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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What does Mack claim the Bible is the story of?
(a) The history of Christ.
(b) God's purposes for humankind.
(c) God's love for the Jews.
(d) The history of the world.

3. What does Mack claim is the point of the Letter of James?
(a) Showing the importance of God's will.
(b) Showing the importance of living a moral life.
(c) Showing the importance Jesus' word.
(d) Showing the importance of the Christian faith.

4. What does Mack claim the author of Acts found, in terms of an answer to what Christianity owed to Jewish history?
(a) The concept of sacrifice.
(b) The Christ myth.
(c) The laws of purity.
(d) A reliance on righteousness.

5. Who is the star from Chapter 13 to the end of the Acts of the Apostles?
(a) Peter.
(b) John.
(c) Jude.
(d) Paul.

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

7. What does Mack believe the authors intended to convey by having Peter and James defend Paul's ideas about Jewish law?
(a) That the Christian message was not meant for gentiles.
(b) That the Christian message was meant for Jews.
(c) That the Christian message was meant for gentiles.
(d) That the Christian message was not meant for Jews.

8. What do the sermons in the Acts attempt to do?
(a) Validate the authority of the disciples.
(b) Validate the claims of Jesus.
(c) Validate God.
(d) Validate the rights of the Jews.

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

10. What does Mack claim both Marcion and Valentinus offered?
(a) A revised way to view God.
(b) An ancient way to view God.
(c) A way to avoid God.
(d) A new way to view God.

11. How did early Christians think of their world?
(a) As a tomb.
(b) As a cosmos.
(c) As a kingdom of God.
(d) As a social formation.

12. What was the first act in Valentinus' cosmic drama?
(a) Man was created.
(b) The world was created.
(c) The world was destroyed.
(d) Man was destroyed.

13. Why are the Epistles of Peter and Jude called the Catholic epistles?
(a) They were addressed to the Pope.
(b) They were addressed to Christians in general.
(c) They were specific to the Catholic church.
(d) They were letters of the Catholic disciples.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What term replaced "disciples"?

2. What word is used to imply the significance of the miracle stories in the Gospel of John?

3. Where did the writer of the gospel of Luke write the gospel, according to Mack?

4. What did Clement argue about the "new song" of Christianity?

5. What is the common core of the Jewish scriptures?

(see the answer keys)

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