Untitled Flashcards Set

Immanence: the nearness or involvement of God in the world.
Incarnation: "becoming flesh;" the embodiment of God in Christ.
Isis: Egyptian goddess worshipped in Roman mystery cults.
Judas Maccabeus: Jewish patriot who led the family responsible for spearheading
the Maccabean revolt.
Justification: the act by which God brings people into proper or right relationship
with himself In Paul the justification or righteousness of God is to be received by
faith, not works.
Kerygma (literally "proclamation"): the early Christian preaching about Jesus as
the Christ intended to elicit the decision of faith.
Kingdom of God or "Rule of God": God's lordship over humankind and the world.
The kingdom is the central theme of Jesus' message in the Synoptic Gospels.
Koine ("common" in Greek): the everyday Greek speech used throughout the
Hellenistic world during the period of early Christianity. The New Testament
books are written in koine Greek.
Law: in the New Testament generally the revelation of God through Moses so the
people of Israel embodied in the cultic, ritual, and moral commandments of the Old
Testament.
Literary Criticism: method that seeks to determine the literary character or
development of the books of the Bible.
Lord's Supper: the church's continuing reenactment of the last supper of Jesus
with His disciples.
Maccabees: the name given the priestly family who successfully led a revolt
against Hellenistic Syrian rule beginning in 167 B.C. They ruled over Palestine
from 142 B.C. to 63 B.C.
Manuscripts: handwritten documents, especially the ancient New Testament
documents from which our present text is determined

Marcion: a second-century Christian scholar and evangelist, later labeled a heretic
for his docetic Christology and his belief in two Gods-the harsh legalistic God of
the Jews and the merciful loving God of Jesus.
Markan Priority: the view that Mark was the first of the Synoptic Gospels to be
written and was used by Matthew and Luke.
Messiah: Hebrew term meaning "anointed one." Used of Davidic king, whose
restoration was expected in Jesus' day. Greek equivalent is Christos.
Midrash: the form, activity, or product of biblical interpretation, particularly as
carried out in rabbinic Judaism.
Miracle: an extraordinary event, contrary to normal expectations, a manifestation
of the activity of God.
Mishnah: the authoritative Jewish legal or halakic traditions, ascribed ultimately to
Moses, that developed in rabbinic and Pharisaic Judaism and were codified in the
early third century. The Mishnah and the learned commentary upon it (Germara)
constitute the Talmud.
Mithras: a Persian deity worshipped in a mystery cult spread throughout the
Roman world.
Mystery Cults: a group of Greco-Roman religions that focused on the devotees'
individual needs both in this life and in life after death, so named because their
initiation rituals and cultic practices were to be kept secret from outsiders.
Myth: the result of efforts to communicate faith in transcendent reality by means
of story and symbol. Technical use of the term should be distinguished from
popular meaning of a fantastic or untrue story.
Nag Hammadi: village in upper (southern) Egypt, near the place where a
collection of Gnostic writings, including the Gospel of Thomas, were discovered in
1945.
Oracle: a sacred place where the gods answered questions brought by their
worshippers to the resident holy person.
Oral Tradition: teaching transmitted from person to person or generation to
generation by word of mouth rather than by writing.
Orthodoxy: from the Greek, literally meaning "right opinion"; a term used to
designate a set of beliefs acknowledged to be true by the majority of those in
power.
Paganism: any of the polytheistic religions of the Greco-Roman world, an
umbrella term for ancient Mediterranean religions other than Judaism and
Christianity.
Parable: a brief story that makes its point by the unusual development or imagery
of the narrative. The various details do not function as allegory but are significant
for the story itself.
Paraclete: helper, comforter, or mediator. The term is used in the Fourth Gospel of
the Holy Spirit as the Christian community's helper after the death of Jesus.
Paraenesis: a Greek term meaning moral exhortation.
Parousia (literally "presence" or "coming"): the early Christian belief in the
appearance or second coming of Christ.
Passion: suffering, particularly tile suffering of Jesus during the last week of his
life in Jerusalem.
Passover: the annual Jewish celebration of the deliverance from slavery in Egypt
under the leadership of Moses. Jesus was crucified at the time of the Passover.
Pastoral Epistles: I and 2 Timothy and Titus. These letters give advice to the
church leader or pastor concerning matters of church government and discipline.
Pauline Corpus: all of the letters of the NT claimed to be written by Paul.
Pentecost: the Jewish Feast of Weeks, beginning on the fiftieth day after Passover.
According to the Book of Acts it was the occasion of the descent of the Holy Spirit
upon the disciples of Jesus, and thus it is looked upon as the beginning of the
church.
Pericope: a "cutting around" or section. Term is used of the individual, complete
units of tradition about Jesus that circulated separately in the early church later
joined together to form the Gospels.
Pharisees: a prominent Jewish religious group at the time of Jesus, who practiced
strict observance of both written and oral law.
Preexistence: the term used to designate the NT belief that Jesus of Nazareth
existed with God before his earthly advent

Prescript: the formal beginning of an epistle, normally including the names of the
sender and addresses, a greeting, and often a prayer or wish for good health.
Priest: a holy person authorized to perform ritual and cultic acts mediating
between human beings and God.
Procurator: official of the Roman Empire exercising administrative authority over
a province or district.
Propitiation: a placating or pacifying of the deity; a sacrifice the induces God to
be favorable or beneficent to the sacrificer.
Pseudepigrapha: literally "false writings," particularly a group of late Jewish
writings claiming the Old Testament figures as their authors.
Pseudonymity: the practice of writing under a fictitious name, evident in a large
number of pagan, Jewish, and Christian writings from antiquity.
Q Source: the hypothetical source, consisting of sayings of Jesus, used by both
Matthew and Luke in writing their Gospels.
Qumran: the site on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea where a Jewish sect lived
in strict obedience to the law of its covenant community until approximately A.D.
70. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered near this site.