RLG 241Y1Y

Early Christian Writings I

Instructors: Luiz F. Ribeiro/ David Kaden

1

RLG 241 Study Sheet (Dec. Term Exam)

Term exam Duration: 2 hs

Aids: We will only allow the use of Ehrmans Reader (The New Testament and Other Early

Christian Writings: A Reader). Any other aid besides the aforementioned is forbidden.

Section I: Identification of terms

Here is a list of terms you should be familiar with in order to write section I. In this

section you will be presented with some ten terms and you will choose four from the list,

defining them in one paragraph according to their appropriate context and course unit:

1. Septuagint (LXX)

2. Canon

3. Codex Vaticanus

4. Muratorian Canon

5. Proto-orthodoxy

6. Heresy/Heretics

7. Jamnia (Council of/Legend of)

8. Torah, Neviim, Kethuvim

9. lectio brevior

10. text types

11. gospel (in the context of the Roman Empire)

12. mimicry

13. Mark as medial

14. Sign-prophets

15. Pharisees

16. Hellenization

17. Essenes

18. Oral Torah

19. Flavius Josephus

20. Jewish War against the Romans

21. Source Criticism

22. Triple tradition

23. Synoptic Problem

24. Two Document Hypothesis (2DH)

25. Minor Agreements

26. Priority of Mark

27. Double tradition

28. Quelle/Q

29. Papas of Hierapolis

30. Aretalogy

31. Theios Aner (Divine Man)

32. Son of God

RLG 241Y1Y

Early Christian Writings I

Instructors: Luiz F. Ribeiro/ David Kaden

2

33. Messianic Secret

34. Apollonius of Tyana

35. Apotheosis

36. Form Criticism (History of Forms)

37. Historical Jesus vs. Christ of Kerygma

38. Embarrassment criterion

39. Discontinuity (Difference) criterion

40. Cessation of the Historical Jesus Quest

41. Testimonium Flavianum

42. Parting of Ways

43. Birkat ha-Minim

44. Beloved Disciple

45. Signs Source (Gospel of John)

46. Two Powers Heresy

47. Redaction Criticism

48. Antitheses in Matthew

49. Fulfillment Citations in Matthew

50. Narrative Criticism

51. Recapitulation in the Apocalypse

52. Epic as it relates to Luke-Acts

53. apocalyptic/apocalypse

Section II: Textual Criticism/Source Criticism/Redaction Criticism/Historical Jesus

This section represents RLG241s emphasis on different scientific methods and

approaches to the study of Early Christian documents. You will choose one out of three

method exercises and apply to the best of your ability the tools from textual criticism,

redaction criticism or the historical Jesus search to the early Christian excerpts

provided.

Section III: Essay Questions

You will choose two out of a list of essay questions and write essays according to

material covered in lecture and course content in Ehrman and Klauck.

A) Discuss the literary layers of Q, describing some of their notable features using specific

examples.

B) Survey the evidence in favor of the existence of a sayings Gospel (the so-called Gospel of Q)

underlying the common double tradition shared between the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel

of Luke.

C) Survey the evidence for the Messianic Secret literary device in the Gospel of Mark. Discuss

how the Messianic Secret motif structures the Gospel of Mark and how it might relate to its

presentation of Jesus as the Son of God.

RLG 241Y1Y

Early Christian Writings I

Instructors: Luiz F. Ribeiro/ David Kaden

3

D) Differentiate the terminologies Historical Jesus from the Christ of the Kerygma of the early

church. Based on course content on the Synoptics, can these be reconciled?

E) Review the Historical Jesus research from its inception to the Third Quest and its

methodologies. What are the merits and demerits of the methods used for working through the

traditions of Jesus and for deciding which are authentic and which are inauthentic?

F) Discuss the impact of Hellenization to ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. Resorting to

examples from the different sources we have looked in class and in Ehrman, reflect on

instances of rejection and assimilation to Hellenization.

G) According to Bart Ehrman, a three-stage history of development of the Johannine community

can be adduced from a close reading of the Fourth Gospel. Discuss the evidence in favor of the

three-stage reading and reflect on the relationship of the Fourth Gospel to Formative Judaism.

H) Why do scholars claim a connection between Matthews Gospel and Jewish-Christianity? Is

the category Jewish Christianity problematic? Why?

I) There is some debate among Matthean scholars about whether Matthews Jesus breaks with

the Jewish law. Discuss.

J) Narrative Criticism asserts the importance of positing the literary genre of a document in

order that it might be read appropriately. Surveying Ehrmans classification of the genres of the

Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles against the genre of epic as proposed in lecture,

discuss how the epic genre might be a better fit for the Luke-Acts oeuvre.

K) Johns Apocalypse appears to follow a logical literary structure. Discuss the reasons why

this seems to be the case, and what the implications might be for reading the Apocalypse as a

revelation.