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Exam 1 Study Guide

  1. Who were:
    • Flavius Josephus
      • First Century Jewish historian who testified to the existence of Christ as well as the fact that Christ did miracles and signs. He also testified of John the Baptist.
    • Herod the Great
      • He is from Idumea and was placed as King of Judea by Romans through his influential and rich father
    • Archelaus
      • Eldest son of Herod the Great who took over the southern region of Judea, Idumea, Jerusalem. He turned out to be worse than his father (killing people for no reason). The people complained to the Romans and they removed him placing instead of him Roman governors (e.g. Pontius Pilate).
    • Antipas
      • Son of Herod the Great who received the northern region of Judea (Gallilee)
    • Philip
      • Son of Herod the Great who received the region of Gaulantis
    • Jerome
      • Translated the Bible into Latin (Vulgate) at the request of Damascus Bishop of Rome
    • King James I
      • King of the United Kingdom who commissions an English translation of the Bible
    • Alexander the Great
      • Greek conqueror of the world who conquered the Persians and Hellenized the world spreading as far East as India

  2. What are the two most important factors to remember in biblical interpretation?
    • Context (Historical Context, Literary Context) - Interpretation of any passage must not contradict the context.
    • Purpose (skopos) - Goal or Aim. Interpretation of any passage must not contradict the purpose, goal, or aim of that passage/book.

  3. Why did Chrysostom refer to the Scriptures as “the books”?
    • Because each book was separate. It wasn’t bound in one book as we have now.

  4. What is the definition of “Scripture” as given in class?
    • Writing that is recognized by a worshipping community as inspired by God and authoritative

  5. What is inspiration?
    • “God-breathed” - Illumination: God illumined the mind of the author to write what he wrote. It is the thoughts of the author illuminated by the Holy Spirit

  6. What are the two main “explanations” and the advantage and disadvantage of each understanding of inspiration.
    • Dictation – God spoke to the author. This is simplistic and good for children, but does not account for variation or contradictory information.
    • Illumination – God illumined the mind of the biblical author to write what he wrote. It is the thought of the author illuminated by the Holy Spirit

  7. What is the typical Orthodox view of inspiration?

  8. Why is that the Orthodox view?

  9. What were the three “levels” of meaning that the Fathers believed were present in the Scriptures?
    • Literal/Historical
    • Moral
    • Allegorical/Spiritual

Biblical Criticism

  1. What is Biblical Criticism?
    • Analysis of the Bible using all available tools

  2. What are:
    • higher criticism
      • Refers to several forms of criticism except textual. They are “higher” in that they build on the foundation of the text. Concerned with finding the meaning of the author. What he meant.
    • lower criticism
      • Refers to textual criticism
    • textual criticism
      • Refers to looking at the actual manuscript texts and trying to find what the original author wrote
    • textual critic
      • Someone who looks at all of the manuscript texts and tries to trace back a history of copies to find what the original author wrote and dates manuscripts
    • critical text
      • A text that contains all the variations (e.g. as footnotes) of manuscripts
    • form criticism
      • What form did certain texts take? For example, taking a parable or song or poem out of its context – was it transmitted orally before being written where it is now? What was its form?
    • source criticism
      • What sources did the author use? An oral tradition? A song? A passage from another writing?
    • redaction criticism
      • How did an editor compile sources? Given multiple accounts of the same story, how and why did each author redact some information?

Manuscripts

  1. What is a manuscript in biblical studies?
    • A hand-written copy

  2. What are:
    • Parchment: Paper made from animal skins
    • Papyrus: Paper made from the pith of a papyrus plant (reed-like plant)
    • Codex: Book format invented by the Christians
    • Uncial: A majuscule manuscript from the 4th-8th Centuries
    • Majuscule: All capital letters
    • Miniscule: A cursive writing with smaller letters
    • Autograph: The original written by the author (we have none of these from the Bible)

  3. What does the style of writing in a ms tell us?
    • Help us to date the manuscripts

  4. What is the Codex Sinaiticus?
    • A Codex discovered at St Catherine’s Monastery in Mt Sinai that contains the whole New Testament (plus some other books) and are all bound in one Codex (which was rare)

  5. Why do most copies of the bible date from the 4th century onward?

  6. Why do Christians have many ancient copies of their scriptures but the Jews do not?
    • Hebrews don’t keep their copies – so when a manuscript becomes brittle, the Hebrews bury it and do a funeral ritual.

 Translation

  1. What is the difference between the terms “version” and “translation”?
    • Translation refers to the language; version refers to things like NKJV, NIV, etc.

