New Testament Test 1

Canon

A term that means "rule" or "standard," like a measuring stick. It is used to refer to the collection of authoritative writings of a particular group of people. Although we do not know the exact date of the final assembly of all the canonical books of the Christian Bible, the first list that corresponds to today's canon was not recorded until the fourth century C.E.

Passion Narratives

A term used to refer to the suffering and death of Jesus. The gospel story of Jesus' arrest, trial, and crucifixion is called this.

Heresy

A theological teaching that is not consistent with the endorsed or approved teaching of the religious tradition to which the person belongs.

Son of God

Describes a person with a special relationship to God. Old Testament kings, angelic beings, and righteous people were called this. In the New Testament, the title is ascribed to Jesus.

Zechariah

Father of John the Baptist. Had a vision of an angel during his service in the Temple. He was unable to speak until the birth of his Son.

Simon of Cyrene

Foreigner who was forced to help Jesus carry his cross.

Miracle Stories

Four different types of these: exorcism, resuscitation, healing, and nature. The form of a miracle story is normally a description of need followed by the miraculous deed and the results of that deed.

Sadducees

A religious group of first-century Judaism. Composed primarily of priests, it controlled the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. We know little about their teachings except that they rejected the notion of afterlife and immortality of the soul. They accepted only the Torah as God's law and therefore were considered to be narrow or strict interpreters of Jewish law.

Gospel

From the Anglo-Saxon god-spell, which means "good tidings"; a translation of the Greek word 'euangelion' which means "good message"; the first four books of the New Testament.

Synoptic

From the Greek word 'synoptikos' which means "seeing the whole together." The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called by this because they tell the same general story of Jesus in the same kind of way and with more or less the same order.

Christology

From the Greek words 'Christos', which means "anointed", and 'logos', which means "teaching" or "word." This refers to the study of the person and nature or function of Jesus as the Messiah or Christ.

Synagogue

In Judaism, the location where people gathered; a gathering consisting of a minimum of ten adult males. They assembled for worship, the study of scripture, and the administration of the affairs of the local Jewish community. This originated as early as the Babylonian Exile after the Temple was destroyed. There were no sacrifices offered here.

Mystery Religions

In the Greco-Roman world, religions of the common people that included initiation rituals, myths about death and rebirth, and the belief or expectation that a person could conquer the powers of chaos and fate through knowledge of and identification with the god or goddess. Examples include the Eleusian mysteries and the cults of Mithras and Dionysus.

Pentateuch

Refers to the Law of Moses; the first five books of the Old Testament, also called the Torah.

Herod Antipas

Son of Herod the Great. The ruler mentioned during the majority of the Gospels. Extremely paranoid and built 7 fortresses around Palestine.

Infancy Narratives

Stories about the birth and early childhood of important persons. In the case of the canonical gospels, that person is Jesus.

Kingdom of Heaven/God

This phrase does not refer to a place but rather to state of being, in which God's rule is made manifest around the created world and evil is conquered.

Peter

Thought of as the head of the Apostles and the first Pope.

Ecclesia

A Greek word meaning "assembly." In the New Testament, it has been translated as "church."

Apocrypha

A Greek word meaning "hidden" or "concealed." Protestant traditions use it to refer to seven books and parts of two other books that are not part of the Hebrew canon. These include the OT books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (Sirac), 1 and 2 Maccabees, and Baruch and parts of the books of Daniel and Esther.

Messiah/Christ

A Hebrew word meaning "anointed one." In the Old Testament, it was used to designate anyone who was anointed: kings, priests, and even prophets. Because of the prophecy made to David about a future heir to his throne, messianic expectation became a significant aspect of ancient Judaism.

Son of Man

A Human being; A heavenly warrior/judge who battles the evil one at the end of time and subsequently is given power, honor, and glory; in the gospels, the one who must suffer, die, and be raised up.

Booths/Tabernacles

A Jewish festival celebrating the fall harvest. The name is derived from the fact that Jews commonly live in tents during the 7-day feast in order to commemorate the Exodus time.

Hanukkah

A Jewish festival that lasts eight days and commemorates the rededication of the Temple after it was destroyed the first time.

Essenes

A Jewish movement that existed from the second century until the Jewish War (70 C.E.). Some lived as monks and were associated with Qumran near the Dead Sea in Israel, but others married and lived in cities and villages throughout Palestine. Both groups were concerned about ritual purity and strict observance of community rules.

Weeks/Pentecost

A Jewish pilgrimage feast that celebrates the spring harvest of grain. Its name is derived from the fact that it was celebrated seven weeks after the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover).

