REL 2300 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Judaism, Christianity, God
REL 2300
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
The church plays a role in:
Law
Government
Science
Theology -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Religion
Soteriology - doctrine of salvation, how to get to heaven -------------- Religion
Morality, Ethics -------------------------------------------------------------------- Religion
Family ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Religion
Medicine
When the church lost control of almost everything else, all they had left was God and Salvation
The Age of Exploration, Europeans are coming into contact with ideas out of Abrahamic
traditions. During colonialism, Europeans tried to spread their ideas, which only enforced the
state’s religions.
All of the different beliefs in India all mesh together to become Hinduism
Textual Determinism - The scriptures are driving the car, where the person is only riding in it
Babylonian exile ends with king Cyrus (the Bible refers to him as Messiah)
Cyrus doesn't worship Bible God, Cyrus worships Mardu, Israelites did not worship Cyrus’ god
Iran really got behind him because he was a Persian king to recognize all of the religions
Second Temple Period 520 BCE - 70 CE
538-332 Persians rule
520 Temple is restored
332-167 Greek Period, superpower
167-63 Independent Israel
63 BCE Romans conquered Israel
Hellenization - 332 - 167 BCE - process of becoming Greek or adopting Greek customs
● Greek political, military, economic, cultural dominance
● Jewish Intellectuals, philosophers
● Religious multiplicities
● Persecution
Israelites start adopting Greek norms
During Hellenization the Torah gets translated to Greek
Roman Conquest
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Pompeii takes Israel in 63 BCE
Israel rebels and during this rebellion the second temple falls
End of Israelite priesthood
Shift of authority from the priestly to the scribal
Prescriptive - The religion in it's idealized form
Descriptive - What happens on the ground, what is observable practice
Rabbinical Judaism
Early Judaism key points
● Significance of temple and it loss
● Changing meaning/significance for the Tanakh
● Shift from priestly and prophetic - scribal and scholarly
● Interpretive tradition
● Judaism in conversation with historical setting
● -- Greek Roman, Babylonian, Persian, Christian, Muslim contexts
● Rabbinical tradition is an interpretive tradition
Babylonian Exile (586 BCE)
● Scholarly activity
● Collection of Torah from pre existing sources
● Different treatments of God, creation, etc
● “Documentary Hypothesis:’ 5 main sources
- J (refers to God as Yahweh)
- E (refers to God as Elohim)
- P (“priestly” author - parts of Exodus and Leviticus)
- D ( the deuteronomist)
Translation of Torah into Greek
● King ptolemy commissions translation project
● 70 jewish elders translating in isolation\
● The septuagint - they all translated separately
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Soteriology - doctrine of salvation, how to get to heaven -------------- religion. When the church lost control of almost everything else, all they had left was god and salvation. The age of exploration, europeans are coming into contact with ideas out of abrahamic traditions. During colonialism, europeans tried to spread their ideas, which only enforced the state"s religions. All of the different beliefs in india all mesh together to become hinduism. Textual determinism - the scriptures are driving the car, where the person is only riding in it. Babylonian exile ends with king cyrus (the bible refers to him as messiah) Cyrus doesn"t worship bible god, cyrus worships mardu, israelites did not worship cyrus" god. Iran really got behind him because he was a persian king to recognize all of the religions. Hellenization - 332 - 167 bce - process of becoming greek or adopting greek customs. During hellenization the torah gets translated to greek.
