Jesus Could Have Been an English Major Quiz

Answer: His followers

Jesus says this about His followers, also known as disciples or Christians. According to Acts 24:5, Christ's disciples were called Nazarenes, based on the fact that Jesus came from Nazareth, and the faith actually began as a sect of Judaism.

He compared them to salt because in ancient times, salt was considered very important. People even used it for money. They used salt to preserve food as well. In a similar way, I think Jesus meant that Christians are supposed to help preserve the world by preaching the gospel.

Matthew 5:14-16 include more figurative speech. Jesus calls His followers the "light of the world" and He states, "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." In other words, God wants Christians to portray His goodness and stand for righteousness while living in a sinful world.

You might have noticed that I included Lot's wife as an answer choice. In the book of Genesis, God turned Lot's wife into a salt pillar.

Answer: Adultery

In these same verses, Matthew 5:27-30, Christ equates mental lust with physical adultery.

In verses 31-32, Jesus even asserts that getting divorced and remarried, with the exception of the spouse committing fornication (some people use this word to refer to any similar immorality, as in bestiality, prostitution, etc., besides adultery), is also adultery!

Answer: Yes

I know that I'm not supposed to preach in these quizzes, and I'm not really trying to, but the fact is, there are quite a few places in the New Testament where Christians are called to tell right from wrong, to oppose sin, etc., and this includes judging. I will quote some of them.

Jesus Himself says in John 7:24, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." (New American Standard Bible)

Why would He say to judge with righteous judgment if He expected His followers to not judge at all?

In Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus states,
"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits."

Christians must practice discernment, or righteous judgment, to determine who are the true and false prophets.

In 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, the apostle Paul writes,
"I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler-not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves."

Paul states that while it isn't his business to judge non-Christians, it is his business to practice church discipline and judge Christians who live lifestyles full of sin.

Instead of saying to not judge at all, which seems to be a common interpretation, what Jesus appears to actually proclaim in Matthew 7:1-5 is that if someone is committing the same or even worse sin as someone else, but yet he/she judges the other person, that is hypocritical and wrong.

Answer: Jonah

Yes, a *fishy* Old Testament prophet. In the book named after the prophet, a large fish--often portrayed as a whale even though whales are actually mammals and the Bible doesn't go into details about the creature--swallows Jonah and he stays in it for three days.

Matthew 12:40 states, "for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." (New American Standard Bible)

In the quote, Jesus is talking about Himself being in the tomb for three days before resurrecting and compares it to Jonah being in the creature for three days. Interestingly, this translation refers to the fish as a "sea monster."

An allusion is a literary device. It isn't figurative language, though. It is basically a synonym for a reference and/or a mention.

Answer: Canaanite

The New American Standard translation labels her as both a Syrophoenician and a Canaanite woman. Virtually all translations report her as Canaanite, though.

Clearly, Jesus's comments about children and dogs were metaphorical, but some might consider Him calling the woman and other Gentiles "dogs" to be insulting. However, Jesus was actually testing her to see how much faith she had.

Verses 24-28 in the NASB state,
"But He answered and said, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!" And He answered and said,'It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.' But she said, 'Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.' Then Jesus said to her, 'O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.' And her daughter was healed at once."

Even after being turned down, based on her ethnicity, she remained persistent and therefore proved that she had strong faith in Him.

It's important to note that even though Jesus claimed to be the Jewish Messiah, choosing Jewish men to be His original twelve disciples, etc., many of His followers would end up to be Gentiles. In Revelation 7, there are Christians from every tribe, every tongue, and every nation. Galatians 3:28 states that there is neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ, which itself is a metaphor that means all are equal.

Answer: False

Nicodemus either didn't understand Jesus or he pretended to not understand. John 3:3-7 states, "Jesus answered and said to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.'

Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?'

Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit'." (New American Standard Bible)

The concept of being born again isn't literal, because, as Nicodemus states, a person can't re-enter into his mother's womb and be born again. It is more about having a transformed heart through spiritual washing.

2 Corinthians 5:17 gives a similar message by proclaiming that those who are in Christ are new creations.

Answer: Water

The whole account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman can be read in John 4, beginning with verse 4. But in verses 7-14, Jesus asked the woman for a drink of water from the well. She was confused because He was a Jewish man and Jewish men normally didn't associate with Samaritans, let alone Samaritan women.

According to verse 10, Jesus told her that if she knew who He was, she would have asked Him for a drink and He would have given her "living water." She asked how He could give living water.

As verses 13-14 continue,
"Jesus answered and said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this [regular] water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life'" (New American Standard Bible).

As the two kept talking, she realized that He was the Messiah and she went and told other Samaritans about Him. According to verse 39, many of the Samaritans became Christians because of her testimony.

Answer: Sheep

In John 10:26-28, Jesus states, "But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand" (New American Standard Bible).

Also in John 10, there is a parable about the Good Shepherd. Here, Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the followers are the sheep, but in other areas of the New Testament, Jesus is portrayed as a lamb, a baby sheep.

Answer: Lion

Revelation 5:4-5: "Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it; and one of the elders said to me, 'Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals'." (New American Standard Bible)

Of course, Jesus is/was not literally a lion because when He walked on the earth, He was a human being. In addition, Revelation describes Jesus as a lamb.

According to QotQuestions.org, the lion is symbolically used to show how Jesus is the powerful King of God's people.

In his "Chronicles of Narnia" fantasy series, C.S. Lewis based his lion character, Aslan, somewhat on Jesus.

Answer: Bride

Revelation 19:7-9 proclaim, "'Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.' It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Then he said to me, 'Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" And he said to me, 'These are true words of God'." (New American Standard Bible)

Obviously, this is figurative language. There are many in the "Bride of Christ" who are literally males, plus the church is portrayed as one bride, instead of a multitude of believers that they are literally.

Jesus is called the Lamb because He sacrificed His life for sins, as His followers believe. Jews at the time used lambs in their animal sacrifices to pay for sins.