Religion test 2

Saul

(1020-1000) The first king of Israel, he was anointed by Samuel but was later deposed because of disobedience.

Cyrus

(550-530) Persian monarch, also called Cyrus the Great and Cyrus II, who founded the Medo-Persian Empire in the sixth century BCE and allowed the Judean refugees to return to their homeland after the Babylonian exile.

Zedekiah

(597-587) The last king of Judah.

Jehoiachin

(598) King of Judah for three months, he was taken captive to Babylon in the first deportation.

Nebuchadrezzar

(605-562; sometimes spelled Nebuchadnezzar) Monarch of the Neo-Babylonian Empire who invaded Judah and destroyed Jerusalem in 587.

Jehoiakim

(609-598) Second to the last king of Judah.

Josiah

(640-609) King of Judah who reformed Judean religion and died in battle at Megiddo.

Sennacherib

(704-681) Monarch of the Neo-Assyrian empire who besieged Hezekiah's Jerusalem in 701.

Hezekiah

(715-687) A king of Judah; he restored the temple, reinstituted proper worship, and received God's help against the Assyrians.

Shalmaneser V

(726-722) The monarch of the Neo-Assyrian Empire who laid siege to Samaria, capital of Israel, thus preparing the way for Israel's destruction.

Ahaz

(735-715) The king of Judah at the time when Isaiah was a prophet.

Tiglath-Pileser III

(745-727) Monarch of the Neo-Assyrian Empire at the time of Isaiah and the Syro-Ephraimite war. He is referred to as Pul in the biblical text.

Jehu

(843-815) King of Israel who was instrumental in engineering the demise of the house of Ahab.

Ahab

(869-850) King of Israel, married to Jezebel, whose Baalistic practices were opposed by the northern prophet Elijah.

Omri

(876-869) Founding king of an Israelite dynasty, father of Ahab, and established Samaria as the capital of the kingdom of Israel.

Rehoboam

(922-915) The son of Solomon who became the first king of Judah after the division of the kingdoms.

Solomon

(961-922) The son of David and Bathsheba who became the king of united Israel after David; he was renowned for his wisdom; he built the temple of Yhwh in Jerusalem.

Deuteronomistic History

(DH) Sometimes called the Deuteronomic History, the body of material that consists of the introduction to Deuteronomy (Chapters 1-4) and Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. It is an extended review of Israel's history from the conquest under Joshua through the destruction of 587 BCE written from the perspective of principles found in the book of Deuteronomy.

Theocracy

(adj. theocratic; Greek for "rule of God") A constitution in which God is regarded as ruler or sovereign.

Exile

(also called Babylonian exile) The Babylonian exile was the period in the middle of the sixth century BCE when Judeans were taken as captives to Babylonia and resettled there; it officially ended in 539 BCE, but many Judeans nonetheless remained there.

Isaiah of Jerusalem

(also called First Isaiah) The first main section of the book of Isaiah (Chapters 1-39) and the author of those chapters.

Zion

(also called Mount Zion) The hill on which the city of Jerusalem first stood. David's royal palace and the temple of Yhwh were both located on Mount Zion; later, Zion was used to refer to the entire city of Jerusalem. Already in biblical times, it began to symbolize the national homeland (see, for example, Psalm 137:1-6); in this latter sense, it served as a focus for Jewish national-religious hopes of renewal over the centuries.

Isaiah of the Exile

(also called Second Isaiah and Deutero-Isaiah) The second main section of the book of Isaiah, (Chapters 40-55) whose setting is the Babylonian exile. The term also designates the anonymous author of those chapters.

Isaiah of the Restoration

(also called Third Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah) The third main section of the book of Isaiah (Chapters 56-66), which dates to the sixth-century BCE period of the restoration of Jerusalem. The term also designates the anonymous author of those chapters.

Form criticism

(also called form analysis) The examination of literary units to discover the typical formal structures and patterns behind the present text in an attempt to recover the original sociological setting or setting-in-life (German Sitz im Leben) of that form of literature.

