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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.
Praetorian Guard
[Bible]The praetorian guard is a term in Philippians 1:13 translating the Greek word praitōrion. It is commonly interpreted as referring to the soldiers of the imperial guard who protected the Roman emperor.
Peshitta
[Bible]The Peshitta is a translation of the Bible into Syriac, a branch of Aramaic. The Eastern churches that carry on the Syriac tradition still use it today as their standard Bible.
Song of Hannah
[Bible]The Song of Hannah is Hannah's prayer of praise recorded in 1 Samuel 2:1–10. Offered after she dedicated her son Samuel at the sanctuary in Shiloh, it celebrates the God who lifts up the lowly.
Amorites
[Bible]The Amorites were a people who lived in the hill country of Canaan and east of the Jordan River before Israel entered the land. In the Bible, the name is also used for the native inhabitants of Canaan as a whole.
Aseity of God
[Doctrine & Theology]The aseity of God is the theological teaching that God exists of himself, depending on nothing else, and has the source of being and life within himself. It is counted among the basic attributes in the Christian doctrine of God.
Song of Solomon 8
[Bible]The final chapter of the Song of Solomon, containing the woman's longing for her beloved, the confession that "love is strong as death," the account of the little sister and the vineyards, and a closing call to the beloved.
Jude 1
[Bible]Jude 1 is the only chapter of the Epistle of Jude. It warns against false teachers who have crept into the church, comparing them with examples of judgment from the Old Testament, urges believers to hold fast to the faith, and closes with a doxology.
Charismatic Movement
[Doctrine & Theology]The charismatic movement is a stream of Christian faith that holds that gifts of the Holy Spirit such as tongues, prophecy, and divine healing are still given today, and that seeks to experience and practice them. The term refers chiefly to the renewal movement that arose within established denominations in the mid-twentieth century.
Song of Songs
[Bible]The Song of Songs is a poetic book of the Old Testament, an eight-chapter poem celebrating the love and longing between a man and a woman. In Judaism and Christianity it has also long been read as a figure of the love between God and his people and between Christ and the Church.
Hebrews 1:1–3
[Bible Verses]Hebrews 1:1–3 is the opening passage of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It declares that the God who spoke through the prophets has in these last days spoken through his Son, and it presents the Son as the agent of creation, the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of his being. It is frequently cited as one of the principal Christological texts of the New Testament.
James 4:2–3
[Bible Verses]A passage in James 4 that rebukes quarrels within the community as arising from selfish desire and gives two reasons why believers do not receive what they want: they do not ask, or they ask with wrong motives. It is frequently cited in discussions of answered prayer and the motives behind prayer.
James 2:1–4
[Bible Verses]James 2:1–4 is a passage instructing believers in Christ not to show partiality between the rich and the poor in their assembly. It is frequently cited as a warning against treating people differently in the church on the basis of wealth or status.
Lachish
[Bible]Lachish was a city in the lowland of Judah, southwest of Jerusalem. It appears in the accounts of Joshua's conquest of Canaan, the Assyrian king Sennacherib's invasion of Judah, and the final Babylonian assault.
New Testament Apocrypha
[Bible]The New Testament Apocrypha is a collective term for early Christian writings that tell stories about Jesus and the apostles or bear an apostle's name but were not included among the twenty-seven books of the New Testament canon.
Wave Offering
[Bible]The wave offering was a rite of Old Testament worship in which an offering was presented to the LORD by being waved before Him. The breast of the peace offering, the sheaf of firstfruits, and the two loaves of the Feast of Weeks were among the offerings presented in this way.
Queen of Heaven
[Bible]The Queen of Heaven is a title used in the Book of Jeremiah for a goddess whom the people of Judah worshiped by burning incense and offering cakes. Jeremiah condemned this worship as idolatry and a departure from God.
Urban Industrial Mission
[History]Urban Industrial Mission was a mission movement that Korean Protestants began among factory workers in the late 1950s. It initially focused on evangelizing workers, but in the 1970s it became a movement for workers' rights.
Morning Star
[Bible]The morning star is the star that heralds the dawn in the eastern sky before sunrise. In the Bible it serves as a symbol of the coming of a new day and of Christ, and it is also used figuratively of the king of Babylon, who fell because of his pride.
Pope
[Organization & Polity]The pope is the Bishop of Rome, the supreme leader of the Catholic Church (the Roman Catholic Church). The Catholic Church regards the pope as the successor of the apostle Peter, but Protestant and Orthodox churches do not recognize his primacy.