Glossary
Review the lesson glossary terms below. Glossary terms may be included in quiz questions.
Essenes
A Jewish communal sect that existed in Palestine during the ministry of Jesus. They affected great purity. They originated about 200 B.C. and disappeared from history after the destruction of Jerusalem.
Gnosticism
The name, derived from the Greek word gnosis (“knowledge”), given to a complex religious movement that in its Christian form comes into clear prominence in the 2nd century. The Greek language differentiates between rational, propositional knowledge, and the distinct form of knowing obtained not by reason, but by personal experience or perception. It is this latter knowledge, gained from experience, from an interior spark of comprehension, that constitutes gnosis.
Josephus, Flavius
A Jewish historian (c. A.D. 37 – c. A.D. 100). He was a native of Palestine of priestly descent who received a thorough education based on study of the Jewish law. During the siege of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) he acted as interpreter to Titus, with whom he returned to Rome, as his surrender had earned him the hostility of the Jews.
Pharisees
(Hebrew “separated ones”) – A Jewish religious party. The name occurs in Josephus and in rabbinic sources, as well as in the New Testament. Unlike the Sadducees, who tried to apply the Mosaic Law precisely as it was given, the Pharisees allowed some interpretation of it to make it more applicable to different situations, and they regarded these oral interpretations on the same level of importance as the Law itself.
Qumran
The site of some ruins of an Essene monastic community at the northwestern end of the Dead Sea, about eight miles south of Jericho. It was near here that the first of the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, to be followed by further finds in later years.
Sadducees
A Jewish politico-religious sect opposed to the “Pharisees.” The name is probably derived from the high priest Zadok (2Sa 8:17). They probably originated at the time of the Hasmoneans and stood for the interest of the priestly aristocracy and the rich.
Zealots
A sect of Jews that originated with Judas the Galilean (Ac 5:37). They refused to pay tribute to the Romans, on the grounds that God was the only king of Israel.