Succession narrative

(also called the court history of David) A narrative block of material consisting of 2 Samuel 9-20 and 1 Kings 1-2 that details the dynastic succession struggles of David's sons.

Servant of Yhwh

(also called the suffering servant) The otherwise anonymous figure of the book of Isaiah (Second Isaiah) who delivered God's people through suffering, variously identified by interpreters as Jeremiah, Zerubbabel, Israel, and Jesus of Nazareth.

Book of the Twelve

(also called the twelve prophets) Sometimes called the Minor Prophets, a collection of twelve short prophetic books in the Latter Prophets.

United Monarchy

(also called united kingdom) The period of Israel's monarchy when all twelve tribes were united under one king; this period lasted through the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon.

Messiah

(from Hebrew meshiach, "anointed one"; equivalent to Greek christos) Ancient priests and kings (and sometimes prophets) of Israel were anointed with oil; in early Judaism, the term came to mean a royal descendant of the dynasty of David and redeemer figure who would restore the united kingdom of Israel and Judah and usher in an age of peace, justice, and plenty. The messianic age was believed by some Jews to be a time of perfection of human institutions, while others believed it to be a time of radical new beginnings, a new heaven and earth after divine judgment and destruction. The title came to be applied to Jesus of Nazareth by his followers, who were soon called Christians in Greek and Latin usage.

Immanuel

(sometimes spelled Emmanuel) The name or title of an otherwise unidentifiable person in Isaiah's prophecy (Chapters 7-8); means "God is with us."

Etiology

(sometimes spelled aetiology; from Greek for "cause, origin") A term used to describe or label stories (etiological tales) that claim to explain the reason for something being (or being called) what it is; for example, in the old Jewish Creation story (Genesis 2:23), woman (ishshah) is given that name because she has been taken out of (the side or rib of) "man" (ish).

Habiru

(sometimes spelled hapiru or 'apiru) An Akkadian term denoting persons or groups who were social and political outlaws from established society; existing in the ancient Middle East in the second and first millennia BCE, they appear as slaves, merchants, mercenary soldiers, bandits, and outlaws; some scholars link this term to the word Hebrew.

Navi'

(sometimes spelled nabi; pl. nevi'im) Term for "prophet" in ancient Israel.

Nevi'im

(sometimes spelled nebi'im; Hebrew for "prophets") The second main division of the Hebrew Bible, comprising the Former and the Latter Prophets; the n of Tanak. (P2) See also Tanak.

Ai

A Canaanite city conquered by Joshua and the Israelites.

Jezreel

A Israelite royal city of the Omride dynasty; the place where Jehu executed Jezebel; it became a byword for Jehu's cruelty, and Hosea named his son Jezreel to signal God's judgment.

Hazor

A city in northern Canaan that resisted the Israelites but was conquered by Joshua.

Servant poems

A collection of four passages in Second Isaiah that refer to an anonymous figure, the Servant of Yhwh, who suffers at the hands of people yet has a redemptive role.

Complaints of Jeremiah

A collection of passages found in Jeremiah 11-20 that express his anxieties and frustrations in being a prophet.

Achan

A contemporary of Joshua who kept spoils from the conquest of Jericho, was held responsible for Israel's defeat at Ai, and was executed by the Israelites.

Davidic covenant

A covenant God made with David, pledging that the family of David would provide kings to rule over Israel in perpetuity (2 Samuel 7).

Michal

A daughter of Saul, given in marriage to David; she criticized David's behavior, and he refused thereafter to have relations with her.

Zadok

A descendant of Aaron, he was a priest at David's court; he supported Solomon's succession, so his descendants had rights to the chief priestly duties in the temple.

Prophets

A designation for the second main section of the Hebrew Bible, called the Nevi'im; the n of Tanak.

Apocalyptic prophecy

A form of prophecy that consists mainly of apocalypses and is largely oriented to the future, as in the latter half of the book of Daniel.

