AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
"Survivor: Vanuatu" started being shown on TV on September 16, 2004. Also starting that day was Survivor Live, an hour-long Internet talk show hosted by the first Sole Survivor Richard Hatch and Entertainment Tonight correspondent Chris Booker. The talk show was shown every Thursday and Friday on the CBS website. It interviews players from earlier seasons and reviews the players' gameplay.
On December 12, 2004, Chris Daugherty won against Twila Tanner by a vote of 5-2 to become the sole survivor. This seasons became available on DVD on December 5, 2006.
For the first time, not including the season before, "", there were eighteen players. In the first seven seasons, there were only sixteen. This was the second season where the starting tribes were divided by gender. It was also the first season to have an amputee (Chad Crittenden, who had lost a foot to cancer) and not one, but two open lesbians (motivational speaker Scout Cloud Lee and old "Playboy" model Ami Cusack).
The season began like "". The tribes were divided by gender. The male tribe was Lopevi, named after one of Vanuatu's volcanic islands; the female tribe was Yasur, named after Mount Yasur. On Day 11, there was a tribal switch like in other seasons, which ended up moving two people from each tribe over to the other tribe.
On Day 20, the tribes were merged (combined) into one tribe. They named the new tribe "Alinta", a name suggested by Scout meaning "people of fire."
Eliza Orlins and Ami Cusack were chosen from this season to return for "" as members of the Favorites tribe, where they placed 10th and 11th.
The players were brought into the game at a native gathering, with the natives dividing the group into men and women. The men were clearly worshiped at the ceremony, suggesting they would have better luck in the game. After the ceremony, the men were named the Lopevi tribe, and the women the Yasur tribe, and sent to find their camps in the dark. Lopevi lost the first challenge mainly due to Chris, however, the older men of the tribe started an alliance and worked to vote off one of the younger men, Brook. This would continue through the next two tribal councils that Lopevi took part in. In Yasur, a strong clique started around Ami, and the women that did not fit in were voted out.
The tribes were switched on day 11, mixing the two tribes; later voting only strengthened Ami's alliances. On Day 19, the two tribes, now with 6 women and 4 men, merged into one tribe, which they named "Alinta". The men were quickly targeted at the next three tribal councils, leaving Chris as the only male. By this time, the players in Ami's alliance were her, Julie, and Leann, while Twila and Scout had formed a closer pairing, with Eliza as an outsider among the women. When Chris didn't win the next immunity challenge, Twila brought Chris into a plan to vote out one of Ami's group if they could bring Eliza into their foursome. Chris was successful at this, and Leann was voted out at the next tribal council. Ami and Julie soon followed, even though they had tried to vote off Chris. The final four was Chris, Eliza, Twila, and Scout. Chris won the last two immunity challenges, and took Twila with him into the final two. The jury saw Chris' power to stay in the game with the odds against him, both from the first challenge and as the last man standing, and voted him the Sole Survivor 5-2.
Herrerasaurus
Herrerasaurus was one of the earliest dinosaurs. All known fossils of this carnivore have been discovered in Upper Triassic strata dated to 231.4 million years ago (mya) in northwestern Argentina.
It is a member of the Herrerasauridae, a family of similar genera that were among the earliest dinosaurs.
"Herrerasaurus" was a lightly built bipedal carnivore with a long tail and a relatively small head. Its length is estimated at 3 to 6 meters (10 to 20 ft), and its hip height at more than 1.1 meters (3.3 ft). It may have weighed around 210–350 kilograms (463–772 lb).
In a large specimen the skull measured 56 centimeters (1.8 ft) in length. Smaller specimens had skulls about 30 centimeters (1 ft) long.
The tail, partially stiffened by overlapping vertebral projections, balanced the body and was also an adaptation for speed.
The paleoenvironment of the Ischigualasto Formation (where it was found) was a volcanically active floodplain covered by forests with strong seasonal rainfall. The climate was moist and warm, with seasonal variations. Vegetation consisted of ferns ("Cladophlebis"), horsetails, and giant conifers ("Protojuniperoxylon"). These plants formed lowland forests along the banks of rivers. "Herrerasaurus" remains appear to have been the most common among the carnivores of the Ischigualasto Formation.
