The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (211 page)

patristic:
related to the church fathers

Pauline:
related to (the apostle) Paul (s.v. also Pauline circle, Pauline corpus)

Pauline circle:
group of early Christians associated with the apostle Paul in his mission; includes coworkers such as Timothy, Titus, Luke, John Mark, Silas, Barnabas, and others

Pauline corpus:
body of Paul's writings included in the Bible (i.e., his 13 letters)

pearl stringing:
rabbinic practice of grouping together a series of related scriptural passages; imitated by Christian writers (e.g., Rom 3:10-18; Heb 1:5-14)

Pentateuch:
from Gk.
penta
(“five”); the five books of Moses—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy

Pentecost:
from Gk. for “fiftieth”; Jewish festival described in Lev 23:5—21 and Deut 16:8-10; term used only in Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor 16:8

pericope:
self-contained unit of narrative (in the Gospels; e.g., Mark 2:1—12)

peroratio:
conclusion of rhetorical argument

pesher:
Jewish interpretive technique by which the contemporary application of a biblical reference is highlighted

Peshitta:
Syriac translation of the Bible

Petronius:
first-century AD Roman writer during the reign of Nero (s.v.); author of the
Satyricon

Pharisees:
influential Jewish sect known for its emphasis on the law; set itself in opposition to Jesus and, together with the Sadducees (s.v.), had him crucified

Philaster (died c. AD 397):
bishop of Brescia

Philip Sidetus:
early fifth-century AD Christian historian who wrote a history of the Christian church of which only fragments survive; shows at least partial dependence on Eusebius

Philo (c. 20 BC—AD 50):
Jewish thinker, author, and exegete from Alexandria, Egypt, who practiced an allegorical method of interpreting Scripture

Philostratus the Athenian:
Greek sophist (first half of the third century AD) of the Roman period; author of
Life of Apollonius of Tyana

Philoxenian Version:
revision of the Peshitta (s.v.) commissioned by Philoxenos of Mabbug in AD 508

Phoenician:
ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan that spread between 1200 and 900 BC

Photius:
ninth-century AD patriarch of Constantinople

Platonism:
a philosophical system deriving its origin from the Greek philosopher Plato (c. 429-347 BC); influenced Christianity through the writings of Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Augustine

plenary inspiration:
the full or complete inspiration of every part of Scripture

pleonasm:
use of more words than necessary to express an idea

Pliny the Elder:
first-century AD Roman natural philosopher; author of
Natural History

Pliny the Younger:
son of Pliny the Elder and proconsul of the province of Bithynia in Asia Minor in the early second century AD

plural-to-singular device:
shift from plural (group) to singular (individual) usage indicating eyewitness testimony (described by R. Bauckham in
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses)

Plutarch:
first-century AD Greek historian, biographer, and essayist; author of
Parallel Lives
and
Moralia

pneumatic:
from Greek
pneuma
(“Spirit” or “spirit”); related to spiritual matters, the human spirit, or the Holy Spirit

Polybius:
second-century BC Greek historian; author of
The Histories

Polycarp of Smyrna (c. AD 69—155):
disciple of the apostle John, companion of Papias, bishop of Smyrna; author of
To the Philippians;
martyred by being burned at the stake

Polycrates:
an early Christian leader who flourished in Ephesus in the second half of the second century AD

Pontius Pilate:
Roman procurator of Judea (AD 26—36); together with the Jewish leaders, responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus as explained in all four Gospels

posttribulational rapture:
belief that Christ will return at the end of the tribulation (s.v.)

prefect:
Roman government official

premillennialism:
Christian belief that the Lord Jesus Christ will return prior to (“pre”) his thousand-year reign on earth;
millennium
is from Lat.
mille
(“thousand”) and
annus
(“year”)

presbyter:
from Gk.
presbyteros
(“elder”); term sometimes used for a local church leader

preterist:
approach to the interpretation of the book of Revelation according to which the events prophesied in the book were fulfilled in the first century

pretribulational rapture:
belief that Christ will return prior to the tribulation (s.v.)

Prison Epistles:
conventional designation for Paul's four letters written from his first Roman imprisonment—Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon

probatio:
in classic rhetoric, section denoting proofs in marshaling a given argument

proconsul:
Roman office akin to governor of a province

procurator:
Roman government official

proselyte:
Gentile attracted to Jewish worship who submitted to circumcision and the keeping of Jewish Sabbath observances and food laws

Protestant:
non-Roman Catholic evangelicals; term coined during the Christian movement called “The Protestant Reformation” sparked by protests against abuses in the Roman Catholic Church

Protestant Reformers:
leaders such as Martin Luther or John Calvin who sought to return the church to its biblical foundations and who challenged unscriptural church traditions with the battle cry
sola Scriptura
(“Scripture alone”)

Protevangelium of James:
influential apocryphal Gospel most likely dated to the second half of the second century AD

protreptic literature:
hortatory literature encouraging people to take up the philosophical life (e.g., the Epistle to Diognetus)

provenance:
place of writing

Pseudepigrapha:
from Gk. meaning “false title”; a collective term for Jewish Second Temple literature not included in the Apocrypha

Pseudo-Barnabas:
ancient letter falsely attributed to Barnabas (dated around AD 135?)

pseudonymity:
an author's attribution of a given piece of writing to someone other than the true author

“
Q
”: a hypothetical source common to Matthew and Luke, possibly abbreviating the German word
Quelle
(“source”)

qal wāhômer:
argument from the lesser to the greater

Quest of (or for) the historical Jesus:
modern waves of historical research into the background of the person of Jesus (distinguished as “first quest,” “second quest,” and “third quest”)

