7) Disciple Program Week One - Authority

In preparing for this week's study we have been invited to read a wide range of Old Testament texts - some legal texts, some of them poetic texts like the psalms, others historical or from the prophets. Don't be surprised if it feels like you have been thrown into the deep end of the pool, and you are not sure how to swim! The texts come from many different times in religious journey of the people of Israel over hundreds of years. It takes time to become familiar with the history of the people of Israel and to know how to place what you you read into a context and framework that helps you to understand what you read. Good questions to ask are ones like:

1) When was this book written and what do we know about the historical and religious context? 

Every book in the Bible comes from a time and place and we need to aware of this to understand the message better. An example would be that the prophets often proclaimed a message of condemnation and doom when people were complacent, but in difficult times of suffering like the exile their message was one of comfort. A beautiful example of this is Isaiah 40. In the heady days when the Temple had been built by Solomon it comes as no surprise that Psalms were written that spoke of its glory and as a sign of God's blessing of the kingdom and its people.

2) What form of writing is this passage?

 This is an important question because it helps us to avoid falling into the trap of reading poetry as history, or prayers as legal documents. It also helps us not take literally things that are meant to be figurative or make a point in an extreme way. An example would be Jesus calling us to cut off out hands if they cause us to sin. Fortunately most people don't act on this! Imagine what our Church community would look like on a Sunday with everyone in wheelchairs without feet, hands, arms, tongue and eyes!

3) What are the images, ideas or thoughts that aren't clear to you?

Don't be worried by this because these passages were not written for people in the 21st Century, but for the people in their own time and place who knew what was being referred to e.g. Historical circumstances, personalities, places and events. Knowing that we need do a little background reading is a good thing and fortunately there are many commentaries that have been written who can act as trustworthy guides. Many study Bibles come with very useful introductions to each of the books and provide a great launching pad.

4) What captures my imagination or challenges me? What does this passage mean for me?

Here it is important to remember that we take from a passage is not limited to what it meant for its original audience. Because we believe the scriptures to be inspired and God's word we rightly turn to it for guidance and we can look at a passage not only for what it meant for the original audience, but also how it has been read over the centuries, and even more particularly, what it means for me.

The Catholic tradition has long encouraged a fourfold approach to reading the scriptures that acknowledge their authority, but also the many different and fruitful ways they can be read and appreciated.

• Literal - looking at the plain sense of the passage in its own religious and historical context
• Allegorical - a spiritual sense that is sensitive to, but not confined by, what it meant for the original audience. Here the text is reinterpreted in the light of Jesus Christ
• Moral- how the text text guides our moral life
• Eschatological - how the text helps us to prepare for meeting God face to face.

6) I'm confused about when the books of the Old Testament were written

The other day one of our study group was talking to me about it was confusing for them to understand the order of the books in the Bible because the order that we have them in the bible isn't the order in which they were written. The processes that led to the Bible being in the form it is today are many and complex, and they extend over centuries. We come from a time in history when most people can read and write, but that was not true of the Ancient Near East. Many traditions circulated by word of mouth for decades or centuries before they were committed to writing.

From what we understand the writing of the traditions begins from around 1000 BCE with the establishment of the kingdoms of David and Solomon. At that time the monarchy itself started to commission official histories, and the building and maintenance of the Temple provides the impetus to put the psalms in written form. As the kingdom developed the role of the prophets as social and religious commentators also grew as kings, administrators and the people were prompted not to lose their way and to remember their values and beliefs. The crisis provided by the exile in 587 BCE was also a critical time for the writing down of the traditions of Israel. Without their land, king or Temple this crucible of suffering led them to preserve what they could of their traditions from creation to Abraham, from the entry and occupation of the land to their time in exile.

When we open the Old Testament today we see the fruit of those labours and it is always important to ask the question of when a book was written and its historical context, rather than look at where it comes in the present order of book in front of us. The traditional name that the Jewish people give the Old Testament is Tanach and it is an abbreviation for the three main collections of Torah (Teaching - the first five books), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings - Psalms and Wisdom literature). These collections are all the product of prayer, reflection and discussion over centuries. It might make it more confusing initially, but it makes richer too.