"Herrerasaurus" lived in these jungles alongside a smaller dinosaur, the one metre long "Eoraptor", as well as "Saurosuchus", a huge quadrupedal Archosaur. There were also a number of therapsid and reptilian herbivores. The dinosaurs had not yet taken control of the land environments as they did later.
Jason Earles
Jason Earles (born April 26, 1977), is an American actor who is best known for playing the role of Jackson Stewart in Hannah Montana.
Jason Earles was born in San Diego, California. After his family had lived in both Ohio and Washington, they moved to Oregon. Before his family moved to southern California, they lived in Billings, Montana, where he graduated from Rocky Mountain College in 2000. He has given several pieces of Hannah Montana cast memorabilia (items people collect to remember something) to the college's fund raisers.
Hayato Hashimoto
Hayato Hashimoto (born 15 September 1981) is a Japanese football player. He plays for Omiya Ardija.
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Kazuhisa Iijima
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Mikio Manaka
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Yasuo Manaka
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Jean-Alain Boumsong
Jean-Alain Boumsong (born 14 December 1979) is a French football player. He plays for Olympique Lyonnais and France national team.
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Pascal Chimbonda
Pascal Chimbonda (born 21 February 1979) is a Guadeloupean-French football player. He has played for Guadeloupe national team and France national team.
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Yuji Ito
Yuji Ito (born 20 May 1965) is a former Japanese football player.
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Hogan Ephraim
Hogan Ephraim (born 31 March 1988) is an English football player. He plays for Leeds United.
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Nicky Hofs
Nicky Hofs (born 17 May 1983) is a Dutch football player. He plays for Vitesse.
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Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara
Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara (Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška) is a Croatian song promoting the Ustaše. The lyrics celebrate the World War II crimes against the Serbs. The lyrics include words in the typical dialect of Herzegovina, where some of the worst atrocities against Serbs during WWII happened.
In 2007, Efraim Zuroff reported in the "Jerusalem Post" that during a performance by Marko Perković of the Croatian band Thompson at Maksimir Stadium, there were a large number of Ustaše symbols and fascist salutes among the crowd (which included politicians, government officials and celebrities), helping to create an air of discomfort among Croatia's minorities in the region at the time. Zuroff claimed that Perković gained notoriety two years earlier for having performed a modified version of the song, which "expressed nostalgia for those two infamous Croatian concentration camps in which at least 300,000 innocent Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and anti-fascist Croatians were murdered by the Ustashe with nary a Nazi in sight."
Perkovic himself denies writing or even performing the song, stating that he is a musician, not a politician. An organizer for a Thompson tour of New York City also defended Perkovic, saying he did not write the song nor is a copy available on any of his albums.
Motoo Kimura
Motoo Kimura (13 November 1924 – 13 November 1994) was a Japanese mathematician and biologist. He was known for introducing the neutral theory of molecular evolution in 1968. "Calculating the rate of evolution in terms of nucleotide substitutions seems to give a value so high that many of the mutations involved must be neutral ones".
He became one of the most influential theoretical population geneticists:
Kimura was heavily influenced by Sewall Wright; the main distinction being that Wright was mainly interested in populations, whereas the core of Motoo's work was in changes at the molecular level. Modified versions of Kimura's ideas are still in use today.
In 1992, Kimura received the Darwin Medal from the Royal Society, and the following year he was made a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also written Ahmadinezhad (; born October 28, 1956) is an Iranian politician who was the sixth President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was president from August 3, 2005 to August 3, 2013.
Ahmadinejad became the mayor of Tehran, the capital of Iran, on May 3, 2003. He was chosen to be the president in elections on June 24, 2005. Many people think he is very religious. Because of that, the religious leadership in Iran supported him in many ways when he was elected.
Ahmadinajad's political power comes from the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, also known as "Abadgaran". This is an alliance between Islamic parties and organizations.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a Master of Science in Civil engineering from the Iran University of Science and Techology. He also has a PhD in transportation engineering from the same university. Hassan Rouhani was elected on June 15, 2013 as Ahmadinejad's successor and took office on August 3, 2013.
His brother was failed presidential candidate and staff member Davoud Ahmadinejad (1950–2017).
