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105-558: The cosmology of 2 Enoch corresponds closely with beliefs of the Early Middle Ages about the metaphysical structure of the universe . It may have been influential in shaping them. The text was lost for several centuries, then recovered and published at the end of the nineteenth century. The full text is extant only in Church Slavonic , but Coptic fragments have been known since 2009. The Church Slavonic version itself represents

210-595: A sacred grove . In Judaism , the qorban is any of a variety of sacrificial offerings described and commanded in the Torah . The most common usages are animal sacrifice ( zevah זֶבַח), zevah shelamim (the peace offering ) and olah (the " holocaust " or burnt offering ). A qorban was an animal sacrifice, such as a bull, sheep, goat, or a dove that underwent shechita (Jewish ritual slaughter). Sacrifices could also consist of grain, meal, wine, or incense. The Hebrew Bible says that Yahweh commanded

315-404: A "historical science" because "when we look out in space, we look back in time" due to the finite nature of the speed of light . Physics and astrophysics have played central roles in shaping our understanding of the universe through scientific observation and experiment. Physical cosmology was shaped through both mathematics and observation in an analysis of the whole universe. The universe

420-418: A banquet was held; in state cults, the images of honoured deities took pride of place on banqueting couches and by means of the sacrificial fire consumed their proper portion ( exta , the innards). Rome's officials and priests reclined in order of precedence alongside and ate the meat; lesser citizens may have had to provide their own. Chthonic gods such as Dis pater , the di inferi ("gods below"), and

525-655: A camel during the celebration of the Eid al-Adha , an Arabic term that means "Feast of Sacrifice", also known as al-Id al-Kabir (Great Feast), or Qurban Bayrami (Sacrifice Feast) in Turkic influenced cultures, Bakar Id (Goat Feast) in Indian subcontinent and Reraya Qurben in Indonesia. Other Muslims not on the Hajj to Mecca also participate in this sacrifice wherever they are, on the 10th day of

630-502: A close resemblance to the titles of Metatron as they appear in some Hekhalot sources. These developments demonstrate that 2 Enoch represents a bridge between the early apocalyptic Enochic accounts and the later mystical rabbinic and Hekhalot traditions. The Bogomils often used and read the Slavonic book of Enoch. Some have even theorized that the book was made by the Bogomils, but this theory

735-546: A communal prayer at a mosque or open air. The animal sacrifice during the Hajj is a part of nine step pilgrimage ritual. It is, states Campo, preceded by a statement to intention and body purification, inaugural circumambulation of the Kaaba seven times, running between Marwa and Safa hills, encampment at Mina, standing in Arafat, stoning the three Mina satanic pillars with at least forty nine pebbles. Thereafter, animal sacrifice, and this

840-580: A feast) as part of worship, especially at Easter . The animal may be brought into the church before being taken out again and killed. Some villages in Greece sacrifice animals to Orthodox saints in a practice known as kourbania . Sacrifice of a lamb, or less commonly a rooster, is a common practice in Armenian Church , and the Tewahedo Church of Ethiopia and Eritrea . This tradition, called matagh ,

945-527: A group historically related to the Jews, practice animal sacrifice in accordance with the Law of Moses . Christianity has long opposed all forms of animal sacrifice, and the practice's "very possibility ... has been generally rejected as unreasonable and hostile to Christian theology". Most Christian denominations believe that the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ permanently abolished animal sacrifice, primarily based on

1050-457: A largely speculative science into a predictive science with precise agreement between theory and observation. These advances include observations of the microwave background from the COBE , WMAP and Planck satellites, large new galaxy redshift surveys including 2dfGRS and SDSS , and observations of distant supernovae and gravitational lensing . These observations matched the predictions of

1155-568: A life-force to the Otherworld pleased the gods and established a channel of communication between the worlds. Animal sacrifices could be acts of thanksgiving, appeasement, to ask for good health and fertility, or as a means of divination . It seems that some animals were offered wholly to the gods (by burying or burning), while some were shared between gods and humans (part eaten and part set aside). Archaeologists have found evidence of animal sacrifice at some Gaulish and British sanctuaries , and at

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1260-497: A new mystical dimension to the familiar apocalyptic imagery. The figure of Enoch portrayed in the various sections of 2 Enoch appears more elaborate than in the early Second Temple Enochic treatise of 1 Enoch . The anointing of Enoch, after he saw face to face the Lord, makes him be similar in appearance to a glorious angel and that allows him to sit above other angels on the left of the Lord. According to Orlov, in this attempt, one may find

1365-464: A part of the sacrificed animal given to the needy who did not sacrifice an animal. According to The Independent , nearly 10,000,000 animals are sacrificed in Pakistan every year on Eid. Countries such as Saudi Arabia transport nearly a million animals every year for sacrifice to Mina (near Mecca). The sacrificed animals at Id al-Adha, states Clarke Brooke, include the four species considered lawful for

