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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 disassociate from John.
(b) Christians began to leave behind the gospels.
(c) Christians began to attribute more writings to Jesus himself.
(d) Christians began to associate gospels with disciples.

2. What term replaced "disciples"?
(a) Acolytes.
(b) Apostles.
(c) Cultists.
(d) Followers.

3. What does Mack argue the author of the letters to the Hebrews is saying?
(a) Jesus is better than God.
(b) Jesus is better than the entire system of Israelite religion.
(c) Jesus is better than Moses.
(d) Jesus is better than the Roman gods.

4. It is as important for the disciples to be apostles as it is for Jesus to be ___________________.
(a) Son of God.
(b) God.
(c) Son of man.
(d) The Christ.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who defended the centrist Christian position from those who challenged it?

2. What does Mack claim the author of Acts found, in terms of an answer to what Christianity owed to Jewish history?

3. What does Mack claim was added to John 19:35?

4. What does Mack claim the author of the Acts of the Apostles set out to show?

5. What was Valentinus' claim about what Christ made possible, in terms of knowledge of God?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What two strong desires drove Christianity?

3. What did the Jewish scripture available to early Christians consist of?

4. What two values are integrated in the Letters of Ignatius, and what is the result?

5. What are the standard writing conventions used in the Acts of the Apostles?

6. What were the four ways of reading the scripture that supported the Christian inclusion of Jewish scripture in their religion?

7. What was Marcion of Sinope's logic, in terms of his views of two Gods, and what to do about the Jewish contamination in the gospels?

8. Explain the conversion of Constantine, and why it was pivotal in the creation of the Bible.

9. Describe Mack's observations about James as an author in the first three centuries.

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

(see the answer keys)

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