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A modern dictionary of 5,679 Catholic terms (including abbreviations), both common and obscure. Find accurate definitions of words and phrases. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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Term

FIRST CENTURY MAN

Definition

The term used by form critics of the Gospels to describe the uncultured man in the time of Jesus of Nazareth. He is said to have been a creature of his age, whose uncritical disposition to believe everything made him fall into the pattern of his society. This explains, say the critics, the naïve belief in such Gospel narratives as the virginal conception of Christ, the miracles and exorcisms and, above all, the bodily resurrection of Christ from the dead.