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85-497: In pagan usage, logion was used interchangeably with chresmos (χρησμός) and other such terms in reference to oracles , the pronouncements of the gods obtained usually through divination. The Septuagint adapted the term logion to mean "Word of God", using it especially for translating אּמְרַת (" imrah "). For example, at Psalms 12:6 , the Hebrew text reads: אִֽמֲרֹ֣ות יְהוָה֮ אֲמָרֹ֪ות טְהֹ֫רֹ֥ות. The equivalent passage from

170-492: A logion , numbered in most division schemes from 1 to 114. This sense of logion as "something Jesus said" is now in wide use among scholars. The term is sometimes applied to a saying of Jesus contained in any of the canonical Gospels, but it is especially used for any agraphon —a saying of Jesus not otherwise attested. An oft-cited example is Acts 20:35 : "And remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, 'It

255-524: A Greek-language proto-Gospel. It may have been circulating in written form about the time the Synoptic Gospels were composed ( i.e. , between late 50s and mid-90s AD). The name Q was coined by the German theologian and biblical scholar Johannes Weiss . The relationship among the three synoptic gospels goes beyond mere similarity in viewpoint. The gospels often recount the same stories, usually in

340-517: A collection of sayings of Jesus. It was in this context that the first fragments of the Gospel of Thomas were discovered by Grenfell and Hunt in 1897, containing otherwise-unknown sayings of Jesus. Although the term logia does not occur in the papyri in any form, the editors saw this discovery as an example of the very sort of logia hypothesized and accordingly titled their publication Logia Iesu: Sayings of Our Lord . Later finds shed more light on

425-577: A collection of sayings, the Gospel according to the Hebrews , or a prototype of canonical Matthew—was composed in Semitic but translated freely into Greek by others. And some regard Papias as simply mistaken and telling nothing of value. The 19th century saw a consensus gather around the two-source hypothesis , positing a hypothetical collection of sayings, along with a growing use of the term logia —whatever Papias had actually meant by it—to refer to such

510-562: A dozen reconstructions of Q were made, but differed so much from each other that not a single verse of Matthew was present in all of them. As a result, interest in Q subsided, and the topic was neglected for many decades. Following the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas in the Nag Hammadi library , the Jesus Seminar proposed that such apocryphal Gospel could be the Q source, but most scholars reject this thesis and place Thomas in

595-594: A layer of judgmental sayings directed against "this generation". The final stage included the Temptation of Jesus narrative. Although Kloppenborg cautioned against assuming that Q's composition history is the same as the history of the Jesus tradition ( i.e. , that the oldest layer of Q is necessarily the oldest and pure-layer Jesus tradition), some recent seekers of the Historical Jesus , including members of

680-567: A new theory of the Synoptic problem emerged, the two-source hypothesis , positing that the double tradition in Matthew and Luke derived from a lost document containing mostly sayings of Jesus. Holtzmann 's defense of this theory, which has dominated scholarship ever since, seized upon Schleiermacher's thesis and argued that Papias was attesting a Logienquelle ( logia -source), which he designated Λ (lambda). When later scholars abandoned

765-572: A particular deity, usually dwelling in a cave or other secluded location away from urban areas, and, much as the oracles of ancient Greece, would deliver prophecies in an ecstatic state to visitors seeking advice. Two of their ancient oracles became especially famous during the pre-colonial period: the Agbala oracle at Awka and the Chukwu oracle at Arochukwu . Although the vast majority of Igbos today are Christian , many of them still use oracles. Among

850-492: A plurality of sources, some written and some oral. Others have attempted to determine the stages in which Q was composed. Despite the two-source hypothesis enjoying wide support, Q's existence has been questioned. Omitting what should have been a highly treasured dominical document from all early Church catalogs, its lack of mention by Jerome is a conundrum of modern Biblical scholarship . However, copying Q might have been seen as unnecessary, as its contents were preserved in

935-419: A reasonable explanation is found the two-source hypothesis is not viable. New Testament scholar James Edwards argues that the existence of a treasured sayings document in circulation going unmentioned by early Church Fathers remains one of the great conundrums of modern Biblical scholarship . Pier Franco Beatrice argues that until these issues are resolved, Q will remain in doubt. Some scholars argue that

