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Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. Details recorded here should be sourced; unknown information is left blank.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
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Abel | |
|---|---|
 Sacrifice of Abel by Juan Antonio de Frías y Escalante, c. 1667 | |
| Personal life | |
| Parents | |
| Relatives | Cain (brother) Seth (brother) |
Abel[a] (Hebrew: הֶבֶל Hébel, in pausa הָבֶל Hā́ḇel; Biblical Greek: Ἅβελ Hábel; Arabic: هابيل, Hābēl) is a biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within the Abrahamic religions.[1] Born as the second son of Adam and Eve, the first two humans created by God, he was a shepherd who offered his firstborn flock to God as a religious offering (Genesis 4:1–8). God accepted Abel's offering but not that of his older brother Cain, leading Cain to kill Abel out of jealousy; some later interpretations suggest that Cain may have slain him with a stone.[2][3] This act marked the first death in biblical history, making Abel the first murder victim.[1]
The story of Cain's murder of Abel and its consequences is told in Genesis 4:1–18:[4]
Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have produced a man with the help of the Lord."[5] Next she bore his brother Abel.[6] Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain,
"Why are you angry,
and why has your countenance fallen?
If you do well,
will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well,
sin is lurking at the door;
its desire is for you,
but you must master it."Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let us go out to the field."[7] And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him.
Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"[8] And the Lord said, "What have you done? Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.[9] When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth." Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me." Then the Lord said to him, "Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance." And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him.
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch; and he built a city, and named it Enoch after his son Enoch.
— Book of Genesis, 4:1–18[10]
According to the narrative in Genesis, Abel is Eve's second son. His name in Hebrew is composed of the same three consonants as a root meaning "the air that remains after you exhale" also synonymous in Hebrew to "nothing", as stated in Ecclesiastes. Julius Wellhausen has proposed that the name is independent of the root.[11] Eberhard Schrader had previously put forward the Akkadian (Old Assyrian dialect) ablu ("son") as a more likely etymology.[12]
In the Book of Enoch (22:7) from the Ethiopian Jewish canon, the soul of Abel is described as having been appointed as the chief of martyrs, crying for vengeance, for the destruction of the seed of Cain. A similar view is later shown in the Testament of Abraham (A:13 / B:11), where Abel has been raised to the position as the judge of the souls.
In Bereshit Rabbah (22:2), a discussion of Gen. 4:1 ff. has Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha mentioning that Cain was born with a twin sister, and Abel with two twin sisters. This is based on the principle that the otherwise superfluous accusative article "et" always conveys some additional teaching (Pesachim 22b). The "et"'s are parsed slightly differently in Yebamot 62a where the two "et"'s in Gen. 4:2 indicate Cain and his sister, and Abel and his (one) sister.
Abel | |
|---|---|
 Painting of Abel by Rodolfo Amoedoc. 1878 | |
| The Just,[13] First martyr, The Righteous | |
| Born | c. 1 AM |
| Died | c. 130 AM Mount Qasioun |
| Cause of death | Murdered by his brother Cain |
| Venerated in | All Christian denominations that venerate saints [b] |
| Feast | 3 January |
In Christianity, comparisons are sometimes made between the death of Abel and that of Jesus, the former thus seen as being the first martyr. In Matthew 23:35 Jesus speaks of Abel as "righteous", and the Epistle to the Hebrews states that "The blood of sprinkling ... [speaks] better things than that of Abel" (Hebrews 12:24). The blood of Jesus is interpreted as bringing mercy; but that of Abel as demanding vengeance (hence the curse and mark).[14]
Abel is invoked in the litany for the dying in the Latin Church, and his sacrifice is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass along with those of Abraham and Melchizedek. The Alexandrian Rite commemorates him with a feast day on 28 December.[15]
According to the Coptic Book of Adam and Eve (at 2:1–15), and the Syriac Cave of Treasures, Abel's body, after many days of mourning, was placed in the Cave of Treasures, before which Adam and Eve, and descendants, offered their prayers. In addition, the Sethite line of the Generations of Adam swear by Abel's blood to segregate themselves from the unrighteous.
