Christian Faith

Abba is an Aramaic word which means “father”. It is a form of address for the father in a family. For Christians, Abba is also a form of address for God.

Amen is a Hebrew word that means “verily” or ‘”truly”, and derives from the verb amen, which means “to have faith” and “to be reliable”. The word amen is used in the Bible as an exclamation: after a prayer, oath or praise, the people listening say “amen” out loud to affirm that they are in agreement.

In James 5:14-15 it is recommended that the sick be anointed. Here anointing is a ritual in which God’s vitalising power is conveyed.
In the Gospels, the disciples of Jesus also healed sick people by anointing them with oil (Mark 6:13).

The word “antichrist” (in Greek antichristos) occurs in 1 John and 2 John. It refers to Jesus’ main opponent in the end times. The mention of the coming of the antichrist is intended to help the readers of John’s epistles to make the right choice. Other books in the New Testament speak of similar characters that will appear at the end of time.

Part of the book of Daniel (Daniel 7–12) consists of visions and their explanations. In the first vision in Daniel 7, one of Daniel’s dreams is described.

The book of Revelation has been written for the Christians in the Roman province of Asia in modern day Turkey. The book opposes the power of Rome, in particular the Roman emperor cult.
Rome and the cult of the Emperor are portrayed as beasts with a terribly powerful bad influence (see Revelation 13), that they have been given by the devil (see Revelation 12). The beasts use their power against Christians.
The background is the persecution of Christians during the reign of a Roman Emperor, probably Domitian or Trajan (between AD 90 and 120).

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus appoints 12 disciples as apostles. They are a distinct group of disciples and representatives of Jesus.

In the Bible, the archangels are a special and important group of angels. After the Babylonian exile, the idea arose in Judaism that there was a hierarchy among the angels. At the top of this hierarchy were the archangels. They are not named in the Old Testament, but do occur in the Deuterocanonical books, and are mentioned twice in the New Testament (1 Thessalonians 4:16; Jude 1:9).

Baptism is a full immersion in water. In the Bible it is a sign of a new beginning and of an initiation. Jesus asks to be baptised by John the Baptist. Later, baptism becomes an important rite of passage in Christian communities.

There is nothing about baptism in the Old Testament. So it is striking that some of the Dead Sea Scrolls refer to purification rites which closely resemble New Testament baptism.

The nine blessings with which the Sermon on the Mount begins are often called “beatitudes”. Beatitudes are not only to be found in the Sermon on the Mount. They are present in the Old Testament as well.

In the New Testament, Belial is a name for Satan, the king of lawlessness.

In the Bible, blessing is pronouncing something good over someone, which — if done in the correct way — ensures that this good thing genuinely happens to that person. The word “blessing” describes the words that are spoken in the act of blessing someone. However, it can also be used to indicate the result of the act of blessing, in the sense of “happiness”. Cursing is the opposite of blessing, that is, to speak doom over someone, causing that doom to actually occur.

Christ (christos in Greek) is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word mashiah, which means anointed and is transliterated as “messiah” in English. More information about Christ and messiah can be found under messiah.

Jesus and his first disciples were Jews who adhered to the Jewish faith, and continued to do so. This fact is very important for the Christian faith, as the apostle Paul says. But Paul did emphasise that non-Jews could also be entirely equal followers of Jesus.

“Christians” (christianoi in Greek) is the name given to the followers of Jesus Christ. The word is used only three times in the New Testament. It is possible that it started off as a derogatory term used by non-Christians, which was later adopted as a positive name by the Christian community.

The author of the book of Acts gives a detailed account of the conversion of Paul to the Christian faith. He tells us of this event in Paul’s life as many as three times. A number of biblical scholars doubt the historical reliability of these stories. Paul himself tells us little about his conversion in his letters.

In the New Testament, Jesus made a new covenant with his followers by giving out bread and wine during the last supper. In the early Church, celebrating the Lord’s Supper, as a symbol of the covenant with Christ, was an important ritual.

The expression “day of the Lord” in the New Testament has been adopted from the Old Testament. Like in the Old Testament, it refers to the time of God’s final judgement.
In the New Testament it also means that Jesus will return to earth (Luke 17:24). That is why Paul calls the day of the final judgement “the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8) or “the Day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

In the Jewish tradition, disciples (in Greek: mathetes) are necessary for passing on and explaining the Torah. Jewish scholars had schools of disciples, as did John the Baptist (see for example Luke 5:33). It is no wonder, then, that in the Gospels, Jesus begins his public appearances by gathering disciples (Mark 1:16-20 and parallel passages). These disciples play a different role in each of the four Gospels.

In John, Jesus’ disciples are, above all, his friends, who are granted a share in Jesus’ connection with God (John 13–17). Women also share this friendship, as Mary Magdalene shows in John 20:1-18. In the tradition she is therefore also called apostola apostolorum (apostle of the apostles).

Like Matthew, Luke makes a clear distinction between the larger group of disciples and the twelve apostles. But in Luke, at an early stage the twelve are given authority to proclaim the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:1-6). This commission is not only meant for the twelve: Jesus sends out as many as 72 disciples (Luke 10:1-20).

Matthew presents the disciples as those who get their instruction from Jesus, the teacher. Just like Moses, Jesus ascends the mountain (Matthew 5:1), to teach his disciples from there.

Mark mainly describes the disciples as full of wonder and slow to understand. He takes the readers of his Gospel on the journey that the disciples are going on with Jesus, in which they wonder:
“Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (Mark 4:41)

In New Testament times, house churches (congregations which meet at people’s houses) were the foundation of the Christian movement.

Despite many differences, the house churches developed a communal identity. Increasingly, they differentiated themselves from the Jewish community and Graeco-Roman culture.
In Antioch, the people who belonged to the house churches were first called Christians.