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1020-470: A search for knowledge that was one of the founding events of western philosophy . He claimed that she was "an essential guide to personal and state development." This oracle's last recorded response was given in 362 AD, to Julian the Apostate . The oracle's powers were highly sought after and never doubted. Any inconsistencies between prophecies and events were dismissed as failure to correctly interpret

1105-708: A specific person. Contemporarily, Theyyam or "theiyam" in Malayalam - a south Indian language - the process by which a Priest invites a Hindu god or goddess to use his or her body as a medium or channel and answer other devotees' questions, still happens. The same is called "arulvaakku" or "arulvaak" in Tamil , another south Indian language - Adhiparasakthi Siddhar Peetam is famous for arulvakku in Tamil Nadu . The people in and around Mangalore in Karnataka call

1190-623: A third hypothetical source, referred to as M , lies behind the material in Matthew that has no parallel in Mark or Luke, and that some material present only in Luke might have come from an also unknown L source . This hypothesis posits that underlying the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are at least four sources, namely the Gospel of Mark and three lost texts: Q, M , and L. Throughout the remainder of

1275-515: A widely accepted view of Q: that it was written in Koine Greek ; that most of its contents appear in Matthew, in Luke, or in both; and that Luke more often preserves the text's original order than Matthew. In the two-source hypothesis , the three-source hypothesis and the Q+/Papias hypothesis , Matthew and Luke both used Mark and Q as sources. Some scholars have postulated that Q is actually

1360-412: A wooden fence and make a stand there. Others, Themistocles among them, said the oracle was clearly for fighting at sea, the metaphor intended to mean war ships. Others still insisted that their case was so hopeless that they should board every ship available and flee to Italy , where they would be safe beyond any doubt. In the event, variations of all three interpretations were attempted: some barricaded

1445-521: A work, now lost, entitled Exegesis of the Dominical Logia , which Eusebius quotes as an authority on the origins of the Gospels of Mark and Matthew . On Mark, Papias cites John the Elder : The Elder used to say: Mark , in his capacity as Peter ’s interpreter, wrote down accurately as many things as he recalled from memory—though not in an ordered form—of the things either said or done by

1530-514: Is an alleged written collection of primarily Jesus ' sayings ( λόγια , logia ). Q is part of the common material found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke but not in the Gospel of Mark . According to this hypothesis, this material was drawn from the early Church's oral gospel traditions . Along with Marcan priority , Q was hypothesized by 1900, and is one of the foundations of most modern gospel scholarship. B. H. Streeter formulated

1615-450: Is more blessed to give than to receive.'" Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions , most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities . If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination . The word oracle comes from the Latin verb ōrāre , "to speak" and properly refers to

1700-452: Is possible to deduce that Q was written in Greek. If the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were referring to a document that had been written in some other language (such as Aramaic ), it is highly unlikely that two independent translations would have exactly the same wording. The Q document must have been composed before Matthew and Luke; some scholars even suggest that Q predated Mark. A date for

1785-482: Is that Kamsa (or Kansa), the evil uncle of Krishna , was informed by an oracle that the eighth son of his sister Devaki would kill him. The opening verse of the Tiruvalluva Maalai , a medieval Tamil anthology usually dated by modern scholars to between c. 7th and 10th centuries CE, is attributed to an asariri or oracle. However, there are no references in any Indian literature of the oracle being

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1870-414: The Gospel according to the Hebrews was the basis for the synoptic tradition. They point out that in the first section of De Viris Illustribus (Jerome), the Gospel of Mark is where it should be as it was the first gospel written and was used as a source for the later gospels. Following it should be Q; but not only is Q not where it should be at the top of Jerome's list, this treasured work recording

1955-587: The Jesus Seminar , have done just that. Basing their reconstructions primarily on the Gospel of Thomas and the oldest layer of Q, they propose that Jesus functioned as a wisdom sage , rather than a rabbi , though not all members affirm the two-source hypothesis. Kloppenborg is now a fellow of the Jesus Seminar himself. However, scholars supporting the three-stage Q development hypothesis, such as Burton L. Mack , argue that Q's unity comes not only from its being shared by Matthew and Luke, but also because, in

