Chapter 05: Warriors and Deities in the Near East

Question 1

The _______ entered history by 900 BCE, as challengers to other sematic peoples in the Upper Tigris River Valley.

Answer 1

Assyrians

Question 2

By 800 BCE, the Assyrians conquered the Tigris-Euphrates region. Their chief god was the fierce _______

Answer 2

Assur

Question 3

The Assyrians demonstrated great talent in military affairs. Their army was large and seemingly invincible, and they were experts in siege warfare. They utilized the ____________ and tightly-knit infantry formations in military conquests.

Answer 3

horse and chariot

Question 4

They were perhaps the most hated conquerors in ancient history. _________ a king who reigned in the 7th century BCE, reveled in carnage and mutilation

Answer 4

Tiglath-Pileser

Question 5

The Assyrian Empire reached from the upper Tigris River all the way to central Egypt. They governed from _______ through military commanders

Answer 5

Nineveh

Question 6

The conquered peoples ended up uniting and overthrowing the Assyrians. The ________ indicates that Nineveh was utterly destroyed by 612 BCE. The victors salted the earth so that the earth became infertile and uninhabitable.

Answer 6

Old Testament

Question 7

Had sophisticated appreciation for all art forms
__________, one of the last Assyrian kings, built the largest library of ancient times.20,000 volumes (clay tablets) have been recovered since the early 1800s.

Answer 7

Assurbanipal

Question 8

The Phoenicians lived along a coastal strip in what is now Lebanon. From their ports at ______ and _____, they became the greatest maritime traders and colonizers of the ancient Near East.

Answer 8

Tyre and Sidon

Question 9

The Phoenicians were great colonists and traded in luxury wares: Around the Mediterranean Sea
As far away as Britain
Where they obtained _____ and mixed it with copper in order to make ______, the main metallic resource before 1000 BCE.

Answer 9

Tin

bronze

Question 10

The Phoenicians spread the art of iron making from the Hittites to the Greeks into Africa.
They established colonies throughout the western Mediterranean. The great city-state of _______, from around 800 BCE to 200 BCE when it was defeated by Rome.

Answer 10

Carthage

Question 11

The Phoenicians were absorbed into the Assyrian and successive empires but remained the paramount Mediterranean traders and seafarers until the rise of Greece in the 600s BCE.
Their most notable contribution was the _______, around1000 BCE.

Answer 11

phonetic alphabet

Question 12

Their system included 22 marks (“letters”), which each corresponded to a specific consonant sound of the oral language. Definite advance in simplicity and accessibility of written communication over both the cuneiforms of the Sumerians and the hieroglyphs of the Egyptians. __________ later added signs for vowels, though Phoenicians did not use them, which is largely the same alphabet we use today.

Answer 12

Greeks

Question 13

_____ is located in present-day Iran and its ruling group, from 500 BCE – 500 CE, was the most powerful of the many peoples of Western Asia.
Persia was the central point for travel and exchange from the Mediterranean and China to India and, later, between the Arabic-Muslim and Indic-Hindu worlds.

Answer 13

Persia

Question 14

One of the earliest pastoralist groups who conquered settled regions that supported agriculture.

Answer 14

Persians

Question 15

Persians spoke:

Answer 15

Indo-European language

Question 16

They were nomads who moved south from Central Asia between 1500-1000 BCE. Although nomadic, they still possessed large numbers of ______.
They were highly skilled at cavalry tactics, enabling them to overcome their rivals Trade and war with Mesopotamia resulted in an agricultural, sedentary civilized life.

Answer 16

horses

Question 17

_________ was a brilliant warrior king.
He united the Persians in the mid-sixth century BCE.
Through a series of successful campaigns from 559-530 BCE, he extended his domains to the borders of India all the way to the Mediterranean coast.
His son and immediate successor, Cambyses, from 525 BCE, extended power to Arabia and the Lower Nile Valley

Answer 17

Cyrus the Great

Question 18

Main cities were in Iran (Susa, Persepolis, Ecbatana), not Mesopotamia; the gradual decline of Mesopotamia’s importance can be dated to this time.
The ________ was like an umbrella sheltering many different peoples, who Cyrus felt were advanced and that he could learn many things from.

