Biblical and Theological Terms

For Incoming Seminarians

The intent of this glossary is to provide simple definitions for the important biblical and
theological terms that incoming seminarians need to understand, in the context of AGTS, as they
begin their studies. Words not in this list are either the professor’s responsibility to explain as a
part of seminary education or are the student’s responsibility to look up in a dictionary. The
definitions here are simplified versions of the most likely uses in the context of AGTS classes,
early in a student’s first semester, and are based on Dr. James Hernando’s Dictionary of
Hermeneutics where possible, which is a recommended resource. The * indicates a word is
defined elsewhere in the list.

a priori: an assumption or presupposition* someone has before beginning a study or discussion.

allegorical: not the literal sense but portraying spiritual truths metaphorically* without
reference to any actual historical events or people. An allegory never actually happened, like
Pilgrim’s Progress. The Bible stories did happen unless otherwise indicated and so cannot be
allegories. However, they can be typological.*
anachronistic: not using technically accurate terminology for the time period. An example is
reading NT terms or place names back into the OT context.
apocalyptic: a type of biblical literature that is a dramatic, visionary, depiction of the ultimate
cosmic victory of God over evil, using imagery that is significant to that time and culture, such
as is used in the book of Revelation.
Apocrypha: books written in the Intertestamental Period considered authoritative scriptures
(sacred writings) by Roman Catholicism but not by Protestants or Jews and are called deutero*-
canonicals by the Catholics.
apologetic: referring to making a defense for someone or something, especially for the faith.
the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as understood by the Assemblies of God: the initial filling
with the Holy Spirit experience given by Jesus, subsequent to salvation, available to all
Christians, in which the Spirit’s empowering is released in the life of the Christian for the
beginning of a lifetime of prophetic witness for the Lord. It is accompanied by speaking in
tongues (languages used in praise and prayer, unknown to the speaker and given by the Spirit),
based on Acts 1:8, chapter 2, and chapter 10.
canonical: referring to the set of books historically accepted by Christians as God’s authoritative
written Word. (Every student should be familiar with the names of the 66 books of the Protestant
canon and their order.)
CE and BCE: current politically correct broad era abbreviations—Common Era (formerly AD,
referring to time since the birth of Christ) and Before the Common Era (formerly BC, before
Christ).
charismatic believers: referring to Christians who believe in a current experience of the gifts of
the Spirit found in the New Testament (especially in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14), who practice
individual, spontaneous, outwardly demonstrative, worship, and who encourage faith for
experiencing many promises of the Bible today, but who are not of the historic Pentecostal*
tradition.
Christological: having to do with the truth, doctrines, or the message of Christ.
concordance: a basic tool for Bible study which alphabetically lists every word used in a
particular version and every reference (in exhaustive editions) where each word occurs in the
Bible. It is very helpful for finding a verse by a certain word in it or seeing all the range of usage
of a certain Greek or Hebrew word in the Scriptures.
conservative view of the Bible vs. liberal view of the Bible: refers to viewing the Bible as
God’s Word written through humans, fully truthful, unified, and authoritative vs. as a collection
of human documents with some helpful and lofty thoughts but teaching many flawed and
contradictory human religious ideas.
cosmology: a theory/belief about the origin, nature, and composition of the universe.
criticisms—especially higher criticism, also called historical criticism, and textual criticism
(these should be explained in class when mentioned but may not be): various scholarly
methods of analyzing the Scriptures in their historical, cultural, and literary context. Often the
scholars who have developed these approaches to the text have treated the Scriptures as strictly
human documents, with no allowance for the supernatural or divine revelation and divine
supervision of the writing process. It is important to be clear that textual criticism is a narrow
term for the study of the existing copies of the Bible texts for the purpose of proposing the
original wording where there are variations among the copies.
cultic: in biblical studies, a reference to public worship practices such as sacrifices and rituals.
the Dead Sea Scrolls: Jewish religious and Old Testament Scripture documents, existing mostly
in pieces, found in the area of the Dead Sea in Israel, mostly from caves at Qumran, dating from
the period of 250 BC to AD 70.
the Decalogue: the Ten Commandments.
to deconstruct: basically to point out weaknesses and doubts in the understanding of the
meaning of something.
deductive vs. inductive reasoning: to deduce is to reason from a starting truth to particulars
while being inductive is to draw conclusions from analyzing all the particulars of evidence/data.
deistic: the belief that God is not involved in the world He created. He set it in motion but does
not intervene in it, like a watch maker creating a watch, winding it up, and letting it wind down.
deutero- : second, secondary, or following after; deutero-canonical refers to certain books
written subsequent to the original Hebrew Old Testament canon, which are accepted by Roman
Catholicism but not by Protestants or Judaism (often called the Apocrypha*); deutero-Pauline*
refers to a belief that some letters traditionally accepted as by Paul were really not written by
Paul but by someone after him, and so are secondary to the “true” Pauline epistles*.
Diaspora: the Jews scattered around the ancient world living out away from the Promised Land
due to the exile* and the Greek conquest.
dictionaries and encyclopedias, biblical and theological: important collections of summary
articles by scholars on specific subjects pertinent to biblical and theological studies. Generally
there is no significant difference between a Bible dictionary and a Bible encyclopedia. Note that
word books which provide essays on the theological usage of the Greek and Hebrew words of
the Bible are often titled as theological dictionaries.
Dispensationalism: a system of understanding the salvation plan of God and the relationship
between the Old and New Testaments which delineates separate dispensations or periods of
God’s salvation dealings with mankind in history and which sees references to Israel as totally
separate from God’s plan for the Gentiles (non-Jews), thus taking the prophecies very literally.
doctrinal: having to do with the teachings of the Bible which a Christian group has summarized
or expounded from the Bible as the important truths to which God wants people to hold, and
therefore these teachings are important to the identity of the group.
doxological: having to do with expressing praise and glory to God.
ecclesiastical: having to do with the earthly institution of the church.
ecclesiological: having to do with the theology of the church.
ecumenical: involving various denominations and groups of Christians in unified efforts.