Jesus of Nazareth, also known as Jesus Christ, was a Jewish teacher and reformer of religion who has become the main and central figure of Christianity. Christians follow the example of Jesus, accept his words to be true, and worship him as the Jewish messiah and incarnation of God. He is one of the most famous, most recognized, and most influential persons in the world's history.
Most historians agree that he was a Jew from a place called Judea, in a town called Nazareth, in what is now Israel. They also agree that he was thought of as a teacher and a healer, and that he was baptized by John the Baptist. He was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of Pontius Pilate, and Christians believe that he came back to life - "rose again" - three days later.
Jesus taught mostly love and forgiveness for others, as well as being humble about one's religion. He talked many times about the kingdom of God, and told others, "The kingdom of God has come near." He said that one must be mild, like a child, and never boast. He taught that people who ignore God and other people do not deserve his blessing, but God would still forgive them if they repented. Jesus opposed the other Jewish priests because they used religion to boast. Jesus was put on trial and convicted to death by the Jewish leaders, then sent to his execution on a cross by Roman authorities.
There are stories about the life of Jesus by different writers. The best known are the four Christian books called the Gospels. They form the beginning of the New Testament, a part of the Bible. The word "gospel" means "good news". They tell a little about his birth and hidden early life, but mostly about his public life: his teachings, miracles, ministry, death, and resurrection (return from death).
Several Jewish and Roman historians, such as Flavius Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and Suetonius include Jesus in their writings. They usually only tell of his execution or problems between the Roman government and his followers; they do not talk about his life.
Manichaeans, Gnostics, Muslims, Bahá'ís, and others have found prominent places for Jesus in their religions. The Quran claims that Jesus was a Muslim. Bahá'í teachings consider Jesus to be a "manifestation of God", a Bahá'í concept for prophets. And also some Hindus consider Jesus to be an avatar or a sadhu. Some Buddhists, including Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, regard Jesus as a bodhisattva who dedicated his life to the welfare of people.
The name "Jesus" came from the Aramaic name "Yeshua", from Hebrew "Yah-shua", meaning "God is salvation (or deliverance)" in English, and was a popular name of the time. Jesus is often called "Jesus Christ" or "Christ". The word "Christ" comes from the Greek word "christos" and means "the one marked on the head with oil" or "the anointed one". In Jesus' country, anointing was done to show that a person was chosen to be a king or a leader. Jesus is also called Messiah, which comes from the Hebrew term "Mashiakh", and also means "the anointed one".
The Gospels of Matthew and Luke say that before the birth of Jesus, both Mary, His mother, and the man that she was promised to, Joseph, knew that Jesus was going to be the "Messiah" or King that had been promised to the Jewish people, in the ancient Jewish books.
Luke's Gospel tells most of the story. When Jesus was born, the Roman Empire ruled most of the Middle East. The Government wanted every single family to have their name taken down to be taxed, so everyone had to go back to the place where they came from. Joseph came from the small town of Bethlehem, near Jerusalem, so even though Mary was close to giving birth to her baby, they had to travel, with thousands of other people.
When they got to Bethlehem, every room was full. Jesus was placed in a manger as there was no room for them at the inn. Shepherds who were minding their sheep on the hillside came in to see the baby, and went away singing thanks to God for the newborn king.
In the Gospel of Matthew, it says that wise men from a far country saw a new star in the sky and travelled to find the young Jesus because they knew that the Messiah was going to be born under a star, and that the star was a sign that Jesus was born to be a king.
Most Christians celebrate the day that Jesus was born as the holiday of Christmas. Although the Gospels do not say what day Jesus was born, the date chosen was of December 25, because there was already a Roman holiday on that day.
The arrival of Jesus was known by John the Baptist. He baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. During the baptism, the Spirit of God, like a dove, came down upon Jesus, and the voice of God was heard. According to the Bible, the Spirit led Jesus into the desert where he fasted for 40 days. There, he resisted the Devil's temptations. Then Jesus went into Galilee, settled in Capernaum, and began to preach about the Kingdom of God. He was about 30 years old.
Jesus taught mainly by telling stories. He taught that God alone was the true king, and that people should love God and love each other as the scriptures told them to do. And he taught his followers how to pray. Jesus performed miracles that were signs of God's power, such as giving hungry people food and wine, healing sick people, and making dead people alive again. He also set people free from evil spirits.
