Age to come: The most basic scheme of ancient Judean belief about the future was that at some point the current age of hardship would end and God would establish a new era of peace, justice and righteousness. Jewish people generally expected Israel to be exalted over the nations in that coming age.
Already / not yet: A phrase scholars often use to summarize the early Christian perspective on God’s future kingdom. Because we recognize that the coming Messiah has already come once, that Christ’s resurrection is the first installment of the promised future resurrection, and that the gift of the Spirit gives us a foretaste of the future world, we can speak of an “already” dimension of the kingdom as well as looking forward to its “not yet” consummation.
Anaphora: An ancient rhetorical device in which multiple sentences or clauses begin with the same word or phrase.
Apocalypses, apocalyptic: A form of Jewish literature, developed from one line of the Biblical prophetic tradition, emphasizing visions or heavenly journeys meant to reveal divine mysteries. Some of these secrets were often about the future; thus scholars popularly apply the title to works or material that often used many symbols and that dealt with the end time. (Some other Jewish mystics may have valued revelations but downplayed the end-time references.)
Apocrypha: The usual title for books accepted in the Catholic but not Protestant canons. Most of these books appear in versions of the Septuagint (the pre-Christian Greek translation of the OT) that were widely used in the Diaspora. While most Judean Jews did not accept most of these books as part of their developing canon and the NT does not cite them with standard “Scripture” formulas, the NT contains numerous allusions to these works.
Apostle: The secular Greek term applies to messengers or ambassadors; the closest Jewish equivalent applied to agents commissioned with and backed by the authority of their senders, insofar as they kept to the content of their commission. The OT spoke of prophets being “sent” as God’s messengers; the NT apparently limits the title to those commissioned with special authority (perhaps on the OT model of Moses and prophetic judges like Samuel). This includes the Twelve (Acts 6:2), but (especially in Paul’s usage) also includes some others as well.
Aramaic: A Semitic language (related to Hebrew) used as an international language before Alexander’s conquests brought Greek to the urban centers. Various forms of Aramaic remained widely spoken in Syria, Palestine and further east, although Greek was prevalent in most major urban centers in the eastern Mediterranean world of Jesus’ day (e.g., Alexandria, Antioch and to a lesser extent, Jerusalem). Most rural Galileans spoke Aramaic, but in Lower Galilee most Aramaic speakers probably also knew Greek.
Ascetic: Self-denying; some philosophic and religious groups demanded such discipline (sometimes to display indifference to one’s bodily desires and pain). Asceticism grew stronger in late antiquity than it was in the first century.
Associations: Relatively permanent social groups or clubs that shared common interests (often as guilds of workers or religious groups) and that met regularly, typically sharing a common meal. Whether or not associations or clubs were primarily cultic, they honored a patron deity and included some religious rites, such as a libation of wine at the beginning of their banquet.
Atone, atonement: Many ancient cultures believed in appeasing a deity’s anger through the punishment of a substitute. Greek culture respected laying down one’s life for another; some forms of Judaism (notably 4 Maccabees) emphasized that martyrs turned away God’s anger against the people. NT images of atonement may relate especially to OT sin and atonement offerings, where a sacrifice’s death (by the shedding of its blood) allowed a sinner to be forgiven.
Baptize, baptism: Many ancient cults practiced ceremonial washings, which are also common in the OT and Judaism; some Jewish sects (such as the people who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls) were particularly scrupulous about these washings, but others (such as Sadducees and Pharisees) also shared this emphasis. Whereas most of these washings were often repeated, one kind of immersion (apparently attested even by some first- and second-century Gentile writers) was employed for conversion, namely of Gentiles converting to Judaism (alongside male circumcision). See the article “Baptism.”
Canon: An agreed-upon minimum of works held to be divinely authoritative as Scripture. While all Jews accepted the Pentateuch, some books remained debated in various Jewish groups. Most of Palestinian Judaism, however, accepted roughly our current OT, with some groups (such as the Qumran sectarians) varying somewhat (additional psalms; perhaps canonical status for some other authoritative works such as much of 1 Enoch; possibly excluding Esther, though this may be an argument from silence). In the Diaspora, versions of the Septuagint (the pre-Christian Greek translation of the OT) often included many books in what we call the Apocrypha. For the NT canon, see “New Testament.”