2040-564: The Logia of Christ is mentioned nowhere by Jerome. Rather, the first seminal document is not Q, but the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Austin Farrer , Michael Goulder , and Mark Goodacre have also argued against Q, maintaining Marcan priority, claiming the use of Matthew by Luke. This view has come to be known as the Farrer hypothesis . Their arguments include: While supporters say that

2125-571: The Sibylline Books acquired and consulted in emergencies by Rome wherein her prophecies were transcribed. The Cumaean Sibyl was called "Herophile" by Pausanias and Lactantius , "Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucus" by Virgil , as well as "Amaltheia", "Demophile", or "Taraxandra" by others. Sibyl's prophecies became popular with Christians as they were thought to predict the birth of Jesus Christ . Didyma near Ionia in Asia Minor in

2210-608: The Urim and Thummim breastplate, and in general any utterance considered prophetic . In Celtic polytheism , divination was performed by the priestly caste, either the druids or the vates . This is reflected in the role of "seers" in Dark Age Wales ( dryw ) and Ireland ( fáith ). In China, oracle bones were used for divination in the late Shang dynasty , (c. 1600–1046 BC). Diviners applied heat to these bones, usually ox scapulae or tortoise plastrons, and interpreted

2295-523: The sacrifice of Odin for the oracular runes whereby he lost an eye (external sight) and won wisdom (internal sight; insight ). In the migration myth of the Mexitin, i.e., the early Aztecs , a mummy -bundle (perhaps an effigy ) carried by four priests directed the trek away from the cave of origins by giving oracles. An oracle led to the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan . The Yucatec Mayas knew oracle priests or chilanes , literally 'mouthpieces' of

2380-400: The " Minoan Snake Goddess ". At the oracle of Dodona she is called Diōnē (the feminine form of Diós , genitive of Zeus ; or of dīos , "godly", literally "heavenly"), who represents the earth-fertile soil, probably the chief female goddess of the proto-Indo-European pantheon . Python , daughter (or son) of Gaia was the earth dragon of Delphi represented as a serpent and became

2465-478: The "Hebrew dialect", which in the Greek could refer to either Hebrew or Aramaic . Some, noting that "dialect" could mean not only language but also, in a technical sense, style, understand Papias to be referring to a Greek language gospel but written in a Semitic style. Others hold that Matthew wrote a Semitic-language work first, before producing a Greek recension recognized as canonical Matthew. Still others hold that whatever lost work Matthew allegedly wrote—whether

2550-414: The 20th century, there were various challenges and refinements of Streeter's hypothesis. For example, in his 1953 book The Gospel Before Mark , Pierson Parker posited an early version of Matthew (Aramaic M or proto-Matthew) as the primary source. Parker argued that it was not possible to separate Streeter's "M" material from the material in Matthew parallel to Mark. In the early 20th century, more than

2635-548: The Acropolis, the civilian population was evacuated over sea to nearby Salamis Island and to Troizen , and the war fleet fought victoriously at Salamis Bay . Should utter destruction have happened, it could always be claimed that the oracle had called for fleeing to Italy after all. Cumae was the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy, near Naples , dating back to the 8th century BC. The sibylla or prophetess at Cumae became famous because of her proximity to Rome and

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2720-544: The Dalai Lamas until the 14th Dalai Lama banned the practice, even though he consulted Dorje Shugden for advice to escape and was successful in it. Due to the ban, many of the abbots that were worshippers of Dorje Shugden have been forced to go against the Dalai Lama. Q source The Q source (also called The Sayings Gospel , Q Gospel , Q document(s) , or Q ; from German : Quelle , meaning "source")

2805-728: The God speaks" are recorded in the Near East as in Mari in the second millennium BC and in Assyria in the first millennium BC. In Egypt, the goddess Wadjet (eye of the moon) was depicted as a snake-headed woman or a woman with two snake-heads. Her oracle was in the renowned temple in Per-Wadjet (Greek name Buto ). The oracle of Wadjet may have been the source for the oracular tradition which spread from Egypt to Greece. Evans linked Wadjet with

