John the BaptistJohn the Baptist (1st century BC – AD 30) was a Judaean preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early 1st century AD. He is also known as John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist Christian traditions, and Prophet Yahya in Islam. He is sometimes alternatively referred to as John the Baptiser. John is mentioned by the Roman Jewish historian Josephus and he is revered as a major religious figure in Christianity, Islam, the Baháʼí faith, the Druze faith, and Mandaeism, the latter in which he is considered to be the final and most vital prophet.
MessiahIn Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (מָשִׁיחַ; μεσσίας, messías; مسيح, masîḥ; the anointed one) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of mashiach, messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a mashiach is a king or High Priest traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil. Ha-mashiach (המשיח), often referred to as melekh mashiach (מלך המשיח), is to be a Jewish leader, physically descended from the paternal Davidic line through King David and King Solomon.
Gospel of MarkThe Gospel of Mark is the second of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to his death, burial, and the discovery of his empty tomb. It portrays Jesus as a teacher, an exorcist, a healer, and a miracle worker, though it does not mention a miraculous birth or divine pre-existence. He refers to himself as the Son of Man. He is called the Son of God but keeps his messianic nature secret; even his disciples fail to understand him.
Hebrew languageHebrew (; ʿÎbrit; ) is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. It was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a spoken language by their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans, before dying out after 200 CE. However, it was largely preserved as a liturgical language, featuring prominently in Judaism (since the Second Temple period) and Samaritanism. Having ceased to be a dead language in the 19th century, today's Hebrew serves as the only successful large-scale example of linguistic revival.
Epistle of JamesThe Epistle of James is a general epistle and one of the 21 epistles (didactic letters) in the New Testament. James 1:1 identifies the author as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" who is writing to "the twelve tribes scattered abroad". The epistle is traditionally attributed to James the brother of Jesus (James the Just), and the audience is generally considered to be Jewish Christians, who were dispersed outside Israel.
Second TempleThe Second Temple (, Bēṯ hamMīqdāš hašŠēnī, ), later known as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced Solomon's Temple, which is presumed to have been built at the same location before its destruction by the Neo-Babylonian Empire during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem 587 BCE. Construction of the Second Temple began some time after the Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Persian Empire; it followed a proclamation by Persian king Cyrus the Great through his edict that ended the Babylonian captivity and initiated the return to Zion.
PhariseesThe Pharisees (ˈfærəsiːz; Pərūšīm) were a Jewish social movement and a school of thought in the Levant during the time of Second Temple Judaism. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Pharisaic beliefs became the foundational, liturgical, and ritualistic basis for Rabbinic Judaism. Conflicts between Pharisees and Sadducees took place in the context of much broader and longstanding social and religious conflicts among Jews, made worse by the Roman conquest.
Kingship and kingdom of GodThe concept of the kingship of God appears in all Abrahamic religions, where in some cases the terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven are also used. The notion of God's kingship goes back to the Hebrew Bible, which refers to "his kingdom" but does not include the term "Kingdom of God". The "Kingdom of God" and its equivalent form "Kingdom of Heaven" in the Gospel of Matthew is one of the key elements of the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament. The Gospel of Mark indicates that the gospel is the good news about the Kingdom of God.
Miracles of JesusThe miracles of Jesus are miraculous deeds attributed to Jesus in Christian and Islamic texts. The majority are faith healings, exorcisms, resurrections, and control over nature. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is said to have performed seven miraculous signs that characterize his ministry, from changing water into wine at the start of his ministry to raising Lazarus from the dead at the end. For many Christians and Muslims, the miracles are actual historical events. Others, including many liberal Christians, consider these stories to be figurative.
Great CommissionIn Christianity, the Great Commission is the instruction of the resurrected Jesus Christ to his disciples to spread the gospel to all the nations of the world. The Great Commission is outlined in Matthew 28:16–20, where on a mountain in Galilee Jesus calls on his followers to make disciples of and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Great Commission is similar to the episodes of the commissioning of the Twelve Apostles found in the other Synoptic Gospels, though with significant differences.
