Key NT People

Question 1

Herod the Great

Answer 1

-King of the Jews at Christ’s birth.
- Wants to kill baby boys in Matthew 2
-Reconstructed Jerusalem Temple, beginning around 19 B.C.

Question 2

Herod Antipas

Answer 2

• Matthew 14 (John the Baptist Death) and Luke 23 (Trial of Jesus)
• Remembered for divorcing his wife and marrying his brother’s wife. John the Baptist denounced this as scandalous and was imprisoned and then executed when Herod caved into the demand of Herodias’ daughter (prompted by her mother) that Herod give her John the Baptist’s head on a platter as a reward for her pleasing dancing (Mat 14; Mark 6; cf. also Luke 3:19–20).
  -Herod also had a brief encounter with Jesus because Pilate had sent Jesus to him for judgment. Herod asked Jesus many questions but Jesus would not answer them so Herod, along with the soldiers, mocked Jesus (Luke 23:7ff.). Jesus described Herod as “that fox” (Luke 13:31–32).

Question 3

Pharisees

Answer 3

• John 3 (Nicodemus), John 19 (Nicodemus helps with burial), Matthew 23 (Jesus condemns them)
• They believed in the centrality of the Torah and the sovereignty of God.
• They thought the Babylonian Exile was caused by Israel’s failure to keep the Torah and keep it was an individual’s as well as a national duty. They determined that the Torah contained 613 commandments and attempted to make a hedge around the Torah by adding laws so that the Torah would not be broken. They especially stressed the ethical side of religion.
• They opposed Jesus for his failure to keep the Sabbath in their eyes and even collaborated with the Pharisees in trying to kill Jesus. Jesus condemned the Pharisees rather roundly in Matthew 23. Though the NT portrait of the Pharisees is largely negative, it is not entirely so (e.g., Nicodemus, a Pharisee, helped with the burial of Jesus’ body, cf. John 19:39).

Question 4

Sadducees

Answer 4

• Matthew 22 (Jesus says God is God of the living)
• The Sadducees had no following among the populace but were restricted to the well-to-do.
  -Though not all priests were Sadducees, all Sadducees were priests. They were thus allied to the temple cultus. “They denied the permanent validity of any but the written laws of the Pentateuch.
  -They rejected the later doctrines of the soul and its after-life, the resurrection, rewards and retributions, angels and demons. They believed that there was no fate, men having a free choice of good and evil, prosperity and adversity being the outcome of their own course of action.” In the NT, Jesus opposed their denial of the resurrection (Mat 22) and Paul exploits this belief by declaring that he is on trial for his hope in the resurrection, causing a dispute to break out between the Pharisees and Sadducees (Acts 23).

Question 5

Names of Apostles

Answer 5

1. Andrew
2. Bartholomew
3. James (4js)
4. James, son of Alphaues
5. John
6. Judas Iscariot
7. Matthew
8. Philip
9. Simon Peter (2s)
10. Simon the Zealot
11. Thaddaeus (2t)
12. Thomas

Question 6

Peter

Answer 6

• One of First Disciples (Mk 1:16)
• Impulsive
• Saw transfiguration (Matthew 17)
• Denied Christ and restored (John 18, 20)
• Apostle to the Jews (Gal 2)
• Preached at Pentecost (Acts 2)
• Wrote 1&2 Peter

Question 7

Cornelius

Answer 7

• Acts 10
• God-fearing Gentile who converts through Peter
• He and household baptized and Spirit comes upon them.

Question 8

Barnabas

Answer 8

• Acts 4
• Paul’s travel companion until Acts 15
• Son of Encouragement
• Falling out with Paul over John Mark

Question 9

Stephen

Answer 9

• Acts 6-7 chosen to serve tables (Deaon)
• First Martyr
• Speech recounts salvation history

Question 10

Paul

Answer 10

• Acts
• Born in Tarus. Pharisee and persecutor
• Gentile Missionary
• Author of 13 NT books

Question 11

Timothy

Answer 11

• Acts 16 (circumcised), 20
• Recipient of Paul’s letters

Question 12

James

Answer 12

• Brother of Jesus
• Acts 15, James presides over the council in Jerusalem
• Writer of book of James
• Stoned to Death
• Jesus appears to him in 1 Corinthians 15:7