Full Test Bank Paul & His Churches Corinthians Ch.14 Ehrman

Chapter 14

Test Bank

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 01

1. The New Testament epistles are arranged _____.

a. by date

b. by popularity

c. by length

d. by importance

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 02

2. The church in Corinth had all of the following problems except _____.

a. members were not conducting communal meals properly

b. members were concerned about those who had died

c. members were suing one another

d. a member was sleeping with his stepmother

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 03

3. The Corinthian community was made up of _____.

a. all poor people

b. all uneducated people

c. all wealthy people

d. a mix of poor and wealthy people

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 04

4. Class differences in the Corinthian church led to all of the following except _____.

a. members not conducting communal meals properly

b. the wealthy asserting a more thorough knowledge than the poor

c. separate churches for the rich and poor

d. differences of understanding related to food sacrificed to idols

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 05

5. Paul mentions all of the following things about Jesus except _____.

a. his baptism

b. his teachings on divorce

c. his teachings on paying preachers

d. the institution of the Lord’s Supper

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 06

6. Paul says that his primary message to the Corinthians was _____.

a. love one another

b. Christ crucified

c. the virgin birth

d. the sinlessness of Jesus

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 07

7. The Christians in Corinth appear to have believed that _____.

a. Jesus was not resurrected

b. Jesus did not die

c. they already enjoyed the full benefits of salvation

d. they would not die

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 08

8. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says that he learned about some of the problems in Corinth from _____.

a. Chloe’s people

b. Timothy

c. Sosthenes

d. Onesimus

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 09

9. Paul taught the Corinthians that the resurrected body _____.

a. was a disembodied soul

b. was an actual body but transformed

c. was the same as the earthly body

d. did not exist

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 10

10. Paul demonstrates the truth of the general resurrection by appealing to _____.

a. his own resurrection

b. the testimony of the women who found the empty tomb

c. the empty tomb

d. Christ’s resurrection

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 11

11. People in antiquity believed any of the following about the afterlife except _____.

a. there was no afterlife

b. the soul left the body

c. they would be divinized and live on Mt Olympus with the gods

d. there was a bodily resurrection

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 12

12. Groups within the Corinthian church appealed to all of the following authorities except _____.

a. Paul

b. Apollos

c. Timothy

d. Cephas

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 13

13. According to Paul, one problem with misunderstanding the resurrection is that _____.

a. people overlook the danger of sin

b. people will die

c. people need to be rebaptized

d. it leads people to worship idols

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 14

14. Paul believed that married people _____.

a. should be celibate

b. should grant one another conjugal rights

c. should get divorced

d. should live in different houses

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 15

15. 1 and 2 Corinthians are unique because _____.

a. they represent the only correspondence from a church to Paul

b. they are pseudepigraphic

c. they are written to a church Paul never visited

d. they are the only undisputed letters Paul writes to the same community

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 16

16. Many scholars think 2 Corinthians is _____.

a. pseudepigraphic

b. anonymous

c. a combination of several letters

d. a unified letter

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 17

17. The first part of 2 Corinthians expresses _____.

a. Paul’s joy for the community

b. Paul’s disgust for the community

c. Paul’s anger at the community

d. Paul’s humiliation when he visited the community

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 18

18. The superapostles do all of the following except _____.

a. oppose Paul

b. support Paul

c. talk badly about Paul

d. perform miracles

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 19

19. Paul visited the Corinthians at least _____.

a. two times

b. three times

c. four times

d. five times

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 20

20. Presuming 2 Corinthians is a composite letter, Paul wrote at least _____ letters to Corinth.

a. two

b. three

c. four

d. five

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 21

21. The superapostles believed that _____.

a. Christians were susceptible to sin and evil

b. the Corinthians had to be circumcised

c. Christians already enjoyed an exalted existence

d. Paul was the ultimate authority

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 22

22. Paul admitted that the superapostles _____.

a. were true apostles

b. could perform miracles

c. enjoyed an exalted existence

d. were sent by Cephas

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 23

23. Corinth is all of the following except superapostles

a. a prosperous port city

b. a cosmopolitan city

c. in the province of Achaia

d. located in Italy

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 24

24. Who among the following was not a Corinthian who brought Paul a letter from their community?

a. Achaicus

b. Fortunatus

c. Apollos

d. Stephanus

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 25

25. Which of the following did Paul meet for the first time in Corinth?

a. Priscilla

b. Timothy

c. Silvanus

d. Peter

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 26

26. Who helped Paul write 1 Corinthians?

a. Timothy

b. Silvanus

c. Sosthenes

d. Aquila

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 27

27. Paul learned about the problems at Corinth from _____.

a. Peter’s letter

b. Chloe’s people

c. a vision of Jesus

d. Apollos’ messenger

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 28

28. In the “conciliatory” portion of 2 Corinthians, Paul notes he will not visit the community for a third time because _____.

a. he wants to avoid causing any more pain

b. he does not have time

c. travel is too difficult

d. he is still angry

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 29

29. Who informed Paul of the Corinthians’ change of heart between Paul’s writing of the two parts of 2 Corinthians?

a. Apollos

b. Chloe

c. Titus

d. Peter

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 30

30. Most of what scholars refer to as partition theories suggest that 2 Corinthians 1–9 was _____.

a. originally a single letter

b. originally several letters

c. originally part of 1 Corinthians

d. lifted from the Jewish Scriptures

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 01

1. One could argue that many, if not all, of Corinth’s problems stemmed from a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the resurrection. Discuss how the Corinthians misinterpreted Paul’s teachings on the resurrection and how that misunderstanding led to the various problems in that community.