1470-497: A physical mechanism for Kepler's laws and also allowed the anomalies in previous systems, caused by gravitational interaction between the planets, to be resolved. A fundamental difference between Newton's cosmology and those preceding it was the Copernican principle —that the bodies on Earth obey the same physical laws as all celestial bodies. This was a crucial philosophical advance in physical cosmology. Modern scientific cosmology

1575-497: A ram or a rooster is slaughered on the foundation and then their heads are buried there; the owners of the house throw coins as well as seeds of different plants on the foundation. On the occasion of the beginning of plowghing the wheat field, a chicken is slaughtered on the tail of the plough. The head of the chicken is mixed with the seed and the earth obtained from the first pass of the ploughing. Those animal sacrifices are made for soil fertility and production, prosperity, health of

1680-497: A sacrificial animal may be offered; some cultures, like the ancient and modern Greeks, eat most of the edible parts of the sacrifice in a feast, and burnt the rest as an offering. Others burnt the whole animal offering, called a holocaust . Usually, the best animal or best share of the animal is the one presented for offering. Animal sacrifice should generally be distinguished from the religiously prescribed methods of ritual slaughter of animals for normal consumption as food. During

1785-546: A sacrilege or potential sacrilege ( piaculum ); a piaculum might also be offered as a sort of advance payment; the Arval Brethren , for instance, offered a piaculum before entering their sacred grove with an iron implement, which was forbidden, as well as after. The pig was a common victim for a piaculum . The same divine agencies who caused disease or harm also had the power to avert it, and so might be placated in advance. Divine consideration might be sought to avoid

1890-607: A system created by Mircea Eliade and his colleague Charles Long. Cosmology deals with the world as the totality of space, time and all phenomena. Historically, it has had quite a broad scope, and in many cases was found in religion. Some questions about the Universe are beyond the scope of scientific inquiry but may still be interrogated through appeals to other philosophical approaches like dialectics . Some questions that are included in extra-scientific endeavors may include: Charles Kahn, an important historian of philosophy, attributed

1995-546: A tradition found in 2 Enoch 30 that derives Adam ’s name from the Greek designations of the four corners of the world . Semitisms found in various parts of the text, such as the words Ophanim and Raqia Arabot , point to the possibility of a Semitic original behind the Greek version. In 2009, four fragments in Coptic from Chapters 36–42 were identified. They follow the short recension and are related to Manuscript U. Dates ranging from

2100-594: A translation from an earlier Greek version. Some scholars attribute 2 Enoch to an unidentified Jewish sect, while others regard it as the work of first-century Christians . Some consider it a later Christian work. It is not included in either the Jewish or the Christian canon , except that it was heavily utilized by the Bogomils . 2 Enoch has survived in more than twenty Old Bulgarian manuscripts and fragments, dated from

2205-530: A warrior. The Kuldevi among these Rajput communities is a warrior-pativrata guardian goddess, with local legends tracing reverence for her during Rajput-Muslim wars. The tradition of animal sacrifice is being substituted with vegetarian offerings to the Goddess in temples and households around Banaras in Northern India. In some sacred groves of India , particularly in western Maharashtra , animal sacrifice

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2310-662: A young goat were found in Cueva de la Dehesilla ( es ), a cave in Spain , related to a funerary ritual from the Middle Neolithic period, dated to between 4800 and 4000 BCE. Animal sacrifice was general among the ancient Near Eastern civilizations of Ancient Mesopotamia , Egypt and Persia , as well as the Hebrews (covered below). Unlike the Greeks, who had worked out a justification for keeping

2415-411: Is a body of beliefs based on mythological , religious , and esoteric literature and traditions of creation myths and eschatology . In the science of astronomy , cosmology is concerned with the study of the chronology of the universe . Physical cosmology is the study of the observable universe 's origin, its large-scale structures and dynamics, and the ultimate fate of the universe , including

2520-552: Is a pagan practice widespread among Albanians. At the beginning of the construction of the new house, the foundation traditionally starts with prayers, in a 'lucky day', facing the Sun ( Dielli) , starting after sunrise, during the growing Moon ( Hëna ), and an animal is slaughered as a sacrifice. The practice continues with variations depending on the Albanian ethnographic area. For instance in Opojë

2625-581: Is a part of Durga puja celebrations during the Navratri in eastern states of India. The goddess is offered sacrificial animal in this ritual in the belief that it stimulates her violent vengeance against the buffalo demon. According to Christopher Fuller , the animal sacrifice practice is rare among Hindus during Navratri, or at other times, outside the Shaktism tradition found in the eastern Indian states of West Bengal, Odisha and Assam. Further, even in these states,

2730-596: Is a sub-branch of astronomy that is concerned with the universe as a whole. Modern physical cosmology is dominated by the Big Bang Theory which attempts to bring together observational astronomy and particle physics ; more specifically, a standard parameterization of the Big Bang with dark matter and dark energy , known as the Lambda-CDM model. Theoretical astrophysicist David N. Spergel has described cosmology as