  2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of literal and dynamic approaches?
    • Literal is closer to a word-for-word
      • Advantage is that it retains what was originally there, but it may be more difficult to comprehend
    • Dynamic tries to capture the original meaning
      • Advantage is that it is easier to understand, but it may lose some of what was originally there

  3. Know the approximate date, language and the reasons for the creation of following translations or versions:
    • The Vulgate
      • Latin; around 400 AD; Latin became the dominant language around 200 but by 400 there were only a few poor Latin translations out there
    • Masoretic text
      • Jewish scholars around 1000 AD did not like the ambiguity of the Hebrew text (I.e. no vowels so certain things may have different meanings) so they added diacritical signs to indicate vowels and grammar marks
    • Septuagint LXX
      • Jewish Diaspora was Hellenized and there was need for a Greek version of the Hebrew Bible. Around 250 BC, 70 Jewish scholars came together to produce the Septuagint translation
    • Hellenism
      • Greek-ness... Hellenizing is the making of something more Greek (in language, culture, philosophy, etc).
    • King James Version/Authorized Version
      • When King James of Scotland (Protestant) became King of England and King of Ireland after the death of Queen Elizabeth I (who had no children), he commissioned the translation of an English version of the Bible by Protestants and Catholics together (1611 AD) that would be unbiased

 First Century

  1. Know the basic beliefs and characteristics of the first century groups:
    • Essenes
      • Qumran by the Dead Sea – monastic-type community
    • Zealots
      • Violent revolutionaries who hated Rome and wanted to take back Judea
    • Nazarenes
      • Title given by other Jews to the followers of Jesus of Nazareth who believe Jesus is Messiah and Lord
    • Pharisees
      • Rabbis and Scribes that emphasized ritual purity – influence in the synagogues. Accepted Torah and Neviim and also the oral laws
    • Sadducees
      • Chief priests, high priests, elders – influence in the Temple – only accepted the Torah
    • Scribes
      • Sect of the Pharisees that were very learned in the Law and ability to interpret LAw of Moses

  2. Who were the Samaritans?
    • When Israel returned from captivity, they found the Samaritans living in Israel and claiming to be Israelites. They were rejected by the Jews (no inter-marrying). The Samaritans built their own temple which was later desatroyed.

  3. Who was Herod the Great?
    • What was he known for? Cruelty, Bloody Reign, Building projects
    • Where did he come from? Idumea
    • Why did the Jews object to him being called King of the Jews? He was from Idumea which was forced to be Jewish but not originally Jewish. Not a descendent of David.
    • What was the name of the ruling family before the Herodians? Hasmoneans
    • Who were Herod the Great’s sons and what territories did each acquire?
      • Archelaeus acquired southern Judea, Idumea, Jerusalem, Samaria
      • Antipas acquired Gallilee
      • Phillip acquired Gaulanitis

  4. Know the titles used for Jesus in NT – know their meaning, as well as why and how these titles were used.

First Century Judaism

  1. First century Judaism. What was the difference between the Temple and a synagogue?
    • Temple is the place where animal sacrifices happened
    • Synagogue was a place of prayer, worship, sermons, etc.

  2. Why was the Temple important?
    • It is the place where God’s presence is

  3. Which biblical books were accepted by all Jews in the first century?
    • The Torah

First Century Roman World

  1. What was the role of Greek philosophy in Roman culture?
    • Philosophy was the way of acquiring virtues and was looked upon very highly

  2. What was the most commonly accepted type of philosophy?
    • Platonism

  3. What was the role of traditional gods in Roman society?
    • They were to be appeased so they can give prosperity, etc. Not to be looked upon for morals.

  4. What were the mystery religions and why they appealed to people?
    • They were religions that were only open to specific types of people and they promised spiritual enlightenment, connection with the gods, etc.

  5. Be able to draw the basic map of Palestine during the 1st century, including the Mediterranean Sea, Sea of Galilee, Dead Sea, Jordan River, Galilee, Samaria, Judea, Idumea Decapolis, Perea and the general location of Caesarea Maritima and Jerusalem. Be able to SPELL these bodies of water cities and territories.

Essay

  1. Using the chapters by Stylianopoulos, in a couple of paragraphs, discuss the basic Orthodox understanding of the Scriptures and their relationship to Tradition. Then express your opinion of whether Orthodox Christians can apply some of the techniques of modern biblical criticism, and why or why not? This portion you MAY write in advance and upload or paste from your computer. Do not make this very long. Three paragraphs are about ¾ of a page. Do NOT discuss or explain details of patristic interpretation in this answer. This question is about Scripture, Tradition and the Orthodox interpretation of the New Testament, not about the technique(s) of Patristic interpretation.
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