New Covenant. The new initiative of God whereby He formally committed to writing His laws on the hearts of certain people, enabling them to know Him and be His people and enabling Him to be their God (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-37; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; Heb. 7:22; 8:6; 9:15). The achievement of the New Covenant is God's unconditional commitment to convey true spirituality to the beneficiaries of the covenant through the power of the Holy Spirit. The beneficiaries of the New Covenant are, by Divine intent, first Israel, and then the Gentiles. The New Covenant was ratified by Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection, which actually paid for sinners' sins, something the Old Covenant could never achieve. The blessings of the New Covenant were inaugurated by the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The New Covenant is partially fulfilled in the ministry of the Spirit to the Church. The New Covenant is accessed through faith in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. Chronologically, all Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus in this age partake of many of the benefits of the New Covenant as part of the Church. At Christ's Second Coming to establish His Kingdom upon earth, the believing remnant of the nation of Israel will benefit from the promises of the New Covenant.  In New Jerusalem and on New Earth, all redeemed of mankind will benefit eternally and completely from the New Covenant.

    In short, the New Covenant guarantees compliance with the standards of God with a willing and cheerful heart! See a more extensive treatment of the New Covenant.

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New Creation. A term that can refer either to the New Heavens and New Earth that God will create to begin the Eternal State; or to the New Person God creates by means of the Regeneration / New Birth of the Holy Spirit at the point a person places his faith in Jesus, the Messiah. The former is found in Scripture in Isa 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1. The latter is found in John 3:3; Rom. 6:4; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10.

New Earth. The future imperishable planet on which redeemed men will reside throughout eternity. New Earth will be situated in the New Universe, called "New Heaven." New Earth will be imperishable because no evil, and only righteousness will exist in the entire universe (2 Pet. 3:13). Most Christians think eternity will be spent in heaven, but that is because they have not carefully read the last two chapters of the Bible (Rev. 21-22). A careful reading reveals the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, the abode of God (Rev. 21:2). But God will not stay up in heaven for eternity. God will take up His eternal residence among men (Rev. 21:3). An angel carried the Apostle John to a huge and lofty mountain so he could best view New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:10). Why the need for the mountain view? For two reasons, I believe. First the city is enormous in size (Rev. 21:16). Second, the present tense used, "coming down out of heaven from God" (Rev. 21:2, 10), perfectly depicts the reality that the city never arrives - it is always in process. To me, that most likely means that New Jerusalem is a satellite city perpetually orbiting New Earth. While New Jerusalem is clearly the perpetual home of Israel and the Church, there are evidently masses of Gentiles who will inhabit New Earth, outside the confines of the orbiting city. "The nations," apparently living on New Earth, live by the light of the brilliant, satellite city. The kings of New Earth their "glory" and "honor" of all the nations on New Earth into the capital city, whose gates are never closed (Rev. 21:24-26). In the very beginning of recorded human history, God mandated man to rule over the earth and its animals in a benevolent, God-honoring fashion (Gen. 1:26-28). That has never been done. But under the rule of God and Christ from New Jerusalem, man will finally accomplish the mandate God has given the human race upon New Earth.  See a more extended discussion of New Earth.

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New Heaven(s). The new universe which God will create. The present universe has been irreversibly contaminated with evil. The long term solution can only be a fiery destruction (2 Pet. 3:7-12). But God did not create the universe as a temporary entity. When it has been destroyed, and all evil people who contaminate it have been deposited in the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:12-15), God will create a new universe in which dwells only righteousness (Isa. 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1). In the view of WordExplain, it would make little sense for God to create a new, but empty universe. Of course New Earth, along with its orbiting, brilliantly luminous capital city, New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:10-22:5), will exist in the New Universe. But can you imagine an otherwise empty sky? I cannot. A careful reading of Rev. 21:23 and Rev. 22:5 reveals that there will be no need (emphasis mine) of sun or moon to shine on the city of New Jerusalem. It does not preclude that there will be no stars or planets or distant galaxies or even other phenomena unknown today. Whatever physical entities appear in New Heaven (what we would call Outer Space) will be so designed that there will be no decay or deterioration, because there will be no sin.  See a more extensive treatment of  New Heaven.

