REL/JSP 302 Temple & Dead Sea Scrolls

Mid-Term Exam Questions

THREE (3) of the following questions will appear on the exam, and you will be expected to choose TWO (2) to answer. Prepare your answers in advance to all five questions. I suggest you develop short outlines of your answers that can easily be memorized. Notes or other aides may NOT be used during the test.

1. Describe the religious, political and economic role of temples in ancient near eastern religions. Evaluate the degree to which the Second Jerusalem Temple fulfilled these typical roles, and the degree to which it differed from non-Jewish temples.

2. Review the stories about the ark of the covenant in the Hebrew Bible, then use most of your time to answer the following questions: (a) What does the ark represent and why does it receive so much attention in the early parts of the Hebrew Bible? (b) What is the ark’s relationship to the Jerusalem Temple and why does it not get much attention in later books of the Hebrew Bible?

3. Describe the political history of the Babylonian Exile and the imperial and Jewish interests involved in the restoration of Judea in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE

4. What effect did the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 587 BCE have on Judean/Jewish religion? ... on ideas about the Jerusalem temple?

5. Describe the role of the High Priest in Second Temple Judaism, including the evolution of the High Priest’s political role in various periods.