For a presentation of the process by which the Old Testament came to be written Dr David Penchansky from St Thomas University follow the link below.

How the Bible was written

5) Why was Cain afraid if no one else existed?

Yesterday one of our study group was perturbed by reading the first chapters of  Genesis and the sad tale of Cain killing his brother Abel and its dreadful consequences. The question that arose is one that many a reader over the centuries has asked concerning why Cain is afraid that others will kill him if the human family was made up of only Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. The question leads us to confronting head-on a number of our assumptions about the purpose and function of these early stories in Genesis, their historicity, how they were understood by the people of Israel who preserved them, and what saying the Biblical stories are inspired as God's word really means. As you can see seemingly simple questions can lead to multifaceted answers, so let's take it step by step.

The early chapters of Genesis set out to instruct the reader by means of a number of stories to describe how humanity was created lovingly by God,  but that the human family increasingly lost its way through a series of choices that start with individuals like Cain and extend to the division of all humanity in the narrative of the Tower of Babel. It is a sad story in many ways, but God keeps providing an opportunity to start again: after the first murder, after the flood, and after the division of all humanity that comes after the pride of trying to build a tower to reach the heavens. Seen in this context the story of Cain is of a man who kills his brother who is then cut loose from his family to roam the earth. Even after the murder of his brother he bears a mark placed on him by God to show that he is still protected.

The question of where the other people came from is a natural one to ask if we were expecting the story to be historically accurate, but that is not its purpose. The meaning and value of the passage is not based on its historicity so much as it's message. When we are talking of the value of these chapters it is helpful to focus on the truth they convey. We judge the value of a parable of Jesus on its message because we know that the story is the medium. You don't ask the name of the Good Samaritan because you know that this is not the sort of question you ask of a parable if you want to arrive at the heart of the message being conveyed. The same principle of interpretation applies to the early chapters of Genesis. The mistake that is often made is confusing respect for the Bible as God's word with assuming that the truth is coming in the form of history. The first two chapters of Genesis give two stories of the creation of humanity, and that already tells us something of great significance - both traditions were valued for the truth they convey. To ask which of the creation stories is accurate is, in a sense, a misleading question because the answer is that the message of both is true! Of course there are many passages in the Bible that have a strong historical basis, but it is not always the most important criteria to use about whether a passage is trustworthy or not. Many truths are conveyed in poetry, parables, novels, plays or songs and the same can be said to apply to the Bible. The difficulty for the reader of the Biblical passages is learning to read the clues within the text about how to read it rather than assuming that it must be read as history as our first option for interpretation.

4) Were the Gospel writers the Apostles?

This is one of the questions that came up in our discussions recently and it is a fascinating one. It is important to know that the Gospel writers don't claim to be members of the 12 that Jesus chose to share in his life and mission.  Given that we now understand that the Gospels reached their final form some decades after the death of Jesus (Mark 65-70 CE, Matthew and Luke 80-90 CE, John 90-100 CE) it is unlikely that the authors of the Gospels were among the apostles. If you have a look at the first verses of Luke 1:1-4  it is very clear that Luke was not an eyewitness but has been in close contact with those who were to make sure that the Gospel provides a trustworthy and complete account.

In the earliest years of the Christian movement there was no need to write down the sayings of Jesus. Versions of Jesus' sayings and deeds circulated among the communities in oral form and these early Christians believed that Jesus would return in the near future. In the light of this it is reasonable to assume that in the early decades there seemed to be no pressing reason to commit the traditions about Jesus to writing. As time went on they realized that the Church needed to preserve these precious traditions for future generations.

