Basic Questions:

1. What passage(s) in the readings did you find particularly interesting? Why? What passage(s) did you not understand?

2. What do the readings reveal about what it meant to be a Christian?

3. What do the readings reveal about the nature of Christianity at the time in which they were produced?

Specific Questions:

4. Deuteronomy 6 represents an important passage in Judaism. It contains both the shema (vv. 4-5) and a Passover Haggadah (vv. 20-25), a "telling" of what happened at the first Passover and what should be recounted at every Passover seder. What does this chapter reveal about the Jewish religious outlook? Which New Testament passage echoes Deuteronomy 6?

5. Paul (originally Saul) of Tarsus was a Pharisee, a zealous devotee of Torah who persecuted Christians. After a conversion experience (cf. Acts 9), he became a tireless Christian preacher. His Epistle to the Romans contains the most sustained treatment in the New Testament of Judaism from the Christian perspective. How does Paul the Christian evaluate Judaism? Do you think his approach to Judaism in Romans 9-11 is a coherent one? How does his discussion in Romans compare with what he writes in 1 Thessalonians 2: 14-16?

6. Luke sets out to write an "orderly account" of the sayings of Jesus and the events of his life (Luke 1: 1-5). This has led some to believe that he tried to write like an historian. What do the first five verses of Luke's Gospel tell us? Do you think Luke wrote an "orderly account"? Was he a good historian?

7. How would you describe the Jesus that you encounter in Luke's Gospel? Do the passages from Mark and John portray essentially the same or a different Jesus as in Luke?

8. Why did people come to Jesus? Did Jesus make it easy or difficult to follow him?

9. In what ways do the assigned readings from Mark, Luke, and John suggest a continuity with Judaism? Why is this continuity significant? Do the readings also suggest discontinuities? If so, how?

10. What does the letter of Paula and Eustochium to Marcella tell us about this week's themes: (1) the Jewish legacy to Christianity and the Christian appropriation of that legacy and (2) the identity of Jesus?

11. What does Jerusalem mean?

12. What is the "Christian Athens" (174)? What is the significance of this title?

13. What is "Christ's little house" (174)? Where is it located? The letter does not explicitly answer these questions.

14. How does the letter indicate that Jerusalem and Palestine are popular destinations for Christians? Why do Christians visit? What inspires Paula and Eustochium (and Jerome) about Jerusalem and Palestine?

15. How does Christian Rome measure up against Jerusalem?