Quiz 023

Episode 23 Quiz

Welcome to the quiz for Episode 23: Love. Desire. Exegesis. See how much you can remember about the Song of Songs by clicking “START” below!

1 / 10

The traditional Christian interpretation of the Song of Songs has been that:

The poem prophecies a coming period when all will set aside their differences and unite under the teachings of Jesus.

The poem is a dialogue between the Father and the Son.

The poem is about Paul's missionary work at Ephesus.

The poem captures the passionate relationship between Christ and his followers.

The poem is a dialogue between Joseph and Mary.

2 / 10

There are extensive parallels between the Song of Songs and:

The domestic records on Sennacherib's prism.

Retenu poetry dated to the 7th-century BCE.

A recently discovered Akkadian version of the Epic of Ishtar and Tammuz.

A Hittite stele discovered at Hattusa called H147, thought to be written by Suppiluliuma.

Ancient Egyptian love poems in a 13th-century BCE manuscript called Papyrus Harris 500.

3 / 10

One of the Song of Songs’ most pervasive features is:

A parallel structure in which a lover proposes a union and another lover rejects the union.

The use of polysyndeton from end to end.

A parallel structure in which unions between lovers are likened to unions between state agencies.

A pair of lovers offering itemized lists of one another's features.

The use of chiasmus from end to end.

4 / 10

The Song of Songs is traditionally attributed to:

Baruch

Daniel

Solomon

Samson

David

5 / 10

The Song of Songs was probably written:

Before the Bronze Age Collapse.

During the Babylonian Captivity.

After the Roman Imperial period began.

During the Persian or Hellenistic periods.

Before the Babylonian Captivity.

6 / 10

Modern readers of the Song of Songs are often struck by its strange

References to the Roman Emperor Diocletian

Blend of Hittite and Akkadian

References to a mysterious dark force

Metaphors

Denial of Yahweh's power

7 / 10

The traditional Jewish interpretation of the Song of Songs has been that:

It is about a temple priestess and Levite who lived during the days of Nehemiah.

It is about the impassioned love between Yahweh and the Israelites.

It is about Alexander of Macedon and the Bactrian princess, Roxana.

It is a coded update to Leviticus, specifying more laws for sacred offerings.

It captures Jerusalem's harmonious relations with Ecbatana and Susa during the Persian period.

8 / 10

This Hellenistic Greek writer’s description of a lover, “They call [you] a gypsy, gracious [love], and lean, and sun-burnt, [it’s] only I that call [you] honey-pale,” may help us understand the Song of Songs’ enigmatic line “I am black and beautiful. . .Do not gaze at me because I am dark, / because the sun has gazed on me.”

Callimachus

Theophrastus

Eratosthenes

Theocritus

Apollonius

9 / 10

Exegesis means:

Transition

Distortion

Discovering the roots of a text

Interpretation

The preservation of a material text

10 / 10

A frequent interpretation of the line “My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept” (1:6) is:

This line may describe the female speaker's loss of chastity.

The line might be about the female speaker's unkempt hair.

This line may describe the shifting economy of Persian period Jerusalem.

This line may reference the male speaker betraying his ancestry.

The line might describe the male speaker falling away from his discipline.

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