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1. Jesus was a great teacher, but he left no writings behind, nor are there any written
records of him that date from his lifetime. However, no credible historian today
denies the existence of Jesus of Nazareth.

2. T or #. (If false, explain why) There are no references to Jesus and his message
outside of the New Testament canon. There are numerous other references outside
of the canon of sacred scripture referring to Jesus and his message. Jewish and
Roman independent sources.

3. In 115 A.D. the Roman historian, Tacitus, refers to the depraved Christians and
their originator, Christ, who had been executed in Tiberius¶s reign by the
governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate.

4. In á
á


 , the Roman biographer Suetonius, refers to Jesus by the

name Chrestus.

5. Around 111-113 A.D. Pliny the Younger wrote letters to the Emperor Trajan for
advice on how to deal with the ³superstition´ practiced by Christians.

6. Identify two specific points that Pliny mentions in his letter to the Emperor.
a. Pliny reported that Christianity had spread so rapidly that the pagan temples
had fallen into disuse. The merchants who sold sacrificial animals were in serious
economic trouble.
b. He helped free Christians who rejected Christ.

7. An important reference to Jesus comes from the colorful Jewish historian Flavius
Josephus.
8. Read the quote from Josephus at the top of p. 34.
a. Why was this probably not written by Josephus?
Because parts of it sound as though a believer in Christ wrote it, but
Josephus didn¶t believe in Jesus as Christ the savior.
b. What is the significance of this passage for our purposes?
 Josephus did not question the actual historical existence of Jesus or that
Jesus was put to death at Pilate¶s orders sometime between A.D. 26-36.


 
 
 

9. jur primary source about the historical Jesus and his earliest followers is the New
Testament.

10.A library of different types of writings, there are 27 books in the New Testament,
the most important of which are the 4 gospels.

11. Testament was the word Jewish scholars from the third century B.C. used to mean
³covenant´ in the 

 

12.By calling their sacred scriptures the New Testament, Christians are proclaiming
that God has established a new covenant with his people in Jesus Christ.

13.The covenant theme is central in the jld Testament, forty-six books of inspired
writings that reveal Yahweh¶s love affair with the Jewish people.

14.Name 3 examples of God¶s loving-kindness (

) from the jld Testament.
a. Yahweh rescued the Jews from slavery in Egypt.
b. Yahweh renewed his covenant with Moses on Mt. Sinai.
c. Yahweh made th Israelites the Chosen People.

15.Identify the major events that occurred on or near the following dates:
a. 1900 B.C.- God called Abraham

b. c. 1300 B.C.- The covenant with Moses

c. c. 1000-961 B.C.- The reign of King David

d. 722 B.C.- Northern Kingdom falls to Assyria

e. 587 B.C.- Southern Kingdom falls under Babylonian rule

f. 587-537 B.C.- Jewish people remain under the rule of the Babylonian

16.It is correct to say that ³Jesus is the New Testament³, God¶s covenant with all
humanity.

17.Jesus initiates a law of love that requires a change of heart.

18.He is the perfect prophet who fulfilled all prophecies.

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19.Jesus¶ life and ministry fulfilled all of the jld Testament-prophecies concerning
the Messiah¶s birth, his teaching, and healing, his rejection by the leaders, and his
passion, death and resurrection.

20.What does the jld Testament tell us? The jld Testament tells us about God¶s
covenant with his Chosen People.

21.What does the New Testament reveal to us? That God has extended his loving
kindness, his salvation, to all people.

22.Catholics believe that God is the true author of the sacred scriptures, both the jld
and New Testaments. In other words, Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit
inspired the human authors of the Bible. Inspiration, therefore, refers to the Holy
Spirit teaching truth through the individual authors.

23.T or #. (If false, explain why) The human authors of the Bible were like
secretaries who received their dictation from God, writing down word for word
what was dictated from above. God chose people and made use of their powers
and abilities as true writers consigned to writing everything and only those things
which He wanted.

24.Explain the three different meanings of the word gospel.

a. Jesus is the good news of God¶s love and salvation for all of humanity.

b. Preaching about Jesus is good news. To tell others about the gospel of
Jesus and what he accomplished for us.

c. We have four written versions of the good news, what we call the four
Gospels.

25.Why are there four written versions of the one gospel, the good news of Jesus?
There are four different versions because God wanted four different perspectives
or portraits of Jesus. Each evangelist, or gospel writer, was a uniquely talented
author whom the Holy Spirit inspired to write his version of the gospel of Jesus.

26.The ³canon of the Bible´ refers to the official list of books the Church considers
its inspired writings. The Greek word kanon literally means ³measuring rod´;
later it came to mean ³rule´ or ³norm.´

27.How many books are in the jld Testament? 46

28.How many books are in the New Testament? 27

29. or F. (If false, explain why) All Christians accept the same canon of the New
Testament.

