Bible Dictionary
Order Instructions:
BIBLE DICTIONARY PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS
For this distinct project, imagine you are writing a series of short articles for a Bible Dictionary.Bible dictionaries are useful tools to learn more about the books, people, and places we encounter in Scripture.
Your task will be to write:
1. Three concise 200–250-word essays about a book, person, and setting/place from the New Testament (Due at the end of Module/Week 8).
Content Guidelines: Choose 1 book, person, and place from the list of the provided topics for each of the 2 projects.
Your essay must include the following per item:
Book:
Your biblical book essay must include: The basic literary genre, authorship, date written, key themes, purposes, major events, and main personalities.
Person:
This essay must include: The dates of the character’s life, place of birth, summary of their role or positions held, defining events in their life and work, contemporaries (other biblical characters they are associated with, etc.), and their legacy. If they are a biblical author, list the related works.
Setting/Place (i.e., municipality, kingdom, empire):
This essay must include: The keys dates (i.e., founding, demise, etc.), clarification of the location (regional description, the relevance of the place from a biblical/Ancient Near East (ANE) perspective, associated biblical books where it is a backdrop or central location), key attributes (religion, commerce, key figures, etc.), and associated biblical books.
Formatting Guidelines:
• Use 1 Word document for each stage of submission (That is, all of your Old Testament Bible Dictionary Project will be on 1 document, and all of your New Testament Bible Dictionary Project will be on 1 document).
• Use 12-point, Times New Roman font.
• Save your document according to the following filename formats:
TOPICS:
Book: Gospel of John
Person: Jesus
Place/Setting: Golgotha
SAMPLE ANSWER
GOSPEL OF JOHN
Whereas a gospel is an account of an individual’s life, it differs from a biography in that it is intended to influence the believe system of the reader. It is thus founded on a precise purpose that is projected to make a life-changing decision possible from lessons learnt (Yoo, 2013). The gospel of John is a gospel that has managed to capture the account of Jesus’ life vividly – John manages to bring forth in a simple manner the relationship between human and divine.
In his statement “The Word became flesh and made dwelling among us” John reveals to any reader how divinity can ever be united with humanity. It on this premise that Jesus dies appear in human form making it possible to relate to him and thus an example to be followed (Yoo, 2013). In his human nature, he lives a normal life bereft of any extraordinary powers. This makes it easy to appreciate Jesus’ will which is in complete harmony with the will of God.
John treats miracles in a different way from the other gospels. He uses only seven miracles not as evidence to support the claim of Jesus as the true messiah, but to bring forth spiritual lessons (Yoo, 2013). As a result of this strategy, the Gospel of John emerges as having a great presentation of the meaning of Christianity – without having necessarily to depend on the historical verification or scientific accuracy.
JESUS:
Jesus also known as Christ which means a messiah or king, is a man who was born about 2000 years ago. The significance of his birth is such that modern civilization marks it by dividing time between B.C (before Christ) and A.D (Anno Domini). After working for his farther as a carpenter apprentice until age thirty, He engaged in itinerant preaching for the next three years. Despite not authoring any book, holding any office, not owning a home, never visiting a big city or travelling more than 200 miles from his birthplace, His teachings affected the life of man so profoundly. This was achieved without ever having done anything that was associated with greatness then (Langley, 2014).
He courted controversy wherever he went. From claiming to be the God, to directly violating Jewish law – working on Sabbath, he was viewed by the religious leadership then – and rightly so, as a threat to their powers (Langley, 2014). Not knowing what to do to curtail his growing influence, the religious leaders conspired with the political leadership – the Roman government, to have him executed in the most vile and public manner. This they hoped would end his influence once and for all.
However, when in the third day he rose from the dead, their well laid plans were all laid to waste. With over 500 witnesses of his resurrection, he spent a further 40 days journeying throughout the provinces of Israel before finally ascending to heaven from the City of Jerusalem where they had executed him (Langley, 2014). His teaching influence was such that, there exists an account of how over 3000 people became his followers on one occasion. Over the next 100 years, his teachings influenced and made followers all over the Roman Empire. When Emperor Constantine ascended to the throne of the Roman Empire, Christianity became the official religion courtesy of him being a convert to Christianity.
GOLGOTHA:
This is the name used in the bible to point out the place where Jesus was crucified. Controversy does exist about its true location presently. Some Christians hold that it is within the area presently occupied by the Church of Holy Sepulcher. The word Golgotha is a derivative of the Aramaic word Gulguta which means the place of skulls. History shows that that change to Calvary was as a result of the choice of the word Calvaria in the first translation of the bible into latin – Calvaria means skull.
Many explanations do exists that try to explain why Golgotha was named the place of skull. Some argue that the site which was on a hill or next to a rock had the shape of a human skull (Langley, 2014). Third-century scholars did argue that it referred to the place where Adam’s skull was buried. The bible writers did not see it important to point out the precise location of Golgotha. Instead they the bible offers three specific clues found (John 19: 41-42, Hebrews 13:12, Matthew 27:39).
References
Langley, J. B (2014) Called by Jesus Name: The Connective Value of the Divine Appellate Between the Testaments, Regent University, Ann Arbor.
Yoo, J. W (2013) The Rhetoric of Truth in the Gospel of John “Truth” as Conter-Imperial Reality in the Face of Conflict and Stress, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Ann Arbor.
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