Search the encyclopedia

Search the Bible

393 articles found for “Moses; Aaron's sons”

• Council of Jerusalem

  [Bible]

  The Council of Jerusalem is an event recorded in Acts 15. The apostles and elders of the Jerusalem church met to consider whether Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, and they reached a decision on the matter.

• Prophet

  [Bible]

  A prophet is a person called by God to receive His word and deliver it to the people on His behalf. Many prophets were active in the Old Testament, from Moses to Malachi, and the New Testament regards Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the prophetic office.

• Pharisees

  [Bible]

  The Pharisees were a group within Judaism in the New Testament era. They strictly observed the Law of Moses and "the tradition of the elders," and in the Gospels they appear chiefly as opponents who dispute with Jesus.

• Samaritans

  [Bible]

  The Samaritans were a people who lived in the region of Samaria in central Palestine, regarded Mount Gerizim as their place of worship, and accepted only the Five Books of Moses as Scripture. In the New Testament period they were bitterly at odds with the Jews.

• Midian

  [Bible]

  Midian was a people said to descend from Midian, the son of Abraham and Keturah. In the Bible they appear both as the family into which Moses married and, during the period of the judges, as an enemy that oppressed Israel.

• Sinai Covenant

  [Bible]

  The Sinai Covenant is the covenant God made at Mount Sinai with the people of Israel after the Exodus, with Moses serving as mediator. Centered on the Ten Commandments and the law, it established Israel as "a kingdom of priests."

• Pseudepigrapha

  [Bible]

  "Pseudepigrapha" is the term Protestants use for Jewish and early Christian writings, composed for the most part around the intertestamental period, that were attributed to ancient figures such as Enoch and Moses. Most churches do not accept these books as canonical.

• Mercy Seat

  [Bible]

  The mercy seat was the slab of pure gold that covered the Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle. On the Day of Atonement the high priest sprinkled blood on it, and it was the place where God met with Moses and spoke to him.

• Hobab

  [People]

  Hobab is a Midianite who appears in Numbers 10 and Judges 4. When Israel set out from the Wilderness of Sinai, Moses asked him to come along as a guide. Interpreters disagree on whether he was Moses' brother-in-law or his father-in-law.

• Lawyer (New Testament)

  [Bible]

  In the New Testament, especially the Gospel of Luke, a lawyer was an expert who studied and interpreted the Law of Moses. The best-known example is the lawyer who asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life, which prompted the parable of the Good Samaritan.

• Fiery Serpents

  [Bible]

  The fiery serpents were venomous snakes that bit the Israelites, killing many, after the people murmured against God in the wilderness, as recorded in Numbers 21. The episode forms the background to the account of the bronze serpent that Moses made.

• Tradition of the Elders

  [Bible]

  The "tradition of the elders" is a New Testament expression for the regulations, handed down from generation to generation outside the Law of Moses, that the Pharisees and scribes observed. It appears in the dispute over handwashing in Matthew 15 and Mark 7.

• Pisgah

  [Bible]

  Pisgah was a mountain or ridge in the land of Moab, east of the Jordan River and opposite Jericho. From its summit Moses viewed the Promised Land of Canaan before his death.

• Beth-peor

  [Bible]

  Beth-peor was a place in the land of Moab east of the Jordan River. Scripture records it as the site where Moses proclaimed the law of Deuteronomy and identifies the valley opposite it as the place of his burial.

• Circumcision Party

  [Bible]

  The circumcision party is a New Testament expression for believers of Jewish origin who had been circumcised. It is used especially of those among them who required Gentile believers to be circumcised and to keep the Law of Moses.

• Nile River

  [Bible]

  The Nile is a river in northeastern Africa that flows northward through Egypt and empties into the Mediterranean Sea. In the Bible it is the setting of Pharaoh's dream, which Joseph interpreted, of the birth of Moses, and of the ten plagues.

• Massah

  [Bible]

  Massah is the name given to the place at Rephidim where, after the Exodus, the Israelites quarreled with Moses over the lack of water and put the LORD to the test. It is named together with Meribah, and the name Massah means "testing."

• Heber the Kenite

  [People]

  Heber was a Kenite who appears in Judges 4–5. A descendant of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, he was the husband of Jael, who killed the Canaanite commander Sisera.

• Bithiah

  [People]

  Bithiah is a woman mentioned once, as "the daughter of Pharaoh," in the genealogy of the tribe of Judah in 1 Chronicles 4. She was the wife of Mered. Jewish tradition sometimes identifies her with the daughter of Pharaoh who rescued the infant Moses.

• Marah

  [Bible]

  Marah was the first place where the Israelites stopped in the wilderness after crossing the Red Sea, a spring whose water was too bitter to drink. It is the setting of the event in Exodus 15 in which Moses cast a tree into the bitter water and made it sweet.