Q1. The Role of the Temple in Ancient Judaism
A temple is a structure put aside for spiritual and religious activities e.g. sacrifice, prayer or analogous sites. The Jews refer to call their place of worship as temples, shull or synagogues. It is a center of prayer, study and teachings as well as a social center.
The temple is and was a household of entreaty. The prayers offered in the shrine were sacred since they interaction with God. It was also a dwelling of Torah and Halakha (legislation), offering of sacrifices, and devotions.
Offering of sacrifices was a way of serving God and asking for forgiveness in one sins. The animal’s that were sacrificed were pure and without blemish, included goats sheep, bullocks rams, turtle doves or even submitting fine flour (Melton, 2010, 279). The offerings of fine oil and wine were also approved.
Legislation was also carried out. The Sanhedrin was located within the temple. They provided the last judgment to any case and passed sentence to different cases (Melton, 2010, 285).
In other spiritual deeds it facilitated as a symbol of the kingdom of Hashem. It became a focal point of Jewish lives. Everyone felt the presence of God in the temple and the high priest being the sole representative.
The temple also kept official records of lineage of all families and tribes of Israel were stored in the temple (Melton, 2010, 293). Records also comprised of the wealth owned by merchants and people living in Israel. Also as the temple saved benevolence this was for those people needing aid could go to the temple and receive aid.
The temple was also used as a gathering point of Jews during special celebrations to worship and commemorate an event.
Q2: Issues that led to the split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Since the occurring of events in 1054 when the medieval Christianity split into two branches, into the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic (East –West Schism) (Melton, 2010, 297). It has been debated historically that there are substrapitive theological differences between the western and the Eastern churches that have proven enduring points of connection.
The deviation of the Eastern Orthodox from the Roman Catholic originated after Pope Leo the third was crowned Charlemagne King of the Franks as Holy Roman Empire In 800. This was a provocation to the Eastern Empire and The Byzantine Empire itself. In 476, the Holy Roman Empire had only one vestige which was Byzantium. Therefore, Byzantine Empire became redundant after Charlemagne was crowned, and relations between the east and the west deteriorated until a formal slit in1054 (Melton, 2010, 300).
The drift between the two churches grew more distant and isolated because of the reasons discussed.
Although they had theological differences, both had valid reasons but kept their own viewpoints. The Roman Catholic were more practical and even though they fully believed in Christ divinity, they put emphasis on his humanity when depicting Christ in art i.e. making of the crucifix (Melton, 2010, 312).
The Eastern Orthodox was more theoretical and even though fully believed in Humanity of Christ, they focused more on his spirituality that was more enigmatic (Melton, 2010, 315).
Difference in personalities and Politics also played a role in the split of the two churches. There was mistrust between the so the heads of the churches. Pope Leo the third and Patriarch Michael ex-communicated each other and their churches. They were ex-communicated because of a letter that was written by the Cerularian which stated that using of bread that is unleavened is more of a Jewish attribute rather than Christian hence it led to a controversy. This directly meant that the Holy Eucharist is not supposed to be used in the Roman Catholic Church. This action made Pope Leo react by stating that the Byzantine Empire were controlling the patriarchs and that they were just used as puppets (Melton, 2010, 327).
Still the reasons that divided the churches are still there today. Even though the two sides accept the validity of each side, no inter-communication exists between them. This means that Catholics do not receive holy communions from Orthodox Churches.
References
Melton, J. G., & Baumann, M. (2010). Religions of the world a comprehensive encyclopedia of beliefs and practices (2nd ed.). Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO.
