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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 collection of early Christian texts does the Didache now belong to?
(a) The Apostolic Fathers.
(b) Acts of the Apostles.
(c) The Dead Sea Scrolls.
(d) Revelations.

2. What is the term for "a small group of writings believes to have been written by bishops and others" who knew the apostles?
(a) Successions.
(b) Martyrdoms.
(c) Revelations.
(d) Apostolic Fathers.

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(c) An incomplete historical reference.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

4. Why does Mack argue Jesus' death is qualitatively different from all other deaths of the prophets?
(a) Jesus was immortal.
(b) Jesus was the enemy of the state.
(c) Jesus was the son of God.
(d) Jesus was a martyr.

5. Who began to give an account of the new religion to Greeks, Romans, and others?
(a) Jewish intellectuals.
(b) Local Bishops.
(c) Christian intellectuals.
(d) Roman rulers.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Mack argue at the end of Chapter 8 became the beloved disciple?

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

3. What does Mack claim the Bible is the story of?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Mack say about the "overwhelming concern" in the Didache about the practice of alms, gift giving, and supporting those who ask for hand outs?

3. What two strong desires drove Christianity?

4. 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?

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

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

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

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

9. Explain the observations Mack claims are important about Mark's use of the pronouncement stories.

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

(see the answer keys)

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