(Abram before Genesis 17; adj. Abrahamic) The first father (patriarch) of Israel; first called Abram, God made a covenant with him in which God promised to make him a great nation; Isaac was his son by Sarah, and Ishmael was his son by Hagar. See Chapter 2.
Also called apodictic law, it is law stated in an unconditional manner without qualifying clauses; abslolute law is distinguished from case law. See Chapter 3.
A contemporary of Joshua who kept spoil from the conquest of Jericho, was held responsible for Israel's defeat at Ai, and was executed by the Israelites.
The first male God created; he and his mate Eve disobeyed God and were expelled from the garden of Eden. See Chapter 1 Yahwist Creation Story. The Hebrew term adam can variously designate humankind collectively (as in Genesis 1:24, 27), the first man (when used with the definite article the as in Genesis 2-3), or the personal name Adam (when used without the definite article as in Genesis 5:3). See Chapter 1.
A literary device in which characters and events stand for abstract ideas, principles, or forces, so that the literal sense has or suggests a parallel, deeper symbolic sense. See Chapter 16.
(pl. ammey ha'aretz; Hebrew for "people of the land") A term used in the Hebrew Bible for citizens, or some particular class of citizens; in rabbinic literature, for persons or groups that dissented from or were uninstructed in rabbinic halaka and rigorous purity and tithing norms; it sometimes signifies the unlearned, sometimes is used condescendingly (boor); it was also used of the broad mass of Jewish people of the first century C.E., who cannot be categorized into any of the sub-groups of the time.
One of the Twelve Prophets; eighth century prophet from Tekoa in Judah, preached to the Northern Kingdom emphasizing social justice and the coming Day of Yahweh. See Chapter 13.
Greek term for a religio-political federation with its common focus a sanctuary dedicated to God; an association of neighboring states or tribes in ancient Greece that banded together for common interest and protection; this model has sometimes been used to describe the tribal confederation in the period of the judges (prior to Saul and David) in ancient Israel. See Chapter 6.
In Old Testament study this refers to the forebears of the nation of Israel; the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Hebrews, usually Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel and Leah, and sometimes the twelve sons of Jacob. See Biblical Story.
(ancient Near East) The large region of southwest Asia that includes Mesopotamia and territories bordering the Mediterranean Sea; modern nations included within this designation are Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. See Introduction.
To pour oil over the head; this was part of a ritual of designation by which priests and kings were initiated into office; an "anointed one" (Hebrew meshiach) was a divinely designated leader. See Chapter 8.
( adj. anthropomorphic) A Greek term for the attribution of human behavior or characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, natural phenomena, or deity; with regard to deity, anthropomorphism became a point of theological discussion in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. See Part 1.
(adj. apocalyptic; Greek for "revelation") An "unveiling" of something hidden; apocalyptic literature is a genre of literature (attested in Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions) in which the author claims to reveal the future and to show how the divine plan will be worked out in history, often expressing it in vivid symbolism; the final book of the Christian New Testament is sometimes called (in accord with its Greek title) "the Apocalypse" (it is also known as "the book of Revelation"). See Part 3, Chapter 17.
Old Testament, intertestamental Jewish and early Christian literature that consists predominantly of apocalypses; this literature is often pseudepigraphical; Daniel 7-12 is apocalyptic literature. See Part 3 Introduction, Part 3 Apocalyptic Literature.
(adj. apocryphal; from Greek for "to hide") It is used in a technical sense to refer to certain Jewish books written in the Hellenistic-Roman period that came to be included in the Old Greek Jewish scriptures (and thus in the Eastern Christian biblical canon) and in the Latin Vulgate Roman Catholic canon, but not in the Jewish or Protestant biblical canons; they are called deutero-canonical books in the Roman Catholic tradition. See Introduction, Conclusion.
(Aramea, Aram-naharaim, Padan-Aram) The territory north and east of Palestine where Abraham's ancestors had settled and from where the wives of Isaac and Jacob came; roughly the region of modern northern Syria and northwestern Iraq.
A language in the same family as Hebrew, used in Daniel 2:4-7:28; Ezra 4:8-6:18 and 7:12-26; and Jeremiah 10:11; its square script replaced the Old Hebrew script in Hebrew manuscripts before the Christian Era.
The owner of a threshing floor in Jerusalem (Jebus) where David built an altar; David bought the threshing floor and Solomon built the temple there (2 Samuel 24).
The science of unearthing sites containing remains of ancient habitation, with the goal of learning everything such sites have to offer about culture, society, ecology, intellectual life and religion; modern archaeology employs the tools of history, anthropology, geology, and biology to recover the hidden past.
A gold-overlayed wooden chest with two cherubim on the lid which stored the tablets of the covenant; it was housed first in the tabernacle, then in the Most Holy Place room of the Jerusalem temple; it was the location of God's presence within Israel. See Chapter 6, Chapter 8.
(v. atone) To make right with God by satisfying the penalty for breaking relationship; in the Old Testament this was done through offering sacrifices to God. See Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). See Chapter 4.
(sometimes spelled Ab) A month in the Jewish calendar; the 9th of Av is a day of mourning for the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 587 B.C.E. and again in 70 C.E.
