Test 2

Mark

"He sternly ordered them not to make him known."

True

True/False: In the ancient world, books were almost always read aloud.

False

True/False: The Gospel of Mark was written within a decade of Jesus' life.

False

True/False: The New Testament Gospels all have Jesus getting crucified at the same time of day.

(1) from above (2) again

What does "born anothen" mean?

(1) Jesus carries cross by himself (2) Last words were "It is finished" (3) Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them

What is unique to John's passion narrative?

Baptism

What ritual was necessary for new converts to Christianity to undergo?

(1) Jesus = Messiah = anointed one = "rubbed with oil" (2) Son of God (3) Son of Man

What three titles does Mark give Jesus?

Gospel

When this word is capitalized, it refers to a literary genre: a written account of the "good news" brought by Jesus Christ, including episodes involving his words and/or deeds (e.g., the Gospel of Luke or of Peter).

So the angel of death would pass over those houses

Why did God instruct Moses to have every Israelite family sacrifice a lamb and paint their doorframes with its blood?

Because the Jewish leaders refuse to go into Pilate's residence, so they send Jesus in alone, leaving Pilate to go back and forth between them

Why, in the Gospel of John, does Pontius Pilate have to conduct the trial of Jesus through lengthy conversations between the prosecution and the defendant?

4 BCE

birth of Jesus

30 CE

crucifixion of Jesus

fourth century CE

date of the copies of the Gospel of Thomas

70 CE

fall of Second Temple

64 CE

the great fire of Rome; Peter and Paul executed shortly after

120-125 CE

writing of Gospel of Thomas

95 CE

writing of John

80s CE

writing of Luke, Matthew

65-70 CE

writing of Mark

50-60 CE

writing of letters of Paul

1945

year of the discovery of the Gnostic documents

Suetonius

A Roman historian of the early second century C.E., best known for a multivolume collection of biographies of the Roman emperors, The Lives of the Caesars.

Mishnah

A collection of oral traditions passed on by generations of Jewish rabbis who saw themselves as the descendants of the Pharisees, finally put into writing around 200 C.E.

Sanhedrin

A council of Jewish leaders headed by the high priest that played an advisory role in matters of religious and civil policy.

Paganism

Any of the polytheistic religions of the Greco-Roman world, an umbrella term for ancient Mediterranean religions other than Judaism and Christianity.

Josephus

First-century Jewish historian appointed court historian by the Roman Emperor Vespasian, whose works The Jewish War and The Antiquities of the Jews are principal resources for information about life in first-century Palestine.

Tacitus

Roman historian of the early second century C.E., whose multivolume work The Annals of Rome provides substantial information about Roman history from the beginning down to his own time.

(b) 10-15 percent

Scholars estimate literacy in antiquity to have been: (a) 1-5 percent. (b) 10-15 percent (c) 20-25 percent (d) 40-45 percent

Matthew

"His blood be on us and on our children."

John

"In the beginning was the Word."

Mark

"The women said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."

L

A document (or documents, written or oral) that no longer survives, but that evidently provided Luke with traditions that are not found in Matthew or Mark. See also Four-Source Hypothesis.

M

A document (or documents, written or oral) that no longer survives, but that evidently provided Matthew with traditions that are not found in Mark or Luke. See also Four-Source Hypothesis.

Asclepius

A popular Greek god known in particular for his ability to heal the sick.

Roman Empire

All of the lands conquered by Rome and ruled, ultimately, by the Roman emperor, starting with Caesar Augustus in 27 B.C.E.; prior to that, Rome was a republic ruled by the Senate (see also Box 3.3).

Tradition

Any doctrine, idea, practice, or custom that has been handed down from one person to another.

No

Did the authors of the Gospels claim to be eyewitnesses to the events that they narrated?

Passion

From a Greek word that means "suffering," used as a technical term to refer to the traditions of Jesus' last days, up to and including his crucifixion (hence the "Passion narrative").

