Jehovah: God. Yahweh. God’s personal self-identifying name revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:13-14. It literally means ‘I AM’. The term was used by Jesus Christ to refer to himself; this provoked the anger of the Jews as it clearly indicated a claim to be God [for example, John 8:58-59]
Jerusalem: The capital of historic Israel. The centre of the worship of Israel. The site of the Temple. A symbol of the church.
Jew: An Israelite. [New Testament term.]
Jezebel: The idolatrous wife of Ahab, king of Israel. A key figure in the narratives about Elijah.
Journaling: The practice of writing down one’s thoughts. Error alert: Some Christians teach that what you write in your journal is God’s word for you for today. This is a highly dangerous teaching, reducing the Word of God to subjective human meditations.
Judah: The southern kingdom comprising the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, after the division of the nation of Israel into two distinct kingdoms in 930BC. Its kings were descendants of David. After the destruction of the northern kingdom in 722BC ‘Judah’ was called ‘Israel’.
Judaism: refers to the religion of the Jews in the New Testament era and beyond.
Judea: The southern part of ‘Israel’ in the time of Christ.
Judgment: God’s verdict on sin, and the penalty imposed. Already in place, but also a final judgment yet to come.
Just: Legally right.
Justification by faith [justify]: God’s declaration of legal acquittal given on the basis of the righteousness of Christ to those who believe in Jesus Christ [Romans 1:16-17; 3:21-31; 4:1-25; 5:1; Galatians 2:11-21; 3:6-14, 21-25]. Same Greek word as ‘righteousness’.