the Enlightenment: the period of the philosophical shift that occurred in Europe in the late
1700s that exalted human reason and the ability to analyze everything without revelation from
God. It is the origin of modernism and now generally represents much of what postmodernism
has reacted against.
epistemological: relating to one’s world view and the philosophical discussion of how people
know anything and the question of what is truth/true.
epistles: books of the New Testament that are letters, written by an apostle or an associate.
eschatology, eschatological: having to do with the theology of last things and the divine
conclusion of history. The adjective is also used by scholars for a reference to God breaking into
time and intervening in the world to accomplish His ultimate purpose.
the Eucharist: the Lord’s Supper, Communion.
Evangelical: believing that God has communicated in the Protestant Scriptures the message of
eternal salvation through Jesus Christ His Son and that all people need to hear and believe this
message to have eternal life.
exegesis, exegetical: dealing with the process of interpreting a text and bringing out the
meaning intended by the author. This process applies the principles for how to do this, which is
called hermeneutics*.
the exile: the taking away of a major part of the people of Israel from the Promised Land, first
the northern tribes to Assyria (722 BC), then later Judah to Babylon (605 BC), because they had
been unfaithful to the Lord.
existential: characterized by the philosophical view of life that emphasizes one’s present
personal experience of existence as the predominant reality and source of meaning.
the exodus: the deliverance of the 12 tribes of Israel, under the leadership of Moses, from
slavery in Egypt, by God, through the miraculous parting of the Red Sea. It is the great salvation
event in their history, recorded in the book of Exodus.
exposition: explaining or elaborating on one’s interpretation of a text, especially to relate it to
people’s lives.
the fall: the event of Adam and Eve’s self-focused disobedience which broke the relationship
between them and God and lost their original, sinless, and ideal, condition, resulting in all
humans being born without a relationship with God and separated from His presence, tending to
be selfish, hurtful to others, and contrary to God, headed for physical and eternal death and thus
needing God’s gift of salvation.
figuratively: not literal but rather intended to be understood differently from what is normally
expected when reading or hearing the words.
fundamentalism: an extremely conservative version of a religion. Generally, it does not
adequately distinguish the cultural context of its authoritative scriptures from the principles and
theological concepts intended. Therefore, it is often associated with distinctive, cultural, external,
practices from the time of the writing of various passages of the Scriptures. We, at AGTS, hold
to the historic fundamentals of orthodox Christianity but not to much of the culture and rigidly
literal, biblical, interpretations of North American (Christian) Fundamentalism.
genre: a type of literature with common characteristics, including style, purpose, and even
general subject matter, such as the biblical genres of poetry, narrative, and prophecy.
glossolalia: speaking in tongues (languages unknown to the speaker) given by the Spirit of God.
grammatical terms—graduate students must understand what is meant by a: clause;
conjunction; direct object; genitive; imperative; interrogative; nominative; participle; passive
voice; predicate; and preposition. (See dictionaries or grammar books for the ones you do not
know.)
Hellenistic: involving characteristics of Greek culture from the ancient world to the first few
centuries AD.
hermeneutics: the principles of how a reader gets meaning from a text. Conservative
hermeneutics seek to determine the meaning intended by the author of the text.
homiletics: the subject/discipline of preparing and preaching sermons.
humanism (secular): human centered world view which exalts human understanding and
ignores God.
hyperbole: exaggeration used to make a point.
idiom: a combination of words that expresses a certain idea in a way that is different from the
sum of the literal words and that is unique to that language/culture.
immanent: near in space, especially used of the truth that God is all around all of us and
permeates everything.

