Tool Beta

The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

The wilderness The dry, empty country beyond the Jordan where John preached, Jesus was tested and a crowd was fed. It was hard ground, and it was where Israel's story with God began.
The sea To ancient Israel the sea stood for chaos and danger that only God could command. The Gospel stories on the lake of Galilee lean on that old picture.
Gentile territory Across the lake and to the north lay Greek-run cities with pagan temples and pig herds. Jesus crossed into them more than once.
Galilee and the Galileans Small farming and fishing villages, ringed by Greek cities, with two new royal towns that the Gospels never say Jesus entered. Most of Jesus' story happens in places of a few hundred to a few thousand people.
Sowing, harvest and threshing The farming year every hearer lived by: seed scattered on thin and thorny ground, weeds that look like wheat, the harvest rush, and grain winnowed in the wind while the chaff burned.
Estates, tenants and day laborers Wealthy owners, often living in town, let their land to tenant farmers for a share of the crop or hired day laborers in the marketplace and paid them a denarius at sundown.
Debts, talents and lending A denarius was a day's pay and a talent about six thousand of them. Creditors could jail a debtor until someone paid, and people with spare money buried it or lent it at steep interest.
Fishing on the lake Fishing was a real business on the lake of Galilee: boats, costly nets, partnerships between families, work through the night and fish sold in the morning. Fishermen did better than most peasants.
The village house Most village families lived in one main room, with a lower end by the door where the animals spent the night, a flat roof of beams, branches and mud, and sometimes a guest room on the roof or built on at the end.
Israel the vine The prophets and psalms pictured Israel as God's vine or vineyard, planted and tended by him and judged when it bore no fruit. A golden vine over the temple gate kept the picture in front of every worshiper.
Travel by sea Outside winter, ships were the quickest and cheapest way to travel, but they were built for cargo, not passengers, and from mid-September the sea grew dangerous. The great grain ships of Alexandria fed Rome.
Roads, robbers and the dangers of travel Travel by land was slow and risky. Robbers worked the lonely roads, rivers had to be forded, and news moved no faster than the people who carried it.
The olive tree and grafting Olive trees lived for centuries, and growers grafted shoots from one tree into another. Scripture called God's people an olive tree, and Jewish writers pictured Israel as a tree whose roots were the patriarchs.
The Parthians beyond the Euphrates The empire east of the Euphrates, Rome's most feared enemy, famous for mounted archers who could shoot backward as they rode. Its armies had destroyed a Roman army and once marched into Judea to put their own man on the throne.
Unclean by touch Under the law, skin disease, bleeding, corpses, tombs and certain animals made a person ritually unclean, and touch could pass it on.
Unclean spirits and exorcists Spirits that defiled and harmed people. Exorcists of the day used names, oaths, spells and foul smells to drive them out. Jesus gave an order.
Washing feet A good host set out water so arriving guests could wash the dust of the road off their feet. Doing the washing yourself was a slave's work, and a disciple was not expected to touch even his teacher's feet.
Clean and unclean food The law of Moses sorted animals into clean and unclean, and keeping kosher marked Jews off from their neighbors. Strict Jews also avoided Gentile food, Gentile wine and Gentile tables.
Circumcision and becoming a Jew Circumcision was the sign of God's covenant with Abraham and the mark of a Jewish man. A Gentile man who joined Israel was circumcised; the first great quarrel in the church was over whether Gentile believers had to be.
Meat offered to idols Most meat in a Greek city had passed through a sacrifice at a temple. Eating it at the temple's table, buying it in the market or meeting it at a friend's dinner raised the question of whether a believer was sharing in the worship of the god.
Sex, wine and Greek city ways Greek and Roman men were expected to have sex outside marriage, with slaves or prostitutes, and the law allowed it. Jews and Christians called all of it porneia, sexual immorality; drunkenness at banquets and in taverns went with it, and the port of Corinth had an old name for it.
Eating together Sharing a table made a bond of friendship, so who you ate with told everyone whose side you were on.
Reclining at table At banquets men lay on couches, propped on the left elbow, and where you lay showed your rank.
Hospitality to travelers Taking in travelers was one of the great virtues of the ancient Mediterranean, above all among Jews. Messengers could travel light because they expected to be housed.
