Untitled Flashcards Set

Gamaliel

A famous rabbi of first-century C.E. Judaism.

Gematria

A Jewish method of interpreting a word based on the numerical value of its letters.

Genre

The literary type or form of a document.

Gentile

A non-Jew.

Gnosticism

A religious movement that believed in secret knowledge and sought to escape the earthly world for the heavenly.

Gospel

The message of good news revealing God as gracious, later designating the literary form narrating Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

Greco-Roman World

The lands and culture around the Mediterranean from 300 B.C.E. to 300 C.E.

Haggadah

A Hebrew term for rabbinic traditions in narrative form illustrating the moral teachings of the Torah.

Halakah

A Hebrew term meaning 'to walk,' designating rabbinic tradition regulating conduct.

Hasmonean

The family name for the Maccabees, leaders of the Jewish revolt against Syria.

Hellenization

The spread of Greek language and culture in the Mediterranean after Alexander the Great.

Hermeneutics

The science dealing with the interpretation and meaning of texts.

Heresy

Any worldview or beliefs deemed deviant by those in power, from a Greek word meaning 'choice'.

High Priest

The highest-ranking authority in Judaism in charge of the Jerusalem Temple prior to 70 C.E.

Historiography

The literary reconstruction of historical events and the study of historical narrative.

Historical Criticism

A method that approaches the Bible with historical questions to understand its historical setting.

Holy

That which is set apart for God or the divine power and majesty.

Demeter

The Greek and Roman goddess of grain, worshipped in a mystery cult in Eleusis, Greece.

Deutero-Pauline Epistles

Letters considered to have a 'secondary' standing in the Pauline corpus, including Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians.

Diaspora

The Jewish community scattered outside the holy land of Palestine, originating in the Babylonian exile.

Didache

An anonymous second-century Christian manual for church life.

Disciple

A follower who is 'taught,' in contrast to an apostle who is 'sent' as an emissary.

Divination

Any practice used to ascertain the will of the gods.

Docetism

An early Christian heresy stating that Jesus only seemed to suffer and die.

Ebionites

A group of second-century Adoptionists who maintained Jewish practices and forms of worship.

Epistle

A letter of a formal or didactic nature, traditionally applied to the New Testament letters.

Eschatology

Discourse about last things.

Essenes

An ascetic Jewish religious group stressing radical obedience to the Jewish law.

Ethics

A broad term for moral codes and practices, theories of value, and Christian relational imperatives.

Eucharist

Derived from Greek meaning 'thankfulness,' it refers to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

Exegesis

The critical interpretation of a text, meaning 'to lead out' the meaning from the text.

Expiation

'Making right' the offense done by one party to another, especially expiation for sin before God.

Form Criticism

The classification of the 'forms' in which tradition circulated before being written down.

Daimonia

Category of divine beings in the Greco-Roman world, thought to be less powerful than gods but more than humans.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Ancient Jewish documents from the period of Christian origins, found near the Dead Sea.

Decalogue or Ten Commandments

The ten words God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai.