Quiz Questions
Which was the first book of the New Testament to be written?
1 Thessalonians.
Scholars estimate literacy in antiquity to have been
10-15 percent.
he Maccabean revolt began around the year
167 b.c.e.
Scholars think Jesus died around
30 c.e.
In what year did Athanasius name the current twenty-seven books of the New Testament as authoritative?
367 c.e.
The Gospel of Mark was probably written around
65-70 c.e.
Matthew traces Jesus' lineage to
Abraham.
Which of the following books tells stories about Paul's missions?
Acts
The earliest account of the early church is
Acts of the Apostles.
Name one of the people Plutarch wrote about.
Alexander the Great.
Which of the following was not a Jewish holy man?
Apollonius of Tyana.
Although the crucifixion was a stumbling block for the Jews, it was a foundation stone for
Christians
The superapostles believed
Christians already enjoyed an exalted existence.
Paul was on the road to ________________ when Jesus appeared to him and he converted.
Damascus
Which of the following groups was apocalyptic?
Essenes
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain parts of every book of the Hebrew Bible except
Esther.
Paul suggests that his converts in Thessalonica were
Gentiles
Paul's mission is primarily to
Gentiles.
According to Luke,
God does not recognize a difference between Jews and Gentiles.
What genre do the Gospels most closely fit?
Greco-Roman biography.
Christian house churches are similar to
Greco-Roman voluntary associations.
The Gospel of John was probably written in
Greek.
The New Testament was written in what language?
Greek.
What was one way Jesus was like the Cynic philosophers?
He taught people not to concern themselves with wealth and other trappings of society.
The earliest Christians used which of the following to explain Jesus' messiahship?
Hebrew Scripture
The spread of Greek culture and language is known as
Hellenization.
How was the Temple in Jerusalem unlike any other Greco-Roman place of worship?
It was the only temple for the God of Israel.
Jesus' earliest followers believed
Jesus had been raised from the dead never to die again.
Which of the following stories is only found in Luke?
Jesus teaching in the Temple when he was twelve years old.
The Gospel of Mark begins with
Jesus' baptism by John
Scholars believe that Q contains mostly
Jesus' sayings.
The phrase "Jesus' Passion" refers to
Jesus' suffering.
Which of the following traditions does not pass the criterion of contextual credibility?
Jesus' teaching to Nicodemus: "you must be born again"
According to Acts, Paul is converted by
Jesus.
Who was/were Paul's major opponent(s) in Acts?
Jewish leaders.
Which of the following groups thought it was blasphemy to call Jesus God?
Jewish-Christian adoptionists.
Jesus identified most closely with
John the Baptist
All of the following figures recognize Jesus in Mark except
John the Baptist.
Which historian categorically states that Jesus was the messiah in book 18 of The Antiquities of the Jews?
Josephus
Which of the following was not a sect of Judaism?
Josephus
Those who believe that the precise point at which Jesus became the Son of God was at his baptism justify their belief with the passage in ___________, which states that a voice from heaven announced, "You are my son, today I have begotten you."
Luke
Which of these Gospels states that there were other Gospels written?
Luke
Which early Christian group believed in two Gods: the just God of the Old Testament and the merciful God of Jesus?
Marcionites.
Both Matthew and Luke used _____________ as a literary source.
Mark
The four-source hypothesis relies on the idea that
Mark was written first.
Who assembled all the miracle stories dispersed throughout Mark into one large collection?
Matthew.
In Matthew, Jesus' birth story is most reminiscent of whose birth?
Moses'
What is the dilemma historians face when they write about past miracles?
On the one hand, they can only establish what probably happened; on the other hand, miracles by definition defy all probability.
Marcion appealed to ___________ as the authority for his teachings.
Paul
The Gospel of Luke came to be attributed to a man who was thought to be
Paul's companion.
Paul was a
Pharisee
Historically speaking, who was responsible for Jesus' death?
Pilate
Which of the following occurs only in Matthew?
Pilate's washing of his hands of Jesus' blood.
Much of the Sermon on the Mount is taken from which one of these sources?
Q.
Who created the verse division that we have today?
