RLG 241Y1Y
Early Christian Writings I
Instructors: Luiz F. Ribeiro/ David Kaden
RLG 241 Study Sheet (Dec. Term Exam)
Term exam Duration: 2 hs
Aids: We will only allow the use of Ehrman’s 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. Papías of Hierapolis
30. Aretalogy
31. Theios Aner (Divine Man)
32. Son of God
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RLG 241Y1Y
Early Christian Writings I
Instructors: Luiz F. Ribeiro/ David Kaden
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 RLG241’s 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.”
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RLG 241Y1Y
Early Christian Writings I
Instructors: Luiz F. Ribeiro/ David Kaden
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 Matthew’s Gospel and “Jewish-Christianity”? Is
the category “Jewish Christianity” problematic? Why?
I) There is some debate among Matthean scholars about whether Matthew’s 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 Ehrman’s 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) John’s 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”.
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