Chiasm: An inverted parallel structure in which the first and last elements in a text are parallel, the second and penultimate elements are parallel, and so on (in longer chiastic structures).
Chief priests: They were prominent members of the top aristocratic priestly families, Jerusalem’s ruling class. Although the OT spoke of a single “chief priest,” Jewish writers by the NT period described all of the chief priestly families as “chief priests,” in addition to the leading high priest.
Christ: The Greek translation of the Hebrew “Messiah” (“Anointed One”). Many Gentile readers may have simply assumed this to be Jesus’ surname, since “anointed one” carried no official connotations in Greek. See “Messiah.”
Church: The Greek term commonly meant “assemblies,” including civic assemblies. It did not mean “called-out ones,” as some modern etymological analyses suggest. It also translates the Hebrew qahal (the assembly of Israel) in the Septuagint (the pre-Christian Greek translation of the OT), as does the Greek term translated “synagogue.” “Synagogue” and “church” both claimed the mantle of the OT “congregation” of Israel. The Qumran sectarians applied the same Hebrew term to their own assembly.
Client: In Roman society, this was a person socially dependent on a “patron.” The client was expected to bestow honor and/or political support on the patron in return for economic, legal, and other assistance from the patron. When this study Bible employs the term, it is normally in this general sense rather than the narrower usage of clients who actually accompanied their patrons to political activities during much of the business day (more relevant before the rise of Rome’s emperor). See “Patron.”
Cynic: A particular philosophic sect known for its disdain of human culture. Apart from begging, Cynics claimed to be independent from society. Mostly urban, they lived and preached on the streets, possessing little more than a staff, cloak, a bag for begging and sometimes a cup.
Dead Sea Scrolls: Mostly pre-Christian documents found in caves near modern Khirbet Qumran. The key extra-Biblical documents seem to reflect a distinctive Jewish sect, which most (though not all) scholars identify with the Essenes (based on parallel descriptions of their wilderness community especially in Josephus and Philo). See “Qumran community.”
Demon: Although Greeks used the term for both good and bad spirits (sometimes heroes, demigods or disembodied souls), most first-century Judeans applied the label to malevolent spirits, which some viewed as fallen angels and some simply as hostile personal entities. Descriptions of spirit possession in the Gospels, Josephus, and later sources resemble many experiences of spirit possession reported by anthropologists in various cultures today.
Diaspora: Jewish people living outside the Holy Land. Between Parthia and the Mediterranean world, undoubtedly more first-century Jews lived outside the land than in it; many scholars estimate that 80 percent of Jews in the NT era lived outside the Holy Land.
Diatribe: A teaching style characteristic of Stoics and some other philosophers, often using rhetorical questions and objections from imaginary critics.
Digression: A temporary change of subject; this technique is common in ancient written sources and was likely also common in ancient oratory.
Disciples: Students and adherents of various rabbinic, philosophic or rhetorical schools. Those studying at the tertiary level were most often in the latter half of their teenage years and tended to become professionals using the skills learned. They normally sought to learn from their teacher, often propagating and sometimes publishing his teachings (but respecting and accurately representing them even if they came to disagree).
Divination: Among Gentiles, the art of determining the will of the gods or the future by means of signs supposedly embedded in nature, such as unusual details in sacrificial entrails (the innards of a sacrificed animal), the flight of birds, the patterns of oil on water and other signs.
Dualism: A binary division of some sort. Moral dualism, for example, starkly divides good and evil, such as often appears in Dead Sea Scrolls that divide humanity into the people of light and the people of darkness. Both apocalyptic literature and Greek philosophers developed a cosmic dualism between heaven and earth; Jewish eschatology also divided the present age from the future age.
1 Enoch: An apocalypse, probably originally in Aramaic, deriving mostly from the second century BC. Its thinking at points resembles that of the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls, which include Aramaic portions of it (the full text survived in Ethiopic).
