OT Survey Quiz #4

meter

Accent pattern in rhythmic lines or verses. Hebrew poetry relies heavily on meter, and some commentators have suggested that ancient writers used a variety of metric styles and patterns to convey certain moods or ideas.

acrostic

Alphabetic poem in which the first letter of each line is the next successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Hence, there are twenty-two letters of the alphabet. In some examples, more than one line opens with the same letter.

theodicy

Attempt to vindicate the justice and holiness of God in light of the existence of evil in the world. If God is both all-powerful and all-loving, as the Bible everywhere claims, then how can evil continue to exist in the world? How can the wicked prosper if God is just? Why do good people suffer, and how could God let it happen? The Book of Job is one biblical response to this question.

chiasm

Based on the Greek letter X (chi) denoting an inverted sequence or cross-over of parallel words, phrases, or concepts in a sentence or larger literary unit.

polytheistic

Belief in many gods. Often linked to fertility religions and nature religions of antiquity.

Asherah

Canaanite goddess of the sea and the female consort of Baal, the Canaanite god of agriculture and fertility. The Israelites began worshiping these two deities, building shrines to them and adopting the sexual fertility rites that accompanied their worship, including sacred prostitution.

doxology

Closing verses of the last psalm in each of the five collections or divisions of the Book of Psalms, which "tie off" that part of the book with an ascription of praise to the Lord. The grand psalm of praise, Psalm 150, fittingly concludes the entire collection.

synthetic parallelism

Common literary characteristic of Hebrew poetry in which the second line normally completes a thought that the first line left incomplete; the two lines stand in relationship to each other, although that relationship is not as clearly defined as in synonymous or antithetic parallelism. Some interpreters suggest that this term merely provides a catch-all category for verses that do not display characteristics of synonymous or antithetic parallelism.

synonymous parallelism

Common literary characteristic of Hebrew poetry that involves a repetition of the same thought or a similar thought; the two parts basically reflect the same idea, as in Psalm 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands," or Proverbs 9:10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."

antithetic parallelism

Common, easy-to-recognize literary characteristic of Hebrew poetry in which two lines stand in sharp contrast to each other. The book of Proverbs also often employs such parallelism.

wisdom literature

Designation that modern scholars use for three books that share "wisdom" features: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes; selected Psalms are also part of the collection. This provides an example of cross-cultural communication of faith, as the ancient Israelites interacted with the literature and world-view of their neighbors and were comfortable incorporating materials from other cultures while eliminating polytheistic elements.

retribution

Doctrine which holds that goodness results in prosperity and wickedness leads to suffering; Mesopotamian dialogue material accepted the doctrine of retribution presented in Job and Ecclesiastes.

parallelism

Feature of Hebrew poetry in which at least two parallel lines of verse complement each other in some way and typically display parallelism of thought rather than of rhyme or sound. Such parallelism may be synonymous, antithetic, or synthetic.

Leviathan

In Job 40, probably refers to the crocodile as a picture of strength, resilience, and apparent indestructibility that God uses to contrast his mighty power with the weakness and ignorance of the human being.

Behemoth

In Job 40, probably refers to the hippopotamus as a picture of strength, resilience, and apparent indestructibility which God uses to contrast his mighty power with the weakness and ignorance of the human being.

rationalist

Individual who accepts reason as the supreme authority in matters of opinion, belief, or conduct, holding that human reason, unaided by divine revelation, is an adequate or sole guide to all attainable religious truth. Zophar, one of Job's friends considered himself a rationalist, reasoning that Job's punishment was no less than can be reasonably expected and concluding that Job should put his iniquity and wickedness "far away".

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.

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 who rose to power during the last quarter of the third millennium B.C. and accepted southern Mesopotamia together with the Sumerians.

vulgate

Latin translation of the Bible written by Jerome about A.D. 400. This translation includes the Apocrypha, the collection of esteemed Jewish books not found in the Old Testament nor accepted by Jews or Protestant Christians.