The banquet of the age to come The feast Jews expected God to spread for the righteous when his kingdom came, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the table.
The synagogue The local gathering place where Jews met on the Sabbath to pray and study Scripture. It was also a community center, run by people of standing.
The Sabbath The seventh day, a commanded rest from sundown to sundown, a badge of Jewish identity, and a law the experts argued over in detail.
The temple and its courts Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.
Passover and the pilgrim crowds The spring festival that retold God's rescue of Israel from Egypt. Jerusalem filled with pilgrims, and hopes of freedom ran high.
Blasphemy Speech that dishonored God, including claiming what belonged to God alone. Under the law the penalty was death.
Anointing with oil Oil poured on the head was a courtesy to a guest, the sign of a new king, a medicine, and care for the dead. The setting decided which.
Gifts to the poor Giving to the needy was one of the three pillars of Jewish piety, with prayer and fasting. Greeks and Romans had nothing quite like it.
Prayer in Jesus' day Set prayers, set hours, standing to pray, God addressed as Father, and prayers for his name and his kingdom. Jesus taught his own disciples a prayer inside that world.
Fasting Going without food, and often washing and oil, as a sign of mourning, penitence and longing. The law required one fast a year; the devout kept many more.
Oaths and vows Calling God, or something holy, to witness that you speak the truth or will keep your word. People swore by lesser things to keep God's name safe if they broke it.
The temple tax Every year free adult Jewish men across the empire paid two drachmas toward the temple in Jerusalem. After AD 70 Rome went on collecting the same sum for a pagan temple.
Ritual washing and convert immersion Jews washed often for purity, but one immersion happened only once: the bath a Gentile took on becoming a Jew. John's baptism and the church's took that shape.
Priests on duty: the twenty-four courses Israel's ordinary priests were divided into twenty-four courses that took turns at the temple, a week at a time. Most lived in the country and came up to Jerusalem when their turn came round.
Caesar worshiped as savior and lord Augustus and the emperors after him were hailed as savior, lord and son of a god, and in the eastern provinces they were worshiped. The titles the Gospels give Jesus were already being used for Caesar.
Sacrifice and the daily offering Animals were offered at the temple for sin, for thanks and for cleansing, and blood sealed covenants. Every day a lamb was offered at dawn and again in the afternoon, and Jews everywhere prayed at those hours.
The Festival of Tabernacles The autumn pilgrim feast, eight days long, when men lived in leafy shelters, priests poured water at the altar and torches lit the temple courts. It carried hopes of rain, of resurrection and of a coming king.
The Festival of Dedication The eight-day winter feast of lights that remembered how Judas Maccabeus cleansed and rededicated the temple after Antiochus IV defiled it. It recalled liberation, and it called kings to mind.
Put out of the synagogue A Jewish community could punish a member by shutting him out of its life for a time or for good. Since the synagogue was the center of town life, expulsion cut a person off from neighbors and worship, and often from a living.
Pentecost, the Festival of Weeks The harvest feast fifty days after Passover, one of the three festivals that brought Jewish pilgrims to Jerusalem from across the world. Some Jews also tied it to the covenant at Sinai.
Jews of the dispersion Most Jews of the first century lived outside the land, in cities from Parthia to Rome. They kept the law and their own synagogues, spoke Greek or Aramaic, and came up to Jerusalem for the feasts when they could.
Laying on of hands Hands laid on a person to bless, to heal, or to set someone apart for a task, the way Moses laid hands on Joshua. In the early church it went with prayer, the gift of the Spirit and sending people out.
House churches For their first three centuries Christians met in homes, the way some Jewish groups and private clubs did. A host with a large house gave the church its room, its table and often its protection.
Many gods and their images The Greek and Roman world was full of gods, each with temples, statues, priests and local stories. Jews and Christians called the images things made with hands, while holding that there were real powers behind them.
Magic and sorcery Spells, charms and incantations were sold and used across the ancient world, by Jews as well as pagans, and many feared the evil eye. People told a sorcerer, who worked in secret and for pay, from a holy man who acted openly.
Oracles and fortune-telling Greeks and Romans sought the future from oracles, omens and seers, above all from Apollo's priestess at Delphi. A girl with a Python spirit was linked to that famous oracle.