Epicureans: A Greek philosophic school viewing pleasure (lack of pain) as the highest good, denying both an afterlife and traditional Greek deities. See the article “Ancient Philosophies.”
Eschatological: Involving the end-time or ultimate future. Because Jesus has already come as well as is yet to come, some NT passages speak as if the end time has already begun (though is not yet finished); the Messiah, His kingdom and resurrection were all end-time concepts that take on meaning different from traditional Jewish expectations in light of Jesus’ first coming. Other passages, however, continue to present the end (in its fullness) as a future event.
Essenes: A strict Jewish sect, at least a group of whom became monastics in the wilderness. A majority of scholars attribute most of the Dead Sea Scrolls to them. They may have numbered only a few thousand at any given time.
Eternal life: The “life of the world to come,” inaugurated by the resurrection from the dead in many Jewish sources (starting with Dan. 12:2). As in some passages in the NT, Jewish sources sometimes abbreviate it as “life.” This relates to the Jewish tradition of the contrast between the present evil age and the glorious age to come. See note on John 3:17–18.
Exorcism: The casting out of demons. Various early Jewish sources (such as in Josephus or in Acts 19:13) often claimed to effect it by foul-smelling substances, invoking the help of higher spirits or even using a so-called magic ring. Some also sought to harness or manipulate spirits through name invocation, magic formulas and charms.
4 Ezra: The non-Christian section, chs. 3 to 14, is a late first-century or early second-century AD apocalyptic work.
Freedmen: A person legally freed from slavery. Most slaves of Roman citizens themselves became citizens when freed. Manumission (freeing of slaves) was very common; sometimes slaves were manumitted as a reward for faithfulness; sometimes via purchase by another slave (who earned money on the side); sometimes, unfortunately, as a means of conserving the slaveholder’s resource—that is, so the slaveholder would not have to care for aged slaves who could no longer work.
Gehenna: The Greek form of the Hebrew “Gehinnom,” which Jewish sources widely applied to the place where the wicked would be tormented after death. Some Jews believed that the wicked would be instantly annihilated there; others that they would be tormented for a period of time, then either annihilated or released. Other Jewish writings reflect the view apparently dominant in the Synoptic Gospels and Revelation: namely, eternal torment.
Genre: A work’s literary type (e.g., biography, song or letter). The Bible’s text represents many different types of genres, and understanding which genre type the text is helps to understand the intent of the work itself.
Gentile: Someone who is not Jewish.
Gnosticism: Systems of thought that mixed elements of Christianity, Greek philosophy and often Jewish and pagan elements. In its developed form it is first documented in the early second century AD. Although the tendencies that produced it stem from an earlier period, many NT scholars today object to reading developed gnostic systems back into the NT period. Specialists in gnosticism have shown that it was never a single, cohesive movement.
Gospel: “Good news,” used in a wide variety of contexts (especially involving heralds), but in the NT often alluding back to Isaiah’s message of hope concerning the salvation and restoration of God’s people (e.g., Is. 52:7). (This entry refers to the normal NT use of “gospel,” not to the literary genre of the Gospels, on which see the Introduction to the Gospels.)
Grace: In inscriptions, the Greek word often involves a benefactor’s free generosity; the ancient world understood praise as a proper response to such generosity. NT usage often evokes the OT idea of God’s “covenant love” (though often translated differently in the Septuagint, the pre-Christian Greek translation of the OT).
Hellenistic: The blending of Greek and Near Eastern cultures following the conquests of Alexander the Great. Thus “Hellenistic Judaism” is Judaism deeply influenced by Greek culture. Most Mediterranean Judaism was influenced by Hellenism to a greater or lesser degree by the NT period.
Hermeneutics: The process toward or methods of interpretation.
