Unit One + Two Flashcards
The figure of “Mary” from the Gnostic Christian text the Gospel of Mary is referring to Mary Magdalene, a figure noted in the Gospels. Identify how the west and east differ in their interpretation of the title of this important, historical figure.
West: repentant harlot, nude
East: Equal to apostle, clothed
The Montanists where a Gnostic Christian group who had, as their authority figures, the following: (identify from a list - multiple choice).
Female, Prisca and Maximilla
T/F. In the Gnostic Christian text the Gospel of Mary, it is clear that women are authoritative figures to be respected in the developing Christian community.
FALSE
In the Gnostic Christian test the Gospel of Mary, Peter acknowledges that Jesus loved Mary more than: (identify from a list - multiple choice).
Everyone (including the men)
Some accounts from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas are found as a crossover in the following religious scriptures: (identify from a list - multiple choice).
Qur’an
Identify some of the reasons as to why the Infancy Gospel of Thomas— and other texts like it— would need to be written: (identify from a list - multiple choice).
To show Jesus’s life as a child and what he had to endure
T/F. The Nag Hammadi library were fringe texts, possibly illegal, and were likely to be hidden during a crackdown on what people were reading.
TRUE
T/F. Christian groups that formed around these Christological conversations and definitions were not actually real Christians.
FALSE
The discovery of the texts known as the ____ library revolutionized how we study early Christianity and early Christian history: (identify from a list - multiple choice).
Nag Hammadi
T/F. Converts who joined the Jesus Movement came from such wide backgrounds, social status, and ethnicities that they enriched the earliest Christian groups.
TRUE
T/F. Many Gnostic Christians seem to have valued personal experience, personal exploration of self and the creativity that encourages diverse, even contradictory expressions of Christian belief.
TRUE
Gnostic Christianity generally valued the following: (identify from a list - multiple choice).
Experience, personal exploration of self and creativity
Marcion believed that the God of the Hebrew Bible was: (identify from a list - multiple choice).
Jealous, wrathful, inconsistent - BAD
was an important, early Christian thinker who proposed a Christian canon.
Marcion
The reading of Christian texts through a Gnostic Christian lens instigated the process of: (identify from a list - multiple choice).
Scriptural interpretation
T/F. Gnostic Christians believe that matter is inherently good.
FALSE
Theology concerned with the nature and person of Jesus is called: (identify from a list - multiple choice).
Christology
T/F. “Canon” means “correct”
TRUE
The criteria for “canon” were that the text has to be: (identify from a list - multiple choice).
Apostolic, orthodox, catholic, and ancient
T/F. Gnostic Christianity was very individualist rather then communal .
TRUE
“Gnosis” means: (identify from a list - multiple choice).
Knowledge
T/F. Paul made the theology of the Jesus Movement attractive to Gentiles because he spoke and wrote of the inclusivity (some say universality) of the activity of Jesus.
TRUE
Conditions that were favorable to Paul’s missionary activity include: (identify from a list).
Access to safe road and seaways, not attract much attention, benefitted from Roman tolerance, the geography of languages within the empire
Violence in Palestine between the Jews and the Romans harmed relations between Jews, Jewish Christians, and Gentile Christians; this rift was made all the more permanent by the destruction of the – in the year*–. Fill in the blanks.
Temple, 70CE
Two early leaders of the Jesus Movement who clashed about the relationship between Jews and Gentiles were: (identify from a list).
Luke and Paul or *Paul and James
Aspects of Jewish culture that remained intact among the earliest followers of the Jesus Moment include: (identify from a list).
*Baptisms, *circumcisions, *Temple, *group meals, Mosaic Law, and *Dietary law & critical dialogue
Paul described the followers of Jesus as faithful to the Mosaic ____. Fill in the blank.
LAW
T/F. The Romans were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.
TRUE
The destruction of Sepphoris in 4 BCE would likely have had no impact on the life of Jesus.
FALSE
The Gospel that was written first and inspired the others was: (identify from a list).
Gospel of Mark
T/F. The Gospels offer an incomplete look at Jesus’ life and activity.
TRUE
T/F. Jesus left behind many first-hand accounts of his ministry and doctrine.
FALSE
Gentile converts into Christianity were those who did not bring the history and culture of Judaism within them into the community. What core values of Judaism were off-putting to these converts, and therefore had to be altered? Identify from a list.
Mosaic Law of Circumcision, dietary restrictions,
The distinctive belief that set followers of the Jesus Movement apart from other Jews was their claim that Jesus of Nazareth was a: (identify from a list).
Messiah (savior, son of God)
“Messiah” means: (fill in the blank).
Anointed or Christ
The Jewish faction that survived the Jewish revolts against the Romans were the: (identify from a list).
Pharisees
When the hemorrhaging woman touched Jesus and he acknowledged her, he was engaging with a person who was, by Roman standards: (identify from a list).
Impure/unclean
T/F. According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus engaged in actions that upheld Roman social values.
FALSE
T/F. The Gospel accounts agree with one another regarding the details of Jesus’ life and activity.
FALSE
T/F. The Essenes were Jewish activist/scholars who engaged in conversation with individuals like Jesus, as they sought to make the Law relevant for Roman-occupied Judah.
FALSE
The most appropriate place to worship the god of the Jews was in the: (identify from a list).
Temple
T/F. Judaism had no appeal to Greeks and Romans.
