旧约词汇 - G

Galilee

The northern part of Palestine, specifically the territories north and west of the Sea of Galilee.

Galut

(Hebrew for "exile") The term refers to the various expulsions of Jews from the ancestral homeland; over time, it came to express the broader notion of Jewish homelessness and state of being aliens; thus, colloquially, "to be in galut" means to live in the diaspora and also to be in a state of physical and even spiritual alienation.

Gemara

(Hebrew for "completion") Popularly applied to the Jewish Talmud as a whole, to discussions by rabbinic teachers on Mishnah, and to decisions reached in these discussions; in a more restricted sense, it applies to the work of the generations of the Amoraim from the third through the fifth centuries C.E. in "completing" Mishnah to produce the Talmuds.

Genealogy

A list or family tree of ancestors or descendants; the Priestly history and the Chronicler's history contain extensive genealogies. See Chapter 1.

Generation

A group of people born and living at about the same time, usually reckoned as forty years in the Old Testament; grandparents, parents, and children are three generations.

Genre

The term used by literary critics as the equivalent of "type of literature"; the basic genres found in the Hebrew Bible are prose and poetry, with many different sub-types including song, hymn, story, saying, speech, law, genealogy, saga, history. See Introduction.

Gentiles

(Hebrew goyyim) In pre-Christian times, non-Jewish peoples; thereafter, non-Jewish and non-Christian (roughly synonymous with "pagan").

Gibeon

A village north of Jerusalem which tricked Joshua and the Israelites into making a treaty with them. See Chapter 6.

Gideon

A judge who delivered the Israelites from the tyrrany of the Midianites. See Chapter 7.

Gilgal

A village near Jericho where the Israelites first stopped after they entered the Promised Land. See Chapter 6.

Gilgamesh epic

A Babylonian epic centering on Gilgamesh, ancient king of Uruk; the eleventh tablet of this epic contains a story of a flood that has parallels to the biblical story of Noah and the ark. See Chapter 1.

Glory of Yahweh

The revelation of God's being, nature, and presence to humankind, often through physical or meteorological phenomena. See Chapter 12.

God

The supreme divine being, called Elohim by the Israelites, who was also known as Yahweh.

Gog

An eschataological figure, a personification of evil, that battled God's forces in Ezekiel 38-39. See Chapter 12.

Golden calf

A statue constructed by Aaron at Mount Sinai that the Israelites worshiped; Jeroboam, first king of Israel, built golden calf shrines at Bethel and Dan. See Chapter 3.

Goliath

The Philistine giant who was killed by David. See Chapter 8.

Gomer

The wife of Hosea the prophet who turned out to be unfaithful to their marriage. See Chapter 13.

Goshen

The territory in the eastern Nile delta of Egypt where Joseph settled the family of Jacob.

Grace

An undeserved gift or favor; the undeserved attention, forgiveness, kindness and mercy that God gives.