2835-460: Is actually an addition to the main body of the text (the style is slightly different), but a very early addition by someone of the same sect that wrote 2 Enoch (it uses the same language and same typical names as Ahuzan for temple), dating 2EM after the 70 CE but before or about the Letter to the Hebrews. The differences between 2EM with the Letter to the Hebrews (in the Letter to the Hebrews, Melchisedek

2940-546: Is believed to stem from pre-Christian pagan rituals. Additionally, some Mayans following a form of Folk Catholicism in Mexico today still sacrifice animals in conjunction with church practices, a ritual practiced in past religions before the arrival of the Spaniards. Muslims engaged in the Hajj (pilgrimage) are obliged to sacrifice a lamb or a goat or join others in sacrificing a cow or

3045-440: Is decorated with garlands and the like, and led in procession to the altar, a girl with a basket on her head containing the concealed knife leading the way. After various rituals the animal is slaughtered over the altar, as it falls all the women present "must cry out in high, shrill tones". Its blood is collected and poured over the altar. It is butchered on the spot and various internal organs, bones and other inedible parts burnt as

3150-443: Is explained by others because of the scandalous content (the virgin birth of Melchisedek ) for Christian copyists. According to Vaillant, who edited the first critical edition of 2 Enoch, there is no evidence that 2EM ever existed separately. Modern editions usually include also these chapters. The recent discoveries of Melchisedek 11Q13 text at Qumran and of a related text at Nag Hammadi , have made possible to have an idea about

3255-463: Is followed by farewell circumambulation of the Kaaba. The Muslims who are not on Hajj also perform a simplified ritual animal sacrifice. According to Campo, the animal sacrifice at the annual Islamic festival has origins in western Arabia in vogue before Islam. The animal sacrifice, states Philip Stewart, is not required by the Quran, but is based on interpretations of other Islamic texts. The Eid al-Adha

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3360-469: Is generally understood to have begun with the Big Bang , followed almost instantaneously by cosmic inflation , an expansion of space from which the universe is thought to have emerged 13.799 ± 0.021 billion years ago. Cosmogony studies the origin of the universe, and cosmography maps the features of the universe. In Diderot 's Encyclopédie , cosmology is broken down into uranology (the science of

3465-558: Is major annual festival of animal sacrifice in Islam. In Indonesia alone, for example, some 800,000 animals were sacrificed in 2014 by its Muslims on the festival, but the number can be a bit lower or higher depending on the economic conditions. According to Lesley Hazleton, in Turkey about 2,500,000 sheep, cows and goats are sacrificed each year to observe the Islamic festival of animal sacrifice, with

3570-736: Is now rejected. Cosmology Cosmology (from Ancient Greek κόσμος (cosmos)  'the universe, the world' and λογία (logia)  'study of') is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe , the cosmos . The term cosmology was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount 's Glossographia , and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher Christian Wolff in Cosmologia Generalis . Religious or mythological cosmology

3675-456: Is practiced to pacify female deities that are supposed to rule the groves. In India, ritual of animal sacrifice is practised in many villages before local deities or certain powerful and terrifying forms of the Devi . In this form of worship, animals, usually goats, are decapitated and the blood is offered to deity often by smearing some of it on a post outside the temple. For instance, Kandhen Budhi

3780-574: Is primarily a heavenly figure, while 2EM depicts him as an earthly one) don't allow to prove the dependence of 2EM from Hebrews. The theological universe of 2 Enoch is deeply rooted in the Enochic mold of the Jewish Apocalyptic literature of the Second Temple period . Yet along with appropriations of ancient traditions about the seventh antediluvian hero, the text attempts to reshape them by adding

3885-651: Is shared among human beings in a communal meal. The exta of bovine victims were usually stewed in a pot ( olla or aula ), while those of sheep or pigs were grilled on skewers. When the deity's portion was cooked, it was sprinkled with mola salsa (ritually prepared salted flour) and wine, then placed in the fire on the altar for the offering; the technical verb for this action was porricere . Animal sacrifices ( Albanian : therim "ritual slaughering" and fli "sacrifice") have been common practices performed by Albanians during their feasts and ritual pilgrimages on mountain tops. Animal sacrifices for new buildings

3990-520: Is the ritual killing and offering of animals, usually as part of a religious ritual or to appease or maintain favour with a deity . Animal sacrifices were common throughout Europe and the Ancient Near East until the spread of Christianity in Late Antiquity , and continue in some cultures or religions today. Human sacrifice , where it existed, was always much rarer. All or only part of

4095-457: Is the reigning deity of Kantamal in Boudh district of Orissa, India. Every year, animals like goat and fowl are sacrificed before the deity on the occasion of her annual Yatra / Jatra (festival) held in the month of Aswina (September–October). The main attraction of Kandhen Budhi Yatra is Ghusuri Puja . Ghusuri means a child pig, which is sacrificed to the goddess every three years. Kandhen Budhi