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New Israel. An errant definition of the Church. According to some, the Church is the New Israel, and has replaced the ancient nation of Israel. This aberrant view is based, in part, upon a faulty interpretation of passages such as Gal. 6:16, in which Paul speaks of "the Israel of God." Adherents of the Church as being New Israel wrongly interpret the designation, "the Israel of God" as referring to the Church. It does not it. It refers rather to Messianic Jews, those Israelis who believe that Jesus is their Messiah. Adherents of the Church as being New Israel use a typological hermeneutic in reference to Israel in the OT, and they decry the "literalistic" hermeneutic used by Dispensationalists. Typically, advocates of the Church as the New Israel hold an animus against the modern-day nation of Israel and a predisposition to support the cause of the Palestinians. All these features are readily illustrated in a well-written article entitled, "Who Is The New Israel," published online in 1989 by the Antiochan Orthodox Christian Archdiocese (viewed on September 10, 2015). WordExplain profoundly rejects the view expressed in the article that the Church replaces Israel. See also Replacement Theology. See also the review of the book, Future Israel, by Barry E. Horner. Horner advocates challenging what he terms, "Christian Anti-Judaism."

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New Jerusalem. The eternal capital of New Earth, and the abode of God and His Son with redeemed and resurrected man throughout eternity (Rev. 21-22). A city of exquisite  beauty and prodigious size, measuring twelve thousand stadia (1380 miles) in length, width, and height, it appears to be a satellite city that will ultimately descend out of heaven from God and orbit around New Earth, bathing it in brilliant light reflecting the glory of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 21:1-25). New Jerusalem will evidently be the primary home of Israel and the Church (Rev. 21:12, 14). The redeemed from among the Gentiles ("Nations") down through the ages who are other-than-Church will evidently populate New Earth. All citizens of New Earth will have ready access to their satellite city, for its gates will be open around the clock, enabling them to partake of the fruit and medicinal leaves of the tree of life (Rev. 21:25; 22:2). The Kings and Nations of New Earth will transport their honor and glory into the city, and they will behold the glory of God and Christ (Isa. 60:5, 11, 16; 61:6; 62:2; 66:12, 18; Rev. 21:24-26). In this city will be found the tree of life, the river of life, and the throne of God and of Christ. And His servants will see his face, and His name will be on their foreheads, and they will reign forever (Rev. 22:1-5). Only those whose names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be permitted to enter this city (Rev. 21:27). See a more extensive discussion of New Jerusalem.

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New Perspective on Paul. The New Perspective on Paul (NPP) is a Protestant revival of the centuries-old dogma of salvation by works advocated by Roman Catholicism both prior to the Reformation and afterwards, as spelled out in certain anathemas of the Council of Trent. The three main spokesmen for NPP are Ed Parish Sanders (1937-), James D. G. Dunn (1939-), and Nicholas Thomas Wright (1948-). Of these three, N. T. Wright alone describes himself as an evangelical, but frankly, that label has been diluted to such an extent that it is virtually worthless. None of the three is a conservative. The term “New Perspective on Paul” was coined by James Dunn, one of the three major proponents, in 1983. (See James D. G. Dunn, “The New Perspective on Paul,” Bulletin of the John Ryland’s Library 65 [1983] 95 -122.)

The historical underpinnings of NPP certainly antedate the careers of Sanders, Dunn, and Wright. They include Jewish opposition to Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels; Jewish opposition to Paul and his stance on the Law and Judaism as described in the book of Acts and the Pauline letters; the anti-Semitism of Martin Luther late in his life; and the corrosive influence of historical criticism particularly as applied to Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels and, more recently, as applied to Paul as he is portrayed in his writings.

The Reformation perspective on Paul identified God’s justification (declaration of righteousness) of the individual who believes in Jesus as the cornerstone of Paul’s theology. It also identified Paul’s opponents as legalistic Jews (Judaizers) whom Luther and Calvin viewed as agreeing with the Roman Catholicism of their day. 

Just as historical criticism, with its low view of the veracity of the Gospels, brazenly set about on a quest for the “historical Jesus,” so the formulators of NPP, with their low view of the veracity of the Pauline letters, set about to mimic and embellish historical critics who had begun the task of reinventing Paul and explaining him in terms that were less offensive to Jewish scholars. Their strategy has often been reduced to pitting the “Lutheran Paul” against the “historical Paul,” whom they construct sometimes without regard to an honest exegesis of the appropriate Biblical texts.

