Glossary

angel	From a Greek word meaning "messenger"; angels were commonly conceived in biblical times as emissaries from the deity who employed them to communicate his will to humanity. The oldest known rendition of angels in art occurs on the stele of Urnammu, a Sumerian king, but many scholars suggest that Israel's belief in angelology derives from Persian sources. Angels named in canonical Scripture include Michael and Gabriel, although apocryphal and pseudepigraphal literature lists others. Angels are particularly important in the birth stories of Jesus (Luke 1-2; Matt. 1).



anthropomorphism	Attributing human characteristics to something not human; particularly, ascribing human shape and form to a deity.



Asherah	Hebrew name for the Canaanite goddess Asherat, "Lady of the Sea," a consort of El, Canaan's chief deity, whom the apostate Israelites worshiped at various times (see 1 Kings 11:5; 16:33; 18:19; etc.).



Baal	A Canaanite-Phoenician term meaning "lord" or "master," the name applied to Canaan's most popular fertility god. Worshiped as the power that caused germination and growth of farm crops, Baal was a serious rival to Yahweh after the Israelites settled in Palestine and became dependent on agriculture (Judg. 2:11-14). He is pictured as a god of storm and rainfall in a contest with the Yahwist Elijah on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:20-46).



Canaan	The Tanak name for the land of Palestine west of the Jordan River, from Egypt in the south to Syria in the north (Gen. 10:19). According to Hebrew tradition, Canaan was the territory promised to Abraham's descendants (Gen. 15:7-21; 17:1-8) and infiltrated by the Israelite tribes during the thirteenth and twelfth centuries b.c.e. (Num. 21; Josh. 1-24; Judg. 1-2).



cherub, cherubim (pl.)	Mythological creatures-part bird, part human, part other animal-that were placed in pairs at each side of the mercy seat of the Tabernacle, and later in the innermost sanctuary of Solomon's Temple, to protect the sacred relics in the Ark of the Covenant (Exod. 25:18-22). Their images were also embroidered on the veil of the Temple (2 Chron. 3:14) and sculpted on a frieze around the Temple walls and on the bases of the "Molten sea" (1 Kings 6:23; 7:29; 1 Chron. 28:18; Heb. 9:5). Such winged creatures, with a lion's or ox's body, eagle's wings, and human face, were common in ancient Near Eastern art and have been found in Byblos, Nineveh, and elsewhere. Originally the guardians of divine beings, they were later identified with the angels of Yahweh's heavenly court.'



divine council	The heavenly assembly of gods, a concept common throughout the ancient Near East. In Israelite tradition, Yahweh presides as king of the council, surrounded by lesser divine beings who serve as his emissaries (Ps. 82; Job 1-2; Zech. 3).documentary hypothesis A scholarly theory associated with Julius Wellhausen that argues that the Pentateuch is not the work of one author but the result of many generations of anonymous writers, revisers, and editors (redactors) who produced the four main literary strands or components found in these five books: J (the Yahwist); E (the Elohist); D (the Deuteronomist); and P (the Priestly component).



El, Elohim (pl.)	A Semitic term for a divine being. In Canaanite religion, El was the high god, father of lesser deities. In the Hebrew Bible, El, when used as a name for the Israelite Deity, typically occurs as part of a phrase, such as El Shaddai (God of the Mountain), El Bethel (God of the House of God), or El Elyon (God Most High). In its plural form, the Hebrew generic term for deity applied to both their national God (Gen. 1:1; 2:5; etc.) and foreign deities (Exod. 15:2, 11).