4200-543: Is widely considered to have begun in 1917 with Albert Einstein 's publication of his final modification of general relativity in the paper "Cosmological Considerations of the General Theory of Relativity" (although this paper was not widely available outside of Germany until the end of World War I ). General relativity prompted cosmogonists such as Willem de Sitter , Karl Schwarzschild , and Arthur Eddington to explore its astronomical ramifications, which enhanced

4305-508: The Fordicidia festival. Color had a general symbolic value for sacrifices. Demigods and heroes, who belonged to the heavens and the underworld, were sometimes given black-and-white victims. Robigo (or Robigus ) was given red dogs and libations of red wine at the Robigalia for the protection of crops from blight and red mildew. A sacrifice might be made in thanksgiving or as an expiation of

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4410-759: The Israelites to offer offerings and sacrifices on various altars. The sacrifices were only to be offered by the hands of the Kohanim. Before building the Temple in Jerusalem , when the Israelites were in the desert , sacrifices were offered only in the Tabernacle . After building Solomon's Temple , sacrifices were allowed only there. After the Temple was destroyed, sacrifices was resumed when

4515-531: The Neolithic Revolution , early humans began to move from hunter-gatherer cultures toward agriculture , leading to the spread of animal domestication . In a theory presented in Homo Necans , mythologist Walter Burkert suggests that the ritual sacrifice of livestock may have developed as a continuation of ancient hunting rituals , as livestock replaced wild game in the food supply. Ancient Egypt

4620-517: The Second Temple was built until it was also destroyed in 70 CE. After the destruction of the Second Temple sacrifices were prohibited because there was no longer a Temple, the only place allowed by halakha for sacrifices. Offering of sacrifices was briefly reinstated during the Jewish–Roman wars of the second century CE and was continued in certain communities thereafter. The Samaritans ,

4725-485: The cosmic inflation theory, a modified Big Bang theory, and the specific version known as the Lambda-CDM model. This has led many to refer to modern times as the "golden age of cosmology". In 2014, the BICEP2 collaboration claimed that they had detected the imprint of gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background . However, this result was later found to be spurious: the supposed evidence of gravitational waves

4830-522: The destruction of the Temple had already occurred at the time of the book's composition. Critical readers of pseudepigraphic texts would have difficulty finding any explicit expression of feelings of sadness or mourning about the loss of the sanctuary. Affirmations of the value of animal sacrifice and Enoch's halakhic instructions, found in 2 Enoch 59, also appear to be fashioned not in the "preservationist", mishnaic -like style, but rather as if they reflected sacrificial practices that still existed when

4935-460: The laws of science that govern these areas. It is investigated by scientists, including astronomers and physicists , as well as philosophers , such as metaphysicians , philosophers of physics , and philosophers of space and time . Because of this shared scope with philosophy , theories in physical cosmology may include both scientific and non-scientific propositions and may depend upon assumptions that cannot be tested . Physical cosmology

5040-560: The upapurana , Kalika Purana , describes it in detail. Animal sacrifices are performed mainly at temples following the Shakti school of Hinduism where the female nature of Brahman is worshipped in the form of Kali and Durga . These traditions are followed in parts of eastern states of India at Hindu temples in Assam and West Bengal India and Nepal where goats , chickens and sometimes water buffalos are sacrificed. Animal sacrifice

5145-478: The "first fruits" were harvested. Although the grand form of sacrifice called the hecatomb (meaning 100 bulls) might in practice only involve a dozen or so, at large festivals the number of cattle sacrificed could run into the hundreds, and the numbers feasting on them well into the thousands. The enormous Hellenistic structures of the Altar of Hieron and Pergamon Altar were built for such occasions. The evidence of

5250-406: The 12th lunar month in the Islamic calendar. It is understood as a symbolic re-enactment of Abraham 's sacrifice of a ram in place of his son . Meat from this occasion is divided into three parts, one part is kept by the sacrificing family for food, the other gifted to friends and family, and the third given to the poor Muslims. The sacrificed animal is a sheep, goat, cow or camel. The feast follows

5355-535: The 14th to 18th centuries AD. These Old Bulgarian materials did not circulate independently but were included in collections that often rearranged, abbreviated, or expanded them. Typically, Jewish pseudepigraphic texts in Slavic milieux were transmitted as part of larger historiographical, moral, and liturgical codexes and compendiums, where ideologically marginal and mainstream materials were mixed. 2 Enoch exists in longer and shorter recensions . The first editors considered

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5460-686: The 19th century, on St. Martin's Day (11 November) in rural Ireland a rooster, goose or sheep would be slaughtered and some of its blood sprinkled on the threshold of the house. It was offered to Saint Martin , and was eaten as part of a feast. Bull sacrifices at the time of the Lughnasa festival were recorded as late as the 18th century at Cois Fharraige in Ireland (where they were offered to Crom Dubh ) and at Loch Maree in Scotland (where they were offered to Saint Máel Ruba ). Animal sacrifice, or blót ,

5565-564: The 1st century BCE to the 10th century CE have been proposed, with the late 1st century CE often preferred. The date of the text can be deduced solely on the basis of the internal evidence, since the book has survived only in the medieval manuscripts (even if a reference to 2 Enoch could be found in Origen 's On the First Principles i, 3:3). 2 Enoch's composition must be later than that of the Book of

