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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Mack claim is the purpose of the Miracle Stories of Mark?
(a) To explain the supernatural powers of the disciples.
(b) To describe the wonders of faith.
(c) To explain historic facts of Jesus.
(d) To create the impression of a divine power.

2. What does Mack claim about the authors of the sections in the New Testament?
(a) They are the people each section is attributed to.
(b) They were uneducated militants, rebelling against the Church.
(c) They are not the people each section is attributed to.
(d) They were descendants of Jesus.

3. What does Mack claim the kingdom of God represented?
(a) An alternative to the current society.
(b) An alternative to hell.
(c) An alternative to purgatory.
(d) An alternative to simple death.

4. Why did Paul tone down his views of the freedom of Christians?
(a) He was reverting back to his Jewish roots.
(b) He did not want a repeat of the out of control behaviors at Corinth.
(c) He was told by God to tame the behaviors of man.
(d) He wanted to tie down Christians to make them more holy.

5. Why does Mack claim groups are forming outside the boundaries of religion to study the Bible?
(a) They hope to discover fundamental truths from the past.
(b) They hope to find salvation.
(c) They hope to find their faith.
(d) They hope to find solutions to political issues.

6. What did Paul's Jewish sensibility place high value on?
(a) Holiness.
(b) Community.
(c) Honor.
(d) Divinity.

7. What does Mack suggest the taking up of residence in Jerusalem signifies for the group?
(a) A political agenda.
(b) A loyalty to the Pharisee.
(c) A disrespect for Jewish tradition.
(d) A religious agenda.

8. What was the Greek concept of civilization?
(a) The republic.
(b) The Church.
(c) The city-state.
(d) The temple-state.

9. Why were issues such as homosexuality a source of cultural conflict?
(a) It was not accepted by any culture.
(b) It was accepted by all cultures.
(c) It was unheard of in any culture.
(d) It was accepted by one culture, and rejected by another.

10. Where did Rome place its power in the second and first centuries?
(a) In its priests.
(b) In its politicians.
(c) In its field commanders.
(d) In its laborers.

11. What was the Stoic recommendation for personal virtue?
(a) That man could only pretend to know what was naturally right.
(b) That man could never learn what was naturally right.
(c) That man could learn what was naturally right.
(d) That man should avoid what was naturally right.

12. What did Paul stress was important, since they were "members of Christ"?
(a) The soul.
(b) The spirit.
(c) The mind.
(d) The body.

13. What two systems helped define the temple-state?
(a) Purity and salvation.
(b) Salvation and logic.
(c) Power and purity.
(d) Power and cruelty.

14. Which of the layers of Q is least embellished?
(a) The third.
(b) The fifth.
(c) The first.
(d) The second.

15. Why does Mack call the Christ cult the first Christians?
(a) They were the first to create a hymn to Jesus.
(b) They called themselves Christians.
(c) They were the first to mention the resurrection.
(d) They were the first to use the word Christ to refer to Jesus.

Short Answer Questions

1. When would eternal life be obtained, according the Mack's depiction of Paul's letters to the Thessalonians?

2. What does Mack argue Paul saw the Christ myth as, in terms of the State of Israel?

3. Where did the Jesus movement begin their change to the Christ cult?

4. What is the Jewish story of the persecuted sage also called?

5. What role did women play in associations?

(see the answer keys)

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