#egyptians — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #egyptians, aggregated by home.social.
-
If This Were a #City, It Would Be #Madrid -
https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/p/us-capitals.html#TrentonFull schedule, times, #TV channels, live streams to -
https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/p/interest.html#25Cash-strapped #Egyptians Zamalek eye record CAF Cup -
https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/p/etc.html#UAETG #Jones faces administration if not restructuring -
https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/p/markets.html#1812 Must-Visit Cities in the #World for Your Bucket List -
https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/p/world-capitals.html#CapeTownView all news from Cities in the World https://kensbookinfo.blogspot.com/2026/03/latest-news-from-countries-of-world_16.html
-
Luxury housing boom fuels fears for poorer #Egyptians #press
https://www.newarab.com/news/luxury-housing-boom-fuels-fears-poorer-egyptians
-
https://www.europesays.com/africa/123032/ EgyptAir Denies Reports of Return Ticket Price Hikes from Gulf to Cairo #cairo #Egypt #EgyptAir #egyptians #FlightTickets #gulf #MiddleEast #news #politics #society
-
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/feb/19/book-of-the-dead-exhibition-brooklyn-museum-ancient-egypt. "For the ancient #Egyptians, the journey to the afterlife included a danger-filled journey where your wits were tested at every turn - those fortunate enough to make it through would then sit before the god Osiris & 42 other deities while their heart was weighed against a single feather [the goddess Maat, truth]. If things went sideways, your soul would be devoured by a fearsome goddess named Ammit, composed of a lion, hippopotamus & crocodile."
-
After several years of complaining about rising prices, #Egyptians adjust #Ramadan traditions to match harder times #press
-
#history #archaeology #egyptians
Cleopatra is so famous that she often obscures a much older and powerful female Pharaoh known as Hatshepsut. She ruled Egypt nearly 15 centuries before Cleopatra, initially a a regent for her stepson and then as a Pharaoh in her own right. She wore the masculine garb of a pharaoh and was depicted on images as being a man. This was not to deny she was female but to demonstrate her power which relied upon such images. https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-egypt/before-cleopatra-hatshepsut-female-pharaoh-redefined-power/ -
At least 14 #Egyptians dead after migrant boat sinks off Greece #press
-
To make it clear: #zionists are largely NOT #semites. #Palestinians, some #Syrians and even #Egyptians are of the #semite people group.
But zionists? Ethno-nationalist white supremacists from #Europe who have the goal of genociding actual semites to take over their land.
The zionists are supporting #whitesupremacist and #neonazi movements in the west to get more traction in politics.
This is who #AIPAC is currently funding, this is who the #conservatives of the #west are targeting as voters.
-
Meet Akhenaten’s ‘grandson’: man goes viral for resemblance to the ancient Egyptian king https://www.byteseu.com/1606975/ #Akhenaten #AlMasryAlYoum #AncientEgyptian #Cheops #Egypt #egyptians #GrandEgyptianMuseum #KingKhufu #Nefertiti #Pharaoh #pyramids #Tutankhamun #YoussefMohamed
-
British Airline Jet2 to Launch Direct Flights to Egypt in 2027 https://www.byteseu.com/1572758/ #BritishTourists #Egypt #egyptians #MinistryOfTourismEgypt #News #SharmElSheikh #SharmElSheikhAirport #tourism #Travel #UnitedKingdom
-
Grand Egyptian Museum introduces time slots due to constant crowds https://www.byteseu.com/1547339/ #AlMasryAlYoum #ArabSpring #Beijing #Cheops #CoronavirusPandemic #Egypt #Egyptian #egyptians #GizaPyramids #GrandEgyptianMuseum #KingKhufu #louvre #NationalMuseumOfChina #paris #Tutankhamun
-
Spirituality & Religious Studies @spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com@spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com ·Apotheosis
This is also called divinization or deification. It’s from the Latin deificato, meaning “making divine.” This is the glorification of a subject to divine levels & commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity.
The original sense of apotheosis relates to religion & is the subject of many works of art. Figuratively “apotheosis” may be used in almost any context for “the deification, glorification, or exaltation of a principle, practice, etc.” So normally attached to an abstraction of some sort.
In religion, apotheosis was a feature of many religions in the ancient world. Some that are active today. It requires a belief that there’s a possibility of newly created God’s, so a polytheistic belief system.
The Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam, & Judaism don’t allow this. Though many recognize minor sacred categories such as saints. They’re created by a process called canonization. In Christian theology, there’s a concept of the faithful becoming god-like, called divinization or in Eastern Christianity theosis.
In Hinduism, there’s some range for new deities. A human may be deified by becoming regarded as an avatar of an established deity, usually a major one, or by being regarded as a new, independent deity (usually a minor one), or a mix of the 2.
In art, an apotheosis scene usually shows the subject in the Heavens or rising towards them. They’re often partnered by a number of angels, putti, personifications of virtues, or similar figures.
Especially from Baroque art onwards apotheosis scenes may show rulers, generals, or artists purely as an honorific symbol. In many cases, the “religious” context is classical Greco-Roman pagan religion, like The Apotheosis of Voltaire, which features Apollo. The Apotheosis of Washington (1865) sits high in the dome of the United States of America Capitol Building is another example. Personification of places or abstractions are also shown receiving an apotheosis. The classic composition was suited for artistic placement on ceilings or inside domes.
Before the Hellenistic period, imperial cults were known in ancient Egypt (pharaohs) & Mesopotamia (from Naran-Sin through Hammurabi). In the New Kingdom of Egypt, all deceased pharaohs were deified as the god Osiris, having been identified as Horus while on the throne. They were sometimes referred to as the “son” of other various deities.
The architect Imhotep was defied after his passing away. Though the process seems to have been gradual. This took over 1,000 years, by which time he had become associated with medicine. About a dozen non-royal ancient Egyptians became regarded as deities.
Ancient Greek & Roman religions have many characters who were born as humans but became gods. Like Disney’s Hercules. They’re usually made divine by 1 of the main deities, the 12 Olympians. In the Roman story of Cupid & Psyche, Zeus gave the ambrosia of the gods to the mortal Psyche. This transformed her into a goddess herself.
In the case of the Hellenistic queen Berenice II of Egypt was deified like other rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The court dispersed a myth that her hair, that was cut off to fulfill a vow, had its own apotheosis before becoming the Coma Berenices, a group of stars that still bear her name.
In the Greek world, the 1st leader who granted himself diving honors was Philip II of Macedon. At the wedding to his 6th wife, Philip’s enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods. Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death, like Alexander the Great, or afterwards, like members of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
A heroic cult status that’s similar to apotheosis was also an honor given to a few reversed artists of the distant past, such as Homer.
Up to the end of the Roman Republic, the god Quirinus was the only 1 the Romans accepted as having undergone apotheosis, for his identification/syncretism with Romulus. Syncretism is the practice of meshing together different beliefs & various schools of thought. Eventually apotheosis in Ancient Rome was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized as divine by their successors. This was usually done by a decree of the Senate & popular consent.
The 1st of these cases was the posthumous deification of the last Roman dictator Julius Caesar in 42 BC by his adopted son, the triumvir Caesar Octavian. In addition to showing respect, the present ruler often deified a popular predecessor to legitimize himself & gain popularity himself & gain popularity with the people.
A vote in the Roman Senate, in the later Empire confirming an imperial decree, was the normal official process. But this sometimes followed a period with the unofficial use of deific language or imagery for the individual. This was often done rather discreetly within the imperial circle.
There was then a public ceremony, called a consecratio, including the release of an eagle which flew high. This represents the ascent of the deified person’s soul to Heaven. Imagery featuring the ascent, sometimes using a chariot, was common on coins & in other art.
The largest & most famous example in art in a relief on the base of the Column of Antoninus Pius, showing the emperor & his wife, Faustina the Elder, being carried up by a much larger winged figure, described as representing “Eternity,” as the personifications of “Roma” & the Campus Martius sit below, & eagles fly above. The imperial couple are represented as Jupiter & Juno (or Zeus & Hera).
The historian Dio Cassius, who said he was present, gives a detailed description of the large, & lavish, public consecratio of Perinax, emperor for 3 months in 193, ordered by Septimius Severus.
At the height of the imperial cult during the Roman Empire, sometimes the emperor’s deceased loved ones (heirs, empresses, or lovers) like Hadrian’s Antinous were deified as well.
Deified people were posthumously given the title ‘Divus’ for men & ‘Diva’ for women to their names to signify their divinity. Traditional Roman religion distinguished between a deus (god) & divus (a mortal who became divine or deified), though not consistently. Temple & columns were erected to provide a space for worship.
The imperial cult was mainly popular in the provinces. Especially in the Eastern Empire, where many cultures were well used to deified rulers, & less popular in Rome itself, & among traditionalists & intellectuals.
Some privately, & cautiously, ridiculed the apotheosis of inept & feeble emperors, as in the satire The Pumkinification of (the Divine) Claudius. This is usually attributed to Seneca.
Numerous mortals have been deified into the Taoist pantheon. Examples are Guan Yi, Iron-crutch Li, & Fan Kuai. Song dynasty general Yue Fei was deified during the Ming dynasty. He’s considered by some practitioners to be 1 of the 3 highest-ranking heavenly generals. The Ming dynasty epic Investiture of the Gods deals heavily with deification legends.
In the complicated, & variable, conceptions of deity in Buddhism, the achievement of Buddhahood may be regarded as an achievable goal for the faithful. Many significant deities are considered to have begun as normal people, from Gautama Buddha (the original Buddha & the creator of Buddhism) downwards. Most of these are seen as avatars or re-births of earlier figures.
Some significant Hindu deities, in particular Rama, were also born as humans. He’s seen as an avatar of Vishnu. In more modern times, Swaminarayan is an undoubted & well-documented historical figure, who’s regarded by some Hindus as an avatar of Vishnu, or as being a still more elevated deity. Bharat Mata (Mother India) began as a national personification devised by a group of Bengali intellectuals in the late 19th century. But now it receives some worship.
Various Hindu & Buddhist rulers in the past have been represented as deities, especially after death, from India to Indonesia. Jayavarman VII, King of the Khmer Empire the 1st Buddhist king of Cambodia, had his own features used for the many statues of Buddha/Avalokitevara he erected.
The extreme personality cult instituted by the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, has been to represent a deification. And continues to this day with the current leader. Even the nation is admittedly atheist.
In Christian theology, instead of the word “apotheosis,” they use the words “deification” or “divinization” or the Greek word “theosis.” Pre-Reformation, & mainstream theology, in both East & West, views Jesus Christ as the preexisting God who undertook mortal existence. Not as a mortal being who attained divinity. A view known as adoptionism. Adoptionism is an early Christian non-Trinitarian doctrine that holds that Jesus was born a mere human being. But Jesus was later adopted by God as His son, usually at Jesus’ baptism or resurrection, rather than being divine from eternity.
It holds that he has made it possible for human beings to be raised to the level of sharing the divine nature as II Peter 1:4 states that he became human to make humans “partakers of the divine nature.”
In John 10:34, Jesus referenced Psalm 82:6 when he stated: “Is it not written in your Law, I have said you are gods?” Other authors stated: “For this is why the Word became man, & the Son of God became the Son of man: so that Man, by entering into communion with the Word & thus receiving divine sonship, might be made God.” Accusations of self deification to some degree may have been placed on heretical such as the Waldensians.
