Glossary of Terms

A list of common terms.

• a priori

  reasoning that proceeds from theoretical deduction rather than from empirical or experiential data

• annotation; annotated Bible

  a study note that accompanies a biblical book or passage; a Bible with such notes

• antisupernaturalism

  disbelief in the existence of any being or power beyond the natural order

• Apocrypha

  additional books not regarded as canonical by Catholics or Protestants, which appeared alongside the Greek translation of the OT (see also Deuterocanon)

• apologetics; apologist

  the study of the reasoned defense of the faith; one who gives a reasoned defense of the Christian message

• apostle

  one of the founders of the Church established by Jesus the Christ

• archetype

  an original or standard pattern; a prototype

• c.

  abbreviation for the Latin circa: "about," "around," or "approximately

• canon

  the collection of books recognized by an ecclesial community as the sacred and authoritative writings of God's people

• codex (pl. codices)

  an ancient manuscript in book form (as opposed to a scroll)

• compose; composition

  the process that leads to the production of a book; the book that results from such a process

• confession; confessional (adj)

  the acknowledgment (sometimes in creed or formal statement) of Scripture's theological claim as divine revelation, and the admission of faith as requisite to biblical understanding; pertaining to or aligning with such a disposition, as opposed to so-called scientific, neutral, or theologically disinterested approaches to Scripture

• consolidate; consolidation

  the process of fitting individual books together into a larger volume

• context

  the setting or environment (literary "ecology") that affects and clarifies the meaning of a text or book

• creed

  a concise statement of faith understood to be normative by the community which confesses it

• Dead Sea Scrolls

  the ancient biblical and nonbiblical texts dating from c. 200 B.C. to c. A.D. 60, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves along the northwestern coast of the Dead Sea in the vicinity of Khirbet Qumran

• deity

  divine nature or status, divinity, God or god(dess)

• Deuterocanon

  'second [part of the] canon'; the 7 books regarded as part of the Old Testament canon by the Catholic Church (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1,2 Maccabees) along with the 39 books recognized by Protestants

• e.g.

  abbreviation for the Latin exempli gratia: "for example" 

• ecumenical

  a neutral term (as used here) meaning general, universal; including other ecclesial communions, traditions or denominations

• epistemology; epistemic

  theory of knowledge with respect to the nature, grounds, limits, criteria and validity of human understanding - the investigation of what distinguishes justified, true belief from opinion or conjecture; of or relating to the criteria of human knowledge or truth claims

• et al.

  abbreviation for Latin et alibi: "and others"

• evangelical

  corresponding to the basic tenets of the Christian faith (i.e. the gospel); a person or movement committed to the message of the gospel and its propagation

• exegesis; exegete

  the process of careful study by which an interpreter brings to expression his/her understanding of what a text says and how and why; a person who engages in exegesis

• extant

  surviving; not lost or destroyed (often of manuscripts)

• genre

  a French word referring to a particular type, sort, or kind; a category of literature identifiable by its characteristic form, style, or subject matter

• Gnosticism

  a heretical movement of uncertain origin (but attested among the 2nd-century church fathers) which espoused what the Church considered (and continues to consider) false mystical knowledge (gnosis) about God and salvation

• Hellenism

  the spreading and assimilating of Greek culture and influence

• hermeneutics

  the guiding theories and principles by which interpreters understand and explain the meaning of biblical texts

• i.e.

  abbreviation for Latin id est: "that is"

• ideological criticism

  an approach to biblical interpretation that is especially concerned with the ideology (ideas, values, attitudes) at work in authors, texts, and readers, with particular sensitivities to how the Bible imposes or is used to impose authority on social and political agendas (e.g. gender, race, sexual orientation, liberation)

• inspiration

  the self-claimed quality of Holy Scripture as "God-breath(ed)" (2 Tim 3:16), which assures that what Scripture says is what God says

• Judaism

  that which pertains to the religious beliefs and practices of Jews

• Ketubim

  a Hebrew word meaning "Writings"; the name of the third division of the Hebrew Canon

• linguistics

  the scientific study of human language systems, with special attention to their inner structures (e.g. sounds, meanings, grammar)

• literary

  pertaining to or characteristic of literature or written texts

• liturgy

  a prescribed form for the public or corporate service of worship; worship ritual

• manuscript

  a written book or document, especially in an original language; abbreviated ms. (pl. mss.)