Jesus gathered together twelve men, known as the "Twelve Apostles", whom he chose and trained to spread his message. He had many other disciples, including many women, but because of Jewish customs, the women disciples could not travel to distant places on their own as teachers.
The Bible says Jesus became famous. He went to Jerusalem, where many were visiting the city for Passover. When they heard that he was coming, they greeted him as if he was a king. They thought he would free them from the Roman rule, but Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, as a sign that he came in peace.
Jesus did certain things which upset the Jewish religious leaders. They thought he showed disrespect for customs that the Jews had kept for many centuries. For example, Jews did no work at all on the 7th day of the week, the "Sabbath", because it was a holy day. In John's Gospel, chapter 5, there is the story of Jesus healing a crippled man. Jesus saw a man lying on a mattress. He healed the man, and told him to pick up the mattress and go home. Carrying the mattress on the Sabbath was against religious custom, so the religious leaders argued with Jesus about it. They then watched everything he did, and remembered all the things that were against the religious customs.
In Mark's Gospel, chapter 11, it says that when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, he went to the Jewish Temple. He became angry at what he saw. There were people selling things there, and money lenders who were cheating poor people. Jesus chased away all the people who were selling things. He said the chief priests and scribes had turned the temple into a den of thieves because they were making money from the poor and taking away homes from poor women who had no other way to pay for the temple worship.
The Gospels say that the temple leaders were angry and wanted to kill him. They told the Roman government that Jesus' followers wanted him to become the king of the country and take it over. The gospels say the Roman governor thought that Jesus should be set free, but that the Jewish leaders said, "If you do that, then you are not the friend of Caesar!" (Caesar was the Roman ruler.)
The Governor sentenced him to death because his followers had claimed he was king. The Roman soldiers killed Jesus by crucifixion. He was nailed up to a high cross by his hands and feet. This was a common way for the Romans to kill rebels and criminals.
Jesus' body was buried in a tomb which belonged to one of his followers. On the day after the Sabbath, early in the morning, women went to treat the body with spice and perfumed oil. But the Gospels say that the body of Jesus was gone, and that he was seen alive afterwards. This is called the Resurrection.
Some people, like the disciple Thomas, said, "I'm not going to believe this, until I have seen it with my own eyes!" But the Bible says that more than 500 people, including Thomas, saw Jesus alive again. There are many stories in the Gospels about what Jesus did after he was resurrected. Finally, the Gospel of Luke says that Jesus took his disciples to a hill, where he blessed them and told them to spread his teaching through all the world, and that then clouds came down, and he was lifted up to Heaven.
Most Christians celebrate the time that the Gospels say he died and was raised from the dead as the holiday of Easter.
The Christian Church is founded on Jesus. The things that Christians believe about Jesus are based on the four Gospels of the Bible, and on letters or "Epistles" that were written in the 1st century, explaining Jesus' teachings to his followers.
Jesus did not write these letters. They were mainly written by a Jewish man named Paul. At first he tried to stop Christianity from spreading. Then he became a Christian himself and was an important leader. As Christian churches started in different towns and countries, Paul wrote letters to them. A lot of the ideas that Christians believe are written in Paul's letters. There is also lots of instruction for running churches and families.
There are other letters in the New Testament by other writers including Peter, James, and John. These letters all help to build the beliefs that modern Christians have.
See section: Other views about Jesus
Whether or not Jesus is God has been argued about for a long time. Most Christians, including those from Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant denominations, believe Jesus was both God and man. Jesus is described in different parts of the New Testament as being "the Word of God", "the Son of God", "the Son of Man", and God himself.
These teachings, which are believed by most Christians, are not believed by many other people. The Islamic teaching is that Jesus was a prophet, but he was not part of God or the "Son of God". In Jesus' own time, many Jews became very angry at Jesus for saying that he was the "Son of God" and also because his followers said he was the "Messiah". Most Jews do not believe this.
These Bible verses tell the Christian teaching that Jesus is God:
Jesus is also referred to as "the Son of God".
Many Christians believe that these verses say Jesus is God. All Christians believe that Jesus' death on the cross allows all people to be forgiven by God for their sins (bad things they have done). Most Christians believe that if a person asks God to forgive them He will do so, and they will get to live forever with him in Heaven.