The language of II Peter is taken up by St. Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, “if the Word has been made man, it is so that men may be made gods.” It becomes the standard in Greek theology. In the 14th century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word. In the 5th century, St. Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons “by participation” (Greek methexis). Methexis is “group sharing,” where the audience actively participates in the performance.
Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the Confessor. For whom the doctrine is the result of the Incarnation: “Deification, briefly, is the encompassion & fulfillment of all times and ages.”
The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t use the term “apotheosis” in its theology. This is equivalent to the Greek word theosis are Latin-derived words “divinization” & deification” used in the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church.
The concept has been given less prominence in Western theology than in that of the Eastern Catholic Churches. But is present in the Latin Church’s liturgical prayer.
Despite the theological differences, in the Catholic church art depictions of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in art & the Ascension of Jesus in Christian art do share many similarities in composition to apotheosis subjects. As there are many images of saints being raised into Heaven.
Anthropolatry is the deification & worship of humans. It was practiced in ancient Japan towards their emperors. Followers of Socinianism were later accused of practicing anthropolatry.
Make a one-time donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate
Make a monthly donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate monthly
Make a yearly donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate yearly
Rate this:
#1865 #193 #42BC #4thCentury #5thCentury #AbrahamicReligions #Adoptionism #AlexanderTheGreat #Ambrosia #AncientRome #Angels #Anthropolatry #Antinous #Apollo #Apotheosis #AscensionOfJesus #AssumptionOfTheVirginMary #Atheist #Avalokiteshvara #Avatar #Avatars #BaroqueArt #bengali #BereniceIIOfEgypt #BharatMata #Buddha #BuddhaGautama #Buddhahood #Buddhism #CaesarOctavian #Cambodia #CampusMartius #canonization #CatholicChurch #Christianity #ColumnOfAntoninusPius #ComaBerenices #Consecratio #Cupid #Deification #Deity #Deus #DioCassius #Disney #DIva #Divinization #Divus #EasternCatholicChurch #EasternChristianity #EasternEmpire #Egypt #Egyptians #Emperors #FanKuai #FaustinaTheElder #GrecoRoman #Greek #GuanYi #Hadrian #Hammurabi #Heaven #Hellenistic #Hera #Hercules #Hindu #Hinduism #Homer #Horus #IIPeter14 #Imhotep #ImperialCults #India #Indonesia #InvestitureOfTheGods #IronCrutchLi #Islam #Japan #JayavarmanVII #Jesus #John1034 #Judaism #JuliusCaesar #Juno #Jupiter #KhmerEmpire #KimIlSung #Krishna #Late19thCentury #Latin #LatinChurch #Mesopotamia #Methexis #MingDynasty #NaramSin #NewKingdom #NorthKorea #Olympians #Osiris #pagan #Pertinax #Pharaohs #PhilipIIOfMacedon #polytheistic #Psalm826 #Psyche #PtolemaicDynasty #Putti #Rama #Reformation #Roman #RomanCatholicChurch #RomanRepublic #RomanSenate #Romans #Romulus #Saints #Senate #Seneca #SeptimiusSeverus #Socinianism #StAthanasius #StCyrilOfAlexandria #StIrenaeus #StMaximusTheConfessor #Swaminarayan #Syncretism #Taoist #TaoistPantheon #Temple #ThePumpkinificationOfTheDivineClaudius #Theosis #Triumvir #USCapitolBuilding #Vishnu #Waldensians #YueFei #Zeus
-
Spirituality & Religious Studies @spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com@spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com ·Apotheosis
This is also called divinization or deification. It’s from the Latin deificato, meaning “making divine.” This is the glorification of a subject to divine levels & commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity.
The original sense of apotheosis relates to religion & is the subject of many works of art. Figuratively “apotheosis” may be used in almost any context for “the deification, glorification, or exaltation of a principle, practice, etc.” So normally attached to an abstraction of some sort.
In religion, apotheosis was a feature of many religions in the ancient world. Some that are active today. It requires a belief that there’s a possibility of newly created God’s, so a polytheistic belief system.
The Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam, & Judaism don’t allow this. Though many recognize minor sacred categories such as saints. They’re created by a process called canonization. In Christian theology, there’s a concept of the faithful becoming god-like, called divinization or in Eastern Christianity theosis.
In Hinduism, there’s some range for new deities. A human may be deified by becoming regarded as an avatar of an established deity, usually a major one, or by being regarded as a new, independent deity (usually a minor one), or a mix of the 2.
In art, an apotheosis scene usually shows the subject in the Heavens or rising towards them. They’re often partnered by a number of angels, putti, personifications of virtues, or similar figures.
Especially from Baroque art onwards apotheosis scenes may show rulers, generals, or artists purely as an honorific symbol. In many cases, the “religious” context is classical Greco-Roman pagan religion, like The Apotheosis of Voltaire, which features Apollo. The Apotheosis of Washington (1865) sits high in the dome of the United States of America Capitol Building is another example. Personification of places or abstractions are also shown receiving an apotheosis. The classic composition was suited for artistic placement on ceilings or inside domes.
Before the Hellenistic period, imperial cults were known in ancient Egypt (pharaohs) & Mesopotamia (from Naran-Sin through Hammurabi). In the New Kingdom of Egypt, all deceased pharaohs were deified as the god Osiris, having been identified as Horus while on the throne. They were sometimes referred to as the “son” of other various deities.
The architect Imhotep was defied after his passing away. Though the process seems to have been gradual. This took over 1,000 years, by which time he had become associated with medicine. About a dozen non-royal ancient Egyptians became regarded as deities.
Ancient Greek & Roman religions have many characters who were born as humans but became gods. Like Disney’s Hercules. They’re usually made divine by 1 of the main deities, the 12 Olympians. In the Roman story of Cupid & Psyche, Zeus gave the ambrosia of the gods to the mortal Psyche. This transformed her into a goddess herself.
In the case of the Hellenistic queen Berenice II of Egypt was deified like other rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The court dispersed a myth that her hair, that was cut off to fulfill a vow, had its own apotheosis before becoming the Coma Berenices, a group of stars that still bear her name.
In the Greek world, the 1st leader who granted himself diving honors was Philip II of Macedon. At the wedding to his 6th wife, Philip’s enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods. Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death, like Alexander the Great, or afterwards, like members of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
A heroic cult status that’s similar to apotheosis was also an honor given to a few reversed artists of the distant past, such as Homer.
Up to the end of the Roman Republic, the god Quirinus was the only 1 the Romans accepted as having undergone apotheosis, for his identification/syncretism with Romulus. Syncretism is the practice of meshing together different beliefs & various schools of thought. Eventually apotheosis in Ancient Rome was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized as divine by their successors. This was usually done by a decree of the Senate & popular consent.
The 1st of these cases was the posthumous deification of the last Roman dictator Julius Caesar in 42 BC by his adopted son, the triumvir Caesar Octavian. In addition to showing respect, the present ruler often deified a popular predecessor to legitimize himself & gain popularity himself & gain popularity with the people.
A vote in the Roman Senate, in the later Empire confirming an imperial decree, was the normal official process. But this sometimes followed a period with the unofficial use of deific language or imagery for the individual. This was often done rather discreetly within the imperial circle.
There was then a public ceremony, called a consecratio, including the release of an eagle which flew high. This represents the ascent of the deified person’s soul to Heaven. Imagery featuring the ascent, sometimes using a chariot, was common on coins & in other art.
The largest & most famous example in art in a relief on the base of the Column of Antoninus Pius, showing the emperor & his wife, Faustina the Elder, being carried up by a much larger winged figure, described as representing “Eternity,” as the personifications of “Roma” & the Campus Martius sit below, & eagles fly above. The imperial couple are represented as Jupiter & Juno (or Zeus & Hera).
The historian Dio Cassius, who said he was present, gives a detailed description of the large, & lavish, public consecratio of Perinax, emperor for 3 months in 193, ordered by Septimius Severus.
At the height of the imperial cult during the Roman Empire, sometimes the emperor’s deceased loved ones (heirs, empresses, or lovers) like Hadrian’s Antinous were deified as well.
Deified people were posthumously given the title ‘Divus’ for men & ‘Diva’ for women to their names to signify their divinity. Traditional Roman religion distinguished between a deus (god) & divus (a mortal who became divine or deified), though not consistently. Temple & columns were erected to provide a space for worship.
The imperial cult was mainly popular in the provinces. Especially in the Eastern Empire, where many cultures were well used to deified rulers, & less popular in Rome itself, & among traditionalists & intellectuals.
Some privately, & cautiously, ridiculed the apotheosis of inept & feeble emperors, as in the satire The Pumkinification of (the Divine) Claudius. This is usually attributed to Seneca.
Numerous mortals have been deified into the Taoist pantheon. Examples are Guan Yi, Iron-crutch Li, & Fan Kuai. Song dynasty general Yue Fei was deified during the Ming dynasty. He’s considered by some practitioners to be 1 of the 3 highest-ranking heavenly generals. The Ming dynasty epic Investiture of the Gods deals heavily with deification legends.
In the complicated, & variable, conceptions of deity in Buddhism, the achievement of Buddhahood may be regarded as an achievable goal for the faithful. Many significant deities are considered to have begun as normal people, from Gautama Buddha (the original Buddha & the creator of Buddhism) downwards. Most of these are seen as avatars or re-births of earlier figures.
Some significant Hindu deities, in particular Rama, were also born as humans. He’s seen as an avatar of Vishnu. In more modern times, Swaminarayan is an undoubted & well-documented historical figure, who’s regarded by some Hindus as an avatar of Vishnu, or as being a still more elevated deity. Bharat Mata (Mother India) began as a national personification devised by a group of Bengali intellectuals in the late 19th century. But now it receives some worship.
Various Hindu & Buddhist rulers in the past have been represented as deities, especially after death, from India to Indonesia. Jayavarman VII, King of the Khmer Empire the 1st Buddhist king of Cambodia, had his own features used for the many statues of Buddha/Avalokitevara he erected.
The extreme personality cult instituted by the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, has been to represent a deification. And continues to this day with the current leader. Even the nation is admittedly atheist.
In Christian theology, instead of the word “apotheosis,” they use the words “deification” or “divinization” or the Greek word “theosis.” Pre-Reformation, & mainstream theology, in both East & West, views Jesus Christ as the preexisting God who undertook mortal existence. Not as a mortal being who attained divinity. A view known as adoptionism. Adoptionism is an early Christian non-Trinitarian doctrine that holds that Jesus was born a mere human being. But Jesus was later adopted by God as His son, usually at Jesus’ baptism or resurrection, rather than being divine from eternity.
It holds that he has made it possible for human beings to be raised to the level of sharing the divine nature as II Peter 1:4 states that he became human to make humans “partakers of the divine nature.”
In John 10:34, Jesus referenced Psalm 82:6 when he stated: “Is it not written in your Law, I have said you are gods?” Other authors stated: “For this is why the Word became man, & the Son of God became the Son of man: so that Man, by entering into communion with the Word & thus receiving divine sonship, might be made God.” Accusations of self deification to some degree may have been placed on heretical such as the Waldensians.
The language of II Peter is taken up by St. Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, “if the Word has been made man, it is so that men may be made gods.” It becomes the standard in Greek theology. In the 14th century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word. In the 5th century, St. Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons “by participation” (Greek methexis). Methexis is “group sharing,” where the audience actively participates in the performance.
Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the Confessor. For whom the doctrine is the result of the Incarnation: “Deification, briefly, is the encompassion & fulfillment of all times and ages.”
The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t use the term “apotheosis” in its theology. This is equivalent to the Greek word theosis are Latin-derived words “divinization” & deification” used in the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church.