Quirinius:
governor of, or holder of administrative office in, Syria mentioned in Luke's birth narrative of Jesus in Luke 2:2

Qumran:
region near the Dead Sea and site where the Qumran literature was found

Qumran literature:
s.v. Dead Sea Scrolls

rabbinic literature:
body of literature compiling the teachings of ancient Jewish rabbis, including the Mishnah (e.g.,
m. Avot)
, the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds (e.g.,
b. Sanh.;
y.
Yeb.)
, and the Tosefta
(t. Zer.)

rapture:
from Lat.
raptura
, the Vulgate (s.v) rendering of “caught up” in 1 Thess 4:17; Christians' reunion with their Lord at the time of the Second Coming in connection with the tribulation (s.v.)

realized eschatology:
aspects of the end time that have already been fulfilled in Christ and in the lives of believers (e.g., eternal life in John 5:24)

redaction criticism:
an approach to the study of Scripture that compares similar documents (such as one or several of the Synoptic Gospels) to detect different emphases by the respective authors in order to assess their distinctive contribution

Reformation, the:
sixteenth-century movement originating as a reform within the Roman Catholic Church spearheaded by men such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others that gave rise to the Protestant and evangelical movement

refutatio:
in ancient rhetoric, refutation containing counterarguments

regula fidei:
Lat. “rule of faith” (s.v.)

Reuchlin Codex:
OT manuscript (AD 1105)

Revised Standard Version (RSV):
Bible translation published in 1952

rhetoric:
study and practice of effective communication; type of discourse

rhetorical criticism:
a study of the rhetorical (communicative) features in a given document (such as the book of Romans)

Rufinus (c. AD 345—411):
historian and translator, contemporary of Jerome, and translator of Greek theological works into Latin

rule of faith:
orthodox apostolic teaching

sacrament:
a religious rite believed by Roman Catholics to mediate grace, constituting a sacred mystery

sacramentalism:
the notion that a religious rite can convey divine grace

sacramentarianism:
the belief that the elements of the Lord's Supper are merely symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus Christ

Sadducees:
Jewish aristocratic sect generally supportive of the political status quo in Palestine; together with the Pharisees (s.v.), they were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion

salvation history:
the progressive unfolding of God's provision of salvation for humanity

Samaria:
region in Palestine north of Judea

Samaritan Pentateuch:
the text of the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) used by the Samaritans

Samaritans:
inhabitants of Samaria who claimed descent from the northern Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (s.v.)

Sanhedrin:
Jewish ruling council made up of Sadducees and Pharisees that delivered Jesus to Pontius Pilate to be crucified

Sarapis:
Egyptian-Hellenistic god

Saul of Tarsus:
alternate name of the apostle Paul (Tarsus refers to his hometown)

Savior:
religious deliverer; the NT claims that Jesus is the Savior of the world (John 4:42); the term was also used for emperors in the Greco-Roman world

scholasticism:
medieval method of learning that prized dialectical reasoning (the exchange of arguments and counterarguments); exhibited in Thomas Aquinas'
Summa Theologica

scribal assimilation:
copyist's alteration of a source text in order to conform a given reading to a reading elsewhere in the same text

Scripture:
a written religious document that is viewed as authoritative by a given community of faith (e.g., the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian Scriptures)

secessionists:
divisive heretics who left the congregation, suggesting they were never truly saved in the first place (see esp. 1 John 2:19)

Second Temple Judaism:
the religion of the Jewish people during the Second Temple period (s.v. Second Temple period below)

Second Temple period:
span between the reconstruction of the temple in 516 BC and the destruction of the temple by the Romans in AD 70

Secret Mark:
forged document falsely attributed to Clement of Alexandria

self-attestation of Scripture:
the Bible's claims regarding its own nature

Semitic:
Jewish, with reference to one of the sons of Noah, Shem (see Gen 6:10)

Semitism:
also called Hebraism; a Jewish thought pattern or expression reflected in a Jewish writer's Greek document

Septuagint:
Greek translation of the OT Hebrew Scriptures (abbreviated LXX)

sepulcher:
type of tomb

Serapion of Antioch:
patriarch of Antioch (died in AD 211) mentioned by Eusebius

Sermon on the Mount:
body of Jesus' teaching presented in Matthew 5—7 (see Matt 5:1, “on the mountain”)

Sermon on the Plain:
Luke's equivalent to the Sermon on the Mount in Luke 6:17—49 (see Luke 6:17: “level place”)

shekel:
ancient Jewish coin

shekinah:
the glorious presence of God, especially in the temple

Shema:
from Hb.
shema
(“to hear” or “to listen”), the first word in Deut
6:4, “
Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One”; the central Jewish affirmation of monotheism

Shepherd of Hermas:
early second-century AD (?) Christian document

Sibylline Oracles:
collection of oracles ascribed to a sibyl, a prophetess who uttered alleged divine revelation in a frenzied state

Sinaiticus:
s.v. Codex Sinaiticus

Sirach:
second-century BC OT apocryphal book also known as
The Wisdom of Ben Sira
or
Ecclesiasticus
(not the OT book of Ecclesiastes)

Socrates (469—399 BC):
classical Greek philosopher, teacher of Plato, and one of the founders of Western philosophy

solecism:
(apparent) grammatical incongruity (characteristic of the book of Revelation)

Son of God:
messianic title, applied to Jesus in the NT

Son of Man:
messianic title, favorite self-designation of Jesus

sons of Zebedee:
the apostles John and James

source criticism:
discipline devoted to discerning the underlying (literary) source(s) of a given document (s.v., e.g., Two-Source Theory)

Strabo (born c. 64 BC, died after AD 21):
eminent first-century BC and AD Greek geographer and author of a
Geographia
in 17 books