Feedback: Some of the Christians in Corinth believed not only that they had died with Christ but also that they had been raised with him. Paul, on the other hand, argued that, because Jesus was physically resurrected, his was a bodily resurrection, not a resurrection of the soul. The Corinthians could not have already been exalted with Christ because they remained in their unchanged bodies. Paul maintained that there would be a general resurrection, and at that time Christians would be exalted with Christ. Paul insisted that this exaltation was in the future; it had not yet taken place. This fundamental misunderstanding of the believer’s status led to problems in the Corinthian church because these Christians did not take seriously the power of sin in the world.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 02

2. With attention to both 1 and 2 Corinthians, discuss the history of Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians.

Feedback: After Paul established the church at Corinth, he left to continue his mission elsewhere and subsequently wrote a letter, no longer extant, dealing with some ethical problems that had arisen in the church. At some point, the Corinthians sent a letter to Paul, either in response to his letter or to ask for more instruction. Paul then wrote 1 Corinthians in which he outlined ethical behaviors and told the community that he hoped to visit them soon. When he returned to Corinth, however, Paul was mistreated, and he left angry. Shortly after his departure, a group of missionaries (the superapostles) arrived and attacked Paul’s character. Paul then wrote a third letter (2 Corinthians 10–13) in which he attacked the position of the superapostles and the person who humiliated him. He threatened to visit Corinth again in judgment. The Corinthians apparently heeded Paul’s warnings and punished the person who had insulted him. In response to this news, Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 1–9, a conciliatory letter in which he reestablished a relationship with his church.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 03

3. According to 1 Corinthians, what are some of the problems that have arisen in the Corinthian community since Paul’s departure? How might these problems be related to socio-economic differences in the community? In what ways does Paul deal with these issues?

Feedback: Among the many issues affecting the Corinthian community were claims of spiritual superiority, lawsuits between members in public courts, abuse of the communal meal, and sexual misbehavior. Most of the Corinthian converts were from the lower classes, but at least some of them must have been well-born, wealthy, and educated. Apparently the wealthier ones, without the demands of work, were able to arrive early at communal meals and consume more than their share of the food and drink. The more educated members apparently ate meat offered to idols, which could create confusion within the community. Paul deals with these issues in numerous ways, offering a range of ethical advice. He specifically encourages the consistent practice of love among community members.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 04

4. What are the reasons many scholars believe 2 Corinthians is actually the combination of more than one letter? Where do these scholars usually divide the letter? Do you find this persuasive? Why or why not?

Feedback: Many scholars divide 2 Corinthians into chapters 1–9 and chapters 10–13 based primarily o the change in tone between chapter 9 and chapter 10 the change in tone between chapter 9 and chapter 10. One popular hypothesis is that chapters 10–13 are actually the earlier painful letter to which Paul refers in 2 Corinthians 2:4, with chapters 1–9 being a thankful or conciliatory letter written after a reconciliation that followed the painful letter. An editor would then have removed the closing of the conciliatory letter and the prescript of the painful letter, resulting in one longer letter. Some have divided the letter into as many as seven smaller letters.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 01

1. The following are the questions you should ask yourself for every Pauline epistle you read:

a. What is the occasion of the letter?

b. How did the church (or Paul’s contact with these people) begin?

c. What can we say about the make-up of the church (i.e., what kind of people were in it? Jew? Gentile? Rich? Poor? Well-educated? Uneducated? etc.)?

d. What problems have arisen since Paul left the community (i.e., what is the context of each letter)?

e. What does Paul say to resolve the problems (i.e., what are the overarching themes of each letter)?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 02

2. How have the Corinthians evidently interpreted the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection for their own lives, and how has this misinterpretation (from Paul’s vantage point) led to problems in the congregation?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 03

3. How does Paul’s belief in the future bodily resurrection of believers relate to the various problems the Corinthians were experiencing (e.g., the divisions in the church, men visiting prostitutes, chaos during the worship services)?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 04

4. How does Paul’s insistence that Christians live in love relate to the use of spiritual gifts in the church (1 Cor 12–14)? How does it relate to the question of whether it was right to eat food offered to idols?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 05

5. Be able to show the themes in common between 1 and 2 Corinthians and, especially, to trace the course of Paul’s relationship with the Corinthian community from the time of the first letter mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:9 through the writing of 2 Corinthians.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 06

6. How does Paul’s account of his ministry in Corinth differ from Luke’s account as found in Acts?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 07

7. How do the socioeconomic and educational differences in the Christian community at Corinth account for some of the problems in that church?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 08

8. What things does Paul mention about Jesus’ life, ministry, and death? Does this information give you an indication of what was most important to Paul about Jesus? What is the best way, in your judgment, to explain the paucity of references to Jesus’ life in Paul’s writings?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 09

9. Why is meat offered to idols an issue within the Corinthian community? How does Paul address this issue?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 14 Question 10

10. Why do many scholars often think that 2 Corinthians reflects the combination of two originally separate Pauline letters?