Chapter 8 quiz and multiple choice
Quiz
1. Hanukkah is the Jewish holiday celebrating the rededication of the Second Temple by Judas Maccabee in after it had been temporarily transformed by into a temple to Zeus Olympius.
2. An apocalypse is an esoteric visionary text commonly attested in the Hellenistic and later periods that describes a heavenly revelation to a human recipient often from Israel’s distant past.
3. The Hasmoneans were a provincial priestly family who led a revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes IV and eventually founded an indigenous Judean monarchy.
4. Pseudepigraphy is the practice of attributing a text to a (more) ancient author, thereby rendering it authoritative.
5. The word “Jew” comes from the Greek word for Judean, Ioudaios. Though it encompassed Judeans living in Judah, it also embraced the ever expanding number of people living permanently outside Judah who still had deep ties to Judah but were best known for their distinctive religion and set of practices.
Multiple Choice
1. The book of Enoch is found in the Bible of:
Jews and Protestants
Catholics
The Ethiopic church
None of these
2. Which texts were the high point of Greek education?
Plato’s dialogues
Homer’s epics
The tragedies of Euripides
Aesop’s fables
3. The knowledge of ancient Near Eastern texts (such as the Hebrew texts of the Bible) was less and less important in the broader Hellenistic culture but was still valued in ______.
The heartland of Mesopotamia (e.g. Babylon, Nippur)
Judah
Among the ruling classes
In temple and priestly circles
4. In the second and third centuries BCE, primary political and economic power belonged increasingly to those who could ______.
Trace their ancestry in that place back the farthest
Claim to be “Greek”
Buy positions of authority
Speak several different languages
5. Jews of the Hellenistic period:
Wrote new works in Greek
Wrote works in Hebrew that reflected Greek learning and ideas
Translated Hebrew texts into Greek
All of these
6. What do the four beasts coming out of the sea in Daniel 7 symbolize?
The armies that are predicted to be converging on Jerusalem
The major world empires leading up to the time of the vision’s writing
Satan and three of his angels
The primordial monsters that Yahweh subdued at the creation of the world
7. Which book was originally written in Hebrew to celebrate and support the Hasmoneans as true heirs of the Israelite judges, proponents of Hebrew heritage, and righteous opponents of the forces of Hellenism?
Ben Sira
Daniel
Enoch
1 Maccabees
8. Which of the following is NOT an example of hybridity in the Hasmonean monarchy?
Conducting official business in Greek
Issuing coins with ancient Hebrew letters
Celebrating those who fought for Torah using Greek models of heroic martyrs (as in 2 Maccabees)
Building Greek-style tombs without pictorial representations
9. Which text or group of texts indicates that the canon was not considered closed (at least by the individuals/groups in question) in the Second Temple period?
The Dead Sea scrolls
Rabbinic writings
The New Testament
Ben Sira
All of these
10. The idea of an afterlife involving reward or punishment:
Can be seen in the early chapters of Daniel
Was present in the Hebrew concept of Sheol from early in the history of Israel
Entered the Hebrew Bible in the Hellenistic period in connection with resistance to Greek oppression
Is foreign to the Hebrew Bible but very important in the New Testament