The Jewish Annotated New Testament (174 page)

beloved disciple
follower “whom Jesus loved” (Jn 13.23; 19.26; 21.20) and to whom is attributed (21.24) the Gospel of John.

Bereshit
Hebrew title of Genesis (from its first word, “[When] in the beginning”).

berit
(also
brit
and
bris
; Heb “covenant”) the term can specifically refer to circumcision (Heb
brit milah
, lit. the “covenant of circumcision”). See
covenant
.

binyan ‘av
(“construction of a father”) a form of rabbinic argumentation which entails using one Torah passage to reach a conclusion regarding another.

birchat ha-mason
(Heb “blessing for nourishment”) the Jewish blessing recited after a meal.

birchat ha-minim
(Heb “blessing [i.e., ‘curse’] on heretics”) the twelfth blessing of the
Amidah
; one ancient version, no longer recited, curses
minim
(heretics) and Nazareans (perhaps Jewish Christians).

birchat ha-motsi
(Heb “blessing for bringing out”) the Jewish blessing before a meal.

bishop
(Old English
bisceop
, from Gk
episkopos
, “overseer”) usually the head of the church in a particular area (where there might be more than one congregation). The office seems to have been more definite by the time of the
Pastoral Epistles
; see, e.g., 1 Tim 3.1–7. See
deacon
,
presbyter
.

Booths, Feast (Festival) of
see
Sukkoth
.

born again
in Jn 3.3,7 Jesus tells Nicodemus, “You must be born
anōthen
”: the Greek can be translated “anew,” “from above,” or “again”; the pun works in Greek, but not in Aramaic or Hebrew. Passages such as Rom 6.3–11 suggest that believers are “reborn” into a new family based on faith rather than biology or marriage.

C

Cairo Genizah
the storeroom (a genizah is a storage room for worn, no longer usable copies of Jewish texts) of the synagogue of Fostat in Old Cairo (built 882 CE) where thousands of fragments of texts, including a portion of Ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) in Hebrew, rabbinic documents, translations of the Bible, liturgical texts, poetry, letters, and other writings were discovered.

Canaan
early designation for the area roughly equivalent to the land of Israel.

canon
(Gk “measuring rod”) the rule by which something is determined to belong to a category; the official list of the books that comprise the Scriptures. See chart, p.
600
.

Catholic Epistles
(from Gk
katholikos
, “according to the whole,” “universal”) designation for the NT letters James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, and Jude.

CD
the Cairo-Damascus Document (earlier called the Zadokite Document), known from discoveries in the
Cairo Genizah
, recapitulates much of the material in the Qumran
Community Rule
(1QS).

CE
Common era; an alternative to
AD
.

centurion
the commander of a company in the Roman army.

Chaldea, Council of
the council (451 CE) that defined the union of divine and human natures in Jesus.

charis
NT word for “grace,” “kindness.”

charisma
a gift of spiritual grace, particularly a manifestation of the Holy Spirit such as glossolalia (speaking in tongues) or prophecy.

cherubim
composite creatures with body parts from various animals; they often had wings and human heads (see Heb 9.5).

Christ
(Gk “anointed”) translation of Heb
mashiach
, “messiah.” In NT usage, generally a title, “Christ,” “the anointed one”; in use today as an alternative name for Jesus.

Christian Hebraists
Christian scholars who taught the importance of returning to the Hebrew text of the “Old Testament” as opposed to relying on the
Vulgate
and who studied Hebrew with rabbinic scholars. The beginnings of Christian Hebraism are generally traced to Andrew of St. Victor (d. 1175), and it reached its zenith in the Renaissance.

Christology
statements concerning the nature of Christ, or the study of the meaning of Jesus’ role, character, and purpose.

church fathers
see
patristic writers
.

circumcision
removal of the foreskin of the penis (see
berit
). In Paul’s writings, “circumcised” and “uncircumcised” (Gal 2.7) refer to Jews and Gentiles respectively.

Clement of Alexandria
Christian theologian (ca. 150–ca. 215) who argued that Christianity fulfilled both the Hebrew Bible and Greek philosophy.

Clement of Rome
(fl. 96) the bishop of Rome who wrote the letter known as
1 Clement
to the church at Corinth.

codex
(pl.
codices
) a manuscript of separate pages, bound along one edge, like contemporary books. Christian communities adopted the codex form, while Jews continued to write on scrolls.

colophon
(Gk “summit,” by extension “finishing touch”) a notice, usually written at the end of a book, giving information about authorship (e.g., Sir 50.27).

