This midterm does not ask how much information you have memorized, but asks how well you are able to understand and manipulate the material covered in class thus far. Some of you will be able to finish the exam in an hour and a half; others of you will take considerably longer. Unless you have to go back and completely reread everything, you should not be spending more than four hours on this exam! Since it is a take home exam, I expect you to employ correct English grammar and spelling and to proofread before you submit it. Submissions may be made via email (if you are working in a word processing program other than Microsoft Word, be sure to save the exam in ³text² format before sending it) or on a hard copy, submitted no later than 2:00 pm on Thursday, October 18.
1. Compare the makeup of Sacred Scripture (Bible, Tanakh) in the Christian and Jewish worlds. What do the two conceptions of ³Bible² share? How are their conceptions of ³Bible² different? [This ought to include both a consideration of content and understanding of the text(s).] (10 points)
2. Define literal-historical exegesis and provide an example from our reading. Be sure to explain how your example illustrates such an approach. (10 points)
3. Define allegorical exegesis and provide an example from our reading. Be sure to explain how your example illustrates such an approach. (10 points)
4. What is Lectio Divina? [note: it will take more than one sentence to adequately describe it.] How did the concept help shape the place of Scripture in monastic culture? (15 points)
5. Talmud is understood in Jewish tradition to represent oral law as a corollary to the written law of Torah. In what sense might Talmud be understood as a kind of Bible commentary? How does that impact on the study of the Bible in the medieval Jewish world? (15 points)
6. Describe the contributions of St. Jerome and St. Augustine to the reception of Bible in the Medieval West. (15 points)
7. How do Richard of St. Victor's and Bernard of Clairvaux's respective treatments of the love for/of God demonstrate critical differences between monastic and scholastic approaches to reading the Bible? [You are welcome to make use of texts like Augustineıs On Christian Doctrine or Hugh of St. Victorıs Didascalicon in your answer if you wish.] (15 points)
8. Jacob Anatoli tells his listeners: ³Just as a person of refinement who is invited to dine should control his appetite and eat the portion given to him, so the discerning student should accept information from his teacher in the proper order.² Based on your reading of Jacobıs homily [Saperstein, Jewish Preaching 1200-1800, pp. 111-123] and the description found in Marcus pp. 374-377 called ³A Course of Study, Moslem Lands, about 1180, what is that proper order? How might the order of study described affect the way Bible was learned, used, and understood in those communities? (15 points)