St Timothy’s Episcopal Church
Adult Forum
Bible Boot Camp
Fall 2013
Terms and Names
Old Testament/Hebrew Bible
B.C.E. and C.E. Before the Common Era, and Common Era. Biblical scholars have
adopted these terms to date events, in preference to B. C. (Before Christ) and A. D.
(Anno Domino) that have specifically Christian connotations.
Canon The texts and the single version of the texts the Greek text compiled by an
international committee that stands behind the NRSV chosen by a community to be
authoritative for the community. For example, Jews have chosen as their canon for
the Hebrew Bible to be 24 texts as preserved in a text developed around the 9th
century C.E. by a group of Jewish scholars called the Masoretes (hence the Masoretic
text, or MT).
David Selected by God to be king of Israel, dethroning King Saul. According to 1
Samuel 17, David, while still a lad, slew Goliath, the champion warrior of the
Philistines, the traditional enemy of Israel, and was honored by the people. The date
of David’s coronation in Jerusalem is set at 1000 B.C.E.
Dead Sea Scrolls. See Qumran Community.
Diaspora The dispersal of the Israelite nation first by the Assyrians (722 B.C.E.), then
by the Babylonians (587 B.C.E.), and lastly by the Romans (70 and 135 C.E.). Diaspora
Jews maintained their Jewish identity, observing Sabbath rest, dietary restrictions,
circumcision, and contributing to the maintenance of the temple in Jerusalem.
Hebrew Bible The selection and order of texts approved by the rabbis in the 2nd to
3rd centuries C.E. The books number 24: Torah, 5 books; Prophets 8 books which
appear in modern translations as 23 books; and Writings 11 books. The Christian
Old Testament, used until the Reformation, included more books, Jewish texts
written in Greek, probably by Diaspora Jews. Martin Luther excluded these texts
from his compilation of the Bible, but some or all are still used by Episcopalian,
Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Christians.
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St Timothy’s Episcopal Church
Bible Boot Camp: Terms and Names
Judges During the period from the entry into the Land under Joshua, to the
coronation of Saul as King, Israel was ruled by “judges,” individuals called by God
primarily to be military leaders who would rally the individual tribes to throw off the
oppression of the enemies of Israel.
Law See Torah.
LORD When written in all capital letters (LORD) or using lower case capital letters
(LORD), the English translates the sacred Tetragrammaton (“four letters”), ‫יהוה‬
(yod-he-waw-he) revealed to Moses by God as God’s divine name. See Exodus 3:15. The
Hebrew consonants are not pronounced, so that English translations generally use the
forms of lord shown above. When not in all capital letters (that is, just “lord”), the
English simply translates the Hebrew word for lord (‫ אדון‬, aleph-dalet-waw-num). See 2
Kings 4:16, 18.
Old Testament The traditional Christian designation of those texts used by
Christians that were originally produced by Jews. At its most expansive, it is the
Septuagint, a collection of Jewish writings produced in Greek around 200 B.C.E. by
Diaspora Jews.
Prophets (1) Those called by God to proclaim God’s word (for example, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Job, John the Baptist). (2) The collection of books ascribed to certain
Hebrew prophets. In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of the Twelve consists of the
prophet works of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,
Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. In the Hebrew Bible, the major
prophets are the books of the Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings (1 and2), Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
Pentateuch See Torah.
Qumram Community An ancient community located near the Dead Sea in the
Judean Desert. The community apparently was exterminated around the time of the
Jewish Revolt (63-72 C.E.). The community created and preserved many important
Biblical texts (and texts written by and for the community) discovered in caves near
the Dead Sea in 1947, collectively referred to as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Septuagint A translation into Greek of the Hebrew Scriptures undertaken c. 200
B.C.E. (The tradition is that 72 Jewish scholars met in Alexandria each one producing a
complete text and all the texts were exactly the same.) The Septuagint includes several
© St Timothy’s Episcopal Church 2013
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St Timothy’s Episcopal Church
Bible Boot Camp: Terms and Names
texts not included in the Hebrew Bible, most of which were originally produced in
Greek by Jews in the Diaspora. The Septuagint served as the first Christian Bible, the
text that the New Testament writers quoted, and provided the texts of the Old
Testament for all Christians until the Reformation.
Tetragrammaton See LORD.
Torah: also the Law, the Pentateuch. The first five books of the Bible (Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). The tradition is that Moses wrote
these five books (even though his death is recorded in the fifth, Deuteronomy).
Wisdom The Ancient Near East (Egypt, Israel, Babylonia, Persia, etc.) generally
looked on wisdom as the knowledge of the correct way to live a life in order, first, to
live long and prosper and, second, to become united with the divine. The Hebrew
Bible records some of this traditional wisdom, particularly in Psalms, Proverbs, and
Ecclesiastes. Care for the poor and oppressed as a way to emulate God is a
particularly Jewish development. See Deuteronomy 10:17-20; 14:29; 27:19.
Writings The last texts in the Hebrew Bible (Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of
Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 and 2
Chronicles). These same writings are generally called Wisdom books in Christian
literature, and many of the Writings may be so classed. . Note that Jews consider
Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles as wisdom-type books rather than
historical accounts, and Daniel similarly as wisdom rather than prophetic.
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