disciple
A personal follower of Christ during his life, especially one of the twelve Apostles (see also beloved disciple). The word is recorded from Old English, and comes from Latin discipulus ‘learner’, ...
evangelist
The writer of one of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John); St John is also known as St John the Evangelist.
G. E. Lessing
(1729–81)German dramatist and critic. Lessing is not remembered for any first-rate philosophy, but he was a major influence on German thinking of his time. His Laokoön (1766) espouses the view that ...
Gospel
The record of Christ's life and teaching in the first four books of the New Testament; each of these books. The four Gospels ascribed to St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke, and St John all give an account ...
Gospel according to the Hebrews
An apocryphal Gospel used by Jewish Christians. It has been variously identified with the ‘Gospel according to the Ebionites’ or an Aramaic Gospel used by the Nazarenes, but the relationship between ...
Gospel of St Mark
Papias states that the Gospel was written by St Mark, who drew his information from St Peter. Later tradition connects the Gospel with Rome. It may have been written by John Mark (see the previous ...
Immanuel
(Heb., ‘With us [is] God’). The word occurs in Is. 7: 14 and 8: 8, but it is not clear to whom it refers. In Mt. 1: 23 the prophecy is interpreted with reference to the birth of Christ.
Jesus
The central figure of the Christian religion. He conducted a mission of preaching and healing (with reported miracles) in Palestine in about ad 28–30, which is described in the Gospels, as are his ...
Joseph
Foster-father of Christ and husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, died in the 1st century. All that is known of him for certain is contained in the Gospels: Matt. 1–2 and 13: 55; Luke 1–2 and 4: 22. He ...
Mary
Arabic Maryam. Mother of Jesus and cousin of Elizabeth. Similar to the biblical account, chapter 19 of the Quran (which is named for her) depicts Mary as a chaste woman whose miraculous virgin ...
Matthew
(1st century),apostle and evangelist. Called Levi by Mark and Luke, Matthew was a publican, i.e. a tax collector of Jewish race who worked for the Romans, before he left all at the call of Christ ...
Messianic Secret
The phrase was given currency by W. Wrede who in 1901 argued that Jesus' silencing of the demoniacs and the secrecy about His messianic identity in Mk. were not historical reminiscences but arose out ...
New Testament
The Canonical Books belonging exclusively to the Church, as contrasted with those styled Old Testament, which it shares with Judaism. The NT contains the four Gospels, Acts, the Pauline and ...
Papias
(c.60–130), Bp. of Hierapolis in Asia Minor. His work survives only in quotations in Irenaeus and Eusebius. In the fragments on the origin of the first two Gospels he states that St Mark, having ...
Q
From German Quelle (“source”), the hypothetical common source used by the authors of the gospels of Matthew and Luke. It consists almost entirely of sayings of Jesus.See Synoptic Problem.[...]
Sermon on the Mount
The compilation of Christ's sayings in Mt. 5–7 provides an epitome of His moral teaching. It includes the Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer.
Son of God
Or ‘children of God’. In Gen. 6: 1–4 ‘Sons of God’ united with ‘daughters of men’ to produce a race of supermen who were presumably destroyed by the Flood. The expression, meaning supernatural ...
Synoptic Problem
The problem of the relationship between the three ‘Synoptic Gospels’ (Mt., Mk., Lk.) posed by the amount of subject matter which they share and the many similarities in wording and order. In modern ...
Temptation of Christ
In the account of the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, three particular temptations are described in Mt. 4: 1–11: (1) to use His power as Son of God to turn stones into bread to satisfy His ...
