Terms

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Pentateuch Terms

Used in: Pentateuch and the Historical Books SS517

A

  • Adonai: “the Lord”
  • Allegorical:
  • apocalyptic:
    • A genre of literature in which details concerning the end-time are revealed by heavenly messenger or angel. (Coogan)
    • The Greek word apokalypsis means "uncovering" or "revelation". To label a book as an apocalypse suggests that the chief characteristic is the revelation of some secret about the future. Only two books of the bible fit this; Daniel and the Revelation of John. (Boadt)
  • apocryphal: Books that are included in the Catholic Bible but are not found in the Hebrew Bible or in the Protestant canon. (Collins) see deutero-canonical
  • Archaeology: Literally means the “study of beginnings”. An organized and systematic science of humanity’s past. Asa science studies the physical remains of the human past. (Boadt 1984).

B

  • Bethel: house of El or house of God
  • Binding of Isaac: The story (gen 22) of Abraham sacrifice of his son Isaac

C

  • Canaanite: a Semitic people who had probably inhabited Palestine in the 4th millennium... (NJBC 75:20 )
  • Canonicity: The word "canon (Hebrew qaneh, "reed"; Greek kanon, "measuring rod") was used by the early Christians to refer to the rule of faith, and was later used to described the list of inspired books which constitute the bible (Wimmer p. 10)
  • concordism: The attempt to correlate the bible and modern science by considering the days to be aeons of perhaps millions of years each. It does not work: Light was created before the sun and even the earth (v 10) and the planets were created before the sun. (Wimmer p. 68)
  • Concupiscence: A tendency within all humans toward selfishness that is due to their evolutionary origin. (Wimmer)
  • cuneiform: Babylonian “wedge shaped writing.

D

  • diachronic approach - one that analyzes the evolution of something over time, allowing one to assess how that something changes throughout history. You would use this approach to analyze the effects of variable change on something, thus allowing you to postulate WHY a certain state was borne of a prior state or WHY a certain state progressed to some future state. e.g. rhetorical, narrative, semiotic and others
  • Diaspora: Literally, scattering or dispersion, used to refer to exiles from Judah to Babylonia in early 6th century B.C. and subsequently for any Jews kiving outside of Israel.
  • Documentary Hypothesis – The theory classically formulated by Julius Wellhausen in 1878, which explains the repetitions and inconsistencies in the first five books of the bible, the Pentateuch, as a result of originally independent sources or documents having been combined over several centuries. The principal hypothetical sources are J [Yahwist], E, D, and P.
  • doublets: variant forms of the same story. (see Collins p 50 for a great list of doublets.
  • deutero-canonical: “secondly-canonical” Books whose divine inspiration was disputed at one time but which did make the Catholic canon. Protestant Churches, which do not recognize them as inspired, call them apocryphal (hidden or spurious” (Wimmer notes p 10)
  • Deuteronomistic History According to modern scholars, the books of Jushua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings, which form the narative history of Israel in the Promised Land. It was produced in several editions from the late eighth centuries B.C. by the Deuteronomistic Historians, who were informed by the principles of the book of Deuteronomy.

E

  • Elohim: The general Hebrew name for God.
  • endogamy: Marriage within ones ethnic, cultural or religious community, for the survival of the community’s identity, and for keeping its property within the group. opp: exogamy.
  • Ephraim:
    • a term used in biblical poetry for the northern kingdom of Israel.
    • the dominant Northern tribe, named after one of Jacob's two grandsons through Joseph
  • etiology: Pertaining to the causes or origins of thins
  • etiological narrative: An example of a literary form in form criticism pioneered by Herman Gunkel. Short narratives that explain by means of the narrative itself the origins of religious rituals, topographical features, genealogical relationships, and other aspects of ancient Israelite life. (Coogan p. 197)
    • structure: narrative account of the origin of a peculiar
      • phenomenon e.g. why do snakes crawl on their belly and eat dust?
      • Geographical feature e.g. Bethel
      • Personal names e.g. change of Abram’s name to Abraham (gen 17:5)
    • Sitz im Leben: popular wisdom
  • Eve "mother of all of the living"
  • exegetes: Those who interpret scripture.

