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In the Old Testament, the family constitutes the basis of the Israelite society. The Hebrew wisdom presents the foundation of a family as the goal of man's life. The first commandment given to man in Paradise was the perpetuation of the human and the domination of the earth (Gen. 1:28). The process of procreation is not a purely biological one and he depends not only on man himself, but God intervenes in his creation, promising many descendants (Gen. 15:5, 16:10, 22:17, 26:4). That is why, in the Old Testament, th...

Unlike the Torah, which is given by God from Heaven, royalty belongs to public political life and teaches about order, power and justice. The Israelite kingship is not a purely historical institution, but also a divine one (Ps 89, 28-37). Peace, prosperity, well-being, authority of the Israelite king are images of how God communicates with the people of Israel. The obedience of the Jewish King to the revealed Word of God, the Torah, cancels the monarchic absolutism (Deut. 17:16-17): when the king David stands hims...

Created in the image of God, the man is destined for a perfect life, for the similarity with Him, which must be materialized through the presence of grace in his life. The first man, who wavered in the Garden of Eden between „eating” and „not eating” from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, chose to live no longer close to God and to „win” the distance, the independence, and the existence „outside”. Destined to be person, capable and open to the communion of persons, following the model of the Trinity, the...

In the Hebrew Scripture, the representation of God is totally forbidden by the second commandment of the Decalogue. The Ten Commandments also debut with the categorical affirmation of One God and with the prohibition to represent Him in some contingent form. Deuteronomy 4:12 is a development of this commandment, insisting that the anthropomorphic representation of God is forbidden, because „no appearance was visible to you, except the voice”. The voice of God is revealed, becomes "visible", perceptible to the sens...

As biblical arguments for the idea of the unity of revelation and of the intrinsic relation of the two Testaments, Fra Angelico reproduces under each image from the complex Armadio degli argenti two scriptural texts: the first one is an Old Testament prophecy and the second one is a New Testament text that shows the fulfilment of the first. Each pair of texts exemplifies the idea of “wheel in the middle of the wheel” and demonstrates the authenticity of the holy text, and the reality and unity of revelation. G...