Amos – despised religious festivals, prophet to Israel, God holds every nation to standard of general morality

Hosea – married to Gomer, marriage symbolized God’s relationship with Israel

Gomer – wife of whoredom either cultic or idolater

Isaiah – 8th century prophet, split up into 3 parts, Emmanuel prophecy syro-ephraimitic war, 1 Isaiah announcing salvation, 2nd Isaiah exile, 3rd Isaiah post exile

Ahaz – father of Hezekiah

Hezekiah – good king, brought reforms, destroyed idolaters

Manasseh – evil king, brought back idolaters

Josiah – good king, repeated Hezekiah reforms centralized worship in God’s temple in Jerusalem

Ezekial – mentions abominations in temple, people were bowing to sun god (bum to God relieving themselves), laid on side for over a year, ate food from cow dung, symbolized the way Israelites had to eat in exile, announces new covenant

Habakkuk – complains to God, God sends Babylonians/ Hasmoneans

Jeremiah – weeping prophet, The Book of Jeremiah records the final prophecies to Judah, warning of oncoming destruction if the nation does not repent. Jeremiah calls out for the nation to turn back to God. At the same time, Jeremiah recognizes the inevitability of Judah’s destruction due to its unrepentant idolatry and immorality

Tiglath-Pileser III – Assyrian King, dispersed people in given nation, caused intermarriage and loss of identity

Sennacherib – general Assyrian leader, attacked southern Israel kingdom, unsuccessful, 180,000 troops killed by angels

Nebuchadnezzar – greatest king of the Babylonian Empire, conquered Judah and the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem in 586 BC, Tired of the rebellions, and seeing that Judah had not learned its lesson when he invaded, conquered, and deported Judah in 597, Nebuchadnezzar and his general, Nebuzaradan, proceeded to completely destroy the temple and most of Jerusalem, deporting most of the remaining residents to Babylon. In this, Nebuchadnezzar served as God’s instrument of judgment on Judah for its idolatry, unfaithfulness, and disobedience

Daniel – apocalypse, interprets Neb’s dreams (4 parts of an image = 4 kingdoms begging with Neb’s, Daniel chapter 2 records God giving Nebuchadnezzar a dream about what kingdoms would arise after his own. In Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar created a gold statue of himself and required all the people to bow down to it whenever the music played, chapter 4 God informed him that the dream was a warning to the king to humble himself and recognize that his power, wealth, and influence were from God, not of his own making.

Cyrus – anointed one, king of Persia, allowed Israelites to return home

Judah Maccabee – led the Jewish revolt against the Syrians and rededicated the Temple, Maccabee = hammer, Antiochus IV tried to get the Jews to adopt Greek practices and turned the Jerusalem Temple into a shrine to Zeus. Judas and others revolted. Jews recaptured and rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem.

Mattathias Johanan – Mattathias, as a leader in the city, was commanded by the officers to be the first person to offer a sacrifice as an example to the rest of the people. He refused with a powerful speech, Fearing violence against the people for Mattathias’ refusal, another Jew volunteered to offer the sacrifices to the pagan gods in the place of Mattathias, but Mattathias killed this Jewish man, as well as the soldiers of the king. He then destroyed the altar to the pagan gods, after which he, his sons, and a number of followers fled to the mountainous wilderness. These men formed a large, guerrilla warfare army and soon began to launch raids against the towns of the land, tearing down the pagan altars, killing the officials of Antiochus, and also executing those Jews who were worshipping the pagan gods.

Job – The Book of Job helps us to understand the following: Satan cannot bring financial and physical destruction upon us unless it is by God's permission. God has power over what Satan can and cannot do. It is beyond our human ability to understand the "why's" behind all the suffering in the world. The wicked will receive their just dues. We cannot always blame suffering and sin on our lifestyles. Suffering may sometimes be allowed in our lives to purify, test, teach or strengthen the soul. God remains enough, deserves and requests our love and praise in all circumstances of life.

Seleukos – one of the four main generals during Alexander the Great

Ptolemy – Ptolemy was the Macedonian general who, as one of the Diadochi, or Successors, of Alexander, acquired Egypt. From him was established the Ptolemaic Dynasty that ruled for three centuries, until the murder of Caesarion (Ptolemy XV), the 17 year old son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, by order of Octavian in 30 B.C.