Artemis of the Ephesians The great goddess of Ephesus, whose temple was one of the seven wonders of the world and a bank as well. Her cult was the city's pride and the living of its craftsmen.
Fate and the stars Most people in Paul's world believed their lives were ruled by Fate, worked out through the stars, which many took to be heavenly beings. Few thought there was any escape, and cults that promised one drew followers.
The mystery cults Cults that a person entered by a secret initiation, often held at night. Some promised freedom from Fate, some had a name for drunken or immoral rites, and Rome distrusted them as foreign.
The Day of Atonement and the mercy seat Once a year the high priest went into the holy of holies with sacrificial blood, for his own sins and then the nation's. It was the one fast the law commanded, and the mercy seat on the ark was the place the blood was brought.
How Jews read Scripture By the first century Jews held a known body of sacred writings, roughly the Old Testament, to be God's true word. They taught it to children from infancy, read it aloud in the synagogue and explained it, and Greek-speaking Jews called it the sacred writings.
The high priest The head of Israel's priests, from Aaron's line, who offered for his own sins and then the people's and alone went into the holy of holies, once a year. By the first century Herod and Rome named and removed him at will.
Melchizedek, priest-king of Salem The king of Salem and priest of God Most High who blessed Abram and received a tenth of the spoil (Genesis 14). Psalm 110 promised a priest for ever in his order, and some Jews of the period made him a heavenly figure.
The tabernacle and its heavenly pattern The tent sanctuary Israel carried through the wilderness, with an outer room for the priests and an inner room, the holy of holies, for the ark. Moses built it to a pattern shown on the mountain, and many Jews thought of the earthly sanctuary as a copy of a heavenly one.
The Lord's day The day early Christians kept for Jesus, most likely Sunday, the weekday of the resurrection. In the cities of Asia one day a month was already given to honoring the emperor.
The family's name Families lived, worked and stood together. Walking out of the family business or putting kin second was a public offense.
Honor before a crowd Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.
Burial and mourning Mourners came at once, the dead were buried the same day, wrapped in linen in rock tombs, and family carried the duty of burial. Pagan mourning, with little hope beyond a shadowy underworld, could be bleak.
Women who followed Women traveled with Jesus, paid for his movement, and stayed at the cross and the tomb when the men had gone.
Family trees, myths and genealogies Lists of ancestors that proved who you were: a true Israelite, a priest, an heir of David. Matthew opens with one. Some teachers also spun stories and family trees out of the Bible's lists, which 1 Timothy calls myths and endless genealogies.
Betrothal and the wedding feast A betrothal was a binding marriage contract made months before the couple lived together. The wedding that completed it was a week-long feast.
Divorce and the certificate A Jewish husband ended a marriage, or a betrothal, by handing his wife a written certificate before witnesses that left her free to marry again, and the teachers argued over the grounds. In Greek and Roman law either partner could end a marriage by leaving.
Children without standing Children in the ancient world were loved but powerless. Status came with age, and a child had no rights or voice apart from the adults who provided for them.
Slavery and slave managers Slaves were everywhere in the Roman world, from field hands to stewards who ran whole estates and handled their master's money. A master away and slaves left in charge was a familiar story.
Birth, naming and the shame of childlessness A child, above all a son, was a family's future and its support in old age. A childless couple met suspicion and shame; a birth brought the neighbors in, and a Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day.
Widows A woman whose husband died usually lost her income with him and depended on a son, relatives or charity. A widow who stayed faithful to her husband's memory and did not remarry was honored.
Adoption, heirs and wills A family's property passed to its heirs; in Jewish practice the land went to the sons, the eldest with a double share. Roman law also let a man adopt a son, often a grown one, who left his old debts and ties behind and became his heir. A will, sealed before witnesses, settled who inherited and who looked after an heir too young to inherit.
Women in public Custom kept unrelated men and women apart in public. Teachers warned men against talking much with women, a stranger was not to speak with a woman alone, and a woman's word counted for little in court. Most women were also taught far less than men, so a call for women to learn stood out.
Friendship, and the friend of Caesar The ancient world prized friendship: loyalty to the death, goods held in common, secrets shared. The same word covered a patron and his dependents, and friend of Caesar was a title a governor could not afford to lose.
