1. General history

• sequence of world powers; state defeated by Alexander; effects of Alexander’s conquest
• name / location of empires following Alexander; empire & its leader who outlawed Judaism
• dates / leaders / causes of Maccabean revolt
• Herod the Great’s ancestry, building program
• date of Temple’s destruction
• Roman emperors; emperor at time temple was destroyed
• local rulers at Jesus’ birth, public ministry
  

2. Judaism: Land, Culture

• three main festivals; location of regions (Galilee, Samaria, Judea)
• Qumran settlement; Essenes; Nag Hammadi
• meaning of god-fearer, proselyte, zealot, heretic, judaizer
• sects: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots; Herodians
• synagogue services & education
• various forms of Jewish literature
• schools of rabbinic interpretation
• 2nd Jewish revolt & leader
  

3. Greco-Roman Society: philosophy, religion, punishment

• nature / distinctives of various philosophies: Gnosticism, Stoicism, Epicureanism
• typical lifespan
• patronage system