Regarding Next Week's Exam

Generally, students should study the handouts, where I include text as well as my commentary. I also sent at least one summary email of a day's lecture regarding important issues. Try to organize the material in a way that is meaningful to you (almost any way that is meaningful to you is probably fruitful).
     Without being complete, key issues we have studied include:
    1. The issue of kingship, including the parable of the kings. But what are the issues of kingship, from the point of view of Hebrew society?
    2. The relationhip between prophet and king.
    3. The spousal (married) metaphor or theme and how it is worked out in Hebrew writings.
    4. The question of justice in Job and how it is handled. (The point of view of the 3 "comforters," the writer's point of view; the function of the prologue and epilogue; the "righteousness" of Job, if any; the conclusion of the matter.
    5. The issue of Wisdom in Proverbs.
    6. The allegory issues in Song of Songs.
    7. Imagery in the Psalms, such as water, the "path" (also in Proverbs) the shepherd theme; also poetic form (fairly simple, and discussed last exam too).
    8. Song of Songs; different views of the Song; possibly a question on how to "read" a text interpreted in a given way.
     9. The problem of "Ecclesiastes" (why it's a problem text, like Song of Songs for that matter); some understanding of its content (message/ideas).
     10. Important themes in Isaiah, including messianic prophecies; the issue of the Suffering Servant; the "three Isaiah's" (although these divisions are still questionable, still they should be identified); the peaceable kingdom, etc. (All of these issues were made fairly clear in different handouts).
     11. The theme of the New Covenant in Jeremiah; the issue in Lamentations. (Some dating should be mastered by now, including 722, 587/6, the "50" years of exile, the return in 539, always remembering the dating system as well.)
     12. Much of Hebrew history is fairly simple, although (because of parallelism) it sounds more complex than it is (Babylonians will also be called Chaldeans, etc.). Students should certainly know the 3 great powers until now: the Assyrian invasion of the north (Israel in 722); the Babylonian invasion of the South (Judah) in 586; the Persian conquest of Babylonia, allowing the return of Jews to Judah 50 years later, under Cyrus. King Zedekiah should be known as the last king of Judah before the Babylonian conquest and exile, especially since he opposed Jeremiah's policy of submission.
     13. The theological issues related to political issues. "Theological" sounds like a big word, but (simply) the God-related issue involved in making a political alliance (national friend); in other words, the spousal theme, whereby relying on outside political help was seen as an "adultery."
     14. There may be some identification of important texts, such as asking students to choose among 4 possible sources of that text and maybe even explaining the choice in a few words.
     15. Students should understand the development of Hebrew "theology" as it is shown in the prophets we have studied. Clearly there is a development, away from a tribal and ritual religion (it is doubtful if the Hebrew religion would have enjoyed the world-wide influence it has had without this development).
     I don't want to say that this exhausts all the issues (or excludes other issues); but this outline should point you in the right direction, covering many of the issues.
     As for reading, I would rely mainly on my edited texts, wherever I gave them (I think most of this half-semester's work used mostly edited texts). I would not worry too much about "listening texts" (texts intended to follow while listening in class). However, even those texts will help you to review material.
     As for other handouts and study pix, I would follow only issues related directly to the texts. I would exclude all issues related to the New Testament, since you are not familiar with the New Testament in study terms. The Gospel songs are useful to understand the material but should not be studied in themselves. So in general, I would study the edited versions of the texts with my commentary, but also edited versions without commentary, except where no edited versions were given at all.
     As usual, I do not give makeup exams, except upon medical emergency.
     Any further questions, students are advised to send email.
     Good luck!
     By the way, sometimes I mistype words in email, since I type very fast. For example, as I reviewed one handout I saw some strange word that looked like "Voreign" (or something like that), which was obviously "Sovereign" (meaning "king," "lord"). I also mistyped "your" as  "you" two different times, etc. When in doubt, ask!
     As a footnote,  all Hebrew "books" were written as "scrolls" (see pix). The so-called "codex" (what we call "bound books" today, books like we hold in our hands every day), did not come in until New Testament times. So all Hebrew "books" were scrolls that were read by unrolling a little at a time.