Jargon Buster¶

It's in the nature of Bible study that you'll have to pick up certain specialist vocabulary along the way for a whole variety of things. These will generally be words that derive from Hebrew, Greek, Latin or other ancient languages. You'd better get used to that, because I'll be introducing such terminology from time to time. I'll try my best to explain (and give translations) as we go along.

Old and New Testaments¶

The Bible comes in two parts, known as Old and New. They were indeed written at different times. The NT is a sequel to the OT, but it is quite a lot shorter.

A testament literally means something which has been witnessed to. This word became attached to these two fundamental parts of the Bible, and is universally used.

The Canon¶

The word canon originates from a Greek word meaning a measuring rod, but in this context it has come to mean any kind of officially authorised and accepted list of sacred books. It took time for the Biblical canon to be determined, and in fact because there are competing denominations there is more than one canon. More detail will be provided in the article on All The Bibles.

Chapter and verse¶

Bible references¶

Bible passages are always referenced by specifiying the chapter and verse within a specific book.

A typical location will be referred to as Book-Name NN:nn, for example Daniel 2:12. This means, the book of Daniel, chapter 2, verse 12.

Books¶

Quite often the name of the book is abbreviated, e.g. Dan instead of Daniel (in the example just given), Gen or Ge for Genesis and so on. Most of the time these are fairly obvious.

Some authors like to use the shortest possible abbreviation, like Sa for Samuel and Kg for Kings. The Gospels may be abbreviated as follows: Mt=Matthew, Mk=Mark, Lk=Luke, Jn=John. On this site, I have tried not to use too many abbreviations, to make it easier for those who are new to biblical study.

As you become familiar with the Bible you will learn where to look for each book. When you’re starting out, first find the right book in the table of contents at the front of the Bible you are using. Then look through that book to find the chapter and the verse(s).

It’s even easier using online Bible sites such as ebible.org or biblegateway.com (there are others as well). You can usually just type the reference you are looking for into their search box and it will be found for you. A great advantage of sites like these is that you can compare many different translations of the same passage.

Chapters and verses¶

The chapter and verse numbers are a fairly modern invention and were not used by those who wrote the text. They've been added in order to help locate particular passages and to refer from one place to another. Similar numbering systems are used for other ancient texts such as Homer and Plato.

Even if they are a bit artificial, they are essential for us to find our way around. This is especially because the Bible is full of cross-references, references to itself. One book will echo or comment on another. The chapter and verse reference helps you locate these other passages, that relate in some way to the one you are reading.

The chapter divisions usually, but not always, correspond to natural breaks in the material. The verses are a little more arbitrary, and might mark out a sentence or two, or a bit of dialogue. Please remember there is nothing really special about these numbers.

Quoting single Bible verses out of context doesn't usually make much sense. If you are following up a reference then try to understand it by reading it in conjunction with the text around it. What is happening at that point in the story? Who is speaking, and on what occasion?

Ranges of verses¶

As well as a single verse, you can also refer to a passage using a range of verses. For example, 1 Kings 2:1-25 means One Kings, chapter 2, verses 1 to 25.

Note that for books which come in two parts, some people say "one" or "two" while others say "first or "second". But it is always written just as 1 or 2.

Ranges of chapters¶

If you are referring to quite a long passage that takes up whole chapters, you might quote a range of chapters, leaving out the verse numbers. So Jesus' Sermon on the Mount can be found in Matt. 5 - 7, meaning the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5 to 7 in their entirety. You could also say Matt. 5:1 - 7:28 if you want to include the verse numbers, but it is equivalent.

Leaving out the book¶

If a particular book is under discussion, say in an article about the book of Genesis, then a reference like 18:9 or 13:10-13 is understood to be a reference within Genesis. There is no need to name the book explicitly, because we know which book is meant.

Sub-verses¶

Occasionally, it is useful to refer to just one part of one verse, which can be done using a lettering system, where 2a might be the first half of verse 2, and 2b the second half. This isn't done all that often, and there isn't an agreed-upon subdivision into lettered parts for every verse. You can generally see what is intended as it should only be used when a verse naturally falls into two or three distinct parts.

