1. Jehovah (also known as Yehovah or Yehowah), originally the name of the god worshipped by Judaism, is also the god in Christianity, which can be translated as Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahuwei or Lord.
At that time, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God told Moses to call him Jehovah to the Israelites.
2. Adam and Eve: apples, trees with snakes, and being driven away by angels.
Adam was the first human created by Jehovah in his own image with clay, and placed him in the Garden of Eden. In order to prevent Adam from being lonely, Jehovah made him sleep, took out one of Adam's ribs and created the first woman, named Eve. Later, because the two believed the snake's slander and mistakenly ate the forbidden fruit on the tree of wisdom, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Adam is also one of the six great messengers of Allah in Islam, named Adam and Eve.
3. Noah: Ark, dove holding an olive branch, rainbow, drunkard.
Noah was born 126 years after Adam died. When Noah was alive, the earth was full of sin and the world was corrupted before God. Jehovah regretted creating man on earth and wanted to wipe out man, beast, insects, and birds from the earth. Only Noah was a righteous man, a perfect man in his generation, and was favored by Jehovah. God commanded Noah to build a big boat to escape the flood. This big boat was called "Noah's Ark" or Ark.
They listened to him and went out by boat. Sure enough, the flood came as promised, and they escaped the flood. After some days, he wanted to see if the water had receded. He sent out a dove. The first time the dove had nowhere to land, it flew back; the second time he released the dove, the dove came back with a newly twisted olive branch in its mouth. Noah released the dove for the third time, and the dove never came back. They took the animals to live on land. There are two olive branches on the emblem of the United Nations, representing its good wish to bring peace to mankind.
The story of Noah and the Ark is well known. After the flood receded, Jehovah made a covenant with Noah and his descendants with a rainbow, declaring that he would never destroy the world with a flood again. This is the "Rainbow Covenant".
Noah was also the first grape grower and winemaker. Because of a drunken mistake, he became the cause of the dispute between his descendants, the Canaanites and the Israelites. Noah is called Noah in Islam and is also one of the six great messengers of Allah in Islam.
4. Abraham: White-bearded old man, sacrificial knife
Abraham (a descendant of Noah) was originally named Abram. Later, he made a covenant with Jehovah and was given the name Abraham, which means "Father of Many Nations". The proof of his covenant with God is that Abraham's descendants must be circumcised. (Abraham had a long life, and Rembrandt's famous work "Sacrificing Sons" is the most common theme about Abraham).
He is a prophet of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc.), and is the one chosen by God from all living things on earth and blessed. He is also the common ancestor of the Semites, including the Hebrews and Arabs.
Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other religions are collectively called Abrahamic religions, because Abraham occupies an important position in these three religions. In the Jewish tradition, he is called "Avraham", "Avinu" or "My Father Abraham".
God promised Abraham that all nations under the sky would be blessed through his people, and Christianity interprets this as salvation through Jesus Christ. Jews, Christians and Muslims recognize him as the ancestor of the Israelites and the father of Isaac. For Muslims, Abraham (Ibrahim) is a prophet of Islam and the ancestor of Muhammad (tracing back to Abraham's son Ishmael). His successor Keturah is the ancestor of the Negev people.
5. Moses: The old man with horns on his head, the Ten Commandments stone tablets, and the Ark of the Covenant
Moses was ordered by Jehovah to lead the enslaved Hebrews to leave ancient Egypt and go to a rich promised land - Canaan. The journey took eleven days. Because the Israelites were stubborn and rebellious, they did not believe that God would help them to the end, and they did not accept Moses' leadership. Their escape life in the Sinai Peninsula was far worse than in Egypt. In fact, the Sinai Peninsula was also ruled by ancient Egypt. After more than 40 years of arduous journey (it is said that it was to avoid direct conflict with the Canaanese tribes. In addition, there were many powerful tribes living in Canaan, and the land was blocked by the Philistines), they entered the promised land. The Sinai Peninsula where he lived in his later years was a land passed by on the way. It was either inhabited by other ethnic groups or the land was barren and water-deficient, making it difficult to settle down for a long time.
Because Moses was in Kadesh Barnea, the Israelites quarreled with Moses because they had no water to drink. Moses did not obey God's command and used his rod to hit the water, so God did not let Moses cross the Jordan River and enter the promised land with the Israelites. Under the leadership of Moses, the Israelites got rid of the miserable life of slavery, learned to obey the Jewish Ten Commandments in the Sinai Peninsula, and became the first single nation in history to worship a monotheistic religion, and became Judaism, which combines politics, religion, nation, theocracy, and political power.
The leader and legislator of the Jewish nation. He led the Israelites across the Red Sea, escaped from Egypt, and returned to Canaan. He also obtained the Ten Commandments stone tablets written by Jehovah himself on Mount Sinai, and placed these two stone tablets in a special Ark of the Covenant according to God's instructions. From then on, the Ten Commandments became the most basic commandments of the Jewish nation. He is also one of the six messengers of Allah believed in Islam, called Musa.
6. David: Giant head, slingshot, harp
The most famous king in Israeli history, he outsmarted the giant Goliath with a slingshot when he was a teenager. David is versatile and is particularly good at playing the harp.
7. Joseph: old age, lily, carpenter's tools.
St. Joseph is a member of the Holy Family, the husband of the Virgin Mary, and the adoptive father of Jesus Christ. He often holds a staff with a lily on the top, indicating that he is the husband chosen by God for the Virgin Mary (Raphael has a classic work "The Wedding of the Virgin Mary" that depicts this theme). Joseph is a carpenter and often holds carpentry tools such as a T-square. May 1st of each year is the Church's St. Joseph Day. He usually appears with Mary and the baby Jesus, and most often appears in early scenes of the New Testament such as "The Three Kings" and "Bethlehem Census".
8. John the Baptist: Slender cross. Baptism in the wilderness, wearing animal skins, reeds at feet, and a human head on a plate.
John is the first saint in the New Testament. He preached in the wild reeds before Jesus. He wrapped himself in wild animal skins and fed himself with locusts and wild honey. The most notable feature is that he holds a slender cross. His mother Elizabeth is a relative of the Virgin Mary, and he and Jesus should be cousins. When Jesus was 30 years old, he baptized Jesus Christ in the Jordan River, so he was named "John the Baptist". John later accused the Jewish royal family, which aroused the hatred of Herod's wife Herodias. She instigated her daughter Salome to deceive the king with a beautiful dance and beheaded John and placed his head on a plate. This is the famous allusion in the Bible "Salome's Dance".
9. Mary Magdalene: a young woman with long hair, wearing red clothes, earthenware jars, and perfume bottles
Mary Magdalene was Jesus' most loyal female disciple. When she first met Jesus in Jerusalem, she washed Jesus' feet with a bottle of expensive perfume oil and wiped Jesus with her long hair, which aroused the dissatisfaction of Judas, who was in charge of finances among Jesus' disciples. Mary was one of the women who had been waiting beside Jesus during his crucifixion. She was also the first saint to discover Jesus' resurrection and the first to see Jesus' holy face. Mary Magdalene has become famous in recent years because of Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code". It has caused many unfounded speculations.