Holy Spirit: Although a rare title for God’s Spirit in the OT (Ps. 51:11; Is. 63:10), it was (usually) one of the most common titles for the Spirit of God by NT times. Many associated the Spirit especially with prophecy (some sectarian circles also often associated the Spirit with purification), and believed that the Spirit was less widely available since the death of the prophets. Various prophets (especially Isaiah, Ezekiel and Joel) had predicted an end-time outpouring of the Spirit; the Qumran sectarians and especially the early Christians believed that the end-time Spirit was active among them. Like the Qumran sectarians, NT writings associate the Spirit both with spiritual purification (as in Ezek. 36:25–27), inspiration to prophecy and to other prophetic-type works; the NT also includes some other activities of the Spirit.
Hyperbole: Rhetorical overstatement, a common technique of ancient Jewish (and other) sages to draw attention to one’s point.
Josephus: An educated first-century Jewish historian who wrote especially about Jewish history, partly to defend his people and to present them favorably to Gentiles.
Kingdom: The term normally meant “authority,” “reign” or “rule.” Scripture speaks of God’s “kingdom” in terms of his rule over the nations. It also speaks in a special way of God’s unchallenged reign in the end time (Dan. 2:44–45; 7:14,27). Jewish people in Jesus’ day spoke of God reigning in the present, but usually also prayed for the consummation of this kingdom in the future. See the article “Kingdom.”
Law: The Greek nomos, which is often translated as “law,” often reflects the sense of the Hebrew Torah, which can include the five books of Moses, all of Scripture, or God’s “instruction” and “teaching” (including but not limited to his regulations in Scripture). Jewish people celebrated the law as God’s gracious gift to teach them how to live rightly.
Libation: Ritual pouring of some fluid (such as water or wine) to honor divinities or deceased persons. Greeks used libations not only in more directly cultic contexts but also before most banquets.
Maccabees: A family of priests in the second century BC. They were leaders of the Jewish revolution against the Greco-Syrian tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes, a ruler who tried to force Greek customs—including Greek religion—on Judea. Their successors (the Hasmonean dynasty) ruled Judea until the Romans helped Herod achieve power.
Magic: Practices used by people who claimed to draw on or manipulate non-human spiritual power, often for malevolent or selfish purposes. Magic frequently claimed to manipulate spirits, sometimes by using special knowledge. See the article “Magic in the New Testament.”
Messiah: Lit. “Anointed One.” Various figures were anointed in the Bible (including priests and kings), and some Jewish people (the priestly Qumran sect) expected both an “anointed” future king and an “anointed” priest. But most applied the label “Messiah” especially to the future king descended from David who would rule when God freed Israel from the rule of the nations (in the NT period, most obviously Rome). Beyond this primary feature, views diverged widely; some apparently envisioned an exalted, heavenly sort of figure, but an expectation of a warrior Messiah seems more common.
Midrash: A customary written form of Scripture exposition employed by Jewish teachers, often by reading the text in light of other texts and finding significance in every detail.
Mysteries: Greeks had various cults called “mysteries,” initiation into which was a popular activity; initiates were not allowed to reveal the secrets of these groups. Jewish sources in Greek, however, use the term “mystery” in much broader ways, often for unknown divine wisdom. Some Dead Sea Scrolls speak of interpreting God’s mysteries; some of these are mysteries about His kingdom (see Dan. 2:47).
Mystery cults: Various Greek cults entered by initiation, the details of which members had to keep secret. Cults and initiation practices differed widely among themselves. Because their rites were so secretive, our knowledge is limited. Because they were syncretistic, in later centuries they borrowed some Christian features into their own beliefs and rituals. Some cults, such as Mithraism, spread in the Roman world (especially among soldiers) only after the wide spread of Christianity there.
Narrative: A story (a form applicable to both true stories and fiction).
New Testament: The later designation for the earliest Christian documents ultimately accepted by most Christians as canonical. These works technically do not form a testament or covenant, although they often report the fulfillment of the “new covenant,” a new agreement between God and humanity. Many of the works, such as the four Gospels and Paul’s key letters, were already accepted as canonical Scripture by writers in the second century. Some works remained debated much longer (e.g., Hebrews and 2 Peter). Other proposed works were not accepted, including both works similar to the accepted ones (such as the Didache and 1 Clement) and those further from its message (such as Hermas). Some works discussed in modern scholarship were never (e.g., nearly all gnostic works) or barely ever (e.g., the Gospel of Thomas) considered to be canonical by mainstream Christian churches over a wide geographic range.