Community Rule
(or “Rule of the Community” or
serech ha-yachad
, 1QS) a
Dead Sea Scroll
that sets out the arrangements under which the community functioned: holding property in common; eating, blessing, and advising one another in unity; preparing for the
eschaton
; training new members.

Coptic
Egyptian dialect from approximately the first century CE until it was supplanted by Arabic.

cosmology
an account of the nature of the world.

Council of Trent
the twenty-ninth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church (1545–1563), held after the Protestant Reformation had begun. Among other decisions, it defined the Catholic
canon
.

covenant
(Heb
berit
) a treaty between God and Israel. In the Septuagint, the word was generally translated by the Greek
diathēkē
, which can mean “testament”; Jeremiah’s phrase
berit chadashah
(“new covenant,” 31.31) was translated
diathēkŷ kainē
, (
LXX
Jer 38.31; see Lk 22.20); translated into Latin,
novum testamentum
, it became the name of the collection known as the NT.

D

Day of Atonement
Heb
Yom Kippur
, commemorated on the tenth day of the seventh month (Tishri), a day of repentance, fasting and abstinence, as well as performance of special Temple rituals (see Lev 16).

Day of the Lord
the time mentioned in many prophetic books (e.g., Am 5.18) where God’s justice prevails.

Day of Preparation
the day before a Sabbath or festival. Mk 15.42 describes the day of Jesus’ crucifixion as “the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath.” In Jn 19.14, Jesus’ crucifixion take place on “the day of Preparation for the Passover.”

deacon
(Gk
diakonos
, “servant”) church official; see e.g., 1 Tim 3.8–13.

Dead Sea Scrolls
a group of manuscripts found beginning in 1947 in caves near the Dead Sea, at Wadi Qumran. The scrolls were probably the library of a settlement, likely of Essenes, that flourished from the second century BCE until the Romans destroyed it in 68 CE. The library, in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, included biblical books older than those previously known, and other scrolls of biblical interpretation (see
pesher
) and of regulations for the life of the community.

Decalogue
(Gk “ten words”) a name for the list of commandments in Ex 20.1–17, Deut 5.6–21, often called the Ten Commandments.

demon
(Gk
daimonion
, originally a minor divinity) an evil spirit to which is ascribed the cause of physical and mental ailments.

demoniac
one possessed by demons.

derash
(Heb
d-r-sh
, “inquire”) interpretation (see
midrash
).

derekh eretz
(Heb “way of [the] land”) the path of righteousness one should follow.

deuterocanon, deuterocanonical
(Gk “second canon”) a group of about 20 Jewish works, many included in the Septuagint, which were not accepted into the Jewish canon. These texts (e.g., Judith, 1,2 Maccabees, ben Sirah [Ecclesiasticus]) are extra-canonical for Protestants; some are canonical for Roman Catholics; a few more are canonical for Orthodox Christians (see chart, p.
600
). Also known as Old Testament
Apocrypha
.

Deutero-Isaiah
scholarly term for Isa 40–55.

Deutero-Pauline
designation for letters attributed to Paul but which many modern scholars regard as
pseudonymous
. The list usually includes Ephesians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and sometimes 2 Thessalonians.

deuteronomistic
pertaining to the editor(s) of the history comprised in the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, as prefaced by the book of Deuteronomy.

diaspora
(Gk “dispersal”) the home of Jews outside the land of Israel (see Jn 7.35); the church adapted the term to refer to its members outside the kingdom of heaven (Jas 1.1; 1 Pet 1.1).

diathēkē
(Gk
diatithēmi
, “arrange” or “assign,” “dispose of” in making a will) a testament or covenant; see
covenant; testament
.

diatribe
a rhetorical argument against another’s position.

Didache
(Gk “teaching”) a late first or early second century Christian writing, also called the
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
, which contains material similar to the canonical Gospels (esp. Matthew).

disciple
a follower, an adherent of a particular teaching.

docetism
(from Gk
dokeoō
, “seem”) early Christian teaching maintaining that Jesus only
seemed
to be a human being.

doxology
(Gk “word of glory”) a prayer of praise to God (e.g., Rom 16.25–27).

dualism
the view that reality consists of two opposing elements, often seen as “good” and “evil.”

dynamis
(Gk “power,” “strength,” “might”) in the NT often the divinely given ability to do something (Acts 3.12).

E

ecclesia
(Gk “assembly,” “congregation”) a regular convocation of a group; in
LXX
the word usually translates Heb
qahal
, an assembly of Israelites. It comes to designate a Christian congregation, a church.