Robert Stephanus
The sect of Judaism that wielded the most political power was the
Sadducees
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus' birth narrative parallels that of
Samuel.
The first martyr in Christian history is
Stephen.
Identify one discrepancy in the Gospel accounts of Jesus' crucifixion.
The account in Mark has it occurring at 9:00 a.m., whereas John's takes place after noon.
Apocalypticists adhered to all but which of the following tenets?
The suffering of the righteous would only get worse.
How did pagan literature of the first century refer to the events surrounding Jesus?
There weren't any references made to him.
How can historians certify that an event occurred, but outside the natural order?
They can't.
How did the ancient Jews feel about keeping the Law embodied in the Torah?
They considered it a great joy.
Which was not one of the ways Jews reacted to the situation in Palestine under Roman domination in the first century?
They used divination to place curses on the Romans.
Which of the following Gospels is antiapocalyptic?
Thomas
What might the first question on people's minds be as they observed Jesus' miracles?
What is the source of his power?.
Which of the following was thought to be the most powerful of the gods?
Zeus.
Although we cannot know for certain, many scholars believe Q probably did not contain
a Passion narrative.
In first-century apocalyptic Judaism, the term "Son of Man" referred to
a cosmic figure.
Jews expected the Son of Man to be
a cosmic judge.
When Jesus is baptized, the spirit of God descends on him in the shape of
a dove
What is the earliest surviving manuscript of the New Testament to date?
a fragment of the Gospel of John.
What is the term for a category of literature in which members share a range of conventions?
a genre.
3 John is best understood as
a letter to an individual in the church.
2 John is best understood as
a letter to the entire church.
The Corinthian community was made up of
a mix of poor and wealthy people.
The most important event that had occurred within the Johannine community at the time the epistles were written was
a schism in the community
An "apocryphon" is
a secret book.
In Luke, Jesus' public ministry begins with
a sermon in a synagogue.
Onesimus was
a slave
The Roman Empire began as
a small farming village
Redaction criticism is
a study of how an author changes his source.
The emphasis placed on Jesus' death classifies the Gospels as
a subgenre of the genre of ancient Greco-Roman biographies.
Scholars have suggested that Christianity is the religion
about Jesus.
By what means have early Christian truth claims been handed down from one generation to the next?
all of these (orally, written, lifestyle)
As opposed to most Jews' expectations, Christians came to believe that the messiah was
an innocent suffering man.
Our most advanced science informs us that miracles
are not knowable via the scientific method.
If the literary-historical method uncovers the same points uncovered by the redactional approach, then why use the redactional approach?
as a shortcut.
In Mark, the Temple curtain rips
at Jesus' death.
According to the criterion of Aramaisms, if a piece of text makes more logical sense in the original language than in the translation, then it is likely to be
authentic
What ritual was necessary for new converts to Christianity to undergo?
baptism.
John, the forerunner of Jesus, proclaims forgiveness of sins and performs
baptisms.
Why, in the Gospel of John, did Pontius Pilate have to conduct the trial of Jesus by lengthy conversations between the prosecution and the defendant?
because the Jewish leaders refused to go into Pilate's residence, so they sent Jesus in alone, leaving Pilate to go back and forth between them.
Why are the Dead Sea Scrolls so valuable?
because they are nearly a thousand years older than the oldest copies of the Hebrew Scriptures that we previously had.
At Jesus' trial in Mark, the Sanhedrin charged him with
blasphemy.
Jesus began his ministry
by being baptized by John.
Jesus' death itself, according to Luke,
causes people to repent.
What framework were ancient biographies often crafted within?
chronological.
Acts is organized
chronologically.
In John, the signs are intended to
convince people of Jesus' true identity.
According to Gnostics, the world was
created to imprison Sophia.
Which of the following is not a criterion used by scholars to authenticate traditions about Jesus?
criterion of similarity
In John's community, the belief in Jesus' divinity probably
developed over time.
Gnostics believed that the material and spiritual world were
diametrically opposed.
"Diaspora" means
dispersion
Which of the following represents an intentional scribal error?
doctrinal change
In Rome, the priestly art of reading the entrails of sacrificed animals was called
extispicy.