5670-603: The Greek author Herodotus ( c.  484  – c.  425 BCE ), the Scythians sacrificed various kinds of livestock, though the most prestigious offering was considered to be the horse. The pig, on the other hand, was never offered in sacrifice, and apparently the Scythians were loath to keep swine within their lands. Herodotus describes the Scythian manner of sacrifice as follows: The victim stands with its fore-feet tied, and

5775-435: The Hajj sacrifice: sheep, goats, camels and cattle, and additionally, cow-like animals initialing the water buffalo, domesticated banteng and yaks. Many are brought in from north Africa and parts of Asia. Other occasions when Muslims perform animal sacrifice include the ' aqiqa , when a child is seven days old, is shaved and given a name. It is believed that the animal sacrifice binds the child to Islam and offers protection to

5880-629: The Irish site Uisneach . Accounts of Celtic animal sacrifice come from Roman and Greek writers. Julius Caesar and Strabo wrote of the Gauls burning animal sacrifices in a large wickerwork figure, known as a wicker man , while Pliny the Elder wrote of druids performing a ' ritual of oak and mistletoe ' which involved sacrificing two white bulls. Some animal sacrifice or ritual slaughter continued among Celtic peoples long after they converted to Christianity. Until

5985-570: The Melchisedek controversy, involving also 2EM and the Letter to the Hebrews , that developed in non-mainstream Jewish communities and in early Christians communities from the 1st century BCE to the 3rd century CE against the traditional Jewish identification of Melchisedek with Shem . A growing number of scholars recognize the antiquity of 2 Enoch, including also 2EM, and support a pre-70 CE dating for its original composition. Sacchi suggests that 2EM

6090-549: The Secrets of Enoch, is most noted for its description of multiple heavens and accounts of battles between angels and devils. This account is thought to have been known by and to have influenced the apostle Paul who described his experience of being taken up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). Enoch describes the ten heavens this way: Chapters 69–73 of 2 Enoch (sometimes referred as the Exaltation of Melchizedek or 2EM ) outline

6195-535: The Watchers in 1 Enoch , around the 3rd century BCE. The crucial arguments for the early dating of the text have very largely been linked to the themes of the Temple in Jerusalem and its ongoing practices and customs. Scholarly efforts have been, in this respect, mostly directed toward finding hints that the Sanctuary was still standing when the original text was composed. Scholars note that the text gives no indication that

6300-619: The ability of astronomers to study very distant objects. Physicists began changing the assumption that the universe was static and unchanging. In 1922, Alexander Friedmann introduced the idea of an expanding universe that contained moving matter. In parallel to this dynamic approach to cosmology, one long-standing debate about the structure of the cosmos was coming to a climax – the Great Debate (1917 to 1922) – with early cosmologists such as Heber Curtis and Ernst Öpik determining that some nebulae seen in telescopes were separate galaxies far distant from our own. While Heber Curtis argued for

6405-399: The animals, etc. According to an old Albanian custom practiced until recently in various villages in Tomorr , Mirdita , and perhaps also in other areas, from the middle of May families with a lot of cattle slaughtered young cattle as sacrifices in order to make the earth fertile, so that the cattle would not be harmed during the summer and would have abundant milk during the harvest time in

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6510-429: The author was writing his book. The author tries to legitimize the central place of worship, through reference to the place Ahuzan , which is a cryptic name for a Jewish temple. Scholars have also previously noted in the text some indications of the ongoing practice of pilgrimage to the central place of worship. These indications could be expected in a text written in the Alexandrian diaspora. In his instructions to

6615-459: The best edible parts of the sacrifice for the assembled humans to eat, in these cultures the whole animal was normally placed on the fire by the altar and burned, or sometimes it was buried. Worship in ancient Greek religion typically consisted of sacrificing domestic animals at the altar with hymn and prayer. The altar was outside any temple building, and might not be associated with a temple at all. The animal, which should be perfect of its kind,

6720-491: The cheapest mammal), and poultry (but rarely other birds or fish). Horses and asses are seen on some vases in the Geometric style (900–750  BCE ), but are very rarely mentioned in literature; they were relatively late introductions to Greece, and it has been suggested that Greek preferences in this matter go very far back. The Greeks liked to believe that the animal was glad to be sacrificed, and interpreted various behaviours as showing this. Divination by examining parts of

6825-425: The child from evil. Killing of animals by dhabihah is ritual slaughter rather than sacrifice. Practices of Hindu animal sacrifice are mostly associated with Shaktism , Shaiva Agamas and in currents of folk Hinduism called Kulamarga strongly rooted in local tribal traditions. Animal sacrifices were carried out in ancient times in India. Most Puranas and other scriptures forbid animal sacrifice though

