
