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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where are there references to the guilt and pain of the exile?

2. What does the revision to Deuteronomy explain?

3. Who allows the Jews to return to their home country?

4. To determine if insertions have been made in a text, two or more of what elements must be present?

5. Who does Friedman identify as the writer of Deuteronomy?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe clues to who wrote Deuteronomy.

2. How does Friedman identify as writer R, the redactor who stitched together all the various versions into one Torah?

3. Why was a fix necessary for the text of Deuteronomy?

4. Where does Friedman place the Tabernacle at the time of the First Temple?

5. Why is the period 587-400 B.C. difficult to understand?

6. Why does Friedman finally identify Jeremiah as the author of Deuteronomy?

7. What was the brilliant mistake made in regard to discovering the identity of writer P?

8. At the rebuilding of the Temple, what is a major difference between it and the original Temple?

9. How did Cyrus the Great figure into the history of the Jewish exile?

10. Describe the great irony of the P version of the Torah.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay of at least two typewritten pages on the topic, The Importance of Language. Your essay should center around (1) the way languages change with popular use, (2) the historical use of languages at various times during the writing of the Bible, and (3) how these linguistic changes help to identify approximate dates certain passages were written.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay of at least two typewritten pages on the topic, Ramifications for the Rest of the Bible. Assuming that Friedman, et al, are correct in assigning at least three authors to the Torah, not to mention a redactor who put them all together, speculate on what you think that means for the Bible as a whole. Take into consideration that reproduction of biblical texts was done laboriously by hand for over a thousand years.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay of at least two typewritten pages on the topic, Monotheism Versus Paganism. Points for mention include (1) the monotheistic nature of Judeo-Christian religion, (2) the subject of guilt in monotheism, and (2) the animistic nature of paganism.

(see the answer keys)

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