6930-494: The children, Enoch repeatedly encourages them to bring the gifts before the face of God for the remission of sins, a practice which appears to recall well-known sacrificial customs widespread in the Second Temple period . Further, the Old Bulgarian apocalypse also contains a direct command to visit the Temple three times a day, an inconsistency if the sanctuary had been already destroyed. The book can be divided into four sections: The Second Book of Enoch, also known as The Book of

7035-407: The collective shades of the departed ( di Manes ) were given dark, fertile victims in nighttime rituals. Animal sacrifice usually took the form of a holocaust or burnt offering, and there was no shared banquet, as "the living cannot share a meal with the dead". Ceres and other underworld goddesses of fruitfulness were sometimes offered pregnant female animals; Tellus was given a pregnant cow at

7140-472: The deity's portion of the offering, while the meat is removed to be prepared for the participants to eat; the leading figures tasting it on the spot. The temple usually kept the skin, to sell to tanners. The fact that the humans got more use from the sacrifice than the deity had not escaped the Greeks, and is often the subject of humour in Greek comedy . The animals used are, in order of preference, bull or ox, cow, sheep (the most common), goat, pig (with piglet

7245-423: The earliest known sacred centers in Europe, evidence of the sacrifice of sheep, cattle and swine has been uncovered by excavations, and it is indicated that ritual sacrifice may have been common across Italy around 3000  BCE and afterwards. At the Minoan settlement of Phaistos in ancient Crete , excavations have revealed basins for animal sacrifice dating to the period 2000 to 1700 BCE. However, remains of

7350-402: The end of the Copper Age in 3000  BCE , animal sacrifice had become a common practice across many cultures, and appeared to have become more generally restricted to domestic livestock. At Gath , archeological evidence indicates that the Canaanites imported sacrificial sheep and goats from Egypt rather than selecting from their own livestock. At the Monte d'Accoddi in Sardinia , one of

7455-407: The entrails of a sacrificed animal, comprising in Cicero 's enumeration the gall bladder ( fel ), liver ( iecur ), heart ( cor ), and lungs ( pulmones ). The exta were exposed for litatio (divine approval) as part of Roman liturgy, but were "read" in the context of the disciplina Etrusca . As a product of Roman sacrifice, the exta and blood are reserved for the gods, while the meat (viscera)

7560-594: The existence of such practices is clear in some ancient Greek literature, especially in Homer 's epics. Throughout the poems, the use of the ritual is apparent at banquets where meat is served, in times of danger or before some important endeavor to gain the favor of the gods. For example, in Homer's Odyssey Eumaeus sacrifices a pig with prayer for his unrecognizable master Odysseus. However, in Homer's Iliad , which partly reflects very early Greek civilization, not every banquet of

7665-550: The feet of several human burials. At a cemetery uncovered at Hierakonpolis and dated to 3000  BCE , the remains of a much wider variety of animals were found, including non-domestic species such as baboons and hippopotami , which may have been sacrificed in honor of powerful former citizens or buried near their former owners. According to Herodotus , later Dynastic Egyptian animal sacrifice became restricted to livestock – sheep, cattle, swine and geese – with sets of rituals and rules to describe each type of sacrifice. By

7770-476: The festival season is one where significant animal sacrifices are observed. In some Shakta Hindu communities, the slaying of buffalo demon and victory of Durga is observed with a symbolic sacrifice instead of animal sacrifice. Animal sacrifice en masse occurs during the three-day-long Gadhimai festival in Nepal. In 2009 it was speculated that more than 250,000 animals were killed while 5 million devotees attended

7875-418: The festival. However, this practise was later banned in 2015. The Rajput of Rajasthan worship their weapons and horses on Navratri , and formerly offered a sacrifice of a goat to a goddess revered as Kuldevi – a practice that continues in some places. The ritual requires slaying of the animal with a single stroke. In the past this ritual was considered a rite of passage into manhood and readiness as

7980-583: The gods failed to keep their side of the bargain, the offered sacrifice would be withheld. In the imperial period, sacrifice was withheld following Trajan 's death because the gods had not kept the Emperor safe for the stipulated period. In Pompeii , the Genius of the living emperor was offered a bull: presumably a standard practise in Imperial cult, though minor offerings (incense and wine) were also made. The exta were

8085-463: The heavens), aerology (the science of the air), geology (the science of the continents), and hydrology (the science of waters). Metaphysical cosmology has also been described as the placing of humans in the universe in relationship to all other entities. This is exemplified by Marcus Aurelius 's observation that a man's place in that relationship: "He who does not know what the world is does not know where he is, and he who does not know for what purpose

8190-447: The house throws there unwashed wool. These things are to remain buried in the foundation of the house that is being built. The relatives of the house owner throw money on the foundation of the house as well, but that money is taken by the craftsman who builds the house. In Dibra a ram is slaughered at the foundation, and the head of the ram is placed on the foundation. In the Lezha highlands

8295-558: The idea that spiral nebulae were star systems in their own right as island universes, Mount Wilson astronomer Harlow Shapley championed the model of a cosmos made up of the Milky Way star system only. This difference of ideas came to a climax with the organization of the Great Debate on 26 April 1920 at the meeting of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The debate

