A) They are epistles written to Roman authorities.
B) They are a subset of ancient biography (bios).
C) They are purely works of fiction.
D) They are legal documents from the first century.

A) To create entirely fictional mythologies.
B) To record tax collections and financial transactions.
C) To provide examples for readers to emulate and promote the subject's reputation.
D) To provide unbiased objective journalism.

A) They view them as modern scientific papers.
B) They accept every single word as absolute literal fact without question.
C) They are cautious about doing so.
D) They reject them completely as having zero historical value.

A) They were discovered in 21st-century archaeological digs.
B) They were written directly by Pontius Pilate.
C) They are exact transcripts of court hearings.
D) They are literary creations rather than reservoirs of oral tradition.

A) As a political revolutionary leading an army.
B) As a wealthy Roman aristocrat.
C) As an illiterate hermit living in isolation.
D) As a miracle-worker.

A) Less reliable.
B) Equally reliable in every single verse.
C) More reliable.
D) Written earlier than all other gospels.

A) The Jerusalem Archaeological Council.
B) The Synoptic Reconstruction Project.
C) The Pauline Epistles Colloquium.
D) The John, Jesus, and History Seminar.

A) Texts published in the late first and second centuries did not significantly differ from 21st-century reconstructions.
B) The physical size of ancient scrolls remained identical over time.
C) There are zero copying errors in any existing manuscript.
D) Every single manuscript contains the exact same number of words.

A) John 3:16, altered to remove references to love.
B) Matthew 1:18, altered to imply the pre-existence of Jesus.
C) Luke 2:1, altered to change the ruling Caesar.
D) Mark 1:1, altered to state Jesus was born in Rome.

A) It can contribute authentic historical information alongside the Synoptic Gospels.
B) It was added during the Middle Ages.
C) It was entirely plagiarized from Greek mythology.
D) It contradicts all historical records of the Roman Empire.

A) Writing personal letters to Caesar Augustus.
B) Traveling to Britain with Joseph of Arimathea.
C) Serving as a high priest in the Jerusalem temple.
D) Association with John the Baptist.

A) As a witness.
B) As an anonymous historian from the 4th century.
C) As a skeptical Roman guard.
D) As a Pharisee opposing Jesus.

A) James the brother of Jesus.
B) Mary Magdalene.
C) The beloved disciple.
D) Paul the Apostle.

A) Scholars unanimously prove John the Apostle wrote every word.
B) Scholars believe John the Apostle dictated it to Caesar.
C) Scholars tend to reject the attribution to John the Apostle.
D) Scholars claim it was written by multiple Roman emperors.

A) The Gnostic Gospels.
B) The Gospel of Judas.
C) The Synoptic Gospels.
D) The Gospel of Thomas only.

A) Astrological charting and numerology.
B) Memory studies and form criticism.
C) DNA analysis and forensic pathology.
D) Carbon dating of modern ink.

A) They completely forgot everything Jesus taught within one year.
B) They invented most stories de novo to gain political power.
C) They refused to share their traditions with anyone outside Judea.
D) They were preservers more than innovators.

A) Richard Burridge's thesis.
B) Bart Ehrman's thesis.
C) James Dunn's thesis.
D) Dale Allison's thesis.

A) Memories are fractured and not exact recalls of the past.
B) Memories remain completely static across generations.
C) Memories are genetically inherited without cultural influence.
D) Memories act like video recorders with absolute perfection.

A) Writing them down in secret cryptographic codes.
B) Memorizing long lists of unconnected numbers.
C) Relating them to a common story, or 'type'.
D) Translating them into Latin immediately.

A) He argues that human memory does not exist in oral cultures.
B) He claims memory is superior to written records in every way.
C) He emphasizes its weakness, noting its 'many sins' and how it frequently misleads people.
D) He believes it is infallible and perfectly preserves every detail.

A) Searching for hidden numerical codes in the Greek alphabet.
B) Ignoring the text entirely in favor of archaeology.
C) Identifying patterns and finding 'recurrent attestation'.
D) Translating the text backward to find original Aramaic puns.

A) Democratic governance.
B) Industrial capitalism.
C) Apocalypticism.
D) Atheistic materialism.

A) He rejects Allison's work entirely as unscholarly.
B) He claims memory is completely non-existent in antiquity.
C) He believes Allison's view is overly optimistic and naive.
D) He argues that Allison's discussion on memory is too one-sided.

A) Burridge, Le Donne, Allison, and Ehrman.
B) Valantasis, Bleyle, Hough, and Keith.
C) Bond, Powell, Rodriguez, and Wright.
D) Dunn, Alan Kirk, Kenneth E. Bailey, and Robert McIver.