F

  • Form criticism:
    • The study of patterns of speech in relation to their roles in human life. Stated that a literary form (genre) has two parts Structure of the text and Sitz im Leben). Worked out by Hermann Gunkel in early 20th century. Identification of smaller units within source criticism (Coogan p 77).
    • The method begins by identifying a form or genre, and then determining its function in its original context or Sitz im Leben (Wimmer notes p 49). Forms include: etiology or etiological narrative, causuistic law, apodictic law, saga, legend, and eponym.
    • The study of relatively short literary units in literature and in fokelore with regard to their forms or genres, their original settings sitz im leben, and their social, religious and political functions It was developed by Herman Gunkel. (Coogan Glossary p. 549)
    • "Gunkel insisted that exegesis must be founded on recognized separate preliterary and oral traditions, from which the written documents eventually developed (NJBC 69:38).
    • Form criticism breaks the Bible down into sections (pericopes, stories) which are analyzed and categorized by genres (prose or verse, letters, laws, court archives, war hymns, poems of lament, etc.). The form critic then theorizes on the pericope's Sitz im Leben ("setting in life"), the setting in which it was composed and, especially, used.[8] Tradition history is a specific aspect of form criticism which aims at tracing the way in which the pericopes entered the larger units of the biblical canon, and especially the way in which they made the transition from oral to written form. The belief in the priority, stability, and even detectability, of oral traditions is now recognised to be so deeply questionable as to render tradition history largely useless, but form criticism itself continues to develop as a viable methodology in biblical studies.[9]

H

  • Hellenism: The Love of all things Greek, after the name that the Greeks called themselves Hellenes. (Boadt p. 496)
  • Hellenistic: The Greek influence in other countries of the ancient world, especially after the time of Alexander when the mixture of Greek and Near Eastern ideals produced a combined culture in most places (Boadt)
  • Hellenization: The transformation of Near Eastern culture and society by Greek ideas, especial.y after the conquest of the Near East by Alexander the Great in the late 4th century B.C. (Coogan)
  • hermeneutical: Referring to the rules for interpreting text.
  • Historical Critical Method A shorthand for a whole collection of methodologies and strategies for understanding the ancient texts in the Bible. Interpretation of ancient texts against the background of what we can know of their historical settings. The crux of historical interpretation is that our conviction that the ancient authors reflected their own historical situation and wrote to address people of their own time and place.
  • Hykos period: Brief time when Egypt was ruled by dynasties originally of Semitic origin. apropos the story of Joseph rulling in Egypt

I

  • Israel: This name is used in several senses. First, it is the new name given to the patriarch Jacob in Genesis 32.28; Jacobs twelve sons then became the ancestors of the tribes of Israel. Second, it designates the people and later the geopolitical entity formed from the twelve tribes. Third, it is used as the name of the northern kingdom of Israel, as opposed to the southern kingdom of Judah.
  • Inspiration

J

  • Judah: The name of one of Jacob’s sons, the ancestor of the tribe of Judah. The tribe dominated southern Israel and became the southern kingdom of Judah. Later the same region was called Judea.
  • JT McWeb: Mnemonic to remember the names of the deuterocanonical books; Judith, Tobit, 1-2 Maccabees, Wisdom Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), and Baruch.

K

  • Kerygma (Greek: κήρυγμα, kérugma) is the Greek word used in the New Testament for preaching (see Luke 4:18-19, Romans 10:14, Matthew 3:1). It is related to the Greek verb κηρύσσω (kērússō), to cry or proclaim as a herald, and means proclamation, announcement, or preaching.
  • Kirta Epic of: An extrabiblical text partially preserved on three clay tablets found at Ugarit. The epic shares several details of plot with the ancesteral narratives in Genesis. In both we have childless ancestors; divine promise of offspring, sometimes in a dream; a journey for a wife; in the course of the journey a stop at a shrine where a vow is made; and ultimately the birth of children.

L

  • Latter Prophets In Jewish tradition, the second part of the Prophets, comprising of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel and the book of the Twelve (Minor Prophets).
  • Levant: A term used for the western part of the Near East, comprising the modern countries of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan.
  • Linear genealogy – traces one line through several generations, trace descendants in a direct line from father to firstborn son to his first born son and so on.
  • Literary Criticism

