Be-Loved: Terminology

Aloha friends,

Throughout our time together I'm prone to lapse into jargon.  Please forgive me and call me on it if start using terminology that's distracting.  Also, here are a few common terms used in Biblical studies:

• Canon: A collection of sacred texts deemed authoritative for life and faith.  In particular, writings that are suitable as a foundation for a theological teaching.  All of the books in the Bible are canon.  At times I may mention other books that are non-canonical but still helpful or interesting as we study the Gospel of John.  Such non-canonical books may include: the Apocrypha, other Gospels (eg Gospel of Thomas or Gospel of Mary), the Didache, or letters of ancient church fathers (eg Eusebius or Irenaeus).
• Context: As I mentioned in the first class, context plays a massive role in understanding scripture.  When we talk about context we'll often be looking at it in three different ways.
• Historical Context will refer to the early 1st century during the time of Christ and specifically the region around Jerusalem.
• Author's Context will refer to the end of the 1st century/beginning of the 2nd century when the author was composing the gospel.  While we do not know the exact location where John was written (most scholars think somewhere in Syria), it is best to think of it as any place where nascent Christian communities lived under Roman rule and were under threat of persecution having been expelled from the synagogue.
• Our Context will refer to the worldview we bring as 21st century Americans living in Hawai'i. 
• Gospel: Gospel is derived from the Greek word evangelion (which is also the root for "evangelism").  The word literally means "good news" and was often used as a announcement of a military victory.
• Synagogue: The synagogue is a house of prayer and worship which grew in prominence after the Babylonian captivity in 587 BC and became even more central in Jewish religious life after the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.
• Synoptic: Mark, Matthew, and Luke are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels.  The term refers to the idea of "seeing all together" as these three gospels share a good deal of content and language.  While each does present a unique point of view their strong parallelism is revealed when contrasted with the Gospel of John.

We'll add to this list as we go.