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| The first two patriarchs of the Old Testament. According to the Book of Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham, telling him to leave his own country and promising to give his family (the Hebrews) the land of Canaan. This was the Promised Land. God also promised to maintain the covenant with Abraham’s son Isaac. After a time, God tested Abraham by telling him to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham obediently placed Isaac on an altar and took a knife to kill him. Then an angel of the Lord appeared and told Abraham to spare his son, because Abraham had proved his faith. |
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| An announcement made by the angel Gabriel to Mary, the mother of Jesus, that she was going to bear a son, even though she was a virgin. Her son was to be called Jesus. 1 |
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| Another name for the New Testament Book of Revelation; from the Greek word for “revelation.” |
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Religious writings that have been accepted as books of the Bible by some groups but not by others. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, includes seven books, such as Judith, I and II Maccabees, and Ecclesiasticus, in the Old Testament that Jews and Protestants do not consider part of the Bible. Some churches may read the ------ for inspiration but not to establish religious doctrine.
‡ By extension, an “apocryphal” story is one that is probably false but nevertheless has some value. |
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| The twelve men chosen by Jesus to follow him and to spread the gospel after his death. They included Peter, James, John, Thomas, Matthew, and Judas Iscariot (who was later replaced). Paul, even though he was not one of the Twelve, is generally considered an apostle because of his crucial role in the spread of Christianity. |
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| The mountain upon which Noah’s ark came to rest as the waters of the great flood receded. |
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| Ask, and it shall be given you |
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| A teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He continues, “Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” |
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| (BAY-buhl, BAB-uhl) In the Book of Genesis, a tower that the descendants of Noah built. They intended that the tower would reach up to heaven itself, increase their reputation, and make them like God. God prevented them from completing the tower by confusing their language so that they could no longer understand one another’s speech. From that time forward, according to the Bible, the peoples of the Earth would be scattered, speaking different languages. |
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| The capital of the ancient empire of Babylonia, which conquered Israel in the sixth century B.C. The Jews were exiled to Babylon, which they found luxurious and corrupt. The prophet Daniel became a counselor to the king of Babylon and eventually the Israelites were allowed to return to their homeland. |
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| A beautiful woman who attracted King David. To marry her, he sent her husband Uriah to his death in battle. Solomon was her second son by David. |
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| Eight sayings of Jesus at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. The word is from the Latin beatus, meaning “blessed,” and each of the Beatitudes begins with the word blessed. |
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| The hill near Jerusalem on which Jesus was crucified. The name is Latin for “Place of the Skull”; it is also called Golgotha |
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| A title for Jesus meaning “Messiah” or “anointed one.” |
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An ancient city in Syria (and still its capital today). The Apostle Paul, then an official called Saul, was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest Christians. He underwent a dramatic conversion on the road, in which he fell from his horse, saw a dazzling light, and “heard a voice saying unto him, ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?… I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.’”
‡ The “road to Damascus” is an image for a sudden turning point in a person’s life. |
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| A great king of the Israelites in the Old Testament. Many of the Psalms are attributed to David, who was famed as a harpist. His descendants, the House of David, included Solomon and the subsequent kings of Israel and Judah; according to the Gospels, Jesus was descended from David. |
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| A large collection of written scrolls, containing nearly all of the Old Testament, found in a cave near the Dead Sea in the late 1940s. The scrolls were part of a library collected by the Essenes, a religious community of Jews that flourished for a few centuries around the time of Jesus. The scrolls are highly valued for the information they give about the Bible and about Judaism in the period. |
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| A book in the Old Testament containing the reflections of a philosopher known as “the Preacher.” “Vanity of vanity saith the Preacher,… all is vanity,” where the word “vanity” indicates that striving is in vain, because death comes to all, and “there is no new thing under the sun.” He believes that our character and achievements do not affect our fate. “The race is not to the swift nor to the strong.” He concludes that one should enjoy the good things found in life until death brings oblivion. |
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| A prophet of the Old Testament, who opposed the worship of idols and incurred the wrath of Jezebel, the queen of Israel, who tried to kill him. He was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. |
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A book of the Old Testament that tells the story of a beautiful Jewish woman named Esther who is chosen by the king of Persia (now Iran; see Persian Empire) to be his queen. Esther, with the aid of her cousin Mordecai, stops a plot to massacre the Jews in Persia, and Mordecai becomes the king’s chief minister.
