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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 about Paul's letters to Colossians and Ephesians?
(a) They are not authentic.
(b) They are attempts to sabotage his name.
(c) They did not truly exist.
(d) They are filled with lies.

2. What was the core objective of the epic of Israel through the end of the second temple?
(a) The confirmation of God as a Jewish myth.
(b) The confirmation of the death of Christ.
(c) The establishment of the temple-state.
(d) The establishment of the Church.

3. When do scholars place the writing of the Gospel of John?
(a) Before Christ.
(b) In the 1800s.
(c) In the third century.
(d) In the 90s.

4. What does Mack claim about Justin's treatise to the Jews?
(a) Justin never wrote it.
(b) No one ever read it.
(c) It was made up by the Jews.
(d) No Jew ever listened to it.

5. How does John portray Jesus, according to Mack?
(a) As a cosmic Lord.
(b) As the spirit of God.
(c) As a powerful ruler.
(d) As a teacher.

6. What does Mack argue the Letter to the Hebrews is, in reality?
(a) A philosophical exhortation.
(b) A statement of principle.
(c) False letters from the Jewish leaders.
(d) Letters that should be attributed to Paul.

7. Why did the book of Hebrews not succeed?
(a) It was illogical.
(b) It was too long.
(c) It was too intellectual.
(d) It was against the Jews.

8. What does Mark's gospel do to the disciples that the story of Q did not?
(a) Ignores them.
(b) Kills them.
(c) Worships them.
(d) Names them.

9. Who was the first of this group to attack centrist Christianity?
(a) Caesar.
(b) Valentinus.
(c) Marcion of Sinope.
(d) Justin.

10. Why did the literature that the early bishops threw out survive?
(a) Christians continued to read it.
(b) It was protected by the Romans.
(c) Jews preserved it.
(d) It was protected by other bishops.

11. In Revelations, who was found worthy enough to open the seven seals?
(a) Man.
(b) Moses.
(c) The lamb.
(d) Jesus.

12. What was Valentinus' claim about what Christ made possible, in terms of knowledge of God?
(a) That Christ made it possible to know God through apostles.
(b) That Christ made it possible to know God by acquaintance.
(c) That Christ made it possible to know God through scripture.
(d) That Christ made it possible to know about God.

13. What did the Centrists seek to prove to the challengers?
(a) That God cared only for the Jews.
(b) That the Christian God was not the same as the Jewish God.
(c) That the Christian God was the same as the Jewish God.
(d) That God did not exist.

14. What does Mack call the Christian myth, in terms of its completion?
(a) An incomplete historical reference.
(b) An unfinished epic.
(c) A complete fictitious myth.
(d) A completed canon.

15. What is the term for "a small group of writings believes to have been written by bishops and others" who knew the apostles?
(a) Successions.
(b) Martyrdoms.
(c) Revelations.
(d) Apostolic Fathers.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Mack argue at the end of Chapter 8 became the beloved disciple?

2. How many miracles occur in the Gospel of John?

3. How did Mark portray Jesus?

4. What is Ignatius' second appeal in his letters to the churches?

5. What two sources does Mack claim Matthew used for his gospel?

(see the answer keys)

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