Messiah

Literally, "anointed one". The term could denote prophets, priests, or kings, but more specifically refers to Jesus Christ, God's ultimate anointed one, who accomplished God's redemptive purpose and one day will return to establish his kingdom.

rhyme

Literary characteristic of Hebrew poetry that describes the agreement in ending sounds of poetic lines, verses, or words. Hebrew poetry relies much more on meter than rhyme, although rhyme sometimes does occur.

dialogues

Literary works in the form of a conversation between two or more persons. Dialogues were often found in ancient Mesopotamian discursive wisdom literature, that is, documents produced by ancient Near Eastern sages containing lengthy discourses or essays grappling with life's most difficult problems.

sages

Men renowned for wisdom who in the ancient Near East produced documents containing lengthy discourses or essays grappling with life's most difficult problems.

Baal

Most important god of the Canaanite pantheon, his name means "master." Baal was god of fertility and was worshiped extensively in western Asia from Babylonia to Egypt.

Kassite period

Period of Mesopotamian history from the fourteenth to twelfth centuries B.C., during which we find examples of Mesopotamian dialogue literature such as the text Ludlul bēl nēmeqi ("I will praise the Lord of wisdom"), a lengthy monologue in which a noble Babylonian recounts how he met with every sort of disaster before the god Marduk eventually restored him to his position. The people of this period were people "from the eastern hills" who gradually took over Babylon and ruled for a time.

prologue

Preface or introductory part of a discourse, poem, or novel; in Job, the prose prologue helps create a literary frame for the poetic speeches.

monologues

Prolonged talk or discourse by a single speaker or any composition, such as a poem or drama, in which a single person or actor speaks alone. These were often found in ancient Mesopotamian discoursive wisdom literature, that is, documents produced by ancient Near Eastern sages containing lengthy discourses or essays grappling with life's most difficult problems.

hymn

Psalm, or song, of praise in which writers praised the Lord and offered him thanksgiving for who he was and what he had done. Such hymns featured either individual or corporate praise.

lament psalms

Psalms, or songs, typically containing three elements, which may or may not occur in the following order: (1) the bemoaning of one's condition, (2) stating of the psalmist's trust in God, that God will somehow bring him through his trials, and (3) some kind of praise that God has heard his prayer and will eventually intervene for him.

imprecatory psalms

Psalms, or songs, which call for God's judgement on the psalmist's enemies; they may be individual or corporate in nature. Although these psalms have provoked much theological discussion because of their angry content, we must, we must realize that the psalmists in these verses help us see the human side of Scripture, as they cried out in anger and frustration, and in their terrible circumstances. The psalmists also left judgment in the hands of God, calling on God to judge but recognizing that only God held that absolute right.

messianic psalms

Psalms, or songs, which describe the Messiah, God's anointed one.

penitential psalms

Psalms, or songs, which express sorrow for sin. These pslams may reflect the repentance of one person or of the community of worshipers, confessing sorrow for sin and appealing to God's grace for restoration.

royal psalms

Psalms, or songs, which on Israel's king, usually describing him as God's special representative to rule Israel. Psalms 2, 45, and 110 provide good examples of such royal psalms.

wisdom psalms

Psalms, or songs, which relate general observations about life, in which the writters typically make little effort to defend the truths that they expound; rather, they simply present such truths as self-evident descriptions of the way God has intended life to be, usually describing God and our relationship with him in one or more of its facts.

allegory

Story that contains hidden or symbolic meaning.

proverb

Succinct and persuasive saying proven true by experience, addressing various topics that relate to God, his world, and life. Proverbs are statements of general truth, not hard-and-fast promises or commands to be applied in every situation.

genres

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

monotheistic

Theological and philosophical position that there is only one God.

septuagint

Translation of the Old Testament into the Greek that dates to about 300-200 B.C. 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.

distichs

Units of individual proverbs consisting largely of a collection of proverbial sayings in poetic verse of two lines each (couplets), usually making complete sense; the parallelism is almost always antithetical.

cuneiform

Writing system invented by the Sumerians around 3100 B.C. Wedgelike shapes were pressed into wet clay, or inscribed on stone or metal to represent words.