Chapters 20-25 review

Which Near Eastern region developed wisdom literature traditions later borrowed by the Israelites?

All these answers are correct.

Which Egyptian sage's writings are reproduced almost word for word in Proverbs 22-24?

Amenemope

Scholars see close parallels between the Song of Songs and what type of later love poetry?

Arabic

Which of Job's "false companions" describes humans as "maggots," suggesting inborn depravity that later evolves into the Christian concept of original sin?

Bildad

What type of parallelism involves making contrasting statements in successive lines?

antithetical parallelism

The conduct of Boaz in the story of Ruth reveals one of the work's major themes: the importance of ________, or kindness, in all relationships.

hesed

At Esther's conclusion, how many of Haman's sons are hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai?

ten

In the Psalms, unlike the Torah and the Prophets, the community replies to God.

true

Which supernatural creature is described proudly by God to Job in a way that makes him recognize that the world has not been designed for humanity's benefit?

Behemoth

Which empire do scholars believe ruled over Judah when the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were written?

Persia

Which of the Megillot books is a gentle love story?

Ruth

Which of the Megillot books celebrates erotic love?

Song of Songs

After reading the Mosiac torah, which Mosaic festival tradition did Ezra urge the Judeans to observe?

Sukkoth

How many cycles of dialogue take place in Job's central section?

three

According to Ezra, under the leadership of the exiled royal prince Sheshbazzar, more than 42,000 exiles return to Judah.

true

Both men's and women's authorial voices are present in the Song of Songs.

true

For Israel's wise, their traditional hero lay in the figure of Solomon.

true

What policy did the Persian Empire follow in terms of local governance?

widespread local autonomy

Before traveling to Judah, what function did Nehemiah perform at the Persian royal court?

cupbearer

Lamentations contains poetic complaints utilizing similes, or explicit comparisons.

false

How many of the Book of Lamentations' five poems are acrostics?

four

What tribe did the Hasmoneans, who ruled Judea from 142-63 BCE, descend from?

Levites

Like English and other western poetry, Hebrew poetry employs rhyme and regular meter.

false

When an Israelite king is anointed, what part of the future monarch's body is rubbed with holy oil?

head

Ezra's commission also incorporates a directive to reconstruct which system of social organization in Judah?

judicial

Which group of biblical historical figures have their portrayals substantially revised within 1 and 2 Chronicles?

kings

Hebrew poetry is famous for its brevity, repetition, vivid imagery, and above all, various kinds of ________.

parallelism

For the Chronicler, the author of 1 and 2 Chronicles, what is Israel's primary destiny?

to promote the cult of Yahweh with ethical and ritual purity

By the time that Ezra and Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem, most of its inhabitants no longer spoke or understood Hebrew.

true

Chronicles' striking reinterpretation of King Josiah's death portrays the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho as Yahweh's oracle.

true

Contemporary scholars generally agree that the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally a single volume.

true

Despite the hopeful promises of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, neither the Davidic dynasty nor the former state of Judah was restored after the exile.

true

For Ezra, intermarriage between Jewish men and foreign women is an example of apostasy that must be eradicated.

true

For wisdom writers, the primary preoccupation is order, whether moral, social, or metaphysical.

true

Highlighting the value of generational knowledge transmission, Proverbs commonly presents traditional wisdom as parental advice.

true

Many of the books in the Writings are composed almost entirely of poetry.

true

Native Israelites of mixed descent, known as Samaritans, offer to help the exiles rebuild the Temple.

true

Perplexed by Yahweh's apparent indifference to their suffering, postexilic writers and priestly leaders emphasized the importance of liturgy.

true

Reversing older orthodoxies, a majority of scholars now believe that the author of Chronicles was different from that of Ezra-Nehemiah.

true

The Book of Lamentations contains vivid images of destruction and dehumanization, including cannibalism.

true

The Levite tribe is given particular prominence in Chronicles, suggesting that the Chronicler himself was a Levite.

true

The collective juxtaposition of negative and positive theological confessions throughout the book of Psalms effectively mirrors the covenant community's sorrows and joys.

true

The diversity of thought and theology in Writings contrasts sharply with the earlier two parts of the Tanakh.

true

How many verses, equal to the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, are contained in acrostic poems?

twenty-two

How many books are contained within 1 and 2 Chronicles?

two

How many female characters occupy the central position in the Book of Ruth's narrative?

two

Within the psalms of enthronement, who is considered the real king of Israel?

Yahweh

In Proverbs 8, what is Folly (lack of common sense) likened to?

a prostitute

Which Judean town is the story of Ruth based in?

Bethlehem

Who does Artaxerxes identify as the recipient of his tribute of silver and gold?

Yahweh

It appears the Persians regarded both Ezra and Nehemiah as politically unreliable, but theologically and diplomatically necessary.

false

Like the Deuteronomistic History, the Chronicler places the blame for Judah's collapse on King Manasseh.

false

Ruth portrays relations between Judeans and Moabites as tense and strained.

false

Within Chronicles, as in Kings, King David appears as an ambitious military leader.

false

What type of psalm is Psalm 8, which honors God for establishing an orderly universe?

hymn or song of praise

For the author of Ezra-Nehemiah, Ezra, who bears the literal artifacts of Israel's covenant (the Mosaic torah), forms an indispensable link between the pre- and post-exilic scribal community.

true

Which new cultural force swept into the Near East during the late fourth century BCE and challenged the covenant community's concepts of self-identity?

