If God said to do it, yes, I would. Yes, but I felt terrible! Although the bulk of that editing work ended in the late 300s, the debate over which books were theologically legit continued until at least the 16th century when church reformer Martin Luther published his German translation of the Bible. First, there’s the category of “New Testament Apocrypha,” which includes a long list of noncanonical texts written mostly in the second century C.E. In this, we might well compare the idea of warding off the evil eye with 16th century Protestant reformer Martin Luther’s accounts of farting at the devil, or the notion of, say, raising your middle finger at a spooky house. The 15th square, which frequently depicts a frog, is thought by some experts to signify the House of Repeating Life because a frog is the ancient Egyptian symbol for resurrection. In addition, the origins and meaning of the symbol seem to date back to older Canaanite traditions and worship of the horned god Ba’al, a chief deity in Canaan and ancient Mesopotamia, according to Frankel.

In the next section, we’ll learn about the origins of Thanksgiving. Various people wrote the historical books that make up the Bible over a period of more than 1,000 years, between 1200 B.C.E. Piccolo is actually Piccolo Jr., as he is the reincarnation of his father King Piccolo (who was killed by Goku when he waged war over Earth). Over time, the books that were deemed authentic and authoritative by the communities who used them were included in the canon, and the rest were discarded. From the first through the fourth centuries and beyond, different church leaders and theologians made arguments about which poetic books belonged in the canon, often casting their opponents as heretics. The first Dalai Lama, Gedun Drupa, was born in 1391. He founded the Tashi Lhunpo monastery and wrote books on philosophy. And the Ethiopian Orthodox Church includes 81 total books in its Bible, including pseudepigrapha like 1 Enoch and Jubilees.

I like knowing what I’m going to be doing, and if the world ends, I may have an empty calendar. The hamsa may be commonly seen in the form of a painting, or as a piece of jewelry such as hamsa bracelets. As Darwin surveyed the vast variety of plant and animal life, a theory began to form in his mind: that the rich variation he encountered was due, not to divine creation, but to the process of natural selection. Even if you’ve never heard the name Charles Darwin, you’ve probably seen a simple emblem gleaming on the back of an automobile or at the end of a necklace: a single line curved back on itself to form the unmistakable shape of a fish. The main difference between fasting and the breatharian approach to food is that fasting has an end point. At one point or another, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “Be here now.” The saying isn’t just a Pinterest-friendly slogan, but one of the most enduring tenets of famed psychologist-turned spiritual leader, Ram Dass. In Muslim traditions, it has five fingers and is sometimes known as the Hand of Fatima, named for one of the prophet Muhammad’s daughters, according to Frankel.

The candles are lit one day at a time and placed into the Hanukiyah from right to left. The positions of the planets are like the relationships between actors and characters, which can also affect the performance. They’re surrounded by an enormous cast of outrageous characters, including a villainous boss à la Howard Hughes, a constantly overwhelmed school principal, a creepy bartender, an obnoxious next-door neighbor and dozens more. We wouldn’t have it if a lawyer, typically nitpicking, hadn’t asked Jesus to clarify the commandment to love one’s neighbor by asking “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus probably didn’t make the lawyer very happy when he said that virtually everyone, even heathen Samaritans, were the man’s neighbors. Most Protestant Bibles have 66 books, 39 in the Protestant Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. If you’re curious, you can read the English translation of dozens of New Testament apocrypha and Old Testament apocrypha online. Fact, if you can understand it!