Bible Review

The Sassanians are a family from southern Iran who overthrew the Parthians in about 228 C.E. and ruled over Persia until the Arab Conquest (c. 640 C.E.). Ardashir I founded the dynasty, which is associated with great royal splendor and wealth and which claimed descent from the first-millennium B.C.E. Achaemenid rulers of Persia. Ardashir’s son Sha-pu-r I defeated the Roman emperor Valerian in battle; Sha-pu-r II gained fame for aggressively trying to reclaim the lands Persia had controlled during the Achaemenid period.

Gnosticism is a religious attitude that exploits Jewish, Christian and pagan traditions. Types of Muslim gnosticism, some of which are indebted to Manichaeism, flourished later in the first millennium. Secret knowledge (gnosis) is seen as the key to redemption. A supreme divine being is responsible for the spiritual world, and an inferior creator for the material world.

Dualism is a belief that the universe is controlled by two opposing forces, whether good and evil or material and spiritual.

The Parthians ruled over Persia (mostly northern Iran) from 247 B.C.E. to 228 C.E. After defeating Alexander’s successors, the Seleucids, the Parthians built the empire into an eastern superpower.

On Ibn al-Nadiµm and the Fihrist, see J. Harold Ellens, “The Fihrist: How an Arab Bookseller Saved Civilization,” AO 04:05; also available online at www.biblereview.org.

Nestorianism is a branch of Christianity that claims there are two separate persons—one human, one divine—within Christ. It is named for Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople whose rejection of the title Theotokos (God-bearer) for the Virgin Mary led to the Convening of the Council of Ephesus in 431 C.E. (See Vasiliki Limberis, “The Battle Over Mary,” sidebar to “The Favored One” BR 17:03.)

See Abraham Malamat, “How Inferior Israelite Forces Conquered Fortified Canaanite Cities,” BAR 08:02.

See Janet Gaines, “How Bad Was Jezebel?&rd BR 16:05.

The Deuteronomic History includes the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings.

On Tamar, see Shlomith Yaron, “Three Cases of Sperm-Stealing,” BR 17:01.