The household and its head A household gathered family, slaves, freed slaves and workers under one head, and it was expected to follow that head's religion. When the head turned to a new god, the house often came too.
Household codes From Aristotle on, moral writers told the male head of a household how to rule his wife, his children and his slaves, in that order. Religions under suspicion used the same form to show Rome they were no threat to the family.
Veils, hair and head coverings In much of the eastern Mediterranean a respectable woman covered her hair in public, while fashionable rich women showed theirs off. Romans covered their heads to worship and Greeks did not, so in Corinth a covered or bare head sent several signals at once.
Celibacy and self-denial Nearly everyone in the ancient world thought people should marry and have children. A few, from Cynic philosophers to some Essenes, refused marriage for a higher calling, and some in Corinth thought holiness meant giving up sex even within marriage.
The child's guardian A trusted household slave walked a boy to school and back, watched his manners and kept him out of trouble until he came of age. He was neither the teacher nor anything like the father.
Herod Antipas and the Herodians Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, ran Galilee for Rome as a tetrarch, not a king. The Herodians were his backers.
Tolls and tax collectors Local men who collected tolls and taxes for rulers backed by Rome, distrusted as collaborators and cheats.
Rome in charge Rome ruled through client princes, local elites and governors. It kept the power to execute, and its soldiers, coins and taxes were everywhere.
Hailing a king A colt nobody had ridden, cloaks on the road, waving branches, kneeling, the cry Hail, and the delegation that went out to meet a visiting ruler: the public gestures that greeted a king.
Crucifixion Rome's public, shaming death for rebels, after flogging, with the charge posted for passers-by to read.
Herod the Great Rome's king of Judea from 37 to 4 BC: an Idumean, a great builder, and a ruler who killed anyone he saw as a threat, his own family included.
Keys, binding and loosing In a king's house a senior official carried the keys and decided who came in. Teachers spoke of binding and loosing for forbidding and permitting, and a court bound or loosed when it condemned or released.
Witnesses and advocates in court Jewish law convicted no one on a single witness: it demanded two or three, examined them closely and gave little weight to the word of women. Courts also had accusers and advocates, and Jewish pictures of God's heavenly court gave those roles to Satan and to defenders of Israel.
Rebels and would-be messiahs In the decades around Jesus, men rose up claiming to deliver Israel: tax rebels, leaders of armed bands, and prophets who promised signs in the wilderness. Rome treated them all as rebels.
The war with Rome and the fall of Jerusalem In AD 66 Judea rose against Rome. By AD 70 Roman armies had starved and burned Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and sacrificed to their standards where it had stood.
Roman trials, the judgment seat and appeal A Roman governor heard a case only when someone brought a formal charge, questioned the accused himself, and gave sentence from the judgment seat. In Judea only Rome could put a man to death, and a Roman citizen could ask for his case to go to Caesar.
Agrippa I and the later Herods Herod the Great's grandson Agrippa I was made king of all Judea by Claudius and ruled from AD 41 to 44, courting his Jewish subjects. His son Agrippa II later ruled smaller territories and heard Paul's defense.
Stoning The law of Moses named stoning as the penalty for blasphemy, but under Rome Jewish courts could not execute without the governor. In practice stoning was what angry crowds did, in Jewish and Gentile towns alike.
Roman citizenship In the eastern provinces few people outside the colonies were citizens of Rome. A citizen could not be beaten or chained without trial, could appeal to Caesar, and outranked almost everyone around him.
Prison, chains and Roman custody Roman prisons held people until trial or execution; they were not a punishment in themselves. How a prisoner was kept, in the stocks of an inner cell or lightly chained to one soldier, depended on his rank.
The triumph and the arena Rome celebrated a great victory with a triumph, a parade of the general, his army and the spoils, with chained captives at the end who were killed or sold. Cities also staged shows in which condemned criminals fought or were thrown to beasts.
Roman soldiers and their gear The legionary was the most familiar picture of armed strength in the provinces: helmet, breastplate, boots, a big shield and a short sword, fighting shoulder to shoulder. Legions that held their ranks were thought almost unbeatable.
