Bible Study Terms

1. Religious Studies Terms

• Doctrines & Concepts: Monotheism, polytheism, pantheon, covenant, resurrection, salvation, grace, faith vs. works, sin, original sin, fall of man, afterlife, heaven, hell, hellfire, underworld, immortality / eternal life, divine feminine, Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit / Spirit), incarnation / God incarnate, Christology, eschatology, apocalypse, apocalypticism, messianism, animism, idolatry, iconoclasm, ritual healing, faith healing, miracles.
• Textual, Historical & Critical Terms: Canon, canonization, canonical vs. non-canonical, extrabiblical, apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, exegesis, hermeneutics, etiological myth, pious fraud, authorial voices, literary dependence, redaction, Documentary Hypothesis, Supplementary Hypothesis, First Temple Period, Second Temple Period, Johannine literature, synoptic gospels, sayings gospel, lost gospel.
• Movements, Sects & Traditions: Gnosticism / Gnostics (gnosis), Marcionism, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, Hasmoneans (Maccabees), Protestant Reformation / Reformers, Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Christian Catholic Apostolic Church, Evangelical Christianity, Christian Zionism, Zionism, Western Christianity.
• Institutions, Roles & Rituals: Papacy, Pope, bishop, clergy, celibacy, apostle, prophet, sage, priest, patriarch, matriarch, saint, martyr, disciple, missionary, baptism, circumcision, communal meals, Passover meal, sacrificial offerings / sacrifice, tabernacle, temple, ark of the covenant, golden calf, nativity, epiphany.
• Supernatural Beings: God, demiurge, angels, angelic hierarchies, cherubs, demons, devils, genies, ghosts, dying and rising gods, consorts.