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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What does Mark's gospel do to the disciples that the story of Q did not?
2. Where did Justin claim the Greek philosophers received their wisdom?
3. What is the common core of the Jewish scriptures?
4. What does Mack claim the author of Acts found, in terms of an answer to what Christianity owed to Jewish history?
5. Who does Mack claim most of the sermons in the Acts of the Apostles are written for?
Short Essay Questions
1. 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?
2. How does the Gospel of John differ from that of Mark?
3. What were the four ways of reading the scripture that supported the Christian inclusion of Jewish scripture in their religion?
4. What are the four types of miracle interpretation occurring in the Gospel of John?
5. 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?
6. Explain the observations Mack claims are important about Mark's use of the pronouncement stories.
7. What two values are integrated in the Letters of Ignatius, and what is the result?
8. Describe the situation in the empire since the reign of Caligula, in terms of the political mood of the Jews.
9. What is Mack's argument about why John wrote Revelations?
10. What are the major points of the sermons contained in the Acts, according to Mack?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Explain how the conversion of Constantine led to the development of the Christian Bible. Who was Constantine? Why did his position in the Roman empire matter? What did he set out to do? What three events does Mack credit to the creation of the Christian Bible? What does he say about Augustus' role in Josephs list? What does he say about the Letter of Athenasius? How did the list of Eusebius play a role?
Essay Topic 2
Discuss the letter by Paul to the Galatians. Why is it important? What happened to entice the letter from Paul? What question was Paul trying to answer? What was his argument, in terms of how the Christians could receive the same blessings as the Jews? Explain that argument in detail. What issues does Mack see, in terms of the validity of the argument? Was this argument continued by Paul in later letters? Why or why not? What does this say about Paul's own opinion of his argument?
Essay Topic 3
Explain, in detail, the mythologies that were used to provide the logic for the concept of Jesus' death and resurrection. Be sure to include information about the Greek myth of noble death, the Jewish concepts of martyrdom, the Jewish myth of the persecuted sage, examples of each, and how these myths tied into the Christ cult's concept of the death and resurrection.
This section contains 1,105 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |