Midterm. Follow Directions. Return to kerryman2424@gmail.com by midnight on Tuesday, Jan. 25.

DIRECTIONS:  Cut and Paste and make this a word document.  Then fill in the blanks as needed.  Send it back to me by Tuesday night, Jan. 25 at midnight.  You can use your books and other resources.  Remember, at the end choose two essays and write about each of them, about 500-750 words per each.

Good luck.

Joe Ryan

English 252:  Midterm Exam on Bible as Literature

Part One:  Fill-in the blanks.

Examples:  1. The three Wisdom Books of the Hebrew Bible are  _____________.

2. The poetic method most employed by Biblical writers is __________________.

3. The ten plagues on Egypt were the following:  _____________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________.

4. Two types of poetic forms  utilized in the poetry of “The Song of Solomon” include:  ________________________.

5. A slave narrative that contains a great deal of Calvinist anxiety was written by  ______________.

6. The ten sons of Jacob are: ____________________________________.

7. Absalom, Absalom is a novel written by ________________________.

8. What was the fate of the Twelve Tribes of Israel?

9. What is the relationship between Saul and David and how did Saul die?

10. If Job can indeed be considered a guiltless, upright man, then why did his wealth, his health, and his family get wiped out by God?

Definitions and other Questions:

1. Prudence according to Proverbs means ____________________________.

2. Synthetic parallelism means ___________________________________.

3. The Documentary Hypothesis means ___________________________.

4. Iconography is ______________________________________.

5. Cathedrals were called “Books of the Unlearned” because ___________________________________.

6. A “blazon” is ____________________________________________.

7. According to the book Bible as Literature, why can’t the Bible be read as a history book?

8. According to Bible as Literature, what does the term “redactor” mean, and how did they influence the writing of the books of the Bible?

9. What major theological event happened in 622 BCE and how did it influence the formation of the Hebrew Bible?

10.  How was the writing of the Old Testament influenced by other Near East literature (again, according to the Bible as Literature.

Identifications: 

1. The author of the Faerie Queene is __________________________.

2.  “For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in the land”  is a passage found in ________________________.

3.  “I will be his father, and he shall be my son.  If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of  men” were words spoken by _________________________.

4.  “Batter my heart, three personed God; for, you

As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend,

That I may rise, and stand, oerthrow mee, and bend

Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.”

These words are from _______________________________________.

5.“But I am a worm…”  is an example of what type of poetic device?  _____________________

6.  From the Psalms, the phrase “The ungodly are brought down and fallen; but we are risen and stand upright” is an example of  what kind of parallelism?  __________________________________.

Part 2.  Explicate the following passage of the Bible.  Tell what book it is from, what its significant features are , and why it is a significant passage.  Use the passage to illustrate other important issues in the Old Testament.

 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

But thou [art] holy, [O thou] that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

But I [am] a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, [saying],of the people.

All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, [saying], He trusted on the LORD [that] he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

But thou [art] he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope [when I was] upon my mother's breasts.

I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou [art] my God from my mother's belly.

Be not far from me; for trouble [is] near; for [there is] none to help.

2.   ¹² Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. ¹³ And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them close to him. ¹⁴ But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.

 ¹⁵ Then he blessed Joseph and said,

   “May the God before whom my fathers
   Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,
the God who has been my shepherd
   all my life to this day, ¹⁶ the Angel who has delivered me from all harm
   —may he bless these boys.
May they be called by my name
   and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they increase greatly
   on the earth.”

 ¹⁷ When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. ¹⁸ Joseph said to him, “No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”

 ¹⁹ But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.” ²⁰ He blessed them that day and said,

   “In your^[c] name will Israel pronounce this blessing:
   ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”

   So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.

PART 3:  YOU MUST ANSWER TWO OF THESE THREE ESSAY QUESTIONS.

1.  If I were to choose a recurrent theme I have been presenting in Units 1-7, I would say that it is ambiguity. In Unit 1, Gabel et al. claim that the Pentateuch has at least four authors and countless redactors, while the KJV Commentary claims Moses’ sole authorship.  In Unit 2, we discussed Cain and Abel as a story that could be interpreted as supporting either predestination or free will.  In Unit 3, Exodus was the focus of the ambiguous doctrine of whether or not icons are sanctioned by God to be used in worship.  Unit 4 was a treasure trove of ambiguities:  Why did God choose to show love to David despite his grievous sins (taking another man’s wife and having the man murdered)?  Why did God allow Israel to have kings while claiming it would lead to dire consequences? Unit 5 asks the question, why would a book that doesn’t mention God (The Song of Solomon), doesn’t have much religious content, is at least mildly erotic, and is entirely a poetic narrative have a place in the Bible?  Unit 6 on Psalms presented the fact that psalms fall into two broad categories:  supplication and praise.  But we asked the question, why would God need to be praised?  Isn’t this a kind of silly device humans have invented to appease an unfathomable God?  Unit Seven, Proverbs, is more a secular self-help book than a text worthy of the Bible’s gravity.

            In many ways, this ambiguity within the Bible has lent credence to doubters’ claims that the Bible cannot be taken seriously as doctrine.  We have all heard the saying that “The Devil can quote scriptures to make his point.”  A great number of people who use the Bible as religious doctrine even reject large parts of it (e.g., Jews don’t see the NT as doctrinal, while certain Christians reject the apocryphal books.)   And many nonbelievers point to the ambiguities as inconsistencies that undermine the religious tenets of the Bible.

            With all this as preface, you are to take one important theme found in the books of the Bible you have read so far in this class and show how it is presented in an ambiguous way.  Then explain why you believe the ambiguity exists and whether or not it in any way detracts from the greatness of the Bible as literature and its believability as religious doctrine.

2. If any text can be said to present a patriarchal world view, the Bible would certainly seem to be that text. But the Bible also tells a number of stories that focus on women—many of them celebrated as figures of power and importance—not only in Genesis, but also in Exodus and in the Song of Solomon. Consider the representations of women, either across or within individual books and stories, looking for patterns, connections, motifs, and themes. What do you make of these representations, and what do they tell us about the role of women within (or without) the patriarchy?

3.    Throughout the Bible, there is an interesting contrast between images of the garden and of the city. The garden, of course, is associated with the original home of humanity in the garden of God, but the images of city or community are often more complex and problematic. Considering one or more stories that present such images—the stories of Cain, of the Tower of Babel, and of Sodom, along with several of the stories in Samuel provide some possibilities—explore the ways in which these texts conceive of the social life of humanity. What do the images of the city or of community tell us about the writers’ views on society and civilization?