8400-478: The inconvenient delays of a journey, or encounters with banditry, piracy and shipwreck, with due gratitude to be rendered on safe arrival or return. In times of great crisis, the Senate could decree collective public rites, in which Rome's citizens, including women and children, moved in procession from one temple to the next, supplicating the gods. Extraordinary circumstances called for extraordinary sacrifice: in one of

8505-465: The longer version to be the original. Since 1921, Schmidt and many authors challenged this theory, and considered the shorter recension to be more ancient. Vaillant showed in 1952 that the additional parts found only in the longer version use more recent terms. Other scholars suggest that both of them preserve original material, and posit the existence of three or even four recensions. Two different ways of numbering verses and chapters are used for 2 Enoch:

8610-521: The many crises of the Second Punic War , Jupiter Capitolinus was promised every animal born that spring (see ver sacrum ), to be rendered after five more years of protection from Hannibal and his allies. The "contract" with Jupiter is exceptionally detailed. All due care would be taken of the animals. If any died or were stolen before the scheduled sacrifice, they would count as already sacrificed, since they had already been consecrated. Normally, if

8715-439: The more widely accepted is Popov's of 73 chapters, while De Santos Otero proposed division into 24 chapters. The best family of manuscripts are copies of the compilation of rearranged materials from Chapters 40–65 found in a 14th-century judicial codex titled The Just Balance ( Merilo Pravednoe ). It is the oldest of all the manuscripts. The main manuscripts of the longer version are designated R, J, and P. The main manuscripts of

8820-512: The mountains. Such a ritual burial ceremony was also found among other Balkan peoples, and it has been interpreted as a trace of the cult of an agricultural deity, for it was a sacrifice that allowed the renewal of the products of the soil, giving force to the vegetation of the fields, trees and vines. There is evidence that ancient Celtic people sacrificed animals, almost always livestock or working animals, as part of ancient Celtic religion . The idea seems to have been that ritually transferring

8925-669: The native Pre-Hellenic religion and that many of the Olympian deities may come from the Proto-Greeks who overran the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula in the late third millennium BCE. In the Hellenistic period after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, several new philosophical movements began to question the ethics of animal sacrifice. According to the unique account by

9030-478: The origins of ancient Greek cosmology to Anaximander . Steady state. Λ > 0 Expands then recollapses . Spatially closed (finite). k = 0 ; Λ = 0 Critical density Λ > 0 ; Λ > |Gravity| William H. McCrea 1930s Table notes: the term "static" simply means not expanding and not contracting. Symbol G represents Newton's gravitational constant ; Λ (Lambda) is the cosmological constant . Animal sacrifice Animal sacrifice

9135-577: The origins of another image of Enoch, very different from the early Enochic literature, that was developed much later in rabbinic Merkabah and Hekhalot mysticism: the image of the supreme angel Metatron , "the Prince of the Presence", found in the later 3 Enoch . The titles of the patriarch found in the Old Bulgarian apocalypse appear to be different from those attested in early Enochic writings and demonstrate

9240-588: The priestly succession of Enoch. There is not unanimous consensus whether this section belongs to the main body of the text or it is an early addition. Considering the not-fragmentary main manuscripts, 2EM is not included in P V N, it is included partially in J, while it is fully included in R U B, which anyway represent the best traditions of all versions. So we have both shorter and a longer versions of 2EM. Some early authors, as Charles, have not included this section mainly because they based their edition on manuscripts P and N. The lack of this section in recent manuscripts

9345-498: The princes begins with a sacrifice. These sacrificial practices, described in these pre-Homeric eras, share commonalities to the 8th century forms of sacrificial rituals. Furthermore, throughout the poem, special banquets are held whenever gods indicated their presence by some sign or success in war. Before setting out for Troy, this type of animal sacrifice is offered. Odysseus offers Zeus a sacrificial ram in vain. The occasions of sacrifice in Homer's epic poems may shed some light onto

9450-412: The public gaze. Deities of the upper heavens required white, infertile victims of their own sex: Juno a white heifer (possibly a white cow); Jupiter a white, castrated ox ( bos mas ) for the annual oath-taking by the consuls . Di superi with strong connections to the earth, such as Mars, Janus, Neptune and various genii – including the Emperor's – were offered fertile victims. After the sacrifice,

9555-400: The sacrificed animal is placed on the foundation, with its head placed towards the east, where the Sun rises. In Brataj the blood of the sacrificed animal is poured during the slaughter in the corner that was on the east side, where the Sun rises; in order for the house to stand and for good luck, the owner of the house throws silver or golden coins in the same corner of the house; the lady of

9660-489: The sacrificed animal was much less important than in Roman or Etruscan religion , or Near Eastern religions, but was practiced , especially of the liver, and as part of the cult of Apollo. Generally, the Greeks put more faith in observing the behaviour of birds. For a smaller and simpler offering, a grain of incense could be thrown on the sacred fire, and outside the cities farmers made simple sacrificial gifts of plant produce as

