Exam 17: The World of Jesus and His Followers

Why did the Pharisees develop the "oral" Law to go alongside the written Torah? Give several examples of how this oral Law functioned.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are so valuable because they

Who lived about the same time as Jesus, was reported to have had a life and death similar to Jesus, and was considered by his disciples to be the Son of God?

Analyze the notion of two messiahs revealed in the Dead Sea Scrolls. What did the Essenes take to be the roles of each of the messiahs? How might this relate to later Christian messianic notions?

A place of worship where Jews came together in the community to discuss the sacred traditions of the Torah was called a(n)

The Dead Sea Scrolls contain parts of every book of the Hebrew Bible except

While under political crises during the rule of the Hasmoneans, issues of what it really meant to be Jewish arose. Discuss how the ancient Jews understood what it meant to be Jewish in terms of how the basic principles of their religion united them and how differences in interpretation of the Law splintered them into a number of sects. Name the fundamental religious beliefs they all shared.