Term
|
Definition
* First five books of the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament
* Both Jewish and Christian faiths recognize them as the foundation on which the rest of the scriptures are built
* The five books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy |
|
|
Term
| Theologies of the Pentateuch |
|
Definition
* Creation establishes a good world
* God has blessed human life
*Humanity has a tendency to sin.
* God delivers from all evil
* God fulfills promises
* The covenant binds God to Israel
* The law expresses Israel’s bond to God
* God directs all of history |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Matthew, Mark and Luke
* Although similar in content, each has a unique theological perspective |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
his gospel was probably the first to be written, shortly after the persecutions of Nero (64 AD).
- The Mission of Jesus is compelling and one must respond without hesitation
-Conflict and suffering have a majro role
-Central Question is Jesus asking "Who do you say that I am?"
-Cross was main way of revealing Jesus' identity b/c it was at the heart of His mission. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
his gospel begins with the roots of his family tree, and he relies heavily on Mark and is enriched with the sayings of Jesus (Q) more than any other account. These sayings form a kind of “catechism” or teacher’s manual as they are organized into discourses or speeches of Jesus.
-Concerned w/ Jesus' Jewish heritage.
-Promotes mission of Church for both Jewish & Gentile Christians. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
he was not an eye-witness to the events of Jesus’ ministry. He draws on Mark’s account, a collection of Jesus’ sayings also found in Matthew (Q) and a source of additional material about Jesus (L).
-Account continues in Acts of the Apostles.
-The Spirit of God has guided the whole process of salvation from the earliest days of Israel, the ministry of Jesus and the development of the Early Church. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-Emphasis on pre-existing Word and the Incarnation
-Discourses attached to Jesus’ miracles point to his unique relationship with God.
-Jesus often identifies himself with religious symbols of life, light, water, bread, shepherd, vine, many roots of which can be found in the Hebrew scriptures.
- Adapts the kerygma to the Hellenistic world.
- Jesus is very transcendent. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
- His message of good news is that salvation is now accessible to all through faith in Jesus Christ.
-Focuses in on God’s power to forgive and working through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has saved Jews and Greeks alike, indeed all people.
- Includes the doctrine of 'justification by faith'
- |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Written in 1943 by Pope Pius XII Opened up Biblical study as a form of enriching the faith.
* (1) opened the way to a revival of Catholic biblical studies unparalleled in the history of the Church since patristic times; (2) began a more positive attitude on the part of Roman authorities concerning the acquired results of biblical research; the historical-critical approach can nourish and strengthen the faith |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
(1965) "The Word of God"
Refers to the entire revelation of God
* Tradition keeps scripture alive
In Jesus God has said it all because he has said himself.
* Science and historical truth are important for how they aid one’s salvation.
* Scripture is a privileged way in which revelation is passed down
* Any one passage must be interpreted in light of the whole of scripture |
|
|
Term
| On the Interpretation of the Bible in the Church |
|
Definition
1993 JPII
* the exegete is relieved from making the final judgment for the Church (magisterium does this)
* it is implied that there is more meaning in the text than meets the eye of the scientific interpreter AND more than may have been in the mind of the author
* OT’s principle purpose (but not the only purpose) is to prepare for the coming of Christ; for Christians the NT is hidden in the OT, and the OT is made manifest in the NT |
|
|
Term
| The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible |
|
Definition
2002
* Jews and Christians look at the same scriptures with different eyes, each with stand-alone importance |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Use of archeology and extra-biblical material: There is no archeological evidence to match the biblical account of the conquest of the cities of Canaan. Conquered cities would have been destroyed with the ruins leveled and new, rebuilt cities constructed upon them. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The immigration model or the traditional history model.
roposed that the Israelites first occupied the highlands and gradually extended their control to the plains. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The Israelites came and waged war on the cities of Canaan, Jericho, Ai, and conquered them, as recorded in the Book of Joshua; Little archeological evidence has been found for this, although cultural items have been recovered that are largely Canaanite, and there are no pig bones. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The Israelites came from outside the land of Canaan, first settled in the highlands, and then gradually extended their control to the plains. Some of the patriarchal stories of Genesis could be understood this way. Alt and Noth are associated with this model. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Israelites had their origins in a social revolution (Mendenhall 1962). Israelites who escaped from Egypt made common cause with disaffected Canaanites. Israel was not an ethnic group but the union of people fleeing oppression who joined together in worship of the liberator god YHWH.
Archeological evidence supports this model. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Israelites were basically Canaanites who gradually developed a separate identity. They settled in the central highlands after migrating from the lowlands.
This model assumes that the Israelites were not motivated by egalitarian ideals.
