Unique Christian Gifts from the Holy Land

Category: File - :Cross of the Morro do Pai Inácio.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A Christian cross

A Christian () is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe is the Messiah (the Christ in Greek-derived terminology) prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God."BBC ? Religion & Ethics ? Christianity at a glance", BBC

The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a proverbial sense "all that is noble, and good, and Christ-like," as in the Christian thing to do.

Category: File - :Jerusalem Israel Map.png|thumb|right|225px|Jerusalem on the map of Israel.

Jerusalem ( , '; Arabic: , ') is the capital of Israel and its largest cityLargest city:

* "...modern Jerusalem, Israel's largest city..." (Erlanger, Steven. Jerusalem, Now, The New York Times, April 16, 2006.)

* "Jerusalem is Israel's largest city." ("Israel (country)", Microsoft Encarta, 2006, p. 3. Retrieved October 18, 2006. Archived 2009-10-31.)

* "Since 1975 unified Jerusalem has been the largest city in Israel." ("Jerusalem", Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2006. Retrieved October 18, 2006. Archived 2008-06-21)

* "Jerusalem is the largest city in the State of Israel. It has the largest population, the most Jews and the most non-Jews of all Israeli cities." (Klein, Menachem. Jerusalem: The Future of a Contested City, New York University Press, March 1, 2001, p. 18. ISBN 0-8147-4754-X)

* "In 1967, Tel Aviv was the largest city in Israel. By 1987, more Jews lived in Jerusalem than the total population of Tel Aviv. Jerusalem had become Israel's premier city." (Friedland, Roger and Hecht, Richard. To Rule Jerusalem, University of California Press, September 19, 2000, p. 192. ISBN 0-520-22092-7). in both population and area, with a population of 763,800 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included. Located in the Judean Mountains, between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern edge of the Dead Sea, modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the boundaries of the Old City.

The city has a history that goes back to the 4th millennium BCE, making it one of the oldest cities in the world.

Jerusalem is the holiest city in Judaism and has been the spiritual center of the Jewish people since c. 1000 BCE, when David the King of Israel first established it as the capital of the Jewish Nation, and his son Solomon commissioned the building of the First Temple in the city.Since the 10th century BCE:

* "Israel was first forged into a unified nation from Jerusalem some 3,000 years ago, when King David seized the crown and united the twelve tribes from this city... For a thousand years Jerusalem was the seat of Jewish sovereignty, the household site of kings, the location of its legislative councils and courts. In exile, the Jewish nation came to be identified with the city that had been the site of its ancient capital. Jews, wherever they were, prayed for its restoration." Roger Friedland, Richard D. Hecht. To Rule Jerusalem, University of California Press, 2000, p. 8. ISBN 0-520-22092-7

* "The Jewish bond to Jerusalem was never broken. For three millennia, Jerusalem has been the center of the Jewish faith, retaining its symbolic value throughout the generations." Jerusalem- the Holy City, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, February 23, 2003. Accessed March 24, 2007.

* "The centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism is so strong that even secular Jews express their devotion and attachment to the city, and cannot conceive of a modern State of Israel without it... For Jews Jerusalem is sacred simply because it exists... Though Jerusalem's sacred character goes back three millennia...". Leslie J. Hoppe. The Holy City: Jerusalem in the theology of the Old Testament, Liturgical Press, 2000, p. 6. ISBN 0-8146-5081-3

* "Ever since King David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago, the city has played a central role in Jewish existence." Mitchell Geoffrey Bard, The Complete Idiots Guide to the Middle East Conflict, Alpha Books, 2002, p. 330. ISBN 0-02-864410-7

* "For Jews the city has been the pre-eminent focus of their spiritual, cultural, and national life throughout three millennia." Yossi Feintuch, U.S. Policy on Jerusalem, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1987, p. 1. ISBN 0-313-25700-0

* "Jerusalem became the center of the Jewish people some 3,000 years ago" Moshe Maoz, Sari Nusseibeh, Jerusalem: Points of Friction - And Beyond, Brill Academic Publishers, 2000, p. 1. ISBN 90-411-8843-6

* "The Jewish people are inextricably bound to the city of Jerusalem. No other city has played such a dominant role in the history, politics, culture, religion, national life and consciousness of a people as has Jerusalem in the life of Jewry and Judaism. Since King David established the city as the capital of the Jewish state circa 1000 BCE, it has served as the symbol and most profound expression of the Jewish peoples identity as a nation." Basic Facts you should know: Jerusalem, Anti-Defamation League, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2007. Jerusalem contains a number of significant Christian sites, and although it is never mentioned explicitly in the Qur'an, Islam regards Jerusalem as its third-holiest city.Third-holiest city in Islam:

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* Despite having an area of only 0.9 square kilometer (0.35 square mile), the Old City is home to sites of key religious importance, among them the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque. The old walled city, a World Heritage site, has been traditionally divided into four quarters, although the names used today?the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters?were introduced in the early 19th century. The Old City was nominated for inclusion on the List of World Heritage Sites in danger by Jordan in 1982.Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls In the course of its history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times.. According to Eric H. Cline's tally in Jerusalem Besieged.

Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the core issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem has been repeatedly criticized by the United Nations and related bodies,Resolution 298 of 25 September 1971:

"Recalling its resolutions ... concerning measures and actions by Israel designed to change the status of the Israeli-occupied section of Jerusalem, ..." and Palestinians demand East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. In the wake of United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 (passed in 1980), most foreign embassies moved out of Jerusalem, although some countries, such as the United States, still own land in the city and pledge to return their embassies once political agreements warrant the move.

Bethlehem (, , lit "House of Meat"; Bethleém; , Beit Lehem, lit "House of Bread") is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank, approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people.Amara, 1999, p. 18.Brynen, 2000, p. 202. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism. Bethlehem is believed by most Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth. The town is inhabited by one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, though the size of the community has shrunk in recent years due to emigration.

The city is the birthplace of David and the location where he was crowned as the king of Israel. The city was sacked by the Samaritans in 529 AD, during their revolt, but was rebuilt by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. Bethlehem was conquered by the Arab Caliphate of 'Umar ibn al-Khatt?b in 637, who guaranteed safety for the city's religious shrines. In 1099, Crusaders captured and fortified Bethlehem and replaced its Greek Orthodox clergy with a Latin one. The Latin clergy were expelled after the city was captured by Saladin, the sultan of Egypt and Syria. With the coming of the Mamluks in 1250, the city's walls were demolished, and were subsequently rebuilt during the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

The British wrested control of the city from the Ottomans during World War I and it was to be included in an international zone under the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. Jordan annexed the city in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Since 1995, Bethlehem has been governed by the Palestinian National Authority.

Bethlehem has a Muslim majority, but is also home to one of the largest Palestinian Christian communities. The Bethlehem agglomeration includes the towns of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour, as well as the refugee camps of 'Aida and Azza. Bethlehem's chief economic sector is tourism which peaks during the Christmas season when Christian pilgrims throng to the Church of the Nativity. Bethlehem has over thirty hotels and three hundred handicraft work shops. Rachel's Tomb, an important Jewish holy site, is located at the entrance of Bethlehem.

The Rosary (from Latin rosarium, meaning "rose garden")"Rosary." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper. 03 May. 2008. or "garland of roses""Rosary". Wedgewood, Hensleigh. A Dictionary of English Etymology. 2nd ed. London: Trubner & Co., 1872. pg 544. is a popular and traditional Roman Catholic devotion. The term denotes both a set of prayer beads and the devotional prayer itself, which combines vocal (or silent) prayer and meditation. The prayers consist of repeated sequences of the Lords Prayer followed by ten prayings of the Hail Mary and a single praying of "Glory Be to the Father"; each of these sequences is known as a decade. The praying of each decade is accompanied by meditation on one of the Category: :Category - :Mysteries of the Rosary|Mysteries of the Rosary, which are events in the lives of Jesus Christ and his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The traditional 15 Mysteries of the Rosary were standardized, based on the long-standing custom, by Pope St. Pius V in the 16th century. The mysteries are grouped into three sets: the joyful mysteries, the sorrowful mysteries, and the glorious mysteries. In 2002, Pope John Paul II announced five new optional mysteries, the luminous mysteries, bringing the total number of mysteries to 20.

The term has come to be used to refer to similar beads in other religions.rosary - definition of rosary by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia

The Bible, sometimes called the Holy Bible, can refer to one of two closely related religious texts central to Judaism and Christianity?the Hebrew or Christian sacred Scriptures respectively.

Judaism recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, also called Hebrew Bible, traditionally divided into three parts: the Torah ("teaching" or "law"), the Neviim ("prophets"), and the Ketuvim'' ("writings").

The Bible as used by Christians is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. The canonical composition of the Old Testament is in dispute between Christian groups: Protestants hold all of the books of the Hebrew Bible to be canonical and include them in what they call the Old Testament. Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox additionally consider the deuterocanonical books, a group of Jewish books, to be a canonical part of their Old Testament. The New Testament is comprised of the Gospels ("good news"), the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles (letters), and the Book of Revelation.

The term "bible" is sometimes used to refer to any central text of a religion, or a comprehensive guidebook on a particular subject.