| Athanasius | The Bishop of Alexandria who in 367 CE wrote the earliest known document that contains the 27 books that we use in the New Testament today. |
| Christian | A follower of Yeshua (Jesus). |
| Diaspora | The Greek word meaning “dispersion” referring to the area where Jews lived outside of Israel. |
| Ebonites | An early “Christian” group that believed that Yeshua was a Jew & to be a “Christian” one had to follow the Jewish laws. The Ebonites were the opposite of the Marcionites. |
| Eschatology | Beliefs concerning the “end times.” |
| Enuma Elish | The Babylonian creation story. The name means “when on high” which is the opening words of the story. |
| Epistle | A letter. |
| Essenes | A Jewish sect of Yeshua’s time that separated itself from all other sects because they believed the other sects were so corrupt. They are believed to be the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls. |
| Etymology | The history of a word and how it has changed over time. |
| Gentile | Simply put, a non-Jew. |
| Gilgamesh Epic | The ancient Mesopotamian writing about King Gilgamesh’s quest for immortality. It contains one of the earliest stories of the great flood. |
| Gnostic | A group that referred to themselves as Christian that believed that salvation was based off knowledge, not faith in the resurrection of Christ. This group fell into obscurity when Orthodox Christianity became established and declared Gnosticism as heretical. There has been a small rejuvenation of Gnosticism with the discovery of a gnostic library of books at Nag Hammadi. |
| Greco-Roman | The culture that was propagated by the Roman Empire which was based on Hellenism. |
| Hellenism | The characteristics of Greek culture, language, thought, customs, art, etc., established by Alexander the Great. |
| Linguistics | The study on languages and how they have changed over time. |
| Marcionites | An early “Christian” group that believed in salvation through faith and not by keeping the law. The Marcionites were the opposite of the Ebonites. |
| Monolatry | The belief that there is more than one god but you only worship the one true God (יהוה). |
| Monotheism | The belief that there is only one God and denying the existence of any other god. |
| Orthodox | Correct belief. |
| Pagan | In the Greco-Roman world this was anybody that worshiped a god(s) other than the Jewish God (יהוה). |
| Parable | An earthly story with a spiritual meaning. |
| Pentateuch | This is the Greek word meaning “five scrolls” referring to the Torah. |
| Pharisee | A Jewish sect of Yeshua’s time that focused on the interpretation of the law. |
| Prophet | Someone who receives and conveys a message from God. |
| Proto-orthodox | Due to the struggles for orthodoxy in the early church, this is the group that held the “correct beliefs” before they were recognized as orthodox teachings. |
| Sadducees | A Jewish sect of Yeshua’s time who was made up of the Jewish aristocracy and focused on the temple practices. |
| Septuagint | The Septuagint is the Greek version of the Old Testament. The Septuagint (meaning “seventy") is said to be written by seventy or seventy two Jewish scholars for the Jews living in the diaspora because they were becoming so assimilated into the Greco Roman culture that they didn’t know Hebrew anymore. |
| Torah | The Hebrew word meaning “law” which is made up of the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. |
| Yeshua | The actual name of Jesus. |
- Glossary