9765-465: The sacrificing priest stands behind the victim, and by pulling the end of the cord he throws the beast down; and as the victim falls, he calls upon the god to whom he is sacrificing, and then at once throws a noose round its neck, and putting a small stick into it he turns it round and so strangles the animal, without either lighting a fire or making any first offering from the victim or pouring any libation over it: and when he has strangled it and flayed off

9870-502: The shorter version are designated U, B, V, and N. Several other manuscripts exist. There is one fragment of 2 Enoch in Glagolitic in the Croatian dialect . It dates to the 17th century. Most scholars believe that the Old Bulgarian version was translated from one or more lost Greek versions, since the text attests to some traditions that make sense only in the Greek language. For example,

9975-477: The skin, he proceeds to boil it. [...] Then when the flesh is boiled, the sacrificer takes a first offering of the flesh and of the vital organs and casts it in front of him. Herodotus goes on to describe the human sacrifice of prisoners, conducted in a different manner. The most potent offering in Ancient Roman religion was animal sacrifice, typically of domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs. Each

10080-641: The teaching in the Epistle to the Hebrews that Jesus was the " Lamb of God " to whom all ancient sacrifices pointed. Most Christians believe that the "bloodless" sacrifice of the Eucharist , or Lord's Supper, entirely replaces the Old Testament system of sacrifices. Consequently, animal sacrifice is rarely practiced in Christianity. A handful of rural Christian communities sacrifice animals (which are then consumed in

10185-454: The view of the gods as members of society, rather than as external entities, indicating social ties. Sacrificial rituals played a major role in forming the relationship between humans and the divine. It has been suggested that the Chthonic deities, distinguished from Olympic deities by typically being offered the holocaust mode of sacrifice, where the offering is wholly burnt, may be remnants of

10290-536: The world exists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is." Physical cosmology is the branch of physics and astrophysics that deals with the study of the physical origins and evolution of the universe. It also includes the study of the nature of the universe on a large scale. In its earliest form, it was what is now known as " celestial mechanics ," the study of the heavens . Greek philosophers Aristarchus of Samos , Aristotle , and Ptolemy proposed different cosmological theories. The geocentric Ptolemaic system

10395-615: Was an important ritual in Old Norse religion . The blood was sprinkled on altars, idols and the walls of temples . A blót was made at seasonal festivals as well as at funerals, before battles and perilous journeys, or after the conclusion of business between traders. In the 11th century, Adam of Bremen wrote that human and animal sacrifices were made at the Temple at Gamla Uppsala in Sweden. He wrote that every ninth year, nine men and nine of every animal were sacrificed and their bodies hung in

10500-606: Was at the forefront of domestication, and some of the earliest archeological evidence suggesting animal sacrifice comes from Egypt. However, animal sacrifice was not a central practice of Egyptian religion, but was rather a peripherical occurrence that happened away from worshippers. The oldest Egyptian burial sites containing animal remains originate from the Badari culture of Upper Egypt , which flourished between 4400 and 4000 BCE. Sheep and goats were found buried in their own graves at one site, while at another site gazelles were found at

10605-650: Was in fact due to interstellar dust. On 1 December 2014, at the Planck 2014 meeting in Ferrara , Italy , astronomers reported that the universe is 13.8 billion years old and composed of 4.9% atomic matter , 26.6% dark matter and 68.5% dark energy . Religious or mythological cosmology is a body of beliefs based on mythological , religious , and esoteric literature and traditions of creation and eschatology . Creation myths are found in most religions, and are typically split into five different classifications, based on

10710-578: Was proposed by the Belgian priest Georges Lemaître in 1927 which was subsequently corroborated by Edwin Hubble 's discovery of the redshift in 1929 and later by the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson in 1964. These findings were a first step to rule out some of many alternative cosmologies . Since around 1990, several dramatic advances in observational cosmology have transformed cosmology from

10815-527: Was resolved when Edwin Hubble detected Cepheid Variables in the Andromeda Galaxy in 1923 and 1924. Their distance established spiral nebulae well beyond the edge of the Milky Way. Subsequent modelling of the universe explored the possibility that the cosmological constant , introduced by Einstein in his 1917 paper, may result in an expanding universe , depending on its value. Thus the Big Bang model

10920-431: Was the best specimen of its kind, cleansed, clad in sacrificial regalia and garlanded; the horns of oxen might be gilded. Sacrifice sought the harmonisation of the earthly and divine , so the victim must seem willing to offer its own life on behalf of the community; it must remain calm and be quickly and cleanly dispatched. Sacrifice to deities of the heavens ( di superi , "gods above") was performed in daylight, and under

11025-402: Was the prevailing theory until the 16th century when Nicolaus Copernicus , and subsequently Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei , proposed a heliocentric system. This is one of the most famous examples of epistemological rupture in physical cosmology. Isaac Newton 's Principia Mathematica , published in 1687, was the first description of the law of universal gravitation . It provided

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