A) They treated such traditions very carefully with concern for careful and ordered transmission.
B) They altered them randomly at every storytelling session.
C) They banned anyone from speaking about historical figures.
D) They treated them as worthless and destroyed written records.

A) They encourage individual storytellers to invent new plot twists at will.
B) They tend to be story-telling communities whose stories acquire a fairly fixed form down to precise phraseology.
C) They rely exclusively on written tax receipts for historical memory.
D) They instantly forget stories the moment the speaker stops talking.

A) Valantasis, Bleyle, and Hough.
B) Dunn, Le Donne, Allison, and Bockmuehl.
C) Chilton, Evans, Wright, and Keener.
D) Burridge, Powell, Charlesworth, and Aune.

A) By comparing it to a legal contract signed in blood.
B) By comparing it to a photocopying machine.
C) By comparing it to the birthday party game 'telephone'.
D) By comparing it to a government census.

A) The idea that we can get back to an objective historical reality wholly separate from the disciples' memories.
B) The idea that the Gospels were written in the Greek language.
C) The idea that Pontius Pilate was a real historical governor.
D) The idea that Jesus ever spoke Aramaic in Galilee.

A) He left behind an autobiography in a cave in Qumran.
B) He never existed even as a memory in early Christianity.
C) He was the one who could create these memories, both true or not.
D) He personally wrote all four canonical gospels on stone tablets.

A) Mark says he was welcomed as king, while Luke says he was ignored.
B) Mark argues he was rejected for being an artisan, while Luke portrays him as literate and his refusal to heal caused dismissal.
C) Mark says he arrived by boat, while Luke says he arrived on a donkey.
D) Mark says he performed no miracles, while Luke says he healed everyone.

A) No, because different eyewitnesses would have perceived and remembered differently.
B) Yes, because Luke deliberately invented stories to deceive readers.
C) Yes, because Luke never read the Gospel of Mark.
D) No, because Luke possessed a direct audio recording of the event.

A) Rewrite the Gospels into modern novels.
B) Understand the Gospels.
C) Translate the Gospels into hieroglyphics.
D) Discard the Gospels as completely useless religious tracts.

A) That absolutely no one is writing books about the historical Jesus anymore.
B) That all historical Jesus research has been banned by governments.
C) The publication of academic books continues apace so much so that no one can keep up and we are overwhelmed.
D) That no new manuscripts have been discovered in caves.

A) As reliable until proven otherwise.
B) As secret codes meant only for elite philosophers.
C) As completely fictional until proven historical by archaeology.
D) As political propaganda with zero factual basis.

A) Uncovered statues of Jesus in Galilee and Jerusalem.
B) Secret Roman census logs and tax exemption certificates.
C) Direct written letters from Jesus to the Roman Senate.
D) Eyewitness presence, careful community transmission, and preservation of difficult sayings.

A) Bart Ehrman, Valantasis, and Bleyle.
B) Chris Keith, Dale Allison, and Rafael Rodriguez.
C) Markus Bockmuehl, James H. Charlesworth, and David Aune.
D) Richard Burridge, James Dunn, and Anthony Le Donne.

A) Rafael Rodriguez.
B) Bruce Chilton.
C) N.T. Wright.
D) Robert H. Stein.

A) Serious life narratives focusing on one central person, anecdotes, and deeds.
B) Strict chronological timelines of all Roman emperors.
C) Mathematical proofs and geometric theorems.
D) Botanical classifications of plants in Judea.

A) Cookbooks detailing traditional Jewish dietary laws.
B) Legal contracts for land ownership in Galilee.
C) Medical textbooks for treating ancient diseases.
D) Propaganda and preaching meant to convince that Jesus was a miracle-working holy man.

A) The pre-Mosaic period of ancient patriarchs.
B) The fourth century during the reign of Constantine.
C) The second half of the first century.
D) The Middle Ages after the fall of Rome.

A) The architectural designs of the Jerusalem temple.
B) The political policies of Herod Antipas.
C) Aspects of Jesus himself.
D) The agricultural techniques of Roman farmers.

A) It demonstrated that John was an eyewitness account by Caesar.
B) It proved that John was written before the Gospel of Mark.
C) It is seen as having more reliability than previously thought.
D) It led scholars to remove John from the biblical canon.

A) Signatures of the Roman pontiff.
B) Hidden maps leading to buried treasure.
C) A 'macrolevel stability'.
D) Complete textual chaos with no recognizable words.

A) Attribute every verse exclusively to Paul.
B) Delete all words spoken by Jesus.
C) Attempt to distinguish them.
D) Merge them into a single uncritical narrative.

A) Athens and Sparta.
B) Alexandria and Carthage.
C) Bethany and Ephraim.
D) Babylon and Nineveh.

