Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Zacharias

(Encyclopedia)Zacharias [Gr. from Heb. Zechariah] or Zachary [Eng. from Heb.]. 1 Priest to whom an angel appeared and foretold the birth of his son, John the Baptist. Luke 1.5–80. He and Elizabeth, his wife, are ...

Esdras

(Encyclopedia)Esdras ĕzˈdrəs [key] [Gr. from Heb. Ezra], name of several books found in the Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. The New Revised Standard Version (following the Authorized Version) maintai...

Wordsworth, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Wordsworth, Christopher, 1774–1846, English clergyman, educator, and writer; youngest brother of William Wordsworth. He was master of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1820 to 1841. Most noted of his...

Cocceius, Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Cocceius, Johannes kŏksēˈəs [key], 1603–69, German theologian, whose surname was originally Koch or Koken. Born in Bremen, he went to Holland, where he was professor at Francken and Leiden. He p...

Ruth

(Encyclopedia)Ruth, book of the Bible. It tells a story, set in the days of the judges, of the fidelity of a Moabite widow (Ruth) to her widowed mother-in-law (Naomi). After the death of her husband in Moab, Ruth r...

John, three epistles of the New Testament

(Encyclopedia)John, three letters of the New Testament. Traditionally, they are ascribed to John son of Zebedee, the disciple of Jesus. All three letters probably date to the end of the 1st cent. a.d., and may have...

Didache

(Encyclopedia)Didache dĭdˈəkē [key] [Gr.,=teaching], early Christian work written in Greek, called also The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. Dates for its composition suggested by scholars have ranged from a.d....

Lamentations

(Encyclopedia)Lamentations, book of the Bible, placed immediately after Jeremiah, to whose author it has been ascribed since ancient times. It was probably composed by several authors. It is a series of five poems ...

Bloomgarden, Solomon

(Encyclopedia)Bloomgarden or Blumengarten, Solomon, pseud. Yehoash yēhōˈäsh [key], 1870–1927, American writer in Yiddish, b. Lithuania. He emigrated to America in 1891 and, except for 10 years in Colorado (19...

scribe

(Encyclopedia)scribe skrīb [key], Jewish scholar and teacher (called in Hebrew, Soferim) of law as based upon the Old Testament and accumulated traditions. The work of the scribes laid the basis for the Oral Law, ...