Week 3: 21-30

Question 1

Diaspora

Answer 1

GK: Dispersion; the communities of Israelite and later Jewish believers dwelling outside Judea, beginning with the deportations under the Assyrians (722 BC) and the Babylonians (597-87 BC)

Question 2

Didache

Answer 2

“The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles”; a late first/early second century Christian document preserving a manual of Church instruction on the “Two Ways” (the wise, just one follows the way of life; the foolish sinful one follows the way to death)

Question 3

Disciple

Answer 3

“learners”; Jesus expected a complete conversion of life to himself, not an academic discipleship like the rabbis; term only used in the Gospels and Acts; in Acts it refers to all the followers of Jesus not just those who had known and followed his public ministry

Question 4

Divine Inspiration

Answer 4

Theopneustos (II Tim 3:16): “Inspired [breathed upon] by God”; now a technical term designating the special authority of the sacred writings as “God-breathed” or composed under the Spirit’s influence; expressed in the phrase “the Word of God in human words”

Question 5

Divino Afflante Spiritu

Answer 5

Encyclical letter on biblical studies from Pius XII (September 30, 1943); authorized translations from the original languages, supported usage of modern critical methods by Catholic biblical scholars, defined the literal sense of a text in terms of the author’s intention, and accepted the importance of distinguishing the various literary forms in interpretation.

Question 6

Documentary Hypothesis

Answer 6

a theory from several variations by J Wellhausen according to which four written sources (Jahwist, Elohist, Priestly, and Deuteronomic) were interwoven into the extant text of the Torah/Pentateuch sometime in the post-exilic period

Question 7

Episkopos

Answer 7

GK: “overseer”; Paul refers to the elders (presbyteroi) of Ephesus as episkopoi, appointed by the HS to care for the flock as shepherds; Episkopoi-Presbyteroi form a group of community leaders whose qualities are listed in I Tim 3:1-8 & Titus 1:6-9; clearly distinguished from the diakoni in Phil 1:1

Question 8

eschatology

Answer 8

teachings about the four last things at the end of the world/final times (eschaton). In NT studies: teachings about the Parousia and the realization of the Kingdom of God.

Question 9

Essenes

Answer 9

Jewish sect (200 BC - 1 AD) described by first century authors Philo, Josephus, and Pliny; generally but not exclusively associated with Khirbet Qumran because of the scrolls found in caves above this site in 1947; scrolls reflect a group marked by community life, loyalty to the Teacher of Righteousness, attention to the final days, and the expectation of two messiahs (political and priestly).

Question 10

Exegesis

Answer 10

the science of the interpretation of texts; exposition in contemporary language of what an author intended to say to the original readers.