Envoys and ambassadors An ambassador spoke for one state to another, in Paul's day usually as the emperor's legate in the East. The way an envoy was received honored or insulted the one who sent him, and communities chose respected envoys to carry their gifts.
Patrons, clients and benefactors Favors in the Roman world came with strings. A patron gave help and protection, the client paid it back in loyalty and public honor, and rulers who gave gifts to the public were hailed as benefactors.
Roman colonies Cities refounded by Rome for its veterans and settlers, run on Roman law with Latin on their monuments. A colony was a small copy of Rome in the provinces, and its citizens were citizens of Rome.
Philosophers and their schools Stoics, Epicureans and other schools taught a whole way of life in lecture halls and marketplaces. A traveling teacher with a message about God would be heard, and judged, as one more philosopher.
Trades and trade guilds Craftsmen of one trade lived and worked in the same streets and banded together in guilds, which set standards, defended their interests and met for meals in honor of a patron god.
Manual work and the leisured class The well-to-do despised people who worked with their hands. A respectable teacher was expected to live on a patron, on fees or even on begging, so an apostle who made tents for his keep looked low class.
Free cities, assemblies and riots Some Greek cities, such as Thessalonica and Ephesus, kept a measure of self-rule under Rome, with their own officials and a citizen assembly. A riot could cost a city those privileges.
Letters, scribes and carriers Letters were usually dictated to scribes, carried by trusted travelers because there was no public post, and read aloud to the people they were sent to.
Letters of recommendation A traveler often carried a letter from someone his hosts trusted, vouching for him and asking them to receive him. Such letters opened homes, synagogues and churches.
Seals, down payments and deposits A seal pressed into wax showed who owned or witnessed a document or a jar of goods and proved that no one had opened it. A down payment was the first part of the price, paid as a pledge that the rest would follow. A deposit left in someone's keeping had to be guarded and returned.
Greeks, barbarians and the nations Greeks split humanity into Greeks and barbarians, people whose speech sounded like babble. Jews split it into Israel and the nations. Paul uses both maps.
Orators, rhetoric and boasting Public speaking was the great skill of the Greek city. Traveling orators performed for crowds and gathered paying students, audiences judged them on voice and gesture as well as argument, and the fans of rival speakers boasted of their own man against the rest.
The games and the victor's wreath Greek cities held great athletic festivals, and Corinth hosted the Isthmian Games every two years, second only to the Olympics. Athletes trained for months under oath for a wreath of leaves that soon withered.
The seven cities of Asia Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, proud cities of the Roman province of Asia, strung along a road a courier could walk. Each letter in Revelation 2 and 3 speaks into its own city's history, trades and temples.
Following a teacher A disciple walked behind his teacher, lived with him, learned his ways and carried his reputation. Jesus chose his own, which only radical teachers did.
The Twelve Jesus chose twelve men to be with him and to be sent out. The number matched Israel's twelve tribes.
Teachers of the law Trained experts in the law of Moses, also called scribes, some local and some from Jerusalem, who taught by citing earlier teachers.
The Pharisees A mostly lay movement devoted to careful keeping of the law and of oral tradition, respected by the people and watchful of new teachers.
Chief priests, elders and the council The Jerusalem aristocracy of priestly families and elders who ran the temple and the Sanhedrin and dealt with Rome.
Magi and the star Eastern astrologers and dream readers, respected across the empire for reading the sky. A star that meant a new king meant danger for the old one.
The Samaritans The people of the hill country between Judea and Galilee worshiped Israel's God on Mount Gerizim, not in Jerusalem. Jews and Samaritans each claimed to be the true heirs of Israel, and centuries of hostility lay between them.
Converts and God-fearers Gentiles drawn to Israel's God stood at two distances. Converts took on the whole law, circumcision included, and became Jews. God-fearers worshiped Israel's God, gave to the synagogue and kept some customs, but did not convert.
The one who is sent Jewish law held that a man's agent was as the man himself, backed by his authority as long as he represented him faithfully. How people treated the agent showed how they treated the one who sent him.
Holding goods in common The first believers in Jerusalem shared their possessions and sold property to meet each other's needs. Ancient writers used the same words for ideal communities, and only a few groups, such as the Essenes, tried it.
