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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the shift in mythmaking, according to Mack, that occurred at the turn of the second century?
(a) Christians began to leave behind the gospels.
(b) Christians began to disassociate from John.
(c) Christians began to associate gospels with disciples.
(d) Christians began to attribute more writings to Jesus himself.

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

3. When does Mack argue Mark's gospel was written?
(a) Prior to the birth of Christ.
(b) During the fourth century.
(c) Before the Roman-Jewish war.
(d) After the Roman-Jewish war.

4. What does Mack argue John was worried about, which resulted in his authorship of Revelations?
(a) False teachings and affliction.
(b) Sickness and affliction.
(c) Persecution and execution.
(d) False teaching and sickness.

5. What does the gospel of Matthew argue Jesus' teachings were based on?
(a) The gospel of Mark.
(b) The gospel of Q.
(c) The Torah.
(d) The gospel of Luke.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does Mack argue the author of the letters to the Hebrews is saying?

3. What do the sermons in the Acts attempt to do?

4. What is contained in 1 Clement?

5. When do scholars place the writing of the Gospel of John?

Short Essay Questions

1. What two strong desires drove Christianity?

2. How does the Gospel of John differ from that of Mark?

3. What are the significant differences between the Pauline and Johannine traditions, as discussed by Mack in chapter 8?

4. What were the two key arguments that the centrists tried to use against the non-centrist positions of Valentinus and Marcion?

5. Describe Matthew's depiction of Jesus.

6. What was Valentinus' story of the tragedy of the birth of the world?

7. What evidence does Mack put forth that the attempts to move into mainstream Christianity worked?

8. Describe the situation in the empire since the reign of Caligula, in terms of the political mood of the Jews.

9. What are the four types of miracle interpretation occurring in the Gospel of John?

10. What is Mack's argument about why John wrote Revelations?

(see the answer keys)

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