GALACE AP LIT BIBLICAL ALLUSIONS

Abraham and Isaac

In Genesis, _____ was asked by God to sacrifice his beloved son, _____. _______ made ready to obey. At the last moment, his hand was stayed by an angel of the Lord. ______ was spared and ________ received the Lord's blessing. This story is symbolic of man's willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice to demonstrate his faith and trust in God. It is also symbolic of the idea that faith shall be rewarded.

Alpha and Omega

A Christian symbol formed with the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Together, these letters suggest that Jesus is the beginning and end or completion of all history.

Cain

Adam and Eve's first son, and murderer of Abel. The Lord put a mark on _____ so that no one would kill him.

Creation Story

A story that explains how the world (or the first humans, etc.) came into being

Daniel

One known for wisdom and accurate judgment; from a wise leader in the Old Testament who was able to read the handwriting on the wall

David and Bathsheba

In Samuel, ________ had an adulterous relationship with ________. When she became pregnant, ______ sent her husband, Uriah, into battle, where he was killed. ______ and _________ married. The child conceived during their affair died, but __________ later gave birth to Solomon.

Eye of the Needle

A very difficult task; from famous narrow gateway called "the needle." In the NT, Jesus said it was easier for a camel to go through the _________________ than for a rich man to enter heaven.

Filthy Lucre

Money or profits; from a story in the NT of Jesus casting moneylenders out of the Temple

Four Horsemen

Four biblical figures who appear in the Book of Revelation. They are revealed by the unsealing of the first four of the seven seals. Each represent a different facet of the apocalypse: conquest, war, famine, and death.

Golden Calf

An idol made by Aaron when the Israelites demanded it. The people worshiped it as the god that had brought them out of Egypt. Worship of the _____ is seen as a supreme act of apostasy, the rejection of a faith once confessed.

Goliath

(Old Testament) a giant Philistine warrior who was slain by David with a slingshot

Good Samaritan

The parable is told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. The phrase, meaning someone who helps a stranger, derives from this parable

Handwriting on the wall

what the future holds; from the OT story of Daniel, who was able to accurately predict some mysterious writing that appeared on a wall (translated by Daniel, it predicted the imminent death of the king)

Ishmael

Abraham's son by Hagar, Sarah's servant. The founder of the Arab tribes. At a celebration after Isaac was weaned, Sarah found ___ mocking her son. She was so upset by the idea of him inheriting their wealth, that she demanded that Abraham send Hagar and her son away.

Jacob

The younger of Isaac and Rebekah's twin sons, he tricked his brother into giving him his inheritance and his father into giving him the firstborn's blessing, thus becoming his heir. Through him God renewed the covenant with Abraham's descendants.

Job / Job's Comforters

The subject of the Book of Job. Job was very

prosperous and worshipped God more than any of his other followers. Satan said to God that if he took away Job's prosperity, he would renounce his faith. As a test of faith, God killed most of Job's cattle and destroyed much of his property, killing his sons. Satan gave Job boils on his skin. Despite the horrors that had befell upon him, Job's faith remained true, rationalizing with, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away". After this, many people came to comfort Job and gave him gifts, making him richer than before. Job is a model of faith and also of patience.

Jonah

One who brings bad luck; an OT prophet who ran from God and sailed to sea. When a storm arose, he admitted that he was the cause, and the sailors threw him overboard, where he was swallowed by a large fish.

Judas Iscariot/Judas' kiss

An act of betrayal, especially one disguised as a gesture of friendship. _____________was the disciple who betrayed Jesus to the authorities in return for thirty pieces of silver

King Ahab and Jezebel

An evil king of Israel and his treacherous evil wife, synonymous today with evil. Through her marriage to ____, _________ introduced the worship of Baal, an idol, to Israel, inciting mutual enmity with the prophets. She instigated the murder Naboth for the possession of a vineyard. Today ________ means a brazen or forward woman

Lazarus

a man who Jesus raised from the dead, even though he'd been buried for three days. A symbol of Jesus's power and of possibilities.

Manna

Little flakes the Israelites collected and boiled or baked into a breadlike substance, symbolizing God as the sole sustainer of life.

Noah and the Flood

The story in which God commands Noah to build an Ark for his family and animals to protect them from the flood God sends to cleanse the earth of wickedness and lawlessness. _____, his family, and the animals become the source of new life on the earth. God promises not to flood the earth with the sign of the rainbow.

Original Sin/The Fall

The idea that all men are innately sinful as a result of Adam and Eve's fall from the state of innocence. When they ate of the forbidden fruit, they were cast out of the Biblical Garden of Eden; a post-biblical expression for the doctrine of Adam's transgression and mankind's consequential inheritance of a sinful nature because he ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.

Pearl of Great Price

Something so precious that one would devote everything to or give up everything for it. In one of Jesus' parables, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a ________________, or value, found by a merchant

Philistine

Enemies of the ancient Israelites, they were portrayed in the Bible as a crude and warlike race. This led to the use of _________ in English to refer, humorously, to an enemy into whose hands one had fallen or might fall; modern meaning: A person who is guided by materialism and is disdainful of intellectual or artistic values

Prodigal Son

A wasteful son who disappoints his father; from the NT parable of a man with two sons. When he split his estate between the two, the younger son gathered his fortune and left home to live the wild life, while the older son stayed home to work in the fields. When the younger son spent all of the money, he came crawling back to his father, who accepted him, pardoning his error by saying he was "lost but was found."

Ruth and Naomi

Paragons of love between in-laws; faithful friends. From the OT story of _____, who, when her husband died in battle, left her own land to travel with his mother back to her people.

Samson and Delilah

Treacherous love story. _________, an Israelite hero and legendary warrior with extraordinary physical strength, fell in love with _________, a Philistine. When ________ learned that ________ hair was the source of his strength, she betrayed him by excepting a Philistine bribe to cut off his hair while he slept. Today the name ________ is associated with a voluptuous, treacherous woman.

Scapegoat

One of two kid goats. As a pair, one goat was sacrificed and the living ____ was released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities.

Whited Sepulcher

a person who is inwardly evil but outwardly professes to be virtuous

Seven Deadly Sins

Widely known in the Middle Ages as sins that lead to damnation.

They are pride, covetousness (greed), lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth

Seven Virtues

chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, humility

Sodom and Gomorrah

The cities were destroyed by God for their sins. It is often postulated that the sin of _______ was homosexuality and rape. Before it was destroyed, a virtuous couple, Lot and his wife, were advised by God to leave the city immediately and not look back. Lot's wife submitted to temptation and, as she looked back on the city, she was turned into a pillar of salt; any place associated with wickedness or sin

Solomon

(Old Testament) son of David and king of Israel noted for his wisdom

Thirty Pieces of Silver

Payment received for an act of treachery

Tower of Babel

A tall building proposed by the Hamites in order to "make a name for themselves." God responded to their challenge by confusing their languages, so the project could never be completed.

Twelve Tribes of Israel

the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob, also known as Israel, through his twelve sons by various women, who collectively form the Israelite nation; The number 12 represents perfection, as well as God's authority