2890-450: The Gospel of Mark. However, Matthew and Luke also share large sections of text not found in Mark. They suggested that neither Gospel drew upon the other, but upon a second common source, termed Q. Herbert Marsh is seen by some as the first person to hypothesize the existence of a "narrative" source and a "sayings" source, although he included in the latter parables unique to Matthew and unique to Luke. In his 1801 work, A dissertation on

2975-492: The Lord. For he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied him, but later, as I said, Peter, who used to give his teachings in the form of chreiai , but had no intention of providing an ordered arrangement of the logia of the Lord. Consequently Mark did nothing wrong when he wrote down some individual items just as he related them from memory. For he made it his one concern not to omit anything he had heard or to falsify anything. And

3060-529: The Marcan text in both Matthew and Luke; these are called the "minor agreements" against Mark. Some 198 instances involve one word, 82 involve two words, 35 three, 16 four, and 16 instances involve five or more words in the extant texts of Matthew and Luke as compared to Marcan passages. John Wenham (1913–1996) adhered to the Augustinian hypothesis that Matthew was the first Gospel, Mark the second, and Luke

3145-534: The Old Testament, thus a collection of prophecies and prooftexts regarding Jesus. Others still hold that Papias is speaking of a now-lost collection of sayings, noting that canonical gospel of Matthew is especially focused on the sayings of Jesus. Others, noting how in the account of Mark, the parallel to "things said or done by the Lord" requires the meaning of logia at least to be extended to deeds, see Papias as referring to some account more closely resembling

3230-590: The Origin and Composition of our Three First Canonical Gospels , he used the Hebrew letter aleph ( א ) to denote the narrative source and the letter beth ( ב ) to denote the sayings source. The next person to advance the "sayings" hypothesis was the German Friedrich Schleiermacher in 1832. Schleiermacher interpreted an enigmatic statement by the early Christian writer Papias of Hierapolis , c.  95–109 AD ("Matthew compiled

3315-519: The Septuagint (numbered as Psalms 11:7 —see here for explanation of numbering), reads: τὰ λόγια Κυρίου λόγια ἁγνά. The King James version reads : "The words of the Lord are pure words." In Philo , however, the entire Old Testament was considered the Word of God and thus spoken of as the logia , with any passage of Scripture, whatever its length or content, designated a logion ; the sense of

3400-648: The Zhou period. According to the Ancient Egyptian religion , some ancient Egyptian gods (and rarely deified humans), acted as intermediaries between humans and the divine. This was exemplified by the Ancient Egyptian title " Reporter/Herald " ( wḥmw ), whom in the religious context, reports requests and petitions to the local gods. In Hawaii , oracles were found at certain heiau , Hawaiian temples. These oracles were found in towers covered in white kapa cloth made from plant fibres. In here, priests received

3485-506: The brief excerpt regarding Matthew says: Therefore Matthew put the logia in an ordered arrangement in the Hebrew language, but each person interpreted them as best he could. So, Papias uses logia in his title and once in regard to each Gospel. Eusebius, who had the complete text before him, understood Papias in these passages as referring to the canonical Gospels. In the 19th century, however, scholars began to question whether this tradition actually refers to those texts, especially in

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3570-408: The canonical Gospels. Still others hold that Papias was indeed referring to the canonical Gospels as we know them—arguably even using logia in the sense of Scriptures , and "dominical logia" as an early term for "Gospels"—and that the account of Papias thus amounts to our earliest testimony of their existence and recognition. Another point of controversy surrounds the statement that Matthew wrote in

3655-435: The canonical gospels. Hence, it may have been preferable to copy instead from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, "where the sayings of Jesus from Q were rephrased to avoid misunderstandings, and to fit their own situations and their understanding of what Jesus had really meant". For centuries, biblical scholars followed the Augustinian hypothesis : that the Gospel of Matthew was the first to be written, Mark used Matthew in

