Rel 101 Quiz #4

Son of Man

(1) A Hebrew Bible phrase used to denote a human being. The phrase appears often in the Book of Ezekiel, where it is commonly used to indicate the prophet himself. (2) In Daniel 7:12-14, "one like a son of man" refers to Israel itself or to a divinely appointed future ruler of Israel, although this figure is not given specific messianic significance. (3) In some pseudepigraphal writings, particularly the Similitudes of the Book of Enoch, he who serves as Yahweh's agent in the coming Day of Judgement is variously called "the elect one", "the Anointed One" and the "Son of Man" (4) In the Gospels, the phrase is always spoken by Jesus and in most cases applied to himself. Outside the Gospels, it is used only once, although the author of Revelations echoes Daniel 7:13.

Pentecost

(1) Also known as the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Harvest and the Day of the First Fruits, pentecost was a one day celebration held fifty days after Passover at the junction of May and June. (2) The occasion of the outpouring of Holy Spirit on early Christians assembled in Jerusalem, regarded as the spiritual baptism of the church

James

(1) Son of Zebedee, brother of John, and on of the Twelve apostles. A Galilean fisherman, he left his trade to follow Jesus and, with Peter and John, became a member of his inner circle. He was among the three a member of the inner circle. He was among the three disciples present at the Transfiguration and was at Jesus' side during his last hours before his arrest. James and John used their intimacy to request a favored place in the messianic kingdom, thus arousing the other apostles' indignation James was beheaded when Herod Agrippa I persecuted the Jerusalem church. (2) James, son of Alphaeus and Mary, one of the Twelve, called "the less" or "the younger". (3) James, the eldest of Jesus' three "brothers" (or close male relatives) named in the Gospels, first opposed Jesus' work but was apparently converted by one of Jesus' post resurrection appearance and became a leader in the Jerusalem church. According to legend, a Nazarite and upholder of the Mosaic Law, he was known as James "the righteous" and absolving Gentile coverts from circumcision. The reputed author of the New Testament Epistle of James, he was martyred at Jerusalem in the early 60s CE.

Gospel

(1) The Christian message- literally, "good news." (2) The name applied to the literary accounts of Jesus' life and/or teachings, especially Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.

Zechariah

(1) The son of Jehoiada the priest, Zechariah was stoned to death for denouncing Judah's idolatry (late ninth century); he is usually identified with Zacharians in Matt. 23:35 and Luke 11:51. (2) The son of Berechiah or the priest Iddo, a Judean prophet who was a contemporary of Haggai (c. 520-515 BCE) and urged the returned exiles to rebuild Yahweh's Temple in Jerusalem. Although Judah was then part of the Persian Empire ruled by Darius, he apparently regarded the Jewish governor, Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, as a potential messianic king. His work is characterized by a strange imaginary and apocalyptic visions. Chapters 9-14 of the Book of Zechariah are thought to have adapted the later author. (3) A Judean priest married to Elizabeth, a descendant of Aaron, whose log, childless marriage was blessed in his old age by the birth of the future John the Baptist. A vision foretelling the birth rendering him temporary paralyzed, but he recovered his speech in time to name the child and to utter a prayer of thanksgiving - the Benedictus.

Lazarus

(1) the brother of Mary and Martha, a resident of Bethany whom Jesus restored to life. (2) The beggar in Jesus' parable of rewards and punishments in the afterlife.

Kerygma

A Greek term meaning "proclamation," it refers to the act of publicly preaching the Christian message.

Logos

A Greek term meaning both "word" and "reason", used by Greek philosophers to denote the rational principal that creates and informs the universe. Amplified by Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Egypt, to represent the mediator between God and his material creation, as Wisdom had been in Proverbs 8:22-31, the term fund its most famous expression in the prologue of the Fourth Gospel to denote the prehuman Jesus- "the world became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).

Elizabeth

A Levite, wife of the priest Zechariah and mother of John the Baptist.

Realized eschatology

A belief that events usually associated with the eschaton (world end) are even now realized of fulfilled by Jesus' spiritual presence among believers.

