Abraham
| The father of the Jewish nation.
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Adam
| The first man God created.
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Adultery
| Breaking the marriage promise by having sexual relations with someone else’s husband or wife.
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Alien
| A person from another country, a stranger.
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Altar
| A place where people would bring gifts to God. Altars usually had flat surfaces on top and were made of dirt, rocks, wood or metal.
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Amen
| Means “Yes, this is true! ” or “Let it be so! ”
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Anoint
| To pour oil on a person’s head. It meant that God’s Spirit was helping that person do a special job.
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Antichrist
| Means “against Christ.” In the last days a great evil power called the antichrist will rule over the world and pretend to be like Christ. But Jesus Christ will come and destroy him.
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apostles
| The special leaders Jesus chose to bring the message about Jesus to the world. First Jesus chose 12 men and then later Paul and some other became apostles.
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Ark of the Covenant
| A special box made of wood and covered with gold. It had two gold angels on top of it. The written copy of the Ten Commandments was kept inside the box. It was a sign to the people of Israel that God was with them.
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Asherah
| The name of a fertility goddess that the Canaanites worshiped. Often wooden poles were set up as symbols of Asherah for people to worship at.
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Atonement
| A payment or offering to remove or forgive sins. In the Old Testament the people of Israel sacrificed animals to show that atonement must be made for the sins of the people.
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Baal
| The name of a false god that means “Master”. The people of Canaan believed Baal had power over the land, crops, animals.
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Babylon
| The capital city of Babylonia. The Babylonians captured and destroyed Jerusalem and took many people as prisoners.
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Baptize
| To wash, dip or immerse in water. Baptism shows that a person’s sins are washed away. He or she has joined the family of God and is united with Jesus in dying to sin and rising ti new life.
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Blessing, bless
| A blessing is a good gift from God. When God blesses something he makes it prosper.
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Blood
| In the Bible blood represents the life of something. It was the blood of sacrifice that made it effective.
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Canaan
| The land God promised to give to Israel. It is at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea where Europe, Asia, Africa come together.
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Centurion
| An officer in the Roman army who was the leader of 100 soldiers.
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Christ
| The title of Jesus which means “anointed” or “chosen one” in Greek. The Hebrew word for Christ is “Messiah’. Jesus Christ is God’s chosen one to bring salvation to his people.
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Church
| A group of the followers of Jesus that meets in a certain place. Jesus calls the church his body. Most of the books of the New testament are letters to churches.
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Circumcise
| To remove the foreskin of the male sex organ. This was done to symbolize to removal of evil and as a sign of the covenant or agreement between God and the people of Israel.
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City if refuge
| A place of safety for someone who had accidentally killed someone
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Commandment
| A rule or teaching that people should obey. God gives his people commandments to help them live a good life
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covenant
| An agreement or set of promises, especially between God and his people
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creation
| God created, or made, the world and the entire universe, it is all his creation.
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crucify
| To nail or tie a person to cross until that his died.
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curse
| To wish that bad things happen to someone or something. God curses or makes bad things happen, only as a punishment for not obeying him.
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David
| Israel’s greatest king
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Day of the Lord
| A phrase used in the Bible for the time in the future when God will destroy evil.
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Demon
| Powerful evil spirits that work for Satan. Demons can sometimes control people.
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Dispel
| A follower, someone who believes and does what their leader teaches. Jesus picked 12 disciples to be his special helpers. Today anyone who follows Jesus is in his disciple.
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Elders
| Older men who where leaders of God’s people
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Eternal
| Forever, with no end. God is eternal. Followers of Jesus are given the gift of eternal life.
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Faith
| Confident belief and trust, faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of things even if you can’t see them. To have faith in Jesus means to trust him and believe what the Bible says about him.
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Famine
| A time when there is not enough food for people. A famine can happen because not enough rain falls, insects destroy the crops or people are fighting a war instead of growing things to eat.
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Fasting
| Going without food for a period of time. In the Bible fasting was usually done by people during a special time of praying to God, or to show sadness.
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Feast
| A special time of celebration and eating. Feasts in the Bible celebrated the ways God has helped his people.
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Firstfruits
| The firs crops that God’s people would collect from their fields and give to God. This was a sign that everything that the land produced belonged to God.
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Forgive
| Not to punish a person for something wrong he or she has done. To pardon someone. The great message of the Bible is that God forgives us because Jesus took the punishment for the things we have done wrong.
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Galilee
| The northern part of the land of Palestine. Jesus grew up in the town of Nazareth, in Galilee, and did a lot of his ministry in Galilee
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Gentiles
| A word meaning “nations”. It is used to refer to anyone who is not a Jew.
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Glory
| Greatness and majesty that people can see or sense, usually of God.
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Gospel
| “good news”. The message about how Jesus died and then became alive again to defeat evil, make us new, and give us hope for the future. The job of Jesus’ followers is to share the gospel with people all over the world.
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Grace
| Showing love and kindness to someone who doesn’t deserve it. The heart of the Christian message is God’s grace- he loves people and saves them even while they are still fighting against him.
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Hades
| The place of the dead
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Hallelujah
| A word meaning “Praise the LORD”! It is formed by putting together two Hebrew words: Hallelu (meaning “ praise”) and Yah (for the name of God, “ Yahweh, ” or “ the LORD”)
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Heaven
| The place where God is and where other spiritual beings live. The followers of Jesus have their loyalty are citizenship in the heaven because Jesus is there.
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Heir
| The person who receives or inherits what belongs to a relatives. Their heir usually inherited these things when the relatives died. In the Old Testament Israel was the heir of God and received the promised Land as an inheritance from God.
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High place
| A place of worship built on top of a hill. High place were altars, stones or wood poles usually used for worshiping false gods.
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Holy
| Pure, set apart for God. God is holy. He is perfect, doing nothing wrong.
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Holy Spirit
| One of the three persons of God. In the Old testament we see the Holy Spirit active in the creation of the world
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Idol
| Anything that is worshiped instead of the true God. In Bible times idols were often statues of false gods made of wood, stone or metal. Idolatry is the worship of idols.
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Incense
| A collection of spices that is burned to worship God. Incense produces a sweet smell.
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Israel
| A name meaning “he struggles with God.” God gave this name to Jacob, after he struggled with and angel of God.
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Jacob
| Son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham, and father of the 12 tribes of Israel.
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Jerusalem
| The most important city in Israel. In Bible times Jerusalem was the capital and also the place where the temple of God was Built. Jerusalem is sometimes called “Zion”, “City of David”, “City of God”.
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Jesus
| A Greek name which means “savior.” It is a form of the Hebrew name “Joshua” which means “the Lord saves”. When the Son of God was born as a human being
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Did you know that the Bible is the all-time best seller and most widely read book in the world. The Bible is quoted more often than any other piece of literature and has had more influence on our language, customs, traditions, laws than other book ever published.
Yet there are many people who seldom, if ever, read the Bible.
Many people assume that the Bible's language is too difficult for the average person to understand. Other are a little frightened by the Bible's size, and some people just don't expect to find anything in the Bible that applies to needs and problems of men and women in the 21 century.
The size of the Bible can be a little intimidating. It is a big book or a small library. The Bible is made up of 66 smaller books written over a period of hundreds of years.