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The Imitation of Christ
[Christian Life]The imitation of Christ is an attitude of faith that seeks to live according to the character and life of Jesus Christ. The term also refers to a fifteenth-century devotional book of the same title, traditionally attributed to Thomas à Kempis.
Liturgy of the Hours
[Worship & Rites]The Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office, is the public prayer of the church in which psalms, canticles, Scripture readings, and prayers are offered at fixed times of the day. The term is used chiefly in the Catholic Church, and similar traditions exist in the Anglican and Lutheran churches.
Redemption of the Firstborn
[Bible]The redemption of the firstborn is a provision of the Mosaic Law by which the firstborn son in Israel was set apart as belonging to God and then redeemed by a payment of five shekels of silver. The institution served as a reminder that God spared Israel's firstborn sons at the time of the Exodus.
The Cushite Woman
[People]The Cushite woman (KJV: "Ethiopian woman") is the wife whom Moses married, according to Numbers 12. She appears in the account in which Miriam and Aaron used this marriage as a pretext for speaking against Moses. Her name is not recorded.
The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved
[People]The disciple whom Jesus loved is an unnamed disciple of Jesus who appears only in the Gospel of John. He is present at the Last Supper, at the foot of the cross, at the empty tomb, and by the Sea of Tiberias. Church tradition identifies him as John the son of Zebedee.
Mary the Mother of James
[People]One of the women who followed Jesus from Galilee and ministered to him, she witnessed his crucifixion and burial and went to the empty tomb on the morning of the resurrection.
Veneration of the Saints
[Doctrine & Theology]The veneration of the saints is a devotional practice of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in which saints who serve as models of faith are honored and asked for their intercession. Protestants remember the saints as examples of faith but do not make them objects of prayer.
The Holocaust
[History]The Holocaust was the systematic murder of approximately six million European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during the World War II era. After the war, it prompted the churches to reexamine antisemitism and replacement theology.
Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
[History]The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire refers to the punishment of Christians by Roman authorities, and their efforts to compel Christians to renounce their faith, from the reign of Nero in the first century to Constantine's legal recognition of Christianity in the early fourth century.
Book of the Wars of the Lord
[Bible]The Book of the Wars of the Lord is an ancient Israelite book cited once, in Numbers 21:14. It is thought to have been a collection of poems celebrating the battles God fought on Israel's behalf, and it is no longer extant.
The Pilgrim's Progress
[Christian Life]The Pilgrim's Progress is a Christian allegory by the English Puritan preacher John Bunyan, published in 1678 (Part One) and 1684 (Part Two). Told in the form of a dream, it depicts the journey of the pilgrim Christian from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City.
Sending of the Seventy
[Bible]The Sending of the Seventy is an event in which Jesus appointed seventy others, apart from the Twelve, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every town he intended to visit. It is recorded only in Luke 10.
Establishment of the State of Israel
[History]The establishment of the State of Israel was the proclamation of an independent Jewish state by Jewish leaders on May 14, 1948, as the British Mandate for Palestine was coming to an end. Christian theological traditions interpret its significance in different ways, and in Korean Protestant churches the event is frequently discussed in connection with eschatology.
Fear of the Lord
[Bible]The fear of the Lord is a biblical expression for an attitude of fearing, revering, and obeying God. Old Testament wisdom literature calls it the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.
Illumination of the Holy Spirit
[Doctrine & Theology]The illumination of the Holy Spirit is a theological term for the work by which the Holy Spirit enlightens the human heart to understand and receive the meaning of Scripture that has already been written.
Division of the Land of Canaan
[Bible]The division of the land of Canaan was the allotment of territory by lot to the twelve tribes, carried out by Joshua and Eleazar the priest after Israel entered Canaan. It is recorded chiefly in Joshua 13–21.
River of the Water of Life
[Bible]The river of the water of life is the clear river in Revelation 22 that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the New Jerusalem. Drawing on the river of Eden and the river of Ezekiel's temple vision, it serves as an image of the life that God gives.
Sect of the Nazarenes
[Bible]The "sect of the Nazarenes" is the expression the advocate Tertullus used in Acts 24 for the followers of Jesus when he brought charges against Paul. The Greek word behind "sect" here is closer to "sect" or "faction" than to "heresy" in the modern doctrinal sense.
Books of the Maccabees
[Bible]The Books of the Maccabees are writings that record the Jewish resistance to persecution under the Seleucid dynasty in the second century BC and the martyrdoms that accompanied it. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches accept them as canonical (deuterocanonical), while Protestants classify them as Apocrypha.
Parable of the Fig Tree
[Bible]The Parable of the Fig Tree is a parable Jesus told on the Mount of Olives while teaching about the end times. Just as people know that summer is near when the fig tree puts forth leaves, so those who see the signs are to know that the end is near.