Old Testament: The later designation for the Hebrew Bible (along with its Aramaic works) that came to be accepted in the Jewish and Protestant canon (and the Catholic canon minus the Apocrypha). The title is a misnomer since these works technically do not form a testament or covenant (although they report covenants); common usage, however, makes this and Tanakh (the later Jewish label for the same works) the best descriptions available.
Papyri: Ancient business documents, personal correspondence and the like written on papyrus scrolls. People manufactured papyrus from a type of reed, but water and moisture could destroy the writing. Some papyri (e.g., most of the Dead Sea Scrolls) have survived from the Judean desert, but the vast majority of ancient papyri known today came from arid regions of Egypt.
Parable: Comparisons, often in the form of stories, often used by Jewish sages as a sort of “sermon illustration.” See the article “Parables.”
Pastoral Epistles: 1-2 Timothy and Titus. Paul wrote his letters to these two church leaders as pastoral exhortations; hence the term.
Patron: The socially superior person on whom clients depended. These individuals granted favors, wrote recommendation letters and so forth for their clients in return for their clients honoring them. In this general sense, this Roman role in some ways resembles the Greek role of benefactors, who bestowed favors on cities or persons in return for honor. Scholars also often use the term “patrons” simply in the modern English sense of “supporters.” See “Client.”
Peasants: Poor farmers who often worked the estates of rich landlords or eked out a bare living working the ground. Although underrepresented in ancient literature (which comes mainly from more literate urban elites), they constituted the majority of the population of ancient Mediterranean society.
Pharisees: Although in Jesus’ day no longer as politically powerful as they had been generations earlier, they remained influential in NT Jewish culture. They were reputed for their piety and meticulous interpretation of the law according to ancestral tradition. They emphasized tithing, purity rules and the future resurrection of the righteous. In Jesus’ day they especially divided into two schools, that of Hillel and that of Shammai; the latter was more conservative and probably dominant before AD 70. Josephus estimates their numbers at roughly 6,000. Although some probably grew up poor, many came from wealthier families that could afford their education in the Torah and Pharisaic tradition.
Philo: A first-century Jewish philosopher who sought to articulate Judaism in a manner appealing to a Greek philosophic setting. He was highly respected in the Alexandrian Jewish community.
Pilate: Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea from AD 26 to 36; he had a contentious and sometimes violent relationship with his Judean subjects. See note on Matt. 27:2.
Plato: A fourth-century BC disciple of Socrates who emphasized dualism between the “real” world of ideas and the “shadowy” material world. Later Platonists expanded some of these ideas, sometimes also mixing with them ideas from other philosophic systems.
Prophecy: Speaking God’s message by inspiration (sometimes, but not necessarily even usually, involving the future). While most Jewish people by the NT period still believed that prophecy sometimes occurred, many reserved the title “prophets” for God’s spokespersons in the past (in contrast to early Christian claims). See the article “Prophecy in Antiquity.”
Proselyte: A convert to Judaism. Gentile converts were usually purified by water and males were almost always circumcised (uncircumcised “God-fearers” could involve less commitment; see note on Acts 10:2 [under God-fearing]).
Pseudepigrapha: A modern collection of diverse ancient Jewish works, normally by authors other than those they name, that do not belong in earlier collections (Scripture, Apocrypha, Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic literature). These works include, for example, 1 Enoch (mostly from the second century BC), 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch.
Pythagoreanism: A philosophic system said to be founded by the earlier sage Pythagoras. It assigned mystical significance to numbers and required of its followers abstinence from eating meat and beans, among other conditions.
Qumran community: The group that created the Dead Sea Scrolls, referred to as such because the scrolls were found at Khirbet Qumran. See “Dead Sea Scrolls.”