At the end of what century did Christians begin to call Jesus' words Scripture?
first c.e.
Scholars refer to Matthew's use of Hebrew Scripture to show Jesus is the messiah as
fulfillment citations.
All of the following are associated with Jesus' apocalyptic thought except
good people would be taken up alive into heaven.
"Torah" means
guidance
Timothy reported to Paul that the Thessalonians
had kept their faith solid.
The Romans convicted Jesus because
he claimed to be king.
After Jesus' resurrection, Christians believed that
he had been exalted to heaven.
John calls Jesus the "lamb of God" because
he is killed on Passover.
The author says that
he used written sources.
According to the Gospels, people believed that Jesus' ability to work miracles reflected all of the following except
he would die.
Which of the following is not true about Cynics?
hey generally enjoyed the finer things of life.
Who was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies?
high priest.
Biographies written by Christians put an inordinate amount of emphasis on what event in Jesus' life, which is very unusual for ancient biographies?
his death.
In John, Jesus' teachings focus primarily on
his identity.
What is the probability that any ordinary, natural event may occur?
improbable
The Gospel of Peter was found
in a monk's tomb.
In Matthew, John the Baptist
is hesitant to baptize Jesus.
On the way to Rome, Paul
is involved in a shipwreck
According to the Gospel of Thomas, the Kingdom of God
is not a future event.
When it is time for Jesus to die in Luke, he
is ready.
Galatians is unique among the undisputed Pauline letters because
it contains no thanksgiving.
Luke is different from the other Gospels because
it has a sequel.
The Gospel of Peter is unique among all the surviving Gospels because
it narrates the actual resurrection.
Paul believed all of the following about the Law except that
it puts a person in a right standing before God.
In Luke's temptation narrative, Jesus' final temptation is
jumping from the top of the Temple.
In the New Testament Gospels, Jesus performs all of the following miracles except
killing his opponents.
Gnostics believed that ____________ was essential for salvation.
knowledge.
What does the term "gnosis" mean?
knowledge.
Christians used Psalms of ____________ to show that Jesus was the messiah.
lament
Accounts with very highly developed theology are more likely to be
less historically accurate.
The word "epistle" means
letter.
Which traditional symbol is the Gospel author Mark associated with?
lion.
When Mark and Matthew tell the same story, Mark's story is
longer.
Of the following, the most important reason Matthew makes Jesus' identity public is to
make the Jewish leaders culpable for Jesus' suffering.
Pagan religions that required initiation were
mystery cults.
Revelation discourses
narrate secret teachings of the risen Jesus.
Did the authors of the Gospels claim to be eyewitnesses to the events that they narrated?
no.
How many first-century pagan authors mention Jesus by name?
none
How many original books of the New Testament do we have?
none
In the story of Jesus in the last minutes before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:43-44), the account of his "sweating blood" while contemplating his imminent suffering is most likely
not an original part of any Gospel.
The Gospel of Thomas is
not ordered in a recognizable form.
When Paul entered a new town, he
opened a business.
From a historian's perspective, those who are willing to believe that Jesus did miracles must concede that
other people did them as well.
The Gospel of Matthew was probably written
outside Palestine around 80-85 c.e.
According to Paul, one problem with misunderstanding the resurrection is
people overlook the danger of sin.
The Christian mission was conducted primarily
person to person.
1 John is most likely a
persuasive essay.
State priesthoods in the Roman Empire were
political appointments.
Stoicism, Platonism, and Epicureanism all involved the exercise of
reason.
From the beginning, Luke's Jesus expects to be
rejected.
One of the most popular pagan authors of the second century, Plutarch, wrote fifty biographies of prominent Greek and Roman men. His main aim in these accounts was to
reveal their characters.
The term "canon" means
ruler.
Missionary movements in the Greco-Roman world were advanced mostly by
schools of philosophy.
What is the style of writing called that leaves out punctuation, capitalization, paragraph divisions, sentence divisions, and spaces between words?
scriptuo continua.
The term "Deutero-Pauline" means
second Paul..
"Synoptic" means
seen together.
According to one of the Dead Sea Scrolls called the War Scroll, the final war that is due to take place at the end of time will last
seven days.