Zeal for God and the law Zeal meant burning loyalty to God and his law, and its heroes, Phinehas, Elijah and the Maccabees, had used force against those who betrayed it. Saul the persecutor saw himself in that line.
Elders Older men respected for wisdom led Israel's villages in the Old Testament and still led Jewish communities and synagogues in the first century, usually as a group. The first churches took over the pattern, calling their elders overseers too, with deacons beside them.
The collection for Jerusalem Paul gathered money from his mostly Gentile churches for the poor believers in Jerusalem, much as Jews everywhere sent the temple tax to the holy city.
Martyrs Jews remembered those who died rather than break God's law, above all the Maccabean martyrs tortured under Antiochus, and the prophets said to have been stoned or sawn in two. Their hope was the resurrection.
Early false teachers and splits Late in the first century a group left the churches John wrote to, taking a different view of Jesus with them. Some may have denied that he was the Messiah; others that he truly became human, as the Docetists and Cerinthus later taught.
God's kingdom Kingdom meant God's reign, God becoming king in fact. It was the good news Isaiah promised, and in Jesus' day it was also a slogan.
Elijah expected Malachi promised Elijah would come back before the great day of the Lord. By Jesus' time many were waiting for him, and the Gospels keep raising his name.
The Messiah, son of David The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.
The Son of Man Plain Aramaic for a human being, and also the figure in Daniel 7 who comes on the clouds and receives a kingdom. It is Jesus' favorite way of speaking about himself in the Gospels.
Shepherd and sheep Scripture pictured Israel without a leader as sheep without a shepherd, and promised that God himself would come to shepherd them.
Gehenna The valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, a place with a dark history, whose name had become the word for the fiery place of the wicked after death.
Hades and Abraham's side Jews spoke of the dead going down to Hades, and of the righteous resting at Abraham's side or in paradise. The pictures were traditional, varied, and could be borrowed by a story.
Prophets rejected and killed Israel's memory of prophets mocked, beaten and killed by their own people. By Jesus' day tradition had lengthened the list of martyred prophets.
The satan, the tempter The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.
Parables and riddles Short stories that compared one thing to another. Jewish teachers used them to make a point plain, and without the point stated they worked as riddles.
Angels God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.
The resurrection of the dead Most Jews, with the Pharisees, expected God to raise the dead to bodily life at the end of the age. The Sadducees denied it. Nobody expected one man to rise ahead of everyone else.
The day of the Lord The prophets spoke of a coming day when God would judge the world and rescue his people. Paul calls it the day of Christ, giving Jesus the place the prophets gave to God.
Antichrist and the lawless one Daniel's king who exalts himself above every god and defiles the sanctuary became a pattern Jews saw again in Antiochus, Pompey and Caligula. Paul's man of lawlessness, who sets himself up in God's temple claiming to be God, belongs to that line.
The book of life An old picture of God keeping a register of the names of those who belong to him. Jewish writers developed it, and the New Testament uses it from Luke to Revelation.
This age and the age to come Jews divided history into the present age, under the rule of evil nations, and the age to come, when God would rule unchallenged. The sufferings expected before the change were called birth pangs.
The Spirit of prophecy Jews of Jesus' day linked God's Spirit above all with prophecy. Many believed the prophets had fallen silent long ago, and they looked for the day God would pour out his Spirit again.
Babel and the seventy nations Genesis 10 lists the nations of the world, seventy in the Hebrew text and seventy-two in the Greek. Jewish tradition counted the nations that way, and Deuteronomy 32 tells how God divided them and kept Israel as his own. Luke's list of nations at Pentecost recalls them.
The Word and Wisdom Greek thinkers spoke of the logos, the reason that ordered the world, and Jewish teachers spoke of God's Word and Wisdom, through whom he made everything. John opens his Gospel with that language and then says the Word became flesh.
The prophet like Moses Moses promised that God would raise up a prophet like him. In Jesus' day people asked whether a new preacher was the Prophet, and some expected the manna and the wonders of the exodus to return with him.
God's council and throne room Israel's Scriptures picture God presiding over an assembly of heavenly beings, the sons of God, and Psalm 82 calls its members gods. Who those gods are is one of the hardest questions behind John 10.