Many Christians believe that, by the teaching of the Bible, Jesus was not only truly God but also truly human and that this was part of God's plan to bring humans closer to understanding him.
People who do not have Christian beliefs, have different ideas about Jesus.
Verses from the Bible:-
In "Matthew's Gospel", Jesus is often called "the Son of Man". Matthew has borrowed these words from the Old Testament where they are often used to show that humankind is very far from God. In the Bible, God is often praised and thanked for helping ordinary humans, who are called "the sons of man". In Psalm 8, the writer, King David, asks God ""what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?""
In Matthew's Gospel, 24:30 Jesus says ""Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."" Like King David, in Psalm 8, Jesus is making a difference between his ordinary human life and his great power as the "Son of God".
One of the best-loved parts of the Old Testament is a song called Psalm 23. It starts:
In the Gospels, Jesus often spoke about himself as being like a shepherd, caring for sheep. He called himself the "Good Shepherd" who would even give his own life, to protect his sheep. He told the Jewish people, referring to non-Jewish or "Gentile" believers, that he had "other sheep" that do not belong to this flock. (John, 21:16). In one of his last conversations with his disciple Peter, he told him, ""Feed my sheep!"", in other words ""Take care of my people."".
In Judaism, from ancient times, people are seen as sinful or bad. They need to be forgiven by God. They believed that there were two ways to get God's forgiveness, by prayer and by sacrifice. Prayer could be done anywhere, but sacrifices were done at the temple. A person would bring an animal, often a lamb, or if they were poor, a dove. They would put their hands on the animal to lay their sins on it. Then the animal would be killed, as a punishment for the sin. This type of sacrifice continued until the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 71 AD. Paying money to the temple was also a sort of sacrifice. When Jesus drove the traders out of the temple, they were the people who sold lambs and doves, and the people who exchanged Roman money into special temple money.
Part of Christian belief is that Jesus Christ did not just come as a human person so that he could teach a better way of life. Christians also believe that Jesus was the "ultimate" sacrifice for the sin of humankind, that Jesus is the "Saviour": the one who is here to save. Christians believe that, unlike ordinary people, Jesus was completely pure and free from sin, but that when he died on the cross, he took on himself all the sins of every person who would believe in him, like the lamb sacrificed in the temple.
Based on John's Gospel, Christian teaching is that the death and resurrection of Jesus are the sign of his power to forgive the sins of any person who turns to him and truly asks for forgiveness. The Bible says that sinners who are forgiven should try to live a "new life" and not go back to their sinful behaviour. Christians believe that knowing about God's love helps people to live a new and better life.
These are three verses from the Bible that are important in this Christian belief:-
""For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John's Gospel, 3:16."
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."" John's Gospel, 14:6.
""If we say we have no sins, we are fooling ourselves and not telling the truth. But if we tell our sins humbly to God, then He has promised to listen and to forgive our sins and make us clean from all our badness."" from the First Letter of John.
Some people who are not Christians believe that Jesus lived at the time that the Gospels say, but do not believe that Jesus was the "Son of God" or "Savior". They believe that Jesus was an ordinary, but very good person, a teacher and perhaps a prophet.
Mohandas Gandhi said, "I am a Muslim, and a Hindu, and a Christian, and a Jew," even though he was born a Jain.
Muslims believe Jesus (under the name Isa) was the second-to-last Prophet (messenger of God). They believe that Muhammad was the very last Prophet. They believe that both Jesus and Muhammad were ordinary men, chosen by God to be his servant and teach the word of Islam.
Muslims do not believe that Jesus was God or "the Son of God". Islam is strictly monotheistic: it says that there is only one God. Muslims believe that Jesus cannot be part of God, because there is only one God. If someone other than God is worshiped, it is thought to be polytheism (belief in more than one god). It is also thought to be idolatry: idolizing someone other than God.
Islam teaches that Jesus did not die on the cross, but another man disguised as him went on the cross for Isa (Qur'an 4:157). This is very different from Christianity. Jesus' death is a very important part of the Christian belief about salvation. Muslims always say "peace be upon him" after saying Jesus' name as a sign of respect in short and Arabic a.s.
