3676615953 | Abraham and Issac | the first two patriarchs of the Old Testament. Go made a covenant with Abraham, telling him to leave his own country and promising to give his family (the Hebrews) the land of Canaan. God tested Abraham by telling him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering. Abraham obeyed, but before he sacrificed Isaac, an Angel told him to spare his son as he had proven his faith. | 0 | |
3676616750 | Alpha and Omega | the beginning and the end, from a quote in the Revelations in the New Testament. | 1 | |
3676616751 | Apostles | the 12 men chosen by Jesus to follow him and spread the gospel after his death. Generally, a person who preaches or promote a cause. | 2 | |
3676617177 | Armageddon | a destructive confrontation; in the Book of Revelation, the site of the final battle between good and evil. | 3 | |
3676617782 | Babel, Tower of | In the Book of Genesis, the tower the the descendants of Noah built. They intended that the tower would reach heaven and make them more like God. God prevented them from completing the tower by confusing their language so they could not understand one another. "Babel" (babble) is confusion and noise. | 4 | |
3676617783 | Babylon | any place of sin and confusion; during the Babylonian captivity, the Jews were exiled to Babylon, which they found luxurious and corrupt. | 5 | |
3676618498 | Burning Bush | in the Book of Exodus, God revealed himself to Moses, telling him that he must go to the Pharaoh, free the Israelites from slavery, and deliver them to the promised Land. It was considered a miracle because "the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consume." Speaking out of the bush, God said "I Am That I Am" in reply to Moses' inquiry about His name. | 6 | |
3676618499 | Cain | a brother who kills a brother; from the story of Adam and Eve's son Cain, who killed his brother Abel out of jealousy. | 7 | |
3676619607 | Cast not pearls before swine | to share something of value with someone who will not appreciate it; from the Sermon on the Mount, suggesting that the followers of Jesus should pass his message to those most likely receive it. | 8 | |
3676620118 | Chapter and verse | method of locating passages in the Bible; "quoting chapter and verse"generally means giving evidence for something. | 9 | |
3676620864 | Coat of many colors | the special coat that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph; it made his other sons jealous and resentful. | 10 | |
3676621665 | Consider the lilies of the field | word of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, encouraging his followers not to worry about their worldly needs or possessions. | 11 | |
3676621666 | Crown of thorns | something that causes intense suffering; a mock crown, made of thorn branches, that Roman soldiers put on the head of Jesus before the crucifixion. | 12 | |
3676622065 | Daniel | one known for wisdom and accurate judgement; from a wise leader in the Old Testament who was able to read the handwriting on the wall (during the Babylonian captivity). Daniel was thrown in a lion's den to be devoured when he refused to stop praying to his God, but an Angel came to help him and he was unharmed. | 13 | |
3676622066 | Doubting Thomas | someone who demands evidence to be convinced, especially when the demand is out of place; an Apostle who first doubted the resurrection of Jesus and then believed. Not present when Jesus appeared alive to his disciples after his resurrection, Thomas said he would only believe Jesus was alive if he saw him with his own eyes and touched his wounds with his own hands. | 14 | |
3676622655 | Exodus | a departure; from the second book of the Old Testament, describing the departure of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Moses led them out of Egypt, but they were cursed to wander the desert for 40 years because of their complaining and lack of faith. | 15 | |
3676622656 | Eye of the Needle | a very difficult task; from famous narrow gateway called "the needle". In the New Testament, Jesus said it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. | 16 | |
3676623278 | Filthy Lucre | money or profits; from a story in the New Testament of Jesus casting moneylenders out of the Temple. | 17 | |
3676623279 | Forbidden Fruit | anything that is tempting but potentially dangerous, often associated with sexuality; the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, often pictured as an apple. | 18 | |
3676623804 | Four Horsemen | Four figures in the Book of Revelation who symbolize the evils to come at the end of the world. The figure representing conquest rides a white horse; war, a red horse; famine, a black horse; and plague, a pale horse. Also called, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. | 19 | |
3676624146 | Golden calf | any false god or something worshipped undeservedly; in Exodus, an idol that the Israelites made while God was handing down the law of Moses. When Moses arrived with the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written, he saw the golden idol, smashed the tablets and made the people destroy the idol. | 20 | |
3676624558 | Good Samaritan | someone who helps another person, perhaps someone of a different race or background; from a New Testament parable about a Samaritan, a traditional enemy of the Hebrews, who stopped to help a Jewish man who had been beaten and left for dead at the side of the road. | 21 | |
3676624559 | Handwriting on the wall | what the future holds; from the Old Testament story of Daniel, who was able to accurately predict some mysterious writing that appeared on the wall (translated, it predicted the imminent death of the king). | 22 | |
3676625506 | Isaac | son of Abraham and father of Jacob and Esau; Isaac is the son that Abraham was ready to sacrifice at God's request. | 23 | |
3676625507 | Ishmael | one who is cast out as being unworthy; the son of Abraham and his handmaiden Hagar, Ishmael was cast out into the desert when Abraham's wife Sarah had their son Isaac; therefore, Ishmael is said to be the ancestor of the nomadic desert tribes of Arabs. | 24 | |
3676625866 | Jacob | grandson of Abraham, son of Isaac and Rebekah, brother of Esau, and the traditional ancestor of the Israelites. His name was changed to Israel, and his 12 sons became the 12 Tribes of Israel. His brother, Esau, should have inherited the covenant with God as Abraham's eldest son, but he traded his brightest to Jacob for a "mess of pottage." | 25 | |
3676625867 | Jacob's Ladder | a ladder that Jacob saw in a dream. He had a vision of the angels of God ascending and descending a ladder that extended from heaven to earth. God, who stood at the top, promised to bless Jacob and his offspring and bring them into the Promised Land. | 26 | |
