AbrahamMan with whom God made a covenant, in which He chose his family to lead humanity into conflict with Satan and his followers, and through whom He began the nation of Israel. |
AccommodationWhen speaking of divine revelation, it means that God designed the message to be understood by the original audience in their own context. |
AdamMan with whom God made the covenant of foundations, in which man was to fill and subdue the earth. |
AllegoricalApproach to interpreting Scripture that interprets people, places, things and events as if they were symbols or metaphors for spiritual truths. |
AnthropomorphismIt refers to the way God sometimes speaks or behaves in ways that seem almost human. |
ApplicationIn hermeneutics it refers to appropriately connecting the original meaning of a biblical document to contemporary audiences in ways that impact their concepts, behaviors and emotions. |
BaconThe "father of modern science" |
DavidMan with whom God made a covenant, promising that his family would be the permanent royal dynasty, ruling over God's people and leading them into further conflict with the nations that served Satan. |
DescartesThe "father of modern rationalism" |
DialogicalApproach to interpreting Scripture that involves a type of conversation between the reader and the text, coming to understand it better and better |
ExegesisTheological term for the process of analyzing a Bible passage. It means literally to "lead out" the meaning. |
Full ValuePhrase used in this course to mean the total significance of a text, consisting of its original meaning, all its biblical elaborations, and all its legitimate applications |
GutenbergHe invented the printing press in the 15th century. |
HermeneuticsThe study of how to interpret the meaning and significance of Scripture |
HexaplaA work (now lost) of over 50 volumes written by Origen of Alexandria, in which he made a word-by-word comparison of various Hebrew and Greek versions of the Old Testament |
HumeScottish skeptic philosopher who believed that our emotions, desires and mental categories always influence our thinking |
IlluminationThe Holy Spirit’s work of conveying a proper understanding of Scripture to a human being |
ImmutableWhen referring to God, it means He does not change in His being, perfection, and purposes. |
InspirationTheological term used to refer to the way in which the Holy Spirit moved human beings to write God’s revelation as Scripture and superintended their work in a way that made their writings infallible |
KantPhilosopher who proposed that all knowledge involves both objective perception and subjective processing through our mental concepts that already exist in our minds |
MechanicalView of inspiration that believes that the Holy Spirit essentially dictated the Bible and that the human writers passively recorded what He said |
MorphemeThe smallest unit of meaning in linguistics, a small feature of words that indicates things like singular and plural and verb tenses |
MosesMan with whom God made a covenant, in which He codified the law to guide Israel, and through whom He established Israel and moved them to spread His kingdom throughout the earth. |
NoahMan with whom God made a covenant, in which He promised enduring stability of nature and in which man was to oppose corruption. |
ObjectivismApproach to knowledge that believes it is possible to arrive at impartial knowledge |
OrganicView of inspiration that believes that the Holy Spirit used the personalities, experiences, outlooks, and intentions of human authors as he supervised and directed their writing |
OrigenOne of the most famous early Christian teachers who was heavily influenced by the allegorical method of interpretation of Scripture, and who lived from 185 to 254 A.D. He divided the meaning of Scripture in two categories: literal and spiritual. |
Original MeaningPhrase used in this course to mean the concepts, behaviors, and emotions that the divine and human writers jointly intended a biblical document to communicate to its first audience. |
PhiloWriter from Alexandria who is considered to be the originator of the allegorical approach to interpreting Scripture |
QuadrigaIn early roman society it was a chariot drawn by four horses. In hermeneutics, it referred to an interpretive approach that considered a passage of Scripture to have four distinct meanings. |
RomanticView of inspiration that believes that Scripture isn’t God’s infallible truth, but only the personal reflections and opinions of the human authors |
Sensus LiteralisThe theologians of the Middle Ages in Europe used this term to speak of the original meaning of Scripture. Thomas Aquinas made a distinction between this and the "allegorical" sense. |
SpiralIn hermeneutics, this term is used to explain how we can progressively gain a better understanding of Scripture as we continue to dialog with the text. |
StructuralismSchool of thought whose proponents tried to use rational and scientific objectivity to obtain an exhaustive understanding of everything they studied. |
SubjectivismApproach to knowledge that believes that knowledge is always influenced by personal biases, making impartial objectivity impossible |