Ark of the covenant

A gold-overlaid wooden chest with two cherubim on the lid that stored the tablets of the covenant; it was housed first in the tabernacle, then in the Most Holy Place room of the Jerusalem temple; it was the location of God's presence within Israel.

Ehud

A judge of Israel from the book of Judges, noted for being left-handed.

Jephthah

A judge of Israel from the book of Judges. Sacrificed his daughter in thanks to God for helping him deliver the Israelites from the oppression of the Ammonites.

Gideon

A judge who delivered the Israelites from the tyranny of the Midianites. Sneaky and deceitful.

Hebron

A major city in Judah; the place from which David first ruled; Abraham and many other ancestors were buried here.

Lots

A mechanical means of divination, functionally similar to dice or drawing straws, that was used to determine God's decision in certain matters; used in the phrase "to cast lots."

Zerubbabel

A member of the royal Davidic line, an heir to the throne of Judah, who led a return from Babylonian captivity in the sixth century BCE; he was appointed governor of Judea by Cyrus, king of Persia.

Prophecy

A message from God that a prophet delivers to the people.

Nazirite vow

A pledge to live under a special set of restrictions as an act of dedication to God, detailed in Numbers 6.

Ezekiel

A priest taken to Babylonia, he became a prophet to the community of Judean refugees living there in the sixth century BCE; also, the prophetic book associated with this figure.

Jeremiah

A prophet in Judah during the Babylonian crisis (late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE); he was persecuted because of his unpopular prophetic statements including a prediction of the fall of Jerusalem; also, the prophetic book containing his oracles and narratives about him.

Creation-redemption

A prophetic theme found strongly in Isaiah of the exile whereby salvation is possible and can be expected from God because the deity has already demonstrated extraordinary power through creating the world.

Absalom

A son of David who murdered his half-brother Amnon, took the throne from David, and was killed by Joab.

Adonijah

A son of David who was executed by Solomon.

Jonathan

A son of king Saul, he had a special relationship with David; he was killed by the Philistines on Mount Gilboa.

Oracle

A statement originating with God, delivered by a prophet, and directed to an audience.

New covenant

A theme of the prophet Jeremiah based on the Mosaic covenant; God would renew the covenant with his people and write it on their hearts.

New Exodus

A theme of the prophet Second Isaiah based on the Exodus from Egypt led by Moses; Second Isaiah anticipated the release of Judean refugees from Babylonian exile in a new act of divine deliverance.

Gilgal

A village near Jericho where the Israelites first stopped after they entered the Promised Land.

Gibeon

A village north of Jerusalem that tricked Joshua and the Israelites into making a treaty with them.

Day of Yhwh

Also termed the Day of the Lord, the day that God of Israel battles his enemies; derives from the holy war tradition and was cited by Amos, Joel, Obadiah, and Zephaniah.

Samson

An Israelite judge and strongman who harassed Philistines during the period of the Judges. Not a very good example, an adulterer, ate food that was not thought to be clean.

Elijah

An Israelite prophet during the reign of Ahab; he defeated the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel and was taken to heaven in a firestorm.

Ahijah

An Israelite prophet who encouraged Jeroboam to rebel against Solomon's administration.

Call narrative

An account found in some historical and prophetic books that record the prophet's experience of being called into prophetic ministry; the call was usually issued in the presence of God.

Jeroboam

An administrator in Solomon's court who rebelled and became the first king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (922-901); he built non-Yahwistic shrines in the cities of Dan and Bethel; a king of Israel in the eighth century BCE also held this name and is sometimes referred to as Jeroboam II (786-746).

Monarchy

Any state ruled or headed by a monarch; Israel and Judah were ruled by monarchies during the period of the kingdoms.

Shechem

City in central Israel that was the capital of the tribal confederacy during the time of Joshua and the Judges.

Nathan

David's court prophet who mediated the Davidic covenant and exposed David's transgressions.

Joab

David's military commander.

