Barter involves no medium of exchange, e.g., money. A dark, almost black, dense igneous rock from a lava flow or other intrusion. Originally an oblong Roman building, used as a hall of justice and public meeting palace, with double colonnades and semi-circular end. Later a Christian meeting hall built to a similar plan with a nave, two or four isles, one or more semicircular vaulted apses , and an open timber roof. Specific cultural conventions concerning true or false assumptions shared by a particular group held as factual or true.
People make sense of their world through their belief systems.
By forming and reforming their beliefs they seek to know, to understand, and to explain their world and why it is the way it is. A belief becomes a fact when there is conclusive evidence that the belief is accurate. Ideally people would seek to develop beliefs that are as accurate as possible, but unfortunately, the constraining quality of culture mitigates against their doing so. This is an important, controversial, and divisive matter in biblical study. The study of the anthropology of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament to learn more about the nature, diversity and similarity of biblical peoples.