FALSE
T/F. Jews were happy to relinquish their rights and autonomy to pay the Romans their taxes and live quiet, peaceful lives with the Romans in charge.
FALSE
Jewish factions in the first century prior to the Destruction of the Temple were: (identify from a list).
The Sudducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots
The revolt of the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire resulted in a rise in this unique aspect of religious practice:
“end time” or willingness to die . *Cultural/ethnic identities
Jews are monotheistic, which means: (identify from a list).
They only acknowledged and worshipped ONE God - although they might believe others exist
Forced Hellenization brought the following consequences for Jewish life in the two centuries before the common era: (identify from a list).
Jewish/non jewish distinctions in society ; emphasis on the Law amongst pious Jews; Jewish avoidance of “gentile” lead to anti-Semitism ; Martyr precedent ; “end times”
T/F. Alexander the Great spread Roman culture across the Mediterranean.
TRUE
While in Babylonian captivity, the Israelites came into contact with Zoroastrian religious beliefs, which—in time—influenced the religion of the Israelites. These beliefs included the following (identify from a list).
Afterlife, immortality for righteous, paradise, resurrection of the dead
This Persian King, known as the “King of Kings” ended the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, and provided the means for them to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem:
Cyrus the Great.
Central characteristics or central features of ordinary Judaism in Palestine included: (identify from a list).
Covenant or Law; *Monotheistic; *one God made covenant with the covenant ; Sabbath; bodily implications
The god of the Hebrew people was (properly) worshiped in a Temple in
Jerusalem
T/F. The Romans did not permit the Jews to practice their religion.
TRUE
Caesar Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, had the title (in English)
The son of God
The general public engaged in various ritual activities to and for their deities in order to receive traditional benefits, which included the following (check all that apply):
Health, insight, competition, desire, salvation, relationships, fertility, revenge
T/F. Philosophers, authors and artists, and the general public agreed on how the divine interacted with the world.
FALSE
T/F. The “cult of the emperor” meant that everyone believed that the emperor was divine.
FALSE, they had to publicly display loyalty, not privately
Another word for “faith” in classical and late antiquity was (check all that apply).
Loyalty and fidelity or ***fides
T/F. Religion in the Roman Empire was integral to everyday activities.
TRUE
T/F. The elite members of society were required to provide benefits for the ‘middlings’.
TRUE
Romulus and Remus were twins whose father was a — and whose mother was a –
God (of war) , Vestal Virgin.
T/F. Every religion is a cult, but not every cult is a religion.
TRUE
The key Roman social values that impact our study of early Christian history (and their counterparts) include: (identify from a list).
Honor/shame, purity/pollution, patron/client, kin/outsider
T/F. When evaluating a source that is two thousand years old, the assumptions of the author do not matter because they are dead, and we cannot ask them anything.
FALSE
T/F. Primary sources are true.
FALSE
T/F. Pre-Enlightenment, historical accuracy was subservient to theological views.
TRUE
Ways of studying religion include the following methods: (identify from a list).
Four tools to understanding religion: Rituals (routines) , Ethics (actions by values), Theology (deceptive meanings), Social Structures (norms)
Change, part does not equal whole, culture - laws/social norms , (re)interpretation
*Practitioner and non-practitioner
T/F. A secondary source is about history, but it is not proof of history.
TRUE
For our class, we will understand the Christian religion as a system that binds its followers together through the following (identify from a list).
Theological beliefs, literature, values and expectations
Primary sources for the study of religion include: (identify from a list).
Internet History Sourcebook, Catholic Encyclopedia (“Fathers of the Church”), History if Science and Medicine Primary Sources at Yale
*Or books, pamphlets, sermons, other contemporary writings by religious officials or members
“Religion” is related to the word — which is a binding and supporting system.
*religare or ligament,
For the thoughtful citizen, attention to the historical record and to the theological foundations of religion are antidotes to making — about the past.
generalities
Historical facts are only knowable by their —.
evidence
The term “history” means to learn by — .
inquiry
Critical thinking skills include the following: (identify from a list).
Careful reading, suspensions of personal judgement, evaluation of text and data, awareness of multiple perspectives, analysis of implications of belief systems, the construction and development of a claim that can be supported with evidence, and the re-evaluation of one’s claims/assumptions in light of new information
T/F Persecutions against Christians were constant for the first three hundred years.
FALSE
T/F Christians were unified in there response to the Roman Empire’s request for fidelity to the Imperial Cult
FALSE
While the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas include several Roman social values we have discussed, it effectively highlights the transformation of familial bonds, which is the Roman social value of ________.
KIN
According to Rodney Stark, “Religion supplies compensatory for rewards that are scarce or unavailable.” This is known as : ________.
RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
Christians aroused suspicion about their rituals because they kept them : _________
PRIVATE
Unlike other cults, Christianity different in that Christians attempted to ________ other people to Christianity.
CONVERT
Under the Emperor ________, Christians were killed because they were blamed for the burning of Rome.
NERO
T/F. Persecution against Christians in North Africa was consistent.
FALSE
Persecutions—when they happened—were:
SPECIFIC, LOCAL, VIOLENT, AND PUBLIC
The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas suggests that if a women can transcend her ______ she can demonstrate honor.
gender
Identify the Roman social values that Perpetua violates.
Kin/outsider, honor/shame