bible quiz 3

concerns after the exile

• after the exile there were a lot of concerns about purity

• purity determined who could live in certain areas, who could get married, who could do a certain type of work, even stay alive

israels return from exile

• cyrus, the persian king, conquers the babylonians

• he lets them rreturn to the promised land

• there is a collective sense of restoration with god

  • they rebuild the temple

  • rededicate themselves to following law of moses

• purity issues arise with jewish society

  • how does god regard nonjewish people

  • does marriage with nonjews make you impure

4 major events from ezra and nexemiah:

1. the actual return

2. rebuilding of the temple, beginning the second temple period

3. rededication to following the torah

4. rebuilding the walls of jerusalem

Ezra

• he lived during and after the exile

• strong advocate for returning to torah observance

• jewish scribe and priest

• describes the return of the exiles to jerusalem and their religious practices

• against intermarriage between non jewish peoploe

nehemiah

• the 5th governor of judah

• the persian king granted him permission to rebuild the walls of jerusalem

• the walls were rebuilt in just 52 days

post exilic prophecy

major themes:

1. warning about gods judgement,

   • joel said judgement would come if the people dont repent to god, responding to a major locust swarm which devastated the peoples crops

   • Haggai said judgement is coming because the temple is taking too long to rebuild

2. Gods mercy and salvation, include the spreading of slavation to no jews

   • Isaih said the foreigners will be welcome if they join themselves to the lord

Book of ruth

• written by an unnamed author after the exile but set way before the exile

• main character is a nonisraelite woman named ruth from Moab (bad area)

• story begins on a dark note, their is a famine and naomi and her sons are forced to go to Moab, one of her sons meets ruth and they get married, then all the men die so naomi returns to judah and she is renamed Mara “bitter”, ruth comes with her to judah and works in the field to help her and namoi, she meets Boaz and he helps her by giving her extra grain and protection, ruth is bold and asks Boaz to marr her and he says yes, this redeems naomi’s family line, ruth gives birth to obed the grandfather of king david

book of jonah

• set in 8th century bce during assyrian empire but composed much later

• an example of ancient parody or satire

• jonahs name = dove = symbol of peace but jonah really want god to destroy ninevah

• jonah is a prophet and mission ary but originally he does the opposite of what god tells him to do, he wants the destruction of the people he is supposed to be helping

• god sends jonah to ninevah to warn them of judgement but jonah does the opposite and boards a ship, god send a storm and the crew members throw him over and end up worshipping god, jonah is swallowed by a great fish and prays inside of it for 3 days, the fish spits him out onto land and jonah reluctantly warns the ninevites, the people of ninevah all repent, god grows jonah a plant to shade him then takes it away and god points out that he cares about a plant but not a whole city

• this argues that god cares for all people and nations

Sacred songs/poems (Book of Psalms)

• 150 in total

• associated with davod but there were likely many authors (it is likely that an anonymous poet composed some and accredited to someone elses name)

• the exile experince lead to the decision to compose the psalms as well as compile them all together

• the 5 books of the psalms parallel the 5 books of moses

Main themes:

• hymns/praise

• laments (both individual and communal like mourning the exile)

• royal psalms (celebrating gods support of the king)

• thanksgiving

Jewish Wisdom literature: Book of proverbs and ecclesiastes

• collection of wise sayings (proverbs)

• philosophical reflections (ecclesiastes is an extended reflection on the inevitability of death)

• short stories reflecting on philopsophical issues (Job is a story considering suffering and theodicy)

Focus:

• how to live well generally

• focus on everyone not just israel

• common wisdom not divine revelation

• focus on individual humans not israel as a nation

Proverbs

• collection of wisdom poems, moral guidance, and wise sayings

• mostly credited to king soloman but likely composed/collected over 100s of years

• 31 chapters

• 3 main parts

  • praise of wisdom

  • pilthy proverbs/wise sayings

  • the wise wife

• wisdom is personifies, interpreted as a female companions to YHWH at creation

Book of Ecclesiastes

• important book opf philosophical reflections

• credited to king soloman like Proverbs

• considered the darkest text in jewish wisdom literature

• raises question such as whats the point of being alive and does life have any meaning

• Theme - everything is temporary and seeking wisdom is of limited value, also importance of living well and enjoying life

major empire impacting israel

1. assyria - destroys notrthern kingdom

2. babylon - exile the southern kingdom

3. persia - lets exiles come back to israel

4. greece/hellenistic empires - ivade/oppress israel

rise of apocalypticism in israel

• again foregin empire are invading the promised land (hellenistic empires)

• the jews are not forcibly exiled but they are not happy about this

• they could adopt dueteronomistic logic again but a lot of ideas in jewish wisdom lit disagree with this mindset, therefore they adopt apocalypticism

• book of daniel is the main example of this framework

Main features:

1. revelation with a narrative framework (uncovering of some secret info)

2. mediated by an otherworldly being (usually there is some sort of divine messenger like an angel that gives a message to a human who writes it down)

3. discloses a transcendent reality about eschatological salvation (the message has to do with salvation, what will happen when earthly time ends, focus on end times)

4. involves a supernatural world (the ifo conveyed is about a supernatural place like heaven or hell)

• the purpose of apoc. lit is similar to prophecy, to critique the present

• the actions apoc. lit suggest you to take is usually about the future

• purpose is to address readers current concerns (why are we suffering? because we are on gods side and opposing the forces of evil)

Other features:

• dualism - universe is divided between good and evil and is currently controlled by evil

• endurance in the present will lead to ultimate triumph in the future

• the end is very soon(though times are dark now God will soon intervene to help the righteous)

book of daniel

• written 167 BCE

• context - Antiochus IV is in power and violently shuts down a rebellion in jerusalem and they ban all jewish religious observances which leads to daniel 7-12 being written

• apocalyptic literature

• daniel is a bridge between the old and new testament because apocalypticism spreads into the time of jese and the first christians

• 2 diff books of daniel, 7-12 is apocalyptic lit

• daniel is presented as a jewish exile in babylon

• a speical vision of 4 beasts representing 4 empires is given to daniel by a heavenly being, has an end times timeframe because it describes that there will be triumph of israel soon and endurance will soon be rewarded when the 4th beast is defeated, permanent power will be given to those that follow YHWH