| Apocrypha | From the Greek, meaning "hidden" books, Apocrypha refers to noncanonical or deuterocanonical literature, especially the fourteen books included in the Greek Septuagint and later editions of the Vulgate but not in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible. It also applies to a body of Christian works that typically parallel or spuriously "supplement" the New Testament canon.
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| Aramaic | The language of the Arameans (Syrians), Aramaic was a west-Semitic tongue used in parts of Mesopotamia from about 1000 b.c.e. The official language of the Persian Empire after about 500 b.c.e., it was spoken by the Jews after the Babylonian exile. Parts of the Hebrew Bible were composed in Aramaic, and a Galilean dialect of Aramaic was probably the language spoken by Jesus.
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| canon | A term derived from the Greek kanon, which may be related to the Semitic qaneh, a "reed," perhaps used as a measuring rod. In modern usage, a canon is a standard of measure by which a religious community judges certain writings to be authoritative, usually of divine origin. The Hebrew Bible alone is the canon of Judaism, whereas Christianity accepts both it (sometimes including the Apocrypha) and the Greek New Testament. The canon is thus an official list of books considered genuine, worthy to be used in teaching and liturgy, and hence binding in doctrine and morals. The adjective extracanonical refers to books not included in the official canon or list.
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| codex | A manuscript book of an ancient biblical text, first used by Christians to replace the unwieldy scrolls on which the Scriptures were first recorded.
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| Codex Sinaiticus | An ancient Greek edition of the New Testament, which contains several books that supplement the central canon.
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| Dead Sea Scrolls | Biblical and other religious manuscripts dating from the second century b.c.e. to the first century c.e., found in caves near Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.
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| form criticism | An English rendition of the German Formsgeschichte, a method of biblical criticism that attempts to isolate, classify, and analyze individual units or characteristic forms contained in a literary text and to identify the probable preliterary form of these units before their incorporation into the written text. Form criticism also attempts to discover the setting in life (Sitz-im-Leben) of each unit-that is, the historical, social, religious, and cultural environment from which it developed-and to trace or reconstruct the process by which various traditions evolved from their original oral state to their final literary form.
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| Hebrew | (1) A member or descendant of one of a group of northwestern Semitic peoples, including the Israelites, Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites. According to Genesis 10:21-31 and 11:15, the Hebrews were descended from Eber, great-grandson of Shem (1 Chron. 1:18; Luke 3:35), and apparently belonged to an Aramean (ancient Syrian) branch of Semites who had originally migrated from Arabia. The Israelites' Aramean ancestry is referred to in the famous creed of Deuteronomy 26:5 (see also Gen. 25:20; 28:5). (2) The Semitic language spoken by the Israelites.
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| historical criticism | Analyzing a written work by taking into consideration its time and place of composition in order to comprehend the events, dates, personages, and other factual elements mentioned in or influencing the text.
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| Kethuvim (Ketubim or Kethubim) | The Hebrew term designating the Writings, the third division of the Hebrew Bible: Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Ruth, Lamentations, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
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| koine | The "common" or popular form of Greek spoken by Alexander's soldiers and transmitted as an international language throughout the Greco-Roman world. The Septuagint and New Testament are written in koine.
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| literary criticism | A form of literary analysis that attempts to isolate and define literary types, the sources behind them, the stages of composition from oral to written form with their characteristic rhetorical features, and the stages and degree of redaction (editing) of a text.
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| Masoretic Text (MT) | The standard text of the Hebrew Bible as given final form by the Masoretes in the seventh through ninth centuries c.e.
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| Nevi'im (Prophets) | The Hebrew term designating the second major division of the tripartite Hebrew Bible (Tanak), the Prophets.
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| Pentateuch | From a Greek word meaning "five scrolls," the term denotes the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah.
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| pericope | A term used in form criticism to describe a literary unit (a saying, anecdote, parable, or brief narrative) that forms a complete entity in itself and is attached to its context by later editorial commentary. Many of Jesus' pronouncements probably circulated independently as pericopes before they were incorporated into the written Gospel records.
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| pseudonymity | A literary practice, common among Jewish writers of the last two centuries b.c.e. and the first two centuries c.e, of writing or publishing a book in the name of a famous religious figure of the past. Thus, an anonymous author of about 168 b.c.e. ascribed his work to Daniel, who supposedly lived during the 500s b.c.e. The Pastorals, 2 Peter, James, and Jude are thought to be pseudonymous books written in the mid-second century c.e. but attributed to eminent disciples connected with the first-century Jerusalem church.
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| rabbi | A Jewish title (meaning "master" or "teacher") given to scholars learned in the Torah. Jesus was frequently addressed by this title (Matt. 23:8; 26:25, 49; Mark 8:5; 10:51; 11:21; 14:45; John 1:38, 49; 3:2; 4:31; 6:25; 9:2; 11:8; 20:16), as was John the Baptist (John 3:26), although Jesus supposedly forbade his followers to be so called (Matt. 23:7-8).
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| redaction criticism | A method of analyzing writ-ten texts that tries to define the purpose and literary procedures of editors (redactors) who compile and edit older documents, transforming shorter works into longer ones, as did the redactor who collected and ordered the words of the prophets into their present biblical form.
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| scroll | A roll of papyrus, leather, or parchment such as those on which the Hebrew Bible and New Testament were written. The rolls were made of sheets about nine to eleven inches high and five or six inches wide, sewed together to make a strip up to twenty-five or thirty feet long, which was wound around a stick and unrolled when read (Isa. 34:4; Rev. 6:14; Jer. 36).
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| Septuagint (LXX) | A Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible traditionally attributed to seventy or seventy-two Palestinian scholars during the reign of Ptolemy II (285-246 b.c.e.), the Septuagint was actually the work of several generations of Alexandrine translators, begun about 250 b.c.e. and not complete until the first century c.e. The later additions to the Septuagint were deleted from the standard Hebrew Bible (Masoretic Text) but included in the Christian Scriptures as the Apocrypha.
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| source criticism | Analysis of a biblical document to discover the sources, written or oral, that the author(s) incorporated into it. Close study of the Pentateuch has led scholars to conclude that at least four main literary units-J, E, D, and P-were blended in its composition.
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| Tanak | A comparatively modern name for the Hebrew Bible, an acronym consisting of three consonants that represent the three major divisions of the Bible; the Torah (law), the Nevi'im (Prophets), and the Kethivim (Writings).
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| textual criticism | Comparison and analysis of ancient manuscripts to discover copyists' errors and, if possible, to reconstruct the true or original form of the document; also known as lower criticism.
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| Torah | A Hebrew term usually translated "law," "instruction," or "teaching," it refers primarily to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, and in a general sense to all the canonical writings, which are traditionally regarded as a direct oracle or revelation from Yahweh.
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| Vulgate Bible | Jerome's Latin translation of the Bible (late fourth century c.e.), eventually including the Apocrypha, which became the official version of Roman Catholicism.
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| Yahweh | A translation of the sacred name of Israel's god, represented almost 7000 times in the canonical Hebrew Bible by the four consonants of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH). According to Exodus 6:2-4, it was revealed for the first time to Moses at the burning bush; according to J, it was used from the time of Enosh before the Flood (Gen. 4:26). Scholars have offered various interpretations of the origin and meaning of the divine name. According to one accepted theory, it is derived from the Hebrew verb "to be" and means "he is" or "he causes to be," implying that Yahweh is the maker of events and shaper of history.
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education