The concept has been given less prominence in Western theology than in that of the Eastern Catholic Churches. But is present in the Latin Church’s liturgical prayer.
Despite the theological differences, in the Catholic church art depictions of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in art & the Ascension of Jesus in Christian art do share many similarities in composition to apotheosis subjects. As there are many images of saints being raised into Heaven.
Anthropolatry is the deification & worship of humans. It was practiced in ancient Japan towards their emperors. Followers of Socinianism were later accused of practicing anthropolatry.
Make a one-time donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate
Make a monthly donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate monthly
Make a yearly donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate yearly
Rate this:
#1865 #193 #42BC #4thCentury #5thCentury #AbrahamicReligions #Adoptionism #AlexanderTheGreat #Ambrosia #AncientRome #Angels #Anthropolatry #Antinous #Apollo #Apotheosis #AscensionOfJesus #AssumptionOfTheVirginMary #Atheist #Avalokiteshvara #Avatar #Avatars #BaroqueArt #bengali #BereniceIIOfEgypt #BharatMata #Buddha #BuddhaGautama #Buddhahood #Buddhism #CaesarOctavian #Cambodia #CampusMartius #canonization #CatholicChurch #Christianity #ColumnOfAntoninusPius #ComaBerenices #Consecratio #Cupid #Deification #Deity #Deus #DioCassius #Disney #DIva #Divinization #Divus #EasternCatholicChurch #EasternChristianity #EasternEmpire #Egypt #Egyptians #Emperors #FanKuai #FaustinaTheElder #GrecoRoman #Greek #GuanYi #Hadrian #Hammurabi #Heaven #Hellenistic #Hera #Hercules #Hindu #Hinduism #Homer #Horus #IIPeter14 #Imhotep #ImperialCults #India #Indonesia #InvestitureOfTheGods #IronCrutchLi #Islam #Japan #JayavarmanVII #Jesus #John1034 #Judaism #JuliusCaesar #Juno #Jupiter #KhmerEmpire #KimIlSung #Krishna #Late19thCentury #Latin #LatinChurch #Mesopotamia #Methexis #MingDynasty #NaramSin #NewKingdom #NorthKorea #Olympians #Osiris #pagan #Pertinax #Pharaohs #PhilipIIOfMacedon #polytheistic #Psalm826 #Psyche #PtolemaicDynasty #Putti #Rama #Reformation #Roman #RomanCatholicChurch #RomanRepublic #RomanSenate #Romans #Romulus #Saints #Senate #Seneca #SeptimiusSeverus #Socinianism #StAthanasius #StCyrilOfAlexandria #StIrenaeus #StMaximusTheConfessor #Swaminarayan #Syncretism #Taoist #TaoistPantheon #Temple #ThePumpkinificationOfTheDivineClaudius #Theosis #Triumvir #USCapitolBuilding #Vishnu #Waldensians #YueFei #Zeus
-
Spirituality & Religious Studies @spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com@spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com ·Apotheosis
This is also called divinization or deification. It’s from the Latin deificato, meaning “making divine.” This is the glorification of a subject to divine levels & commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity.
The original sense of apotheosis relates to religion & is the subject of many works of art. Figuratively “apotheosis” may be used in almost any context for “the deification, glorification, or exaltation of a principle, practice, etc.” So normally attached to an abstraction of some sort.
In religion, apotheosis was a feature of many religions in the ancient world. Some that are active today. It requires a belief that there’s a possibility of newly created God’s, so a polytheistic belief system.
The Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam, & Judaism don’t allow this. Though many recognize minor sacred categories such as saints. They’re created by a process called canonization. In Christian theology, there’s a concept of the faithful becoming god-like, called divinization or in Eastern Christianity theosis.
In Hinduism, there’s some range for new deities. A human may be deified by becoming regarded as an avatar of an established deity, usually a major one, or by being regarded as a new, independent deity (usually a minor one), or a mix of the 2.
In art, an apotheosis scene usually shows the subject in the Heavens or rising towards them. They’re often partnered by a number of angels, putti, personifications of virtues, or similar figures.
Especially from Baroque art onwards apotheosis scenes may show rulers, generals, or artists purely as an honorific symbol. In many cases, the “religious” context is classical Greco-Roman pagan religion, like The Apotheosis of Voltaire, which features Apollo. The Apotheosis of Washington (1865) sits high in the dome of the United States of America Capitol Building is another example. Personification of places or abstractions are also shown receiving an apotheosis. The classic composition was suited for artistic placement on ceilings or inside domes.
Before the Hellenistic period, imperial cults were known in ancient Egypt (pharaohs) & Mesopotamia (from Naran-Sin through Hammurabi). In the New Kingdom of Egypt, all deceased pharaohs were deified as the god Osiris, having been identified as Horus while on the throne. They were sometimes referred to as the “son” of other various deities.
The architect Imhotep was defied after his passing away. Though the process seems to have been gradual. This took over 1,000 years, by which time he had become associated with medicine. About a dozen non-royal ancient Egyptians became regarded as deities.
Ancient Greek & Roman religions have many characters who were born as humans but became gods. Like Disney’s Hercules. They’re usually made divine by 1 of the main deities, the 12 Olympians. In the Roman story of Cupid & Psyche, Zeus gave the ambrosia of the gods to the mortal Psyche. This transformed her into a goddess herself.
In the case of the Hellenistic queen Berenice II of Egypt was deified like other rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The court dispersed a myth that her hair, that was cut off to fulfill a vow, had its own apotheosis before becoming the Coma Berenices, a group of stars that still bear her name.
In the Greek world, the 1st leader who granted himself diving honors was Philip II of Macedon. At the wedding to his 6th wife, Philip’s enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods. Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death, like Alexander the Great, or afterwards, like members of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
A heroic cult status that’s similar to apotheosis was also an honor given to a few reversed artists of the distant past, such as Homer.
Up to the end of the Roman Republic, the god Quirinus was the only 1 the Romans accepted as having undergone apotheosis, for his identification/syncretism with Romulus. Syncretism is the practice of meshing together different beliefs & various schools of thought. Eventually apotheosis in Ancient Rome was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized as divine by their successors. This was usually done by a decree of the Senate & popular consent.
The 1st of these cases was the posthumous deification of the last Roman dictator Julius Caesar in 42 BC by his adopted son, the triumvir Caesar Octavian. In addition to showing respect, the present ruler often deified a popular predecessor to legitimize himself & gain popularity himself & gain popularity with the people.
A vote in the Roman Senate, in the later Empire confirming an imperial decree, was the normal official process. But this sometimes followed a period with the unofficial use of deific language or imagery for the individual. This was often done rather discreetly within the imperial circle.
There was then a public ceremony, called a consecratio, including the release of an eagle which flew high. This represents the ascent of the deified person’s soul to Heaven. Imagery featuring the ascent, sometimes using a chariot, was common on coins & in other art.
The largest & most famous example in art in a relief on the base of the Column of Antoninus Pius, showing the emperor & his wife, Faustina the Elder, being carried up by a much larger winged figure, described as representing “Eternity,” as the personifications of “Roma” & the Campus Martius sit below, & eagles fly above. The imperial couple are represented as Jupiter & Juno (or Zeus & Hera).
The historian Dio Cassius, who said he was present, gives a detailed description of the large, & lavish, public consecratio of Perinax, emperor for 3 months in 193, ordered by Septimius Severus.
At the height of the imperial cult during the Roman Empire, sometimes the emperor’s deceased loved ones (heirs, empresses, or lovers) like Hadrian’s Antinous were deified as well.
Deified people were posthumously given the title ‘Divus’ for men & ‘Diva’ for women to their names to signify their divinity. Traditional Roman religion distinguished between a deus (god) & divus (a mortal who became divine or deified), though not consistently. Temple & columns were erected to provide a space for worship.
The imperial cult was mainly popular in the provinces. Especially in the Eastern Empire, where many cultures were well used to deified rulers, & less popular in Rome itself, & among traditionalists & intellectuals.
Some privately, & cautiously, ridiculed the apotheosis of inept & feeble emperors, as in the satire The Pumkinification of (the Divine) Claudius. This is usually attributed to Seneca.
Numerous mortals have been deified into the Taoist pantheon. Examples are Guan Yi, Iron-crutch Li, & Fan Kuai. Song dynasty general Yue Fei was deified during the Ming dynasty. He’s considered by some practitioners to be 1 of the 3 highest-ranking heavenly generals. The Ming dynasty epic Investiture of the Gods deals heavily with deification legends.
In the complicated, & variable, conceptions of deity in Buddhism, the achievement of Buddhahood may be regarded as an achievable goal for the faithful. Many significant deities are considered to have begun as normal people, from Gautama Buddha (the original Buddha & the creator of Buddhism) downwards. Most of these are seen as avatars or re-births of earlier figures.
Some significant Hindu deities, in particular Rama, were also born as humans. He’s seen as an avatar of Vishnu. In more modern times, Swaminarayan is an undoubted & well-documented historical figure, who’s regarded by some Hindus as an avatar of Vishnu, or as being a still more elevated deity. Bharat Mata (Mother India) began as a national personification devised by a group of Bengali intellectuals in the late 19th century. But now it receives some worship.
Various Hindu & Buddhist rulers in the past have been represented as deities, especially after death, from India to Indonesia. Jayavarman VII, King of the Khmer Empire the 1st Buddhist king of Cambodia, had his own features used for the many statues of Buddha/Avalokitevara he erected.
The extreme personality cult instituted by the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, has been to represent a deification. And continues to this day with the current leader. Even the nation is admittedly atheist.
In Christian theology, instead of the word “apotheosis,” they use the words “deification” or “divinization” or the Greek word “theosis.” Pre-Reformation, & mainstream theology, in both East & West, views Jesus Christ as the preexisting God who undertook mortal existence. Not as a mortal being who attained divinity. A view known as adoptionism. Adoptionism is an early Christian non-Trinitarian doctrine that holds that Jesus was born a mere human being. But Jesus was later adopted by God as His son, usually at Jesus’ baptism or resurrection, rather than being divine from eternity.
It holds that he has made it possible for human beings to be raised to the level of sharing the divine nature as II Peter 1:4 states that he became human to make humans “partakers of the divine nature.”
In John 10:34, Jesus referenced Psalm 82:6 when he stated: “Is it not written in your Law, I have said you are gods?” Other authors stated: “For this is why the Word became man, & the Son of God became the Son of man: so that Man, by entering into communion with the Word & thus receiving divine sonship, might be made God.” Accusations of self deification to some degree may have been placed on heretical such as the Waldensians.
The language of II Peter is taken up by St. Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, “if the Word has been made man, it is so that men may be made gods.” It becomes the standard in Greek theology. In the 14th century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word. In the 5th century, St. Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons “by participation” (Greek methexis). Methexis is “group sharing,” where the audience actively participates in the performance.
Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the Confessor. For whom the doctrine is the result of the Incarnation: “Deification, briefly, is the encompassion & fulfillment of all times and ages.”
The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t use the term “apotheosis” in its theology. This is equivalent to the Greek word theosis are Latin-derived words “divinization” & deification” used in the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church.
The concept has been given less prominence in Western theology than in that of the Eastern Catholic Churches. But is present in the Latin Church’s liturgical prayer.
Despite the theological differences, in the Catholic church art depictions of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in art & the Ascension of Jesus in Christian art do share many similarities in composition to apotheosis subjects. As there are many images of saints being raised into Heaven.
