Beginning
with the reign of Adad Nirari II (912-891 BCE), the empire made great
territorial expansions that resulted in its eventual control of a region which
spanned the whole of Mesopotamia, part of Anatolia, the Levant, and Egypt. They
fielded the most effective fighting force in the world at that time, the first
to be armed with iron weapons, whose tactics in battle made them invincible.
Their political and military policies have also given them the long-standing
reputation for cruelty and ruthlessness though this has come to be contested in
recent years, as it is now argued they were neither more nor less cruel than
other ancient empires (such as that of Alexander the Great or of Rome). The
kings of the empire, such as Tiglath Pileser III, Shalmaneser V, Sargon II, Sennacherib,
and Esarhaddon, are mentioned a number of times throughout the Bible as the
enemies of the Israelites, although the inscriptions of the Assyrians and the
books of the Bible differ, sometimes dramatically, on how events unfolded
between the two nations. This is most notable in Sennacherib’s inscriptions
regarding the conquest of Judah and the account given in the biblical Book of
Isaiah 37, II Chronicles 32:21, and II Kings 18-19. See pictures and read the
complete articles at http://www.ancient.eu/Neo-Assyrian_Empire/#.VJDCdseueqg
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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