Overview of Judaism

1. Who was Abraham? And when did he live?
2. What is the covenant in Judaism? And what are the terms of this covenant?
3. What are the Three Phases of Jewish History? (list 3)
4. What are some core Jewish concepts? (list 4)

Jewish Scriptures

1. What is the Tanakh?
2. What are the sections of the Tanakh? (list 3)
3. What is the Talmud?
4. What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Torah

1. What is the Pentateuch?
2. What are the five books of the Pentateuch?
3. When was the Torah written?
4. When was it canonized?
5. What is the content of the Torah?

Documentary Hypothesis

1. According to the traditional Judaism, who wrote the Torah?
2. Why did some Biblical scholars begin to question whether Moses was the sole author of the Torah?
3. What is a couplet in the Torah?
4. Who are the four authors of the Documentary Hypothesis? (list 4)
5. What are the two Genesis creation stories? And who are the potential authors?

The Talmud

1. When was the Second Temple destroyed? And how does that influence the development of Judaism?
2. Who were the Sadducees? And how did they influence the development of the Talmud?
3. What is the Mishnah?
4. What are the Six Parts of Talmud?

The Talmud

1. What is on a page of the Talmud in Hebrew?
2. How is Talmud Study done?

The Dead Sea Scrolls

1. When and where were these scrolls discovered?
2. How many Dead Sea Scrolls are there?
3. Who likely wrote them?
4. What does this show us about Judaism at the time they were written?
5. Why are the Dead Sea Scrolls so important for Biblical scholars?

Christian Scriptures Guided Lecture Notes

Introduction to Christianity

1. Who does the Christian tradition begin with? When does he live?
2. What do we know about Jesus of Nazareth?
3. Who and what did his followers (before and after his death) believe about Jesus identity?
4. How did the Christian tradition change over the course of the first 400 years of its existence?

Introduction to Christian Scriptures

1. What are the two main sections of the Christian Bible and what does each section contain? (list 2)

Canonization of the Christian Bible

1. When were the texts of the New Testament written?
2. What writings did the first Christians use?
3. What does Irenaeus say about what texts should be considered sacred?
4. What does Athanasius say about the canon of the New Testament?
5. What is decided at the Councils of Hippo and Carthage?

Versions and Translations

1. What are the main versions of the Christian Bible? (list 3)
2. What languages were the Biblical texts originally written in?
3. What is the next language it is translated into? When was it translated and by whom?
4. What were the first English translations? Who translated them and what happened to them?
5. What was the first German translation? Who translated it?
6. What invention occurred around this time that helped spread this and other vernacular translations of the Bible?
7. Today, how many languages is the Bible translated into?

The Gospels

1. What is a gospel?
2. When was Mark written and what are some characteristic features of it?
3. When was Matthew written and what are some characteristic features of it?
4. When was Luke written and what are some characteristic features of it?
5. What are the Synoptic Gospels?
6. What is the two-source hypothesis?
7. What is Q?
8. When was John written and what are some unique features of it?

Book of Acts

1. Whose acts are described in the Book of Acts?
2. Who wrote the Book of Acts? How do we know this?
3. How does the Book of Acts start?
4. Whose conversion does it describe? How does it describe this conversion?
5. Whose mission to the Gentiles does it describe? What are Gentiles?
6. Where does Paul travel to on these missions?
7. Why is there tension between Jewish and Gentile Christians at this point? How does the Council of Jerusalem attempt to resolve it?

The Epistles

1. What does epistle mean? Who wrote the majority of the epistles in the New Testament?
2. Why are these epistles important? And what are some important characteristics about them?
3. What are the Catholic letters? What does the word Catholic mean?

Book of Revelation

1. What does the word apocalypse mean and why is it used to describe this text?
2. Who is believed to have written the Book of Revelation? And what were his circumstances when writing it?
3. What had not happened yet that was making Christians anxious? And what WAS happening to them that was making them fearful?
4. What is the style of the Book of Revelation?
5. What are some symbols/images that it uses?

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