Anthropolatry is the deification & worship of humans. It was practiced in ancient Japan towards their emperors. Followers of Socinianism were later accused of practicing anthropolatry.
Make a one-time donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate
Make a monthly donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate monthly
Make a yearly donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate yearly
Rate this:
#1865 #193 #42BC #4thCentury #5thCentury #AbrahamicReligions #Adoptionism #AlexanderTheGreat #Ambrosia #AncientRome #Angels #Anthropolatry #Antinous #Apollo #Apotheosis #AscensionOfJesus #AssumptionOfTheVirginMary #Atheist #Avalokiteshvara #Avatar #Avatars #BaroqueArt #bengali #BereniceIIOfEgypt #BharatMata #Buddha #BuddhaGautama #Buddhahood #Buddhism #CaesarOctavian #Cambodia #CampusMartius #canonization #CatholicChurch #Christianity #ColumnOfAntoninusPius #ComaBerenices #Consecratio #Cupid #Deification #Deity #Deus #DioCassius #Disney #DIva #Divinization #Divus #EasternCatholicChurch #EasternChristianity #EasternEmpire #Egypt #Egyptians #Emperors #FanKuai #FaustinaTheElder #GrecoRoman #Greek #GuanYi #Hadrian #Hammurabi #Heaven #Hellenistic #Hera #Hercules #Hindu #Hinduism #Homer #Horus #IIPeter14 #Imhotep #ImperialCults #India #Indonesia #InvestitureOfTheGods #IronCrutchLi #Islam #Japan #JayavarmanVII #Jesus #John1034 #Judaism #JuliusCaesar #Juno #Jupiter #KhmerEmpire #KimIlSung #Krishna #Late19thCentury #Latin #LatinChurch #Mesopotamia #Methexis #MingDynasty #NaramSin #NewKingdom #NorthKorea #Olympians #Osiris #pagan #Pertinax #Pharaohs #PhilipIIOfMacedon #polytheistic #Psalm826 #Psyche #PtolemaicDynasty #Putti #Rama #Reformation #Roman #RomanCatholicChurch #RomanRepublic #RomanSenate #Romans #Romulus #Saints #Senate #Seneca #SeptimiusSeverus #Socinianism #StAthanasius #StCyrilOfAlexandria #StIrenaeus #StMaximusTheConfessor #Swaminarayan #Syncretism #Taoist #TaoistPantheon #Temple #ThePumpkinificationOfTheDivineClaudius #Theosis #Triumvir #USCapitolBuilding #Vishnu #Waldensians #YueFei #Zeus
-
Spirituality & Religious Studies @spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com@spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com ·Apotheosis
This is also called divinization or deification. It’s from the Latin deificato, meaning “making divine.” This is the glorification of a subject to divine levels & commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity.
The original sense of apotheosis relates to religion & is the subject of many works of art. Figuratively “apotheosis” may be used in almost any context for “the deification, glorification, or exaltation of a principle, practice, etc.” So normally attached to an abstraction of some sort.
In religion, apotheosis was a feature of many religions in the ancient world. Some that are active today. It requires a belief that there’s a possibility of newly created God’s, so a polytheistic belief system.
The Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam, & Judaism don’t allow this. Though many recognize minor sacred categories such as saints. They’re created by a process called canonization. In Christian theology, there’s a concept of the faithful becoming god-like, called divinization or in Eastern Christianity theosis.
In Hinduism, there’s some range for new deities. A human may be deified by becoming regarded as an avatar of an established deity, usually a major one, or by being regarded as a new, independent deity (usually a minor one), or a mix of the 2.
In art, an apotheosis scene usually shows the subject in the Heavens or rising towards them. They’re often partnered by a number of angels, putti, personifications of virtues, or similar figures.
Especially from Baroque art onwards apotheosis scenes may show rulers, generals, or artists purely as an honorific symbol. In many cases, the “religious” context is classical Greco-Roman pagan religion, like The Apotheosis of Voltaire, which features Apollo. The Apotheosis of Washington (1865) sits high in the dome of the United States of America Capitol Building is another example. Personification of places or abstractions are also shown receiving an apotheosis. The classic composition was suited for artistic placement on ceilings or inside domes.
Before the Hellenistic period, imperial cults were known in ancient Egypt (pharaohs) & Mesopotamia (from Naran-Sin through Hammurabi). In the New Kingdom of Egypt, all deceased pharaohs were deified as the god Osiris, having been identified as Horus while on the throne. They were sometimes referred to as the “son” of other various deities.
The architect Imhotep was defied after his passing away. Though the process seems to have been gradual. This took over 1,000 years, by which time he had become associated with medicine. About a dozen non-royal ancient Egyptians became regarded as deities.
Ancient Greek & Roman religions have many characters who were born as humans but became gods. Like Disney’s Hercules. They’re usually made divine by 1 of the main deities, the 12 Olympians. In the Roman story of Cupid & Psyche, Zeus gave the ambrosia of the gods to the mortal Psyche. This transformed her into a goddess herself.
In the case of the Hellenistic queen Berenice II of Egypt was deified like other rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The court dispersed a myth that her hair, that was cut off to fulfill a vow, had its own apotheosis before becoming the Coma Berenices, a group of stars that still bear her name.
In the Greek world, the 1st leader who granted himself diving honors was Philip II of Macedon. At the wedding to his 6th wife, Philip’s enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods. Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death, like Alexander the Great, or afterwards, like members of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
A heroic cult status that’s similar to apotheosis was also an honor given to a few reversed artists of the distant past, such as Homer.
Up to the end of the Roman Republic, the god Quirinus was the only 1 the Romans accepted as having undergone apotheosis, for his identification/syncretism with Romulus. Syncretism is the practice of meshing together different beliefs & various schools of thought. Eventually apotheosis in Ancient Rome was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized as divine by their successors. This was usually done by a decree of the Senate & popular consent.
The 1st of these cases was the posthumous deification of the last Roman dictator Julius Caesar in 42 BC by his adopted son, the triumvir Caesar Octavian. In addition to showing respect, the present ruler often deified a popular predecessor to legitimize himself & gain popularity himself & gain popularity with the people.
A vote in the Roman Senate, in the later Empire confirming an imperial decree, was the normal official process. But this sometimes followed a period with the unofficial use of deific language or imagery for the individual. This was often done rather discreetly within the imperial circle.
There was then a public ceremony, called a consecratio, including the release of an eagle which flew high. This represents the ascent of the deified person’s soul to Heaven. Imagery featuring the ascent, sometimes using a chariot, was common on coins & in other art.
The largest & most famous example in art in a relief on the base of the Column of Antoninus Pius, showing the emperor & his wife, Faustina the Elder, being carried up by a much larger winged figure, described as representing “Eternity,” as the personifications of “Roma” & the Campus Martius sit below, & eagles fly above. The imperial couple are represented as Jupiter & Juno (or Zeus & Hera).
The historian Dio Cassius, who said he was present, gives a detailed description of the large, & lavish, public consecratio of Perinax, emperor for 3 months in 193, ordered by Septimius Severus.
At the height of the imperial cult during the Roman Empire, sometimes the emperor’s deceased loved ones (heirs, empresses, or lovers) like Hadrian’s Antinous were deified as well.
Deified people were posthumously given the title ‘Divus’ for men & ‘Diva’ for women to their names to signify their divinity. Traditional Roman religion distinguished between a deus (god) & divus (a mortal who became divine or deified), though not consistently. Temple & columns were erected to provide a space for worship.
The imperial cult was mainly popular in the provinces. Especially in the Eastern Empire, where many cultures were well used to deified rulers, & less popular in Rome itself, & among traditionalists & intellectuals.
Some privately, & cautiously, ridiculed the apotheosis of inept & feeble emperors, as in the satire The Pumkinification of (the Divine) Claudius. This is usually attributed to Seneca.
Numerous mortals have been deified into the Taoist pantheon. Examples are Guan Yi, Iron-crutch Li, & Fan Kuai. Song dynasty general Yue Fei was deified during the Ming dynasty. He’s considered by some practitioners to be 1 of the 3 highest-ranking heavenly generals. The Ming dynasty epic Investiture of the Gods deals heavily with deification legends.
In the complicated, & variable, conceptions of deity in Buddhism, the achievement of Buddhahood may be regarded as an achievable goal for the faithful. Many significant deities are considered to have begun as normal people, from Gautama Buddha (the original Buddha & the creator of Buddhism) downwards. Most of these are seen as avatars or re-births of earlier figures.
Some significant Hindu deities, in particular Rama, were also born as humans. He’s seen as an avatar of Vishnu. In more modern times, Swaminarayan is an undoubted & well-documented historical figure, who’s regarded by some Hindus as an avatar of Vishnu, or as being a still more elevated deity. Bharat Mata (Mother India) began as a national personification devised by a group of Bengali intellectuals in the late 19th century. But now it receives some worship.
Various Hindu & Buddhist rulers in the past have been represented as deities, especially after death, from India to Indonesia. Jayavarman VII, King of the Khmer Empire the 1st Buddhist king of Cambodia, had his own features used for the many statues of Buddha/Avalokitevara he erected.
The extreme personality cult instituted by the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, has been to represent a deification. And continues to this day with the current leader. Even the nation is admittedly atheist.
In Christian theology, instead of the word “apotheosis,” they use the words “deification” or “divinization” or the Greek word “theosis.” Pre-Reformation, & mainstream theology, in both East & West, views Jesus Christ as the preexisting God who undertook mortal existence. Not as a mortal being who attained divinity. A view known as adoptionism. Adoptionism is an early Christian non-Trinitarian doctrine that holds that Jesus was born a mere human being. But Jesus was later adopted by God as His son, usually at Jesus’ baptism or resurrection, rather than being divine from eternity.
It holds that he has made it possible for human beings to be raised to the level of sharing the divine nature as II Peter 1:4 states that he became human to make humans “partakers of the divine nature.”
In John 10:34, Jesus referenced Psalm 82:6 when he stated: “Is it not written in your Law, I have said you are gods?” Other authors stated: “For this is why the Word became man, & the Son of God became the Son of man: so that Man, by entering into communion with the Word & thus receiving divine sonship, might be made God.” Accusations of self deification to some degree may have been placed on heretical such as the Waldensians.
The language of II Peter is taken up by St. Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, “if the Word has been made man, it is so that men may be made gods.” It becomes the standard in Greek theology. In the 14th century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word. In the 5th century, St. Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons “by participation” (Greek methexis). Methexis is “group sharing,” where the audience actively participates in the performance.
Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the Confessor. For whom the doctrine is the result of the Incarnation: “Deification, briefly, is the encompassion & fulfillment of all times and ages.”
The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t use the term “apotheosis” in its theology. This is equivalent to the Greek word theosis are Latin-derived words “divinization” & deification” used in the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church.
The concept has been given less prominence in Western theology than in that of the Eastern Catholic Churches. But is present in the Latin Church’s liturgical prayer.
Despite the theological differences, in the Catholic church art depictions of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in art & the Ascension of Jesus in Christian art do share many similarities in composition to apotheosis subjects. As there are many images of saints being raised into Heaven.
Anthropolatry is the deification & worship of humans. It was practiced in ancient Japan towards their emperors. Followers of Socinianism were later accused of practicing anthropolatry.