Muslims also accept some other teachings about Jesus. These teachings say that Jesus will return to the earth in the End Of Days; he will then destroy the false messiah or Anti-christ before the day of judgment. Muslims also accept Jesus' claims to be a healer. They believe in the many miracles he is said to have performed, like raising the dead to life and giving sight to the blind. They believe that all his miracles were granted to him from God.
The Qur'an (like the Bible), mentions the virgin birth of Jesus but then it says other things about Mary (Islamic-Maryam). The Bible says that Joseph helped Mary give birth to Jesus, but in Islam there is no Joseph. Instead, Mary walked the desert alone in labor and found a tree. The angel Gabriel (Jibreel) asked if she was hungry, then told her to shake the tree and dates fell for her to eat. Then he asked if she was thirsty and he said look down at your feet and there was water and there she gave birth to Jesus. (Qur'an 19) This is why Muslims fast and how they break their fast. Mary knew she had to go back to her town and when she did, with Jesus in her arms, the people were shouting at her for adultery. Mary wanted to explain herself but the Angel told her not to speak.
Even though Jesus was a Jew and his teaching came out of the Jewish religion, most Jewish people do not believe that Jesus was the "Messiah" that is promised in the Jewish Scriptures.
In the Gospels, it tells that Jesus made the Jewish teachers very angry with his teachings. It says that part of their anger was because he told them they were "hypocrites" which means that they externally made themselves appear to be living a holy life, but internally their hearts were far from God's.
In the Gospels, the other reason that they became angry was that Jesus acted as if he was the "Messiah", and said he was the "Son of God". This meant that he was either a terrible liar, that he was mad and just imagined it, or that it was true. But Jesus did not seem to be mad. So that left only two choices. If Jesus was lying, then he was doing something badly against the Jewish religion. It was because of the claims that Jesus was the "Son of God" that some of the Jewish leaders wanted him killed and they handed him to the Roman rulers. The Romans did not care if Jesus said something that was against the Jewish beliefs. But they knew that people had also said that Jesus was "King of the Jews". The Jewish leaders claimed this was against the Roman Government's laws. Although the Roman leaders did not agree, they had him killed to prevent a possible riot.
Although, today and through history, most Jews do not believe what Christians say about Jesus, there are some Jews who do believe that Jesus was the "Messiah" promised in the Jewish Scriptures. Jews who believe this are called "Messianic Jews".
Nearly all modern scholars, both Christian and non-Christian agree that Jesus was a real person. Both Christian and non-Christian scholars base their studies of him on the Gospels. They are believed to have been written between 60-90 AD.
By tradition, "the Gospels" were written by four men, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John who gave their names to these books.
This is the order in which they are arranged in the New Testament of the Bible, but scholars think that it is not the order in which they were written. "The Gospel of Mark" was probably written before "the Gospel of Matthew". The four Gospels all tell the story of the Life of Jesus, but they do it from four different points of view, because they were written by different people and each writer had reasons to tell it in a different way.
Other scholars have said that leaders in the Early Christian Church made changes to the Gospel writings. These changes are said to have happened at different times, in different ways and for different reasons. For example, one story was left out of many old versions of the Gospels. It is about Jesus rescuing a woman who had committed adultery (had sex outside marriage) and was about to be killed. St. Augustine of Hippo, (354-430 AD) wrote that this was probably was left out because some church leaders thought the story might cause people to act in a sinful way. This story is in all modern Bibles and is thought to contain very important teaching for Christians. Other differences that can be found in versions of the Gospels are mostly small and do not make a difference to what is known about the life of Jesus and his teaching.
Mark's Gospel, which is thought by biblical scholars to be the earliest, has the name of a young disciple of the apostle Paul who is mentioned several times in the "Acts of the Apostles" and Paul's Letters. The Gospel was probably written in Rome and is thought by scholars to be from the memories of Jesus' follower or "disciple", Peter. It does not tell about Jesus' birth; it starts when he was 30 years old, at the time when the disciples got to know him. It shows Jesus as a man of action: going around the country, teaching and healing people.
Matthew's Gospel was written next. Matthew was one of Jesus' disciples. He was a Jewish man that was hated by other Jews because he worked for the Roman rulers as a tax collector. Matthew tells that one day Jesus saw him sitting at his desk in the market place and said "Follow me".