imminent: near in time, used of an event, such as the Second Coming of Christ, which could
happen at any moment.
inductive reasoning: from the data to the conclusion (see deductive*)
inerrancy: the belief that the Bible is without error in what God intended to communicate
through the writers.
inspiration, inspired Word of God, as understood by the Assemblies of God: the belief that
the Protestant Canon of the Scriptures was produced by the revelation of the Holy Spirit through
the human writers and is the Word of God written, with final authority for the Christian’s faith
and conduct. The incarnation of the Son of God in Christ Jesus is parallel to the divine
inspiration of the Scriptures. The writings are fully human yet without sin/error in what God
intended to teach.
Intertestamental Period: the time between the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, around
430 BC, and the birth of Christ, around 4-6 BC.
justification (by faith as taught by Paul): the declaration by God that a person who believes in
His gift of Christ is released from the guilt and punishment due for his or her sins. It is the event
of salvation and the establishment of a right relationship with God.
the Kingdom (of God): the active reign of God as King/Lord, beginning through Christ in the
lives of Christians and coming fully over all the world when Christ returns. It involves God’s
supernatural involvement in His people’s lives. It does not refer strictly to a place or a people—
to the church—because the church is the subjects of the Kingdom not the Kingdom itself.
legalistic and legalism: focusing on the letter of the law and being consumed with the goal of
getting credit for keeping it, especially more perfectly than other people do. In legalism, the
focus is on the strict observance of the law rather than any purpose or principle behind it.
Legalism makes the keeping of the law more important than the needs of people. A legalistic
relationship is based strictly on performance or “works.”
lexicon: a scholarly dictionary of an ancient language like Greek and Hebrew.
liturgical: having to do with liturgy, the formal rituals of public worship.
manuscripts: hand written documents/copies.
Mesopotamia: the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East (Iraq, today)
where the most ancient civilizations began and flourished, including Babylon.
Messianic: having to do with the Messiah, the Christ, the promised Savior in the Scriptures.
meta-narrative: overarching story/message/universal-truth that ties everything together.
metaphor, metaphorical: describing someone or something in terms of something else,
emphasizing certain characteristics, a kind of comparison but using “is,” such as saying someone
“is a bear to live with” or “Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.”
metaphysical: dealing with what is real, the philosophy of the nature of reality. It also may be a
reference to what is beyond what one can perceive with the physical senses.
Millennium: the teaching based on Revelation 20 of a 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth,
with Satan bound, when the earth has been redeemed from the curse, at the end of history. It is
associated with passages describing a kind of return to Eden as an ideal conclusion to the history
of the earth. The belief that Christ’s Second Coming comes before it is called premillennial; that
Christ comes after it is postmillennial; and that it is not a later, literal, physical, reign but is
spiritual and already happening, is amillennial.

modernism vs post modernism: see Enlightenment* as the source of modernism; post

modernism is the recent strong reaction to modernism, a very existential* and relativistic view of
life, a rejection of certainty and universals, especially any meta-narrative.*
motif: a repeated theme or idea contributing to a writer’s message.
myth: as used by Bible scholars, a people’s explanation of phenomena for which they have no
physical explanation.
paradigm: a pattern presented by a writer that shows what others in the same situation will or
should follow. In grammar it is a pattern of all the forms of a word.

Pauline: something related to, characteristic of, usually authored by, the apostle Paul.
Pentateuch: the first five books of the Bible, also called the Torah by the Jews, understood to
be written or dictated by Moses.

Pentecostal: an Evangelical*, holiness, healing, premillennial*, missionary, back-to-the-Bible,

movement of Christians, beginning around 1900, of which the Assemblies of God is the largest
denomination. Pentecostals believe God wants to baptize Christians in the Holy Spirit for the
purpose of being His witnesses to the ends of the earth, with the accompanying outward sign of
speaking in tongues, according to Acts 2. Pentecostals believe God wants to continue to work
miraculously among His people and wants all His people to prophesy and be used in the other
gifts of the Spirit, listed in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, in their worship assemblies. They believe
that physical and emotional expressions should be encouraged in worship.

pericope: a distinct passage or literary unit of Scripture often used for liturgical* readings.
pietistic: devotional and godly lifestyle emphases for the Christian life. It also refers to a
movement in the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe that was a reaction against the extreme
intellectualism and doctrinal conflicts of that time.
pneumatological: dealing with the Spirit.
polemical: aggressively refuting an idea or teaching.
post modernism: (see modernism)
premillennial: (see Millennium*)
presuppositions: the ideas and assumptions that one begins with.
primary vs secondary sources: primary sources include original texts, factual records, and
actual data. Secondary sources include interpretations and analyses of the data or texts. Graduate
research must involve as much primary material as possible.
proof-text: a single Bible reference used to answer or define an issue.
prophetic: passages of the Scripture by prophets, especially those predicting future events OR it
is often used in a general sense of some ministry that functions the way the one using the word
understands the biblical purpose and ministry of a prophet to be, usually involving challenging
authorities or cultures with God’s standards.
pseudo- false, especially something claiming to be from a source that it is not from.
rabbinic: the approach and the thinking of the teaching of the Jewish rabbis in their writings
from the third century after Christ on, which writings are called the Talmud.
redaction, redactor: the process of editing of the Scriptures, and the word for an editor/writer.
redemption, redeem: to deliver, often by costly payment, in order to restore to the original
relationship/situation.