Rabbi: A term meaning “My master,” a respectful title for Jewish teachers in Semitic-speaking regions such as Judea and further east. Probably after AD 70 the title came to apply to teachers ordained in the rabbinic movement, which (according to most scholars) developed especially from Pharisaic scribes (especially the schools of Shammai and Hillel). When applied to the period of the Gospels, the notes refer to Jewish sages who were knowledgeable in the law; when to a later period, to members of the rabbinic movement. Many of their teachings are preserved in rabbinic literature.
Rabbinic literature: Collections of teachings of the rabbis, arranged from the early third century AD (like the Mishnah) through the Medieval period. Because Pharisees and rabbis highly valued tradition, the earlier (Tannaitic) sources (reporting the teachings of rabbis before the third century) are often helpful in illustrating one line of early Jewish thought.
Repentance: The term refers not merely to a “change of thinking,” as some have argued. It recalls the invitation in the Biblical prophets for Israel to “turn” back to the Lord (e.g., Hos. 14:1, “return”). Jewish people could also use the term for turning from individual sins. True repentance was supposed to bring change, not mere apology apart from or without interest in change.
Resurrection: The holistic Jewish hope that the dead (or at least the righteous dead) would be raised to a new bodily existence of some sort at a future time (see Dan. 12:2). Pharisees embraced this view, probably widely held by Judeans (except the Sadducees), but no one expected one person to rise with a new body before the end-time general resurrection. See the article “Resurrection.”
Rhetoric: Professional public speaking, the more popular of the two forms of advanced education in the Greek and Roman world of the NT period (the other being philosophy). Some rhetoric affected urban society in general, since people regularly heard speeches in civic assemblies and even in the marketplaces. See the article “Rhetoric and Paul’s Letters.”
Sabbath: The seventh day, Hebrew Shabbat, on which Jewish people were to rest from work (see Ex. 20:8–11).
Sadducees: A Jewish sect mostly aligned with Jerusalem’s aristocratic priests and profiting from their position in the social order, they tried to keep peace between the Roman government and their people. They held primary control in the temple and denied Pharisaic traditions, including those beliefs about the resurrection of the dead and other beliefs about the end time. The Judean-Roman war that started in AD 66 apparently brought an end to this sect.
Samaritans: A people who claimed that they were descendants of Jacob but whom Jews considered to be of mixed blood. They worshiped Israel’s God but apparently (according to our later sources) did not accept Israel’s prophets or Scripture later than Moses. They insisted that Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, was the proper holy site for worship; Jews and Samaritans each protested the other group’s holy site. Conflicts often took place at the verbal level, but the Roman military occasionally needed to intervene in violent conflicts between the groups. See the article “Samaria and Samaritans.”
Sanhedrin: The term “sanhedrin” applied to any local senate, but in the NT it applies to the one in Jerusalem. Rome governed many of its provinces through municipal aristocracies in chief cities; Jerusalem’s Sanhedrin was to handle most Judean affairs. The usually negative role of the Sanhedrin in the NT is not surprising. Josephus claims that Herod the Great eliminated his political enemies and filled the Sanhedrin with his own political supporters, whose descendants continued to dominate most of the Sanhedrin through the NT period. The high priest held highest rank in Jerusalem’s Sanhedrin; although a lifelong, hereditary office in the OT period, the high priests of this period were appointed by Rome or those to whom Rome delegated authority.
Satan: Initially a title (“the satan,” i.e., “the adversary” in the Hebrew of Job), but functioning as a proper name for the devil in 2 Chronicles and Zechariah, as well as in Jewish sources in the NT period (although these also use other names; e.g., “Belial”). Both Biblical and early Jewish usage treated him as a literal evil spiritual personage, although his particular appearances throughout Scripture as such are debated. Developing OT themes, early Judaism viewed Satan as accuser (cf. Zech. 3:1–2), tempter (cf. 1 Chr. 21:1), and deceiver.
Savior: A title that Gentiles applied to Greek deities and “divine” rulers, but which Jewish people applied to Israel’s true God, including in the Septuagint, the pre-Christian Greek translation of the OT (e.g., Is. 45:21; Hab. 3:18).