So what is the essence of NPP regarding Paul and his teachings? According to F. David Farnell, “NPP proponents either accuse Paul of misunderstanding or misrepresenting Judaism (i.e., Paul was wrong), or redefine the opponents that Paul was criticizing, asserting that Luther and the Reformation heritage have misperceived Paul’s opponents by misreading Paul.” Proponents of NPP insist that the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day did not believe in salvation by works. They state that the Pharisees believed in grace, just as does the Protestant Church today. NPP proponents redefine justification for first century Palestinian Jews as “covenantal nomism,” by which they mean that Jewish people enter a covenant relationship with God through birth into the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but that they retain their covenant relationship by obeying the Law. The practical effect of their dogma is the implication that one can, through his good works, contribute toward his own salvation. That, of course, is a works salvation, but NPP advocates deny this. They insist, rather, that both the election of Jewish people and their keeping of the Torah are products of God’s grace.

There is a certain amount of correspondence between the practical results of NPP theology and its definition of “covenantal nomism” on the one hand and on the other, the Roman Catholic insistence that good works contribute grace towards one’s salvation (see The Council of Trent, Session VI, Chapter XVI, Canon XXXII). Anecdotally, it is my impression that accepting the tenets of NPP makes one more amenable to the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification, and hence susceptible to conversion from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. I have seen it happen.

I acknowledge my indebtedness for this glossary entry to the article by F. David Farnell, The New Perspective on Paul: Its Basic Tenets, History, and Presuppositions.

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New Testament. By common usage, the 27 books that comprise God's communication to man subsequent to the First Advent of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, the Christ. These books consist of four historical narratives about the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. They are called the Four Gospels (Messages of "Good News") – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Next their is a historical narrative detailing the progress of the infant Church authorized by Jesus. This narrative is entitled, "Acts," or, more formally, "The Acts of the Apostles." Next come the Epistles, or, less formally Letters, usually penned by someone notable such as Paul or Peter or James. In some letters, such as Hebrews, the author remains anonymous.  There are letters written to specific churches, and there are personal letters, written to individual. Paul wrote most of the letters to churches. These include letters to the Romans, the Corinthians (two letters), the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Phlippians, the Colossians, the Thessalonians (two letters). Paul also wrote personal letters to Timothy (two letters), to Titus, and to Philemon. There are eight "General Epistles" or Letters, so-called because they were written to a broader, more general audience than the others. These include the letter to the Hebrews, a general letter from James, the half-brother of our Lord, two letters from Peter to a general audicence, three letters from the Apostle John to a general audience, and one letter from Jude, another half-brother of our Lord, and written to a general audience. The final book is the Book of Revelation, written also by John the Apostle. Sometimes it is called "The Apocalpyse" from the Greek word apokalupsis (602), which means, literally, "unveiling." The book of Revelation begins with the word Apokalupsis. I believe it is a play on words. The book begins, "The Unveiling of Jesus Christ ...." I believe it is Jesus' unveiling of Himself in all His glory (see Rev. 1) and also His unveiling of His messages to the Seven Churches (Rev. 2-3), followed by Jesus' unveiling of future events.

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Nicodemus. A Pharisee (John 3:1) who was also a "ruler of the Jews" (John 3:1), i.e. a member of the Sanhedrin (sunédrion, 4892, "council, sanhedrin" – Accordance). Nicodemus had concluded that Jesus was a rabbi or teacher who had come from God, otherwise He would not have been able to perform the miraculous signs (sēmeĩon, 4592) which He was performing (John 3:2). Nicodemus had come to Jesus by night (John 3:2). I assume that he did so because his conclusion was not in harmony with either the Pharisees or with the bulk of the Sanhedrin, who were seeking to kill Jesus (John 7:25). Since these were virulently opposed to Jesus, I suspect that Nicodemus was afraid to run afoul of their vitriol, and came secretly at night time. The text does not say that is why he came at night, but that is a reasonable assumption.

