Exam Prep Ch3 The Jewish World of Early Christianity

Chapter 3

Test Bank

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 01

1. Diaspora means _____.

a. Palestine

b. spread of Greek culture

c. dispersion

d. law

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 02

2. The Septuagint is _____.

a. the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible

b. a Roman Emperor

c. a region of the Greco-Roman world

d. a god

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 03

3. Which of the following was not unique to Judaism?

a. covenant

b. Torah

c. animal sacrifice

d. synagogue

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 04

4. “Torah” means _____.

a. guidance

b. separation

c. Judaism

d. dispersion

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 05

5. The Pentateuch refers to _____.

a. the first five books of the Bible

b. the dispersion of Jews

c. an early group of Judaism

d. a household god

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 06

6. Ancient Jews believed that the special place of God’s presence was the _____.

a. synagogue

b. Torah

c. Holy of Holies

d. Dead Sea

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 07

7. Who was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies?

a. Essenes

b. Josephus

c. Jesus

d. high priest

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 08

8. The high priests of the Jerusalem Temple trace their lineage to which ancient priest?

a. Zadok

b. Josephus

c. Antiochus Epiphanes

d. Herod the Great

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 09

9. Which of the following activities did not take place in synagogues?

a. gathering of Jews

b. reading of scripture

c. offering of sacrifices

d. praying

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 10

10. Which of the following groups is not mentioned in the New Testament?

a. Pharisees

b. Sadducees

c. Essenes

c. Jews

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 11

11. Which group believed in the authority of the oral law?

a. Pharisees

b. Fourth Philosophy

c. Essenes

d. Sadducees

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 12

12. Which group left Jerusalem because they believed the Jewish leadership had gone astray?

a. Pharisees

b. Fourth Philosophy

c. Essenes

d. Josephus

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 13

13. Which group urged armed rebellion against foreign powers in Palestine?

a. Pharisees

b. Fourth Philosophy

c. Sadducees

d. Josephus

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 14

14. Which group was aristocratic and ran the Temple?

a. Pharisees

b. Fourth Philosophy

c. Sadducees

d. Essenes

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 15

15. Who among the following was not a Jewish holy man?

a. Honi the circle-drawer

b. Jesus

c. Hanina ben-Dosa

d. Apollonius of Tyana

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 16

16. Jews in Palestine disliked the Syrian ruler Antiochus Epiphanes because _____.

a. he was not of the right priestly line

b. he required men to remove the marks of circumcision

c. he made infant circumcision illegal for Jews

d. he destroyed the temple

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 17

17. The Jewish response to Antiochus Epiphanes’ actions was _____.

a. a silent protest

b. the Maccabean revolt

c. the diaspora

d. conversion to Christianity

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 18

18. The Maccabean revolt began around the year _____.

a. 167 BCE

b. 167 CE

c. 586 BCE

d. 721 BCE

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 19

19. The Jewish holiday Hanukkah celebrates _____.

a. the Jews’ return to Palestine

b. the rededication of the Temple

c. the destruction of the second Temple

d. the right to circumcise baby boys

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 20

20. After eighty years of self-rule, the Hasmoneans were defeated in 63 BCE by the _____.

a. Greeks

b. Romans

c. Persians

d. Syrians

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 21

21. Who among the following did not rule in Palestine during the Roman period?

a. Zadok

b. Antipas

c. Pontius Pilate

d. Herod the Great

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 22

22. Who discussed the Jewish groups that emerged in the first century BCE?

a. Paul

b. Philo

c. Josephus

d. Tacitus

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 23

23. Most Jews in Palestine were _____.

a. Pharisees

b. Sadducees

c. Essenes

d. unaffiliated

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 24

24. Which Jewish group wielded the most political power during Jesus’ life?

a. Pharisees

b. Sadducees

c. Essenes

d. Zealots

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 25

25. Most of the Jews in the diaspora stopped speaking the ancient tongue of Judea, which was _____.

a. Greek

b. Arabic

c. Aramaic

d. Hebrew

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 26

26. Which Jewish group disavowed the notion of the future resurrection of the dead?

a. Pharisees

b. Sadducees

c. Essenes

d. Fourth Philosophy

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 27

27. The group of texts used by the Essenes is called _____.

a. the Nag Hammadi Library

b. the Dead Sea Scrolls

c. the oral law

d. the Torah

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 28

28. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain parts of every book of the Hebrew Bible except _____.

a. Genesis

b. Exodus

c. Esther

d. Ezekiel

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 29

29. The Jewish group that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls lived near _____.

a. Caesarea

b. Nazareth

c. Bethlehem

d. Qumran

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 30

30. The word “sicarii” comes from a word meaning _____.

a. zealot

b. dagger

c. Pharisee

d. traitor

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 01

1. Judaism was one of the religions in the Greco-Roman world. How was it similar to other (pagan) religions? How was it different?