Make a one-time donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate
Make a monthly donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate monthly
Make a yearly donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate yearly
Rate this:
#1865 #193 #42BC #4thCentury #5thCentury #AbrahamicReligions #Adoptionism #AlexanderTheGreat #Ambrosia #AncientRome #Angels #Anthropolatry #Antinous #Apollo #Apotheosis #AscensionOfJesus #AssumptionOfTheVirginMary #Atheist #Avalokiteshvara #Avatar #Avatars #BaroqueArt #bengali #BereniceIIOfEgypt #BharatMata #Buddha #BuddhaGautama #Buddhahood #Buddhism #CaesarOctavian #Cambodia #CampusMartius #canonization #CatholicChurch #Christianity #ColumnOfAntoninusPius #ComaBerenices #Consecratio #Cupid #Deification #Deity #Deus #DioCassius #Disney #DIva #Divinization #Divus #EasternCatholicChurch #EasternChristianity #EasternEmpire #Egypt #Egyptians #Emperors #FanKuai #FaustinaTheElder #GrecoRoman #Greek #GuanYi #Hadrian #Hammurabi #Heaven #Hellenistic #Hera #Hercules #Hindu #Hinduism #Homer #Horus #IIPeter14 #Imhotep #ImperialCults #India #Indonesia #InvestitureOfTheGods #IronCrutchLi #Islam #Japan #JayavarmanVII #Jesus #John1034 #Judaism #JuliusCaesar #Juno #Jupiter #KhmerEmpire #KimIlSung #Krishna #Late19thCentury #Latin #LatinChurch #Mesopotamia #Methexis #MingDynasty #NaramSin #NewKingdom #NorthKorea #Olympians #Osiris #pagan #Pertinax #Pharaohs #PhilipIIOfMacedon #polytheistic #Psalm826 #Psyche #PtolemaicDynasty #Putti #Rama #Reformation #Roman #RomanCatholicChurch #RomanRepublic #RomanSenate #Romans #Romulus #Saints #Senate #Seneca #SeptimiusSeverus #Socinianism #StAthanasius #StCyrilOfAlexandria #StIrenaeus #StMaximusTheConfessor #Swaminarayan #Syncretism #Taoist #TaoistPantheon #Temple #ThePumpkinificationOfTheDivineClaudius #Theosis #Triumvir #USCapitolBuilding #Vishnu #Waldensians #YueFei #Zeus
-
Spirituality & Religious Studies @spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com@spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com ·Apotheosis
This is also called divinization or deification. It’s from the Latin deificato, meaning “making divine.” This is the glorification of a subject to divine levels & commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity.
The original sense of apotheosis relates to religion & is the subject of many works of art. Figuratively “apotheosis” may be used in almost any context for “the deification, glorification, or exaltation of a principle, practice, etc.” So normally attached to an abstraction of some sort.
In religion, apotheosis was a feature of many religions in the ancient world. Some that are active today. It requires a belief that there’s a possibility of newly created God’s, so a polytheistic belief system.
The Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam, & Judaism don’t allow this. Though many recognize minor sacred categories such as saints. They’re created by a process called canonization. In Christian theology, there’s a concept of the faithful becoming god-like, called divinization or in Eastern Christianity theosis.
In Hinduism, there’s some range for new deities. A human may be deified by becoming regarded as an avatar of an established deity, usually a major one, or by being regarded as a new, independent deity (usually a minor one), or a mix of the 2.
In art, an apotheosis scene usually shows the subject in the Heavens or rising towards them. They’re often partnered by a number of angels, putti, personifications of virtues, or similar figures.
Especially from Baroque art onwards apotheosis scenes may show rulers, generals, or artists purely as an honorific symbol. In many cases, the “religious” context is classical Greco-Roman pagan religion, like The Apotheosis of Voltaire, which features Apollo. The Apotheosis of Washington (1865) sits high in the dome of the United States of America Capitol Building is another example. Personification of places or abstractions are also shown receiving an apotheosis. The classic composition was suited for artistic placement on ceilings or inside domes.
Before the Hellenistic period, imperial cults were known in ancient Egypt (pharaohs) & Mesopotamia (from Naran-Sin through Hammurabi). In the New Kingdom of Egypt, all deceased pharaohs were deified as the god Osiris, having been identified as Horus while on the throne. They were sometimes referred to as the “son” of other various deities.
The architect Imhotep was defied after his passing away. Though the process seems to have been gradual. This took over 1,000 years, by which time he had become associated with medicine. About a dozen non-royal ancient Egyptians became regarded as deities.
Ancient Greek & Roman religions have many characters who were born as humans but became gods. Like Disney’s Hercules. They’re usually made divine by 1 of the main deities, the 12 Olympians. In the Roman story of Cupid & Psyche, Zeus gave the ambrosia of the gods to the mortal Psyche. This transformed her into a goddess herself.
In the case of the Hellenistic queen Berenice II of Egypt was deified like other rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The court dispersed a myth that her hair, that was cut off to fulfill a vow, had its own apotheosis before becoming the Coma Berenices, a group of stars that still bear her name.
In the Greek world, the 1st leader who granted himself diving honors was Philip II of Macedon. At the wedding to his 6th wife, Philip’s enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods. Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death, like Alexander the Great, or afterwards, like members of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
A heroic cult status that’s similar to apotheosis was also an honor given to a few reversed artists of the distant past, such as Homer.
Up to the end of the Roman Republic, the god Quirinus was the only 1 the Romans accepted as having undergone apotheosis, for his identification/syncretism with Romulus. Syncretism is the practice of meshing together different beliefs & various schools of thought. Eventually apotheosis in Ancient Rome was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized as divine by their successors. This was usually done by a decree of the Senate & popular consent.
The 1st of these cases was the posthumous deification of the last Roman dictator Julius Caesar in 42 BC by his adopted son, the triumvir Caesar Octavian. In addition to showing respect, the present ruler often deified a popular predecessor to legitimize himself & gain popularity himself & gain popularity with the people.
A vote in the Roman Senate, in the later Empire confirming an imperial decree, was the normal official process. But this sometimes followed a period with the unofficial use of deific language or imagery for the individual. This was often done rather discreetly within the imperial circle.
There was then a public ceremony, called a consecratio, including the release of an eagle which flew high. This represents the ascent of the deified person’s soul to Heaven. Imagery featuring the ascent, sometimes using a chariot, was common on coins & in other art.
The largest & most famous example in art in a relief on the base of the Column of Antoninus Pius, showing the emperor & his wife, Faustina the Elder, being carried up by a much larger winged figure, described as representing “Eternity,” as the personifications of “Roma” & the Campus Martius sit below, & eagles fly above. The imperial couple are represented as Jupiter & Juno (or Zeus & Hera).
The historian Dio Cassius, who said he was present, gives a detailed description of the large, & lavish, public consecratio of Perinax, emperor for 3 months in 193, ordered by Septimius Severus.
At the height of the imperial cult during the Roman Empire, sometimes the emperor’s deceased loved ones (heirs, empresses, or lovers) like Hadrian’s Antinous were deified as well.
Deified people were posthumously given the title ‘Divus’ for men & ‘Diva’ for women to their names to signify their divinity. Traditional Roman religion distinguished between a deus (god) & divus (a mortal who became divine or deified), though not consistently. Temple & columns were erected to provide a space for worship.
The imperial cult was mainly popular in the provinces. Especially in the Eastern Empire, where many cultures were well used to deified rulers, & less popular in Rome itself, & among traditionalists & intellectuals.
Some privately, & cautiously, ridiculed the apotheosis of inept & feeble emperors, as in the satire The Pumkinification of (the Divine) Claudius. This is usually attributed to Seneca.
Numerous mortals have been deified into the Taoist pantheon. Examples are Guan Yi, Iron-crutch Li, & Fan Kuai. Song dynasty general Yue Fei was deified during the Ming dynasty. He’s considered by some practitioners to be 1 of the 3 highest-ranking heavenly generals. The Ming dynasty epic Investiture of the Gods deals heavily with deification legends.
In the complicated, & variable, conceptions of deity in Buddhism, the achievement of Buddhahood may be regarded as an achievable goal for the faithful. Many significant deities are considered to have begun as normal people, from Gautama Buddha (the original Buddha & the creator of Buddhism) downwards. Most of these are seen as avatars or re-births of earlier figures.
Some significant Hindu deities, in particular Rama, were also born as humans. He’s seen as an avatar of Vishnu. In more modern times, Swaminarayan is an undoubted & well-documented historical figure, who’s regarded by some Hindus as an avatar of Vishnu, or as being a still more elevated deity. Bharat Mata (Mother India) began as a national personification devised by a group of Bengali intellectuals in the late 19th century. But now it receives some worship.
Various Hindu & Buddhist rulers in the past have been represented as deities, especially after death, from India to Indonesia. Jayavarman VII, King of the Khmer Empire the 1st Buddhist king of Cambodia, had his own features used for the many statues of Buddha/Avalokitevara he erected.
The extreme personality cult instituted by the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, has been to represent a deification. And continues to this day with the current leader. Even the nation is admittedly atheist.
In Christian theology, instead of the word “apotheosis,” they use the words “deification” or “divinization” or the Greek word “theosis.” Pre-Reformation, & mainstream theology, in both East & West, views Jesus Christ as the preexisting God who undertook mortal existence. Not as a mortal being who attained divinity. A view known as adoptionism. Adoptionism is an early Christian non-Trinitarian doctrine that holds that Jesus was born a mere human being. But Jesus was later adopted by God as His son, usually at Jesus’ baptism or resurrection, rather than being divine from eternity.
It holds that he has made it possible for human beings to be raised to the level of sharing the divine nature as II Peter 1:4 states that he became human to make humans “partakers of the divine nature.”
In John 10:34, Jesus referenced Psalm 82:6 when he stated: “Is it not written in your Law, I have said you are gods?” Other authors stated: “For this is why the Word became man, & the Son of God became the Son of man: so that Man, by entering into communion with the Word & thus receiving divine sonship, might be made God.” Accusations of self deification to some degree may have been placed on heretical such as the Waldensians.
The language of II Peter is taken up by St. Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, “if the Word has been made man, it is so that men may be made gods.” It becomes the standard in Greek theology. In the 14th century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word. In the 5th century, St. Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons “by participation” (Greek methexis). Methexis is “group sharing,” where the audience actively participates in the performance.
Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the Confessor. For whom the doctrine is the result of the Incarnation: “Deification, briefly, is the encompassion & fulfillment of all times and ages.”
The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t use the term “apotheosis” in its theology. This is equivalent to the Greek word theosis are Latin-derived words “divinization” & deification” used in the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church.
The concept has been given less prominence in Western theology than in that of the Eastern Catholic Churches. But is present in the Latin Church’s liturgical prayer.
Despite the theological differences, in the Catholic church art depictions of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in art & the Ascension of Jesus in Christian art do share many similarities in composition to apotheosis subjects. As there are many images of saints being raised into Heaven.
Anthropolatry is the deification & worship of humans. It was practiced in ancient Japan towards their emperors. Followers of Socinianism were later accused of practicing anthropolatry.
Make a one-time donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate
Make a monthly donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate monthly
Make a yearly donation
Your contribution is appreciated.