Most Biblical scholars believe that Matthew had read Mark's Gospel and decided to fill in some things that Mark left out, because, while Mark wrote his Gospel for the Church of Rome, Matthew wanted to write for Jewish Christians all over the Roman Empire. Matthew was a well-educated Jew, so he knew the Jewish Scriptures, (which Christians also use and call the Old Testament of the Bible). Matthew knew the scripture teachings that the Messiah, or God's anointed one would come. In his Gospel, he often mentions these teachings. He also starts off by giving a list of Jesus' ancestors because this was important to Jewish readers.
The apostle Luke was Greek and a friend of the apostle Paul. He was a doctor. Luke came to know about Jesus from the "disciples". Luke writes about the birth and the childhood of Jesus and he says "Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them."
Luke was not a Jew and he writes in a way that is easy for other people who are not Jews to understand. He explains Jewish customs and laws. He wrote a second book called "the Acts of the Apostles" which tells what the disciples did after Jesus had left them.
It is believed by scholars of the Bible that John was a "disciple" of Jesus and was probably the youngest of the twelve men who were Jesus' main followers. He lived to be an old man and, because of his teaching about Jesus, he was sent to a small island, called Patmos.
John writes with one particular idea in mind. He wants to prove to the reader that Jesus is God's way of saving humans from the terrible problem of sin or "evil". John starts by telling the reader that Jesus was and is God. John says that Jesus is God's "Living Communication" (or "Living Word"). Every part of "John's Gospel" is written to show that Jesus came from God, taught the "Message of God" and is the way for people to understand "God's Love".
The Gospels tell many of the stories that Jesus told when he was teaching people about the way that God loved them and the way they should live. These are called parables. They include the following:
In this story from chapter 10 of Luke's Gospel, Jesus shows what it means to be a good neighbour. Near the Jews lived the people called Samaritans. They did not agree with each other about religious teaching, and were considered enemies. One day, a Jewish man was walking, when some robbers beat him up, robbed him, and left him naked and almost dead, by the road. A Jewish priest came along and saw him. He thought, "If I touch that naked bleeding man, I will be unclean and I will not be able to go to the Temple!" So he pretended that he had not seen him. Another Jew, a Holy Man, came along and acted in the same way. At last a Samaritan came along with a donkey. When he saw the wounded man he stopped. He washed his wounds with wine and olive oil. Then he put him on his donkey and took him to the nearest inn. He paid the innkeeper and said "Keep him until he is well, and whatever is owing, I will pay when I come back this way." Jesus said to the people who were listening "Which one of these people acted like a good neighbour?" They said "He that stopped and helped." Jesus said "You go and act the same way."
In this story from chapter 15 of Luke's Gospel, Jesus tells how a rich man had two sons. They would both get a share of his money, when he died. The younger son said, "Father, give me my money now, so I can go and enjoy myself, while I'm young." He took the money to the city, and spent it all on parties with his friends and other sinful things. Soon he had none left to feed himself and was ashamed. He got a job caring for pigs, a unholy meat to eat, just keep himself from starving. He said to himself, "I'll go home to my father and I will say, 'Father, I have sinned! Please let me be a servant in your house!'" When his father saw him coming, he ran along the road to put his arms around his son. The father said, "Bring the finest clothes! Kill the fattest calf to make a feast!" When the elder brother heard all this, he was angry and said, "I'm a good son to you, but you never even gave me one little goat to have a party with my friends!" The father said, "You have always been with me. I love you greatly, and all I have is yours, but my son who was lost is now found! My son who seemed to be dead is alive! Be happy with me!" Jesus said that this is the way God loves and forgives his people, when they ask for forgiveness.
The United States of America (USA) is a sovereign country in North America. It is commonly called the United States (U.S. or US) or America. There are forty-eight states that border each other and Washington, D.C., the capital district. These states are between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. They are bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses some territories, or insular areas, in the Caribbean and Pacific. The city with the highest population is New York City. At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km) and with about 331 million people, the United States is the third or fourth-largest country by total area and the third-largest by land area and by population.
The United States was first settled by Native Americans. The United States is one of the world's most ethnically mixed and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with an estimated 2016 gross domestic product (GDP) of US$20.4 trillion (about a quarter of worldwide GDP).