Answer 18

government

Question 19

The Persian subjects were generally allowed to keep their customs and laws.
Under ________________, they ruled the provinces (satrapies)

Answer 19

Persian supervisors (satraps)

Question 20

_________ ethical religion preaching that two principles are in eternal conflict: good and evil, trust and lies.

Answer 20

Zarathustra (Zoroastrianism)

Question 21

_____ was the third great Persian ruler.
The Persian Empire reached its largest size during his reign. He introduced gold and silver coinage and a calendar commonly used throughout the Near East.
He also developed an advanced law code influenced by Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Answer 21

Darius I

Question 22

Most of our knowledge of the Hebrews comes from the ________________

Answer 22

Old Testament, or the Tanakh

Question 23

The story of ______ leading people from the wilderness into the land of Canaan is now generally accepted as a historical fact.

Answer 23

Abraham

Question 24

The story of Abraham leading people from the wilderness into the land of Canaan is now generally accepted as a historical fact. The evidence demonstrates that: In the 20th century BCE, Semitic tribes wandered around the Arabian peninsula.
In the 1500s BCE, primitive Semitic tribes settled in _______ which was under imperial Egyptian rule

Answer 24

Canaan

Question 25

The Hebrews’ Exodus from Egypt happened in the 13th century BCE and was part of a larger regional migration. The exact reasons for the exodus are not clear. Under ____ the Hebrews resolved to return to Canaan, the __________. They wandered across the Sinai Peninsula until they encountered the Canaanites and the Philistines.

Answer 25

Moses

“land of milk and honey”

Question 26

Around 1000 BCE, the Hebrews had overcome the ___________ and set up their own small kingdom.

Answer 26

Canaanites

Question 27

_________was the first king, succeeded by his lieutenant, David. David conquered Jerusalem, which then became the Hebrews’ capital city.

Answer 27

King Saul

Question 28

King Solomon, who ruled from 973-935 BCE and was the son of David, was the most renowned king of the Hebrews. The Hebrews briefly became trading intermediaries between the _________ and ____________.

Answer 28

Mesopotamians and Egypt

Question 29

The Temple of Jerusalem was built of stone and cedarwood and decorated inside and outside with gold. Revolt against Solomon’s successor split the kingdom into ___________

Answer 29

Judea and Samaria, or Judah and Israel

Question 30

________ and the ________ viewed themselves as separate peoples.

Answer 30

Judeans (Jews) and Samaritans

Question 31

________: People scattered after failed rebellion against Assyrian overlords in 722, called the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Judeans survived under the Assyrians until they were defeated in 612 BCE.
The Hebrews rose up against the Babylonians and were defeated in 586 BCE.
Thousands were taken hostage to Babylon for the good behavior of others, known as the Babylonian Captivity, from 586-539 BCE.
Judea remained under Persian rule until Alexander the Great conquered the area in the 330s BCE.

Answer 31

First Diaspora

Question 32

________ became the only deity of the Jews (Judea, but not Samaria); monotheism was a distinct oddity among ancient peoples.

Answer 32

Yahweh (Jehovah)

Question 33

________ dualism doctrine had considerable influence, but just how far they are related is a subject for argument.

Answer 33

Zarathustra’s

Question 34

________, the promise given to Moses during the Exodus, stated that if the sacred contract to remain constant to Yahweh and keep the faith that his people would triumph over enemies

Answer 34

The Covenant

Question 35

Faith supported by a rigid set of rules Yahweh gave to _____________

Answer 35

Moses on Mount Sinai:

Question 36

_______________ are moral regulations that have been adapted to very different circumstances.

Answer 36

The Ten Commandments

Question 37

The Jewish faith was one of the earliest attempts to link ______ and worship of supernatural deities.
Yahweh’s follower gradually came to regard him as an enforcer of correct ethical actions.
Evil would be punished, if not in this world then the next to come. This belief was not unusual among other religions, as well.

