1. The Bible. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002

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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.

The Bible

The Bible, the holy book of Judaism and Christianity, is the most widely known book in the English-speaking world. It is divided into two main parts, commonly called the Old Testament and the New Testament. The best-known books of the Old Testament are Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and Isaiah. Thirty-nine books make up the Holy Scripture for Judaism. Christianity built upon Judaism and included the Old Testament as the first part of its own Scripture, adding the New Testament, which consists of twenty-seven books. Its main books are the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which relate the life of Jesus and his teachings—and Revelation.

No one in the English-speaking world can be considered literate without a basic knowledge of the Bible. Literate people in India, whose religious traditions are not based on the Bible but whose common language is English, must know about the Bible in order to understand English within their own country. All educated speakers of American English need to understand what is meant when someone describes a contest as being between David and Goliath, or whether a person who has the “wisdom of Solomon” is wise or foolish, or whether saying “My cup runneth over” means the person feels fortunate or unfortunate.

The Bible is also essential for understanding many of the moral and spiritual values of our culture, whatever our religious beliefs. The story of Abraham and Isaac concerns our deepest feelings about the relations between parents and children. The story of Job is a major representation in our tradition of being patient during suffering. The parables and sayings of Jesus, such as “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth,” are so often alluded to that they need to be known by Americans of all faiths.

No person in the modern world can be considered educated without a basic knowledge of all the great religions of the world—Islam, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity. But our knowledge of Judaism and Christianity needs to be more detailed than that of other great religions, if only because the Bible is embedded in our thought and language. The Bible is a central book in our culture, just as the Koran is central in other nations. The logical conclusion is that our schools need to teach more about the Bible than about the Koran, but they have a responsibility to teach about both. Far from being illegal or undesirable, teaching about the Bible is not only consistent with our Constitution, it is essential to our literacy.

—E.D.H.

Entries

Abraham and Isaac	Adam and Eve	alpha and omega
angels	Annunciation	Antichrist
Apocalypse	Apocrypha	Apostles, the Twelve
Ararat	Armageddon	Ask, and it shall be given you
Babel, Tower of	Babylon	Bathsheba
Beatitudes	Beelzebub	beginning, In the
Bethlehem	Bible	brother’s keeper, Am I my
burning bush	Cain and Abel	Calvary
Cast thy bread upon the waters	chapter and verse	cherubim
Chosen People	Christ	Christian
coat of many colors	covenant	Creation
crown of thorns	Crucifixion	Damascus
Daniel in the lions’ den	David	dead bury their dead, Let the
Dead Sea Scrolls	disciples	Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return	Ecclesiastes	Eden, Garden of
Egypt	Elijah	Esther
Eve	Exodus	an eye for an eye
eye of a needle	faith, hope, and charity	Fall of Man
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do	fatted calf, kill the	forbidden fruit
Four Horsemen	fruits ye shall know them, By their	Gabriel
Genesis	Gentile	Get thee behind me, Satan
give than to receive, It is more blessed to	go the extra mile	gold, frankincense, and myrrh
golden calf	Golgotha	Good Samaritan
Good Shepherd	gospel	Gospels
Ham	the handwriting on the wall	He that is not with me is against me
heaven	Hebrew	Hebrews
hell	Herod the Great	Holy Spirit
Holy Writ	Innocents, Massacre or Slaughter of the	Isaac
Isaiah	Israel	Israelites
Jacob and Esau	Jacob’s ladder	Jehovah
Jeremiah	Jerusalem	Jesus
Jews	Jezebel	Job
Job’s comforters	John the Baptist	John, the Gospel According to
Jonah and the whale	Jordan River	Joseph and his brothers
Joseph, the husband of Mary	Joshua	Judas Iscariot
Judge not, that ye be not judged	Judgment Day	King James Bible
Lamb of God	land flowing with milk and honey	The last shall be first
The Last Supper	Lazarus	Let him who is without sin cast the first stone
Let there be light	The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life	Leviathan
lilies of the field, Consider the	loaves and fishes	Lord’s Prayer
Lost Tribes of Israel	Lot’s wife	Love thy neighbor as thyself
Love your enemies	Lucifer	Luke, the Gospel According to
Maccabees	Magi	mammon
Man shall not live by bread alone	manna from heaven	Many are called but few are chosen
Mark, the Gospel According to	Mary Magdalene	Mary, the mother of Jesus
Matthew, the Gospel According to	The meek shall inherit the Earth	Messiah
Methuselah	Michael	millennium
Moloch	Mosaic law	Moses
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?	Nativity	Nazareth
New Testament	No man can serve two masters	Noah and the Flood
nothing new under the sun	Old Testament	olive branch
original sin	parables	Passover
patriarchs	Paul	pearl of great price
pearls before swine, Cast not	Pentecost	Peter
pharaoh	Pharisees	Philistines
Physician, heal thyself	Pilate, Pontius	plagues of Egypt
Prodigal Son	Promised Land	prophet
A prophet is not without honor save in his own country	Psalms, Book of	Rachel
Red Sea, parting of the	Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s	Resurrection
Revelation, Book of	Ruth	Sabbath
Salome	salt of the Earth, Ye are the	salvation
Samson	Satan	Saul
Second Coming	Sermon on the Mount	serpent
Sheba, Queen of	shibboleth	Sinai, Mount
Sodom and Gomorrah	Solomon	Song of Solomon
Song of Songs	Temple	Ten Commandments
thief in the night, like a	thirty pieces of silver	Thomas, the doubting apostle
through a glass darkly	A time to be born and a time to die	tithe
tree of knowledge of good and evil	Turn the other cheek	Twenty-third Psalm
valley of the shadow of death	Vanity of vanities; all is vanity	The voice of one crying in the wilderness
Vulgate Bible	walking on water	Whither thou goest, I will go
Wise Men	The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb	wolves in sheep’s clothing
Zion, Mount

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS · INDEX · GUIDE · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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