Gospel of Thomas

A collection of approximately 114 sayings attributed to Jesus and allegedly the work of his disciple Didymus Judas Thomas. Although found in Egypt in 1945 as part of a thirteen-volume work containing forty-nine Coptic-languages books dating from the fourth and fifth centuries CE, it may have been written as early as the last part of the first century CE.

Gnosticism

A complex movement in early Christianity which taught that salvation was gained through special knowledge (Gnosis) revealed through a spiritual savior (presumably Jesus) and was the property of an elite few who had been initiated into its mysteries. Gnosticism became a major heresy in the primitive church.

Judas

A late form of the name Judah, popular after the time of Judas (the Jews) Maccabaeus and borne by several New Testament figures: (1) the brother ( or son) of James, one of the Twelve Apostles, who is sometimes identified with the Thaddeus of Matthew 10:3 or the Judas of John 14:22; (2) the "brother" or kinsman of Jesus; (3) Judas Iscariot (Judas the man of Kerioth), son of Simon Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus to the priests and Romans for thirty pieces of silver but later returned the blood money and died. The Gospel writers little understood Judas' motives, attributing them to simple greed or to the influence of Satan.

Nicodemus

A leading Pharisee and member of of the Sanhedrin who discussed spiritual rebirth with Jesus, visited him by night and defended him against other Pharisees, and, with Joseph of Arimathea, helped entomb his body.

Baptism

A religious ceremony first associated with John the Baptist and performed on converts in the infant Christianity community. Baptism may have been derived from ritual cleansing with water practiced by the Essenes, from some Pharisees' use of it as a conversion alternative to circumcision, or from initiation rites into Hellenistic mystery religions. In Christianity, its the ceremony of initiation into the church, performed either by total immersion in water or pouring water on the head.

Periscope

A term used in form criticism to describe a literary unit ( a saying, anecdote, parable, or brief narrative) that forms a complete entity in itself and is attached to its context by later editorial commentary. Many of Jesus' pronouncements probably circulated independently as periscopes before they were incorporated into the written Gospel narratives.

Bethlehem

A village about five miles south of Jerusalem, birthplace of David and the place where Samuel secretly anointed him king of Israel. According to Micah 5:2, it was to be the Messiah's birthplace, an idea that influenced the the Gospel writers' accounts of Jesus' nativity.

Mary Magdalene

A woman from Magdala, from whom Jesus cast out seven demons and who came his follower. A common tradition asserts that she had been a prostitute whom Jesus had rescued from her former life, but this is by no means certain. She was present as the Cruxifixction, visited Jesus' tomb early Sunday morning, and was one of the first to see the risen Jesus, although the male disciples refused to believe her.

Q

An abbreviation for Quelle, the German term for "source," a hypothetical document that many scholars believe contained a collection of Jesus sayings (Logia). The theory of its existence was formed to explain material common to both Matthew and Luke but absent from Mark's Gospel. It is assumed that Matthew and Luke drew on a single source (Q), assembled in about 50-70 CE, for this shared material.

Mary (mother of Jesus)

Form the latin and Greek Maria, from the Hebrew Miryam (Miriam), a name borne by six women in the New Testament (1) Mary the virgin, wife of Joseph and mother of Jesus, who, the angel Gabriel informed her, was conceived by the Holy Spirit. From her home in Nazareth, Mary traveled to Bethlehem, where her first son was born, and thence into Egypt to escape Herod's persecution, returning to Nazareth in Galilee after Herod's death (4BCE). She had one sister, probably Salome, wife of Zebedee, mother of James and John, and was also related to Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. Gabriel's annunciation of the Messiah's birth occurs in Luke 1:26-36; the Magnificat, in Luke 1:46-55. Mary visited Jerusalem annually for the Passover and reprimanded the twelve-year-old Jesus for lingering behind at the Temple. She may have been among family members convinced that Jesus' early preaching showed mental instability and apparently humored his requests during the wedding celebration at Cana. Although Jesus showed his mother little deference during his ministry, on the cross he entrusted her care to his Beloved Disciple. Mary last appears in the upper room praying with the disciples just before Pentecost.