This is the Consensus of 21st Century Scholarship. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The Pentateuch had been composed in sequence. The priestly source P, previously thought by some scholars to be the earliest was actually the latest. J (Yahwist) came first, then E (Elohist)then D (Deuteronomist). J came centuries after the time of the real Moses. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Israel was still a naïve and unsophisticated people, not very different from their Canaanite neighbors. J’s world shows a primitive, corporeal conception of God. J’s world is polytheistic and at times animalistic |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Breathes the air of the prophets and bears signs of a more advanced theology in Israel. Like J, the E source is tied to the natural world and agricultural cycles, celebrating God’s bounty at harvest time. As yet, there is no fixed priesthood. |
|
|
Term
| The Deuteronomist (D) Source |
|
Definition
| Presents God as more abstract, and his attention is turned from the natural world to that of law and history. Annual festivals have begun to be explained as celebrating events from Israel’s past, and keeping God’s more and more elaborate laws (including an established priesthood) becomes a central religious concern. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Israel’s religion has become a thing of priestly ceremonies, divorced from the natural world, and even more from the common people; the process of historicizing attested to in D is far more pronounced |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
When the first three gospels are compared—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—it is unmistakable that the accounts are very similar to one another in content and expression.
Some argue that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are so similar that they must have used each other’s gospels, or another common source. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| How do we arrive at the most accurate text possible? Origin’s hexpla; most difficult are usually the oldest |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| What kind of document do we have? What is its literary form? Letter? Poetry? Law? Story? Interested in the implied reader, not the reader the original work addressed; Interested in the implied author in the same way. Point of view, plot, character, symbolism, irony, etc. (objections: fiction vs fact, collections, not value-free but from a position of faith; narrative impact of the gospel from beginning to end is the intent) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Text written not just to inform but to convince; the point of the Gospel is to transform the audience; Uses texts to evoke and to strengthen personal, social, and cultural values; appeals to emotions, imagination, and cognitive faculties. Rhetoric can accuse/defend, give advice, praise/blame |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| we fill in meaning because language does not adequately communicate Go |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| language as discourse has disappeared; language no longer appears as mediation between minds and things |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Text and reader are separated in time; the approach is to “go through time” |
|
|
Term
| Historical Critical Method |
|
Definition
| The text belongs to a different age, used different sources, literary genre, or grew out of a particular social milieu; must never be over-estimated |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Seeks to establish the original meaning emerging in the flow of tradition and seeks to map that flow; commitment to strictly scientific methods. What did the final author mean in light of the reconstruction of the text’s pre-history? Oral & written |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Oral pre-history of the text; studies the life setting out of which this text may have emerged. Seeks to get behind the sources to describe what was happening as the tradition was handed down orally about Jesus from person to person and community to community. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Grew out of a dissatisfaction with the results of form criticism. The meaning of the text depends upon its genesis, that is, the history of the text itself as well as the intention of the author. Interested in the formation of the Gospels as finished products |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An expansion of the H-C method; it focuses on values, social structures, and conventions common in the culture in which the biblical author lived |
|
|
Term
| Reader-response criticism |
|
Definition
| (a) Ideal or implied reader such as Luke to Theophilus, one who loves God, or Mt to the Jewish community; (b) actual reader (me) – the closer one comes to the ideal/implied reader, the better the text can be understood |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Promotes certain causes or concerns in society such as feminist (pit/pedestal), liberation (oppressed people, Latin America, slavery), womanist (Black female), black hermeneutic (Blacks in general) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The World In Front of the Text |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Asking if the order of the books sheds light on the bible as overall narrative. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Father of General Hermeneutics of Understanding; views the text not as an object to be dissected in a lab, but as the creation of a human person, and therefore interpersonal and penetrated by the interpreter’s own understanding; more art than science, an approximation and never complete; identify with inner reality |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Starting point for his hermeneutical method was concrete, lived experience, feeling and will; know the social and cultural context that controls the experience; understanding is the process by which we comprehend lived human experience, a method for the human sciences; identify with lived experience |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Hermeneutics as ontology (study of being, the essence of things); Being itself is self-disclosing; Heidegger provides a corrective for Kant’s domination of subject over object. For Heidegger, analyze the text for what it says, but also for what goes unsaid. Our words often fall short of the reality that gave rise to them; identify with the possibilities for Being in the life-world in which one exists – potential for understanding and language; language is the house of being |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The meaning of works emerges only through history and truth outside the natural sciences (art, humanities, language). It is not the mind of the author that gives meaning (Kant) nor the work itself divorced from how it is experienced, but its effective history and its influence on succeeding generations.
A classic text is not a fixed star but a comet speeding through the sky of history bearing its light on ever new worlds; identify with history and its effect, critique of the subject/object dichotomy, exalted notion of language as the house of being, insight into the past/present/future character of every human experience; fusion of horizons |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Metaphor and the surplus of meaning; (POW in WW II, problem of evil); wrote on how many different ways religious texts point to a hidden God. What the text means now is more important than what it meant when the author wrote it. Identifies with the meaning of the text coming to life in the reading of it. It floats free of the author’s intention. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Transcendental method of reflecting, enquiry into enquiry, intellectual awareness, understanding of one’s own self-consciousness; Interpreter brings the text to his world but with responsible controls that are warranted in the text. His method has three steps: 1. Understand the intended sense of the text; 2. Judge the accuracy of the understanding; 3. State the probable accurate understanding of the text |
|
|