Scribes: In most of the eastern Mediterranean world the title applied to anyone who wrote legal documents. Sometimes this was the only person in a village who could write proficiently. Wealthy people sometimes had their own scribes (often slaves) to whom they could dictate correspondence. Judeans and Galileans, however, apparently applied this term also to respected legal experts who could adjudicate questions of Scripture, taught boys to recite it, and handled issues requiring reading and writing. (The most respected of these men probably filled a role akin to that of rabbis in later sources.) Some, but not all, belonged to the Pharisaic party.
Septuagint: The most common forms of the pre-Christian Greek translation of the OT, widely used in the ancient Mediterranean world. It is commonly abbreviated LXX (on account of the tradition that 70 scholars produced it). Although there are variations in LXX manuscripts as in NT manuscripts, the notes in this study Bible focus on the most common readings.
Slave: Any person involved in servitude to another, but the wide range of occupations and levels of status varied far beyond the character of slavery in some subsequent societies. Thus, for example, while some slaves were highly educated and relatively well off, slavery in mines or in gladiatorial combat was a virtual death sentence. Both free peasants and field slaves had a difficult life, but many urban household slaves achieved freedom and exercised more social and economic mobility than free peasants. Slaves could be beaten and lacked some key rights available to free persons; nevertheless, many achieved freedom (see “Freedperson”). See the articles “Ancient Slavery and the Background for Philemon”; “Slaves and Slaveholders in Ephesians 6.”
Son of God: Jewish sources applied the title most broadly to Israel as a whole (Ex. 4:22), but more specifically to the Davidic royal line (2 Sam. 7:14) and ultimately to the future Davidic ruler (cf. Ps. 2:7; 89:27). (In the ancient Near East, a king could be viewed as a son of the deity; Scripture adopted analogous language for David’s line.) The Dead Sea Scrolls also apply this title in 2 Sam. 7:14 to the Messiah. Polytheists had many deities who were sons of other deities; emperors were deemed sons of their normally deified predecessors.
Son of Man: A Hebrew and Aramaic idiom for “human being.” When Jesus refers to himself this way he at least sometimes (and possibly often) evokes Dan. 7:13–14, where the description applies to a representative of God’s suffering holy people (which is described in Dan. 7:25–27). With them, he would ultimately rule forever.
Spirit of God: See “Holy Spirit.”
Stoicism: The most popular philosophic sect in the first century. Stoics allowed for continuing the popular practice of religion, although they reinterpreted its meaning for intellectuals. They emphasized that Reason ordered matter, that one’s only free choice was to cooperate with rather than protest Fate, and that the universe periodically collapsed back into the primordial fire only to afterward repeat the same cycle of existence. See the article “Ancient Philosophies.”
Synagogues: Local Jewish assembly halls used for community meetings, public prayers and the reading of Scripture (in the Diaspora, originally these were called “prayer houses”). Much of a local Jewish community would gather there on the Sabbath.
Synoptic Gospels: The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke—so designated because of the substantial overlap among their narratives.
Targum: Vernacular Aramaic paraphrases of books of the Hebrew Bible. Most of our extant Targumim date much later than the NT, but sometimes they reflect older traditions. The practice of paraphrasing into the vernacular is at least as old as Neh. 8:8.
Tax collectors: Hated by many Jews, they were viewed as collaborators with the occupying empire because they collected taxes for the government (apparently often at personal profit). Taxes helped fund Herod the Great’s projects, including the Jerusalem temple, his palaces and various civic projects in his realm (as well as some pagan temples in Gentile areas). Taxes became so oppressive in some areas of Egypt that many peasants abandoned their property and resettled elsewhere. Some argue that many NT tax collectors were customs officials. See note on Mark 2:14.
Zealots: Jewish nationalists revolting against Rome and its lackeys. The name technically may apply especially to a particular group of such nationalists just before the war of 66–70, although clearly a number of other revolutionaries existed before this time. Defending his own people’s reputation in the empire, Josephus portrays all the revolutionaries as mere bandits and extremists. While there is truth in his picture, those urging revolt apparently had sympathizers even among many Pharisees and some of the younger members of the high-priestly elite. In the NT period, the term “zealot” could mean simply someone who was zealous for a cause.