Evangelists

From the Greek evangelion, "good news"; the writer of a Gospel.

Parables

From the Greek parabole ( a placing beside, a comparison), a short fictional narrative that compares something familiar to an unexpected spiritual value. Using a commonplace object or event to illustrate a spiritual principal was Jesus' typical method of teaching in Synoptic Gospels. Yet a recurrent tradition held that Jesus used parables to prevent most of his hearers from understanding the message. Famous Hebrew Bible parables or fables include Nathan's, Isaiah's, Jotham's, Jehoash's, and Ezekiel's, the last tow of which are allegories.

Eucharist

From the Greek word for "gratitude" or "thanksgiving," Eucharist is a name for the Christian ceremony of consecrated bread and wine that Jesus initiated at the Last Supper.

Galilee

From the Hebrew term "Galil ha-goyim," meaning "circles of Gentiles," the name given northern Palestine lying west of the Jordan, an area originally assigned to the tribes of Ashur, Zebulun, and Naphtali, who failed to evict the Canaanites living there. The region where Jesus grew up, Galilee was then under Roman control but administered by the tetrarch Herod Antipas (4BCE- 39CE).

Gabriel

In the Hebrew angelic hierarchy, one of the seven archangels whose duty it was to convey the Deity's messages. Gabriel explained Daniel's visions to him and, in the New Testament announced the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. The name may mean "person of God" or "God has shown himself mighty".

Satan

In the Hebrew bible, "the satan" appears as a prosecutor in the heavenly court among the "sons of God" (Job 1-2; Zech. 3:1-3) and only later as a tempter (1 Chron. 21:1; 2 Sam. 24:1). Although the Hebrew bible says virtually nothing about Satan's origin, the pseudepighal writings contain much legendary material about his fall from heaven and the establishment of a hierarch of demons and devils. By the time the New Testament was written, he was believed to head a kingdom of evil and to seek the corruption of all people, including the Messiah (Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). Satan (the "Oppressor" or "Adversary") is also the "evil one" (Matt. 6:13; 13:19; Eph. 6:16; 1 John 2:13; 5:18-19), "the Devil" (Matt. 4:1; 13:39; 25:41; John 8:44; Eph. 4:27), and the primordial serpent who tempted Eve (Rev. 12:9).

Thomas

One of the Twelve Apostles, seldom mentioned in the Synoptics but relatively prominent in the Fourth Gospel, where he is called "Didymus" (twin). Unable to believe the other disciples' reports of Jesus' resurrection, Thomas is suddenly confronted with the risen Jesus and pronounces the strongest confession of faith in the Gospel.

Incarnation

The Christian doctrine asserting that the prehuman Son of God became flesh, the man Jesus of Nazareth, to reveal the divine will to humanity- a doctrine based largely on the Logos hymn that opens the Fourth Gospel.

Docetism

The belief, commonly associated with Gnostic Christianity, that Jesus was pure spirit and only appeared to be physically human, from the Greek verb meaning "to seem".

Synoptic gospels

The first three Gospels, so named because they share a large quantity of materials in common, allowing their texts to be viewed together "with one eye".

Paul

The most influential apostle and missionary of the mid-first-century CE church and author of seven to nine New Testament letters. Saul of Tarsus ( in Acts Paul's original name) was born in the capital of Asia Minor province of Cilicia into a family of Pharisees of the tribe of Benjamin and had both Roman and Taurean citizenship. Suddenly converted to Christianity after persecuting early Christians, he undertook at least three international missionary tours, presenting defenses of the new faith before Jewish and Gentile authorities. His emphasis on the insufficiency of the Mosaic Law of salvation and the superiority of faith to law and his insistence that Gentiles be admitted to the church without observing Jewish legal restriction were decisive in determining the future development of the new religion. He was probably martyred in Rome about 64-65CE.

