旧约词汇 - C

C.E.

"Common Era"; an attempt to use a neutral term for the period traditionally labeled A.D. (anno domini or "year of the Lord") by Christians; thus 1999 C.E. is identical to AD 1999. See also B.C.E.

Cain

The first son of Adam and Eve; he murdered his brother Abel. See Chapter 1.

Caleb

One of the twelve spies Joshua sent into Canaan; of the generation which left Egypt in the Exodus, only he and Joshua were allowed to enter Canaan.

Calendar

Judaism follows a lunar calandar adjusted every three years or so to the solar cycle (by adding a second 12th month)-thus "lunisolar"; the oldest Jewish annual observances are Passover/pesah, Shevuot, Yom Kippur and Sukkot; other ancient celebrations include Rosh Hashanah, Simhat Torah, Hannukah and Purim; in general, Christianity operates on a "solar" calendar based on the relationship between the sun and the earth (365.25 days per year); the main Christian observances are Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas.

Call narrative

An account found in some historical and prophetic books that records the prophet's experience of being called into prophetic ministry; the call was usually issued in the presence of God. See Chapter 10.

Call to praise

A speech-type found in certain biblical psalms where the psalmist enjoins others to join him in praising God. See Chapter 14.

Canaan

The geographical territory between the Mediterranean coast and the Jordan River that was claimed and occupied by the Hebrews; also called the Promised Land. See Introduction.

Canon criticism

(better called canon critique) A type of biblical study that places emphasis on the final form of the text as normative for Judaism and Christianity.

Canon

The authorized collection of material constituting the sacred writings of a religious community; the material is believed to have special, usually divine, authority; the Hebrew Bible is the canon of the Jewish community; the Old and New Testaments (respectively with and without the Apocrypha) are the canon of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Christian communities. See Introduction.

Canonization

The process whereby a religious community defined the body of texts it considered authoritative for its life and belief.

Case law

Legal sayings with modifying clauses often in the if酹hen form: "If this is the situation...then this is the penalty"; also called casuistic law, this type of legal formulation contrasts with absolute law. See Chapter 3.

Casuistic law

See Case law.

Catholic

(from Greek for "universal, worldwide") A self designation used in early Christianity to suggest universality over against factionalism; thence it became a technical name for the western, Roman Catholic church.

Centralization of worship

A theme of the Deuteronomist whereby proper worship could only be performed in the city God designated, presumably Jerusalem. See Chapter 5.

Chaos

The disordered state of unformed matter that existed before the universe was ordered; biblical and ancient Middle Eastern origin stories thought of chaos as an unruly cosmic ocean.

Charismatic

Gifted, filled with the divine, with divinely given powers, or with God's spirit. This state may be linked with ecstasy or trance, which is reported to have been experienced by the early prophets and by Saul, the first king.

Cherub

(Hebrew pl. cherubim) An angelic being, in appearance something like a human but with wings; they were mythical celestial winged creatures prominent in Temple decoration; cherubim were considered God's ruling council, also called the host of heaven.

Chiasmus

(adj. chiastic) A literary device in which, for emphasis, the second part of a text is parallel to the first, but in reverse, for example, ABBA, ABCBA.

Christ

(from Greek christos, "anointed one"; Greek translation of Hebrew meshiach) Applied to Jesus/Joshua of Nazareth by his followers as a title, but soon came to be treated as a sort of second name. See Messiah.

Christians/Christianity

The followers of Jesus of Nazareth who believe him to be the Jewish messiah (christos) of God; Christianity is the collective body of Christians who believe the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Christos

The Greek word for "anointed one." Also see Christ.

Chronicle

An annal or account of events in the order in which they occurred.

Chronicler

Writer of the books of Chronicles; generally considered to be a later interpreter of the history of Judah.

Chronicler's history

The books of the Writings considered to be a post-Exilic retelling of Israel's history intended to profile the role of the house of David; consists of the biblical books First and Second Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. See Part 3, Chapter 18 Introduction, Chapter 18 Chronicler's History.

Church

(from Greek ekklesia, "summoned group"; compare "ecclesiastical") The designation traditionally used for a specifically Christian assembly or body of people, and thus also the building or location in which the assembled people meet, and by extension also the specific organized sub-group within Christianity (e.g. Catholic, Protestant, Methodist, etc.); similar to synagogue and kahal in Judaism.

Circumcision, circumcise

Cutting off the loose fold of skin at the end of the penis; circumcision was the ritual attached to the covenant God made with Abraham; in Judaism, it is ritually performed when a boy is eight days old in a ceremony called brit milah, which indicates that the ritual establishes a covenant between God and the individual; in Islam, it is performed at the age of puberty. See Chapter 2.

Cities of refuge

Six cities designated in Mosaic law for those who accidentally killed someone.

Classical Judaism

The form of Judaism that has survived as traditional throughout the centuries.

