An arrangement in which stipulated letters (for example, the

first) of the words in question (often of a poem or psalm) themselves

form a word or regular patter.

A story giving an explanation of the origin of a name, a

place, or a custom.

The Semitic language of Mesopotamia; Assyrian and

Babylonian are dialects.

A literary form that makes point-by-point correspondences

between two different situations.

The modern name assigned to the ruins of the ancient

Egyptian city of Akhentaten, capital in the fourteenth century B. C.

(Hebrew for "people of the land") A term used in the

Hebrew Bible for citizens, or some particular class of citizens; in

rabbinic literature, for persons or groups that dissented from or were

uninstructed in rabbinic halaka and rigorous purity and tithing norms.

Greek term for a religio-political federation with its

common focus a sanctuary dedicated to a god.

(ancient near east) The large region of southwest Asia that

includes Mesopotamia and territories bordering the Mediterranean Sea

Personifying; treating something nonhuman as

though it were human.

Type of poetic parallelism where the second

line of a poetic couplet is the opposite of the first line

A revelation about the end of the world or God’s coming

to render justice; the sort of literature that purports to derive from

heavenly visions and offers a view of the future consoling to those

who suffer from the faith.

Books or parts of books not found in the Hebrew Bible

but included in the Christian Old Testament.

A Semitic language closely related to Hebrew, evident from

the ninth century B.C. onward.

The scientific study of the material remains of the

human past.

A literary term used to designate recurrent situations,

characters, images, symbols or plots. Often they function in opposites

A container or chest, principally used to carry

the two tablets of the Mosaic Law

Derived from Hebrew "mountain of Megiddo," it is the

site of the final battle between God and the forces of evil in

apocalyptic thought.

A major ancient near Eastern empire, located in

Mesopotamia, which dominated Israel and the entire region from the

ninth through the seventh centuries B.C.

Ten days after the Fall New Year, a day set aside

to confront and remove the sins of the past year

A Babylonian story that recounts the creation of

humankind.

A general Canaanite name for ‘lord,” “owner,” “husband,” as

well as for “god.” Also the name of a specific Canaanite god (of the

storm).

Ancient Near Eastern empire, located in southern

Mesopotamia, which dominated Judah in the later seventh and sixth

centuries B.C.

(Hebrew for "blessing") In Judaism, an offering of

thankfulness that praises God for a benefit conferred or a great event

experienced.

(also spelled brit; Hebrew for "covenant") Used in Judaism

especially for the special relationship believed to exist between God

and the Jewish people

The special inheritance rights of the first-born son giving

him claim to the bulk of the ancestral property.

Also called the Covenant Code, Exodus

20:22-23:33; a collection of Israelite laws.

Sometimes called the Minor Prophets, a

collection of twelve short prophetic books in the Latter Prophets; also

called the Twelve Prophets.

Name for the region and inhabitants of the land of Palestine,

prior to its becoming “Israel.”

The polytheistic cult of Israel’s most important

neighbors. It was greatly concerned with fertility.

(adj. chiastic) A literary device in which, for emphasis, the

second part of a text is parallel to the first, but in reverse, for example,

ABBA, or ABCBA

The type of poetic parallelism where the

second line of a poetic couplet echoes part of the first line and adds a

phrase to it thereby extending and completing its sense

A Mesopotamian law code associated with the

eighteenth century B.C.E. Old Babylonian monarch Hammurabi; it has

similarities to the biblical Book of the Covenant.

The notion that the whole of reality is an

ordered (usually living) unity composed finally of a single stuff.

A formal, sacred treaty or agreement between two parties

with each assuming obligation. Refers especially to the relationship

established by God with the nation Israel.

The teaching that lays out the behavioral

implications of the covenant

evaluating evidence to arrive at a reasoned judgment

concerning the matter under investigation.

The writings discovered in caves along the northwest

shore of the Dead Sea, beginning in 1947, near a site called

Qumran.

The process of interpreting a myth in non-mythic

language to express its meaning without clinging to its mythic form.

Books included in the Septuagint but not in the

Hebrew Bible.

Concerning the history or theology of the Book of

Deuteronomy.

The narrative that spans from the Book of

Joshua through the Books of Kings.

The dispersion or existence outside Israel that

characterized many Jews as exiled.

The period between 922 and 722 B.C. when the

once united Israel became a Northern Kingdom and a Southern

Kingdom. It ended with the Assyrian conquest of Israel.

The concept, common to many ancient non-Israelite

societies, that the monarch so mediates between the people and

ultimate reality that he should be considered a god.

The theory advanced by modern source

critics that the Torah came into existence through the combination of

several originally separated “documents.”