Donate yearly
Rate this:
#1865 #193 #42BC #4thCentury #5thCentury #AbrahamicReligions #Adoptionism #AlexanderTheGreat #Ambrosia #AncientRome #Angels #Anthropolatry #Antinous #Apollo #Apotheosis #AscensionOfJesus #AssumptionOfTheVirginMary #Atheist #Avalokiteshvara #Avatar #Avatars #BaroqueArt #bengali #BereniceIIOfEgypt #BharatMata #Buddha #BuddhaGautama #Buddhahood #Buddhism #CaesarOctavian #Cambodia #CampusMartius #canonization #CatholicChurch #Christianity #ColumnOfAntoninusPius #ComaBerenices #Consecratio #Cupid #Deification #Deity #Deus #DioCassius #Disney #DIva #Divinization #Divus #EasternCatholicChurch #EasternChristianity #EasternEmpire #Egypt #Egyptians #Emperors #FanKuai #FaustinaTheElder #GrecoRoman #Greek #GuanYi #Hadrian #Hammurabi #Heaven #Hellenistic #Hera #Hercules #Hindu #Hinduism #Homer #Horus #IIPeter14 #Imhotep #ImperialCults #India #Indonesia #InvestitureOfTheGods #IronCrutchLi #Islam #Japan #JayavarmanVII #Jesus #John1034 #Judaism #JuliusCaesar #Juno #Jupiter #KhmerEmpire #KimIlSung #Krishna #Late19thCentury #Latin #LatinChurch #Mesopotamia #Methexis #MingDynasty #NaramSin #NewKingdom #NorthKorea #Olympians #Osiris #pagan #Pertinax #Pharaohs #PhilipIIOfMacedon #polytheistic #Psalm826 #Psyche #PtolemaicDynasty #Putti #Rama #Reformation #Roman #RomanCatholicChurch #RomanRepublic #RomanSenate #Romans #Romulus #Saints #Senate #Seneca #SeptimiusSeverus #Socinianism #StAthanasius #StCyrilOfAlexandria #StIrenaeus #StMaximusTheConfessor #Swaminarayan #Syncretism #Taoist #TaoistPantheon #Temple #ThePumpkinificationOfTheDivineClaudius #Theosis #Triumvir #USCapitolBuilding #Vishnu #Waldensians #YueFei #Zeus
-
Learn #maths like an Egyptian: the secrets of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus.
Did you know that ancient #Egyptians were amazing number wizards? Maths wasn't just something they scribbled on papyrus – it was a practical tool that kept their whole society running like a well-oiled chariot.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/learn-maths-egyptian-secrets-rhind-mathematical-papyrus #globalmuseum #Britishmuseum -
#archaeology #history #egyptians
More news is being announced about the missing Egyptian bracelet. According to latest news the bracelet was stolen on the 9th September from a conservation laboratory. A restorer sold it to a silver trader and eventually it passed hands into a gold traders hands. It was subsequently melted down. So sad that such an artefact has been treated in this way and the general public will never be able to see it. https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/Egypt-says-missing-pharaohs-bracelet-melted-down-for-gold
-
#history #archaeology #egyptians
The hunt is on for a gold bracelet that has gone missing from a museum in Cairo. The 3,000 year old bracelet disappeared at an unspecified date but all Egyptian airports, seaports and land borders have been provided with a picture of the bracelet in order to prevent it from being smuggled out of the country. A specialist team are also taking an inventory of all artefacts that were kept at a restorative laboratory. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4l1w98nj1o -
#archaeology #history #Egyptians
A gold coin has been found by archaeologists in Jerusalem. It is over 2,000 years old and bears the portrait of Queen Berenice II on one side and a cornucopia and two stars on the other. What makes the find really exciting is that only 17 coins have been found in the last century, making it a very rare find. the coin features a Greek inscription "of the Queen" meaning she could have been a ruler in her own right. https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2025/09/09/archaeologist-finds-tiny-rare-gold-coin-depicting-ancient-egyptian-queen/
-
#archaeology #Egyptians #crafts #history
A 4,000 year old handprint has been found by museum curators. The complete handprint was described as a 'rare find' and was left by the maker of a clay model that was made between 2055 and 1650 BCE. The curators were putting together an exhibition about Egyptian crafts as this is an overlooked area of Egyptian life.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpqvzevep2eo -
#archaeology #history #Egyptians
A newspaper is today reporting about a tunnel which has been found that is hoped will lead to Cleopatra's tomb. This was reported previously (see link) but is worth telling as the photos are great. It is thought that the tunnel collapsed as a result of an earthquake. Artefacts were found that mention Cleopatra VII. It is hoped that her tomb will be found. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-discover-4300-foot-long-tunnel-under-ancient-egyptian-temple-180981099/
-
#history #pets #cats #Egyptians
A study has challenged the theory that cats were first domesticated to control pests that ate grain. The study has found that cats were first domesticated between the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE. But though cats were important in keeping rodents at bay, more importantly the cats were used for religious purposes. The link being between cats and the Egyptian goddess Bastet. More docile cats were bred to make handling easy for sacrifice. https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/creepy-cat-domestication-sacrifice
-
#history #archaeology #Egyptians
The theory that Queen Hatshepsut's statues were destroyed as an act of revenge has been debunked. A study found that the facial statues were damaged by being scattered over large areas. It also found that statues were commonly reused and so the damage to the statues on the neck, knees and waist happened to many statues not just those of Hatshepsut. Destruction could also happen through rituals performed on statues.https://theconversation.com/queen-hatshepsuts-statues-were-destroyed-in-ancient-egypt-new-study-debunks-the-revenge-theory-260326
-
#archaeology #egyptians #history
Archaeologists have found an ancient city in the Nile Delta. the city Imet is providing valuable information about life at that time. They found tower houses which were like apartment buildings and existed between the Late Period and the Roman Period. The buildings are rarely seen elsewhere. Furthermore valuable information about daily life and the waning worship of Wadjet was also gained. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a65207682/lost-egyptian-city/
-
#archaeology #history #Egyptians
Archaeologists have been excavating the tomb of Prince Waser-If-Re whose father was the founder of the 5th dynasty. Inside they found a door directly connecting the tomb which was about 14 feet tall and over 3 feet wide. Where did the door lead to? Well mysteriously it led to nowhere it was a false door. The door made of pink granite is the first of its kind to be discovered. Archaeologists are seeking to learn more. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a64553966/ancient-tomb-door-to-nowhere/
-
#history #archaeology #Egyptians
A discovery near to Tutankhamun's tomb has led experts to believe that they are the oldest known evidence of a ritual known as Awakening of Osiris. The clay trays and wooden staffs may have been part of this ritual based on the God of the Underworld. They could also have been used in a ritual to guide the Pharaoh into the afterlife.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a64272818/king-tut-ancient-death-ritual/ -
#history #archaeology #egyptians
If you travelled back in time to Egypt, you would see that most Egyptians wore jewellery. Even the poorest wore jewellery. This is because it wasn't just for adornment but for spiritual purposes. Archaeologists have recently discovered an ancient Egyptian pot containing gold jewellery, beads and statues. The 2600 year old pot was broken but its contents were in good condition.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a64088529/egypt-jewelry-tomb/ -
#archeology #history #egyptians
After all the excitment of the recent discovery of a tomb after 12 years of serching; now it is believed that another tomb has been found. Currently it is buried 23 metres under a man made mountain.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/world-news/british-archaeologist-second-tomb-mysterious-pharaoh/
-
Masr.social is a diverse and friendly Mastodon server based in Egypt, emphasising tolerance, consent, privacy and safety. Its official languages are English and Egyptian (مصري).
:Fediverse: https://masr.social
You can find out more at https://masr.social/about or contact the admin @admoon
cc: @egypt
#FeaturedServer #Egypt #Egyptian #Egyptians #Egypt #مصر #Mastodon #Fediverse #FreeFediverse
-
Here's something I thought was fascinating. We count by 10s because fingers right.. ancient #Egyptians counted by 12s in the most ingenious way.
Touch your thumb to the top, index finger, joint like pic1. Count 1.
Move down one joint like pic2. Count 2.
Continue down and then next finger so pic3 is 8 and pic4 is 12.
Now you raise one finger on the other hand and start over.
Once you've raised 5 fingers it's 60.
This is why time and angles are in multiples of 12.
-
#Izrael #Palestyna
In previous episodes... / W poprzednich odcinkach...
#Levant #cavemen #Canaanites #Egyptians #Assyrians #Israelites #Babylonians #Macedonians #Greeks #Ptolemaics #Seleucids #Maccabees #Romans #Byzantines #Caliphat Arabs #Crusaders #Mamluks #Ottoman Turks #Arabs #British #Palestinians #Zionists #PLO #Hamas #Hezbollah #Israel
this land is mine -
#Izrael #Palestyna
In previous episodes... / W poprzednich odcinkach...
#Levant #cavemen #Canaanites #Egyptians #Assyrians #Israelites #Babylonians #Macedonians #Greeks #Ptolemaics #Seleucids #Maccabees #Romans #Byzantines #Caliphat Arabs #Crusaders #Mamluks #Ottoman Turks #Arabs #British #Palestinians #Zionists #PLO #Hamas #Hezbollah #Israel
this land is mine -
#Izrael #Palestyna
In previous episodes... / W poprzednich odcinkach...
#Levant #cavemen #Canaanites #Egyptians #Assyrians #Israelites #Babylonians #Macedonians #Greeks #Ptolemaics #Seleucids #Maccabees #Romans #Byzantines #Caliphat Arabs #Crusaders #Mamluks #Ottoman Turks #Arabs #British #Palestinians #Zionists #PLO #Hamas #Hezbollah #Israel
this land is mine -
#Izrael #Palestyna
In previous episodes... / W poprzednich odcinkach...
#Levant #cavemen #Canaanites #Egyptians #Assyrians #Israelites #Babylonians #Macedonians #Greeks #Ptolemaics #Seleucids #Maccabees #Romans #Byzantines #Caliphat Arabs #Crusaders #Mamluks #Ottoman Turks #Arabs #British #Palestinians #Zionists #PLO #Hamas #Hezbollah #Israel
this land is mine -
A court in Zambia has denied bail to 11 suspects who face smuggling, corruption and espionage charges.The ruling comes after police found guns, ammunition, m...
Zambia court denies bail to 11 espionage suspects -
#History of #Flower Arrangement
🔗 https://Wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_flower_arrangement"… #Egyptians were decorating with flowers as early as 2,500 #BCE. They regularly placed cut flowers in vases & highly stylized arrangements were used during #burials, for #processions & simply as table #decorations…
…flowers were worn by loved ones and left at the tombs … blue scilla, poppy-flowered anemone, and Iris sibiric…"🔗 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saqqara,_Mereruka_1999_07.jpg
🔗 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_Egyptian_Fans_and_Oars.png
#ancient #Egypt #flora #antiquity #Time & #Timelessness -
The Hermetic Philosophy: Unveiling the Mysteries of the Seven Universal Laws
#Hermeticism
#Philosophy
#Egyptians
#Thoughts
#HermesTrismegistus -
Analysis Of A 2,000-Year-Old Vase Reveals #Ancient #Egyptians Drank #Hallucinogenic Drugs Mixed With #HumanBlood
https://allthatsinteresting.com/bes-vase-hallucinogenic-cocktail -
The earliest #Roman calendar is traditionally said to have been invented by King #Romulus himself. Like many ancient #calendars, it attempted to reconcile the movements of the #sun and the #moon. However, while the #Mesopotamians, #Indians, #Chinese, and #Muisca had long since worked out systems of adding extra months while the #Egyptians, #Iranians, #Mesoamericans, and #Quechua decided to disregard and moon and just use the sun, the early Romans did a little work and then threwe up their hands.
