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Study Guide: Midterm
Apocalypticst |
A person who has the worldview that maintained that the present age is controlled by forces of evil, but that these will be destroyed at the end of time when God intervenes in history to bring in his kingdom, an event thought to be imminent. |
Apostle |
Generally, one who is commissioned to perform a task, from a Greek word meaning "sent"; in early Christianity, the term was used to designate special emissaries of the faith who were understood to be representatives of Christ. |
Contextual method |
A method used to study a literary text first by determining its social and historical context and then using that context to help explain the text's meaning |
Covenant |
An agreement or treaty between two social or political parties that have come to terms; used by ancient Jews in reference to the pact that God made to protect and preserve them as his chosen people in exchange for their devotion and adherence to his law. |
Diaspora |
Green for "dispersion," a term that refers to the dispersion of Jews away from Palestine into other parts of the Mediterranean, beginning with the Babylonian conquests in the sixth century B.C.E. |
Epistle |
Another designation for a private letter. Some scholars have differentiated between "epistles" as literary writings in the form of a letter, which were meant for general distribution, rather than for an individual recipient, and "letters" which were a nonliterary form of personal correspondence. This differentiation between epistles and letters is not widely held today, however, so that the terms tend to be used synonymously. |
Essenes |
An apocalyptic and ascetic Jewish sect started during the Maccabean period, members of which are generally thought to have produced the Dead Sea Scrolls |
Firstfruits of the resurrection |
A phrase used by the apostle Paul to refer to Jesus as the first one to be raised from the dead. It is an agricultural image refering to the celebration held at the end of the first day of the harvest, in anticipation of going out to bring in the rest of the crops (the next day). If Jesus is the "firstfruits" then the rest of the resurrection (i.e., everyone ele's resurrection) will happen very soon. |
Gentile |
A Jewish designation for a non-Jew. |
Messiah |
From a Hebrew word that literally means "anointed one," translated into Greek, from where our English word is derived. IN the first century there was a wide range of expectations about whom this anointed one might be, some Jews anticipating a future warrior king like David, others a cosmic redeemer from heaven, others an authoritative priest, and still others a powerful spokesperson from God like Moses. |
Paganism |
Any of the polytheistic religions of the Greco-Roman world, an umbrella term for ancient mediterranean religions other than Judaism and Christianity. |
Pauline Corpus |
All of the letters of the New Testament that claim to be written by Paul, including the Deutro-Pauline and Pastoral Epistles. |
Pharisees |
A Jewish sect, which may have originated during the Maccabean period, that emphasized strict adherence to the purity laws set forth in the Torah. |
Pseudepigrapha |
From the Greek, literally meaning "false writings" and commonly referring to ancient noncanonical Jewish and Christian literay texts, many of which were written pseydonymously |
Sadduccees |
A Jewish party associated with the Temple cult and the Jewish priests who ran it, comprising principally the Jewish aristocracy in Judea. The party leader, the High Priest, served as the highest ranking local official and chief liaison with the Roman governor. |
Seneca |
Probably the greatest Roman philosopher of the second half of the first century, and tutor to the young Nero, later thought to have entered into a prolonged correspondence with the apostle Paul. |
Septuagint |
The translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, so named because of a tradition that seventy Jewish scholars had produced it. |
Tarsus |
City in southeast Asia Minor (modern Turkey) that, in according to Acts, was home to the Apostle Paul. The city was known as one of the great philosophical centers in the Roman empire, leading some scholars to suspect that Luke located Paul there in order to further his credentials. Paul never mentions his hometown in his letters. |
Torah |
A Hebrew word that means "guidance" or "direction," but that is usually translated "law." As a technical term it designates either the Law of God given to Moses or the first give books of the Jewish Bible that Moses was traditionally thought to have written-- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. |
Cynics |
Greco-Roman philosophers, commonly portrayed as street preachers who harangued their audiences and urged them to find true freedom by being liberated from all social conventions. Their decision to live "according to nature" with none of the niceties of life led their opponents to call them "dogs." |
Greco-Roman World |
The lands (and culture) around the Mediterranean from the time of Alexander the Great to Emperor Constatine, roughly 300 B.,C.E. to 300 C.E. |
House church |
For centuries Christian communities did not meet in buildings specially built for the purpose, but in private homes. Often it was the owner of the home who was the leader of the church. Such communities, which met for worship, instruction, fellowship, and the celebration of rituals such as baptism and eucharist, happened here |
Insula |
Ancienct apartment buildings in which the ground floor was used for shops and businesses, and the upper floors for residences. The apostle Paul evidently set up his business and stayed then, in insula in the various towns he evangelized. |
Marcus Aurelius |
Roman emperor from 161-180 C.E., best known for his writings of Stoic philosophy, but known in Christian sources for ruling when some of the most violent persecutions against Christians occurred |
Son of God |
In most Greco-Roman circles, the designation of a person born to a god, able to perfrom miraculous deeds and/or to convey superhuman teachings; In Jewish circles, the designation of persons chosen to stand in a special relationship wiht the God of Israel, including the ancient Jewish Kings |
