Chapter 8

1. The Diaspora of the Jews some 900 years earlier that began with the Assyrians
ended in 1948, when the state of Israel was established by the ________UNITED
NATIONS________. (2 words)
2. Much of what we know about the times come from the writings of
_______JOSEPHUS_____, a Jewish historian (ca. 17-ca.100 CE) Note: when ca. is used
in conjunction with a date, it means we dont know the exact date, but about that
time.)
3. Despite growing sectarianism, a community of scholars known as the
______SANHEDRIN_____, who had met for centuries to discuss and interpret the
Torah, continued to provide a strong intellectual center for the Jews.
4. The development of Christianity, the religion that would have such a profound
effect upon the history of the Western world, can only be understood in the context
of _____JEWISH_____history.
5. Many New Testament scholars say that the actions and sayings attributed to
______JESUS______ in the gospels cannot be factually traced to him, and that since
they were written many decades after his death, they are composites of hearsay,
legends and theological interpretations reflecting the hopes and beliefs of the early
Christian community.
6. The new Christian faith did not immediately abandon its traditions as a Jewish
sect. Jesus, for instance, never thought of himself as anything other than a
_____JEW______.
7. Although very little early Christian art survives, the works that do survive show
an overwhelming message of ____SYMBOLISM_____; rather than literal meaning.
8. The stone sarcophagus of _____JUNIUS BASSUS______ (2 names) is one of the
most extraordinary pieces of sculpture of the late Roman Empire.
9. Over the years, Christians developed a consistent ____ICONOGRAPHY____the
subject matter of a work, both literal (Factual) and figurative (symbolic)in their art
and literature.
10. The Nicene Council rejected the Arian position and produced a document, the
______NICENE CREED_______, (2 words) that unified the Church behind a prescribed
doctrine, or dogma, creating, in effect, an orthodox faith.
11. The Church was organized around the administrative division of the Roman state
archbishops oversaw the provinces, bishops the dioceses, and priest the parishes
an organization that provided ____CONSTANTINE_______ with the means to
impose the Creed throughout the empire, eliminate rivalries within the Empire, and
rule over both church and state.
12. In Rome, Saint Jerome (ca. 342-420 CE) translated the Hebrew Bible and the
Greek books of the New Testament into Latin. The resulting _____VULGATE_____,

meaning common or popular, became the official Bible of the Roman Catholic
Church.
13. All in all, the basilica church was far more than an assembly hall. It was a richly
decorated spiritual ___PERFORMANCE___ space, designed to elicit awe and wonder
in the worshippers.
14. Cults known as _____MYSTERY CULTS_____(2 words) were popular among the
Romans, and Christianity borrowed freely from them in a process of crossfertilization; each cult adapting elements from others that were attractive or popular
as they competed for followers.
15. In ___ZOROASTRIAN____ tradition, Mithras appears as a judge in the Last
Judgment. We also know his birthday was celebrated each year on December 25.
16. In The City of God, ____AUGUSTINE_____ writes that history is a forward
movementat least in a spiritual sense to the Day of Judgment, a movement from
the earthly city, with its secular ways, to the heavenly city, untouched by worldly
concerns.
17. _____HAGIA SOPHIA_____ (2 names) was originally dedicated to Christ as the
personification of Holy Wisdom, but was taken over by Muslim emperors and
converted to a mosque in 1453. (The book fails to mention the technology that built
the Hagia Sophia was lost when it was seized by the Muslims. Europe would not see
another building of its kind or as sophisticated for nearly a thousand years.)
18. In Byzantine mosaics, artists first outlined the image on the wall, then covered
successive areas with cement or plaster, filling in the ____TESSERAE____ as they
went. Each _____TESSERA_____ was set at a slight angle to the one adjacent to it, so
that as light stuck the squares, the changing angle of the refraction would create a
shimmering, almost heavenly radiance, both mystical and spiritual.
19. Ravennas art was the result of over 250 years of Byzantine rule, beginning in
402 when Honorius, son of Theodosius I, made it the _____CAPITAL____ of the
Western Empire.
20. Most ____BYZANTINE______ churches have an exceedingly plain exterior but on
the inside, the elaborate decoration symbolizes the richness of the spiritual world.
21. The mosaics at San Vitale in Ravenna possess a distinct political agenda,
serving as propaganda to remind the faithful of the emperors divine authoritythe
union of the _____POLITICAL______ and spiritual spheres.
22. Strange as it may seem, Justinian and Theodora never actually set foot in
___RAVEENA______, let alone San Vitale, and their depiction of its walls is probably
best understood as a symbol of relations between Church and State in the
Byzantine Empire.
23. Both the Muslims and Leo III argued that God had prohibited religious images in
the ____TEN COMMANDMENTS________ (2 words)Thou shalt not make any
graven image, or likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the

earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them nor serve them (Exodus 20:4-5). Therefore, anyone worshipping
such images was an idolater and was offending God. The solution was to ban
images.
24. In terms of _____ICONOGRAPHY____, most Roman Catholics believed that
images of God the Father, Christ, and the Virgin served to inspire severance and
piety, while a large segment of the Eastern Church did not.
25. No single image underscores the role of the Theotokos as protectress more than
the tenthcentury mosaic Thotokos and Child with Justinian and Constantine that
decorates the ____VESTIBULE______ to Hagia Sophia.
26. The original brick front of Saint Marks Basilica, Venice is inlaid with marble slabs
and carvings, much of it looted from ____CONSTANTINOPLE_____ in 1204.