A) Nathaniel.
B) Julius Caesar.
C) Herod the Great.
D) Pontius Pilate.

A) Jerusalem.
B) Bethsaida.
C) Nazareth.
D) Capernaum.

A) Whether he was a fictional literary invention of the 3rd century.
B) Whether he is presented as the author or an authority behind the gospel.
C) Whether he wrote in Latin or Greek.
D) Whether he ever actually lived in Palestine.

A) They have reached different conclusions using memory studies and form criticism.
B) They prove that no oral tradition ever existed.
C) They show that computers were used to generate the texts.
D) They agree that memory was entirely useless and inaccurate.

A) Various scholars opposing more skeptical viewpoints.
B) Only authors who deny the existence of Jesus.
C) Exclusively 18th-century deist philosophers.
D) Roman census officials.

A) A movement to eliminate the Gospel of John from study.
B) A trend toward proving the gospels were written in the Middle Ages.
C) A scholarly trend advocating for the reliability of memory and oral gospel traditions.
D) An abandonment of all historical research on antiquity.

A) Invent entirely new religions to overthrow the Roman Empire.
B) Transmit, retell, explain, interpret, elaborate, but not create de novo.
C) Destroy all previous accounts of Jesus' life.
D) Translate Greek philosophy into Hebrew poetry.

A) Secret cryptographic manuscripts buried in Egypt.
B) Visions experienced centuries after Jesus died.
C) The eyes and ears of those who went about with him, as remembered from the beginning.
D) Official Roman court transcripts.

A) As an archaeologist excavating Bethsaida.
B) As a reviewer explaining Anthony Le Donne's thesis and historiography.
C) As a translator of the Gospel of John.
D) As a skeptic who discovered manuscript variants in Matthew.

A) He supports a conservative view on typology.
B) He rejects typology entirely as a modern invention.
C) He uses typology to date the gospels to the 4th century.
D) He claims typology proves the gospels are pure fiction.

A) The total corruption of oral traditions.
B) Complete uncertainty about who Jesus was.
C) A stable tradition resulting in little invention in the Gospels.
D) Massive theological fabrications by the early Church.

A) He does not read the gospels as fiction.
B) He argues they were written as satirical plays.
C) He classifies them as Graeco-Roman epic poetry.
D) He believes every word of the gospels is a deliberate lie.

A) The method that came from Allison's work.
B) Allison's rejection of eyewitness accounts.
C) Allison's view on the birthday party game 'telephone'.
D) Allison's skepticism regarding oral tradition.

A) They prove that human memory is always completely fraudulent.
B) They rely exclusively on written archives for every action.
C) They are beholden to memory's successes.
D) They forget everything that happened five minutes prior.

A) Terminology showing concern for careful and ordered transmission as 'holy word'.
B) Terminology used for collecting Roman taxes.
C) Terminology applied to theatrical plays.
D) Terminology used in athletic competitions.

A) Access to written notes.
B) No license to invent or adapt at will.
C) The ability to speak more than one language.
D) Permission to tell stories in public spaces.

A) A single appointed government censor.
B) The entire community in an informal but effective process.
C) Professional scribes paid by the emperor.
D) Roman soldiers stationed in the village.

A) High priests in the Jerusalem temple.
B) Wandering prophets and teachers like Paul the Apostle.
C) Roman senators visiting Galilee.
D) Greek philosophers living in Athens.

A) 2,500 miles across, thousands of participants from different backgrounds, concerns, and contexts.
B) A single scribe copying a manuscript in a quiet monastery.
C) Two disciples talking privately in an upper room.
D) Ten children sitting in a solitary living room on one afternoon.

A) Concerns about the possibility of reconstructing a historical Jesus from the Gospel texts.
B) Certainty that every historical detail can be perfectly mapped.
C) The discovery of audio recordings from the first century.
D) Unanimous agreement among all scholars on every verse.

A) Direct autobiographical notes written by Jesus.
B) Roman police reports.
C) The memories of the first disciples—not Jesus himself, but the remembered Jesus.
D) Fabrications invented during the fourth century.

A) They automatically correct all scribal errors.
B) They can contradict one another and are not always historically accurate.
C) They remain completely uniform across all cultures.
D) They always match with mathematical perfection.

A) He is ultimately unattainable, but can be hypothesized based on early Christian interpretations.
B) He is fully documented in Roman tax rolls.
C) He is a proven myth with no basis in memory.
D) He is completely proven by modern DNA testing.

A) Its use of the Greek language.
B) Its methods and aim, viewing the two models as methodologically and epistemologically incompatible.
C) Its rejection of ancient biography.
D) Its reliance on the Gospel of John.