Gog and Magog

Gog is a future foe of Israel and a personification of evil that lived in the land of Magog. Gog battled God's forces in Ezekiel 38-39.

Judge

In the period of the Judges, a person who held off Israel's enemies—for example, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. See also Judges.

Philistines

Inhabitants of Philistia; the Philistines were the most significant external threat to the Israelites during the time of the Judges and the early monarchy.

Baruch

Jeremiah's scribe, perhaps responsible for composing and editing the latter half of the book of Jeremiah.

Joshua

Moses' aide during the wilderness sojourn; after the death of Moses, he led the Hebrews into the Promised Land. Another figure was called Joshua (sometimes spelled Jeshua), the high priest of the Jerusalem community that rebuilt the temple.

Nahum

One of the twelve prophets; a late seventh-century BCE Judean prophet who announced the coming destruction of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. (11) See also Book of the Twelve.

Zechariah

One of the twelve prophets; a prophet and priest who returned to Jerusalem after Babylonian exile and encouraged the Jews to rebuild the temple. The book of Zechariah contains postexilic visions and divine oracles.

Haggai

One of the twelve prophets; a prophet who encouraged the Israelites to rebuild the temple after a return from the exile in Babylonia in the sixth century BCE (12) See also Book of the Twelve.

Zephaniah

One of the twelve prophets; a seventh-century Judean prophet who proclaimed the coming Day of Yhwh.

Obadiah

One of the twelve prophets; a sixth-century BCE Judean prophet who condemned Edom for its cruel treatment of conquered Judah.

Habakkuk

One of the twelve prophets; a sixth-century Judean prophet who sought to understand God's purpose in sending the Babylonians to punish Judah.

Hosea

One of the twelve prophets; an eighth-century BCE Israelite prophet who exposed the people's lack of faith in Yhwh.

Jonah

One of the twelve prophets; an eighth-century BCE Israelite prophet who was called to preach to the Assyrians in Nineveh.

Micah

One of the twelve prophets; an eighth-century Judean prophet who advocated justice for all people.

Amos

One of the twelve prophets; an eighth-century prophet from Tekoa in Judah, he preached to the northern kingdom and emphasized social justice and the coming Day of Yhwh. (10) See also Book of the Twelve.

Joel

One of the twelve prophets; of uncertain date but perhaps fourth century BCE; a prophet who preached the Day of Yhwh and the pouring out of Yhwh's spirit on everyone. (12) See also Book of the Twelve.

Malachi

One of the twelve prophets; of uncertain date but probably fifth century BCE, a prophet who foresaw the return of Elijah.

Amaziah

Priest of Bethel loyal to Jeroboam II; opposed Amos's preaching and presence in the northern kingdom.

Cities of refuge

Six cities designated in Mosaic law for those who accidentally killed someone.

Amnon

Son of David who raped his half-sister Tamar, and was killed by Absalom.

Midianites

Territory south of Canaan, of uncertain exact location; perhaps in the Sinai Peninsula or western Arabia; Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, was a priest of Midian; the Midianites afflicted the Israelites during the time of the Judges.

Jebus

The Canaanite city conquered by David and made his capital, Jerusalem.

Second Temple

The Jerusalem temple rebuilt by Zerubbabel and completed in 515 BCE that stood until it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE; the first temple was the one built by Solomon, which stood until 587 BCE. The second temple period is the time between these two temples, which corresponds to the period of early Judaism.

Hananiah

The Judean prophet who challenged Jeremiah over the issue of the yoke of Babylon.

Goliath

The Philistine giant that David killed.

Jezebel

The Phoenician wife of Ahab who promoted Baal worship in Israel and opposed Elijah the prophet.

Prophesy

The act of delivering a prophetic message of God to the people.

Nineveh

The capital city of the Assyrian Empire, located on the Tigris River.

Shiloh

The city in central Israel that contained a sanctuary during the time of Eli and Samuel where the ark of the covenant was housed.

Abner

The commander of Saul's army; he was killed by Joab.

