Lesson 7.1

As the gospel of Jesus spread across a Gentile world unfamiliar with the teachings and culture of the Jews, the early church faced an interesting challenge %u2013 meeting different cultures in their own context to demonstrate the redeeming power o...

Lesson 8.1

The exodus from Egypt was a metaphor for God's greater redemption story, the restoration of shalom from the chaos of the evil one. His purpose was to invite Israel into a greater story than the one of their bondage, eventually unveiling a plan of ...

Lesson 9.1

When the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt, the Promised Land awaited them, but first God led them into the desert. The time they spent there would not only get them out of Egypt geographically, but would also remove its influence from thei...

Lesson 10.1

When the tabernacle was established among the Israelites, God came and lived among His people. Its design, construction, and function revealed much of His character, which proved to be completely unlike that of any gods the people had ever known. ...

Lesson 11.1

At times, God chose to use the harsh reality of life in the desert near the Promised Land as a practical teaching tool to mold and shape His people. The Essenes went willingly into this wasteland to allow Him to do just that: to teach them His wor...

Lesson 12.1

In the Bible, the desert is an image of great hardship and suffering, signifying the impossibility of survival without access to basic resources. God often led His people through desert places, using the barrenness of the land as opportunities to ...

Lesson 13.1

When the Israelites left Egypt and began their journey with God to the Promised Land, how much did they know of their past history? Some, like Moses' parents, seemed to have retained a knowledge and faith in the God of their fathers, but the Bible...

Lesson 14.1

Jesus left heaven to be born in a filthy shepherd’s stable, as if to say, “I’ll leave heaven to enter the brokenness of your world.” Much of His teaching ministry, though, took place in a very different sort ...

15.1

Followers of Jesus believe that the Bible contains the inspired revelation of the Creator of the universe. “Gospel” is the word that’s often used – the good news that God is redeeming a broken world through His So...

16.1

The people of the Bible lived in temple-building cultures. Temples provided pagan gods with a place to live, keeping them close to the people who worshiped them. Even Israel did the same – first Solomon, then Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, and eve...

Lesson 1.2

Lesson 2.2

Lesson 3.2

Lesson 4.2

Lesson 5.2

Lesson 6.2

Most of Jesus' ministry was spent in Jewish communities, proclaiming the good news of God's kingdom to the people of Israel. His greater intention, though, was for His Jewish followers to bring this message to the Gentile world around them, a worl...

Lesson 7.2

After meeting Jesus on the Damascus Road, Paul dedicated the rest of his life to sharing the gospel with anyone and everyone. He soon became one of the major leaders in the early church, focusing much of his effort on reaching out to the Gentiles....

Lesson 8.2

Unable to stand their suffering under a cruel Pharaoh any longer, the Israelites cried out to God. He heard them and initiated his plan to deliver his people, not only from their physical bondage but from slavery to Egypt's story. In this lesson, ...

Lesson 9.2

In Deuteronomy, God tells Israel that He led them into the desert in order to train and test them, so that He might know what was in their hearts. He still does this for His people today, leading us through experiences to reveal the depths of our ...

Lesson 10.2

God desired a people who would partner with Him in "making space" to reveal Himself to a broken world. The detailed patterns and plans for the tabernacle not only illustrated the kind of care and devotion He wanted to display to His peop...

Lesson 11.2

John the Baptist focused his life entirely on preparing the Jewish people for the coming of Jesus. His ministry still holds enormous meaning for us today, and there is much we can learn from his understanding of how to prepare for the arrival of M...

Lesson 12.2

The heat and intensity of the sun in the desert can be scorching, often without any guarantee of relief. Yet whenever God led His people there, He promised to provide exactly what they needed to make it through each day. In this lesson, wander the...

Lesson 13.2

In the beginning, God created magnificent beauty and order out of absolute chaos, "tohu vebohu," in Hebrew. When humanity rebelled, the world began a long progression of slipping back into that chaos. Yet God wasn't finished; He decided...

Lesson 14.2

The majority of Jesus’ ministry was done in places like the town of Capernaum, among a people who loved to debate and discuss Torah in the synagogue. They didn’t always agree with each other, but their emphasis was on how to ...

T'fillin Definition

Small boxes and the accompanying leather straps worn by observant Jews during prayer. The boxes are placed on the forehead and near the heart and bound in place by the leather straps. (See Deut. 6.)