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. |
Synagogue |
Jewish place of worship and prayer, from a Greek word that literally means "being brought together." |
Justification by faith |
The doctrine found in Paul's letters (see judicial Model), that a person is "made right with God" by trusting in the effects of Christ's death, rather than by doing the works prescribed by the Jewish Law. |
Pliny the Younger |
Roman Aristocrat who ruled the province of Bithynia-Pontus in the earlyt second century C.E., and whose correspondence with the emperor Trajan contains the earliest reference to Christ in a pagan source. |
Superapostles |
In 2 Corinthians, a gorup of Paul's opponents who were theoretically proficient and able to do spectacular deeds, who claimed that their remarkable abilities demonstrated that they, rather than Paul, were the true representatives of Christ. |
Trajan |
Roman Emperor from 98- 117 C.E., known, in part, through his correspondence with Pliny the Younger. |
Atonement |
The doctrine that indicates how a person who is condemned by sin can be placed in a right standing before God by means of a sacrifice. In traditional christian teaching, it is Christ's death that brings this. |
Clement (of Rome) |
One of the early leaders ("bishops") of the church of Rome, around 95 C.E., who is the traditional author of a noncanonical book |
Baptism |
From the Greek term that means "to immerse." The earliest Christian practice of this appears to have been an initiation right for joining the Christian community. Derived from the practice of John the Baptist, who did tihs to Jews and Jesus in anticipation of the imminent arrival of God. Later Christians assigned other meanings to the rite. Paul saw it as a mystal act of dying with Christ to sin. |
Diatribe |
A rhetorical device used by Greek and Latin authors, including the apostle Paul, in which an imaginary opponent raises objections to one's views only to be answered successfully, so as to move an argument forward. Ex. in Paul's letters to the Romans |
Judicial model |
One of the two principal ways that Paul understood or conceptualized the relationship between Christ's death and salvation. According to this model, salvation is comparable to a legal decision, in which God, who is both lawmaker and judge, treats humans as "not-guilty" for committing sins against his law-- even though they are guilty-- because Jesus' death was been accepted as payment. |
Nero |
Roman Emperor from 54-68 C.E. It was under his reign that both Peter and Paul were allegedly martyred in Rome, as part of his persecution of Christians for the fire that destroyed much of the city (the Roman historian Tacitus indicates that Nero himself was responsible for the fire). |
Participationist model |
One of the two principal ways that Paul understood or conceptualized the relationship between Christ's death and salvation. This model understood sin to be a cosmic force that enslaved people, salvation came by participating in Christ's death through baptism. |
Suetonius |
A Roman historian of the early second century C.E., best known for a multi-volume work giving biographies of the Roman emperors, The Lives of the Caesars. |
Charismatic communities |
Communities of believers that were led not by appointed leaders byt by the Spirit of God, which had bestowed a particular gift, useful for the functioning of the entire group, upon each member of the community. According to Paul (1 Corinthians), the gift included such abilities as teaching, preaching, healing, prophecying, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, and so on. |
Gnosticism |
A group of ancient religions, some of them closely related to Christianity, that maintained that elements of the divine had become entrapped in this evil world of matter and could be released only when they acquired the secret gnosis (knowledge) of who they were and of how they could escape. This knowledge was generally thought to be brought by an emissary of the divine realm. |
Ignatius |
The bishop of Antioch, Syria, in the early second century. He was arrested by the Roman authorities for Christian activities and sent to Rome in order to be thrown to the wild beasts in the arena. On his journey to martyrdom, he wrote seven letters, which stil survive. These letters are included among the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. |
Irenaeus |
Famous proto-orthodox church father and "heresiologist" of the second century, whose five-volume work, Against Heresies, written around 180 C.e> is a major source of information for Gnostic and other "heretical" groups. |
Parousia |
A Greek word meaning "presence" or "coming," used as a technical term to refer to the Second Coming of Jesus in judgement at the end of time. |
Presbyter |
From a Greek word that literally means "elder." The term came to apply not only to older men, but in particular to the leaders of the Christian churches who were principally in charge of spiritual affairs; eventually the lead presbyter came to be known as the "overseer" |
Proto-orthodox Christianity |
A form of Christianity endorsed by some Christians of the second and third centuries (including the apostolic fathers), which promoted doctrines that were declared the "right opinion" in the fourth and later centuries by the victorious Christian party, in opposition to such groups as the Ebionites, the Marcionites, and the Gnostics. |
Criterion of contextual credibility |
One of the criteria commonly used by scholars to establish historically reliable material; with respect to the historical Jesus, the criterion maintains that if a saying or deed of Jesus cannot be credibly fit into his own first century Palestinian context, then it cannot be regarded as authentic. |
Criterion of dissimilarity |
One of the criteria commonly used by scholars to establish historically reliable material; the criterion maintains that if a saying or deed of Jesus does not coincide with (or works against) the agenda of the early Christians, it is more likely to be authentic. |
Epicureans |
