Worldviews Finals Studying

Tanakh

In Hebrew and Aramaic; includes Torah - first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus (Tabernacle), Numbers (Promise of great nation), Deuteronomy (Speeches and warnings), Nevi’im (prophets), Ketuvim - poetic books, 5 scrolls, and others; written by literate elites during Neo-Babylonian Exile; oral (Northern Kingdom) before written (exilic periods)

Rabbinic Judaism

Response to the Destruction of the Second temple; persecution, fear of forgetting Oral laws, Mishnah - Judah ha-nasi, Palestian Talmud+Babylonian Talmud - rabbinic arguments to questions of Judaism

Reform Judaism

most flexible branch - optional Halakha (Following old Jewish practices), women can be rabbis, LGBT affirming; God, Israel, (Written) Torah; Messiah is coming to rebuild 3rd temple; soul is resurrected in afterlife; interfaith marriage

Orthodox Judaism

many different movement - modern to traditional; oral and written torah, follows Halakha, traditional>liberal

Conservative Judaism

Tradition and adaptation, sabbath and halakha, but ordination of women and LGBT affirming

Dietary laws

Kosher - 3 types of food → dairy (not with meat), meat - slaughter specially, no pigs, interpreted by rabbis; paerve - neither meat nor dairy

Prayers

Morning, afternoon, and evening (shema), men wear kippah (head covering), tallit (prayer shawl), and tefillin (cords); minyan - 10 people so prayer counts

Life for boys

8th day after birth: circumcised and name is public; study torah, mishnah and gemara, new one every 5 years; bar mitzvah at 13 and married at 18; gravestone revealed after 1 year, buried immediately and family mourns for 7 days

life for girls

naming varies, but close to birth'; bat mitzvah at 12; marriage and burial is same

Shabbat/Sabbath

day of rest and 7th day (no tech or cooking); sundown friday to sundown saturday; kabbalat shabbat—friday evening to synagogue; read torah of saturday morning

Anti-semitism

Blood libel (matzah was made from christian baby blood), got blamed for plague (cuz hygienic and travelled so never got it), religious/economic hatred—spanish inquisition, not allowed to own land so bankers, pogroms (destruction of Jewish communities in Russia), holocaust

Hellenistic Period

Greek influence on Judaism; sadducees (assimilate), pharisees (keep being jews); cultural and religious freedom; philo (translated bible into Greek)

Hasmonean Dynasty (1 and 2 Maccabees)

Greek king makes Jews sacrifice pigs; Maccabees revolt: rebellion of jews against Seleucids; didn’t fight on sabbath, but people died, so they started fighting; launched series of Guerilla attacks and defeated them; second temple had been desecrated by pig remains, so they cleaned and lit a menorah that was supposed to last for 1 days (lasted for 8)—story of Hannukah; independent Jewish state - Hasmonean Dynasty

Roman Period

Not tolerant of Jews, Pompey desecrates temple, but is fixed by herod

First Jewish Roman War

Zealots want to fight Romans; goes poorly; romans besiege Jerusalem and starve Jews; Romans destroy 2nd temple; some escape to Masada and launch last stand against Romans (Died by suicide or other Romans)

Second Jewish Roman War

Caused by temple of Jupiter being built on top of 2nd temple, not owning land, economic decline; 500k jews are killed, more are enslaved, exiled from Judea; created Jewish Diaspora; Zealots want to keep fighting, Sadducees want to rebuild temple, Pharisees want to focus on preserving prayers and texts (pharisees are successful and write Mishnah and Talmud)

(TIMELINE) Primeval History

2 creation stories—Genesis 1-2:4a (Creation of time and world), Genesis 2:4b-3 (Creation of Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve), and Genesis 6:11-7 (Noah’s arc)

Patriarchs and Matriarchs

Abraham and Sarah (promise of nations - god promises Abraham that he will lead a great nation, except no children for nation to live on); Isaac and Rebekah (Binding of Isaac - God orders Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, son, which he almost succeeds in, but then angel stops him. God never spoke to Abraham again); Jacob and Rachel (Joseph is youngest and favorite son, other sons are jealous and sell him as a slave. He becomes powerful in Egypt and saves Egypt from a famine, reunited with family)

Egyptian Enslavement

enslavement of Hebrew people (all male children are supposed to be killed), Moses is born

Moses

Born Hebrew, but is put in Nile bank when Pharaoh’s daughter finds him and raises him; protests against enslavement of Hebrews and requests Pharaoh to release; Pharaoh refuses and God sends 10 plagues (last one killed everyone, except people with lamb blood on homes so Angel of Death can “pass over”

Exodus

Hebrews leave Egypt and Moses splits Sea of Reeds and leads Hebrews to freedom

Wandering in Wilderness

Wandered for 40 years; tabernacle - portable temple; 10 commandments given to Moses; Moses can’t enter promised land cuz God got mad at him for trying to perform a miracle; Joshua takes overs and leads Hebrews to promised land

Conquest of Canaan

Joshua commits genocide in promised land because God said to (probably didn’t happened cuz they interact with them again)

Period of Judges

Different judges ruled Israelites—some good, some bad, some both; very chaotic and needed a king to unify Israel

United Monarchy

Kingdom of Israel; list of kings: Saul (Good at first, God possesses him with evil spirit and tries to kill David), David (youthful, grows up to be a strong warrior, makes mistakes so spends rest of his life making up), Solomon (wise and builds first temple)

