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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 does the Didache contain?
(a) The Gospel of Thomas.
(b) Sayings of Jesus.
(c) Instructions for congregations.
(d) The Commandments.

2. What is the common core of the Jewish scriptures?
(a) The New Testament.
(b) The Dead Sea Scrolls.
(c) Revelations.
(d) The five books of Moses.

3. 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) The concept of sacrifice.
(c) The Christ myth.
(d) A reliance on righteousness.

4. Why were the revisions of the scriptures not convincing before 70 C.E.?
(a) They could not match the logic that the epic was for the second-temple Jerusalem.
(b) They could not match the logic that the epic was for the Roman empire.
(c) They could not match the logic that the epic was for Jesus.
(d) They could not match the logic that the epic was for the Greek state.

5. What is Ignatius' second appeal in his letters to the churches?
(a) For the congregations to pray for Ignatius.
(b) For the congregations to obey their bishops.
(c) For the congregations to rise up against Rome.
(d) For the congregations to become martyrs.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the gospel of Matthew argue Jesus' teachings were based on?

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

3. What does Mack argue John was worried about, which resulted in his authorship of Revelations?

4. What does Mack claim about Paul's letters to Colossians and Ephesians?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the three themes that dominate the story of Jesus and his resurrection in the Gospel of Luke?

2. Describe Matthew's depiction of Jesus.

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

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

5. What were the common values contained in both the temple system of sacrifice and the family system of rituals that allowed the translation of one into the other?

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

7. What two strong desires drove Christianity?

8. 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?

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

10. Explain Mack's discussion of when the Epistles of Peter and Jude were written. What references does he use to attempt to date the pieces?

(see the answer keys)

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