Peter

The most prominent of Jesus' twelve disciples, Peter was also known as Simon (probably his surname), Simeon (Symeon), and Cephas (the Aramaic equivalent of petros, meaning "the rock" or "stone"). The son of Jonas or John, brother of the apostle Andrew, and a native Bethsaida, a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee, he was called by Jesus to be "a fisher of men". The first to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, Peter later denied him three times. Commanded to "feed [the resurrected Jesus] sheep", Peter became a leader of the Jerusalem church and miracle worker and was instrumental in bringing the first Gentiles into the church, although, Paul regarded him as a conservative obstacle to this movement. He appeared before the Sanhedrin ad was miraculously rescued from at least one imprisonment. A married man, Peter was to be the "rock" on which Jesus' church was built. Although some scholars regard him as the source of 1 Peter, virtually all experts deny Petrine authorship to the second epistle bearing his name. He was martyred under Nero about 64-65 CE.

Theophilus

The otherwise unknown man to whom the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts are addressed. He may have been a Roman official who became a Christian.

Holy Spirit

The presence of God active in human life, a concept most explicitly set forth in John 14:16-26 and in the Pentecost miracle depicted in Acts 2. The Hebrew Bible speaks of "the spirit of God" (based on the Hebrew word for "wind" or "breath) as the forces that created the universe and that inspires humans to prophesy and otherwise carry out the divine will. In post - New testament times, the Holy Spirit was declared to be the Third Person in the Trinity.

Last Supper

The ritual meal that Jesus held with his closest disciples the night before his death. Here he introduced the new covenant and shared the bread and wine that symbolized his body and blood about to be sacrificed on behalf of humanity. Paul first calls the Christian "love feast" (agape) or Communion by this name in 1 corinthians 11:20, where he describes the ceremony of the Eucharist. John's version of the event differs strikingly from that in the Synoptics.

Synoptic problem

The scholarly term for the question of relationship- the nature of the literary interdependence- of the first three Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. Most scholars agree that Matthew and Luke are expansions of Mark.

Gethsemane

The site of a garden or orchard on the Mount of Olives where Jesus took his disciples after the Last Supper; the place where he was arrested.

John the Baptist

The son of Zechariah, a priest, and Elizabeth, John was an ascetic who preached the imminence of judgement and baptized converts in the Jordan River as a symbol of their repentance from sin. The Gospel writers viewed him as an Elijah figure and forerunner of the Messiah who baptized Jesus but also recognized his superiority. When imprisoned by Herod Antipas, he inquired whether Jesus were were the expected "one who is to come." Jesus were the expected "one who is to come." Jesus' answer was equivocal, but he praised John's work as fulfilling prophecy. At his stepdaughter Salome's request, Herod had John beheaded. Some of John's disciples later became Christians.

Sanhedrin

The supreme judicial council of the Jews from about the third century BCE until the Roman destroyed Jerusalem in 70 CE, its deliberations were led by the High Priest (2 Chron. 19:5-11). Jesus was tried before the Sanhedrin and condemned on charges of blasphemy (Matt. 26:59; Mark 14:55; 15:1; Luke 22:66; John 11:47). Stephen was stoned as a result of its verdict (Acts 6:12-15). Peter, John, and other disciples were hailed before its court (Acts 4:5-21; 5:17-41), and Paul was charged with there with violating the Mosaic Torah (Acts 22).

Passion

The term commonly used to denote Jesus' suffering and death.

Christology

The theological disciple that deals with the nature of Jesus Christ, particularly his divinity, relation to the divine Father, and role in human redemption.

Transfiguration

The title given to an event in Jesus' life during which he was mysteriously transformed into a being of light. Alone on an unidentified mountaintop with his three closest apostles -Peter, James and John - Jesus, his form dazzlingly radiant, is suddenly seen conversing who figures of Moses and Elijah, representing earlier divine revelations, the Torah and the Prophets. Referring to Jesus as his "beloved son", a heavenly voice implicitly confirms Peter's recognition that Jesus is God's chosen one, the Messiah

Beloved Disciple

The unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved", whom the author of John's Gospel depicts as enjoying a more intimate relationship with Jesus than Peter or any other follower. Although tradition identifies this disciple with the apostle John, scholars can not verify the assumption.