Clean animals

Animals which were approved for ritual sacrifices.

Climactic parallelism

The type of poetic parallelism where the second line of a poetic couplet echoes part of the first line and adds a phrase to it thereby extending and completing its sense.

Code of Hammurabi

A Mesopotamian law code associated with the eighteenth century B.C.E. Old Babylonian monarch Hammurabi; it has similarities to the biblical Book of the Covenant. See Chapter 3.

Colon

A single line of poetry, sometimes called a stich or stichos.

Commandments

(Hebrew mitzvot; sing, mitzvah) Orders given by God; God gave Ten Commandments as the core of the covenant on Mount Sinai, and a multitude of other moral and cultic laws; according to rabbinic Jewish tradition, there are 613 religious commandments referred to in the Torah (and elaborated upon by the rabbinic sages); of these, 248 are positive commandments and 365 are negative; the numbers respectively symbolize the fact that divine service must be expressed through all one's bodily parts during all the days of the year; in general, a mitzvah refers to any act of religious duty or obligation; more colloquially, a mitzvah refers to a "good deed."

Commentary

A discussion of a book of the Bible that treats linguistic, literary, historical, and theological aspects of its meaning. See Bibliography: Biblical Commentaries.

Complaint

(sometimes called lament) A literary type that expresses the pain and alienation of the writer and asks God for help; complaints are found in psalmic and prophetic literature. See Chapter 14 Speech Forms, Chapter 14 Complaint.

Complaints of Jeremiah

A set of passages found in Jeremiah 11-20 that express his anxieties and frustrations in being a prophet. See Chapter 11.

Concordance

An alphabetical listing of all the important words in a text and their textual locations; a useful tool for studying biblical themes. See the Bibliography of this text.

Concubine

A woman who belonged to a man but did not have the full rights of a wife; she was frequently acquired as spoils in war, and her main function was to bear sons for the man.

Conquest

The series of initiatives and military actions of the time of Joshua that were intended to secure Israel's control of Palestine. See Chapter 6, Biblical Story.

Consecrate

(n. consecration) To set aside or dedicate to God's use.

Cosmogony

A theory or model of the origin and evolution of the physical universe; ancient creation stories, such as Genesis 1-2 and the Enuma Elish are cosmogonies.

Cosmology

A model of the structure of the physical universe; the Israelites viewed the world as an inhabitable region surrounded by water. See Chapter 1.

Covenant

(Hebrew berit or brit) A pact or formal agreement between two parties in which there are mutual obligations and expectations; covenant is used as a metaphor of God's relationship with his people; the major covenants in the Old Testament are God's covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15), and the Sinai/Moses covenant (Exodus 19-24) between God and Israel; the Priestly writer used a succession of covenants to track the development of salvation history; in Judaism, the covenant is a major theological concept referring to the eternal bond between God and the people of Israel grounded in God's gracious and steadfast concern (Hebrew chesed) that calls for the nation's obedience to the divine commandments (mitzvot) and instruction (torah); for Christianity (e.g. Paul), God has made a "new covenant" (rendered as "new testament" in older English) with the followers of Jesus in the last times, superseding the "old covenant" (thus, "old testament") with Moses at Sinai (see Jeremiah 31:31-34). See Part 1, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 5.

Covenant Code

See Book of the Covenant.

Creation

What has been brought into being; the Hebrew Bible attributes the creation of the world to Israel's God; the classic descriptions of creation are found in Genesis 1 and 2, but there are many other allusions to creation found in Israel's Psalms and in prophetic literature. See Chapter 1.

Criticism

When used in biblical scholarship in such phrases as biblical criticism, higher criticism, and form criticism, it means evaluating evidence to arrive at a reasoned judgment concerning the matter under investigation; it does not imply that the reader is taking a negative or "criticizing" position over against the Bible; our textbook suggests that critique may be a better term to use.

Cubit

A biblical unit of measurement, the distance from elbow to fingertip-approximately 18 inches, or half a meter.

Cult

The formal organization and practice of worship, usually associated with a sanctuary and involving a regular cycle of sacrifices, prayers, and hymns under the direction of priests and other leaders; when used in biblical studies the term is descriptive and does not imply anything dark, devilish, false, or unseemly, as is often the case in modern uses of the term.

Curse

To ask God to bring something tragic or disastrous on someone or something else; the opposite of blessing; as a noun, it is the description of the bad thing which will happen, as in the curses and blessing of the law.

Cycle

As in Abraham cycle, Jacob cycle, and Joseph cycle, the term refers to a collection of stories centered or "cycling" around a single individual. See Chapter 2.

Cyrus

(550-530) Persian monarch, sometimes called Cyrus the Great, who founded the Medo-Persian empire in the sixth century B.C.E. and allowed the Judean refugees to return to their homeland after the Babylonian exile.See Chapter 10, Chapter 18.