Rabbi

A Jewish scholar, especially one who teaches on the Jewish Law. They usually existed only in Synagogues.

Covenant

A contract or agreement between a person in authority and his/her subjects. Judaism understands itself to have its identity in the these which God made with Israel, most notably the one with Moses at Sinai. Christianity understands Jesus to be God's establishment of a new one of these, making its members the new Israel.

Parable

A fictional story used for comparison. Its imagery is drawn from nature or common life, and it has a surprise or "twist" that makes the reader/hearer ponder its deeper, metaphorical meaning.

Irony

A literary device designed to catch the reader's attention and make them feel like insiders to the story. Verbal - occurs when a character of the story says something that he or she intends to be sarcastic, derogatory, or unflattering but the reader recognizes that it is a profoundly truthful statement. Situational - can be seen in an event that has a negative or demeaning meaning to the unaware but that readers recognize as revealing an entirely different meaning.

Intercalation

A literary technique in which a story is inserted within another story. Typically, the "inner" story explains the "outer" one or focuses its interpretation in a special way.

Herod the Great

A master builder and harsh ruler who sought to kill Jesus at the time of his birth.

John the Baptist

A prophet preceding Jesus who preached repentance and baptism. He lived the life of a hermit in the desert.

Pharisees

A religious group of first-century Judaism that was noted for its skill in interpreting the Law. According to Josephus, they were well respected among the people because of their pious way of life and their religious purity.

Passover

An annual Jewish observance of the Exodus event in which the Hebrew people gathered to sacrifice the lamb, placing the blood on their lintels and door posts so that the Angel of Death would "pass over" their homes but kill the firstborn of the Egyptians. It is a feast of remembrance, celebrated in anticipation of full liberation for Israel.

Text Criticism

An area of study and a set of methods used to reconstruct, insofar as possible, the original wording of an ancient document based on the evidence of later manuscript copies.

Form Criticism

An area of study and a set of methods used to uncover the oral traditions that an author might have used in the composition of a document. When biblical scholars first developed this methodology, they hoped to uncover the "setting in life" of these oral traditions and, in this way, reconstruct the story of the earliest Christian communities. Eventually, they abandoned this objective as unattainable, but this method is still an important first step for redaction criticism.

Redaction Criticism

An area of study and a set of methods used to uncover the various layers of editing in a written document. A critic using this method starts with the results of source criticism and form criticism and then analyzes the document in order to understand how and why the author gathered and ordered various oral traditions and written materials as he did.

Source Criticism

An area of study and a set of methods used to uncover the written materials that an author might have used in the composition of a document. Related to the study of the gospels, this methodology is used to explain the literary relationship among the synoptic gospels.

Centurion

An officer in the Roman army during the first century C.E. He was in charge of a century, that is, a division of one hundred men.

Judas

Apostle that betrayed Jesus.

Beatitudes

Brief statements of blessing that begin "Blessed are you..." or "Happy are they..." The most famous are found in Matthew's Sermon on the Mount and Luke's Sermon on the Plain.

Jerusalem Temple

Center of the Jewish religion prior to its final destruction in 70 C.E. The location of several pilgrimage based festivals (Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, etc...) Contained different courts based on gender and social status. Only the High Priest could enter the center area called the Holy of Holies.

Alexander the Great

Conquered most of Palestine and brought his country's ideals, culture, language, traditions, etc... to the conquered people.

Revelation

How God reveals truth through the scriptures. The concept can be that of literal interpretation, allegorical interpretation, moral/tropological interpretation, or anagogical interpretation. Literal sense means what is shown is what God means to show. Allegorical employs allegory. Moral/tropological gives what you are morally supposed to do. Anagogical refers to where you are headed in life.

Ascension

Jesus' ascent into heaven after his resurrection. According to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, this happened forty days after Easter, a symbolic number signifying change or transition.

Inerrancy

Literally, "without error." Christian churches' understanding of it is directly dependent on their understanding of inspiration. For some, it means that the Bible contains no errors or inconsistencies of any sort. For others, the Bible's form of this consists in its being a trustworthy guide to salvation, but it does not mean that the Bible is devoid of errors in areas of science, history, literary correctness, and so on.

Magnificat

Mary's hymn of praise to God, which was also her response to the greeting of Elizabeth before the birth of Jesus.

Testament

Meaning "covenant" or "agreement," this term can refer both to the legal agreement that a person makes to ensure that his property is properly disposed after death and to the parting words of the deceased. However, in the Bible, it refers to God's covenant relationship with humanity.