Greece

Which Judean king receives the most significant rehabilitation in 2 Chronicles?

Manasseh

Israel's "wise" included both men and women, and they often held positions of public respect.

True

Shifting the postexilic narratives out of chronological sequence, the editors give the last words of the Hebrew Bible to Cyrus the Great, a foreign Gentile ruler.

True

The book of Psalms uses poetry to explore the morally complex nature of the postexilic divine-human relationship.

True

Throughout Chronicles, all references to David's questionable behaviors have been erased, creating a portrait of an ideal David.

True

According to Koheleth, the narrator of Ecclesiastes, what is the only worthwhile human endeavor?

experience

At its conclusion, the Book of Ruth reveals that she is the great-grandmother of King Solomon.

false

The province of Judah was restricted to a small territory surrounding the city of Hebron.

false

Wisdom writers developed their literature as a response to specific historical circumstances and events.

false

How many festival days or days of mourning appear on the Jewish religious calendar?

five

Which of Nehemiah's directives causes the most controversy among other Persian officials?

reconstruction of Jerusalem's fortified walls

Which element of nature does the author of Song of Songs compare to a lover's eyes?

doves

The Chronicler revises the historical portrait of King Manasseh, whose individual destiny now exactly parallels that of Judah itself.

False

As noted in the Book of Job, despite humanity's quest for wisdom, only Yahweh knows wisdom's hiding place.

True

Both books (Ezra and Nehemiah) offer a theological interpretation of political decisions made in both Judea and Persia.

True

Except for the Book of Esther, the Book of Ruth is the only canonical work in the Hebrew Bible whose principal figure is a woman.

True

Faced with the harsh realities of the postexilic environment, disappointment colors the accounts of Ezra and Nehemiah.

True

In Proverbs, the figure of Lady Wisdom is an example of personification.

True

Instead of being ruled by Davidic kings, the postexilic Judeans now found themselves ruled by a theocracy, a "God-ruled" society led by priests.

True

Intermarriage, condemned by Deuteronomistic authors, is treated more ambivalently in the book of Ruth.

True

According to tradition, which biblical figure paid tithes to Melchizedek, the king-priest of Salem?

Abraham

Many of the Psalms are closely attached to Saul, an accomplished poet and musician.

False

The Book of Proverbs, like Ecclesiastes, details examples of speculative wisdom.

False

The author of Chronicles radically changes the portrayals of Saul and Jeroboam found in 1 and 2 Kings.

False

The Persian month of Adar, which in the story of Esther is designated as the time of the proposed Jewish Massacre, corresponds to which period in the modern calendar?

February-March

In the early twentieth century, who pioneered modern techniques of critical psalm analysis?

Hermann Gunkel

Which king in Chronicles' narrative is responsible for instituting the national celebration of Passover?

Hezekiah

Which is the only book in the Hebrew Bible that does not mention God?

Esther

Which of the wisdom authors counsels a "golden mean" between unrestrained pursuit of wealth and poverty-inspired crime?

Agur

In Nehemiah's time, what language did most Judeans speak?

Aramaic

Which chapters of the Book of Lamentations do scholars believe were written first?

Chapters 2 and 4

What section of the Writings is placed last, at the climactic end position?

Chronicles

Which of the Tanakh's wisdom books is the only one to offer any prospect of meaningful life after death?

Daniel

Which of the Writings was probably the last written book in the Hebrew Bible?

Daniel

Which biblical figure is most closely associated with Psalmic authorship?

David

Which king, according to Chronicles, was responsible for assigning the Levites their Temple duties?

David

Although the Judeans' political circumstances changed greatly after the exile, their understanding of their relationship with Yahweh did not.

False

Books of wisdom, like other canonical literature, made continual references to the Mosaic Covenant, the Exodus, and the exile.

False

Despite its Persian setting, Yahweh's presence features prominently in the Book of Esther.

False

For the Chronicler, figures like Hezekiah and Josiah become prototypes of the Messiah, the anointed king who will ultimately restore Israel.

False

Grieving over Jerusalem's misery, Nehemiah persuades his master, King Darius, to allow him to return to Judah.

False

Like the first two divisions of the Tanakh, the Writings present a viewpoint strongly associated with the Deuteronomistic History.

False

Which theodicy included in the Writings raises ethical and theological questions that no religious thinker has ever satisfactorily resolved?

Job

Which of the Megillot books is an agonized reflection of Yahweh's abandonment of Jerusalem?

Lamentations

In Esther's story, who is her adoptive father?

Mordecai

Which book of wisdom endorses the Deuteronomistic view of God's just universe?

Proverbs

Which psalm states that the "afflictions of the righteous are many" but that the divine presence sustains the faithful?

Psalm 34

In a concluding allegory, what is human old age compared to?

a crumbling house

Using a simile, what does the author of the Song of Songs compare his lover's hair to?

a flock of goats

Recasting David's historical experience, the Chronicler portrays him as an ideal type of which community leader?

priest

Upon his return to Jerusalem, for how many days did Ezra read the Torah aloud to its inhabitants?

seven days