‡ This event is celebrated by Jews as the feast of Purim. |
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| A major Israelite prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah; the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament is attributed to him. In the New Testament, his prophecies are treated as predictions of many of the details of the life and death of Jesus. |
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| The name given to Jacob after he wrestled with God. Israel is also the name of the northern kingdom of the Israelites, when their nation was split in two after the death of King Solomon. |
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| ) The sons of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham. As the eldest son of Isaac, Esau should have inherited the covenant with God that Abraham had passed on to Isaac. But Esau traded his birthright (inheritance) to his younger brother, Jacob, for a “mess of pottage” (a meal of stew) when he was too hungry to consider what he was throwing away. Jacob also cheated Esau out of their blind father’s deathbed blessing by impersonating him, a deceit prompted by their mother, Rebecca. |
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| It means “I am that I am,” or “I am the one who is.” In the incident of the burning bush in the Book of Exodus, God, speaking out of the bush, tells Moses that this is his name. |
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A major Israelite prophet; also, a book of the Old Testament that chronicles his life and records his angry lamentations about the wickedness of his people. 1
‡ A “jeremiad” is any long lamentation or angry denunciation. |
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| In the Old Testament, an immoral, cruel queen of Israel who attempted to kill Elijah and other prophets of God. |
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A hermit and preacher among the Jews of the time of Jesus and a relative of Jesus. According to the Gospels, John declared, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’” Christians interpret this to mean that John was sent to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. John was known as “the Baptist” because he called on his followers to go through a ceremony of baptism to demonstrate their repentance for their sins; Jesus began his public life by submitting himself to John’s baptism. 1
John was eventually imprisoned by Herod Antipas, the ruler of the province of Galilee, for objecting to Herod’s illicit marriage. At a banquet, Herod rashly promised his stepdaughter, Salome, anything she asked; she asked for the head of John on a platter. Herod, not wanting to go back on his promise, had John beheaded. |
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| A river in Palestine that empties into the Dead Sea. John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan. |
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A sea monster mentioned in the Book of Job, where it is associated with the forces of chaos and evil.
‡ Figuratively, a “leviathan” is any enormous beast.
‡ Leviathan is a work on politics by the seventeenth-century English author Thomas Hobbes. |
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| In the New Testament, the day that the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of Jesus. Pentecost is the Greek name for Shavuot, the spring harvest festival of the Israelites, which was going on when the Holy Spirit came. The disciples were together in Jerusalem after Jesus’ Resurrection and return to heaven, fearful because he had left them. On that morning, however, “there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Because of the festival, crowds of visitors were in Jerusalem, speaking many languages, but the disciples of Jesus moved among them and spoke to them all, and “every man heard them speak in his own language” about “the wonderful works of God.” Peter then made a powerful speech to the crowds in the city, and many were baptized as new followers of Jesus. 1 |
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Chief among the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, he was a fisherman, originally named Simon (and often called Simon Peter). Jesus gave him the name Rock, of which “Peter” is a translation. Peter showed great faith but also exhibited great failings (see Get thee behind me, Satan). In the frightening hours before the Crucifixion, Peter three times denied being a follower of Jesus, just as Jesus had predicted he would. Nevertheless, Peter went on to become the leader of the early Christians (see Pentecost), thus fulfilling another prophecy of Jesus, who had said of Peter, “Upon this rock I will build my church…. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” 1
‡ Peter is often depicted holding keys. Roman Catholics maintain a number of traditions about Peter: that he was the first of the popes, for example, and that he was martyred at Rome by being crucified upside down, because he refused to be crucified as Jesus had been. 2
‡ The great church of the Vatican, Saint Peter’s Basilica, was later built on what was believed to be the site of his burial. |
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| A group of teachers among the Jews at the time of Jesus; he frequently rebukes them in the Gospels for their hypocrisy. Jesus says they are like “the blind leading the blind,” or like “whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” 1 |
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| In the Old Testament, an Israelite servant of God who pitted his invincible strength and his wits against the Philistines on many occasions. He was eventually betrayed by his lover, the beautiful Delilah, who tricked Samson into telling her that the secret of his strength lay in his uncut hair. Delilah cut Samson’s hair while he slept, and then called for the Philistines, who captured and blinded him. During his captivity, Samson’s hair grew back, and he eventually pulled the Philistines’ banquet hall down on their heads. |
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Shibboleth was a password used by the Israelites. It was chosen because their enemies could not pronounce it. 1
‡ By extension, a shibboleth is an often-repeated slogan. It also means an arbitrary test to prove membership in a group. |
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| Thomas, the doubting apostle |
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| An Apostle who first doubted the Resurrection of Jesus and then believed. He was not present when Jesus appeared alive to his disciples the evening after his Resurrection. Thomas rejected their story and insisted that he would not believe until he had seen Jesus with his own eyes and touched Jesus’ wounds with his own hands. A week later, Jesus appeared again when Thomas was with the group; he invited Thomas to touch his wounds and believe. Thomas then confessed his faith, saying, “My Lord and my God.” Jesus replied, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” |
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| A Latin translation of the Bible made by the scholar Jerome, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, in the fourth century. This translation was the standard Bible of the Western world until the Reformation. Vulgate comes from a Latin word meaning “common,” because Jerome’s translation used the Latin of everyday speech. |
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| The great-grandmother of King David, known for her kindness and faithfulness. Not an Israelite herself, she married an Israelite who had come to her country with his family. Ruth’s husband died, and her mother-in-law, Naomi, set out to return to the country of the Israelites. Ruth insisted on accompanying Naomi, saying, “Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge.” In the country of the Israelites, Ruth married Boaz, a rich relative of her dead husband; Boaz had been attracted to Ruth by her generosity. Her story is told in the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament. |
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| A Canaanite idol who demanded the sacrifice of first-born children. The Old Testament prophets railed against the worship of Moloch by the Israelites. |
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