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Bishop
[Church Offices]A bishop is a senior member of the clergy who oversees a diocese made up of multiple churches and performs the ordination of clergy. The title is used by the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. In Korean, Protestant Bibles and the Methodist Church render the same term with a different word, *gamdok* ("overseer").
Breastplate
[Bible]A breastplate is a piece of armor that protects the chest in battle. In the New Testament, the term renders the Greek *thōrax*; representative uses include "the breastplate of righteousness" in Ephesians and "the breastplate of faith and love" in 1 Thessalonians.
Miracle
[Bible]A miracle is an event brought about by God that cannot be explained by the ordinary course of nature. The Bible describes such events with words such as sign, wonder, marvel, and power (mighty work).
Cupbearer
[Bible]A cupbearer was a court official in ancient royal palaces who poured wine and served it to the king. In the Bible, the best-known examples are Pharaoh's chief butler in the story of Joseph and Nehemiah, who served the Persian king Artaxerxes.
Winepress
[Bible]A winepress is an installation in which grapes are trodden by foot to extract their juice. In the Bible it can signify the blessing of harvest, and it also serves as a symbol of God's judgment.
Stumbling Block
[Bible]A stumbling block is a stone or obstacle that catches the foot and causes a person to fall. In the Bible, the term refers to anything that causes a person to fall into sin or unbelief. The New Testament also describes Christ as a stone that becomes a stumbling block to those who do not believe.
Minjung Church
[Organization & Polity]A minjung church is a church that regards workers, the urban poor, and other socially marginalized people as the "minjung" (the people) and makes standing with them, in the places where they live, the center of its mission. Minjung churches took shape in South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s alongside minjung theology.
Cornerstone Laying Ceremony
[Worship & Rites]A cornerstone laying ceremony is a service held during the construction of a new sanctuary or church building, in which the cornerstone, or foundation stone, is set upon the foundation and the building work is committed to God.
Deaconess
[Church Offices]A deaconess is a woman church member who holds the office of deacon. Whether women may be ordained as deacons, and how church offices are structured, varies by denomination. In Korean Protestant churches, deaconesses usually serve as acting deacons appointed on a yearly basis.
Targum
[Bible]A Targum is one of the ancient Jewish translations and paraphrases of the Hebrew Old Testament into Aramaic. The Targums are generally understood to have originated as oral explanations given when Scripture was read aloud in the synagogue.
Holy War
[Bible]A scholarly term for the Old Testament wars portrayed as fought by God himself on Israel's behalf. The term does not appear as such in the Bible; these conflicts are also called "Yahweh war" or "the wars of the LORD."
Holy Convocation
[Bible]A holy convocation was a sacred assembly in which the people of Israel were called together on days appointed by God to rest from work and to worship. Leviticus 23 sets out the holy convocations of the Sabbath and of the annual feasts.
Fishers of Men
[Bible]A phrase Jesus used when He called disciples who were fishermen on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It likens the work of bringing people to God to catching fish and appears in Matthew 4:19 and Mark 1:17.
Captain of Fifty
[Bible]A captain of fifty is an Old Testament title for a person who governed or commanded a unit of fifty people. The title appears in passages such as Exodus 18 and 2 Kings 1.
Donatist Controversy
[History]A schism and controversy in the North African church of the early fourth century over whether sacraments administered by clergy who had renounced the faith during persecution were valid, and over how pure the church must be.
Midwife
[Bible]A midwife is a woman who assists another woman in childbirth. In the Bible, midwives appear in Genesis and Exodus. They are best known through the account of Shiphrah and Puah, who defied Pharaoh's order and saved the lives of Hebrew baby boys.
Ruler of Tens
[Bible]A ruler of tens was a leader placed over a unit of ten Israelites who governed them and judged minor disputes. The office appears in Exodus 18 and Deuteronomy 1.
Juridical Parable
[Bible]A juridical parable is a biblical narrative form in which a seemingly unrelated case is presented so that the hearer pronounces judgment, only for that judgment to turn back upon the hearer. Nathan's parable to David is the best-known example.
Wadi
[Bible]A wadi is a valley watercourse that flows only during the rainy season and lies dry during the dry season. The term, of Arabic origin, is used in biblical commentary to describe the landform the Hebrew Bible calls a nahal.
Christmas Tree
[Feasts & Seasons]A Christmas tree is a decoration set up in the days before Christmas, consisting of an evergreen or a tree of similar shape adorned with a star, lights, and ornaments. Although it is not a rite grounded in Scripture, most churches in Korea set one up inside and outside their sanctuaries during Advent and the Christmas season.