- How does Israel's story "begin and end" in Mesopotamia?
- What biblical ideas reflect a Mesopotamian influence?
- Discuss at least one important invention of the Sumerians.
- Why is the excavation of tels useful to archeologists (Box 3.1)?
- What was Etemananki?
- Discuss two biblical episodes that describe ziggurats.
- What is one explanation of the name of Mt Sinai?
- What is the significance to scholars of the royal archives of Ebla?
- How do we know Israel knew the stories of Gilgamesh?
- What becomes of Gilgamesh's quest for eternal life? who consoles him, and how?
- How do most biblical writers before the second century BCE describe the afterlife?
- Describe one similarity and one difference between the code of Hammurabi and Moses' law.
- Briefly describe the New Kingdom's connection to Canaan/Israel.
- During the New Kingdom (18th and 19th Egyptian dynasties), we see references in corrrespondence (Amara letters) and a victory stele to Canaan and Israel. Describe one such reference.
- Describe one possible Egyptian contribution to the Israelites.
- What geographical features made Israel a particularly vulnerable "land bridge" between other, more powerful kingdoms?
- Palestine's "division into four discrete regions" (Hill Country, Coastal Plain, Jordan Rift Valley, and Transjordan) had several consequences in terms of internal divisions in Israel. Describe one.
- The Assyrian steles and archives give us our first extra-biblical references to Israelite rulers mentioned in Kings. Name three.
- The Babylonian exile (587-538) represented the high point of biblical scholarship. Besides the Torah, what other biblical texts were revised in exile? What themes did the revisions reflect?
- Why does the Torah end where it does, according to the book?
- What empires controlled Israel during the Second Temple period?
- Hellenism (Greek influence from 323 BCE to the common era) caused many cultural changes in Israel. Name one.
- What New Testament works were composed after the descruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE?
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