• marginal notation

  an informative note in the side, top, or bottom margin of the biblical text

• Masoretes

  preservers of one scriptural tradition who, from about A.D. 500 to 1000, preserved the received Hebrew text and its traditional pronunciation, including a system of "vowel points," accent marks, and marginal footnote-like notations called masora

• modernist-critical

  another name for historical-critical, an approach to biblical study based on certain Enlightenment presuppositions of the 17th and 18th centuries which stressed the "historical" nature of Holy Scripture and the hope for "objective" interpretation based on "scientific" inquiry

• ms./mss.

  see 'manuscript'

• MT

  abbreviation for Masoretic Text, the Hebrew text preserved by the Masoretes (see 'Masoretes')

• naturalism

  the philosophical position which holds that all phenomena derive from natural causes and can be explained by scientific laws without reference to divine plan or revelation

• Nebi’im

  Hebrew word meaning "Prophets"; the name of the second division of the Hebrew Old Testament

• obscurantism

  opposition to the learning process of critical inquiry

• orthodox

  holding or pertaining to the commonly accepted or established faith, especially as measured by sound biblical doctrine and its confession by the Church in creeds and councils

• OT

  abbreviation for 'Old Testament'

• Pauline

  of/from/concerning the apostle Paul

• Pentateuch

  the fivefold book of Genesis-Exodus-Leviticus-Numbers-Deuteronomy

• pluralism

  a situation in which disparate positions, even ones that are contradictory and mutually exclusive, are intermingled and made to coexist

• positivism

  a philosophical position which holds that claims to knowledge must be verified by objective criteria of scientific, logical, or historical inquiry; also called 'logical positivism'

• postmodern; postmodernism

  a mode of thinking which distrusts any single explanatory framework of existence, holds differentiations in suspicion (especially where domination might result), insists that textual meaning (where biblical texts are involved) should not and cannot be determined, and subverts traditionally held boundaries and perspectives; incredulity toward metanarrative

• preliterary

  lacking or predating the existence of written language

• proposition; propositional

  a statement of a claim to truth or knowledge; the affirmation of a truth to be believed and acted upon

• Qumran

  vicinity where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered (see 'Dead Sea Scrolls')

• rabbinic

  of/from/concerning the ancient and medieval Jewish rabbis

• reductionism

  a mode of thinking which seeks to reduce, lessen, or minimize; intellectual minimalism; a less-is-more approach to knowledge or claims to knowledge 

• referent

  the object (whether personal, material, spatial, or conceptual) to which a word or statement or text refers

• revelation

  the process of divine "unveiling" by which God may be known; the self-disclosure or "revealing" of God

• scroll

  a roll of parchment, papyrus, paper, or the like, especially one intended for or containing written text

• Septuagint

  the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, usually dated from about 250 B.C. and following; abbreviated in Roman numerals as LXX

• supernaturalism

  the philosophical position which holds that the existence of a power or being beyond the natural realm is required in order to explain the phenomena of the universe, and that natural causes and scientific laws are inadequate without reference to divine plan or revelation

• Synoptic(s)

  the first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), so-named because their obviously high degree of similar material invites them to be viewed and read side by side ("syn-optically")

• Talmud

  a large body of Jewish rabbinic rules, interpretations, and other traditions, consisting in the Mishnah (compiled c. A.D. 220) and its accompanying commentary, the Gemara (compiled c. A.D. 400-500)

• theology

  study and discourse about God

• translation

  the process that attempts to transfer as faithfully as possible what is said in one language (and in the case of the Bible, what is written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) into English and other languages; the product that results from such a process

• transliteration

  the process of writing the characters (letters) of one language in the characters of another; the product that results from such a process

• transmission

  the process of preserving and passing along original-language manuscripts so that we have access to Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Bibles today

• version

  another word for a Bible translation (see 'translation')

• Yhwh, Yahweh

  the proper name of God, usually rendered 'LORD' (all capitals) in English Bibles