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Mammon
[Bible]Mammon is a word of Aramaic origin that Jesus used to refer to wealth. In Matthew 6 and Luke 16, it is portrayed as a master that opposes God and holds people in servitude.
Covetousness
[Doctrine & Theology]Covetousness is an excessive desire to possess what belongs to another or what one has not been granted. The last of the Ten Commandments forbids it, and the New Testament regards covetousness as a sin equivalent to idolatry.
Unleavened Bread
[Bible]Unleavened bread (Hebrew matzah) is flat bread baked without leaven. In the Bible it was eaten at Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in commemoration of the Exodus, and it was also used as a sacrificial offering.
Forgiveness of Sins
[Doctrine & Theology]The forgiveness of sins is God's pardoning of human sin, by which he no longer holds a person liable for the guilt and punishment that sin incurs. Protestants generally understand it as a grace grounded in the cross of Jesus Christ and received through repentance and faith.
Catacombs
[History]The catacombs are underground cemeteries used in ancient Rome and elsewhere by early Christians, Jews, and others. Widely known as a symbol of faith in the age of persecution, they are studied as evidence of the burial customs and art of the early church.
Peace Offering
[Bible]The peace offering is an Old Testament sacrifice prescribed in Leviticus 3 and 7. Its fat was burned on the altar, and its meat was shared between the priests and the worshiper. It was offered as an expression of thanksgiving, in fulfillment of a vow, or as a freewill offering.
Anointing of the Sick
[Worship & Rites]The Anointing of the Sick is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, a rite in which a priest prays over a gravely ill or frail elderly person and anoints him or her with consecrated oil. Protestant churches do not recognize it as a sacrament.
Sacrament of Confession
[Worship & Rites]The sacrament of confession is a sacrament of the Catholic Church in which a believer confesses his or her sins to a priest and receives forgiveness through the priest's pronouncement of absolution. Most Protestant churches do not recognize it as a sacrament and instead emphasize repentance through confessing one's sins directly to God.
Jews
[Bible]The term "Jew" originally referred to a member of the tribe of Judah or of the southern kingdom of Judah. After the Babylonian exile it became a name for the people of Israel as a whole, and in the New Testament it frequently appears paired with "Gentile."
Keturah
[People]Keturah was the wife Abraham took in the narrative that follows Sarah's death. She bore him six sons—Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah—whose descendants are presented as the ancestors of several eastern tribes, including the Midianites.
Ugaritic Texts
[History]The Ugaritic texts are clay tablets unearthed beginning in 1929 at the site of the ancient city of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra) on the northwestern coast of Syria. They are regarded as a key source for the language and religion of Canaan in the Old Testament period.
Leningrad Codex
[Bible]The Leningrad Codex is a manuscript of the Hebrew Old Testament copied around 1008 or 1009. It is known as the oldest surviving manuscript of the Masoretic Text that preserves the entire Old Testament, and it is the base text of modern critical editions of the Hebrew Bible.
Bride of the Lamb
[Bible]The Bride of the Lamb is an expression in the Book of Revelation for the bride who is married to the Lamb, Jesus Christ. It is commonly read as a symbol of God's redeemed people, that is, the church.
The First and the Last
[Bible]"The First and the Last" is a biblical title expressing that God alone exists before the beginning of all things and after their end. In the Old Testament book of Isaiah it appears as the LORD's self-declaration, and in the New Testament book of Revelation it is used as a title of Christ.
Stem of Jesse
[Bible]The "stem of Jesse" is an image from Isaiah 11:1 in which a shoot springs from the stump of Jesse, the father of David. The expression prophesies an ideal king who will arise from the house of David. Christians generally read it as a messianic prophecy concerning Jesus Christ.
Ahimaaz
[People]Ahimaaz was the son of Zadok, the priest during the reign of King David. During Absalom's rebellion he served as a messenger, carrying news from Jerusalem to David.
Westminster Larger Catechism
[Doctrine & Theology]The Westminster Larger Catechism is a manual of doctrinal instruction of 196 questions and answers, composed by the Westminster Assembly in 1647. Together with the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Shorter Catechism, it serves as a doctrinal standard of Presbyterianism.
Immaculate Conception
[Doctrine & Theology]The Immaculate Conception is the Catholic doctrine that the Virgin Mary was preserved free from original sin from the first moment of her conception. It is distinct from the Virgin Birth, the teaching that Mary bore Jesus as a virgin.
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).
Day Star
[Bible]The day star is the star that rises brightly in the dawn sky, that is, the morning star. In Isaiah 14:12 it appears as a name for the king of Babylon, who is brought to ruin.