    In conversing with Nicodemus, Jesus endeavored to inform him he would be unable to participate in Jesus' Kingdom unless he were "born again" or "born from above." It was not enough merely to be born the first time, even of the seed of Abraham. One also had to participate in a spiritual birth. Jesus went on to explain that spiritual birth would be accomplished by putting one's trust in Jesus (John 3:16-18), who would have to die on a cross to accomplish redemption (John 3:14-15). There is no record as to what decision Nicodemus made in that regard, but there are hints in the remainder of John's Gospel that he did commit to trusting in Jesus.

    At one point the  Pharisees and chief priests sent officers to seize Jesus (John 7:32). When they returned empty-handed, the chief priests and Pharisees berated the officers when they explained, "Never has a man spoken the way this man has" (John 7:45-46). The Pharisees scoffed, "You have not also been led astray, have you? No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he? But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed!" (John 7:47-49). At that point Nicodemus was at least brave enough to caution, "Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?" (John 7:50-51). They answered him scornfully, "You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee!" (John 7:52).

    After Jesus had been crucified, Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple, nevertheless went boldly to Pilate and asked for and received permission to bury His body (John 19:38). Nicodemus came to assist him, bringing a large quantity of burial spices. They bound the body in linen wrappings along with the spices and laid it in a new tomb (John 19:39-41). They apparently had to rush the process because the "Jewish day of preparation" (sundown on Friday, ushering in the Sabbath, Saturday) was at hand (John 19:42). Thus, at the very end, these two "closet" believers publicly demonstrated their allegiance to Jesus.

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Nifal, Niphal. In  simplest terms, the Hebrew verb stem that is the Passive of Qal verbs, and, in rare cases, the Reflexive. For a more detailed explanation see this off-site discussion. See also this paradigm. Sometimes this stem is spelled "Niphal."

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Nineveh. Nineveh (5210), the capital city of Assyria. It was situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris River opposite the modern-day city of Mosul, Iraq. Nineveh, along with Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen, was one of four cities built by the enigmatic, sinister despot Nimrod (Gen. 10:8-12). 

    Nineveh receives substantial attention in the book of the prophet Jonah. As Assyria became a mighty Middle Eastern Empire, it developed into a major threat to both Israel and Judah. This was true to such an extent that the prophet Jonah, when ordered by God to preach a message of judgment to the people of Nineveh, Assyria's capital city (Jon. 1:1-2), fled the other direction (Jon. 1:3). He did so because he was afraid the people would repent and avert the judgment God had planned against Assyria. He wanted Assyria removed as a threat to Israel. But God, in His Sovereignty, prevailed against Jonah (Jon. 1:4-2:10), and Jonah finally preached his message to Nineveh (Jon. 3:1-4). Just as he had feared, Nineveh did repent (Jon. 3:5-9), and God averted His judgment (Jon. 3:10). Nineveh and Assyria lived to see another day.

    Jonah depicts Nineveh as a vast city requiring three days' journey to traverse it (Jon. 3:3-4). Cynical scholars have objected that, since Diodorus Siculus (ii.3) stated the length of the city was 150 stadia, and since Herodotus (v. 53) notes that 150 stadia constituted a single day's journey, Jonah cannot be trusted in his details. Archaeologists have discovered, however, that the city of ancient Nineveh in the days of Jonah was a vast metropolitian area. An irregularly shaped quadrangle, at whose four corners were the cities of Kouyunjik, Nimrud, Karamless, and Khorsabad, is generally considered to constitute the city of Nineveh. It is also possible that the text in Jonah denoted a circuit of this massive area. The size of this quadrangle has been noted as 30 miles in length and 8-10 miles in width. Metropolitan Nineveh was, indeed, a vast city!

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Noah. Son of Lamech (Gen. 5:28-29), father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Gen. 5:32; 6:10), and through them progenitor of the entire race of mankind (Gen. 7:13; 9:18-19), the rest of whom were destroyed in the Great Flood. Noah found favor in God's eyes (Gen. 6:8). He was a righteous man, blameless in his time, and walked with God (Gen. 6:9). To Noah God assigned the urgent responsibility to build a gigantic, three-story floating barge, called an ark, that would salvage mankind and representatives of the Biblical air-breathing animal species (Gen. 6:13-16). This was urgent because God was about to inundate the entire earth with a devastating global flood, called mabbûl (3999) (Gen. 6:17). God made a Pre-Flood Covenant with Noah  that He would preserve Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives and all the animals aboard the ark from the devasting inundation with which He would destroy and cleanse the entire earth (Gen. 6:18-21). Fortunately, Noah obeyed (Gen. 6:22).