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 30. By A.D. 200 the four gospels, Pauline epistles, Acts and some other epistles were
generally accepted as inspired. By the year 367, Church Father St. Athanasius
was a prominent figure in fixing the New Testament canon at the present 27
books. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) taught as a matter of Church doctrine
that this canon was the inspired word God left with the Church.

31.The Church included books that met the following three criteria:
a. Apostolic origin

b. Widespread acceptance

c. Conformity to the rule of faith

32.T or #. (If false, explain why) All of the books of the New Testament were
written in Latin. All books of eh New Testament were written in Koine (common)
Greek, the language spoken by ordinary people.

33.T or #. (If false, explain why) All of the letters of the New Testament were
written by the apostle Paul. The letter called Hebrews was probably not written by
St. Paul, and the Catholic Epistles weren¶t either.


 

 !  

34.The gospels are the heart of the Bible, containing the principal teachings about
and of Jesus.

35. The three stages involved in the formation of the Gospels are:

a. The period of the public life and teaching of Jesus. Date: 4-6 B.C.-A.D. 30-
33

b. A period of oral tradition and preaching by the apostles and early disciples of
Jesus. Date: A.D. 30-50

c. The written gospels themselves. Date: A.D. 50-c. 120

36.Explain what occurred during the 1st stage of Gospel formation.
Jesus was born around 4-6 B.C., he lived a normal Jewish life and came to the
public scene around A.D. 28. He taught all different people of the coming of
God¶s Kingdom. In probably the year A.D. 30 he was crucified by Pontius Pilate
because some Jewish leaders saw him as a threat. The apostles were convinced he
was alive and glorified as God¶s Son and by the power of the Holy Spirit they
went out and preached of the life of Jesus.

37. In the 2nd stage of the formation of the Gospels, the disciples¶ lives changed.
They began to live in light of the resurrection. With the help of the Holy Spirit, they

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 now knew that Jesus was the Messiah, the Promised jne, the Son of God, and the
Lord.

38.The apostles remembered Jesus¶ command to ³Go into the whole world and
proclaim the gospel to every creature´(Mk 16:15). They first preached in and
around Palestine, announcing the marvelous things God had accomplished in
Jesus.

39.or F. (If false, explain why) The message of the early apostles was met with
resistance by some in the Jewish community.

40.Name and explain the three forms of oral preaching during the second Stage.

a. The kerygma, or preaching to unbelievers. The apostles would tell of

Jesus¶ work, death, resurrection, and ascension, and they would use
examples from the jld Testament to show how the prophesies of the
Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus.

b. The didache, or teaching. This teaching would repeat the message to

people who accept Jesus, and go into it with more depth, giving the
person further knowledge.

c. The liturgy or, worship of the Christians. This was the stories preserved
by the Christians and used in prayer. This would include certain key
events, teachings and prayers of Jesus. Some examples include Jesus¶
words at the Last Supper, the Lord¶s prayer, and the story of Jesus¶
passion.

41. The early preachers¶ and teachers¶ primary interest was to interpret the meaning of
key events, deeds, and sayings of Jesus that God wanted revealed. They wanted to
enliven the faith of the Christians. As a result, they did not set out to give a detailed
biography of Jesus. However, what they remembered, saved and proclaimed was the
heart of Jesus¶ message-related to the jld Testament and adapted to the audiences who
heard it.

42. The final stage in the process was the actual ______________ of the gospels and
other books of the ____________________________ .

43. T of F. (If false, explain why) The earliest writings of the New Testament are the
four Gospels.

44. Why did the early Christians wait so long before writing anything down?

45. But eventually the oral preaching about Jesus and his teaching had to be committed
to writing for three major reasons. Those reasons are:

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 a.

b.

c.


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46. Why does the New Testament require careful study?

47. Not all _________________ agree on how to read the New Testament. Some
Christians do in fact limit the Bible¶s meaning to what they _______________
___________________________________________ . jthers take a more
________________________________ view, a view that everything in the Bible
is absolutely, literally, and historically true, never to be understood
__________________________ . Catholics, however, believe that the Bible
should be read both _______________________ and _____________________.

48. The 
  states that to interpret the Bible correctly means«..

49. T or F. (If false, explain why) Today many Protestant and Catholic Biblical
scholars use the historical-literary method of Biblical criticism to study the New
Testament.

50. Criticism here is not a __________________ term; rather, it means looking at the
biblical texts carefully in their ___________________ and_____________________
contexts.

51.Historical research looks to «

52.Literary criticism analyzes the________________________________________ .

53. The 5 subcategories of the historical-literary method are:

a. d.

b. e.

c.

54.These methods look to the ______________of the time and _______________
when the authors wrote,
³_____________________________________________________

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 _______________________________________________________´ (,110).

