Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the 'Submit my answers' button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:

In the broadest sense, the term ‘Torah’ refers to which of the following?
a) The first five books of the Hebrew Bible
b) The entirety of the Hebrew Bible
c) The Hebrew Bible plus later commentaries
d) All of the writings of the thirteenth-century Jewish mystic, Maimonides

Question 2:

The first non-Biblical reference to the Israelites, discovered on an Egyptian stela, can be traced back to which historical period?
a) The age of the patriarchs (Abraham and Isaac): 2000 BCE
b) The age of the Exodus (Moses): 1300 BCE
c) The age of the Judges: 1230 BCE
d) The reign of King Solomon: 970 BCE

Question 3:

Which of the following is an accurate timeline for the development of Judaism (as represented in the Bible and later historical sources)?
a) Patriarchs => Judges => Davidic Kingship => Babylonian exile
b) Abraham => Moses => Solomon => David
c) The Babylonian exile => The Egyptian Exodus => The Hellenistic Period => The destruction of the Second Temple
d) The Maccabees => The Sadducees => The Hasidim => The Rabbis

Question 4:

The Jewish community in the later Hellenistic period can be divided into several separate groups. Which group was dedicated to personal piety and stressed strict adherence to purity laws as well as the coming apocalypse?
a) Samaritans
b) Pharisees
c) Essenes
d) Zealots

Question 5:

Which of the following best describes the Tanakh?
a) A synonym for the Pentateuch
b) An acronym standing for the three parts of the Scriptures
c) The Hebrew name for the Ark of the Covenant
d) The dagger used to cut and drain blood from animals according to Jewish dietary laws

Question 6:

According to Jewish Kosher laws, which of the following meals is acceptable?
a) Cheeseburger with sauerkraut
b) Ham and pineapple pizza
c) Goose meat jerky
d) Ground-beef lasagna

Question 7:

What does the word ‘Diaspora’ refer to?
a) A school of Merkabah (‘chariot’) mysticism popular in the Middle Ages
b) A collection of legal commentaries that were compiled by the Gaon
c) The spread of Greek culture and ensuing syncretism
d) The ‘scattering’ of the Jews after invasion

Question 8:

What is the Septuagint?
a) The serpent found in pagan religions associated with fertility
b) The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible
c) The Jewish text used in the Kabbalah
d) The name of the staff held by Moses during the Passover from Egypt

Question 9:

What is the Zohar?
a) The ram’s horn blown on Yom Kippur
b) The principle text of Kabbalah mysticism
c) The covenant made between God and Abraham
d) The name of the high priest in the Jewish Temple

Question 10:

According to your textbook, which of the following statements is best describes Jewish Reconstructionism?
a) The effort to create the conditions of prophecy for the Messianic age
b) The political movement to rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem
c) The scholarly attempt to establish the exact order of events in the transmission of the Torah to Jewish community
d) The belief that God is not important to Jewish self-understanding

Question 11:

Which of the following Jewish holidays commemorates the start of the Jewish New Year?
a) Hanukkah
b) Rosh Hashanah
c) Sukkoth
d) Purim

Question 12:

Following what event do we being to speak of Jews rather than Hebrews or Israelites?
a) The Babylonian Exile
b) The Maccabean Revolt
c) The Exodus
d) The fall of Jerusalem to the Romans

Question 13:

Which of the following statements is NOT true of the Talmud?
a) It exists in two distinct editions (the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds).
b) It was compiled at the same time as the Mishnah (prior to 220 CE).
c) It consists primarily of legal discussions (halakhah).
d) It represents the perspectives of over two thousand historical rabbis.

Question 14:

Which of the following Jewish intellectuals wrote the 'Guide for the Perplexed', a text that defended the rationality of Jewish belief using Aristotelian philosophy?
a) Saadia
b) Yehuda Ha-Levi
c) Moses Maimonides
d) Glueckl of Hamelin

Question 15:

The term ‘Jew’ is derived from which of the following figures/locales?
a) Judah (the state founded by Judah, son of Jacob)
b) Yerushalaim (the name of Jerusalem in Biblical Hebrew)
c) Judah Maccabee (leader of the Maccabean Revolt)
d) Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (the compiler of the Mishnah)

Question 16:

Which of the following Jewish festivals commemorates the victory of Jews during the Maccabean revolt?
a) Hanukkah
b) Purim
c) Sukkoth
d) Yom Kippur

Higher Education

A Concise Introduction to World Religions 2e: Chapter 3