3740-432: The case of what Papias ascribes to Matthew. In 1832, Schleiermacher , believing Papias to be writing before these Gospels were regarded as inspired Scripture and before the formation of any New Testament canon , argued that logia could not be understood in its usual sense but must rather be interpreted as utterances ( Aussprüche ), and that Papias was referring to collections of the sayings of Jesus. Soon afterwards,

3825-700: The chthonian Zeus Trophonius. Trophonius was a Greek hero nursed by Europa . Near the Menestheus's port or Menesthei Portus ( Greek : Μενεσθέως λιμήν ), modern El Puerto de Santa María , Spain , was the Oracle of Menestheus ( Greek : Μαντεῖον τοῦ Μενεσθέως ), to whom also the inhabitants of Gades offered sacrifices. At the Ikaros island in the Persian Gulf (modern Failaka Island in Kuwait ), there

3910-556: The chthonic deity, enemy of Apollo , who slew her and possessed the oracle. When the Prytanies' seat shines white in the island of Siphnos, White-browed all the forum—need then of a true seer's wisdom— Danger will threat from a wooden boat, and a herald in scarlet. The Pythia was the mouthpiece of the oracles of the god Apollo , and was also known as the Oracle of Delphi. The Delphic Oracle exerted considerable influence throughout Hellenic culture. Distinctively, this woman

3995-505: The church service. Hence they preferred to make copies of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, where the sayings of Jesus from Q were rephrased to avoid misunderstandings, and to fit their own situations and their understanding of what Jesus had really meant." The existence of the "minor agreements" within the two-source hypothesis has raised serious concerns. These minor agreements are those points where Matthew and Luke agree against or beyond Mark precisely within their Marcan verses (for example,

4080-589: The connection of Papias to the collection of sayings. This two-source hypothesis speculates that Matthew borrowed from both Mark and Q. For most scholars, Q accounts for what Matthew and Luke share—sometimes in exactly the same words—but that are absent in Mark. Examples are the Devil's three temptations of Jesus , the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer, and many individual sayings. In The Four Gospels: A Study of Origins (1924), Burnett Hillman Streeter argued that

4165-689: The dead", such as in Argolis , Cumae , Herakleia in Pontos , in the Temple of Poseidon in Taenaron , but the most important was the Necromanteion of Acheron . The term "oracle" is also applied in modern English to parallel institutions of divination in other cultures. Specifically, it is used in the context of Christianity for the concept of divine revelation , and in the context of Judaism for

4250-573: The deity. Their written repositories of traditional knowledge , the Books of Chilam Balam , were all ascribed to one famous oracle priest who had correctly predicted the coming of the Spaniards and its associated disasters. In Tibet , oracles (Chinese: 护法) have played, and continue to play, an important part in religion and government. The word "oracle" is used by Tibetans to refer to the spirit that enters those men and women who act as media between

4335-593: The discovery of the Gospel of Thomas supports the concept of a "sayings gospel", Mark Goodacre points out that Q has a narrative structure as reconstructed and is not simply a list of sayings. Other scholars have brought other arguments against Q: Two documents, both correcting Mark's language, adding birth narratives and a resurrection epilogue, and adding a large amount of "sayings material", are likely to resemble each other, rather than to have such similar scope by coincidence. Specifically, there are 347 instances (by Neirynck's count) where one or more words are added to

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4420-486: The domain of the famous city of Miletus . Dodona in northwestern Greece was another oracle devoted to the Mother Goddess identified at other sites with Rhea or Gaia , but here called Dione . The shrine of Dodona, set in a grove of oak trees, was the oldest Hellenic oracle, according to the fifth-century historian Herodotus, and dated from pre-Hellenic times, perhaps as early as the second millennium BC, when

4505-515: The events of Jesus' life: Q does not mention Jesus' birth, his selection of the 12 disciples, his crucifixion, or the resurrection. Instead, it appears to be a collection of Jesus' sayings and quotations. The case for Q's existence follows from the argument that neither Matthew nor Luke is directly dependent on the other in the double tradition (defined by New Testament scholars as material that Matthew and Luke share that does not appear in Mark). However,