God's name and I am God gave his name to Moses at the burning bush as I AM, and in Isaiah he says I am he. To make God's name known was to show who he is, and when Jesus uses those words in certain settings, his hearers can take them as God's own name.
Children of Abraham Jews called Abraham our father, and many believed that being his descendants all but guaranteed a place among God's saved people. The Gospels and Paul argue over who his true children are.
Rulers and powers over the nations Many Jews believed each nation had a spiritual ruler set over it, often hostile to God's people. Paul's rulers, authorities, powers and thrones belong to that picture.
Adam in Jewish tradition The Old Testament says little about Adam outside Genesis, but by Paul's day Jewish writers spoke often of his lost glory and of the sin and death he brought into the world. Each person, they added, became his own Adam.
The new covenant Jeremiah and Ezekiel promised a day when God would write his law on hearts instead of stone and put his own Spirit within his people. Some Jews of Paul's day believed the promise belonged to their own group.
Caught up to heaven Jewish visionaries told of being caught up through the heavens to see God's throne and paradise, and writers numbered the heavens differently. Paul's third heaven speaks that language, though he refuses to make it his credential.
The elements of the world Paul twice says that people were enslaved under the stoicheia, the elements of the world. The word could mean basic rules, the stuff the world is made of, or the powers people worshiped in nature and the stars, and scholars still disagree which he meant.
Curse and blessing God's covenant set blessings for keeping it against curses for breaking it, and Deuteronomy spelled both out. Curses were also a familiar part of ancient religion, magic and everyday life.
Deliberate sin and falling away The law set sins done in ignorance apart from sins done in defiance, and sacrifice covered only the first. Many Jews held that someone who knowingly threw off God's law could not be restored, though teachers argued over who had gone that far.
The heavenly Jerusalem Jews looked for a Jerusalem built by God for the age to come, and some spoke of it as already waiting in heaven. Exiles and resident aliens knew what it was to look for a city that would be home.
The Watchers, the flood and the bound angels Most Jews of the period read the sons of God of Genesis 6:1-4 as angels who took human wives before the flood. Their books, above all 1 Enoch, had the guilty angels bound under the earth in darkness until the judgment, and 1 Peter, 2 Peter and Jude speak of that prison.
Babylon as a name for Rome Babylon burned Jerusalem's first temple and carried Judah into exile. By the first century Jews were calling Rome by its name, and Christians did the same for the city that ruled and scattered them.
Sodom and Gomorrah The cities of the plain that God destroyed with fire in Lot's day. The prophets and later Jewish teachers made Sodom the byword for wickedness and sudden judgment, and its burned ruins by the Dead Sea were still pointed out in the first century.
Balaam, the prophet for hire The seer from beyond the Euphrates whom Moab's king hired to curse Israel, who could only bless, and who then, Numbers says, showed Midian how to lead Israel into sin. Jewish tradition remembered him as the greatest prophet of the Gentiles and a byword for greed.
Light and darkness Jewish writers, the Dead Sea Scrolls above all, divided people into children of light and children of darkness, and pictured the present age as darkness that the coming age of light would end. John, Paul and Jesus use the same contrast.
The book of Enoch A collection of Jewish writings in the name of Enoch, who walked with God and was taken, composed over the last centuries before Christ and widely read in the first. It tells of the fallen Watchers and the coming judgment, and Jude quotes it by name.
Apocalypses, visions and numbers that mean something Jewish books of visions, usually written in the name of a hero from long ago, in which a heavenly guide shows a seer what heaven sees in the present trouble and how God will end it. They spoke in pictures and in numbers that carried meaning, and Revelation is the one that calls itself an apocalypse.
The plagues of Egypt The blows God struck on Egypt before the exodus, from water turned to blood to the death of the firstborn, while Israel was spared. Revelation's trumpets and bowls replay them on the whole world.
Daniel's four beasts and the fourth kingdom Daniel 7 pictured four empires as four beasts rising from the sea, the last with ten horns, judged before one like a son of man receives the kingdom. In the first century many Jews read the fourth beast as Rome.
The thousand years Several Jewish apocalypses expected an in-between kingdom, a reign of the Messiah or an age of peace between the present age and the final judgment, of varying length. Revelation 20 gives it a thousand years, and Christians have read that span in three main ways ever since.