Deck 17: The World of Jesus and His Followers

Question 1

1. While under political crises during the rule of the Hasmoneans, issues of what it really meant to be Jewish arose. Discuss how the ancient Jews understood what it meant to be Jewish in terms of how the basic principles of their religion united them and how differences in interpretation of the Law splintered them into a number of sects. Name the fundamental religious beliefs they all shared.

Answer 1

Members of all Jewish sects subscribed to the worship of only one God, the creator of all things. This is the God of Israel, who revealed himself in Hebrew scriptures and promised to protect them in exchange for their devotion and obedience to his laws. All Jews were united by this basic idea and they all utilized the same Torah. The points of dispute centered around issues of how to respond to the rule of a foreign power, the presence of a high priest who was not in the line of Zadok, and what obedience to God's laws amounted to in a practical sense.

Question 2

3. Analyze the notion of two messiahs revealed in the Dead Sea Scrolls. What did the Essenes take to be the roles of each of the messiahs? How might this relate to later Christian messianic notions?

Answer 2

Some scrolls indicate that a final battle between good and evil would usher in the kingdom of God, which would be ruled by two messiahs. One would be a priestly messiah who would lead the faithful in the worship of God in a purified temple. He would reinstitute the sacrificial rituals in accordance with the will of God. The other messiah would be a king, ruling over the children of God. The Essenes started their own monastic-like community with strict rules to keep themselves pure and ready for this end time prophesy. Notice that they separated the concepts of messiah and God. Later, some Christians would use this concept to claim that Jesus, as the Son of God, was the fulfillment of both messianic descriptions (i.e., he was both a priest and a king).

Question 3

4. Discuss how Romans imagined the world of humans and the gods. What were the various categories and how do they relate to one another? What functions did members of each category have in the Greco-Roman world?

Answer 3

Students should discuss the "divine pyramid" and the categories of the One God; great gods; daimonia; divine beings, demigods, immortals, heroes; and humans. The One God was the ultimate divine power (variously defined as unknown or identified with Zeus/Jupiter). Below that were the great gods (the celestial deities of mythology), who were above the daimonia or local gods who tended to have direct impact on daily affairs such as rain, health, crops, and so on. Below that were other, lesser divine beings such as demigods and heroes, followed by ordinary human beings.

Question 4

5. Why did the Pharisees develop the "oral" Law to go alongside the written Torah? Give several examples of how this oral Law functioned.

Question 5

1. The Christian Gospels are partially modeled on the early accounts of the life of Apollonius of Tyana.

Question 6

2. Alexander the Great overthrew the Hasmonean kingdom of Judea.

Question 7

3. The Pax Romana made travel much easier and safer.

Question 8

4. Pharisees rejected the authority of all written texts except the Torah of Moses.

Question 9

5. The Pharisees were the most powerful Jewish sect in Jesus' day.

Question 10

6. The Essenes are especially important in the New Testament.

Question 11

7. Most Jews in Jesus' day used the Septuagint rather than reading the Bible in Hebrew.

Question 12

1) Who lived about the same time as Jesus, was reported to have had a life and death similar to Jesus, and was considered by his disciples to be the Son of God?

A) Paul
B) Apollonius of Tyana
C) Alexander the Great
D) Plato

Question 13

7) The Maccabean Revolt led to the formation of all of the following Jewish sects except

A) Pharisees.
B) Sadducees.
C) Hellenists.
D) Essenes.

Question 14

10) The largest sect of Judaism was the

A) Pharisees.
B) Sadducees.
C) Essenes.
D) Zealots.

Question 15

11) The sect of Judaism that wielded the most political power was the

A) Pharisees.
B) Sadducees.
C) Essenes.
D) Zealots.

Question 16

14) The Sadducees believed which of the following was authoritative?

A) oral law
B) Septuagint
C) Torah
D) all of the above

Question 17

16) The Dead Sea Scrolls contain parts of every book of the Hebrew Bible except

A) Genesis.
B) Exodus.
C) Esther.
D) Ezekiel.

Question 18

18) The Essenes believed that ____________ were defiled.

A) the Pharisees
B) the Bible
C) the Temple
D) women

Question 19

19) One group of Essenes left Jerusalem because they

A) believed they were in imminent danger.
B) preferred the wilderness.
C) believed the wrong priestly family was running the Temple.
D) had a vision to go to the wilderness.

Question 20

24) The Dead Sea Scrolls are so valuable because they

A) are nearly a thousand years older than the oldest copies of the Hebrew scriptures that we previously had.
B) constitute proof that the other scriptures were inauthentic.
C) discredited the idea that Jesus was the messiah.
D) were written on precious metals.

Question 21

25) A place of worship where Jews came together in the community to discuss the sacred traditions of the Torah was called a(n)

A) ashram.
B) congregation.
C) synagogue.
D) church.

Question 22

26) Which of the following Jewish sect did not believe in the existence of angels?

A) Pharisees
B) Sadducees
C) Fourth Philosophy
D) Essenes

Question 23

27) According to one of the Dead Sea Scrolls called the War Scroll, the final war that is due to take place at the end of time will last

A) forty years.
B) one thousand years.
C) seven days.
D) three and a half years.

Question 24

28) The War Scroll is unique among ancient Jewish literature due to its

A) strange symbology.
B) underlying doctrine of violence.
C) lack of apocalyptic references.
D) graphic and detailed description of the future battle that will end the age.

Question 25

31) Which of the following groups of Jews ran the Temple in Jesus' day?

A) Sadducees
B) Pharisees
C) Herodians
D) Jewish Scribes

Question 26

32) Which of the following groups of Jews developed a supplementary set of traditional interpretations and laws to ensure they kept the written Law?

A) Sadducees
B) Pharisees
C) chief priests
D) Jewish Scribes

Question 27

33) Which of the following Jewish groups held the most power in Judea?

A) Sadducees
B) Pharisees
C) Essenes
D) Sicarii