A) It proves that Jesus never spoke a single recorded word.
B) It does not mean scholars cannot research the Historical Jesus, but rather should seek to understand the Gospels.
C) It means all study of the New Testament must be immediately abandoned.
D) It requires scholars to treat every text as absolute fiction.

A) It has completely stagnated with zero new publications.
B) It has merged entirely with archaeology.
C) It has flourished.
D) It has been banned by academic institutions worldwide.

A) Detailed financial ledgers and tax tables.
B) Focus on one central person, anecdotes, and accounts of deeds and death.
C) Extensive poetry and epic mythologies.
D) Legal statutes and civic codes.

A) As serious life narratives.
B) As accounting manuals.
C) As modern scientific research papers.
D) As political satire pamphlets.

A) The gospels.
B) Greek philosophical treatises.
C) Roman tax records.
D) Egyptian papyri.

A) It has been adopted into civil law.
B) It remains universally accepted by all modern researchers.
C) It has been overthrown.
D) It has been reinforced by new archaeological discoveries.

A) That they were written in Latin rather than Greek.
B) That they contained no historical material whatsoever.
C) That they did not significantly differ from 21st-century reconstructions.
D) That they were authored by Roman emperors.

A) Bart Ehrman observing fluid oral traditions.
B) Chris Keith observing Luke's account in the synagogue.
C) Dale Allison observing the weakness of human memory.
D) Mark Allan Powell observing primitive material in John.

A) Writing letters to the seven churches.
B) Traveling to Rome to meet Caesar.
C) Conflicts with religious authorities.
D) Working as a carpenter in Athens.

A) Desire to start a violent military rebellion.
B) insistence on strict adherence to Roman law.
C) Emphasis on love and a high self-conception.
D) Refusal to associate with common people.

A) Usage of aphoristic formulations.
B) Complex algebraic equations.
C) Homeric epic meter.
D) Formal legal contracts.

A) He believes they were written in the Middle Ages.
B) He claims they never existed in antiquity.
C) He rejects them as complete fabrications.
D) He supports a conservative view.

A) Their use of archaeological tools in Galilee.
B) Their translation of Aramaic into English.
C) Their ability to read ancient Greek manuscripts.
D) Their endeavors to identify authentic sayings of Jesus.

A) Then our sources almost certainly cannot have preserved any of the particulars.
B) Then the Gospels must have been written in the 4th century.
C) Then Jesus never existed as a human being.
D) Then Paul must have written every New Testament book.

A) Bart Ehrman.
B) Dale Allison.
C) Chris Keith.
D) Craig S. Keener.

A) Written scrolls stored in public libraries.
B) Secret codes known only to priests.
C) Portraits of the storytellers.
D) A fairly fixed form down to precise phraseology.

A) As it was preserved by a single family line.
B) As it was transmitted across the Roman Empire.
C) As it was engraved on stone monuments in Jerusalem.
D) As it was translated directly from Latin into Hebrew.

A) They are not always historically accurate.
B) They show that the texts were copied without error.
C) They demonstrate that the authors never lived in Palestine.
D) They prove that Jesus was a Roman citizen.

A) They are entirely dependent on Gnostic texts.
B) They hold zero value for understanding the historical Jesus.
C) They should be rejected as pure fiction until proven by science.
D) They should be treated as reliable until proven otherwise.

A) To document financial investments of Roman merchants.
B) To map out geographical routes across the Mediterranean.
C) To record purely fictional fairy tales for entertainment.
D) To include substantial historical material while providing examples to emulate.

A) They ban them from historical research entirely.
B) They are cautious.
C) They rely on them blindly without any questioning.
D) They treat them as infallible scientific textbooks.

A) None of them have any relation to early Christianity.
B) Many are literary creations rather than reservoirs of oral tradition.
C) All of them are direct transcripts of Jesus' speeches.
D) Every single one was written by Paul the Apostle.

A) As having more reliability than previously thought.
B) As having zero historical value.
C) As being completely fabricated in the Middle Ages.
D) As a translation of a Latin play.

A) Printed book bindings.
B) Photographic illustrations.
C) Numerous variants and changes.
D) Complete modern English translations.

A) The original ideas of Jesus from those of later authors.
B) The number of chapters in Mark versus John.
C) The physical age of the parchment paper.
D) The Greek grammar from the Latin grammar.

A) The theory that John was written before Mark.
B) The complete fabrication of the Synoptic gospels.
C) The idea that Jesus never visited Bethany.
D) The overall reliability of the canonical Gospel accounts.

A) John the Baptist.
B) Pontius Pilate.
C) Jesus.
D) Paul the Apostle.

A) σύνοψις
B) χριστός
C) εὐαγγέλιον
D) ἀπόστολος

A) Divine biography
B) Sacred history
C) Good news
D) Holy messenger