Divine Monarchy

Jeroboam and Rehoboam fight for Israel (Split into Kingdom of Israel, 10 tribes, and Kingdom of Judah, 2 tribes)

The Assyrians (Fall of Northern Kingdom)

Assyria beat Northern Kingdom, 10 tribes moved around Assyria and fled to Judah; Southern kingdom (Judah) besieged by Assyria, but Hezekiah built a tunnel for water and transportation; Assyrians got sick and died; became vassel state

Fall of Southern Kingdom

Waves of Neo-Babylonian attacks—besieged and captured Jerusalem, sacked temple, and puppet king; besieged, captured, and destroyed Jerusalem, destroyed first temple. Caused prayer and dietary practices, written bible, dress requirements, God was everywhere, fixed prayer, sabbath, and study of torah

The return

Return to smaller territory (Yehud), Finished Hebrew Bible, Persians were benevolent by letting them practice their own religion (Cyrus the Great) and build 2nd temple (Darius); Judaism moves to monotheism

Fertile Crescent

Crescent shaped area with fertile soil

Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

Tigris (north); Euphrates (south); two major rivers that supported agriculture and civilization in ancient Mesopotamia. Had unpredictable flooding, clay bed caused problems.

Ubaid Period

Hunting/gathering and beginnings of farming; painted pottery; settled at Eridu (Coast City in south)

Uruk Period

Rise of cities based around gods/priests; priests ran governments by managing taxes, division of labor, and keeping gods happy; first beginnings of temples; cities were divided by canals and soon lugals (kings) took power; pottery wheels

Dynastic Period (Rise of City States)

Rise of cities based around kings (Claimed they were like gods), Enmebaragesi - first named kings; walled cities and development of writing

Important city states

Eridu, Ur, Uruk

Ur

divided into neighborhoods, had structures for flood and water control, ziggurat - temple, Inanna - patron goddess, port city - got traded goods and got to set prices

(Epic of) Gilgamesh

several poems put together into one, 2/3 god, 1/3 human, probably a king of uruk

fall of sumer

Eannatum united sumer for one generation (next king was weak)

Cosmology of Akkad

Enuma Elish

creation story that spans sumer, akkad, and babylon (based on cosmology of ANE)

Afterlife

buried bodies right side up; dark and gloomy, at dust unless food offerings were provided; if not buried, then became tortured demon who tortures family members willingly

Sargon the Great

Founder that unified Mesopotamia, birth legend similar to Moses; Victory Stele of Sargon - not found, probably shows his military victories

Enheduanna

First known named author, high priestess of Inanna and daughter of Sargon the great, combined myths of sumer and akkad to unify them, composed many poems

Fall of Akkad

Drought and famine (soil analysis, abandoned cities, poem about Egyptian droughts)

hammurabi

Babylonia expanded influence, transfers religious center from Nippur to Babylon (New god is Marduk); great leader/warrior/builder

Law Code Stele of Hammurabi

top features Marduk giving law codes to hammurabi, meant to unify and preserve order, laws applied to everyone (theoretically)

Rise of Babylonia

small town during Akkadian Empire that grew in power under Hammurabi’s rule

Fall of babylonia

weak rulers, Hittites, Assyrians, Amorites, Kassites attacked

Decline of Bronze Age

Collapse of Mesopotamia society - destroyed cities, chaos in levant, interrupted trade routs, decreased literacy; possible reasons - volcanic eruptions from Iceland, drought and famine, Sea peoples

Ashur

city and god of Assyrians, caused move towards monotheism and women’s rights declining

Military Innovations/tactics of Assyrians

Siege tactics - battering rams and iron weapons; royal roads that went throughout the empire

Treatment of people

cruel punishments for opposition, and scrambled people from a home town across the whole empire

Rise of Aramaic

TP3 - commissioned translation of Akkadian/Sumerian documents into Aramaic

fall of Assyrians

Got too big (Expanded beyond royal roads), too tyrannical (people rebelled), other towns sacked it

Nebuchadnezzar II

Ruled for bulk of Neo-Babylonian Empire, built walls of Babylon and 3 major palaces/shrines (Went back to polytheism)

Art of Neo-Babylon

Used blue, lions'; Hanging Gardens of Babylon - big maze with trees, flowers, waterfalls

Military of Neo-Babylon

sent top 10% of a town to serve the king

Cyrus Cylinder

story of how Cyrus the Great (Persia) conquered Neo-Babylon

Rise of Persia

nomads who started to invade other city states

Cyrus the Great

took city states; united Indus Valley, Egypt, and Mesopotamia under 1 government

Darius the Great

ruled at peak, succeeds Cyrus, made Aramaic official language, built roads, standardized weights, currency, and measures. Immortalized on Behistun Inscription - shows Darius’ life in lots of languages and super high

Fall of Persia

Got too big and bold, failed series of invasions of Greece - lead to heavy taxation - people rebelled, lost territory, Alexander the Great invades

Art of Persia

rock carvings (not a lot left) on walls, metal work, weaving

Zoroastrianism

Monotheistic, Zoroaster was founder, Main god - Ahura Mazda, prioritized good vs evil and free will, death - soul stays near body for 3 days while God evaluates

Persian Peace

Sent everyone exiled by Assyrians and Neo-Babylon home