El Shaddai	Although commonly translated "God Almighty," this term probably means "God of the Mountain," referring to the Mesopotamian cosmic "mountain" inhabited by divine beings. One of the patriarchal names for the Mesopotamian tribal god, it is identified with Yahweh in the Mosaic revelation (Exod. 6:3). Except for a few occurrences in Job (5:17; 8:5; etc.), Isaiah (13:6), and Ezekiel (10:5), it appears chiefly in the Pentateuch (Gen. 17:1; 28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3; Exod. 6:3; etc.). Shaddai alone appears in Ruth (1:20-21) and Job (13:3; 20:15-20; 31:2; 40:2; etc.).



henotheism	The worship of a single god with a belief that other gods exist. Psalm 82 appears to represent a henotheistic stage of Israelite religion, as do such passages as the victory song in Exodus 15.



Incarnation	The Christian doctrine asserting that the prehuman Son of God became flesh, the man Jesus of Nazareth, to reveal the divine will to humanity-a doctrine based largely on the Logos hymn that opens the fourth Gospel (John 1:1-18, especially 1:14; see also Col. 1:15-20; 2:9-15; Phil. 2:5-11; Heb. 1:1-4; 2:14-18).



Jethro	A shepherd and priest of the Kenites, a Midianite tribe of coppersmiths, with whom Moses took refuge during his flight from Egypt and whose daughter Zipporah he married (Exod. 2:15-22; 18:1-12). Moses apparently identified Jethro's god, Yahweh, with El Shaddai, god of Israel's ancestors (Exod. 3; 6; 18).



Kenite hypothesis	A theory arguing that Yahweh was originally the tribal god of the Kenite clan from which Moses and his Hebrew followers borrowed and adapted their religion (Exod. 18:1-12).



Kenites	A Midianite clan of nomadic coppersmiths and metalworkers to which Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, belonged (Exod. 18:1-12; Num. 10:29-32; Judg. 1:16; 4:11; 1 Sam. 15:6).



Midian	An ancient tribal territory, the exact location and extent of which is unknown, that lay in the northwestern Arabian desert, east of the Gulf of Aqabah, opposite the Sinai Peninsula, and south of Moab. According to Exodus, Moses is in Midian when he first encounters Yahweh. See Midianites.



monotheism	Belief in the existence of one god, a major theme of Second Isaiah (Isa. 40-46).



pantheon	The accepted list or roster of a people's chief gods, such as the Olympian family of gods worshiped in classical Greece. It is also the name of a famous temple in Rome, the house of "all the gods."



polytheism	Belief in more than one god, the most common form of religion in the ancient world.



Salem	The Canaanite settlement ruled by the king-priest Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18), later identified with Jerusalem (Ps. 76:2).



Saul	Son of Kish, a Benjaminite, and the first king of Israel (c. 1020-1000 b.c.e.), Saul was anointed by Samuel to meet the Philistine crisis, which demanded a strong centralized leadership (1 Sam. 9:1-10:27). He defeated the Ammonites (1 Sam. 11:1-11) and Philistines at Geba and Michmash but rapidly lost support after antagonizing Samuel (1 Sam. 13:8-15) and refusing to kill the Amalekite king (1 Sam. 15:7-35). He was also upstaged by David, of whom he became intensely jealous (1 Sam. 18:6-24:23). Saul and his son Jonathan were killed by the Philistines at the Battle of Gilboa (1 Sam. 31) and commemorated by one of David's most beautiful psalms (2 Sam. 1:17-27).



seraphim	Heavenly beings, usually depicted with six wings (Isa. 6), who attended the throne of God; perhaps derived from Assyrian or Egyptian mythology.



Shema	Judaism's supreme declaration of monotheistic faith, expressed in the words of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 beginning "Listen [Hebrew shema, "hear"], Israel, Yahweh our God is the one Yahweh." It also includes Deuteronomy 11:13-21 and Numbers 14:37-41 (cf. Mark 12:29-34).



theophany	From the Greek, meaning an appearance of a god to a person, as when El wrestled with Jacob (Gen. 32:26-32), Yahweh appeared to Moses (Exod. 3:1-4:17; 6:2-13) and the elders of Israel (Exod. 24:9-11), or the resurrected Jesus revealed himself to Thomas (John 20:24-29) and Paul (Acts 9:3-9).

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