Answer 37

ethics

Question 38

_____ were mostly minor players in regional affairs and politics. The division into two kingdoms weakened both of these aspects. Frequent, expensive wars followed which crippled the Jews economically

Answer 38

Jews

Question 39

Made transition from nomadic herders under ___________ to town life under __________. As many people shifted from subsistence farming to wage-earning, social tension between rich and poor appeared.
The prophets of 700s-400s BCE repeatedly called for social justice.

Answer 39

Abraham and Saul

Question 40

Jews divided all humanity into ____________

They cast out those who married outside of the Jewish faith. They were almost never open to converts.

Answer 40

“we” and “they”

Question 41

Yahweh was definitely a male lawgiver, speaking to other males in a society in which women counted only as the relatives and dependents of men.
In the _______, even when a female act assertively, it is on behalf of a male, not herself.

Answer 41

Tanakh

Question 42

Women in ancient Hebrew societies

Marriage and divorce reflected ______.

Answer 42

patriarchy

Question 43

A wife married into her husband’s family and moved into his house. Divorce easy for a husband, unusual for a wife to initiate. Women caught in ____ could be killed, but typically they divorced and went back to their father’s home.

Answer 43

adultery

Question 44

Children were the whole reason for marriage, as with almost all early peoples. Boys shared their inheritance; girls received nothing beyond their _________ because through marriage, they would join another family that could care for them. Education was carried out within the family circle and religious in nature.

Answer 44

dowries

Question 45

In the centuries after the fall of the monarchies of Samaria and Judea, the concept of Yahweh changed over time. There was a long, spiritual crisis during the ____________, and their hope for triumph over enemies was not realized.

Answer 45

Babylonian Captivity

Question 46

Aided by new interpretations of the Covenant, or the Talmud, the Jews reappraised and made precise the nature of God and their relationship to him.
Not only was Yahweh the only god, but he was also the ________________. Whether others recognized and worshipped Yahweh was irrelevant. He stood as judge over non-believers, as well

Answer 46

universal god of all

Question 47

God was just and merciful, _________ and __________

Answer 47

omnipotent and omniscient

Question 48

He granted man ______ thus allowing the principle of evil to appear via the fallen angel, Lucifer.
Last Judgment concept that would condemn them to eternal punishment and deprive them of the fate that Yahweh desired and offered: salvation in blessedness.

Answer 48

free will

Question 49

Yahweh became a ____________.
He could be prayed to directly.
His actions were not impulsive or unpredictable.
He Relationship between God and Man is meant to be one of mutual love.

Answer 49

personal deity

Question 50

Yahweh’s promise to _______ was to preserve the Jews as a people after the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests.

Answer 50

Moses

Question 51

Learned men, known as ________, saw this as a counter-conquest; instead of a contemptible minority, they would one day become the majority.

Answer 51

rabbis

Question 52

In this way grew the hopes for a ___________, a redeemer who would take the Jews out of their humiliations and make them a people to be feared and respected.

Answer 52

messiah

Question 53

The message of the Lord speaking through the great prophets was distorted into a promise of earthly grandeur not a promise of immortal salvation for those who believed.
Disbelief in Jesus because he spoke of a kingdom “not of this earth.”
Jewish fanatical leaders or _____ were unwilling to bend before any nonbeliever, however powerful he might be.

Answer 53

Zealots

Question 54

Tension grew between the Jewish nation and Roman overlords. Zealots rebelled against Romans
Their defeat led to the _______, the forced emigration of much of these small people from their ancestral home to all corners of the Roman empire.

Answer 54

2nd Diaspora

Question 55

The Jews’ national badge of distinction was their belief in their identity as the _________________
Relationship between the deity and his creations that few other peoples had. They were mutually dependent, ethical, and just people. They were merciful on the Lord’s side; submissive, but not slavish, on Man’s side. This is the mold for the evolution of Christianity.

Answer 55

Chosen people