Deuteronomic theme

The cycle of sin, punishment, repentance, and deliverance that the Deuteronomistic historian uses to organize Israel's historical experience.

Jericho

The first city in Canaan conquered by Joshua and the Israelites.

Tetrateuch

The first four books of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis through Numbers; the use of this term implies that these belong together historically as a literary unit.

Hexateuch

The first six books of the Hebrew Bible; there may be an underlying assumption that these belong together historically.

Primary History

The foundation story of Israel consisting of the Pentateuch and Former Prophets.

Eli

The high priest at Shiloh with whom Samuel ministered in his early years.

Anathoth

The hometown of Jeremiah in the tribe of Benjamin.

Zion theology

The ideology in Israel that affirmed the divine promises to the house of David and the invulnerability of the city of Jerusalem.

Deborah

The judge of Israel who engineered victory over the Canaanites (Judges 4-5).

Samuel

The last judge of Israel and the first prophet, he was also a priest. The son of Hannah and Elkanah, he succeeded Eli as priest and anointed first Saul and then David to be king.

Mount Gilboa

The location south of the Sea of Galilee where Saul and his sons died while fighting the Philistines.

Divine warrior

The notion that God is a warrior fighting on behalf of his people.

Jerusalem

The political and religious capital of Israel when it was united, then of the southern kingdom of Judah; David captured Jebus and made it his capital city, the City of David; Mount Zion is the ridge in Jerusalem on which the royal palace and temple were built; Jerusalem is where Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and resurrected.

Elisha

The prophet who succeeded Elijah in the northern kingdom of Israel.

Rahab

The prostitute of Jericho who harbored and assisted the Israelite spies prior to the conquest of Canaan; not to be confused with the Rahab of mythic and prophetic literature that is another name for the sea monster.

Josiah's reform

The religious reform of 622 BCE initiated by Josiah, king of Judah, after the Book of the Covenant was found in the Jerusalem temple; it is sometimes called the Deuteronomic reform because the book appears to have been an early form of Deuteronomy.

Glory of Yhwh

The revelation of God's being, nature, and presence to humankind, often through physical or meteorological phenomena.

Valley of dry bones

The scene from the vision of Ezekiel 37 that anticipates the restoration of Israel.

Conquest

The series of initiatives and military actions of the time of Joshua that were intended to secure Israel's control of Palestine.

David

The son of Jesse, anointed by Samuel to become king in place of Saul; he killed Goliath. His sons Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah, and Solomon fought to follow him on the throne. He is associated with the biblical psalms and is credited with politically and militarily uniting the ancient Israelite confederation into a centralized kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital; he created the largest empire Israel ever knew. David is said to have planned for the temple that his son and successor, Solomon, built.

Former Prophets

The term designating the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings—possibly so-called because it was assumed that prophets had written these books; Former because they were placed before the Latter Prophets in the canonical order of the books in the Hebrew Bible.

Throne-chariot

The vehicle carrying Yhwh that the prophet Ezekiel saw while in Babylonia during the exile.

Hannah

The wife of Elkanah and mother of Samuel; she prayed for a son; after Samuel was born, she dedicated him to God's service at Shiloh.

Gomer

The wife of Hosea the prophet who turned out to be unfaithful to their marriage.

Bathsheba

The wife of Uriah who committed adultery with David; later became David's wife and the mother of Solomon.

Hophni and Phinehas

They were two sons of Eli, the high priest at Shiloh; they died in battle at Aphek-Ebenezer fighting the Philistines.

Anointing

To pour oil over the head; this was part of a ritual of designation by which priests and kings were initiated into office. An "anointed one" (Hebrew meshiach) was a divinely designated leader.

Holy War

authorized by God and led by him; Old Testament holy war called for the complete slaughter of the enemy and the dedication of all spoils to God.

Latter Prophets

the technical name for the collection of prophetic writings comprised of the books of the three "major" prophets and those of the twelve "minor" prophets, collectively called the Book of the Twelve