3676626250 | Job | one who suffers a great deal but remains faithful; from an Old Testament figure whose faith in God was tested by Satan;though God lost his family and belongings, he remained patient and faithful. | 27 | |
3676626797 | Job comforters | "friends" who try to comfort another person but actually make them worse. Ironically Job's "comforters" didn't comfort at all but were the source of more affliction | 28 | |
3676626798 | Judas | a traitor; one of the 12 Apostles, notorious for betraying Jesus. His surname in Latin means "murderer" or "assassin." Judas disclosed Jesus' whereabouts to the chief priests and elders for thirty pieces of silver. | 29 | |
3676627479 | Judge not lest ye be judged | a command of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount; suggests that since all people are sinners, no one is worthy to condemn another. | 30 | |
3676628072 | King Ahab and Jezebel | an evil king of Israel and his treacherous wife, synonymous today with evil. Through her marriage to Ahab, Jezebel introduced the worship of Baal, an idol, to Israel, inciting mutual enmity with the prophets. She instigated the murder of Naboth for the possession of a vineyard. Today, "Jezebel" means a brazen or forward woman. | 31 | |
3676628073 | Lamb of God | a Christian term for Jesus, first used by John the Baptist. It carries out the image of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as a sacrifice: a lamb was killed for the Jewish Passover, and Jesus himself is the lamb for the New Passover. | 32 | |
3676628696 | Land of milk and honey | any place of great abundance: in the Old Testament, a poetic name for the Promised Land. | 33 | |
3676628697 | Lazarus | someone who makes a comeback from obscurity; in the Gospel of John, a man brought back to life by Jesus after being in a tomb for four days. | 34 | |
3676629181 | Loaves and fishes | a miracle that Jesus performed, taking five loaves and two fishes, and multiplying them in order to feed a crowd of thousands. When he was finished, and everyone had eaten, it was said that 12 baskets of food remained. | 35 | |
3676629604 | Lot's wife | in the Book of Genesis, God's angels were destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but they chose to spare Lot and his family. The angels commanded them to flee without looking back; Lot's wife disobeyed and was turned to a pillar of salt. | 36 | |
3676629981 | Mammon | money; wealth that some worship as a god. | 37 | |
3676629982 | Manna | a sustaining life-giving source or food; from the sweetish bread-like food that fell from heaven for the Israelites as they crossed the Sinai Desert to the Promised Land with Moses. | 38 | |
3676630710 | Methuselah | an extremely old person; according to the Book of Genesis, he was the grandfather of Noah and lived to be 969 years old. | 39 | |
3676630711 | Moses | Born in Egypt during the Babylonian captivity. When Moses was an infant, the Pharaoh ordered all male children of the Hebrews to be killed. His mother placed him in a boat of reeds and hid him in a marsh where he was found and adopted by the daughter of the Pharaoh. Moses received the Ten Commandments and led the Israelites to the Promised Land. | 40 | |
3676630714 | Olive Branch | a sign of piece; the branch brought to Noah's Ark by a dove to signify that the Flood was receding. | 41 | |
3676631623 | Pearl of Great Price | something so precious that one would devote everything to or give up everything for it. In one of Jesus' parables, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a pearl of great price, or value, found by a merchant. | 42 | |
3676631624 | Philistine | a person indifferent or hostile to the arts and refinement; from sea-going people from Crete who became enemies of the Israelites and fought over their lands. | 43 | |
3676632155 | Plagues of Egypt | the set of disasters that God inflicted on Egypt before Moses led to Israelites to the Promised Land. The plagues included swarms of locusts, hordes of frogs, and a scourge of boils. After the tenth plague, when the angel of death killed every Egyptian firstborn male child, the Pharaoh freed the Israelites. | 44 | |
3676632740 | Pontius Pilate | the governor of the Jews at the time of Jesus' crucifixion; according to the Gospels, Pilate did not think that Jesus was guilty and wanted to spare his life, but under pressure from the crowd, he sentenced him to death, washing his hands to indicate his lack of responsibility in Jesus' faith. | 45 | |
3676634182 | Prodigal Son | a wasteful son who disappoints his father; from the New Testament parable of a man with two sons who split the estate between the two - the younger son gathered his fortune and left home to live the wild life, while the older son stayed home to work in the fields. When the younger son spent all of the money, he came crawling back to his father, who accepted him, pardoning his error by saying he was "lost but was found." | 46 | |
3676634822 | Road of Damascus | a sudden turning point in someone's life; the Apostle Paul (then known as Saul) fell from his horse, saw a dazzling light, and heard a voice that made him undergo a dramatic conversion. | 47 | |
3676634823 | Salt of the Earth | a person of admirable character; words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, implies that if people lose their dedication to the Gospel, no one can give it to them. | 48 | |
3676635859 | Samson and Delilah | Samson, an Israelite hero and legendary warrior with extraordinary physical strength, fell in love with Delilah, a Philistine. When Delilah learned that Samson's hair was the source of his strength, she betrayed him by accepting a Philistine bride to cut off his hair while he slept. Today the name Delilah is associated with a voluptuous, treacherous woman. | 49 | |
3676635860 | Scapegoat | one that is made an object of blame for others; the goat was symbolically burdened with the sins of Jewish people and thrown over a precipice outside of Jerusalem to rid the nation of iniquities. | 50 | |
3676636561 | Sepulcher | a tomb in the Old Testament. | 51 | |
3676637067 | Sodom and Gomorrah | any place associated with wickedness or sin; from the evil cities of the Old Testament that were destroyed by fire. | 52 | |
3676639379 | Thirty pieces of silver | anything paid for a treacherous act; "blood money"; the money Judas Iscariot received for betraying Jesus to the authorities. | 53 |
AP Literature Biblical Allusions Flashcards
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