Tabernacle Definition

Means "dwelling place." It was a special tent where the Israelites worshiped God. It is sometimes called the Tent of Meeting. It was the place where God would meet his people.

Tabernacles (Festival, Sanctuary, Succot) Definition

The seventh yearly feast (Lev. 23) when all males were required to come to Jerusalem. The people celebrated Israel's wandering in the desert by living in temporary shelters. Included a water ceremony as part of prayer of rain.

Table of Showbread Definition

Table that stood in the holy place of the tabernacle and temple, outside the Holy of Holies. Priests placed the bread of the Presence (Ex. 25:30), or showbread, on it. The bread symbolized the Israelites' commitment to give the Lord the results of...

Talmid Definition

The Hebrew word for disciple is talmid. This word stresses the relationship between rabbi (teacher or master) and disciple (student). A talmid of Jesus' day would give up his entire life in order to be with his teacher. The disciple didn't only se...

Tekton Definition

A craftsman who often worked with stone. Jesus was trained as a tekton while growing up in nearby Nazareth.

Tel Beth Shean

This spectacular tel is one of the most extensively excavated archaeological sites in the Middle East. When Saul and Jonathan died nearby Mount Gilboa, their bodies were displayed on the walls of this city.The large mound in the distance is the Ol...

Tel Definition

Large mound or hill composed of layers of debris from several different periods of settlement.' 

Temenous Definition

Sacred building.

Temple

The TempleWhen King David reigned in Jerusalem, he envisioned a place where God could dwell among his people. He bought land on Mount Moriah, and his son Solomon eventually built the Temple on that site. The beautiful structure became a symbol of ...

Temple Courts

Temple Definition

' A building where people woship divine beings. God told Israel to build him a temple and worship him there. God showed his people that he was with them by having his presence in the temple. In the New Testament, we learn that the new temple is n...

Temple Events

A Chronology of Temple Events Approx. 2,000 BC: Abraham was sent to the Moriah area to sacrifice Isaac. Jerusalem was later built on the mountain named Moriah.Approx. 1,000 BC: David captured the Canaanite city of Jebus (2 Sam. 5:6-7) and named it...

Temple Mount

The ridge on which Jerusalem's Temple was built and/or the platform on which the Temple and its courts stood. King Herod's platform was supported by massive walls, the tallest standing 160 feet, and measured more than 1,500 feet long, north to sou...

Temple Mount Definition

' The ridge on which Jerusalem's Temple was built and/or the platform on which the Temple and its courts stood. King Herod's platform was supported by massive walls, the tallest standing 160 feet, and measured more than 1,500 feet long, north to ...

Tepidarium Definition

Warm room in Roman baths.

Tetrarch Definition

A Roman political office; meant one-fourth of a kingdom. When Herod died, his three sons and others received parts of his kingdom; two sons become tetrarchs, one an ethnarch.

The Altar at Megiddo

After reaching the Promised Land, the Israelites were commanded by God to destroy the Canaanite high places (Num. 33:52) so that they would not be tempted to blend worship of the false gods of the land with the worship of Yahweh, the one true God....

The Amazing Galileans

Jesus focused his ministry in one small place in Israel: Galilee, in the three cities of Korazin, Capernaum, and Bethsaida. Although many people today assume that Galileans were simple, uneducated peasants who lived in an isolated area, the truth ...

The Ancient Wall Blocking the Cave of the Spring at Megiddo

The people of Megiddo (probably at the time of Ahab) constructed a wall to hide this cave from anyone outside the city.After the wall was built, the passageway to the cave was filled with dirt so that the side of the tel was unbroken and there was...

The Aqueduct

Herod's aqueduct was several miles long, bringing water to Caesarea from springs at the foot of Mount Carmel. For much of the distance, the water channel rests on a seemingly endless procession of arches. The plastered structure on the arches cont...

The Ark of the Covenant

The ark of the covenant was a symbol of God's presence among the Israelites a visual reminder that the one true God had made a covenant with them. It was so important to God that he described the arks construction before describing any other sacre...

The Burnt House

The ruins of this house on Jerusalem's Western Hill were uncovered in the 1970's. This home belonged to the Kathros family, who were known from Jewish history and lived here at the time of Jesus. The Kathros were one of many priestly families (Sad...

The Caves at Qumran

At least 11 caves containing scroll material have been found in the area of Qumran. The caves shown here are the closest to the community and are labeled Caves 4 and 5, in the order that they were found.These caves probably contained the "lib...