Amazing Grace, 1779 (hymn)

 

"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 by the English clergyman John Newton. With a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God.

 

Childhood & Early Life

1725 24^th July. Born in Wapping, London, to a Christian mother who taught him faith and a Puritan seafaring father.

1732 Suffered the loss of his mother to tuberculosis just before turning seven, ending his early religious instruction.

1736 Went to sea for the first time at age 11 with his father, beginning a harsh transition into adulthood.

1742 Abandoned the Christian faith of his childhood, developing a reputation for rebellious behavior, profanity, and dense skepticism.

 

Sailor Career & The Slave Trade

1743 Forced into military service by being impressed into the Royal Navy aboard HMS Harwich.

1745 Relegated to a passing slave ship after attempting to desert the Navy; he was later abandoned in West Africa and spent over a year abused and effectively enslaved under a native duchess.

1747 Rescued from West Africa by a sea captain sent by a friend of his father.

1748 Experienced a profound spiritual awakening on March 10 while steering the battered merchant ship Greyhound through a near-fatal North Atlantic storm.

1750 Married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Catlett, and returned to the ocean.

1750–1754 Captained three distinct commercial voyages trafficking enslaved Africans, initially seeing no conflict between his growing faith and the slave trade.

1754 Suffered a sudden medical stroke, forcing him to abruptly retire from active seafaring and the slave trade forever.

 

Clergy & Abolitionism

1755–1760 Worked as a Surveyor of Tides in Liverpool while teaching himself Latin, Greek, and theology.

1764 Ordained as a Church of England priest and appointed curate of the parish in Olney, Buckinghamshire.

1773 Wrote the lyrics to the hymn "Amazing Grace" (originally titled "Faith's Review and Expectation") to accompany his New Year's Day sermon.

1779 Co-published the highly influential Olney Hymns collection and relocated to London to become the rector of St Mary Woolnoth.

1785 Mentored the young politician William Wilberforce, successfully encouraging him to stay in politics to fight for systemic moral reform.

1788 Published a stark, highly public essay titled Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade, repenting of his past and detailing the horrors of the trade.

1807 21^st Dec. Passed away at age 82 in London, living just long enough to see the British Empire pass the Slave Trade Act of 1807 which outlawed the slave trade.

 

“Amasing Grace”
1773 John Newton wrote the lyrics of the hymn "Amazing Grace" (originally titled "Faith's Review and Expectation")

1779 15, February.  (First Publication) The lyrics were first published in London in the Olney Hymns, a collection co-created by John Newton and William Cowper. The hymn appeared under the original title "1. Faith's Review and Expectation" based on 1 Chronicles 17:16–17.

1835 September. (The Melody Addition) The lyrics were first formally joined to the "New Britain" melody and published in William Walker's The Southern Harmony in the United States. This is the crucial moment the modern song was born.

1910 (The Modern Standard) The final structural change occurred when an American producer named Edwin Othello Excell published the song in Coronation Hymns. He kept the first three verses, dropped Newton's final verses, added the "Ten thousand years" stanza, and arranged the definitive choral harmony used today.

Trust and Obey, 1887 (hymn)

The hymn “Trust and Obey” was written in 1887 during a time of spiritual renewal in the United States. Its words were penned by John H. Sammis (1846-1919), a Presbyterian minister, and the music was composed by Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919), a well-known gospel songwriter.

The inspiration for the hymn came from a simple but powerful testimony shared at a revival meeting. A young Christian stood up and said:

“I am not able to say much, but I am determined to trust the Lord and obey Him.”

Those few words struck Sammis deeply. He realized that the essence of the Christian life could be summed up in those two actions: trust and obedience. Later, he wrote the poem that would become the hymn’s lyrics, expressing a life of joyful submission to Christ rather than one driven by fear or duty.

Daniel Towner later set the words to music, crafting a tune that was both warm and memorable.

Maps: Jerusalem in the time of Jesus

 

Ancient Israel House : 1st Century Nazareth House

 

a house from the 1st century AD was discovered in Nazareth, 2009

example of a stone house with courtyard

Features of a house in 1st century Nazareth

Houses in Nazareth had a flat roof with exterior stairs at the side and an awning of woven goats’ hair to protect against the sun. This was used by the women as a work-space, an extra room.

The roof was also a cool place to sleep in hot weather.

The inside of the house , there were raised platforms at one end of the room, with cushions and mats – woven by the women and, like their clothing, embroidered.

The walls were covered with plaster, rubbed flat with a stone and painted with geometric patterns.

There was hardly any furniture. Niches were cut into the wall, and these provided storage for bedrolls and clothes.

Large amounts of food – jars of oil and olives, etc., were kept in separate storage areas, secure against mice. Archaeological excavations in the Nazareth area show there was a honeycomb of underground rooms under the houses, hollowed out of the soft rock. They were used for a variety of purposes – living quarters in the fierce heat of summer, cisterns for water, grain silos, and storage.

The inside rooms of the house were small and dark, so the courtyard and roof were important work areas, with better light for tasks like spinning and weaving.

Down in the courtyard was the cooking area, with an open fire, an oven and an array of cooking utensils. There was a mortar and pestle for grinding small amounts of grain and a covered area where people sat while they worked or talked.

Courtyard served as a daily workplace – the weather was dry for most of the year. Here Spinning and weaving were done, food was prepared, people met, and animals were kept.

The courtyard often contained a mikveh for ceremonial purification, and the family latrine as well, which was emptied every day into a communal manure pit.

Ancient Israel House : Iron Age's Four Room House

 

A four-room house, also known as an "Israelite house" or a "pillared house" is the name given to the mud and stone houses characteristic of the Iron Age of Levant.

The house is about 7.5 meters by 6.8 meters 

The four-room house is so named because its floor plan is divided into four sections, although not all four are proper rooms, one often being an unroofed courtyard. 

many four-room houses were at least partially two stories

The popularity of the structure started at the beginning of Iron Age I ( end of the 11th  century BC ) ( United Monarchy ) and dominated the architecture of Israel through Iron Age II until the Babylonian Exile. After the destruction of Judah ( of the 7th and 6th centuries BC ) the architecture type was no longer utilized.

Hundreds of four-room houses are known today from Iron Age sites mainly concentrated in the highlands (i.e. the Galilee), the Central Hill Country and the Transjordanian Plateau

Herodian Kingdom

89 BC, Asia Minor and surrounding region

Family tree of the Hasmonean dynasty

37 BC–4 AD, Herodian Kingdom of Judea 

4 BC–44 AD,  Herodian Tetrarchy 

Members of the Herodian dynasty mentioned in the New Testament

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