Ancient group of followers of the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who miantained that the gods were removed from the concerns of human life and so were not to be feared ro placated. Happiness came in establishing apeaceful harmony with other like-minded people and enjoying the simple pleasures of daily existence. |
Herod the Great |
Ruler of all of Gaililee, Samaria, and Judea from 40-4 B.C.E.; this Herod was allegedly ruling when Jesus was born, and isknown in Christian History for killing all the baby boys of Bethlehem in attempt to destroy the infant Jesus (based on the account in Matthew). |
Criterion of independent attestation |
One of the criteria commonly used by scholars to establish historically reliable material; with respect to the historical Jesus, the criterion maintains that if a saying or deed of Jesus is attested independently by more than one source, it is more likely to be authentic. |
Kingdom of God |
In the teachings of Jesus, his appears to refer to an actual Kingdom that will come to earth to replace the wicked kingdoms that are now in control of affairs, and of God's people, here. This would become a utopian kingdom where truth, peace, and justice were restored; it would be ruled by God's anointed one (i.e., the messiah) |
Thecla |
A legendary femile disciple of Paul whose adventures are narrated in the novel-like work of the second century, The Acts of Paul and _____ |
Christology |
Any teaching about the nature of Christ |
Gematria |
A Jewish method of interpreting a word on the basis of the numerical value of its letters (in both Greek and Hebrew, the letters of the alphabet also serve as numbers). |
Justin |
One of th eearliest "apologists," he lived in Rome in the mid-second century. |
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-- views that he claimed to have found in the writings of Paul. |
Melchizedek |
A shadowy figure first mentioned in Genesis 14, as a king to whom Abraham, the father of the Jews, paid tithes from his spoils of battle. Later Christians, such as the author of Hebrews, understood him to be a prefiguration of Christ, who was greater than all things Jewish. |
Melito of Sardis |
Second-century Christian leader from Asia Minor, whose eloquent Esater sermon on the Old Testament story of Exodus castas vitriolic aspersions on the Jews. |
Origen |
A Christian philosopher and theologian from early third-century Alexandria, Egypt, who wrote one of the best known Christian apologies. |
Philo |
A famous Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Egypt in the first century, who saw the Jewish Scriptures as completely compatible with the insights of Greek philosophy and worked to interpret them accordingly. |
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 the way of death (or darkness). |
Perpetua |
An upper-class Christian woman of Carthage, North Africa, who along with her slave Felicitas was martyred by being thrown to the wild beats in 203 C.E.' We have an account of their martyrdom that includes a diary allegedly from Perpetua's own hand. |
Polycarp |
Bishop of Smyma in the first half of the second century, and one of the best known of the early proto-orthodox leaders. In addition to a letter written to him by Ignatius, we have a letter written by him to the church in Philippi, and an allegedly eyewitness count of his martyrdom in the arena at Smyrna around 115 C.E. |
Pontius Pilate |
Roman aristocrat who served as the governor of Judea from 26-36 C.E., and who was responsible for ordering Jesus' crucifixion. |
resident aliens |
In the Roman empire, persons who took up permanent residence in a place that was not their original home and in which they did not enjoy the benefits of citizenship. |
Docetist |
The view that Jesus was not a human being but only appeared to be, from a Greek word meaning "to see" or "to appear" |
Judaizer |
A Christian who insists that followers of Jesus need to keep the Jewish Law in order to have a right standing before God. |
Martyr |
From the Greek word that literally means "witness." Christian martyrs are those who "bear witness" to Christ even to the point of death. |
Sermon on the Mount |
The sermon found only in Matthew 5-7, which preserves many of the best-known sayings of Jesus (including Matthew's form of the Beatitudes, the antitheses, and the Lord's Prayer). |
Simon Magus |
Mysterious figure first named in Acts 8 who was able to perform magical deeds and who was thought to be in competition with the apostles for followers. Later Christians insisted that he tried to wrest converts from apostles by doing magical deeds to convince them of his own power. One later noncanonical text, the ACts of Peter, narrates a series of miracle-working contests between Peter and this man. Peter, of course, wins. Starting in the second century, Christian-heresy hunters claimed that he was the first Gnostic (which is not true). |
secessionists |
Members of the Johannine community who, according with the author of 1 John had left the community of their own. 1 John, which calls these people "antichrists," suggests that they had adopted a docetic Christology, not allowing that Christ was fully human. |
Domitian |
Roman emperor from 81-96 C.E.; most scholars believe he was the emperor when the book of Revelation, and its attack on the Roman empire was composed. |
Maccabean revolt |
The Jewish uprising against the Syrians and their king, Antiochus Epiphanes, starting in 167 B.C.E., in protest against the forced imposition of Hellenistic culture and the proscription of Jewish practices such as circumcision. |
Muratorian fragment |
A fragmentary text discovered in the eighteenth century, named after its Italian discoverer, which contains, in Latin, a list of Christian books that its author considered canonical; the canon i susually considered to have been produced in the late second century, in or around Rome. |
Nag Hammadi library |
Village in upper (southern) Egypt, near the place where a collection of Gnostic writings, including the Gospel of Thomas, were discovered in 1945, |
Amanuensis |
A personal scribe or secretary, who wrote from dictation. |
Scriptua continuo |
The ancient practice of writing without using spaces to separate words |
Textual criticism |
An academic discipline that seeks to establish the original wording of a text based on the surviving manuscripts. |