4590-452: The evidence of Papias as an argument, this hypothetical source came to be more neutrally designated as Q (for Quelle ), but the reinterpretation of the word logia already had firmly taken hold in scholarship. Modern scholars are divided on what Papias actually meant, especially with regard to the logia he ascribes to Matthew, and what underlying historical facts this testimony alludes to. Some see this logia as referring still to

4675-442: The final Q document is often placed in the 40s or 50s of the 1st century, with some arguing its so-called sapiential layer (1Q, containing six wisdom speeches) was written as early as the 30s. If Q existed, physical copies of it have since been lost. Some scholars, however, believe it can be partially reconstructed by examining elements common to Matthew and Luke (but absent from Mark). Versions of this reconstructed Q do not describe

4760-414: The first half of the 2nd century CE. Redactional speculation, notably in the work of John S. Kloppenborg analyzing certain literary and thematic phenomena, argued that Q was composed in three stages. In the view of Kloppenborg, the earliest stage of its redaction was a collection of wisdom sayings involving issues such as poverty and discipleship. Then, he posits, this collection was expanded by including

4845-422: The layers of Q as reconstructed, the later layers build upon and presuppose the earlier ones, whereas the reverse is not the case. In this argument, evidence that Q has been revised is not evidence for disunity in Q, since the hypothesised revisions depend upon asymmetric logical connections between what are posited to be the later and earlier layers. Some biblical scholars believe that an unknown redactor composed

4930-438: The mocking question at the beating of Jesus, "Who is it that struck you?", found in both Matthew and Luke but not in Mark, although this "minor agreement" falls outside the usually accepted range of Q). The "minor agreements" call into question the proposition that Matthew and Luke knew Mark but not each other, e.g. Luke might have indeed been following Matthew, or at least a Matthew-like source. Peabody and McNicol argue that until

5015-570: The natural and the spiritual realms. The media are, therefore, known as kuten , which literally means, "the physical basis". In the 29-Article Ordinance for the More Effective Governing of Tibet ( Chinese : 欽定藏內善後章程二十九條 ), an imperial decree published in 1793 by the Qianlong Emperor , article 1 states that the creation of Golden Urn is to ensure prosperity of Gelug , and to eliminate cheating and corruption in

5100-516: The only primary oracle. Another oracle the Dalai Lama consults is the Tenma Oracle , for which a young Tibetan woman by the name of Khandro La is the medium for the mountain goddesses Tseringma along with the other 11 goddesses. The Dalai Lama gives a complete description of the process of trance and spirit possession in his book Freedom in Exile . Dorje Shugden oracles were once consulted by

5185-731: The oracle of Dione and Zeus at Dodona in Epirus . Other oracles of Apollo were located at Didyma and Mallus on the coast of Anatolia , at Corinth and Bassae in the Peloponnese , and at the islands of Delos and Aegina in the Aegean Sea. The Sibylline Oracles are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters , ascribed to the Sibyls , prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in frenzied states. Walter Burkert observes that "Frenzied women from whose lips

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5270-504: The oracles (logia) of the Lord in a Hebrew manner of speech, and everyone translated them as well he could") as evidence of a separate source. Rather than the traditional interpretation—that Papias was referring to the writing of Matthew in Hebrew—Schleiermacher proposed that Papias was actually referring to a sayings collection of the apostle Matthew that was later used, together with narrative elements, by another "Matthew" and by

5355-484: The oracles of the world to discover which gave the most accurate prophecies. He sent out emissaries to seven sites who were all to ask the oracles on the same day what the king was doing at that very moment. Croesus proclaimed the oracle at Delphi to be the most accurate, who correctly reported that the king was making a lamb-and-tortoise stew, and so he graced her with a magnitude of precious gifts. He then consulted Delphi before attacking Persia , and according to Herodotus

5440-497: The other Evangelists . In 1838, another German, Christian Hermann Weisse , took Schleiermacher's suggestion of a sayings source and combined it with the idea of Marcan priority to formulate what is now called the Two-Source Hypothesis, in which both Matthew and Luke used Mark and the sayings source. Heinrich Julius Holtzmann endorsed this approach in an influential treatment of the synoptic problem in 1863, and

