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Book of Enoch
[Bible]The Book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish apocalyptic work transmitted under the name of Enoch, the figure in Genesis. One of its passages is quoted in Jude 1:14-15, but neither Protestants nor Catholics regard it as canonical.
Herem
[Bible]Herem is the Old Testament practice of devoting people or objects wholly to God, removing them from ordinary use and usually destroying them. The term is often rendered "utter destruction" or "devotion to destruction."
Tarshish
[Bible]Tarshish is an Old Testament place name for a distant land across the sea. Scripture portrays it as a center of trade in metals such as silver and tin, and it is best known as the destination to which Jonah tried to flee from God.
Resurrection Appearances
[Doctrine & Theology]The resurrection appearances are the occasions on which Jesus Christ, having died on the cross and risen again, showed himself to his disciples and others before his ascension.
Hillel
[People]Hillel was a Jewish teacher of the Law, active from the late first century BC to the early first century AD, and the founder of the School of Hillel. He is known for the prosbul, a legal instrument connected with the release of debts in the sabbatical year, and for a teaching that resembles the Golden Rule.
Qumran
[Bible]Qumran is an ancient site on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. It became widely known after the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in nearby caves beginning in 1947. The name does not appear in the Bible.
Table of Nations
[Bible]The Table of Nations is the list of the descendants of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, recorded in Genesis 10. Arranged in genealogical form, the passage describes how the various peoples spread across the earth after the Flood.
Poetic Books
[Bible]The Poetic Books are the five books of the Protestant Old Testament written in poetic form: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.
Teman
[Bible]Teman is an Old Testament place name and clan name associated with the region of Edom. Tradition derives the name from Teman, the grandson of Esau. It was the home of Eliphaz, the friend of Job, and in the prophetic books it serves as a name representing Edom.
Bashan
[Bible]Bashan is a fertile plateau east of the Jordan River and northeast of the Sea of Galilee. After the Exodus, Israel defeated its king, Og, and the land was allotted to the half-tribe of Manasseh. In Scripture, Bashan frequently serves as a symbol of abundance and strength.
Jabesh-gilead
[Bible]Jabesh-gilead was an Israelite town in the region of Gilead, east of the Jordan River. It appears in the account of a punishment at the close of the period of the judges, in the siege by the Ammonite king Nahash and Saul's rescue of the town, and in the account of Saul's burial.
Jude (Brother of the Lord)
[People]Jude is a figure named in the New Testament as a brother of Jesus. He is traditionally identified with "Jude, the brother of James," the author of the New Testament Epistle of Jude.
Division of Abijah
[Bible]The division of Abijah was the eighth of the twenty-four priestly divisions established in the time of David for rotating temple service. In the Gospel of Luke, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, is introduced as a priest belonging to this division.
Urartu
[History]Urartu was an ancient kingdom on the Armenian Highlands, centered on Lake Van, that existed from the ninth century to the early sixth century BC. The Old Testament name "Ararat" is understood to refer to this kingdom and its land.
Pearl
[Bible]A pearl is a round gem formed inside a mollusk. In the Bible it denotes something of great value, and it is best known from the New Testament parable of the pearl of great price and from the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem.
Consecration of the Priests
[Bible]The consecration of the priests was the seven-day ceremony in which Moses installed Aaron and his sons as priests of Israel. The command for it is recorded in Exodus 29, and its performance in Leviticus 8.
Deuteronomistic History
[Doctrine & Theology]The Deuteronomistic History is a theory in Old Testament scholarship that regards Joshua through 2 Kings as a single historical work shaped by the theology of Deuteronomy. It was first systematically formulated in 1943 by the German scholar Martin Noth.
Serug
[People]Serug is a figure in the genealogy of Shem in Genesis 11. He was the son of Reu, the father of Nahor, and the great-grandfather of Abraham. His name also appears in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.
Signs and Wonders
[Bible]"Signs and wonders" is a biblical word pair referring to the marvelous works God performs to reveal his will and power. The Old Testament applies the phrase mainly to the Exodus, and the New Testament to the ministry of Jesus and the apostles.
Servant Songs
[Bible]"Servant Songs" is a scholarly term for four poems in Isaiah 40–55 concerning "the servant of the LORD." They are found in Isaiah 42, 49, 50, and 52:13–53:12, and the New Testament applies them to Jesus Christ.