Names of God¶

The Tetragrammaton¶

Yahweh, the main god in the Bible, has a personal name which is likely to be more or less disguised in your reading version. In most modern translations his name is replaced by the word Lord, perhaps in capitals as LORD. How this came to be takes a bit of untangling.

The name YHWH is present throughout the Hebrew text. These are the consonants in the name. In Hebrew script, they are written as letters while vowels are added as small dots and dashes above and below the letters.

Possibly pronounced something like Yahweh, the name may derive from shorter forms such as Yahu or just Yah or Jah. The initial Y may have been pronounced like a J - transition between these two sounds is extremely common in languages. God's holy name is so important that it even has a name of its own - the Tetragrammaton, meaning the four-letter word.

Reluctance to say the holy name¶

In many religions believers tend to use traditional titles or euphemisms for their gods, partly from reluctance to speak the holy name out loud, and partly out of deference, in the same way that we refer to some rulers and important people more often by title than by name.

Christians often refer to Jesus as Our Lord, or as the Christ, which is a title and not a name. In ordinary speech many Jews will not even say Adonai but rather use Hashem (meaning, the Name), or the Blessed One.

From a long time ago, there was a taboo on ever pronouncing the Tetragrammaton out loud. Eventually, legend has it, only the High Priest in Jerusalem knew how to say it, and uttered it just once a year in the secrecy of the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple.

When reading the scriptures aloud, it became usual to say Adonai, which means Lord in Hebrew, instead of the real name. Once vowel points were added to Hebrew writing in the Masoretic period, it was the vowels appropriate for Adonai which were added to the text. It was not thought appropriate to alter the divine name's actual consonants.

When rendered into English, the mixup over the vowels led to forms of the name such as Jehovah but many scholars now think Yahweh is a better reconstruction. However, this ceased to be relevant when the language of Greek entered the picture. For the Old Testament (LXX) the Greek word Kyrios, which means Lord, was used to translate YHWH.

It was the Greek form of the OT text which dominated in early Christianity. In the NT, Jesus is referred to as Lord (Kyrios). Theologically, this is convenient because it promotes Jesus to the level of the Lord of the OT. Yahweh himself is still around, but now more often called Father.

Names, titles and epithets¶

If you are reading the WEB Classic Edition Bible with me, you will see when I quote it that it uses the full name Yahweh. I find that clearer. If you are reading another version, just remember what is behind the letters of Lord, and also be aware of the confusion sometimes introduced by the use of 'lord' for Yahweh, for Jesus, and for earthly lords such as kings or landowners.

With all that in mind, Yahweh has some other names and titles. You don't need to know too much about them, but they will crop up so it's best to recognise them:

Theophoric names¶

In some religious cultures, personal names commonly incorporate a devout reference to a god or one of his titles. In Islam, for example, Allah has names based on his various qualities, such as the Merciful, the Glorious, and so on. These can be used as part of a personal names, often prefixed with abd- meaning servant (or slave). Thus Abdullah literally means servant of Allah, while Abdul Rahim means servant of the merciful one.

A similar tradition is common in Judaism. Many names end in -jah, -yah or -yahu, which are all short forms of Yahweh. Biblical examples include Isaiah (Yah is my salvation), Jeremiah (Yah will raise) and Uriah (flame of Yah). Netanyahu is a well-known modern example.

The ending -el (meaning god) is also used in this way. For example Ezekiel (God will strengthen), Michael (Who is like God?), Daniel (God is my judge) and Samuel (name of God).

Theophoric names in modern European languages include the many we all inherited directly from the Bible, as well as others formed locally, like Godfrey, Christopher, Thorsten and Ingrid.

In the Bible, we will meet with theophoric names from other cultures, most notably the many people in the region who worshipped Baal. A number of biblical characters have names using this element, such as Ishbaal (Man of Baal), who is very briefly king of Israel in 2 Samuel 2:8-10. Your version may show his name as Ishbosheth, meaning Man of the Abomination, which was a means of censoring the reference to the foreign divinity in Yahweh's holy book.