M

  • Major Prophets: In modern scholarship, the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, so called because of their relative length compared to the shorter books of the Minor Prophets. In Christian tradition the books of Lamentations and Daniel have often been included under this heading.
  • Midrash Rabinic commentary
  • Midrash Haggadah embraces the interpretation, illustration, or expansion, in a moralizing or edifying manner, of the non-legal portions of the Bible (see Haggadah; Midrash; Midrash Halakah). The word "haggadah" (Aramaic, "agada") means primarily the recitation or teaching of Scripture; (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=587&letter=M)
  • Minor Prophets: In modern scholarship, the twelve shorter prophetic books from Hosea through Malachi
  • myth:
    • In the 19th century, "myth" meant fable, invention, fiction; today scholars regard mythic stories as "true" and precious because they are sacred, exemplary and significant. "Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial time, the fabled time of the "beginnings" (Eliade 1963, 5). Mythic events can occur in remote times that are either primordial and prehistoric or are in the distant future. These events while taking place outside of historical time, nevertheless impact historical events. Myth describes the beginning of human and earthly happenings, and points them toward their end. Mythical events are normative and appear as prototypes of all happenings. It may be said that "it never happened but it is always there" (Sacramentum Mundi IV, 153). The tension between eternity and time is expressed in Christian thought through "myth". Myth articulates God in the language of history, eternity in the language of time, and the transcendent in the language of human action. In a sense "myth" is not something unreal, a fairy tale. It is a means of talking about the reality of God, and the "myth" of creation is true, not a a literal event, but as an affirmation about the relation of everythine in the world to God as a Creator. "The myth of creation does not tell us about a first miment of time any more than the myth of the Fall tells us about a first human being. What is does tell us is that every moment of time, is like every contingent being, what comes to be from the creative power of God (Gilley 1965, 317) Source: (Wimmer).
    • A traditional narrative concerning the remote past in which gods and goddesses are often principal characters. (COOGAN)

N

  • nabi: Hebrew word in the bible usually translated a prophet Etymology is not clear but the most likely origin if form a word meaning "to call"; a nabi is thus someone called by the deity.
  • Narrative analysis involves a new way of understanding how a text works. While the historical-critical method considers the text as a "window" giving access to one or other period (not only to the situation which the story relates but also to that of the community for whom the story is told), narrative analysis insists that the text also functions as a "mirror" in the sense that it projects a certain image--a "narrative world"--which exercises an influence upon readers' perceptions in such a way as to bring them to adopt certain values rather than others. (PBC)

O

  • original sin
    • the traditional Christian explanation of evil
    • The need for salvation of Christ that is universal to all human beings and acquired through natural generation.
  • oracle against the nations: A genre used by the prophets and in apocalyptic literature to describe Yahweh's judgement on foreign lands.

P

  • pseudepigraphy, pseudepigrapha:
    • Books that are attributed to famous ancient people (such as Enoch), who did not actually write them, (collins)
    • Jewish religious writings that were never canonized e.g. Enoch, 2 Baruch,4 Ezra (Boadt)
  • pre-exilic: previous to the exile of the Jews to Babylon in about 600 b.c.
  • Primeval:
  • prophet: English word Prophet cmes from Greek and literally means "spokesperson". It expresses the undersdanding that the prophets were delivering divinely sent messages. The prophets were believed to be recipients of direct communications from God. Sayings of and stories about many of the prophets are found in part of the bible known as the Prophets. Most frequently used word in the bible is the word nabi, usually translated as prophet.
  • Prophets: In Jewish tradition, the second of the three parts of the Hebrew Bible, comprising the books of Joshua to 2 Kings and Isaiah and Malachi.
  • Promised Land: The land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants. Its boundaries vary in the bible, but it corresponds roughly to the territory comprising modern Israel and Palestine.
  • proto-evangelium: Literally "the first gospel"; Genesis 3:15 viewed as a promise of future salvation.
  • Providentissimus Deus: Pope Leo XIII, 1893

R

  • Rosetta Stone: Text written in three languages – Greek, Demonic (a late form of Egyptian) and ancient hieroglyphics (picture writing) – led French scholar Jean-Francois Champollion to a major breakthrough in 1821: the deciphering of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic language by comparison to Greek.