The author of Mark's Gospel has traditionally been identified as a companion and disciple of Peter who wrote his powerful portrayal of Jesus in Rome. Luke provides a more expansive view and complements the story of Jesus with the story of the growth of the early Christian movement in Acts of the Apostles, with a particular focus on Peter and Paul. Like Luke, Matthew's Gospel is generally understood to be written quite late in the piece even though the traditional ordering of the Gospels in the New Testament starts with Matthew. This is largely due to St. Augustine giving it pride of place . The Gospel of John is generally dated later again and is understood to preserve not only the traditions of Jesus as given by the beloved disciple John, but also the fruits of the Christians that followed him in Asia Minor in the communities centred around Ephesus.

The four Gospels as we have them today were not the only ones written, but these were approved by successive communities over four centuries as precious and trustworthy portraits of Jesus. In a way it is not the fact that they came directly from apostles that was the most important thing as much as the fact that they preserved and presented the traditions of the sayings and deed of Jesus and that there work, and the reflection of the communities they represent, was judged to be inspired. In a way they did more than just pass on what Jesus had said, they handed on what they had learned about Jesus and being disciples after the resurrection. This is another way of  saying that that Holy Spirit was still at work after the apostles. We know that is still the case and that God continues to speak, to instruct and to inspire. As it turns out it is not simply apostolic origin that is important to consider when looking at the Gospels,  but the whole process over decades that is inspired.

For some interesting conversation about the authorship of the Gospels follow the links below.

You Tube by Dr Ben Witherington on the Gospel Writers

You Tube by Dr Darrell Bock on the Gospel Writers

3) Some helpful YouTube links to get you started.

Hi everyone!  In this modern world there are so many resources that are available for us to make use of on the internet. Yale University have a number of lectures on YouTube that are well worth having a look at and the same can be said for St John's University in Nottingham. Once you start looking up resources you'll probably not have enough time to keep up!!




Yale University Dr Dale Martin " Why Study the New Testament?"
Yale University Dr Dale Martin " The Greco-Roman World"
Yale University Dr Dale Martin "The Historical Jesus"
St John's University Nottingham Dr Paula Gooder " Matthew's Gospel"
St John's University Nottingham Dr Paul Gooder "Reading Paul for the First Time"
St John's University Nottingham Dr Tom Wright " The Shape of Paul's Theology"

2) The Scriptures - Divine Words that come to us in human language

Some of you have mentioned that you find the Bible to be a little confronting and that you are not quite sure where to start. That is all very natural, so be of good cheer, since many other people often feel the same way.

As we mentioned in our initial talk at Holy Cross the Bible was formed over a period of 1000 years or more, and the world of the Bible is very different from our own. It's not as though human nature has changed, or that many of our concerns for meaning, belonging and direction in our lives, are so different from those of the world of the Bible. If that was the case we wouldn't be able to draw on the scriptures in the ways that we do. It's more that the worlds of the scriptures and ours are quite different. The languages they spoke, the political and religious settings, their customs and ways of seeing the world were all shaped by the times and places in which they were written. This is another way of saying that while the scriptures are God's Word, they are also human words. It is well worth our while - indeed it is essential - that we understand them in the context of a time and place, like all human words.

Let's use an example. The early Christians lived in the context of the Greco-Roman world and they were often viewed with suspicion and treated as members of a superstition, and from time to time they were subject to persecution. In those times they used the symbol of a fish to let each other know that they were not alone. The Greek word fish - ichthus - was shorthand for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. They found creative ways, in their time and place, to pass on what was precious to them. Nearly two thousand years later much of their language needs to be unpacked for us. It might take us a little while sometimes, but it is definitely well worth it! There are treasures lying just below the surface for those who are ready to do a little exploring.  Bon voyage!!

1) Welcome to Bible Studies at Holy Cross

Hi everyone! It's great that you have taken up the invitation to undertake this journey of discovery as we enter into the richness of the Bible. I thought that a blog might be a way that we could keep in touch and share our reflections, questions and learnings on the road.

It's always an amazing thing to take a leap - especially one that helps us grow!

Click here for a helpful biblical website by Fr Felix Just SJ

Click here for The Voice Christian Resource Institute Bible Resources

Eph. 3:14 - 21 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.