Feedback: Judaism was similar to pagan religions in the following ways: belief in a higher realm with a powerful deity; belief god favors humans who worship him; worship includes cultic acts such as prayer and sacrifice; priests perform rituals in sacred spaces; belief that God dwells in the temple; and belief that divine beings sometimes appear in human form. Judaism differed from paganism in the following ways: They were monotheistic; they asserted that they were specially chosen by God; they believed in the covenantal relationship with God; they believed in the divinely given law; Jews outside of Palestine worshipped the god of a foreign land instead of a local deity; and the Jewish God had only one Temple.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 02

2. Discuss the events leading up to the Maccabean revolt. Was the revolt successful? What did it mean for Judaism at that time? What repercussions did the revolt have for Judaism in Palestine?

Feedback: In 721 BCE Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, and in 586 BCE. Babylon conquered Judah and brought Israelite self-rule to an end. Under the Babylonians, the Jews were exiled. The Persians conquered the Babylonians and allowed the Jews to return to Palestine. Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE) conquered the Persians and expanded his empire throughout the Mediterranean region. As he conquered the lands, he spread Greek culture, a process called Hellenization. Over time, Hellenistic culture took over and became a dominating force in society. A Syrian ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, forced Hellenism onto the Jews in Palestine in an attempt to unify his subjects. Antiochus outlawed circumcision, turned the Jewish Temple into a pagan sanctuary, and forced the Jews to sacrifice to the gods. Many Jews refused to follow Antiochus’ laws and revolted. Judas Maccabeus led the successful Jewish revolt against Antiochus in 167 BCE. The Maccabees reestablished a Jewish state and rededicated the Temple. This Jewish state lasted until the Romans conquered it in 63 BCE. In response to Hellenism and the Maccabean revolt, the four philosophies of Judaism, mentioned by Josephus, arose.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 03

3. Discuss how the four known Jewish sects differed.

Feedback: The Pharisees insisted on knowing and obeying God’s law to the fullest extent. This entailed specific interpretations to disambiguate the Torah and ensure total obedience, eventually known as “oral law,” which established how to follow the written Law. Much of this oral law was eventually written down in the Mishnah, which later became the foundation for the Talmud. The Jewish priesthood was composed largely of Sadducees. They accepted only the Torah (i.e., the five books of Moses) as authoritative. They rejected the doctrine of the future resurrection of the dead and the existence of angels. The Essenes believed that the Jews of Jerusalem had gone astray, particularly by appointing a non-Zadokite high priest, so they segregated themselves in the wilderness and strove to live in purity. The Essenes of Qumran were probably the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The fourth Fourth Philosophy was a sect that believed in active, usually militant, resistance to Israel’s foreign domination. Two well-known subsects of the Fourth Philosophy were the Zealots and the Sicarii.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 04

4. What set the Jewish Temple apart from other Greco-Roman temples? Discuss the significance of this difference and how it helped define the Jews as a people.

Feedback: The Jewish Temple was the only temple for the God of Israel. It was the only structure in which God was said to dwell, in which he dwelled in holiness and apart from any sacred image. The sacred room, or Holy of Holies, was completely empty, unlike most other ancient temples that contained cultic images and idols that supposedly housed the deity. God would receive sacrifices only in the Temple in Jerusalem. Jews from around the world had their religious nucleus at the Temple of Jerusalem and were united as a people through the God who dwelt there. One true God had an exclusive covenant with one chosen people. Not only belief but also all the rituals connected with the Temple set the Jews apart and defined them as a people.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 01

1. How was Judaism similar to other Greco-Roman religions?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 02

2. What is meant by the term “diaspora” and what did it involve for early Judaism?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 03

3. What is the Septuagint? Why was it created, and how is it relevant for early Christianity?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 04

4. What were the distinctive features of Judaism among the religions of the Greco-Roman world? In particular, be able to explain the following aspects of Judaism: monotheism, covenant, law, temple, and synagogue.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 05

5. How did the Jewish temple differ from other temples in the Greco-Roman world?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 06

6. What happened during the political history of Palestine for the five centuries before Jesus? In particular, what were the events surrounding the Maccabean revolt and the Roman conquest of Palestine?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 07

7. What were the Jewish groups that formed in response to the political crisis of the Maccabean revolt, and what were the primary characteristics of each?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 08

8. How did the Pharisees get a reputation for hypocrisy? Is this a fair assessment of them? Why or why not?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 09

9. What were the political, social, and religious effects of Hellenization on Judaism?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 03 Question 10

10. Who is Josephus, and why is he important for our understanding of early Judaism?