The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which announced their independence from Great Britain and their creation of a cooperative union. The disobedient states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence. The Philadelphia Convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its approval the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, making up ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many basic civil rights and freedoms, was approved in 1791.
In the 19th century, the United States got land from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and took over the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Arguments between the farming-based South and industrial North over the growth of the institution of slavery and states' rights began the American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, the national wealth was the world's largest. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. In 1945, the United States came out from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a founding member of NATO. The end of the Cold War and the breaking up of the Soviet Union left the United States as the only superpower. The United States participated in the Space Race that produced rapid advances in rocketry, materials science with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Apollo 11 was the first flight to send people to the moon. It was done by NASA, the American space group. It went up to space on July 16, 1969, carrying three astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the moon, while Collins stayed in orbit around the Moon.
The United States is a federal republic of fifty states, a federal district, and several territories.
The land area of the contiguous United States is . Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at . Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, is in area.
The United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Russia and Canada and just above or below China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the United States is measured: calculations range from to to . Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.
The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north–south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.
The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet.
The United States, with its large size and geographical variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-dry. Much of the Western mountains are alpine. The climate is dry in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Extreme weather is not unusual—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes happen within the country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley.
The U.S. ecology is considered "megadiverse": about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland. The United States is home to more than 400 mammal, 750 bird, and 500 reptile and amphibian species. About 91,000 insect species have been described.
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. There are fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas. Altogether, the government owns 28.8% of the country's land area. Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching; 2.4% is used for military purposes.
A example of animals that are native to the United States such as opossums, raccoons, pumas and bears. Endangered animals in the United States include the jaguar, the California condor and the Florida panther.
Small trees and shrubs common in the United States are hackberry, hawthorn, serviceberry, blackberry, wild cherry, dogwood, and snowberry. Wildflowers bloom in all areas, from the seldom-seen blossoms of rare desert cacti to the hardiest alpine species. Wildflowers include forget-me-not, fringed and closed gentians, jack-in-the-pulpit, black-eyed Susan, columbine, and common dandelion, along with numerous varieties of aster, orchid, lady's slipper, and wild rose.
It is believed that the indigenous peoples of the continental United States, including the natives of Alaska, moved in from Asia. They began arriving twelve or forty thousand years ago, if not earlier. Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced farming, grand construction, and state-level communities. The native population of America decreased after Europeans arrived, and for different reasons, mostly sicknesses such as smallpox and measles.
In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached some Caribbean islands, making the first contact with the native people. On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first recorded European coming on what would become the U.S. mainland. Spanish settlements in the area were followed by ones in the present-day southwestern United States that drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Colony of Virginia in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of relocation; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies. Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.
Tensions between American colonials and the British during the rebel period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 through 1781. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. Announcing that "all men are created equal" and are born with "certain natural rights," the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted mostly by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776. That date is now celebrated every year as America's Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak federal government that operated until 1789. Morocco became the first country in the world to recognise America’s independence.
After the British defeat by American forces helped by the French, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and the states' sovereignty over American land west to the Mississippi River. A constitutional convention was organized in 1787 by those wishing to establish a stronger national government, with powers of taxation. The United States Constitution was approved in 1788, and the new republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and President—George Washington—took office in 1789. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and certifying a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.
Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a protected the African slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states permanently stopped slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution." The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, made evangelicalism a force behind different social reform movements, including abolitionism.
Americans' eagerness to expand westward caused a long series of Indian Wars and an Indian removal policy that stripped the native peoples of their land. The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed land under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size. The War of 1812, declared against Britain over different complaints and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. A series of U.S. military invasions into Florida led Spain to give up it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The United States took over the Republic of Texas in 1845. The idea of Manifest destiny became popular during this time. The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest. The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 further encouraged western relocation. New railways made relocation easier for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million American bison, or buffalo, were murdered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the buffalo, which were valuable to the plains Indians, caused many native cultures to become gone forever.
Tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over the relationship between the state and federal governments, as well as violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln, a candidate of the mostly antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven slave states declared their secession—which the federal government maintained was illegal—and formed the Confederate States of America. With the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the American Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation committed the Union to end slavery. Following the Union victory in 1865, three changes to the U.S. Constitution secured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves, made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a big increase in federal power.