Antiochis IV –Daniel outlaws Torah, put alter of Zeus in temple, sacrifice pig, Mattathias, Judah of Maccabee

Simon – related, overthrew leader, augurated manifest destiny, zaddicite priest, conservative, opposed solucid rule, when he died all hell broke loose in priesthood

Jason – Onias brother, likes hellenization, says will offer money to buy priesthood from Antiochus

Menelaus – outbids Jason for priesthood, not zadicite priest, no concern for Jewish laws/customs until Macaadean revolt

Onias III – simon’s son, pro-egyptian, pro-ptolemy, doesn’t like solucide ruler Antiochis IV, hesminia dynasty, traditional only about Jesus

Alexander the Great – referring to the Macedonian king, never appears in the Bible. However, the prophets Daniel and Zechariah wrote prophecies concerning Greece and Alexander’s Macedonian Empire. The non-eschatological prophecies in Daniel have proved so reliable that some critics have tried to post-date his writing, even though copious literary, historical and biblical factors point to a date of writing in the sixth century B.C. (see the third paragraph of this article). Zechariah, writing sometime between 520 and 470 B.C., was also well before Alexander’s rise to power. Hellenism – greek culture

Short Answer
3 different views regarding the nature of Messianic Prophecy – retroage – child only from his day and age, sensus – a child in his own day and age and Jesus

describe the nature and purpose of the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah – Hezekiah centralizes worship in Jerusalem

describe the nature and significance of the oracles against the nations (OAN) – all people are subject to moral-natural laws

what are the different views regarding the authorship of Isaiah – redactional - God’s concern for nonchosen people, traditional – Isaiah, duhm Isaiah son of amos

significance of Hosea’s marriage to Gomer – Gomer whore/prostitute, worshipper of Baal, figurative whore, culturistic prostitute/idolater, metaphor for idolatery

important issues surrounding the sign of Immanuel in Isaiah 7 – God’s concern

what was the purpose of the book of jeremiah – written to those who survived the exile, a reminder to be faithful to their covenant and able to see the affect they had on the prophet

What is the new covenant? Describe its old and new features – same God/same laws/same inwardness, difference is new universal spirit/forgiveness, new heart of flesh, unconditional

Historical setting of and purpose of 2nd Isaiah – announcing salvation, new exodus, God is bringing them back to their homeland

Servant Songs – The Servant songs (also called the Servant poems or the Songs of the Suffering Servant) are songs in the Book of Isaiah. They were first identified by Bernhard Duhm in his 1892 commentary on Isaiah. The songs are four poems written about a certain "servant of YHWH." describes the service, suffering, and exaltation of the Servant of the Lord, the Messiah. All four songs show the Messiah to be God’s meek and gentle Servant. He is a royal figure, representing Israel in its ideal form; He is the high priest, atoning for the sins of the world. Isaiah predicts that this Servant of the Lord would deliver the world from the prison of sin. In the royal terminology of the ancient Near East, a servant was a “trusted envoy,” a “confidential representative,” or “one who is chosen.” The Servant Songs are found in Isaiah 42:1–9; Isaiah 49:1–13; Isaiah 50:4–11; and Isaiah 52:13—53:12.

What is the purpose of the book of Proverbs – The purpose of the book is for moral instructions on everyday living

Differences between the traditional and critical interpretations of the book of Daniel – the traditional is taking him at face value that he is genuinely prophesizing what is going to happen, the critical interpretation is that it didn’t really happen the way Daniel said it did

Important dates
745: tiglath pileser III – Assyrian Ruler
735: Syro Ephramitic War
722-21: northern kingdom destroyed by sennacherib
701: sennacherib fails to conquer Jerusalem
639-609: reign of Josiah
612: fall of Assyria
605: battle of Carchemish/Babylonian hegemony begins
398: first deportation
587-86: second deportation/destruction of temple
581: third deportation
540-39: cyrus allows exiles to return home
515: rebuilding of 2nd temple
167-164: Antiochus persecution