Reformed theology (Calvinism) vs. Arminianism: the teachings of Calvin and his followers
such as Presbyterians vs. those of Arminius and his followers such as Wesleyans. The
foundational concept of Reformed theology is the sovereignty* of God which includes
predestination and the total inability of humans to respond to God. Arminian theology does not
deny God’s sovereignty but sees the Scriptures as teaching the privilege and responsibility, with
accountability, for people’s choices, which we have because we are made in God’s image.
regeneration: God-given new birth, spiritually, at conversion/salvation.
rhetorical: some aspect of the way people make their point with their choice of certain words,
ways of expression, literary devices, and, in more formal contexts, the order of elements of an
argument, according to what is effective in a particular cultural context.
sacrament: in Roman Catholicism several rites that, when properly done, act as means of grace.
Protestants emphasize that the ritual does not convey anything by itself and that the only two
regular observances or ordinances that Christ called for are water baptism and communion.
These two are opportunities for a special event of a faith connection with God and reception of
His salvation provisions, and are sometimes referred to as external signs of an inner work of
God.
sanctification: in Protestant theology, the subject of the working of God in the life of a
Christian after salvation/justification*, making them more like Christ.
the Second Coming: the coming back to earth of the risen Christ to end history as we know it,
bring judgment on those who reject him, and establish his eternal kingdom for all who follow
him.
semantics: the subject of the meanings of words and how those meanings or uses overlap
among words.
semitic: broadly, an ethnic and linguistic group of peoples mostly in the Middle East, including
Arabs and Jews and several of the ancient peoples of the Old Testament world such as the
Babylonians.
Septuagint: the name for the Greek translation of the OT, done by Jews within the Greek
culture of Alexandria Egypt, from about 250 -150 BC. This is one of the earliest translations and
was the Bible of the Early Church. The symbol for it is LXX because of a Jewish tradition that it
was translated by 70 Jewish scholars.
simile: an explicit comparison of one thing to another such as “we are like sheep.”
Sixteen Fundamental Truths: the 16 doctrinal statements agreed upon by all ministers of the
Assemblies of God and expected to be taught in our churches.
soteriological: having to do with salvation.
sovereignty of God: The power God has to do whatever He chooses without restrictions or any
need for anything outside of Himself, His own character, and His purposes. He is always in
control yet He does not manipulate anyone’s will. A simple summary is that God is never
threatened, never surprised, and never at a loss for what to do or the ability to do it. Nothing can
stop Him from doing what He says He will do.

synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which present the story of Jesus in similar ways,
including much of the same material.

syntax and syntactical: the relationship between words in a sentence, a reference to the
combination and order of the words, which produces the meaning.
Talmud: (see rabbinic*)
Tanak: the term for the Jewish Scriptures, the same books as in the Protestant Old Testament
but in a different order.
theocratic: referring to a theocracy, a nation ruled by God (the only true one was Israel).

theodicy: the subject of the justice of God, and, for conservatives, the defense of His goodness.
theology—systematic, Biblical, and others like practical or historical: the study of the truths
that God wants to communicate with humanity through the Scriptures, organized in ways we can
relate to. Systematic theology organizes the truths by our questions and philosophical categories.
Biblical theology is a technical term in the field of Biblical studies for the study of the messages
of the Bible writers in their own terms and context and then in the context of the messages of the
other writers in the whole of the canon. Biblical theology is the conclusion of good exegesis*
and the basis of good systematic theology, all of which are the basis of practical theology.
Historical theology is basically the history of systematic theology or the teachings and
theological issues of the church through its history. The relationships of the theological
disciplines are pictured below with the upper ones being based on the ones under them:

Practical Theology
Historical/Systematic Theology
Biblical Theology
Exegesis
Hermeneutics
_____Philosophy/World View____

theophany: an event where God shows Himself to people in some physical way, experienced by
at least the senses of sight and hearing.

transcendent: that God is far beyond all that is and totally distinct from material things.

transliteration: writing words of one language in the alphabet of another but not translating
them.
typological: referring to an historical event, institution, or person, in Scripture, demonstrating
the same spiritual principles as fulfilled by Christ in God’s plan for humanity.