Deck 17: Christian Conflicts With Jews and Pagans: Hebrews and 1 Peter

Question 1

Discuss Jesus' superiority to all things Jewish in the Epistle to the Hebrews. To what, exactly, is Jesus superior? What is the author's point in underscoring this?

Answer 1

The Epistle to the Hebrews asserts the superiority of Christ to the prophets, the angels, Moses, Joshua, and the Jewish priesthood. Christ brings a superior covenant, a superior tabernacle, and makes a superior sacrifice. Drawing on Platonic thought, this author argues that the old covenant was a foreshadowing of the new, an imperfect reflection of a perfect reality. According to this author, Christianity represents the perfection of Judaism; those who do not believe that Jesus is the messiah, moreover, are not the true people of God.

Question 2

Discuss how the Epistle to the Hebrews uses the concepts of "shadow" and "reality" to explain Christ. Where did these ideas come from and how does the author use them to promote his view of the superiority of Christianity?

Answer 2

These concepts derive from Plato's Allegory of the Cave, in which people are chained in such a way that they can only see the images reflected on the wall in front of them rather than the sources of those images behind them. A person who was liberated from such an existence to discover true reality might initially be terrified by the discovery but would ultimately never choose to return to the reflection rather than the reality. Hebrews presents Christ as the reality reflected in the Jewish Scriptures, which are only the derivative reflections of Christ, arguing that once a person has turned to Christ there is no turning back to the shadows of Judaism (Temple sacrifices, priesthood, the Torah of Moses, etc.).

Question 3

Early Christianity has sometimes been depicted as a movement that challenged the importance of the family. Being as specific as you can, what textual evidence is there to substantiate this claim?

Answer 3

Jesus taught that families should be secondary to the faith (Matt 10:34-37). The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (for this class, specifically the Acts of Paul and Thecla) challenged societal norms of marriage and family. Thecla left her fiancé and mother to follow Paul and his ascetic message. The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas also presents a Christian response to societal expectations of family. After Perpetua converted, she was arrested and faced martyrdom. Her father pleaded with her to save herself, but she did not obey him. Christians believed that the church provided a new and more important family (in fact, they used familial language, such as "brother" and "sister," for their fellow members).

Question 4

Discuss the early period of Christian persecution. If Christianity itself was not illegal, why were Christians persecuted? What evidence do we have of persecutions, and who led them?

Question 5

The word "catholic" means_____.

A) official
B) orthodox
C) universal
D) occasional

Question 6

Which of the following is not a catholic epistle?

A) 1 John
B) 2 John
C) 2 Thessalonians
D) Hebrews

Question 7

The Epistle to the Hebrews depicts the Law as_____.

A) perfect
B) not God given
C) inadequate
D) irreplaceable

Question 8

Hebrews was most likely _____.

A) a sermon
B) a novel
C) an apology
D) an apocalypse

Question 9

The Epistle to the Hebrews was _____.

A) written by Paul
B) written anonymously
C) pseudepigraphic
D) written by Timothy

Question 10

The primary point of Hebrews is to show that _____.

A) Christianity is superior to Judaism
B) Christianity is the same as Judaism
C) Judaism is superior to Christianity
D) Christians must follow the Law

Question 11

According to Hebrews, Christ is superior to all of the following except _____.

A) the Jewish prophets
B) Moses
C) the Angels
D) the Son of Man

Question 12

The author of Hebrews believed that _____.

A) an antichrist would appear before Jesus returned
B) God had made a new covenant with his people
C) Jews had always misinterpreted the Law
D) God had not altered his covenant with the Jews

Question 13

The theme of shadow and reality in the Epistle to the Hebrews is most similar to_____.

A) Plato
B) Pliny
C) Paul
D) Peter

Question 14

Hebrews compares Jesus' priesthood to that of this biblical figure.

A) Aaron
B) Moses
C) Melchizedek
D) Elijah

Question 15

According to the Epistle of Barnabas, Judaism is _____.

A) false
B) perfect
C) the basis of Christianity
D) compatible with Christianity

Question 16

At the beginning of its history, Christianity was _____.

A) illegal
B) state sponsored
C) practiced widely
D) relatively unknown

Question 17

Governors in the Roman provinces had all of the following responsibilities except _____.

A) collect taxes
B) maintain order
C) keep the peace
D) protect religious freedom

Question 18

In earliest Christianity, all of the following were true except _____.

A) Christianity was an exclusive group
B) Christians had to reject previous religious affiliations
C) Christians were supposed to maintain their family relationships no matter what
D) the church became a new family

Question 19

Opponents of Christianity suggested all of the following except _____.

A) Christians held orgies
B) Christians committed infanticide
C) Christians committed deicide
D) Christians were guilty of incest

Question 20

The first known governmental action against Christians was perpetrated by _____.

A) Trajan
B) Marcus Aurelius
C) Nero
D) Pliny the Younger

Question 21

In Nero's persecution of Christianity, Christians were accused of _____.

A) infanticide
B) arson
C) cannibalism
D) incestuous relationships

Question 22

Pliny executed Christians because _____.

A) Christianity was illegal
B) they killed babies
C) they refused to worship the gods
D) they disrupted families

Question 23

The author of 1 Peter addresses his audience as _____.

A) exiles
B) gentiles
C) Jews
D) Pauline Christians

Question 24

All of the following are true about Christianity in the Roman Empire except _____.

A) it was suspect because it was a new movement
B) it was persecuted because it neglected the gods
C) it was illegal
D) it was originally thought of as a subgroup of Judaism

Question 25

1 Peter is primarily concerned with _____.

A) Christian orthodoxy
B) false prophets
C) leadership of the clergy
D) Christian suffering

Question 26

1 Peter addresses Christian persecutions by _____.

A) former acquaintances
B) the governor
C) the emperor
D) Jews

Question 27

According to 1 Peter, for what must Christians not suffer?

A) doing right
B) doing what is wrong
C) standing up for the gospel
D) their beliefs

Question 28

1 Peter claims to have been written in Babylon, a most likely a code word for _____.

A) Jerusalem
B) Alexandria
C) Rome
D) Corinth

Question 29

1 Peter was probably written _____.

A) in the beginning of the first century
B) in the late first century
C) in the middle of the second century
D) in the late second century

Question 30

Who leaves behind a father and infant son to suffer martyrdom in a Roman amphitheatre?

A) Barnabas
B) Perpetua
C) Ignatius
D) Polycarp

Question 31

Whose martyrdom closely parallels the Gospels' Passion narratives?

A) Perpetua's
B) Felicitas'
C) Polycarp's
D) Peter's

Question 32

At the end of the first century, approximately what percentage of the Roman Empire was Christian?

A) less than one
B) two
C) five
D) ten

Question 33

Scholars have suggested all of the following contributed to Christian conversions in the first three centuries of the faith except _____.

A) martyrdoms
B) the church's role as a social network
C) stories of Jesus' miracles and power
D) the New Testament canon

Question 34

Which term describes the process by which a group of individuals comes to understand itself as distinct?

A) socialization
B) self-definition
C) isolation
D) prophecy-fulfillment