Chapter 1- The Old Testament

Jew

the term originated with the return of the people of Judah from the Babylonian Exile in the latter part of the sixth century B.C.E. It is sometimes used interchangeably with the term Israelite.

verbal inspiration

the theory that God (or the holy spirit) directed the biblical authors to write what is contained in the Bible without any input from the human author.

Documentary Hypothesis

the theory that the Pentateuch was produces by combining four strands of tradition (the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomist, and the Priestly traditions) over a long period of time (ninth to fifth centuries B.C.E)

Torah

(1) the Hebrew scriptures as a whole; (2) the first five books of the Hebrew bible or Old Testament, also known as the Pentateuch or the law; (3) the Jewish law, or system of laws, believed to have been revealed by God to Moses and set down in writing in the first five books of the Old Testament.

Canon

(1) the collection of authoritative writings of a particular religious group; (2) the rule or norm of religions truth in the Christian tradition; (3) church law as defined by councils or other church authorities.

Priestly tradition

(priestly writer) according to the documentary hypothesis, the latest of the four sources that were combined to form the Pentateuch, written around the fifth century B.C.E or later.

YHWH

(yaweh) the name for God that is most commonly used in the Hebrew Bible/ old testament.

Septuagint

a Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures, created in the centuries before Christ by Greek-speaking Jews, but differing from the Hebrew Bible in the order of the books and n its inclusion of the apocrypha or deuterocanonical books; appropriated by Greek-speaking Christian Jews, it became the dominant version of the Christian bible for hundreds of years, and remains so for the Orthodox Christians.

testament

a synonym for covenant, this term is applied by Christians to the two major collections of books of the Bible.

Deuteronomistic tradition

according to the Documentary Hypothesis, the third of four sources that make up the Pentateuch; it dates to the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E

Yahwist tradition

according to the documentary Hypothesis, the earliest of the four resources that make up the Pentateuch; it dates to the ninth century B.C.E.

Elohist tradition

according to the documentary hypothesis, the second earliest of the four sources that make up the Pentateuch; it dates to the eight century.

Former Prophets

also know as the Deuteronomistic History; the biblical books of Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, and 1-2 kings, which tell the stories of legendary early prophets like Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, and Elisha.

Tanakh

an acronym for Torah (law) a term used to refer to the Jewish Scriptures.

Latter Prophets

comprised of the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) and the Minor prophets, (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi) also called the book of the twelve.

biblical inerrancy

for faith communities who accept the verbal inspiration of the bible, this means that the Bible is completely accurate in all respects and contains no mistakes whatsoever.

Bible

meaning "the book," Christianity's sacred and inspired literature.

Deuterocanonical

meaning second canon, the term refers to certain Old Testament books and parts of books whose canonical status has been disputed over time. Christians who do not accept them as canonical call them apocryphal.

Apocrypha

name given to the seven books that are included in the Old Testament by Catholics and Orthodox Christians but excluded from the scriptures by Protestants and Jews. The term is also used more broadly to refer to certain Jewish and Christian religious texts written during the same time as the biblical books and considered inspired by some but not included in the bible itself.

Israelite

one of the people who claimed Jacob also known as Israel, as their ancestor. The term is sometimes used interchangeable with the terms Hebrew and Jew.

Hebrews

referring to the ethnic group to which Abraham belonged, the term is sometimes used interchangeably with the terms Israelites and Jews.

Pentateuch

the first five books of the Hebrew Bible or Old testament, also know as the Torah or the law.