In the Apocryphon of John, a work belonging to Sethian Gnosticism, Abel is the offspring of Yaldaboath and Eve, who is placed over the elements of water and earth as Elohim, but was only given his name as a form of deception.[16][17]
According to Mandaean beliefs and scriptures including the Qulasta, the Book of John and Genzā Rabbā, Abel is cognate with the angelic soteriological figure Hibil Ziwa,[18] (Classical Mandaic: ࡄࡉࡁࡉࡋ ࡆࡉࡅࡀ, sometimes translated "Splendid Hibel"),[19] who is spoken of as a son of Hayyi[20] or of Manda d-Hayyi,[21][22] and as a brother to Anush (Enosh) and to Sheetil (Seth),[23] who is the son of Adam.[24] Elsewhere, Anush is spoken of as the son of Sheetil, and Sheetil as the son of Hibil, where Hibil came to Adam and Eve as a young boy when they were still virgins, but was called their son.[25] Hibil is an important lightworld being (uthra) who conquered the World of Darkness.[21] As Yawar Hibil, he is one of multiple figures known as Yawar (Classical Mandaic: ࡉࡀࡅࡀࡓ, lit. 'Helper'), being so named by and after his father.[23]
According to Shi'a Muslim belief, Abel ("Habeel") is buried in the Nabi Habeel Mosque, located on the west mountains of Damascus, near the Zabadani Valley, overlooking the villages of the Barada river (Wadi Barada), in Syria. Shi'a are frequent visitors of this mosque for ziyarat. The mosque was built by Ottoman Wali Ahmad Pasha in 1599.
My Father, Hayyi, said to me, "Why are you standing down Yawar? You are Yawar Hibil the messenger![…]"
In gratitude we give thanks to Manda ʼd Hayyi and to his son Hibil, who established the order of Hayyi.
Dicastery for the Causes of Saints Stages of canonization: Servant of God → Venerable → Blessed → Saint | |
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Abel (Hebrew: הֶבֶל Hébel, in pausa הָבֶל Hā́ḇel; Biblical Greek: Ἅβελ Hábel; Arabic: هابيل, Hābēl) is a biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within the Abrahamic religions. Born as the second son of Adam and Eve, the first two humans created by God, he was a shepherd who offered his firstborn flock to God as a religious offering (Genesis 4:1–8). God accepted Abel's offering but not that of his older brother Cain, leading Cain to kill Abel out of jealousy; some later interpretations suggest that Cain may have slain him with a stone. This act marked the first death in biblical history, making Abel the first murder victim.
Lilith (; Hebrew: לִילִית, romanized: Līlīṯ; also spelled Lilit or Lilis) is a feminine figure in late-antique Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology. Lilith does not appear in the Hebrew Bible or any other biblical source, although the Hebrew word lilit appears in the Book of Isaiah, specifically in Isaiah 34:14. The meaning of this word is debated by scholars with interpretations ranging from a primordial she-demon to a night bird. The King James translation renders the term in this verse as "screech-owl". Based on medieval Jewish folklore, Lilith is said to have fled from the Garden of Eden because she did not want to submit to Adam. The earliest known mention of Lilith is in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q510-11), and afterwards in Mandaean and Jewish sources from late antiquity (300 AD onward), in historiolas – incantations that incorporate a short mythic story – that give partial descriptions of her. She is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (at Eruvin 100b, Niddah 24b, Shabbat 151b, Bava Batra 73a), and in the Zohar § Leviticus 19a as "a hot fiery female who first cohabited with man". Some rabbinic authorities, including Maimonides and Menachem Meiri, reject the existence of Lilith.
Seth is the third son of Adam and Eve in the Abrahamic religions. The Hebrew Bible names two of his siblings as Cain and Abel. According to Genesis 4:25, Seth was born after the event of Cain's murder of Abel, and Eve believed that God had appointed him as a replacement for Abel.
Cain is a figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He was a farmer who gave an offering of his crops to God. However, God was not pleased and favored Abel's offering over Cain's. Cain then killed his brother, for which he was punished by God by being exiled from the land, becoming a nomad. However, God marks Cain to protect him. He had several descendants, starting with his son Enoch and including Lamech. Some deem the narrative unclear on God's reason for rejecting Cain's sacrifice. However, in the Christian understanding, 1 John 3:12 explains it was "Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous", while Hebrews 11:4 teaches that Abel's was an offering of faith. His life represents a life of faith. Some traditional interpretations within Abrahamic religions consider Cain to be the originator of evil, violence, or greed.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