-
Living stones 4 Idols of wood and stone
Idols of wood and stone – warning from the law
When the children of Israel were led forth from Egypt, they left behind a land absolutely full of idols. Those who are said to know tell us that the Egyptians worshipped around 2,000 different gods. The Israelites saw the great judgements of the Lord which had been poured out upon these pagan deities in the form of ten awesome plagues (Exodus 12:12). Logically speaking, therefore, we might expect that they would have realised that the gods of Egypt – indeed of all Gentile nations – were nothing. Having seen all that had been done for them in the period leading up to, and during, the exodus, the Israelites would surely worship the mighty one of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob alone. In case the point had been missed, the law given through Moses at Sinai forbad the making of, and bowing down to, idols of any kind. Time and again the same point was made:
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth …” (20:4)
Sadly, we know that Israel broke this very simple law with astonishing regularity. They were already in the habit of worshipping Egyptian idols even before the exodus (see Ezekiel 20:8). This practice continued in the wilderness, when the molten calf was made. Other images were carried through the desert (Acts 7:43). Once they entered the land, after an initial period of faithfulness under Joshua and the next generation (Judges 2:7), God’s people descended into idolatry once more. These actions went on virtually unchecked, until they were carried away captive, Israel into Assyria and Judah into Babylon. There they would be absolutely surrounded by idolatry! And what were many of these idols made of? Wood and … stone:
“And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.” (Deuteronomy 28:64)
So when the Gentiles made themselves stone idols and bowed before them, these lifeless items were alive in the minds of those who worshipped them. It was as though the stone, which was meant to be a small representation of the pagan deity in question, possessed life: a “living stone”. How tragic that Israel fell into this same trap and followed their Gentile neighbours.
These things are not written so we can feel superior, patting ourselves on the back that we have never bowed down to idols made of wood and stone as the faithless Israelites did. They are “written for our learning” (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11). If we fail to see the dangers of the things of this world which threaten us today, then we are no different from Israel in the wilderness. Though we may not actually bow down before idols, the Apostle Paul identifies covetousness as idolatry in Colossians 3:5. Can any of us honestly say that we do not, at times, covet some of the things of this world?
The nation in the wilderness had a rock which had life-giving properties – the one from which water flowed (Exodus 17:6,7). That rock, in symbol, “was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). He is our source of strength. Only in him, by God’s grace, are we alive. Only if he is our foundation can we withstand the trials and tribulations of this life. Only in him can we grow, spiritually.
What a challenge this is then for us. As Jesus is a living and life-giving stone, we are called upon to emulate his example. We must possess the strength of a stone, while manifesting the hope of life which is ours to those in the world. As “lively stones” we will show to others the attributes of our Lord and Master, the true “living stone”.
- Jonathan Cope for the Christadelphian Magazine
+
Preceding articles
Living stones 1 A lifeless and a lively stone
Living stones 3 Jacob and a “living stone”
Memorizing wonderfully 8 The commandments
Memorizing wonderfully 10 Keeping the commandments 2
Memorizing wonderfully 12 Choose life
++
Additional reading
- Bible sayings about God
- Two states of existence before God
- Man enticed to long for more
- On the Edge of Believing
- The Best Bedtime Stories
- Commemorating the escape from slavery
- Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh
- It takes guts to leave the ruts
- To Soar In The Spirit You Have To Be Hard Core
- Only six of ten commandments of God still important to British Christians
+++
Related articles
- Idol worship?
- High recognitions . . . Idol worshipers
- Chopping Down Idols
- Deconstructing the God of the gaps
- Idols
- Falling Idols
- Crucifying our idols
- Idols, Idols, Everywhere…
- Will Jesus forgive me?
- No One Lives Without Faith
- The Catholic mass: How a simple memorial became a pompous, elaborate ritual
- The Ancient Origins of Modern Holidays
- Polytheist vs. [Neo]Pagan
- Idolatry (by Katherine – How my heart speaks)
- Idolatry (by They were strangers)
- My Religion is Rooted, Literally.
- Thankfulness vs. Idolatry
- Idolatry: A Subtly Profound Idea
- The Idolatry of Man and the Grace of God
- honestly, it’s idolatry
- Workplace IdolatryAm I A Sinner?Preaching Idolatry
- Guilty of IdolatryThe Church And What It Has Become
- The Days Are Now
- Unity in ChristMy Living Stone
Rate this:
#ApostlePaul #ChildrenOfIsrael #EgyptianIdols #Egyptians #GentileNations #Gentiles #GodOfAbraham #GravenImages #Idolatry #Idols #Israelites #JoshuaMosesAssistantHighPriest_ #LivingStone #LivingStones #PaganDeities #PlaguesOfEgypt #Rock #RockChrist #Stone #theLaw #Wood
-
Living stones 4 Idols of wood and stone
Idols of wood and stone – warning from the law
When the children of Israel were led forth from Egypt, they left behind a land absolutely full of idols. Those who are said to know tell us that the Egyptians worshipped around 2,000 different gods. The Israelites saw the great judgements of the Lord which had been poured out upon these pagan deities in the form of ten awesome plagues (Exodus 12:12). Logically speaking, therefore, we might expect that they would have realised that the gods of Egypt – indeed of all Gentile nations – were nothing. Having seen all that had been done for them in the period leading up to, and during, the exodus, the Israelites would surely worship the mighty one of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob alone. In case the point had been missed, the law given through Moses at Sinai forbad the making of, and bowing down to, idols of any kind. Time and again the same point was made:
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth …” (20:4)
Sadly, we know that Israel broke this very simple law with astonishing regularity. They were already in the habit of worshipping Egyptian idols even before the exodus (see Ezekiel 20:8). This practice continued in the wilderness, when the molten calf was made. Other images were carried through the desert (Acts 7:43). Once they entered the land, after an initial period of faithfulness under Joshua and the next generation (Judges 2:7), God’s people descended into idolatry once more. These actions went on virtually unchecked, until they were carried away captive, Israel into Assyria and Judah into Babylon. There they would be absolutely surrounded by idolatry! And what were many of these idols made of? Wood and … stone:
“And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.” (Deuteronomy 28:64)
So when the Gentiles made themselves stone idols and bowed before them, these lifeless items were alive in the minds of those who worshipped them. It was as though the stone, which was meant to be a small representation of the pagan deity in question, possessed life: a “living stone”. How tragic that Israel fell into this same trap and followed their Gentile neighbours.
These things are not written so we can feel superior, patting ourselves on the back that we have never bowed down to idols made of wood and stone as the faithless Israelites did. They are “written for our learning” (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11). If we fail to see the dangers of the things of this world which threaten us today, then we are no different from Israel in the wilderness. Though we may not actually bow down before idols, the Apostle Paul identifies covetousness as idolatry in Colossians 3:5. Can any of us honestly say that we do not, at times, covet some of the things of this world?
The nation in the wilderness had a rock which had life-giving properties – the one from which water flowed (Exodus 17:6,7). That rock, in symbol, “was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). He is our source of strength. Only in him, by God’s grace, are we alive. Only if he is our foundation can we withstand the trials and tribulations of this life. Only in him can we grow, spiritually.
What a challenge this is then for us. As Jesus is a living and life-giving stone, we are called upon to emulate his example. We must possess the strength of a stone, while manifesting the hope of life which is ours to those in the world. As “lively stones” we will show to others the attributes of our Lord and Master, the true “living stone”.
- Jonathan Cope for the Christadelphian Magazine
+
Preceding articles
Living stones 1 A lifeless and a lively stone
Living stones 3 Jacob and a “living stone”
Memorizing wonderfully 8 The commandments
Memorizing wonderfully 10 Keeping the commandments 2
Memorizing wonderfully 12 Choose life
++
Additional reading
- Bible sayings about God
- Two states of existence before God
- Man enticed to long for more
- On the Edge of Believing
- The Best Bedtime Stories
- Commemorating the escape from slavery
- Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh
- It takes guts to leave the ruts
- To Soar In The Spirit You Have To Be Hard Core
- Only six of ten commandments of God still important to British Christians
+++
Related articles
- Idol worship?
- High recognitions . . . Idol worshipers
- Chopping Down Idols
- Deconstructing the God of the gaps
- Idols
- Falling Idols
- Crucifying our idols
- Idols, Idols, Everywhere…
- Will Jesus forgive me?
- No One Lives Without Faith
- The Catholic mass: How a simple memorial became a pompous, elaborate ritual
- The Ancient Origins of Modern Holidays
- Polytheist vs. [Neo]Pagan
- Idolatry (by Katherine – How my heart speaks)
- Idolatry (by They were strangers)
- My Religion is Rooted, Literally.
- Thankfulness vs. Idolatry
- Idolatry: A Subtly Profound Idea
- The Idolatry of Man and the Grace of God
- honestly, it’s idolatry
- Workplace IdolatryAm I A Sinner?Preaching Idolatry
- Guilty of IdolatryThe Church And What It Has Become
- The Days Are Now
- Unity in ChristMy Living Stone
Rate this:
#ApostlePaul #ChildrenOfIsrael #EgyptianIdols #Egyptians #GentileNations #Gentiles #GodOfAbraham #GravenImages #Idolatry #Idols #Israelites #JoshuaMosesAssistantHighPriest_ #LivingStone #LivingStones #PaganDeities #PlaguesOfEgypt #Rock #RockChrist #Stone #theLaw #Wood
-
Living stones 4 Idols of wood and stone
Idols of wood and stone – warning from the law
When the children of Israel were led forth from Egypt, they left behind a land absolutely full of idols. Those who are said to know tell us that the Egyptians worshipped around 2,000 different gods. The Israelites saw the great judgements of the Lord which had been poured out upon these pagan deities in the form of ten awesome plagues (Exodus 12:12). Logically speaking, therefore, we might expect that they would have realised that the gods of Egypt – indeed of all Gentile nations – were nothing. Having seen all that had been done for them in the period leading up to, and during, the exodus, the Israelites would surely worship the mighty one of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob alone. In case the point had been missed, the law given through Moses at Sinai forbad the making of, and bowing down to, idols of any kind. Time and again the same point was made:
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth …” (20:4)
Sadly, we know that Israel broke this very simple law with astonishing regularity. They were already in the habit of worshipping Egyptian idols even before the exodus (see Ezekiel 20:8). This practice continued in the wilderness, when the molten calf was made. Other images were carried through the desert (Acts 7:43). Once they entered the land, after an initial period of faithfulness under Joshua and the next generation (Judges 2:7), God’s people descended into idolatry once more. These actions went on virtually unchecked, until they were carried away captive, Israel into Assyria and Judah into Babylon. There they would be absolutely surrounded by idolatry! And what were many of these idols made of? Wood and … stone:
“And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.” (Deuteronomy 28:64)
So when the Gentiles made themselves stone idols and bowed before them, these lifeless items were alive in the minds of those who worshipped them. It was as though the stone, which was meant to be a small representation of the pagan deity in question, possessed life: a “living stone”. How tragic that Israel fell into this same trap and followed their Gentile neighbours.
These things are not written so we can feel superior, patting ourselves on the back that we have never bowed down to idols made of wood and stone as the faithless Israelites did. They are “written for our learning” (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11). If we fail to see the dangers of the things of this world which threaten us today, then we are no different from Israel in the wilderness. Though we may not actually bow down before idols, the Apostle Paul identifies covetousness as idolatry in Colossians 3:5. Can any of us honestly say that we do not, at times, covet some of the things of this world?
The nation in the wilderness had a rock which had life-giving properties – the one from which water flowed (Exodus 17:6,7). That rock, in symbol, “was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). He is our source of strength. Only in him, by God’s grace, are we alive. Only if he is our foundation can we withstand the trials and tribulations of this life. Only in him can we grow, spiritually.