New Testament manuscripts do not
show a lack of passion for their topics.
Even if you assume that miracles are possible, there is still no way to
show that they have ever happened.
Which of the following sources was probably written to convert Jews?
signs source.
Why did Paul stress that he worked hard "day and night" to earn a living?
so that he would not be a financial burden on the Thessalonians while he preached the Gospel of God, thereby setting an example for other missionaries.
Why did God instruct Moses to have every Israelite family sacrifice a lamb and paint their door frames with its blood?
so the angel of death would pass over those houses.
Which of the following methods seeks to uncover how a community's history affects the way it writes its history?
socio-historical method
The Thessalonians were principally concerned because
some of them had died.
If historians firmly believe in miracles, they have a professional responsibility to
speak and write about it in their capacity as believers, but not in their capacity as impartial historians.
At Pentecost, the disciples
speak in the native languages of those gathered.
People in Greco-Roman times were more likely to view the deeds of Jesus as ________ than as miraculous.
spectacular
Consistent testimony of many independent witnesses _____________ the case.
strengthens.
According to Mark, the messiah must
suffer and die.
The "superapostles" do all of the following except
support Paul.
An alternative place of worship (alternative to the Temple in Jerusalem) where Jews came together in the community to discuss the sacred traditions of the Torah was called a(n)
synagogue.
When writing about an alleged miracle that Jesus did, what can a historian not claim?
that he actually did it.
The group of texts used by the Essenes is called
the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Gospel of the Nazareans is most closely related to
the Gospel of Matthew.
In John, Jesus tells the disciples that after he leaves
the Holy Spirit will come to instruct them.
The Marcionites believed Jesus came to save people from
the Jewish God.
The Jewish response to Antiochus Epiphanes' actions was
the Maccabean revolt.
Most copies of New Testament manuscripts come from what time period?
the Middle Ages
The most significant archaeological find for studying Gnosticism was
the Nag Hammadi library.
In Matthew, Jesus explicitly teaches against
the Pharisees' hypocrisy.
For Matthew, the core of the Law is
the commandment to love.
Jesus' baptism by John does not pass
the criterion of independent attestation.
The most important issue Paul addressed in 1 Thessalonians was
the delay of the parousia.
Which would count as a basic methodological principle that historians apply to their sources?
the earlier the better.
The Pentateuch is
the first five books of the Bible.
Paul referred to Jesus as
the first fruits of the resurrection.
The most accepted resolution to the Synoptic Problem is
the four-source hypothesis.
Scholars refer to the first eighteen verses of the Gospel of John as
the prologue.
Which of the following Gospels explains the extraordinary character of Jesus' mother, Mary?
the proto-Gospel of James.
The book of Acts focuses primarily on
the spread of the Christian religion.
The longest part of 1 Thessalonians is
the thanksgiving
The Christians in Corinth appear to have believed that
they already enjoyed the full benefits of salvation
What does the term "heresy" mean?
to choose.
Paul's first task in converting pagans was probably
to convince them that there is only one God.
Ancient biographies were usually written for what main purpose?
to give instruction on proper behavior.
The primary reason Paul wrote to Galatia was
to insist that they must not convert to Judaism.
All of the New Testament letters were written
to particular communities to address specific issues.
One way Paul argued against his Galatian opponents was
to point out that the apostles agreed with him.
Paul's primary reason for writing 1 Thessalonians was
to renew his friendship with the church.
Chapters 13 through 19, the second part of the Gospel of John, take place over
twenty-four hours.
The term "apocalypse" means
unveiling
Paul taught the Corinthians that the resurrected body
was an actual body but transformed.
According to Gnostics, Christ
was completely divine.
Paul preached that salvation
was equally available to Jews and Gentiles.
According to the New Testament, Paul
was violently opposed to Christianity.
What is one way to spot bias in a text?
when just about every story in the account drives at the same point.
All of the following are differences between Acts and Paul's genuine letters except
whether Paul's mission was primarily to Gentiles.
According to the textbook, when did Christianity begin?
with the belief in Jesus' resurrection.
Polytheism is the
worship of many gods.
The term "pseudepigrapha" means
writing under a false name.