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The Serpent Slayers
Genesis 3:15 is usually called the first messianic prophecy, and the reading is old and serious. God turns to the serpent, promises lasting hostility between its offspring and the woman’s, and says that one will be struck on the head and the other on the heel. Christian tradition has read that as the announcement of…
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King Shibi (Sanskrit: शिबि), the dove, the hunter, and the sacrificial king
In the Hindu Mahabharata, a king called Ushinara was famous for his righteous reign. The Hindu Gods tested the reputation of his son the next king. The story below is told in the Mahabharata, Vana Parva, in the section on the pilgrimage to the sacred fords (Tirtha-yatra Parva, chapters 130–131). The passages set as block…