Encountering the Old Testament, Chapter 1

canon

Greek word (kanon) meaning rule. In biblical studies, it connotes an authoritative collection of books accepted as the rule of faith and practice.

apocryphal

Term specifically relating to the extra books, in addition to the sixty-six books of the traditional canon, which are included in Roman Catholic Bibles; in general, means "hidden" or "concealed" and refers to any extracanonical scripture.

genres

Term used by Bible scholars to refer to literary forms or types (French "kind, sort, type"). Form critics group texts in the same genre if they share distinguishing characteristics.

Pentateuch

Term used for the first five books of the Bible, from Greek pentateuchos, meaning a five-book work. The Pentateuch is also known by the Hebrew word torah, which is often translated "law," but really connotes "teaching" or "instruction."

Septuagint

Translation of the Old Testament into Greek that dates to about 300-200 BC and comes from the Egyptian city of Alexandria. Its name and abbreviation (LXX) come from the fact that a team of seventy-two scholars did the translation work. The Septuagint provides an important early testimony to the Old Testament text.

Targums

Collections of Aramaic writings based on the Old Testament text dating from the early Christian era, though parts are earlier, that arose during a time when many Jewish people understood Aramaic better than Hebrew and provided common interpretations to the Hebrew text. In places, the Targums reflect a fairly literal translation of the Hebrew, while elsewhere they add commentary and stories as they elaborate on the meaning of the text; thus, they generally fail to provide a reliable witness to the Old Testament text, although they do help us understand early Jewish interpretations.

Dead Sea Scrolls

After a shepherd boy accidentally discovered the first of these scrolls in a cave at Qumran in 1947, archaeologists explored nearby caves and found additional scrolls. These scrolls date to around 100-200 BC and contain at least parts of every Old Testament book except Esther. They also provide much valuable information about the Essene community at Qumran. Most important, they confirm the reliability of the Masoretic Text.

transmission

Faithful conveyance of the Scriptures as passed on and handed down from generation to generation. This was the sole responsibility of the scribes in the ancient world, as they painstakingly copied the biblical texts—believing that they were copying the very words of God and thus taking great care to preserve the copies that they had received.

Masoretic Text

Hebrew copy of the Old Testament that has come down to us from the Masoretes—one of the most important and accurate groups of scribes who, from AD 500-1000, worked to preserve the Old Testament text using a complex system of markings called the masora. The oldest copies of this text date somewhat earlier than AD 1000, although most scholars believe these copies reflect a text from about AD 100. The Masoretic Text is the most reliable Hebrew text we have.

masora

Hebrew word meaning "bond" or "cord." In Old Testament studies, it refers to the system of vowel points and accent marks used to further clarify the Hebrew text of the Old Testament.

Torah

Hebrew word that literally means "teaching" or "instruction," though sometimes also translated "law." The term refers to the first five books of the Old Testament—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Moabite

Language in the family of Hebrew and Aramaic, used by the Moabites.

Phoenician

Language in the family of Hebrew and Aramaic, used by the Phoenicians, a prosperous people who inhabited the territory on the eastern Mediterranean coast. In Old Testament times, this territory was called "Canaan" by the Hebrews.

Ugaritic

Language in the same family as Hebrew and Aramaic, and the language of Ugarit—an important trade center near the Mediterranean coast. The Ugarit scribes created an alphabetic script of thirty cuneiform signs.

Arabic

Language in the same family as Hebrew and Aramaic.

Amorite

Language in the same family as Hebrew and Aramaic. As the ancestor of the Aramaic language, it helps clarify our understanding of certain aspects of biblical Hebrew. The Amorites dominated the history of Mesopotamia during the second millennium BC and eventually established major foci of power in the south at Babylon on the Euphrates, and in the north at Assur and Nineveh along the Tigris.

Ammonite

Language of Ammon, in the same family as Hebrew and Aramaic.

Akkadian

Language of the Assyrians and Babylonians, which was in the same language family as Semitic Hebrew and Aramaic. The Akkadians were a Semitic group that rose to power during the last quarter of the third millennium BC and occupied southern Mesopotamia together with the Sumerians.

grammatical-historical method

Method of biblical interpretation that seeks to find the basic "plain sense" meaning of a Bible passage by applying standard rules of grammar and syntax, seeking to determine what the text says grammatically and what it meant historically. It strives to discover the author's original intention by careful use of the rules of context, genre, language, and biblical consistency.

Samaritan Pentateuch

Old Testament text containing only Genesis through Deuteronomy, which originated with the Samaritans—who came from the intermarriage of Jews and foreigners in the territory of the northern kingdom after it fell to Assyria in 722 BC. The oldest manuscript of this text dates to about AD 1100, although many scholars believe it is based on a text from 200-100 BC.

hermeneutics

Science of interpreting the Bible. Hermeneutics involves the application of time-tested principles to draw out the biblical text's intended message.

Aramaic

Semitic language, closely resembling Hebrew in vocabulary and basic morphology, in which a few portions of the Old Testament were written (Gen. 31:47b; Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Jer. 10:11b; Dan. 2:4b-7:28). The term "Aramaic" comes from the pre-Hellenic name of Syria, Aram. Aramaic eventually became the common language of postbiblical Judaism, as seen in the Mishnah, Midrash, and Talmud.

inspiration

The process through which the Bible was written. God, Scripture's ultimate author, allowed human writers the freedom to express their own personalities as they wrote, but the Holy Spirit guided the process so that the ideas and words the writers chose accurately conveyed the meaning God intended.