S

  • Samaria: The capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel frim the early 9th century BC to 722 BC when it fell to the Assyrians. Subsequently, Samaria was used as the name of the region in which the city was located.
  • Segmented genealogy traces several different lines descended from a common ancestor
  • Second Temple period: Between 516 BCE and 70 CE, during which time it was the center of Jewish sacrificial worship. It was the second temple in Jerusalem, built to replace the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon. The accession of Cyrus the Great of Persia in 538 BCE made the re-establishment of the city of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple possible.
  • Semitic: relating to or denoting a family of languages that includes Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic and certain ancient languages such as Phoenician and Akkadian, constituting the main subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic family.
  • Semite: a member of any of the peoples who speak or spoke a Semitic language, including in particular the Jews and Arabs.
  • Sensus Plenior The fuller Sense.
    • The deeper meaning of the text, intended by God but not clearly expressed by the human author. It's existence in the biblical text comes to be known when one studies the text in light of other biblical texts which utilize it or in its relationship with internal developments of revelation. (Pontifical Biblical Commission, Interpretation of the Bible 1994, II B 3)
    • "... The fuller sense is a way of indicating the spiritual sense of a biblical text in the case where the spiritual sense is distinct from the literal sense.
  • Semiotic Analysis: Ranged among the methods identified as synchronic, those namely which concentrate on the study of the biblical text as it comes before the reader in its final state, is semiotic analysis. This has experienced a notable development in certain quarters over the last 20 years. Originally known by the more general term structuralism, this method can claim as forefather the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who at the beginning of the present century worked out the theory according to which all language is a system of relationships obeying fixed laws. (PBC)
  • Septuagint: Greek translation of OT. Contrary to popular belief, the Septuagent was used not only in Hellenistic Eqypt, especially Alexandria, but also in Palestine itself. Parts of the Hebrew Bible were translated into Greek by the middle of the 3rd century B.C.
  • Sitz im Leben: Original context e.g. etiological narrative.
  • Source criticism
    • Source criticism is the search for the original sources which lie behind a given biblical text. It can be traced back to the 17th century French priest Richard Simon, and its most influential product is Julius Wellhausen's Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (1878), whose "insight and clarity of expression have left their mark indelibly on modern biblical studies."[7]
  • This literary-historical approach engages in study of the origins of the text, including such matters as authoriship, oral and written sources used, and the editorial stages through which it may have passed (BUrch, Brueggemann et al. p. 37)
  • Source Critical Theory
  • Stratigraphy: an archaeological technique that is literally noting and mapping the strata, or levels of civilization and settlement on this particular mound (Boadt)


  • Sumerian King List
  • Synchronic approach - analyzes a particular something at a given, fixed point in time. It does not attempt to make deductions about the progression of events that contributed to the current state, but only analyzes the structure of that state, as it is. as opposed to a diachronic approach
  • Syro-Ephraimite War: The attack on Judah and Jerusalem by the notheren kingdom of \Israel and Aram in 734 BC, in an attempt to force the king of Judah, Ahaz, to joinn an anti-Assyrian alliance.

T

  • teledot: Hebrew word meaning a series of “generations” or “births” (e.g. Gen 25.12)
  • tell: from the Arabic (and Hebrew) word for ruin. They are, in effect, artificial mountains made up of accumulated layers of mudbrick and refuse let by successive levels of occupation (Boadt)
  • Textual criticism (sometimes still referred to as "lower criticism") refers to the examination of the text itself to identify its provenance or to trace its history. It takes as its basis the fact that errors inevitably crept into texts as generations of scribes reproduced each other's manuscripts
  • theodicy: Defense of Gos's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil.
  • theogony: A family tree for god. Common in ancient stories from Sumeria, Mesopotamia and Egypt. (Birch p. 39)
  • Torah: Hebrew word has a broader sense of the word than the law and includes a sense of traditional teaching.
  • Typological:

U

  • Ugaritc Text: A writing system found on clay tablets. Thousands of tablets were found including three which contained the Epic of Kirta were found around 1929 thought to be from 1200 BCE. This extraordinary find was one of the most important of the 20th century for illuminating the larger context in which the Hebrew Bible is written. In these texts, the Canaanites speak for themselves. (Coogan p 82)

V

  • vaticinum ex eventu a perdiction after the fact

W

  • Word of God see 2 Pet 3:16

Y

  • Yahwist: Term applied to the author of those parts of the Pentateuch that refer to the God of Israel primarily as Yahweh, especially the stories in Genesis of Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and Abraham. He is presumed to have written sometime between 950 and 650 B.B.
  • yetzer hara: an "inclination to evil". The Yahwist arrtibuted the flood to this "inclination to evil" Gen. 6:5

Z

  • Zion: A name of Jerusalem, used especially in poetic texts.

Glossary Sources

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