Deuterocanonical

Meaning "second canon," this term is usually used by the Roman Catholic Church and Some Eastern Christians to refer to literature that was given biblical status at a second or later stage of development. These books -- Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (Sirac), 1 and 2 Maccabees, and Baruch and parts of Daniel and Esther -- were part of the Septuagint Bible and the early Christian versions of the Old Testament but were not included in the TaNaK.

Diaspora

Meaning "to scatter," this term was used to refer to Jews living outside of Palestine after the Babylonian Exile.

Theophilus

Means "lover of God." In the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles, Luke names him as the one to whom these documents were addressed (Luke 1:3; Acts 1:1).

Joseph of Arimathea

Member of the Jewish Council that was secretly a disciple of Jesus. He recovered the body of Jesus from Pontius Pilate.

Elizabeth

Mother of John the Baptist and cousin to Mary the mother of Jesus. She was thought to be barren before conceiving John in 'her old age.'

Joachim and Anna

Parents of Mary. (According to the Gospel of James)

Zealots

People who have "zeal" for God and for the establishment of God's kingdom; a Jewish political resistance movement that rallied against Rome in the years preceding the Jewish War (70 C.E.).

Apocalyptic

Pertaining to a religious worldview that expects the imminent end of the world. It includes the belief that the end time will be accompanied by a final conflict between God and the powers of evil and that God will establish a new world order.

Scribes

Professional copyists who were responsible for reading and writing all documents, whether commercial, personal, or religious. They were also the secretaries and clerks of the royal courts.

Annunciation

The Christian feast, celebrated on March 25, which recalls Luke's story of the angel who comes to Mary to announce the conception of Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

Visitation

The Christian feast, celebrated on May 31, which recalls Luke's story of the Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth after she learned that Elizabeth was pregnant with a son who would later be known as John the Baptist.

Septuagint

The Greek translation of the Old Testament. Also called LXX because it is the Roman numeral for 70. This was because, according to legend, 72 Jewish elders completed the job in 72 days and all came up with the same translation of the OT.

Yom Kippur

The Jewish Day of Atonement, a day of fasting on which God's people ask forgiveness for their past wrongs.

Pontius Pilate

The Procurator of the region of Jerusalem and Palestine. Answered directly to the Roman emperor. Reputation for being a brutal leader. Presided at Jesus' trial.

Babylonian Exile

The deportation that took place after the Babylonian conquest of Judah in 586 B.C.E. The people were allowed to return in approximately 530 B.C.E.

Gethsemane

The garden where Jesus and his disciples go after celebrating the Last Supper. This is where Jesus is ultimately betrayed by Judas and arrested.

Hellenization

The influence of Greek thought, language, and culture on indigenous peoples. This process began with Alexander the Great (322 B.C.E.) and continued through the reigns of his Hellenistic successors and into the time of the Roman Empire.

Eucharist/Last Supper

The last meal that Jesus eats in the gospels. During the meal, he predicts that one the the apostles would betray him and that he must be delivered up and die.

Tanak

The sacred scriptures of Judaism. The name is an acronym based on the scriptures' three parts: Law (Torah in Hebrew), Prophets (Nevi'im in Hebrew), and Writings (Ketuvim in Hebrew).

Transfiguration

The scene recorded in the synoptic gospels in which Jesus' appearance is changed so that he looks like a being of light. This event is generally interpreted as a preview of the resurrection.

Sabbath

The seventh day of the week, which Jews dedicate to rest and abstaining from work. It is patterned after the first creation story in Genesis, which describes God as resting on the seventh day.

Sanhedrin

The supreme judicial council of the Jews in Jerusalem. Jesus was tried before this group, condemned for blasphemy, and subsequently put to death by the Romans.

Barabbas

The zealot and murderer that the crowds have Pilate release instead of releasing Jesus. His name means "Son of the Father."

Torah

Translated literally, "the Law," referrring to the Law of Moses; the first five books of the Old Testament, also called the Pentateuch.

Frame Stories

Two similar stories (same plot, similar characters, etc.) that provide a "frame" around a collection of stories and teachings that highlight a certain theme. An example of this are the two multiplications of loaves.

Orthodoxy

Usually described as "right thinking" or "right belief," this term refers to traditional rules or officially approved teachings of a particular group.

Inspiration

When it pertains to the Bible, it describes the belief that God is its author. Some church traditions understand it as God's direct dictation, which is transcribed in written form by human secretaries. Others understand it to mean that the Bible is God's word communicated through human authors who are real authors, using their own language and historical and cultural expressions to convey what God wanted to reveal to humanity.