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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What two sources does Mack claim Matthew used for his gospel?
(a) The gospel of Mark and the gospel of Luke.
(b) The book of Q and the gospel of Luke.
(c) The book of Q and the gospel of Mark.
(d) The book of Q and the gospel of the Christ cult.

2. What list became the Christian Bible?
(a) The list of Eusebius.
(b) The letter of Trier.
(c) The Festal Letter of Athenasius.
(d) The list of Jerome's translations.

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

4. What became an interest for early third century scholars?
(a) Apostolic writings.
(b) The Montanist.
(c) Letters of Esther.
(d) The Torah.

5. How did Luke portray Jesus?
(a) A powerful deity.
(b) A wandering prophet.
(c) A teacher of the Torah.
(d) The manifestation of obedience to the spirit.

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

7. What did the temple at Jerusalem serve as, in terms of a symbol?
(a) It was the symbol of peace.
(b) It was the symbol of God.
(c) It was the symbol of Jewish presence.
(d) It was the symbol of Jesus.

8. Whose conversion eventually led to the creation of the New Testament?
(a) Constantine.
(b) Caesar.
(c) Eusebius.
(d) Jerome.

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

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

11. Who was the leader of the empire who tried to have his images placed in the temple of Jerusalem?
(a) Caligula.
(b) Nero.
(c) Claudius.
(d) Arippa I.

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who began to give an account of the new religion to Greeks, Romans, and others?

2. Why were the revisions of the scriptures not convincing before 70 C.E.?

3. Why did the literature that the early bishops threw out survive?

4. During the time of the writing of Revelations, what does Mack argue the Christians were being accused of by the Romans?

5. What does Mack claim about Justin's treatise to the Jews?

(see the answer keys)

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