5525-562: The priest or priestess uttering the prediction. In extended use, oracle may also refer to the site of the oracle , and the oracular utterances themselves, are called khrēsmoí (χρησμοί) in Greek. Oracles were thought to be portals through which the gods spoke directly to people. In this sense, they were different from seers ( manteis , μάντεις) who interpreted signs sent by the gods through bird signs, animal entrails , and other various methods. The most important oracles of Greek antiquity were Pythia (priestess to Apollo at Delphi ), and

5610-577: The related Yoruba peoples of the same country, the Babalawos (and their female counterparts, the Iyanifas) serve collectively as the principal aspects of the tribe's world-famous Ifa divination system. Due to this, they customarily officiate at a great many of its traditional and religious ceremonies. In Norse mythology , Odin took the severed head of the god Mimir to Asgard for consultation as an oracle. The Havamal and other sources relate

5695-431: The responses, not an error of the oracle. Very often prophecies were worded ambiguously, so as to cover all contingencies – especially so ex post facto . One famous such response to a query about participation in a military campaign was "You will go you will return never in war will you perish". This gives the recipient liberty to place a comma before or after the word "never", thus covering both possible outcomes. Another

5780-445: The resulting cracks. A different divining method, using the stalks of the yarrow plant , was practiced in the subsequent Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC). Around the late 9th century BC, the divination system was recorded in the I Ching , or "Book of Changes", a collection of linear signs used as oracles. In addition to its oracular power, the I Ching has had a major influence on the philosophy, literature and statecraft of China since

5865-543: The rustling of the leaves of the oak tree that stood on this spot as Zeus' sanctuary to determine the correct actions to be taken. The oracle of Abae was one of the most important oracles. It was almost completely destroyed by the Persians during the Second Persian invasion of Greece . Erythrae near Ionia in Asia Minor was home to a prophetess. Trophonius was an oracle at Lebadea of Boeotia devoted to

5950-431: The same order, sometimes using the same words. Scholars note that the similarities among Mark, Matthew, and Luke are too great to be coincidental. If the two-source hypothesis is correct, then Q would probably have been a written document. If Q was a shared oral tradition, it is unlikely that it could account for the nearly identical word-for-word similarities between Matthew and Luke when quoting Q material. Similarly, it

6035-458: The same, Buta Kola , "paathri" or "darshin"; in other parts of Karnataka, it is known by various names such as, "prashnaavali", "vaagdaana", "asei", "aashirvachana" and so on. In Nepal it is known as, "Devta ka dhaamee" or " jhaakri ". The Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria in Africa have a long tradition of using oracles. In Igbo villages, oracles were usually female priestesses to

6120-682: The selection process performed by oracles. The Dalai Lama , who lives in exile in northern India, still consults an oracle known as the Nechung Oracle , which is considered the official state oracle of the government of Tibet. The Dalai Lama has, according to centuries-old custom, consulted the Nechung Oracle during the new year festivities of Losar . Nechung and Gadhong are the primary oracles currently consulted; former oracles such as Karmashar and Darpoling are no longer active in exile. The Gadhong oracle has died leaving Nechung to be

6205-537: The tradition may have spread from Egypt. By the time of Herodotus, Zeus had displaced the Mother Goddess, who had been assimilated to Aphrodite , and the worship of the deified hero Heracles had been added. Dodona became the second most important oracle in ancient Greece, after Delphi . At Dodona, Zeus was worshipped as Zeus Naios or Naos (god of springs Naiads , from a spring under the oaks), or as Zeus Bouleos (chancellor). Priestesses and priests interpreted

6290-555: The two-source hypothesis has dominated ever since. At this time, the second source was usually called the Logia , or Logienquelle (' logia -source'), because of Papias's statement, and Holtzmann gave it the symbol Lambda (Λ). However, toward the end of the 19th century, doubts began to grow about the propriety of anchoring its existence to Papias's account, with the symbol Q (which was devised by Johannes Weiss to denote Quelle , meaning 'source') adopted instead to remain neutral about