55.What are 2 questions that Biblical scholars bring to their study of the scriptures?
a.

b.

56.Catholic scholars believe that scripture study is a sacred science«.

57.What does it mean to say that Catholic scholars approach their studies with a
spirit of humility?

58.The three general criteria the Magisterium has given commentators to help them
interpret sacred scripture according to the Spirit who inspired it are:
a.

b.

c.

59. The Church reminds us that there are two senses of scripture: the _______________
and the ______________________ .
d. The _____________ sense refers to what the words of scripture actually
mean using sound rules for interpretation.
e. The ________________ sense refers to how texts, realities and events in
the Bible can be signs.
f. The ______________________ sense helps us understand how some
event of the jld Testament prefigures Christ.
g. The _________________ sense refers to how the events in scripture can
help us act justly.
h. The __________________ sense helps us to see how events lead us to
our final destiny-heaven.

60. Source criticism tries to determine____________________________________

________________________________________________________________ .

61.The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the _________________
Gospels.

62.The Greek 

 means _______________________________________ .

63.Scholars theorize that the authors of Matthew and Luke drew on a common
source known as ________ , from the German ______________ meaning source.

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64.T or F. (If false, explain why) We have ancient manuscripts of Q.

65.What sources did Luke use to compose his Gospel?

66.What sources did Matthew use to compose his Gospel?

67.T or F. (If false, explain why) It was Matthew who ³invented´ the Gospel form of
literature.

68.Draw the graph on p. 47 that illustrates the relationship between and among the
three synoptic gospels.

69._________________ criticism first attempts to discover what the evangelists

really wanted to say when they wrote a particular test. This is called the
_______________ sense of the text. Biblical scholars attempt to determine what
the authors intended and conveyed by what they wrote, drawing on knowledge of
ancient dating techniques, _______________ , _______________ ,
_____________________ , and the like. It asks questions related to the
___________________________________ .

70.Another major goal of historical research in recent decades is to determine the
probability that what the Gospels report about Jesus and his teachings can be
traced directly to him. Among the criteria historians have developed to study the
historical Jesus are: (c
! ")
a.

b.

c.

d.

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 71.Like a ________________ , the New Testament also contains different kinds of
writings. There are a variety of literary forms or _____________ found in the
New Testament.

72._______________ criticism helps us read the Gospels intelligently. It helps to

identify the genre of a particular text because each genre has its own rules for
composition and ways of conveying _____________ .

73. Give an example that explains why knowing the genre is necessary to understand
and identify the intended truth of the Biblical text.

A !   !



_____ 74. Miracle/healing A. Unique to John, Jesus reveals his identity

_____ 75. Hymn/Prayer B. A vivid short story, conveys religious

truth
_____ 76. Riddle C. Sign, shows Jesus¶ mastery over nature

_____ 77. Hyperbole D. Sets up an important saying about Jesus

_____ 78. Miracle/nature E. Question or statement that teases the

mind
_____ 79. Parable F. A deliberately exaggerated saying

_____ 80. Controversy G. Used in liturgies and incorporated into

the Gospels
_____ 81. Pronouncement story H. A passage wherein Jesus confronts his
opponents
_____ 82. Revelation discourse I. Includes a request for help, then Jesus¶
intervention, the result, and reaction

83. _________________________________ focuses on evangelists as editors, and

how and why they arranged their sources the way they did.

84.Redact means ____________________________________________________ .

85. Redaction criticism tries to discover the particular theological ____________ or

________________ of the given writer and how this influenced his ______________
of the material.

86.Matthew wrote for a _____________________________ audience and stressed

how Jesus«

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87.Mark wrote for a local church that experienced __________________________ .
The author presented Jesus as the «

88.Luke wrote for ___________________________________ . The author

highlighted Jesus as the «

89. John wrote for _____________________________________________________

He presented a theologically rich view of Jesus as the «

90.T or F. (If false, explain why) We possess all of the original manuscripts of the
New Testament books.

91.______________ criticism compares the minor changes and mistakes the copyists
made down through the centuries so that the translations we have today are as
accurate as possible.

92.The ancient texts were written on what two materials? (Describe the materials.)
a.

b.

93.T or F. (If false, explain why) The Bible has been translated into hundreds of
different languages.

94.St. Jerome¶s translation of the entire Bible into Latin is known as the
_____________________ , a word meaning ³common´. His work took place in
_____________________ at the request of Pope Damasus who wanted the sacred
scripture to be in Latin, the _________________________________________ .
The ____________________ became the Church¶s official translation of the
Bible from original languages.

95.T or F. (If false, explain why) Today we read the Bible in the vernacular,
meaning our own language.

96.What are the two English translations by more modern Catholic scholars?
a.

b.

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