Quiz 4

Question 1

Beloved Disciple

Answer 1

Nickname for the “disciple whom Jesus loved” in the Gospel of John, who plays a prominent role in the Passion narrative but is never named. Older tradition identified him as John, the son of Zebedee, and claimed that it was he who wrote the Gospel.

Question 2

Christology

Answer 2

Any teaching about the nature of Christ. See also Adoptionism; Docetism.

Question 3

Farewell Discourse(s)

Answer 3

The final discourse that Jesus delivers in the Gospel of John (and not found in the Synoptics), chapters 13-16 (sometimes thought to include Jesus’ prayer of chap. 17 as well); this discourse may have been created by combining two different accounts of Jesus’ last words to his disciples before his arrest.

Question 4

Genre

Answer 4

A kind of literature with specific literary features; in the modern world, for example, there are short stories, novels, and limerick poems (each with their own distinc tive features); in the ancient world, there were biographies, epic poems, general histories—and many other genres. The major genres of the New Testament are the Gospels (which are most like religious biographies), Acts (most like general histories), epistles, and apocalypses.

Question 5

“I am” sayings

Answer 5

A group of sayings found only in the Gospel of John in which Jesus identifies himself. In some of the sayings he speaks in metaphor (“I am the bread of life,” “lam the light of the world,” “I am the way, the truth, and the life”), and other times he identifies himself simply by saying “I am”—a possible reference to the name of God from Exodus 3 (“Before Abraham was, I am’; John 8:58).

Question 6

Johannine Community

Answer 6

The community of Christians in which the Gospel of John and the Johannine epistles were written. We do not know where the community was located, but we can reconstruct some of its history using the socio-historical method.

Question 7

Docetist (Docetism)

Answer 7

The view that Jesus was not a human being but only appeared to be; from a Greek word meaning “to seem” or “to appear.”

Question 8

Gnostics (Gnosticism)

Answer 8

A group of ancient religions, some of them closely related to Christianity, that maintained that elements of the divine had become entrapped in this evil world of matter and could be released only when they acquired the secret gnosis (Greek for “knowledge”) of who they were and of how they could escape. Gnosis was generally thought to be brought by an emissary of the divine realm. See also Sethians, Valentinians.

Question 9

Nag Hammadi

Answer 9

Village in upper (southern) Egypt, near the place where a collection of Gnostic writings were discovered in 1945.

Question 10

Secessionists

Answer 10

Members of the Johannine community who, according to the author of | John, had “seceded” (i.e., left) the community to form a community of their own. | John, which calls these people “antichrists,” suggests that they had adopted a docetic Christology, not allowing that Christ was fully human.

Question 11

Johannine love command

Answer 11

Love one another = serve one another (Model is Jesus’ foot washing)
- (1 John 2:7-11; 3:11; 4:7-12)
- Love one another, just as I have loved you

Question 12

The Gospel of Thomas

Answer 12

A non-canonical saying Gospel (in Coptic), found in Nag Hammadi in 1945. A Gnostic Gospel

Question 13

Saying Gospels

Answer 13

Gospels with Jesus’ teachings and nothing else
- Ex. Gospel of Thomas (Most significant), Gospel of Philip
- Sayings (Logia), the collection of sayings of Jesus (= Q)
- The formula, “Jesus says …”

Question 14

Apostle

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

Gentile

Answer 15

A Jewish designation for a non-Jew.

Question 16

Historiography (general history)

Answer 16

The literary reconstruction of historical events, the writing of history, and the study and analysis of historical narrative.

Question 17

Greco-Roman biography

Answer 17

A literary genre consisting of a narrative of an individual’s life, often within a chronological framework, employing numerous subgenres (such as sayings, speeches, anecdotes, and conflict stories) so as to reflect important aspects of his or her character, principally for purposes of instruction, exhortation, or propaganda.

Question 18

Pagan

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Pentecost

Answer 19

A Jewish agricultural festival, celebrated fifty days after the feast of the Passover, from the Greek word for fifty (pentakosia).

Question 20

Sanhedrin

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Theophilus

Answer 21

The person to whom “Luke” addressed both of his volumes, the Gospel and the book of Acts. Scholars debate whether Theophilus was a real person— possibly a highly placed Roman administrator—or whether the name was instead symbolic. It literally means either “beloved of God” or “lover of God.” If symbolic, it would refer to the Christian individuals or communities who were the author’s intended audience.

Question 22

God Fearer

Answer 22

A Gentile sympathizer to Judaism that existed in the Greco-Roman world in the Hellenistic period. They observed certain Jewish rituals and traditions without becoming full converts to Judaism.

Question 23

Jerusalem Council (Acts 15)

Answer 23

A conference of the Christian Apostles in Jerusalem about 50 CE that decreed that Gentile Christians did not have to observe the Mosaic Law of the Jews (the Apostolic Decree). The council demonstrated the willingness of apostolic leaders to make compromises on certain secondary issues in order to maintain peace and unity in the church.