6375-609: The verbal agreement between Matthew and Luke is so close in some parts of the double tradition that the most reasonable explanation for this agreement is common dependence on a written source or sources. Even if Matthew and Luke are independent (see Marcan priority ), the Q hypothesis states that they used a common document. Arguments for Q being a written document include: The fact that no Q manuscripts exist today does not necessarily argue against its existence. Many early Christian texts no longer exist, and are only known of through citation or mention of them in surviving texts. Once Q's text

6460-550: The will of gods. These towers were called 'Anu'u . An example of this can be found at Ahu'ena heiau in Kona . In ancient India , the oracle was known as ākāśavānī "voice/speech from the sky/ aether " or aśarīravānī "a disembodied voice (or voice of the unseen)" ( asariri in Tamil), and was related to the message of a god. Oracles played key roles in many of the major incidents of the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana . An example

6545-736: The word is the same as in the Septuagint, but applied broadly to inspired Scriptures. In this sense logia is used four times in the New Testament and often among the Church Fathers , who also counted the New Testament books among inspired Scripture. From logia is distinguished a related word logoi ( λόγοι ), meaning simply "words", often in contrast to práxeis ( πράξεις ), meaning "deeds". Words spoken by Jesus are consistently designated as logoi in ancient documents. Papias of Hierapolis composed around AD 100

6630-411: The work, now identified as the Gospel of Thomas condemned by several Church Fathers , which is a series of sayings attributed to Jesus, many found nowhere else, with no narrative framework. Although Grenfell and Hunt soon retracted their inappropriate designation of the text as logia in favor of logoi , it has since become standard to speak of the composition as logia , and of each individual saying as

6715-485: The writing of his, and Luke followed both Matthew and Mark in his (the Gospel of John is quite different from the other three, which because of their similarity are called the Synoptic Gospels ). Nineteenth-century New Testament scholars who rejected Matthew's priority in favor of Marcan priority speculated that Matthew's and Luke's authors drew the material they have in common with the Gospel of Mark from

6800-426: Was advised: "If you cross the river, a great empire will be destroyed". Believing the response favourable, Croesus attacked, but it was his own empire that ultimately was destroyed by the Persians. She allegedly also proclaimed that there was no man wiser than Socrates , to which Socrates said that, if so, this was because he alone was aware of his own ignorance. After this confrontation, Socrates dedicated his life to

6885-534: Was also another oracle of Zeus Ammon at Aphytis in Chalkidiki . The oracle of Zeus at Olympia . In the city of Anariace (Ἀναριάκη) at the Caspian Sea , there was an oracle for sleepers. Persons should sleep in the temple in order to learn the divine will. The oracle of Apollo at Eutresis and the oracle of Apollo at Tegyra . Oracle of Aphrodite at Paphos . There were many "oracles of

6970-480: Was an oracle of Artemis Tauropolus. At Claros , there was the oracle of Apollo Clarius. At Ptoion , there was an oracle of Ptoios and later of Apollo . At Gryneium , there was a sanctuary of Apollo with an ancient oracle. At Livadeia there was the oracle of Trophonius . The oracle of Zeus Ammon at Siwa Oasis was so famous that Alexander the Great visited it when he conquered Egypt. There

7055-473: Was essentially the highest authority both civilly and religiously in male-dominated ancient Greece . She responded to the questions of citizens, foreigners, kings, and philosophers on issues of political impact, war, duty, crime, family, laws—even personal issues. The semi-Hellenic countries around the Greek world, such as Lydia , Caria , and even Egypt also respected her and came to Delphi as supplicants . Croesus , king of Lydia beginning in 560 BC, tested

7140-535: Was incorporated into the body of Matthew and Luke, it may have been no longer necessary to preserve it, just as interest in copying Mark seems to have waned substantially once it was incorporated into Matthew. The editorial board of the International Q Project writes: "During the second century, when the canonizing process was taking place, scribes did not make new copies of Q, since the canonizing process involved choosing what should and what should not be used in

7225-514: Was the response to the Athenians when the vast army of king Xerxes I was approaching Athens with the intent of razing the city to the ground. "Only the wooden palisades may save you" , answered the oracle, probably aware that there was sentiment for sailing to the safety of southern Italy and re-establishing Athens there. Some thought that it was a recommendation to fortify the Acropolis with

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