The devastating Flood of Noah is described graphically (Gen. 7:1-24). See A Chronology of the Great Flood. The subsiding of the waters of the Flood from the earth, and the exit of Noah and his family and representative animals from the ark is narrated in Gen. 8:1-22. God's Post-Flood commands and His Everlasting Flood Covenant with Man and all Animal Life are recorded in Gen. 9:1-17.

Noahic Covenant. God's Everlasting Covenant with Noah. Yahweh had ordered Noah to take aboard the ark seven pairs of clean animals (Gen. 7:1-3). I believe Noah understood that from these clean animals some would be used for sacrifice after the Flood. When Noah and his family and all the animals aboard the floating barge had survived the terror of the Global Flood, and it was sufficiently dry, God instructed them to exit from the ark (Gen. 8:13-19). Immediately, Noah built an altar to Yahweh and offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Yahweh from a representative of every clean animal and of every clean bird (Gen. 8:20). The offering, a blood offering which Noah burned on the altar, had its desired effect. Yahweh smelled the soothing aroma, and said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Gen. 8:21-22).

    Next, God blessed Noah and his sons, commanding them to be fruitful and multiply, and to fill the earth (Gen. 9:1). Every moving creature would become food for mankind, except that they were not to eat flesh with its life, or blood (Gen. 9:2-4). Blood, the vehicle of life was sacred. God would require the death of every animal and every human who shed man's blood, killing him (Gen. 9:5). "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God He made man" (Gen. 9:6). This is the mandate and the rationale for Capital Punishment. Tragically,in America, we largely ignore this mandate and its rationale, and murder is skyrocketing.

    Then God established His covenant with Noah and his sons and with their descendants after them, and with the animals who exited from the ark. He covenanted never again to send water upon the earth to destroy the earth (Gen. 9:8-11). The sign of this everlasting Noahic Covenant was the bow (rainbow) which God established in the clouds of the sky (Gen. 9:12-17). Tragically, homosexuals and lesbians and transvestites and transgenderites have distorted the rainbow and adopted it to signify their immoral lifestyle. The real meaning of the rainbow, however, is that it is the sign of God's covenant never again to destroy the earth through a global flood.

    WordExplain invites all who sin, and that includes every person, to admit their sin before God and to trust in His perfect sacrifice to pay for all sin, the death of His only-born Son, Jesus of Nazareth. To accept God's sacrifice in Jesus is to gain eternal life. To reject His sacrifice is to remain under the wrath of God (John 3:16-21, 36).

Nominative Case. The case in NT Greek that "names" or denominates" something or someone.  A noun or pronoun that is the subject of the sentence or the subject of a clause is always in the nominative case.
     For example, in John 3:16 we read, "For God so loved the world that He gave ...." "God (theòs, 2316) appears in the Nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence. Likewise in the phrase, "...that whoever believes in Him shall not perish ...," "whoever" (pâs, 3956) and "believes" (pisteúō, 4100) both appear in the Nominative case because, although they are not the subjects of the sentence, they are the subjects of a clause. Note that, to the English reader "believes" is translated as a simple verb, but it is actually, a verbal noun, which we call a participle. It is preceded by an article, which also appears in the Nominative Case. A literal rendering of the entire phrase would be, "that whoever - the one believing into Him might not perish, but might have life eternal." So the words "whoever," "the," "one," and "believing" all appear in the Nominative Case because they are the subjects of the entire clause.
    Likewise a noun that is in the predicate part of a sentence containing a linking verb should also be in the nominative case. For example, in John 10:11 we read Jesus saying, "I am the good shepherd." The pronoun "I" (Egṓ, 1473) appears in the Nominative Case, as do all three words that constitute the predicate nominative, "the," "good," and "shepherd." (See also Cory Keating, Greek Nouns, Shorter Definition.)

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Non-Literalism. A hermeneutical (interpretational) tactic used by some Bible scholars to avoid the plain intent of the original authors (both Divine and human) of a Biblical text. Non-literalism manifests itself in different scenarios. 

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