Baptism

From the Greek term baptizo, which means "to immerse." The earliest Christian practice of baptism in water appears to have been an initiation rite (i.e., a ritual that one underwent when joining the Christian community); it probably derived from the practice of John the Baptist, who baptized Jews, including Jesus, in anticipation of the imminent arrival of the end of this age and the coming of the Kingdom of God. (Jewish cleansing rituals were repeated as the need arose; John's baptism, like that of later Christians, appears to have been a one-time occurrence.) Later Christians assigned other meanings to the rite: the apostle Paul, for example, saw it as the mystical act of dying with Christ to sin.

Apostle

Generally, one who is commissioned to perform a task, from a Greek word meaning "sent"; in early Christianity, the term was used to designate special emissaries of the faith who were understood to be representatives of Christ. See also Disciple.

There weren't any references made to him.

How did pagan literature of the first century refer to the events surrounding Jesus?

(b) The account in Mark has it occurring at 9:00 a.m., while John's takes place after noon.

Identify one discrepancy in the Gospel accounts of Jesus' crucifixion. (a) The account in Luke has it occurring at midnight, while Matthew's takes place at 10:00 a.m. (b) The account in Mark has it occurring at 9:00 a.m., while John's takes place after noon. (c) The account in Mark details Jesus' spirit leaving his body before the crucifixion, while John's details his suffering on the cross. (d) The account in Mark describes Jesus' position on the cross as being upside-down, while in John's it is right-side-up.

Son of God

In most Greco-Roman circles, the designation of a person born to a god, able to perform miraculous deeds and/or to convey superhuman teachings; in Jewish circles, the designation of persons chosen to stand in a special relationship with the God of Israel, including the ancient Jewish kings.

Temple

In pagan circles, this was any holy place devoted to one or more divine beings where sacrifices could be made in accordance with established religious principles. For Judaism there was only one legitimate place, the one in Jerusalem, an enormous complex that contained the holy sanctuary and, within it, the Holy of Holies, where God's presence on earth was believed to dwell.

Superstition

In the ancient world, this was understood by the highly educated upper classes as an excessive fear of the gods that drove a person to be excessively scrupulous in trying to avoid their displeasure.

Criterion of Dissimilarity

One of the criteria commonly used by scholars to establish historically reliable material; the criterion maintains that if a saying or deed of Jesus does not coincide with (or works against) the agenda of the early Christians, it is more likely to be authentic.

Criterion of Contextual Credibility

One of the criteria commonly used by scholars to establish historically reliable material; with respect to the historical Jesus, the criterion maintains that if a saying or deed of Jesus cannot be credibly fit into his own first-century Palestinian context, then it cannot be regarded as authentic.

Criterion of Independent Attestation

One of the criteria commonly used by scholars to establish historically reliable material; with respect to the historical Jesus, the criterion maintains that if a saying or deed of Jesus is attested independently by more than one source, it is more likely to be authentic.

Understand stories as changeable

Oral cultures tend to:

Pliny the Younger

Roman aristocrat who ruled the province of Bithynia-Pontus in the early second century C.E., and whose correspondence with the Emperor Trajan contains the earliest reference to Christ in a pagan source.

Pontius Pilate

Roman aristocrat who served as the governor of Judea from 26 to 36 C.E., and who was responsible for ordering Jesus' crucifixion.

Herod Antipas

Son of Herod the Great, and ruler of Galilee from 4 to 39 C.E.; this is the person who executed John the Baptist and who was involved with the trial of Jesus according to the Gospel of Luke (and the Gospel of Peter).

(b) Person to person

The Christian mission was conducted primarily: (a) Through public preaching to large numbers of people (b) Person to person (c) In revivals (d) By distributing copies of the New Testament

Talmud

The great collection of ancient Jewish traditions that comprises the Mishnah and the later commentaries on the Mishnah, called the Gemarah. There are two collections of this, one made in Palestine during the early fifth century C.E. and the other made in Babylon perhaps a century later. The Babylonian Talmud is generally considered the more authoritative.

Greco-Roman World

The lands (and culture) around the Mediterranean from the time of Alexander the Great to the Emperor Constantine, roughly 300 B.C.E. to 300 C.E.

Passover

The most important and widely celebrated annual festival of Jews in Roman times, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt.

Q

The source used by both Matthew and Luke for the stories they share, principally sayings, that are not found in Mark; from the German word Quelle, "source." The document no longer exists but can be reconstructed on the basis of Matthew and Luke.