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Expand your knowledge with our New Testament Bible Background Articles. Enrich your Bible study with historical and cultural context.
Sadducees. Jewish party cited 14 times in the NT, not referred to in the OT. In the Gospel narrative they first appear together with Pharisees at John’s baptism. He addressed them as “sons of snakes” and challenged them by asking, “Who said that you could escape the coming wrath of God?” He demanded that they... Continue Reading →
BABYLONIANS bab-i-lo'-ni-anz: The inhabitants of BABYLONIA (which see). They were among the colonists planted in Samaria by the Assyrians (Ezra 4:9). "The likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea" (Eze 23:15) refers to the pictures which were common on the walls of Babylonian palaces, and the reports of them being heard in Jerusalem, or copies of... Continue Reading →
PERSIA pur'-sha, (parats; Persia; in Assyrian Parsu, Parsua; in Achemenian Persian Parsa, modern Fars): In the Bible (2Ch 36:20,22-23; Ezr 1:1,8; Es 1:3,14,18; 10:2; Eze 27:10; 38:5; Da 8:20; 10:1; 11:2) this name denotes properly the modern province of Fars, not the whole Persian empire. The latter was by its people called Airyaria, the present Iran (from the Sanskrit word arya, "noble"); and... Continue Reading →
Parentage and Early Life Alexander, of Macedon, commonly called "the Great" (born 356 BC), was the son of Philip, king of Macedon, and of Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemos, an Epeirote king. Although Alexander is not mentioned by name in the canonical Scriptures, in Dan he is designated by a transparent symbol (8:5,21). In 1 Macc... Continue Reading →
The Essenes was a Jewish sect or community in Palestine in the last century BC and the 1st century AD.
The Ebionites combined Jewish faith and asceticism but diverged from apostolic teachings by rejecting Christ's deity and Paul's authority.
INTRODUCTION Early Gospels [a-pok'-ri-fal gos'-pels] The introduction to the third canonical Gospel shows that in the days of the writer, when the apostles of the Lord were still living, it was a common practice to write and publish accounts of the acts and words of Jesus. It has even been maintained (S. Baring-Gould, Lost and... Continue Reading →
The name Maccabeus was first applied to Judas, one of the sons of Mattathias generally called in English the Maccabees, a celebrated family who defended Jewish rights and customs in the 2nd century B.C.E. (1 Macc 2:1-3). The word has been variously derived (e.g. as the initial letters of Mi Khamokha, Ba-'elim Jehovah! "Who is... Continue Reading →
Hasmoneans: A remarkable priestly family of Modin, in Judea, also called Asmoneans or Maccabees. They belonged to that portion of the Jewish nation which under all trials and temptations remained loyal to Jehovah, even when the national life and religion seemed at their lowest ebb, and they succeeded, for a while at least, in restoring... Continue Reading →
tri'-fon (Truphon): The surname of Diodotus, a usurper of the Syrian throne. He was a native of Apamea and had been in the service of Alexander Balas. On the death of Balas (145 BC), Tryphon, taking advantage of the complaints of discontent among the troops of Demetrius II (Nicator), set up the younger son of... Continue Reading →
