NT R-Z

Rabbi

“Master” a Jewish religious leader or teacher especially trained and qualified to expound and apply the law of Moses

Redaction Criticism

the separating of tradition from redaction (editorial work) especially in the Gospels. One who edits, revises, or shapes the literary or oral sources at hand is called a redactor

Redemption

literally “to buy” or “take back”, particularly the act of God’s taking back sinful humanity by means of Jesus Christ

Resurrection

a rising from the dead: a central hope in the New Testament based upon the early Christians belief that Jesus was raised from the dead by God

Revelation

(translated from the Greek word apokalypsis): an uncovering, revealing, or laying bare. it refers to the uncovering of the transcendent God in human events, particularly the event of Christ in the Christian tradition

Rhetoric

the art of persuasion; in the Greco-Roman world, this involved training in the construction and analysis of argumentation and was the principal subject of higher education

Righteousness

primarily the quality and action of God hence human righteousness proceeds from Gods initiative in Christ and is based upon a relation with God as the revealed in Christ

Roman Empire

lands conquered by Rome and ruled by the Roman emperor starting with Augustus in 27 B.C.E.

Sacrament

a sacred rite, “an outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace” namely, the presence of the transcendant God

Sacrifice

the act of offering something valuable to the deity. By the act of sacrifice, communion with the divine is initiated, reestablished or continued

Sadducees

a religious group of the intertestamental period who represented the priestly aristocracy of Jewish life. they held only to the written mosaic law and did not believe in the resurrection

Salvation

the state of complete liberation from sin, brokenness, and estrangement between humanity and God. In general, the New Testament locates salvation in the future, although its inauguration is already effected in Christ

Sanctification

the process of being made holy. The term refers to the life of the Christian under the guidance of the Spirit as the effects of Christs work, especially the love of God and of others, become more and more manifest.

Sanhedrin

a council of Jewish leaders headed by the High Priest which played an advisory role in matters of religious and civil policy.

Scribes

a title applied to learned men in post-exile Judaism who studied and copied the law and exercised judgement in matters pertaining to the law

Scribes, Christian

Christians responsible for copying sacred scripture

Scribes, Jewish

highly educated experts in Jewish Law (and possibly in copyists) during the Greco-Roman period

Semitism

in the New Testament, a stylistic or linguistic feature characteristic of Hebrew or Aramaic, possibly indicating that the writer was influenced by one of these Semitic languages

Septuagint

(usually designated LXX “seventy”) the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament for diaspora Jews

Signs Source

A document which no longer survives thought by many scholars to have been used as one of the sources of Jesus’ ministry in the Fourth Gospel; it reputedly narrated a number of miraculous deeds of Jesus

Sin

generally, any act that violates the law or will of God. in the New Testament however it denotes particularly the broken or estranged relation between the human race and God

Sitz im Leben (setting in life)

term employed widely by form critics to refer to the community setting and the function of traditions

Son of God

in Hebraic thought, someone especially selected or anointed by God for a task, such as the king of Israel, a prophet, or the people of Israel

Son of Man

the title by which Jesus refers to Himself in the Gospel narratives

Soteriology

discourse about salvation. Soteriology refers to the NT understanding of the righteousness of God, sin, the work of Christ, the response of faith, and the work of the Spirit in sanctification

Soul

a spiritual entity, distinct from the body, within each person

Source Criticism

the work of identifying the written sources that were used in the composition of any given document, such as one of the Gospels

Spirit

the dynamic power and activity of God directed toward the world, especially active in the history of Israel, the life of Jesus, and the early church; in the Christian tradition usually referred to as the Holy Spirit

Stoics

Greco-Roman philosophers who urged people to understand the way the world worked and to live in accordance with it, letting nothing outside of themselves affect their internal state of well-being

Synoptic Gospels

the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which narrate so many of the same stories that they can be placed side by side in parallel columns and so “be seen together”

Synoptic Problem

the problem of understanding the relationship between the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) taking account of their great similarities as well as their distinct differences

Talmud (instruction or study)

authoritative body of Jewish tradition consisting of Mishnah and Gemara (commentary on it)

Targum

an ancient translation of the Hebrew scriptures (OT) into the related Aramaic language that was generally spoken in first-century Palestine

Textual Criticism

an academic discipline that seeks to establish the original wording of the text based on the surviving manuscripts

Thecla

a (legendary) female disciple of Paul whose adventures are narrated in the 2nd century, the acts of Paul and Thecla

Theology

discourse on God, the study of or reflection upon the nature of God and the nature of God’s relationship with humanity

Torah

the Hebrew term meaning law or teaching, especially law as divine revelation

Tradition

any doctrine, idea, practice, or custom that has been handed down from one person to another

Transcendence

in theology, God’s distance from the world; alternatively, God’s holiness or otherness

Trinity

the Christian doctrine that God exists in three persons: the Father, Jesus Christ as the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Two Ways

the doctrine found in the Didache and the epistle of Barnabas that people must choose between two ways of living, the way of life (or light) and tile way of death (or darkness)

Valentinus

2nd century Gnostic Christian who traced Ills intellectual lineage through Ills teacher Theudas to Paul

Virgin Birth

the miraculous birth of Jesus to Mary, his mother, without the participation of a human father in conception

Witness

in the New Testament includes both observation and testimony, especially to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. in one sense, martyrdom is an especially appropriate witness to Jesus

Word

a technical, literary designation of a complete saying, especially a saying of Jesus

Word of God

frequently a designation for the Bible. In the New Testament, however, it is used in close connection with the event of Jesus Christ, especially the preaching about that event

Works (or works of the law)

in Pauline theology the false means of earning righteousness before God instead of acknowledging sin and relying on His grace

Zealots

a group of Galilean Jews who fled to Jerusalem during the uprising against Rome in 66-70 C.E., who overthrew the reigning aristocracy in the city and urged violent resistance to the bitter end