TH 119: First Theology

Test 2 Review Sheet

Please use complete sentences to express yourself fully and clearly. I would suggest that you prepare this review sheet
on your own and then gather with other members of the class to compare and discuss your responses. You are
responsible for your own work, but collaboration and discussion is always helpful.

1. List and describe the five characteristics of the ancestral narratives in Genesis.

2. Describe two ways in which the material in Genesis 1-11 differs from the material in Genesis 12-50.

3. What is a covenant, and what is the meaning of the strange story in Genesis 15? Is this a sacrifice?

4. What is significant about the disclosure of the divine name in Exodus 3? What is the divine name? What does it
mean? Can you write it in Hebrew?!

5. What does the Hebrew word chesed mean, and why is it significant for understanding the covenant?

6. Describe the purpose of the covenant with Israel, particularly the role of the commandments in the covenant. In
other words, what is the purpose of the covenant and how does it address the problem of sin?

7. What does the word “prophet” mean? How does a prophet function in relation to God, an audience, and in
relation to the disciples of the prophet?

8. List and describe the two distinctive characteristics of Israelite prophecy in general. Provide a biblical passage
that exemplified each of these characteristics.

9. Describe the historical context of both Amos and Hosea.

10. Compare and contrast the prophetic messages we find in Amos and Hosea.

11. How does Hosea’s use of marriage as an analogy for the covenant change the theology and practice of
marriage?

12. How does Hosea’s use of marriage as an analogy for the covenant change the Israelite understanding of the
covenant?

13. Who is “the satan” in Job? What is his role or function? Is this “the devil?” Explain.

14. Why does Job indict God, and how does God respond to Job’s indictments?

15. How does the Book of Job challenge the Deuteronomistic - prophetic traditions?

16. Is the ending of the Book of Job a “cop out?” Explain.

 Essay

Background: The experience of suffering raises many important questions. Christians believe that both sin
and virtue/grace have their consequences in this world (and the next). Yet, Christians are also often tempted to
see the world as a stage where God controls all the action. The phrase, “Everything happens for a reason,” is
often repeated with the force of dogma, yet “the reasons” many ascribe to God are positively blasphemous
(e.g., “God wanted this child to die or this person to have disease so that some greater good can come out of
it;” or “God made this person poor and struck her with disease in order to test her”). Christians often struggle
with randomness and contingency in the world because they think it challenges the sovereignty of God. After
all, they say, “How can God be God if He is not in control of everything?” On the one hand, ascribing
everything to God’s will seems to make God cruel. But the randomness of suffering seems to make God
powerless and irrelevant.

Prompt: Contrast the meaning of suffering as understood by both the prophets (along with the Deuteronomistic
tradition - Dt 30) with the approach to suffering offered in the Book of Job. Where do you stand on the meaning and
origin of suffering? Be sure to use SPECIFIC BIBLICAL PASSAGES in your essay as well as examples from your
SERVICE LEARNING EXPERIENCE.