What a challenge this is then for us. As Jesus is a living and life-giving stone, we are called upon to emulate his example. We must possess the strength of a stone, while manifesting the hope of life which is ours to those in the world. As “lively stones” we will show to others the attributes of our Lord and Master, the true “living stone”.
- Jonathan Cope for the Christadelphian Magazine
+
Preceding articles
Living stones 1 A lifeless and a lively stone
Living stones 3 Jacob and a “living stone”
Memorizing wonderfully 8 The commandments
Memorizing wonderfully 10 Keeping the commandments 2
Memorizing wonderfully 12 Choose life
++
Additional reading
- Bible sayings about God
- Two states of existence before God
- Man enticed to long for more
- On the Edge of Believing
- The Best Bedtime Stories
- Commemorating the escape from slavery
- Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh
- It takes guts to leave the ruts
- To Soar In The Spirit You Have To Be Hard Core
- Only six of ten commandments of God still important to British Christians
+++
Related articles
- Idol worship?
- High recognitions . . . Idol worshipers
- Chopping Down Idols
- Deconstructing the God of the gaps
- Idols
- Falling Idols
- Crucifying our idols
- Idols, Idols, Everywhere…
- Will Jesus forgive me?
- No One Lives Without Faith
- The Catholic mass: How a simple memorial became a pompous, elaborate ritual
- The Ancient Origins of Modern Holidays
- Polytheist vs. [Neo]Pagan
- Idolatry (by Katherine – How my heart speaks)
- Idolatry (by They were strangers)
- My Religion is Rooted, Literally.
- Thankfulness vs. Idolatry
- Idolatry: A Subtly Profound Idea
- The Idolatry of Man and the Grace of God
- honestly, it’s idolatry
- Workplace IdolatryAm I A Sinner?Preaching Idolatry
- Guilty of IdolatryThe Church And What It Has Become
- The Days Are Now
- Unity in ChristMy Living Stone
Rate this:
#ApostlePaul #ChildrenOfIsrael #EgyptianIdols #Egyptians #GentileNations #Gentiles #GodOfAbraham #GravenImages #Idolatry #Idols #Israelites #JoshuaMosesAssistantHighPriest_ #LivingStone #LivingStones #PaganDeities #PlaguesOfEgypt #Rock #RockChrist #Stone #theLaw #Wood
-
Living stones 4 Idols of wood and stone
Idols of wood and stone – warning from the law
When the children of Israel were led forth from Egypt, they left behind a land absolutely full of idols. Those who are said to know tell us that the Egyptians worshipped around 2,000 different gods. The Israelites saw the great judgements of the Lord which had been poured out upon these pagan deities in the form of ten awesome plagues (Exodus 12:12). Logically speaking, therefore, we might expect that they would have realised that the gods of Egypt – indeed of all Gentile nations – were nothing. Having seen all that had been done for them in the period leading up to, and during, the exodus, the Israelites would surely worship the mighty one of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob alone. In case the point had been missed, the law given through Moses at Sinai forbad the making of, and bowing down to, idols of any kind. Time and again the same point was made:
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth …” (20:4)
Sadly, we know that Israel broke this very simple law with astonishing regularity. They were already in the habit of worshipping Egyptian idols even before the exodus (see Ezekiel 20:8). This practice continued in the wilderness, when the molten calf was made. Other images were carried through the desert (Acts 7:43). Once they entered the land, after an initial period of faithfulness under Joshua and the next generation (Judges 2:7), God’s people descended into idolatry once more. These actions went on virtually unchecked, until they were carried away captive, Israel into Assyria and Judah into Babylon. There they would be absolutely surrounded by idolatry! And what were many of these idols made of? Wood and … stone:
“And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.” (Deuteronomy 28:64)
So when the Gentiles made themselves stone idols and bowed before them, these lifeless items were alive in the minds of those who worshipped them. It was as though the stone, which was meant to be a small representation of the pagan deity in question, possessed life: a “living stone”. How tragic that Israel fell into this same trap and followed their Gentile neighbours.
These things are not written so we can feel superior, patting ourselves on the back that we have never bowed down to idols made of wood and stone as the faithless Israelites did. They are “written for our learning” (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11). If we fail to see the dangers of the things of this world which threaten us today, then we are no different from Israel in the wilderness. Though we may not actually bow down before idols, the Apostle Paul identifies covetousness as idolatry in Colossians 3:5. Can any of us honestly say that we do not, at times, covet some of the things of this world?
The nation in the wilderness had a rock which had life-giving properties – the one from which water flowed (Exodus 17:6,7). That rock, in symbol, “was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). He is our source of strength. Only in him, by God’s grace, are we alive. Only if he is our foundation can we withstand the trials and tribulations of this life. Only in him can we grow, spiritually.
What a challenge this is then for us. As Jesus is a living and life-giving stone, we are called upon to emulate his example. We must possess the strength of a stone, while manifesting the hope of life which is ours to those in the world. As “lively stones” we will show to others the attributes of our Lord and Master, the true “living stone”.
- Jonathan Cope for the Christadelphian Magazine
+
Preceding articles
Living stones 1 A lifeless and a lively stone
Living stones 3 Jacob and a “living stone”
Memorizing wonderfully 8 The commandments
Memorizing wonderfully 10 Keeping the commandments 2
Memorizing wonderfully 12 Choose life
++
Additional reading
- Bible sayings about God
- Two states of existence before God
- Man enticed to long for more
- On the Edge of Believing
- The Best Bedtime Stories
- Commemorating the escape from slavery
- Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh
- It takes guts to leave the ruts
- To Soar In The Spirit You Have To Be Hard Core
- Only six of ten commandments of God still important to British Christians
+++
Related articles
- Idol worship?
- High recognitions . . . Idol worshipers
- Chopping Down Idols
- Deconstructing the God of the gaps
- Idols
- Falling Idols
- Crucifying our idols
- Idols, Idols, Everywhere…
- Will Jesus forgive me?
- No One Lives Without Faith
- The Catholic mass: How a simple memorial became a pompous, elaborate ritual
- The Ancient Origins of Modern Holidays
- Polytheist vs. [Neo]Pagan
- Idolatry (by Katherine – How my heart speaks)
- Idolatry (by They were strangers)
- My Religion is Rooted, Literally.
- Thankfulness vs. Idolatry
- Idolatry: A Subtly Profound Idea
- The Idolatry of Man and the Grace of God
- honestly, it’s idolatry
- Workplace IdolatryAm I A Sinner?Preaching Idolatry
- Guilty of IdolatryThe Church And What It Has Become
- The Days Are Now
- Unity in ChristMy Living Stone
Rate this:
#ApostlePaul #ChildrenOfIsrael #EgyptianIdols #Egyptians #GentileNations #Gentiles #GodOfAbraham #GravenImages #Idolatry #Idols #Israelites #JoshuaMosesAssistantHighPriest_ #LivingStone #LivingStones #PaganDeities #PlaguesOfEgypt #Rock #RockChrist #Stone #theLaw #Wood
-
Living stones 4 Idols of wood and stone
Idols of wood and stone – warning from the law
When the children of Israel were led forth from Egypt, they left behind a land absolutely full of idols. Those who are said to know tell us that the Egyptians worshipped around 2,000 different gods. The Israelites saw the great judgements of the Lord which had been poured out upon these pagan deities in the form of ten awesome plagues (Exodus 12:12). Logically speaking, therefore, we might expect that they would have realised that the gods of Egypt – indeed of all Gentile nations – were nothing. Having seen all that had been done for them in the period leading up to, and during, the exodus, the Israelites would surely worship the mighty one of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob alone. In case the point had been missed, the law given through Moses at Sinai forbad the making of, and bowing down to, idols of any kind. Time and again the same point was made:
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth …” (20:4)
Sadly, we know that Israel broke this very simple law with astonishing regularity. They were already in the habit of worshipping Egyptian idols even before the exodus (see Ezekiel 20:8). This practice continued in the wilderness, when the molten calf was made. Other images were carried through the desert (Acts 7:43). Once they entered the land, after an initial period of faithfulness under Joshua and the next generation (Judges 2:7), God’s people descended into idolatry once more. These actions went on virtually unchecked, until they were carried away captive, Israel into Assyria and Judah into Babylon. There they would be absolutely surrounded by idolatry! And what were many of these idols made of? Wood and … stone:
“And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.” (Deuteronomy 28:64)
So when the Gentiles made themselves stone idols and bowed before them, these lifeless items were alive in the minds of those who worshipped them. It was as though the stone, which was meant to be a small representation of the pagan deity in question, possessed life: a “living stone”. How tragic that Israel fell into this same trap and followed their Gentile neighbours.
These things are not written so we can feel superior, patting ourselves on the back that we have never bowed down to idols made of wood and stone as the faithless Israelites did. They are “written for our learning” (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11). If we fail to see the dangers of the things of this world which threaten us today, then we are no different from Israel in the wilderness. Though we may not actually bow down before idols, the Apostle Paul identifies covetousness as idolatry in Colossians 3:5. Can any of us honestly say that we do not, at times, covet some of the things of this world?
The nation in the wilderness had a rock which had life-giving properties – the one from which water flowed (Exodus 17:6,7). That rock, in symbol, “was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). He is our source of strength. Only in him, by God’s grace, are we alive. Only if he is our foundation can we withstand the trials and tribulations of this life. Only in him can we grow, spiritually.
What a challenge this is then for us. As Jesus is a living and life-giving stone, we are called upon to emulate his example. We must possess the strength of a stone, while manifesting the hope of life which is ours to those in the world. As “lively stones” we will show to others the attributes of our Lord and Master, the true “living stone”.
- Jonathan Cope for the Christadelphian Magazine
+
Preceding articles
Living stones 1 A lifeless and a lively stone
Living stones 3 Jacob and a “living stone”
Memorizing wonderfully 8 The commandments
Memorizing wonderfully 10 Keeping the commandments 2
Memorizing wonderfully 12 Choose life
++
Additional reading
- Bible sayings about God
- Two states of existence before God
- Man enticed to long for more
- On the Edge of Believing
- The Best Bedtime Stories
- Commemorating the escape from slavery
- Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh
- It takes guts to leave the ruts
- To Soar In The Spirit You Have To Be Hard Core
- Only six of ten commandments of God still important to British Christians
+++
Related articles
- Idol worship?
- High recognitions . . . Idol worshipers
- Chopping Down Idols
- Deconstructing the God of the gaps
- Idols
- Falling Idols
- Crucifying our idols
- Idols, Idols, Everywhere…
- Will Jesus forgive me?
- No One Lives Without Faith
- The Catholic mass: How a simple memorial became a pompous, elaborate ritual
- The Ancient Origins of Modern Holidays
- Polytheist vs. [Neo]Pagan
- Idolatry (by Katherine – How my heart speaks)
- Idolatry (by They were strangers)
- My Religion is Rooted, Literally.
- Thankfulness vs. Idolatry
- Idolatry: A Subtly Profound Idea
- The Idolatry of Man and the Grace of God
- honestly, it’s idolatry
- Workplace IdolatryAm I A Sinner?Preaching Idolatry
- Guilty of IdolatryThe Church And What It Has Become
- The Days Are Now
- Unity in ChristMy Living Stone
Rate this:
#ApostlePaul #ChildrenOfIsrael #EgyptianIdols #Egyptians #GentileNations #Gentiles #GodOfAbraham #GravenImages #Idolatry #Idols #Israelites #JoshuaMosesAssistantHighPriest_ #LivingStone #LivingStones #PaganDeities #PlaguesOfEgypt #Rock #RockChrist #Stone #theLaw #Wood
