Chapter 1 Test Review - What are the Gospels?

Vocabulary flashcards defining key terms, historical figures, movements, and interpretive methods from Chapter 1.

Apocryphal Gospels

Writings whose value and historicity continue to be debated, and which do not provide a great deal of early and reliable information concerning the historical Jesus.

Bio

Greco-Roman works, or biographies, with which the Gospels have much in common.

Implied Audience

Refers to the general kinds of readers of the Gospels.

Gnosticism

A second century movement that taught that salvation came through secret knowledge of a person's true spiritual identity.

Gospel of John

The most theological of the four Gospels.

Synoptic Gospels

The Gospels that place emphasis on the geographic area of Galilee.

Aramaic

The language Jesus probably spoke.

Tatian

The early Christian writer who tried to merge the four Gospels into a single harmony, named the Diatessaron.

Diatessaron

A single harmony merging the four Gospels, created by the early Christian writer Tatian.

Reading Horizontally

To compare the Gospels to one another to discern their distinctives.

Reading Vertically

To follow each Gospel story through from beginning to end.

Euangelion

The term used by the apostle Paul to describe the oral preaching of the good news about Jesus.

Josephus

The Jewish historian who briefly mentions Jesus twice in his writings.

Historical Narrative

The genre identification of the Gospels in the text, which is motivated by theological concerns.